8 Life Changing Benefits Of Taking Probiotics
How Probiotics Can Help You Achieve A Healthy Digestive System
Like any engine, if you feed your body the right fuel, everything ticks along perfectly, and following a balanced diet with lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, and natural fibre is a great foundation, alongside keeping active and sleeping well.
When there is an imbalance you can see it in your skin and feel it in your body – that sluggish mood in the morning or problems falling and staying asleep is your body letting you know it needs support.
Keeping that balance isn’t just essential for your physical health; the connection between our digestive health and our mental health is now also well documented:
“When you’re stressed, your gut is a different gut,” says Emeran Mayer, a gastroenterologist, neuroscientist, and UCLA professor who studies how the digestive system and nervous system interact in health and disease. “The brain and the gut are so closely connected, you almost have to look at it as one unit.”
With that in mind, it is important to consider how we can enrich our diet to include probiotics. The classic examples are yogurt and kefir, which are great for a lot of people, though not if you have a dairy sensitivity. There are now a lot of yoghurt and kefir alternatives, from water kefir and almond yoghurt to coconut yoghurt, coconut kefir, and so on. Look at ingredients when you’re shopping for food like yoghurt and avoid sugar-filled products.
Fermented foods are another way to include probiotics in your diet. Sauerkraut, apple cider vinegar, pickles, cultured vegetables, kombucha, miso, and kimchi are all beneficial. Studies show that you can change your microbiome within hours of adjusting your diet. If you’re not into sauerkraut, even just cutting back on sugar and eating more whole foods can make a big difference.
What are probiotics for?
The word probiotic – pro meaning “for” and bios meaning “life” – is a pretty accurate description of what these beneficial microbes do for our bodies. We know there are more bacteria in us and on us than our own human cells. The body is almost like a puppet – it is bacteria that really run the show: They turn on enzymes, turn off genes, and dictate much of our health.
Unless you have a perfect gut and are already eating lots of fermented foods, it’s difficult to get all the probiotics you need from diet alone. And let’s be honest, most of us don’t have perfect guts; everything from antibiotics to high-carbohydrate diets to being born via a C-section can compromise the balance of bacteria in our microbiome. Supplementing with a probiotic can help to restore imbalances, and it’s also a great preventative health measure, helping to keep your microbiome in balance and your immune system healthy to ward off illnesses.
Marketing around probiotics focuses on how they might make your stomach feel, but their potential impact on your overall health and wellbeing is much more complex. As we continue to understand the human microbiome better, it appears that we have only just scratched the surface of the relationship between our gut and countless maladies: depression, chronic fatigue, skin issues, obesity, and ageing-related diseases. There are many researchers who believe understanding these broader physiological implications of gut bacteria will be one of the most important medical endeavours of the 21st century. The ultimate goal? Making the GI tract an inviting place for beneficial bacteria to settle down and procreate.
Research shows that probiotics can support our bodies in many ways;
- They help balance the friendly bacteria in your digestive system.
- Help treat and prevent diarrhoea and other digestive disorders.
- Improve some mental health conditions.
- Some keep your heart healthy.
- Others can reduce the severity of certain allergies and skin conditions, such as eczema and psoriasis.
- They keep your immune system strong (about two-thirds of it lives in the gut).
- They can help reduce belly fat.
- They can boost glow and overall skin health.
Are all probiotics the same?
In 2010, the World Health Organisation began developing a guide for probiotics in food. As with all guidelines, these are a one-size-fits-all, but they do at least signpost the value of making probiotics a component of a healthy diet.
The variants to consider are complex and not all probiotics on the shelf are created equal, so here’s a quick guide of things to check for when buying a probiotic:
- Genus, species, and strain of the microorganisms. Many products list only the genus and species, but different strains provide different benefits. The two main species you want to look for are Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. Within these two species, there are a lot of different strains. Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus plantarum, and Bifidobacterium longum for example have been shown to help modulate the immune system, help with autoimmunity conditions, and counter infections in the gut.
- The number of organisms contained in a single dose, and how often you should take it. Make sure dosages are listed in CFU, colony-forming units. This means that the bacteria strains are living, which is essential. Pick one that has at least ten – to twenty billion CFU (colony-forming units).
- Read the guarantee fine print: If the CFU number is guaranteed at time of manufacturing, but not at the time of expiration, you could be taking a less potent dose of probiotics than you think because potency fades over time.
- Encapsulated pills or other delayed-rupture technology ensure the bacteria survive the trip through your acidic stomach and actually reach your colon.
- Certification by an independent third party. Look for supplement brands which use third-party testing. Has the company done research on actual strains? How are they guaranteeing potency?
To optimise the value of adding probiotics into your routine you should consider it a part of a wider nutritional and emotional evaluation, as the right dose of the ideal type of probiotic can have a profound effect on you – and the wrong one is a waste of time and money.
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