The gut microbiota is a complex ecosystem composed of hundreds of different bacterial species that altogether play an important role in the physiology of their host. In the past few years the complete genome sequence of a number of bacterial strains isolated from the human gastrointestinal tract has been established including that of Bifidobacterium longum NCC2705 isolated from the feces of a healthy infant. Bifidobacteria are among the first species to colonise the human gastrointestinal tract and as such are believed to play an important role in gut homeostasis and normal development.

Friendly bacteria
There are a number of bacteria that are friendly and helpful to humans. If you wish to know learn about these friendly bacteria, visit the following web pages: acidophilus bacteria, or the web page probiotics. By ingesting friendly or good bacteria, it is possible that they could displace the harmful bacteria in the gut.

Bifidobateria and Probiotics in Health and Disease
Like its better-known cousin acidophilus, the bifidobacteria group (often simply called bifidus) is considered a "probiotic." Bifidobacteria are one of the hundreds of beneficial bacteria that inhabit the body's intestinal tract, and help to fight off infection.
     Probiotic bacteria with bifidobacteria are effective in preventing and reducing the severity of acute diarrhea in children. They are also useful in antibiotic associated diarrhea but not for elimination of Helicobacter pylori. In inflammatory bowel disease, especially ulcerative colitis, probiotics with bifidobacteria offer a safe alternative or addition to current therapy. Bifidobacteria have been used to prevent urogenital tract infection with benefit and, perhaps more intriguingly, to reduce atopy in children. Probiotics do not always work.

Bifidobacteria strains
Despite the generally accepted importance of bifidobacteria as probiotic components of the human intestinal microflora and their use in health promoting foods, there is only limited information about their phylogenetic position, physiology and underlying genetics. In the last few years numerous molecular approaches have emerged for the identification and characterization of bifidobacterial strains.

Types or strains
Bifidobacterium adolescentis
bifidum
breve
infantis
lactis
longum
pseudocatenulatum
pseudolongum

Health Benefit of Prebiotics for bifidobacteria growth

There is increasing awareness that bacteria in the human gut play an important role in maintaining health, both within the gastrointestinal tract and the rest of the body. One can increase the number of good bacteria in the body in two main ways: By taking probiotic supplements or eating yoghurt which directly supply good bacteria to the colon, or by ingesting prebiotics which help stimulate the growth of good bacteria.
   Prebiotics are food ingredients, mostly complex carbohydrates that are not digested, that stimulate the growth or activity of certain bacteria in the colon. The types of bacteria most often stimulated are bifidobacteria and lactic acid bacteria. These are considered good bacteria and can provide various health benefits.

questions
Are there any interactions with using a bifidobaterium supplement with 5-HTP supplement or lipoic acid?
    I don't see any problems using it with these supplements.

Is there a benefit in using bifidobacterium infantis over using bifidobacterium bifidum in the treatment of IBS? I have been using Align for the last two years with good results, but bifidobacterium bifidum is much less expensive.
    I am not aware of enough research on this topic to know the answer.

I have had skull fractures, infections and vitamin / mineral / amino acid deficiencies and have had a very hard time recovering form 17 rounds of antibiotics. A recent test showed that I had very little to none Bifidobacterium. I started taking a probiotic that has 15B Billion CFU of: Bifidobacterium longum BB536 (morinaga strain), Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium breve, Bifidobacterium infantis. Do you know if a person can take more than 15B CFU a day or is that too much. I am starting to feel quite a bit better and would like to recover faster, so that is why I would like to take more, especially in light of the test that shows I am really deficient in this good bacteria. Do you know the maximum dosage of Bifido you can take daily?
    Such studies are not yet available yet to my knowledge.