See larger image Probiotic Miracle Dog Probiotics for Dogs (360 servings) (Misc.) New From: $39.99 In Stock

We love and treat our pets like our children but sometimes forget that they are not human especially when it comes to giving them treats.

If you are tempted to give your dog a bite of even your best homemade yogurt, you should reconsider. While probiotics will improve your dog's digestion symptoms, human yogurt can cause your pooch more harm than good.

Lactose Intolerance

Just like people, dogs can suffer from milk sugar (lactose) sensitivities that can result in skin irritations, diarrhea, constipation and dehydration.

The Sweet Kiss of Death

We love our sweet treats but sugar can literally kill your pet. Their digestive systems aren't suited to process sugar. Bacterial overgrowth can not only cause yeast infections but result in disorientation and even seizures.

Doggie Diet

Do your best friend a favor and feed him foods designed just for dogs. Manufacturers spend millions on developing healthy foods for your pets so take advantage of the research.

The Case for Probiotics for Dogs

Studies indicate that probiotics may prevent dogs (and other pets) from having liver problems, protect against some strains of E. coli., inhibit the growth of yeast and colon cancer and defend against the fatal Listeria bacteria.

If your pooch is suffering tummy issues, skin problems or allergies, add probiotics to his daily meal and expect to see improvements in a couple of weeks.  Of course, see your veterinarian if your dog is suffering significant or unusual symptoms.

See larger image Yogourmet Multi Electric Yogurt Maker with CBA Starter (Health and Beauty) List Price: $79.85 USD Release date April 15, 2008.

A new study done at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology claims a link between moms who ate probiotics, the good bacteria found in yogurt, during pregnancy and a reduced occurrence of eczema in their kids.

Eczema is an inflammatory auto-immune response skin condition that causes children and adults alike to suffer redness and sometimes extreme itching.

The reduction reported in the study was a very impressive 40 percent
making this a very important study indeed.

Currently, treatment of eczema consists of  keeping the skin moisturized, using topical steroid medications and avoiding harsh and perfumed soaps.

Now scientist are crediting probiotic's success with its ability to strengthen the immune system.  In other words, the best "treatment" for this dreaded skin condition begins in the womb.

Which Probiotic?

The study used the Norwegian milk brand Biola, which contains Lactobacillus rhamnosus. They also included the probiotics Lactobacillus acidophilus  and Bifidobacterium lactis.

The researchers recommend consuming a variety of bacterial strains for optimal results.

Where to Find Lactobacillus rhamnosus

L. rhamnosus is the most studied probiotic because it is especially tolerance of the high acidic conditions found in the intestinal tract. Currently, you likely won't find a yogurt starter with L. rhamnosus but you can add it to your homemade yogurt my using culture from either Stonyfield yogurt or Nancy's Organic yogurt.

Dead Sea and Yogurt Face and Body Mask

Since Cleopatra discovered its healing properties, mud from the Dead Sea has been used since to treat Rosacea, acne, eczema and psoriasis.  Combine it with yogurt and you have the perfect eczema homemade mask.

Jericho Dead Sea Black Mud is 100% natural and contains Dead Sea minerals, plant extracts, seaweed and olive oil.

Just mix half Jericho Dead Sea Black Mud and half lightly drained homemade yogurt.  Spread it over the eczema afflected skin and relax for 20 minutes. Rinse thoroughly with warm water.

See larger image Salton YM7 42-Ounce Electric Yogurt Maker with 7 Glass Jars (Kitchen) List Price: $59.99 USD

Being born with a strong immune system means that you will suffer less minor and major illnesses in your lifetime. Not all of us are that lucky.

But many people suffer needlessly because they don't understand that they have more control over their health than they think and it starts with improving the functioning of the immune system.

Your immune system has one job to do and that job is to protect you from disease.  When it's functioning optimally, your immune system detects and destroys pathogens, parasites, viruses, tumor cells and toxins. It can fight everything from the common cold to cancer, heart disease, chronic inflammation and many conditions that are blamed on the aging process.

It's Never to Late to Build a Better Immune System

You can improve your immune system and its health giving respond starting today. 

Eat Homemade Yogurt Everyday

It's no secret that yogurt can boost immune system functioning. Numerous scientific studies support the power of good bacteria in fermented foods.

It's not that yogurt is a miracle food, but that it supports your immune system by supplying it with trillions of good microorganisms that destroy  bad intestinal bacteria.

