Probiotics have been the talk of the town for a few years now, thanks to their many gut, digestive, and potential mental health benefits. Here are a few reasons why you should start taking a probiotic every day.
Balance Your Friendly Bacteria
First off, probiotics are incredible at balancing the bacteria in your gut. Too much bad bacteria in your gut can lead to long-lasting digestive issues, allergy flare-ups, bloating, diarrhea, and even weight loss.
One look at the probiotic range from Inner Health or another supplier will show you the variety of probiotics available that can almost instantly transform, and drastically improve your gut and digestive system.
Diarrhea Treatment
Probiotic are one of the best treatments out there for diarrhea, which can be caused by antibiotics, stress, other medications, or something in between. Considering diarrhea is sometimes caused by a gut imbalance, probiotics can help.
While it isn’t always guaranteed, and diarrhea can have a variety of sometimes severe causes, probiotics can definitely do their job in lessening the effects.
Constipation Relief
On the other end of the spectrum, probiotics can also help relieve you of constipation. Once again, constipation can be caused by an imbalance in the gut, with experts saying that going almost two weeks without a bowel movement can be classified as chronic.
However, studies have been done with patients who take probiotics daily, and the results showed an increase of 2.5 bowel movements a week.
Potential Mental Health Benefits
Some interesting studies have shown a link between taking probiotics daily, and improved mental health. Not only have they shown to improve anxiety and stress, but some patients also experienced less depressive episodes.
However, it is important to keep in mind that this is not rock-solid proof, and it is not advised to take probiotics just for the reason of improving your mental health.
Heart Health
Some probiotics have also been shown to help improve your heart health, with a few strains having the ability to break down bile, which will stop it from entering the bloodstream and being turned into cholesterol.
Once again, this is not a fix, but instead, it is a small step that can be taken to prevent high cholesterol and high blood pressure in the future.
Weight Management
Finally, daily probiotic usage has also been shown to improve your weight management, and make weight loss slightly easier. Researchers have noted that an unhealthy diet leads to a change in the gut biome, which can be a contributing factor to weight gain.
While probiotics on their own won’t help you lose weight, restoring the balance in your gut will help your body to process food faster and better, thus making weight loss easier.
What to Look For in a Probiotic
With the benefits of probiotics in mind, here are a few of the most important things to look for when choosing one.
Aim for Quality
The first thing to aim for is to simply choose a quality probiotic. There are two main reasons for this: first off, a lower or poor-quality probiotic will simply not work as well as it should, and you will just be wasting your money.
Secondly, there is a chance that the product has been filled with ingredients that can cause more harm than good, and could worsen any digestive issues you may have.
Strain
The next thing you need to look for is the type of strain or strains used in the probiotic you choose. While there is no real right or wrong answer, each strain has different abilities, different strengths, and different uses.
This means that the best thing to do when researching probiotics is to research the strains and see if they can benefit you. While most can, there are some that have additional benefits that you may find useful to yourself and your situation.
Colony Forming Units
The colony forming units, or CFUs, is simply the amount of bacteria you are getting with each dose. In general, a probiotic that can offer 10-20 billion CFUs per dose is good for most people, but you can opt for a higher CFU count if you have a digestive issue you are trying to solve.
Quick tip: when looking at the CFUs, look at the number you get per dose, not the amount “at the time of manufacturing.”
Read the Label
Always read the label for important information regarding your probiotic. Things like storage information, dosage, potential side effects, etc. Probiotics can have adverse effects when used incorrectly, and you need to know what those incorrect methods are.
Know When to Change
Finally, always be aware of how your body is reacting to the probiotics, and know when to change. Whether it be because you are having negative effects, or no effects at all, “sticking it out” is not a good idea; rather, change the probiotic you are using.
If probiotics have severe effects on your body, no matter how strong or weak they are, you may have a more serious issue, and it is best to consult with a doctor before continuing to use them.
