What are probiotics?
Have you experienced periods where you’re tummy just, isn’t happy? Do you feel bloated, gassy, and you are not digesting food like you normally do?
This might be an indication that your gut flora may be out of balance.
No, I’m not talking about flowers or plants in your stomach, I’m actually referring to micro-organisms like bacteria. You have both beneficial bacteria (friendly) and unfriendly bacteria, and while you have them throughout your entire body, it’s the ones that are concentrated and colonized in the digestive tract that play a primary role in health and vitality.
Gut micro-organisms have a minor presence in the stomach, as it is too acidic for bacteria to survive, so they predominately reside in your intestines and colon.
It’s not just bacteria that reside in the gut, there are trillions of bacteria, fungi, virus, and other micro-organisms - the collection of these are called the microbiome.
The environment in which all these micro-organisms live - your intestinal environment, is called your microbiota. (SNAP)
Having a healthy balance of microorganisms in your gut directly impacts human health in multiple ways:
1. Drives metabolism and digestive health
2. Impacts immune function
3. Affects mood
4. Maintains an optimal internal environment
5. Helps natural management of inflammation
6. Produce various nutrients for the host
7. Help protect against infection from invading pathogens
8. Promote the health of gastrointestinal mucosa
9. Help maintain homeostasis and wellbeing
(SNAP)
For the body to perform at its peak, a healthy microbiota is key.
To ensure this is the case, ingestion or supplementation of good live bacteria may be the answer, these are called probiotics.
Probiotics are live microorganisms that have health benefits when consumed or applied to the body. They are found naturally in some fermented foods, dietary supplements, and beauty products.(SNAP)
What causes poor balance in microflora?
There are numerous ways that microflora can be out of balance; taking some medications - such as antibiotics, drinking alcohol daily, stress, poor diet, genetics, chronic health conditions, and environmental factors all play a role in how healthy your intestinal environment (microbiota) is.
When your microbiome gets significantly out of balance, with bad bacteria (or fungus) outweighing the good, this is called dysbiosis.
We can categorize dysbiosis as a disruption of gut homeostasis caused by microorganism imbalance, including quantity (overgrowth), quality, or a change in their location and distribution.
So in short, beneficial microorganisms keep the bad microorganisms in check.
What are the health consequences of a poor microbiome?
For the most part, usually, gut bacteria and the host live in a symbiotic way, with us living unaware of the intense activity occurring in the gut.
Like a game of tug of war, the good micro-organisms are pushing back the bad, keeping proliferation from happening.
When the good bacteria are killed off from factors discussed above, the bad micro-organisms can thrive, dysbiosis. Minor dysbiosis can occur frequently, after a short stint of antibiotics for example, the body has the ability to course-correct the imbalance naturally, either from the regeneration of the existing good flora, or, by consuming prebiotic foods.
Symptoms of minor dysbiosis or poor gut flora balance could be constipation, diarrhea, bloating, heartburn, flatulence, nausea, bad breath, and poorly digested food.
Chronic or severe dysbiosis can lead to serious health conditions and diseases such as autoimmune - thyroid disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and inflammatory bowel disease. (SNAP)
What are prebiotics?
Prebiotics are fibrous plant-derived compounds like inulin, pectin, and resistant starches that provoke the growth of healthy, or beneficial microorganisms in the gut helping to feed good bacteria and fungus.
Consuming these dietary foods regularly can help promote a rebalancing of the microbiome and thus enhance a rigorous and healthy microbiota.
They differ from probiotics in that they are not living organisms, there are some dietary ingredients that have both pre and probiotic activity.
What are natural dietary sources of pre and probiotics?
Prebiotics are predominately plant-derived, sources include onion, asparagus, artichoke, apple, leek, soybeans, garlic, slippery elm, burdock root, and dandelion root.
Natural sources of probiotic foods include some fermented foods and dairy products such as kefir, yogurt, miso, pickles, kimchi, sauerkraut, and tempeh.
What are synbiotics?
The National Cancer Institute defines synbiotics as “A nutritional supplement comprised of prebiotic and probiotic ingredients, with potential immunomodulating and gastrointestinal (GI) flora-restoring activity.” (SNAP).
While they are predominately dietary supplements, there are dietary ingredients also that have both prebiotic and probiotic capabilities. Examples of these include miso.
What types of probiotic strains are there?
There are millions of different probiotic bacteria strains naturally living in the gut.
According to the National Institute of Health, probiotics are identified by their specific strain, which includes the genus, the species, and an alphanumeric strain designation.
With dietary probiotic supplements there are several core genus and strains of bacteria most commonly used, which include - starting with the most commonly represented Lactobacillus strains -
- Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus
- Bifidobacterium longum, Bifidobacterium infantis, Bifidobacterium lactis
- Saccharomyces boulardii
- Bacillus coagulans
- Additional genera include Streptococcus, Enterococcus, Escherichia
(SNAP).
How do probiotics work?
Probiotics as a whole have many beneficial effects on the body, and the various strains have very different properties.
It's important to note that the health benefit is specific to the particular bacterial strain, and not the more general bacterial species.
Primarily, probiotics target the microbiota, by colonizing the gut mucosa (or lining) in individualized ways depending upon genus and strain and which probiotic strain magnetizes to a particular area of the gastrointestinal tract.
This impacts homeostasis in the gut, helping to improve digestive health and keep the body healthy.
The gastrointestinal tract represents our own biological ecosystem, whereby gut health, if unwell, can affect different parts of the body.
It's the same with beneficial bacterial strains having different health benefits, which is why it's important to know which strains do what in the body when looking at a probiotic supplement.
{recommended_product_1}
Can probiotics be taken while taking antibiotics?
Yes, they can! Antibiotic use has been associated with various health challenges, particularly digestive discomfort.