We live in a very unsterile world and yogurt has been used for thousands of years to deal with the deathly bacteria we are all subjected to daily.

If you have low probiotics levels, you may not know it but you do know the symptoms.

Homemade yogurt is fresher and the live bacteria is more active plus you can avoid the high sugar content, additives and preservatives of commercial yogurt. It's much easier to make yogurt with an electric yogurt maker.

Yogurt is the best place to start in building a better immune system.  Make sure your diet and lifestyle also include these health builders.

Get your Omega-3

You know it's good for your heart but essential fatty acids (EFA) are also essential for your immune system health.  If you don't like fish, try taking supplements or include more walnuts, flax seeds, olive oil and soybeans in your diet.

Eat your fruits and veggies

You know you should but do you? If you can't get your 3-5 serving per day, try a green drink power such as Delicious Greens. They taste great and some can supply a full day's serving of fruits and veggies in just an 8 ounce drink.

Stay alkaline

The typical American diet is very acidic and causes a host of health problems. Our body's were meant to at a pH of 6.4 to 7.5 but junk food, coffee and alcohol ensures that it is anything but. Learn how to to stay in an optimal alkaline state and check to see if you have acidic symptoms.

Think Good Thoughts

Want to add a dozen years to your life? Researchers says that optimists outlive pessimists by that many years.  In a study done at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, negative just didn't cut it. In fact, stressed out people were found to have weaker immune systems than their chilled out counterparts. Try meditation to get a new outlook on life.

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We have a love/hate relationship with antibiotics. Are they a necessary evil or an unnecessary risk?

Antibiotics are natural microorganisms that do battle with potentially deadly other microorganisms. There are some really dangerous bacteria in our environment such as Staphylococcus aureus, which can cause pneumonia and toxic shock syndrome.

The use of antibiotics (or mold) for treating infections goes all the way back to ancient Egyptians and has been used for centuries in many cultures.

When Something So Good Goes So Bad

Like many good things, too much can be bad and that is where Western medicine went wrong in the use of antibiotics. That use became abuse as antibiotics started being prescribed for ailments it was never intended to treat.

Just four years after mass-production of penicillin started in 1943, bad microorganisms became resistant. The highly resistant MRSA organism is believed to be the result of over usage of antibiotics.

To Take Antibiotics or Not to Take Antibiotics

Only your doctor can help you make this all important decision but have that discussion armed with knowledge and a super healthy immune system. Here are some things to know before talking to your medical provider:

• Antibiotics only kill bacteria not viruses. They have no effect in treating the common cold or other viral infections.
• Antibiotics kill bad and good microbes.
• One in 1000 users are seriously allergic to antibiotics.
• Many more users are allergic enough to suffer mild to severe rashes.
• Antibiotics don't treat pain and will not help you feel better.
• The more often you take antibiotics, the more likely you will become antibiotic-resistant.
• Antibiotics can dangerously interfere with other medications.
• Antibiotics can unbalance your intestinal flora and cause  gastrointestinal distress.
• Over time, antibiotics can cause a weakened immune response leaving you vulnerable to diseases.

Your Best Antibiotic Solution

Do yourself a favor and pump up your immune system with homemade yogurt.  Your doctor may decide that antibiotics are necessary so be prepared with an abundance of probiotics.

By killing beneficial bacteria, antibiotics may in effect promote harmful bacteria growth and cause other symptoms including diarrhea. The good bacteria in yogurt can prevent this proliferation and keep a healthy balanced ratio of disease fighting intestinal flora.

An ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of antibiotic cure. If your daily diet does not include yogurt in some form, you prevention power is seriously lacking.

You can take that preventative a step further by making fresh and preservative and additive free yogurt at home. It's easy with an electric yogurt maker. Get yours today.

See larger image Go Dairy Free: The Guide and Cookbook for Milk Allergies, Lactose Intolerance, and Casein-Free Living (Paperback) By (author) Alisa Marie Fleming List Price: $19.95 USD New From: $12.34 In Stock Used from: $8.32 In Stock

Are you intolerant or allergic? Milk allergies are common in babies but at around one to three years of age most immune systems stop reacting to dairy products.

Lactose Intolerance vs. Dairy Protein Allergy

Lactose intolerance is different in that the body is unable to make the digestive enzyme lactase. This inability to digest the lactose (sugar) in dairy results in cramps, bloating, diarrhea and other intestinal distress.

Dairy allergies on the other hand are the immune system behaving badly or hypersensitive. It considers the proteins (casein or whey) in milk harmful and releases antibodies to neutralize them.

