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Probiotics Explained
Probiotics are tiny microorganisms that deliver health benefits to their host. Our bodies rely on all sorts of microorganisms to keep things working and keep us healthy, and probiotics play a part in this. They’re the good bacteria that you actually want in your system.
They support healthy body systems from your mouth to your gut, and help control harmful microorganisms like germs. At the right levels, probiotics aid digestion and improve nutrient absorption.
Probiotics occur naturally in fermented foods and cultured milk, but you can also find manufactured probiotic supplements. Read on to learn more about the effects of probiotics on your digestive health.
David Relman, MD, professor of medicine and of microbiology and immunology, is optimistic about the long-term potential of probiotics. But he doesn't think we're quite there yet.
"We don't really know enough to orchestrate a deliberate, tailored, optimized approach. There are a lot of things that we don't understand," said Relman.
One thing researchers don't yet understand is how to pick the right strain and get it to set up shop. If you think the San Francisco Bay Area's housing situation is bad (it is), imagine searching for a home in a town with trillions of residents from 1,000 species. The gut is a hard place for new microbes to colonize, and that's generally a good thing because it keeps out disease-causing microbes. But it means that many probiotics likely go in one end -- and out the other.
"It's like adding a drop to the ocean," said Ami Bhatt, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine and of genetics.
It's a lot easier to move into a neighborhood with a conveniently vacant home. The same is true for microbes: a 2016 study published in Cell Host & Microbe showed that, when healthy adults were given Bifidobacterium longum bacteria, the microbe only stuck around in 3 out of every 10 subjects. Patients in which the bacteria remained tended to have had less of it to begin with. So a person's existing microbiome -- which can vary even between twins -- could affect whether a probiotic works.
To start getting the benefits of probiotics, increase your daily consumption of them. You can do this through food sources or supplements. Many traditional foods around the world naturally contain probiotics. These foods include:
Ease into increasing your probiotic intake slowly, and pay attention to any side effects — both positive and negative. Since there are many different strains of probiotics, note how each of them affects you differently.
Because probiotics are taken by mouth, their efficacy depends on how well they can stand up to the very acidic environment of the stomach and gastrointestinal tract. The highest quality probiotics will pass through your stomach still intact and move into the intestines where nutrients are absorbed. This is where probiotics do most of their healing and good work.
As you can see and hopefully fathom, Probiotics are designed to impact and work in you gut section. Probiotics are living, so their viability can be affected by any number of problems with packaging and storage. We have more to learn about how best to administer probiotics. We also need to learn more about how well probiotics can remain inside your gut once they get there. Currently, it’s not believed that any dosage of probiotics will necessarily stay in your system forever. Current practice is to take daily doses of probiotics. However if you suffer from Gut or Dietary issues then Probbiotics can be a helpful way in turning around your Gut health!
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