According to the Probiotic Institute of America, you can take probiotics at the same time as antibiotics, the strain Lactobacillus rhamnosus, LGG® has been scientifically linked to helping with the prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhea. (SNAP) (SNAP)
What to look for in a probiotic product
When looking for a probiotic supplement, the label should have clear guidelines as to what genera and strains are used in the product and exactly how much of each strain is in it. Note: more bacteria in the product and various strains in the one product are not always a good thing!
There are multi-strain products that lack clinical support for the particular combination of strains they contain. It's best advised to choose a product that contains a researched strain, or a combination of strains that have scientific evidence to support use for particular health effects.
Probiotics are now available in capsules, powder, and gummies, both refrigerated and shelf-stable dietary supplements. Many are flavored and often contain sweeteners. It is important to look for sugar-free probiotic supplements as bad bacteria feed on sugars.
The benefits of probiotic supplements
For healthy people, the effects of probiotics as a preventative while taking antibiotics to avoid the risk of antibiotic-associated diarrhea or digestive discomfort have already been discussed.
Taking a dietary supplement that contains probiotics can help keep bad bacteria in balance, and promote a healthy gut microbiome.
For specific health-related conditions, it is best to discuss with your healthcare provider to understand the benefits of well-studied strains specific to your needs.
{recommended_product_2}
There are human clinical trials discussed in systematic review and meta-analysis researching the efficacy of probiotics and how different strains impact different areas of health, examples of these are below.
- Inflammatory diseases
In a placebo-controlled trial of 20 healthy adults and 20 subjects with IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), 15 with Crohn's disease, and 5 with ulcerative colitis, both groups were supplemented with probiotic enhanced yogurt. Probiotic yogurt intake was associated with anti-inflammatory effects in IBD patients and with few effects in healthy subjects. (SNAP).
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of 37 publications researching beneficial strains of bacteria (mostly lactobacilli and/or bifidobacteria); a few contained Saccharomyces boulardii, in the treatment of IBS. The group concluded with a high level of evidence, that the benefits of probiotics are specific to strain, and help reduce overall symptom burden and abdominal pain in IBS and can help relieve antibiotic-associated diarrhea in adults. (SNAP)
- The strain Bifidobacterium infantis was researched for its beneficial effects in patients with IBS. The review highlighted 5 clinical trials of probiotics and found that compound probiotics containing Bifidobacterium infantis might be an effective therapeutic option for IBS patients, which could significantly alleviate the symptoms of IBS without significant adverse effects. (SNAP) - Urinary tract infections
A placebo-controlled double-blind study with 324 pre-menopausal patients, taking a fruit juice containing 4×1010 CFU/100 mL of Lactobacillus GG resulted in the risk of UTI decreasing significantly in 139 patients diagnosed with acute UTI. (SNAP) - Bacterial vaginosis
When vaginal flora is examined, it is known that microorganisms of Lactobacillus spp. are the dominant bacteria. Clinical studies indicate a healthy diet and probiotics consumption may influence the composition of the gut microbiota and help prevent overproliferation of harmful bacteria, improve gut integrity and balance beneficial types of bacteria, and have an impact on maintaining and recovering the normal vaginal microbiota and support the prevention of bacterial vaginosis. This could also apply to promoting friendly bacteria to help ward off yeast infections.* (SNAP) - Immune system
A clinical review researching the impact of probiotics on the immune system's response to pathogens indicates probiotic bacteria, their cell walls or probiotic fermented milk have significant effects on the functionality of the mucosal and systemic immune systems through the activation of multiple immune mechanisms. (SNAP)
Can kids take probiotics?
Kids can take probiotics and may benefit from ingesting dietary or supplementing with friendly bacteria! In fact, common strains of probiotics are now being delivered in ways that make supplementing easier, and in a form, they actually enjoy such as gummies or flavored powders.
There is evidence to support the use of probiotics for eczema in children. Twenty-one studies were included in one meta-analysis.
The probiotics group had a significantly lower risk of eczema and atopic eczema compared to controls, especially those treated with probiotic combinations.
Mothers' probiotics intake significantly contributed to reducing the risk of eczema as well as atopic eczema which indicates that pregnant women may benefit from supplementation.
Results varied depending on the strain with Lactobacillus species studied, Lactobacillus Rhamnosus GG showed promising results. (SNAP)*
Can you take probiotics if you are lactose intolerant?
There is much confusion about the genus name Lactobacillus and whether it contains lactose.
In actuality, Lactobacillus is a lactic acid bacteria (LAB), and, ingesting Lactobacillus bulgaricus may help to digest lactose contained in fermented dairy products.
In one systemic review, analysis of 15 clinical studies, there were beneficial effects from 8 different strains of probiotics. (SNAP)
In review
Probiotics are friendly bacteria that help to maintain a healthy and diverse microbiome.
A healthy gastrointestinal environment is associated with whole-body homeostasis. Maintaining a diet that includes rich and diverse sources of prebiotics and probiotics can help the proliferation of friendly bacteria in the gut.
Studies suggest that taking a supplement can be beneficial for a range of health effects and address particular health conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease and support a well-balanced immune response.
Healthy adults and children can safely take probiotics to promote overall health and wellness and to promote a thriving microbiota.
There is now a range of dietary probiotics to choose from, and knowing what to look for in a product is important, read labels, consider the strains have varying roles, and be sure to avoid probiotics that contain sugar for optimal health benefits.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amanda Lovett-Jones is an Australian Naturopath, registered Herbalist and culinary medicine specialist. She is a freelance copywriter and compliance specialist within the dietary supplement industry. She owns a virtual natural therapies wellness clinic that targets and treats inflammation. She lives with her family in Seattle.
