Anti-Aging Immune System Benefits of Yogurt
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Is toxic bacteria aging you? Russian scientist and Nobel laureate Eli Metchinkoff thought so and advocated the sour milk diet (granted, not a best selling title).
Metchinkoff opined that toxic bacteria collected in the large intestines destroying the normal gut flora and producing a toxic environment that expedited the aging process.
He called this condition intestinal auto-intoxication and although Metchnikoff died in 1906, his theories of the deterioration associated with aging are supported by current day researchers.
Metchnikoff studied rural European populations who thrived on fermented milk. It was from those living in Bulgaria and the Russian steppes, who he found lived long lives, that Metchnikoff developed his sour milk diet, which was simply the consumption of buttermilk. Many physicians began prescribing it for their patients for a host of ills.
While buttermilk never caught on as Metchnikoff anticipated and many of his theories fell out of favor, the Lactobacillus bulgaricus that created the European sour milk and Bulgarian yogurt continues to make headlines.
Today, researchers know that yogurt can boost immune response in seniors thereby decreasing infection and disease. Scientists refer to the aging population as immunologically compromised.
- Studies done at the Geriatric and Gerontology Department of Medicine at UCLA, the Research Center on Aging in Quebec, Canada and the Institute of Applied Medicine in Tokyo, Japan concluded that deterioration in immune function in older adults is due in part to aging but also the presence of chronic disease.
- Studies at University of Turku in Finland suggest that by using probiotic bacteria [as found in yogurt] can enhance the immune response. A poor immune response to infection and disease has been linked to cancer, heart disease, chronic inflammation and other age related conditions.
As pharmaceutical companies continue to product drugs that have more side effects that solutions, it is encouraging to find many researchers going back to the basics of good health. Dr. Metchnikoff would be proud.
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