There’s a lot of talk today about probiotics should you take them or not?

When you were born you were given bacteria inside your gut, this is called colonization. You need this bacteria to help you digest food and most of it is friendly. It’s job is to include converting fiber in the short chain fatty acidsAnd working with vitamins and supporting your immune system. Taking probiotics in the correct amounts may help boost the healthy bacteria and keep you healthy.

Probiotics come in many forms. You can eat them in fermented foods such as Kiefer sauerkraut or yogurt or in supplemental form. Be careful not to confuse probiotics with pre-biotics. Pre-biotics are types of fiber that feed the bacteria living in your colon. Every person‘s got microbio forgot flora consists of a huge variety of bacteria in the composition of yours is unique just to you. Your: contains billions of types of bacteria. Probiotics have been found to provide health benefits from different strains. When you take a probiotic supplement they usually contain different strains of bifidobacterium or lactobacillus in the same supplement. Believe it or not you: contains over 500 different species. However research has shown that some strains are more efficient than others for treating certain conditions so you’re likely to get the best results by taking probiotics that have been shown to achieve specific effects.

Probiotics are measured in CFU’s this stands for colony forming units and generally the higher the dose is found to produce the best results in most studies anyway.

Though taking extremely high doses hasn’t been found to cause harm it is expensive and doesn’t appear to have any additional benefits. Scientists still don’t know everything about probiotics but research on them is expanding.

It seems as though everyone at sometime in their life has constipation. Bowel movements that are hard to pass it’s called constipation though for some people it’s a chronic problem. It is most common among the elderly and adults who are bedridden but also can occur in children. Conventional treatments usually include laxatives or stool softeners however in recent years probiotics along with a good nutritional diet are becoming more popular for this problem.

In a recent study comparing probiotics and prebiotic’s and children, probiotics were shown to provide sufficient relief.

It was also found that the probiotic group also experienced less burping, belly fullness and bloating after meals then the prebiotic group make sure you’re taking the proper probiotic for your constipation because there are also probiotics that are very effective against diarrhea. Probiotics that may improve constipation include B. longum, S. cerevisiae and a combination of L. acidophilus, L. reuteri, L. plantarum, L. rhamnosus and B. animalis (10, 11, 12).

Diarrhea seems To find us at the worst times most of the time it is short-lived but for some people it is not. Probiotics have been found to reduce diarrhea and the infection that is related to it such as what goes along with food poisoning or the stomach flu. After reviewing 34 studies it was found that probiotics reduce the risk of diarrhea by 34%. Effective strains included Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus (14). Another common cause of diarrhea is antibiotics. What an antibiotic does is it kills the harmful bacteria that causes infection but it also kills the beneficial bacteria. Unfortunately this causes then causes inflammation and diarrhea. Another large study of 80 different studies found that taking probiotic supplement reduced the risk of developing antibiotic associated diarrhea by 42% though they really didn’t say which strains would be the best.

Studies in children and adults have shown that taking probiotics can help decrease the diarrhea that may happen as a result of antibiotic therapy. (15, 16).Researchers believe the probiotics led to an increase in melatonin, a hormone involved in digestive function (24, 25).

Now for more good news there is more and more growing evidence that the balance of bacteria in your gut can affect your body weight which means taking probiotics and keeping your gut flora correct can help you lose weigh. In recent animal and human studies it has been found that certain strains of bacteria may decrease the amount of fat and calories your gut actually absorbs promoting a healthy balance of gut bacteria this may reduce weight and change body composition. According to a 2014 analysis of several studies, probiotics that seem to be effective for fat loss include Lactobacillus gasseri, Lactobacillus rhamnosus and the combination of Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium lactis (33).

In one study, obese men who took L. gasseri for 12 weeks experienced significant reductions in body weight and body fat, including up to an 8.5% decrease in belly fat. By contrast, the placebo group had very little change in body weight or body fat (31).

In another study, obese women who took L. rhamnosus for three weeks lost twice as much weight as those who received a placebo.

Did you know that there is a strong connection between gut health and brain health? When food is digested, it is turned into short-chain fatty acids that not only feed the gut but also give the brain and nervous system benefits such as improving symptoms of anxiety, depression, autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder and poor memory (37).

Studies have also shown that when throat cancer patients took probiotics for two weeks before there surgery had lower levels of stress hormones and their anxiety decreased by 40%. In other studies it seems that probiotics have been shown to improve overall mood and sadness in people who were healthy and people with chronic fatigue syndrome. In another study on depression those who took probiotics had a significant decrease in their depression and what’s more insulin levels and inflammation also went down.

Another study suggested that taking probiotics may increase your body’s defense against allergies, infections, and cancer. Inflammation is a marker for many diseases probiotics cause anti-inflammatory markers to increase and as gut bacteria becomes more balanced thus helping to fight infection.

As studies are showing probiotics are good for overall health, they help boost production of beneficial short chain fatty acids and there’s even evidence that probiotics may promote better aging by reducing the inflammation that just happens as you grow older. All that being said eating a healthy diet and staying away from sugars and processed foods and eating organic meat and wild caught fish will keep you on the road to better health.

Although probiotics are safe for most people, they may cause harm in those who have compromised immune systems such as HIV or AIDS or those who are extremely ill so please use caution.There are many types of probiotics so carefully choose the right one or check with your physician or nutritional expert to see which one is right for you and your condition. Taking the correct probiotic may help you improve your health and quality-of-life.

Resources

authoritynutrition.com/probiotics