Lactococcus Lactis Benefits: Top 3 Reasons This Probiotic Works

You’ve probably heard about probiotics before, heck, who hasn’t in this day and age? Probiotic supplements are all the rage in the supplement world—and frankly, they have been for years.

As people start to realize how the health of the gut impacts overall health and well-being, supplements are popping up left, right, and center aimed at giving you the highest-performing gut possible but getting there is no straightforward task.

Just like your training program, getting your gut (back) to good health takes a dedicated effort, willpower, and consistency. It’s about giving it what it needs—in terms of food and lifestyle choices—to get it to where it needs to be to perform optimally.

But when there are dozens of probiotic strains available and hundreds of probiotic supplements lining shelves, how do you distinguish between what’s good, what’s bad, and what you actually need?

The truth is that it isn’t easy, and it’s going to depend on what you’re looking to get out of them, but if there’s one that we can tell you works, it’s Lactococcus Lactis.

So, with that said, we’re giving you everything we know about L. Lactis to help ease the pressure on finding the right probiotic. We’re covering what this strain is, why probiotic supplements are important (and how they work), and the top benefits of getting this one into your gut.

The Science Behind Probiotics

Probiotics are, no doubt, one of the most widely consumed supplements around and there’s a good reason for it.The increasing use of antibiotics, immunosuppressive therapy, irradiation, and other forms of treatment, along with poor diet and lifestyle factors are a huge reason why a big portion of our population has bad gut health and a host of health problems to go along with it.

And contrary to what a lot of people think, it’s not just your digestion that suffers when your gut is out of whack.

We’re talking about ³:

• Autoimmune diseases (Hashimoto’s, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus,
• Nutrient deficiencies
• Immune dysfunction
• IBD, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Liver diseases
• Cardiovascular disease
• Cancer
• Autism

It’s a pretty lengthy list of diseases that can result from poor gut health and dysbiosis, which is why you’ve got health and wellness professionals of all sorts harping on people about implementing lifestyle practices that support a healthy gut.

This is where probiotics enter. By no means are they the sole treatment for getting your gut back on track, but they can go a long way to supporting other efforts and re-establishing balance to support immune function and prevent disease.

But the reason you need balanced gut flora—and why probiotics help—is for more than just preventing chronic disease.

More than 70% of your immune system resides in your gut, which means gut bacteria play a massive role in supporting the host gut defense system ³, but they are also essential for maintaining normal gut functions.

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This includes regulating gut motility, vitamin production, hormone synthesis, metabolizing xenobiotic substances, mineral absorption, and activating and destroying toxins ⁴.

Basically, without these little guys, you’d be deep in the water and your body couldn’t function. It’s why we stress so hard that having a diet rich in probiotics is key to keeping your gut balanced and healthy.

3 Reasons Why You Need This Probiotic

Despite the hundreds of different strains of bacteria available, there’s one that we want to shine the spotlight on right now. It’s one you’ve likely never heard of, but when it comes to supporting your body’s basic functions, it deserves the attention—Lactococcus Lactis.

This isn’t just any old strain of lactic acid bacteria.

IMMUSE™ is an innovative paraprobiotic that stimulates the body’s natural immune defenses for bigger and better support. It is a patented lactic acid bacterium (Lactococcus lactis strain Plasma) that activates pDC (plasmacytoid dendritic cells)—the commanders of the immune system.

By stimulating pDC, PL-Immune™ LC-Plasma can activate 4 different types of immune cells, priming both the innate and adaptive immune defenses for more dynamic and robust responses.

Here’s why we love it.

Reduces Inflammation

Chronic inflammation can be a big problem for every system in the body and there are any number of contributors to its development, be it food sensitivities, exercise, stress, poor sleep, injury or infection, and more.

Chronic low-grade, systemic inflammation can eventually start to damage healthy cells, tissues, and organs, which, long-term can lead to DNA damage, tissue death, and internal scarring, among several other inflammatory-based conditions ⁵:

• Cancer
• Heart diseases
• Autoimmunity
• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Anemia
• Neurodegenerative disease
• Stroke
• Chronic kidney disease

But what’s interesting is that studies show that lactic acid bacteria, specifically L. Lactis, exhibits anti-inflammatory properties that can decrease the production of nitric oxide (NO) and pro-inflammatory cytokines ⁶.

It’s been investigated as a potential treatment for irritable bowel disease (IBD) due to these powerful anti-inflammatory effects and one rodent study found that administration of IL-10-secreting Lactococcus lactis resulted in a 50% decrease in colitis in mice ⁷.

Other studies have confirmed that administration of L. Lactis resulted in an increase in IL-6 production and sustained IL-10 production in colonic tissue; IL-6 can be both pro and anti-inflammatory, while IL-10 strongly inhibits the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines ⁸.

Boosts Immune Function

It’s been recognized for ages that the consumption of fermented foods has a positive effect on human health, but little did we know that it’s through boosting the immune system.

Over the last several decades it’s become obvious that the bacteria in fermented foods—lactic acid bacteria (LAB)—are what is responsible for these benefits. Research shows that LAB can trigger an immune response due to their probiotic properties and their capacity for activating the host immune system ⁹.

Loss of homeostasis in the immune system takes a big toll on immune responses and is the foundation for disease development. But what we’re talking about here is the role of probiotics in supporting these actions.

There are several confirmed functions of probiotics within the immune system, including ¹⁰:

• Supporting proliferation of good bacteria
• Suppressing growth of harmful bacteria
• Improving intestinal health
• Reducing blood cholesterol levels
• Enhancing immunity
• Suppressing endogenous infection
• Promoting anti-cancer properties

They do this by

• Producing short-chain fatty acids
• Decreasing gut pH
• Synthesizing key nutrients
• Supporting mucosal barrier function
• Immunomodulation

They have been shown to influence several aspects of both the innate and immune systems by stimulating phagocytosis and IgA secretion, modifying T-cell responses, enhancing Th1 responses, and attenuating Th2 responses ^{10, 11}.

But unlike other lactic acid bacteria, L. Lactis offers a unique advantage, specifically in the form of IMMUSE®.

IMMUSE® is a cutting-edge paraprobiotic (non-viable probiotic) that is the first lactic acid bacteria clinically proven to directly activate pDC (plasmacytoid dendritic cells), a rare type of immune cells, to provide comprehensive and complete coverage for both the innate and adaptive immune defenses.

Athletic Performance Support

We're all familiar with the impact of exercise on things like:

• cardiorespiratory fitness
• muscle strength and size
• glucose metabolism
• immune function
• mental health

...but gut health? 

Several studies support the bidirectional relationship between exercise and the composition of gut microbiota, but it seems the link is kept pretty hush-hush.

So how does it work? Regular physical activity appears to modulate gut microbial composition, while gut microbiota also play an important role in physical performance ¹².

Studies show that the composition and metabolic activity of the gut may support the digestion of certain dietary compounds and improve energy availability during exercise, which could offer some good metabolic benefits during high-intensity training.

One study looking at trained male runners found that supplementation with a multi-strain probiotic, which included Bifidobacterium lactis, for 4 weeks resulted in a significant increase in time to fatigue during treadmill running performed in the heat; supplementation boosted running time by a whopping 16% ¹³!

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re looking to up the ante in the gym, enhance recovery, or just generally boost your immune system for better overall health, probiotics are a good place to start.

The gut is the center of your body and houses one of the most important systems you have, so taking care of it and keeping it healthy is key to always performing at your best.