No guts, no story

Gut health is the new trend when it comes to online health conversations. This is because, the gut is the largest organ in your body, and is home to trillions of bacteria, which are essential to good health. The right balance of good bacteria and bad bacteria in the gut is what keeps your immune system strong and helps you maintain a healthy weight. When your gut is unhealthy, it may affect your immune system, contribute to disease, and impact mental health.

Your gut is your second brain. Researchers have been uncovering new links between the gut and the rest of the body, including digestion, mood, and overall wellbeing, all of which are thought to originate in the gut.

100 trillion microorganisms

You have more than 100 trillion microorganisms living inside and on you – mainly in your digestive tract, or “gut.”

Keeping your gut nourished

The gut has the largest reservoir of bacteria in the human body, and it’s in good shape when it contains a healthy balance of microbes. The gut microbiota is essential for our overall health and well-being, so it’s important to maintain a balance of ‘good’ bacteria. Taking probiotics may help you maintain a healthy gut and prevent disease.

Probiotics are live microorganisms that have been shown to improve gastrointestinal health by improving bowel function and reducing inflammation. This article will reveal all about probiotics, how they work, and why they’re so important for your health.

You are what you eat

You get your gut microbiome at birth, and the world around you affects it as you grow up. It’s also influenced by what you eat.

Some foods have been found to have higher levels of beneficial bacteria than others, but not every single food has been studied in depth. Some foods have been studied more than others, and some have even been studied more recently than others. The result is that it’s not always clear which foods contain the most beneficial bacteria overall or which ones have the highest concentration of certain types of bacteria.

Trying to get probiotics from food sources alone can be tricky. Food manufacturers are not required to show a specific dose of a specific probiotic, so they don’t. You might have a more consistent dose when you consume probiotics as a supplement.

The pros of probiotics

Probiotics offer many benefits to your body. Some of the health benefits include prevention of gastrointestinal infections, improved lactose digestion, lowered cholesterol, and other blood fat levels, helping to treat and prevent vaginal infections such as bacterial vaginosis and yeast infections, and lower risk of allergies in children. However, these probiotics can also be useful during all stages of life.

Probiotics are live microorganisms that provide health benefits when consumed. By bolstering the immune system and keeping inflammation in check, they play a crucial role in maintaining overall health. Probiotics are associated with the following benefits:

Fighting the good fight

The good bacteria from probiotics help crowd out the bad in your intestine. This prevents the bad bacteria from multiplying and causing infection or inflammation.

Boosts your
immune system
Maintaining a
healthy weight
Supports
gut health
Restricts growth
of bad bacteria
Improves
mental health
Prevents and
treats diarrhea
Keeps your
heart healthy
Reduces the
severity of allergies

Reversing antibiotic reactions with probiotics

What is also very important to note is the role that antibiotics play in your gut. Antibiotics are medicines that fight infections caused by bacteria in humans and animals by either killing the bacteria or making it difficult for the bacteria to grow and multiply. Antibiotics primarily work by binding themselves to receptors on cells lining the GI tract. They don’t discriminate between good and bad bacteria, instead, they kill both. This can cause severe diarrhea as well as nausea and vomiting. Symptoms typically resolve within one to three days after treatment with antibiotics ends but may last for up to two weeks after treatment stops if there are ongoing symptoms present.

The truth about antibiotics

Antibiotics don’t discriminate between good and bad bacteria. They kill both and can disrupt your body’s natural balance.

Several studies have shown that taking probiotic supplements can help improve digestive health. Our internal health depends on the bacteria and other organisms that make up our gut microbiome. In order to boost immunity and gastrointestinal health, probiotics introduce beneficial bacteria into the digestive tract and help promote a healthier lifestyle.

How to choose the right probiotics View infographic

The link between probiotics and good health

Probiotics have been used for thousands of years by cultures all over the world as a way to promote good health. They’re not just for those who suffer from digestive issues such as diarrhea or constipation—probiotics are also beneficial for those who want to support their immune system or even help them lose weight!

Different types of probiotics have differing functions, just like the various bacteria that exist in different parts of your body. All this action also happens when you take various targeted probiotics for these functions. Most recently, probiotics have become renowned for their ability to help build a healthy digestive tract and immune system.

Probiotics may help you maintain a healthy weight and improve overall digestive health by increasing the number of beneficial bacteria in your gut. These bacteria have been linked to reduced levels of inflammation, improved immune function and lower rates of heart disease. Probiotics, or good bacteria, take on the crucial role of maintaining a healthy balance in your body. If you are interested in adding probiotics to your diet, it’s worth a conversation with your healthcare provider.

References:
https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/probiotics-what-you-need-to-know https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/probiotics-what-you-need-to-know https://www.health.harvard.edu/vitamins-and-supplements/health-benefits-of-taking-probiotics https://gut.bmj.com/content/62/5/787 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20208051/