But new research out of Georgia has shown, perhaps for the first time, that natural gut bacteria is also necessary to repair and maintain a healthy intestinal cellular system and that gut microbes are fully capable of regrowing damaged or compromised tissue.

This shocking finding was uncovered by researchers from the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta who tested the effects of certain strains of bacteria, including those from the Lactobacillus genus, on both Drosophila fruit flies and mice. They learned that some of these bacterial strains trigger the production of host epithelial cells, which line the various cavities of the body, which in turn activates and proliferates the spread of intestinal stem cells.