Your body's production of histamine after consume dairy is what causes rashes, hives, wheezing, shortness of breath and difficulty in swallowing as well as digestive problems.

Pure Abstinence

Sorry but the only current treatment for dairy allergies is 100% avoidance of the milk protein. This can be a daunting challenge as milk in lurking in more foods than you could never image. Label reading is your best friend but is of little help when eating out.

Hope But No Solution

Research on yogurt's effect on the immune system are encouraging. Yogurt has been show to increase interferon.  These are proteins released by white blood cells in response to the presence of pathogens such as viruses and bacteria. Interferons trigger the immune system defenses.

The immune system is strengthened by the probiotics or live bacteria found in fermented foods.  While this double boost of protection may not help you overcome your milk allergies, it will benefit your overall health.

Because yogurt still contains milk protein, this immune system strengthening is not considered significant reason to further research. In the meantime, don't let a milk allergy prevent you and your immune system from benefiting from the probiotics in yogurt.

Soy, coconut, rice and almond milks all make great homemade yogurt and are easy to do with an electric yogurt maker.  Don't forget that you can also make yogurt cheese by draining the liquid from the yogurt.

By making your own non-dairy yogurt you can start enjoying frozen yogurt, puddings, yogurt cheese cake, dips, dressings and so much more.

Who needs the cow when you have a yogurt maker?

See larger image Yogourmet Casei Bifidus Acidophilus Probiotic Yogurt Starter, 1 Ounce, 6-Count Boxes (Pack of 2) (Grocery) List Price: $15.57 USD New From: $14.42 In Stock

Do you love pizza and ice cream but hate the cramps, bloating and diarrhea that follows eating those great foods?

The problem isn't dairy food, it's your body inability to make the digestive enzyme lactase. Lactase is needed in order to digest the natural sugar found in dairy products called lactose.

Lactase the enzyme turns lactose the milk sugar into lactic acid during the digestive process.

75 Percent of Us Are Lactose Intolerant

If you are lactose intolerant, you are not alone. Lactase decreases in the majority of people as children. But dairy foods are just too plentiful and delicious to stop enjoying just because you aren't a kid anymore.  Lactose is hiding in foods that you would never guess such as cereals, breads, margarine and salad dressing.

Yet another benefit of eating the wonder food yogurt is that during the fermentation process the good bacteria creates lactic acid, which is that sour taste you love so much.  This ready made milk sugar conversion is why you are able to eat dairy yogurt without the problems caused by other dairy foods.

Lactose Intolerance Research

Lactobacillus acidophilus has shown to be the most effective in decreasing  lactose intolerance. However, studies are inconclusive as to probiotics' ability to improve overall lactose intolerance.

Some participants did respond to the probiotic therapy but further testing is necessary to get scientists to be pro probiotics for this condition.

Of course, even if the probiotics in yogurt isn't your lactose intolerant cure, it will not harm you and offers so many other benefits that adding yogurt to your diet can only improve your health.

By making yogurt at home (easy to do with an electric yogurt maker), you can control the quality and also turn it into other great lactose tolerant foods including yogurt cheese and frozen yogurt. Think of all the tummy stress-free days you will have.

See larger image Euro Cuisine Automatic Yogurt Maker, White. () List Price: $50.00 USD New From: $35.99 In Stock Used from: $34.94 In Stock

Lowering cholesterol has become the battle cry of the medical profession in the U.S.  This natural waxy substance found in the body's cells is an essential factor in the production of bile, hormones and fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D and E.

You can't live if you have too little cholesterol but too much cholesterol can result in atherosclerosis or the blockage of arterial blood vessels. So how do you get it just right?

The Beauty of Bile

Bile is a bitter greenish or yellowish fluid produced by the liver to aid in digestion.  An important job of cholesterol is the synthesis of bile acid, which makes fat absorption possible. Some bile acids are excreted in the feces but much is reabsorbed from the lower intestine and recycled to the liver.

Studies done on animal indicate that fermented dairy foods were effective in lowering bad LDL cholesterol levels. Researchers opined that this occurred because the beneficial bacteria in fermented foods such as yogurt were able to break down bile in the stomach and prevent some of this reabsorption.

