Got a gut feeling.

We are all familiar with probiotic products that are on the market. Most people associate these products as dietary supplements used to improve gut health. Well….they are used for that……but they can be used for much more. Most people know the little amount of information on probiotics that they are offered on advertisements. What those advertisements don’t tell you is what makes up a probiotic, why they have value to our health, and how to differentiate them. So we will!

What is a Probiotic?

A probiotic is a product that contains non-pathogenic microorganisms that improve the human body’s ability to perform everyday functions. One very important function is digestion. Beneficial microbes (both bacteria and fungi) play a direct role in aiding digestion by helping to break down foods in our gut, improving nutrient uptake. Beneficial bacteria also aid in fending off disease. Good microbes attack and kill pathogenic ones. That means that a probiotic can have a similar effect to an antibiotic without having to use an antibiotic. That means that probiotics have value both inside and outside the body. Think topicals and cleaners here.

Why should we benefit from Probiotics?

Quite simply we need microbes. We know that all life began with single-celled organisms. And we know that multi-celled organisms, like plants and animals (including humans), evolved as a result of single-celled organisms collaborating to build more complex organisms. The accepted theories surrounding evolution show us that these clusters of microorganisms eventually formed functioning organs, making way for the evolution of plants and animals. That means that our very development as humans is made up, or at a minimum directly decendant, of single-celled organisms. Every organ in our bodies was created by clusters of hundreds, thousands, even millions of different microbes, all working in unison for a single purpose. Given that information it only makes sense that those single-celled organisms (or microorganisms) would continue to have a direct impact on us to this day.

In fact, microorganisms interact with us each and every day. The view of the past has been that microbes are bad. Well….some of them are. Those are called pathogens. But most of the microbes that we interact with every day are beneficial. These microbes help break down foods in our guts so we can more efficiently digest our foods and absorb nutrients. By reducing the stress on our digestive system in breaking down foods and increasing our actual nutrient uptake we receive numerous benefits. The most noticeable immediate benefit is reduced swelling, but we also gain better overall health from better nutrient absorption and a strengthened immune system. And beneficial microbes that hang out in our guts help fend off pathogenic microbes. All of this is what we refer to gut health.

But microbes interact with us on the outside of our bodies as well. Every surface we touch has hundreds, if not thousands, of different microbes on it. Our skin, our tongues, noses, and other parts of our bodies are covered in microbes at all times. We don’t see them, but they are there. The beneficial microbes on your skin help protect you from pathogens. This is a symbiotic relationship we share with microorganisms, so we want them there. The past several decades we have focused on killing microbes with antiseptic and antibiotic chemicals. Have we been doing it wrong all these years? We believe so. The same benefits can be gained in a more natural way by introducing additional beneficial microbes through probiotic topical products and probiotic cleaners. This is more in tune with what nature designed, which means it is better for our overall health.

How do we differentiate between Probiotic products?

Quite simply it boils down to diversity. There is a recurring theme here in nature where hundreds, if not thousands, of different strains of microbes (bacteria, fungi, and archaea) all perform singular functions that benefit the whole ecosystem. The human body is a type of ecosystem, since it is an environment of its own from the microbiological perspective. If we need massive diversity of microbiological populations to grow plants and then decay them back into the earth once the plants are dead, then doesn’t it make sense that would be the same scenario in the human gut? The same microbes that break down those dead plants are used by the human digestive system to break down foods well enough to absorb the nutrients. Eating food has no value if your body doesn’t extract the nutrients before the waste is excreted. Microbes help us absorb those nutrients more efficiently in order to get more health value from our food. That only occurs if there is a proper microbiome present in the gut. And a proper microbiome consists of……yes, we will say it……hundreds, if not thousands, of different microbes all working together to break down that food. Anybody telling you that only a few strains is all you need is selling you a bill of goods.

The same goes for protecting ourselves from disease. One strain of beneficial bacteria might help fend off one pathogen. But it takes extreme diverse colonies of beneficial microbes to fend off hundreds of different pathogens that cross our paths. This is the case for both products we ingest and products that come in contact with our skin or hair.

Key Input Solutions takes what nature gives us and what nature truly wants into account in every product we develop. Our human probiotic products all have massive biological diversity in them. Our proprietary processes that have been developed over four decades build thousands of bacteria, fungi, and archaea that all benefit the human body in different ways. Through this massive diversity in our products you are able to legitimately gain the benefits that probiotics can offer. We currently offer three types of probiotic products: ingestible probioitcs, topical probiotics, and probiotic disinfectants/cleaners. Here are the benefits of those types of products.

Ingestible Probiotics:

• Build healthy counts of beneficial microbes in the gut

• Build healthy diversity of beneficial microbes in the gut

• Reduced swelling

• Reduced stress on the digestive system

• Improved nutrient absorption

• Improved overall health

• Healthier immune system

• Greater ability to fend off pathogens

Topical Probiotics (Includes creams, oils, soaps, shampoos, etc. applied to the skin surface):

• Greater ability to fend off pathogens we touch but end up inside our bodies

• Greater ability to fend off pathogens we touch but irritate the skin (expl: athlete’s foot)

• Healthier looking and feeling skin and hair

• Reduced swelling

• Reduced itching and cracking

• Reduced skin surface pain

Disinfectant/Cleaner Probiotics (Products that are applied to inanimate surfaces to reduce or eliminate pathogenic microbial growth):

• Increases beneficial microbes on surfaces to crowd out, reduce, and/or eliminate pathogenic microbes on surfaces in the home

• Instead of picking up pathogens one will pick up beneficial microbes when touching surfaces that have these products applied

• Healthy cleaning and disinfecting without using harsh chemicals

• No itching and cracking associated with using chemicals