What Is Probiotic?
Probiotics are live bacteria and yeast, which are good for your health, especially for the digestive system. The human body contains bacteria, both good and bad. Probiotics are often called good or helpful bacteria.
Probiotics strengthen the immune defenses. Many patients take probiotics to protect themselves against influenza and other infectious diseases. These are naturally found in the human body. You can also get probiotics from some foods and supplements.
Do you know? Your gut contains 10 times more probiotics than cells in your body!
Benefits of Probiotics
Human body hosts approximately 2,000 different types of bacteria. The various benefits of probiotic for human are:
- Strengthens body immunity
- Improves digestion
- Improves skin health
- Produces vitamin B12, butyrate and vitamin K2
- Creates enzymes that destroy harmful bacteria
- Stimulates secretion of IgA and regulatory T-cells
- Reduces cold and flu
- Weight loss
If you don’t consume enough of probiotics, you may experience certain disorders including digestive disorders, skin issues, candida, autoimmune disease, and frequent colds and flu.
How You Can Get Probiotics
There is a chance you’re not taking enough of probiotics through your diet. This may affect your immunity, can lead to various skin issues, and many other health problems. So make sure to get enough of probiotics. You can get probiotics from your food and supplements.
The various foods that offer probiotics are Kefir, cultured vegetables (Kimchi and Sauerkraut,) Natto, Yogurt, Raw Cheese, Miso, and Brine-cured olives etc.
If you’re planning to add probiotic supplements to your diet, make sure that your supplement must contain L. acidophilus, B. longum, and B. bifidum.
How to Choose The Best Probiotic Supplements?
It’s necessary to know that probiotics have different types of strains. Each probiotic strain has a different health benefit. Certain strains of probiotics support digestion, others digestion and reduce weight, while some balances hormones. So it’s important to choose right probiotic to treat your health condition.
Things to consider before buying a probiotic supplement:
- Brand Quality: Look for a reputable brand like Garden of Life, MegaFood and Axe Naturals.
- High CFU Count: Prefer to choose a probiotic brand that offers the higher number of probiotics, from 15 billion to 100 billion.
- Strain Diversity: Look out for a probiotic supplement that has 10–30 different strains.
- Survivability: Buy strains like saccharomyces boulardii, bacillus coagulans, lactobacillus rhamnosus, bacillus subtilis, and other cultures or formulas that ensure probiotics make it to the gut and are able to colonize.
- Research: Do your homework and look for brands that have strains that support your specific needs.