Studies with humans and probiotics have shown moderate reductions in both LDL and HDL cholesterol levels.  The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that daily consumption of yogurt with both probiotics and prebiotics increased good HDL cholesterol by as much as 38%.  HDL cholesterol is believed to reduce the risk of heart disease

The Power of a Healthy Gut

Keeping your gut healthy effects your total health. Researchers in the Department of Microbiology at the University College Cork in Cork Ireland have stated that probiotics can reduce or prevent inflammation, allergic reactions, colon cancer, Crohn's disease, diarrhea, constipation, candidia,  urinary tract infections, dermatitis and, of course, cholesterol level.

Again, the active cultures in fermented foods such as yogurt were believed effective because they were able to bind and absorb bile acids.

Beat the Odds

• While breast cancer gets all the press, heart disease remains the number one killer of women in the U.S.
• Just a 1% reduction in serum cholesterol can lower your chances of having a heart attack by 2 to 3%.
• Yogurt is not only good your health, it's good for the quality of your life.
• Homemade yogurt is additive and preservative free and you control how much or the type of sweetener you use.

So what are you waiting for?  Homemade yogurt is easy when you have an electric yogurt maker.  Get one today.

See larger image Salton YM7 42-Ounce Electric Yogurt Maker with 7 Glass Jars (Kitchen) List Price: $59.99 USD

If life sometimes gets in the way of practicing a healthy lifestyle, it's good to know that one food can make such a huge difference in your overall health. If you think that yogurt is just good for your intestinal well being, look at all the other ways it can improve your health.

1. Improves immune system function
2. Reduces susceptibility to infections
3. Improves intestinal regularity
4. Supports good heart health
5. Decreases appetite and supports health weight
6. Decreases lactose intolerance
7. Reduces risk of colon and breast cancers
8. Lowers blood pressure
9. Decreases cholesterol levels
10. Reduces triglyceride levels
11. Decreases allergy susceptibility
12. Detoxifies waste products
13. Decreases dental caries in children
14. Decreases pH levels in the colon
15. Increases mineral absorption including calcium
16. Prevents urinary tract infections
17. Reduces chronic, antibiotic induced, travelers and pediatric diarrhea
18. Prevents and treats candida (yeast) infections
19. Safe in treating ulcerative colitis
20. Reduces the symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease
21. Reduces the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome
22. May prevent secondary infections caused by antibiotic therapy
23. Aids in the treatment of Helicobacter pylori infections
24. Protects against  peptic ulcers
25. Reduces inflammation and hypersensitivity responses

Yogurt is not a cure all and should not be used in lieu of medical treatment. However, while so many foods come under attack, it's one food that offers many health benefits and tastes great too.

Homemade yogurt is far superior to commercial brands. Homemade is  higher in  probiotics and free of preservatives and additives plus you control how much sugar you add.  Making it is quick and easy with an electric yogurt maker and now you have 25 reasons to get one today!

See larger image Natren Probiotic Yogurt Starter (Misc.) New From: $34.99 In Stock

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.

See larger image Probiotic and Prebiotic Recipes for Health: 100 Recipes that Battle Colitis, Candidiasis, Food Allergies, and Other Digestive Disorders (Paperback) By (author) Tracy Olgeaty Gensler List Price: $19.95 USD New From: $7.94 In Stock Used from: $4.54 In Stock

Just when you thought you got acidophilus figured out as the good bacteria in yogurt, marketers changed the term to probiotics. Now there is a new kid in town called prebiotics.

It's not just good marketing, this evolution in terminology comes from a better understanding that our health is largely dependent upon the types of foods we eat.

Probiotics vs. Prebiotics

Probiotics are live microorganisms found in fermented foods that contain active cultures such as  yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, sourdough bread, miso and some pickles.

Prebiotics are certain non-digestible foods that stimulate the growth and activity of bacteria in the digestive tract.

Actually, prebiotics aren't new at all. Our prehistoric ancestors lived off a diets rich in prebiotic tubers and roots. You probably don't munch on those tasty treats but chances are you eat a number of prebiotic foods everyday.

While both probiotics and prebiotics are digestive aids that strengthen the immune system, the obvious difference is that probiotics come ready equipped with the good bacteria while with prebiotics the body must use the food to grow its own bacteria.

Is one better than the other? Yes and no. Both provide you with good intestinal microflora but the quality of your prebiotics is largely dependent upon the nutritional quality of your food as well as your body's ability to digest, assimilate and ferment the food.

Don't spend time trying to figure out which is better, just incorporate both into your diet to get double the benefits.  Add yogurt or yogurt cheese to any of the following foods and enjoy them together often.

Prebiotic Food Sources