By Richard Huemer, M.D.

One of the most dangerous toxic waste sites you are likely to encounter is your own digestive system. By the time a person reaches 50, the colon has accumulated enough toxic waste to deserve a cleanup grant from the Superfund.

These toxins are associated with conditions such as putrefaction, constipation, cancer and immune dysfunction. Fortunately, we can do something about these toxins with the use of specific herbs and nutrients.

As a result of disease, poor health or poor dietary habits, the lining of the large intestine may become coated with a leathery layer of undigested food that serves to nurture unhealthy strains of bacteria and fungi. When such germs split proteins in the absence of oxygen, the process is referred to as putrefaction; it produces malodorous toxins.

One key to overcoming putrefaction may be to ingest viable cultures of acidophilus and bifidobacteria on a daily basis. These “friendly” bacteria have the ability to overwhelm the putrefaction bacteria and fungi along the length of intestinal tract. Using them is an important first step in detoxifying your colon.

Considerable evidence supports the idea that probiotic (”friendly bacteria”) supplementation in adults has a beneficial effect, especially in those who seem to suffer from frequent infections including gastrointestinal disorders.

Health columnist Christine Gorman writes in the Dec. 28, 1998, issue of Time, “In fact, consuming extra amounts of some bacteria can actually promote good health.”

Many studies have shown that probiotics can boost immune function. In the most recent confirmation of this fact, researchers from the University of Paris dramatically demonstrated the beneficial impact of healthy populations of friendly flora by showing how much more effectively the immune system functions when it has optimal cultures of these bacteria, particularly Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidurm.

The percentage of the white blood cells known as phagocytes (which ingest bacteria and cell debris) was 40 to 80 percent higher in persons with optimal populations of beneficial bacteria who had been taking the probiotic supplement. The report appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.