Aktiv K12 probiotics can knock bad breath down a peg

You have chronic bad breath, and you're tired of it. What should you do? Besides flossing, brushing your teeth and avoiding garlic like the plague, you might benefit from an Aktiv K12 Probiotics Kit, which can change the whole ballgame, bacteriologically speaking.

Unlike other treatments that merely try to kill the microbes in your mouth, specialty probiotics products take a proactive approach, gradually replacing odor-causing microorganisms with less irritating varieties.

So here's how halitosis works. When you eat or drink, tiny particles of food stick to your tongue, teeth, gums and the roof of your mouth. Likewise, oils, proteins, sugars and starches stay behind, clotting the spaces between your teeth and squeezing into the grooves that separate your taste buds.

All this wouldn't be so bad if your saliva had time to digest these remnants of food and beverages. After all, your spit is loaded with enzymes that break down stuff like this. Unfortunately, bacteria usually get to it first.

Your mouth is a place that about 600 species of microbes call home. Just as you need food, moisture and shelter, so do they. As your body needs to periodically get rid of waste, so do theirs. After they eat a meal, oral microorganisms excrete smelly sulfur-based compounds.

It's these substances that give your bad breath its repellent reek. How are you supposed to get rid of this odious odor? Try Aktiv K12 Probiotics, that's how!

Besides imparting a fresh, minty scent to your palate, TheraBreath's probiotics products deliver a particular species of bacteria that gets to work immediately. This strain of oral microbe is known as Streptococcus salivarius K12. For all it does for bad breath, many people are ready to consider it their new favorite pet.

S. salivarius K12 is a bacterial species that naturally occurs in the mouths of just 2 percent of the population. This means that only one in 50 people inherently has productive microbes in their mouth. For the rest of us, Aktiv K12 Probiotics will have to do the trick.

Unlike many of the other species of microorganisms that live in your maw, S. salivarius K12 produces a group of proteins called bacteriocin-like inhibitory substances (BLIS). These substances are growth inhibitors for other microbes.

Basically, S. salivarius K12 "salts the earth" with BLIS, so to speak, making it increasingly difficult for odor-causing bacteria to continue growing on your palate. Over time, this effect can result in fresher breath and the gradual reduction of chronic halitosis.

Plenty of studies have shown that the use of products like Aktiv K12 probiotics can drastically improve oral odor.

For example, a report published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology found that 85 percent of volunteers who took S. salivarius K12 experienced significant reductions in their levels of bad breath. Bacterial cultures taken by the research team revealed that the K12 microbes prevented the growth of microorganisms linked to halitosis.

If that weren't good enough, another study discovered that K12-based probiotics products can have long-lasting effects. The paper, which appeared in the journal Oral Microbiology and Immunology, announced that the effects of a single treatment of S. salivarius lasted as long as three weeks.

And best of all, this strain of bacteria is totally safe for human consumption. That was the conclusion of a study included in the journal Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins. Scientists found that volunteers who took the strain experienced no negative side effects.

"Based on the previously published data, the long history of use by humans and the information presented here...S. salivarius K12 is safe for human consumption," concluded the authors, a group of microbiologists from New Zealand.