What is a probiotic? It is certainly a common buzzword in healthy living and green spaces today, but what does it really mean?
A probiotic is "a living microorganism that when administered in adequate amounts confers a health benefit on the host" (1)
Most often, we hear about probiotics in terms of gut or intestinal health - something which can be ingested as a health supplement. But, is there another way to use probiotics?
Our probiotic partner believes probiotics can be a major part of a cleaner, greener future. Outside of personal use, probiotics have been used and tested in many other applications from gardening to aquaculture. Thinking of water applications and aquaculture, probiotics have been demonstrated to be an ecologically beneficial approach to managing health in farmed fish and shrimp. Besides the health of the animals, the application of probiotics in aquaculture has also demonstrated that there can be significant improvements in water quality, and could even eliminate the use of antibiotics. (2)
This directly ties into our producers' ideas to use probiotics as both a primary and secondary resource. They are produced to be a replacement for synthetic products in the home such as soaps and cleaners - but also to reach the drain and water treatment systems where the probiotics help clean contaminated water before it's discarded into nature. (3)
Through our partner's decades of research into the use of probiotics in many various applications from farms, landfills, and factory waste to urban wastewater; they have successfully found ways to reduce water contamination from several different sources. The probiotics work to decrease the presence of chemicals and pesticides from runoff and effluents and reduce the presence of noxious sludge, odors, and chemicals. The probiotics act as beneficial bacteria promoting efficient decomposition and helping secure the stability of the water's ecological system. (4)
However, probiotics are not only great for cleaning water. It can also be great for our health, hygiene, and living environments as we all depend on bacteria to survive. Instead of killing bacteria through synthetic hygiene and cleaning agents, filling our lives with good ones that fight off bad ones could potentially make a big difference in our health in many different ways.
Through probiotics you can enhance the number of positive micro-organisms (bacteria) on the skin and in your home creating an environment where positive bacteria dominate, acting as a barrier against negative bacteria. Probiotics in cosmetics are also called microbiome skincare and are getting increasingly more attention.
"The skin microbiome is a community of microorganisms, primarily bacteria, that fulfils the job of protecting your skin by keeping it healthy and acts as a physical barrier that guards your skin against anything foreign or toxic."
Dr. Kiran Sethi, MD, Integrative Skin and Wellness Physician, Vogue. (6)
Our wellness soaps contain two strains of probiotic bacteria that not only help strengthen the skin's natural defenses against unwanted bacteria but the lactic micro-organisms in the probiotic serum also make the soaps more gentle on the skin than traditional soaps. (5)
So why should we all open our eyes to probiotics? Firstly, your skin and your home will benefit from the exceptional cleaning and balancing properties of these products. But, as a secondary benefit, each time you use a bar of soap your wastewater will also include probiotics which will enter the wastewater system in your community making a small difference by cleaning up some contaminated wastewater with each wash.
1: Probiotics: Reiterating What They Are and What They Are Not, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6425910/, 2019
2: Probiotic supplementations improve growth, water quality, hematology, gut microbiota and intestinal morphology of Nile tilapia, Aquaculture Reports, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352513421003896, 2021
3: Sustainable Cities Using Natural Probiotic, https://avradio.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/wpcontent/uploads/import/2011_10_25_presentation_margarita_correa_english.pdf, 2011
4: Support Biological Lake and Pond Management with “Probiotics”, https://www.solitudelakemanagement.com/support-biological-lake-and-pond-management-with-probiotics/, 2022
5: Probiotics - What are they?, https://www.indonaturals.com/post/probiotics-what-are-they-1, 2021
6: Use the power of microbiome skincare to unlock your softest, healthiest skin, https://www.vogue.in/beauty/content/8-products-that-can-help-maintain-a-healthy-skin-barrier-microbiome-skincare
