Probiotics are made up of live good bacteria and yeast that naturally live in the body. Remember that you always have both good and bad bacteria in the body. So when you have an infection, you tend to get more bad bacteria, forcing your system to be out of balance.
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Thankfully, you have good bacteria that assist to remove extra bad bacteria to return the balance. The best way to have these good bacteria is by taking probiotics which have good bacteria to keep your body working well and healthy. This post discusses the benefits of probiotics.
Understanding probiotics
As explained earlier, probiotics contain goods that strive to eliminate extra bad bacteria to keep the ideal balance in your system. These probiotics are a portion of a larger picture concerning your microbiome.
You can think of a microbiome to be a diverse community of organisms that work together to ensure your body is healthy. This community has a lot of things known as microbes which include fungi, viruses, and protozoa. But every person’s microbiome is different, meaning no two individuals can have the same microbial cells.
Now, for a microbe to be considered a probiotic, it needs to have various characteristics. These include being able to survive in the intestines after eating them and be isolated from the body.
While probiotics can live in your gut, such as the large intestines, they can also live in various locations on and in your body that accommodates good microbes. These locations include the mouth, urinary tract, lungs, and skin. And if you want to find out more about probiotics’ function for your gut, be sure to check out Refluxgate.
The main job of good bacteria is to maintain an ideal balance in your body. When you get sick, it means bad bacteria may have entered into your body and increased in number. As a result, this can knock your body out of balance. So good bacteria has to fight off these bad bacteria to restore the good balance in your body.
Good bacteria can keep you healthy by improving your immune system and controlling inflammation. You can also have some types of bacteria that can assist your body digest food and create vitamins. Besides, some types of bacteria can support the cells in your gut in preventing bad bacteria that you may have ingested from getting into your blood.
The good news is that good bacteria are always helping to balance the system in your body. Sometimes, you don’t even need to take probiotic supplements to make sure that this happens because good bacteria are naturally part of your body. But you must eat a balanced diet that is rich in fiber daily to maintain proper levels of good bacteria. You can purchase Ortho Biotic 60-count packs by Ortho Molecular.
Key health benefits of probiotics
You can consume probiotics through supplements or fermented foods. Several studies indicate that you can have a wide range of benefits by taking probiotics. Here are some health benefits of consuming probiotics.
Preventing and treating diarrhea
Probiotics are known for several benefits and one of them is that they can prevent diarrhea or even reduce its severity. You see, diarrhea is usually a side effect of using antibiotics. This happens because antibiotics affect negatively the balance of bad and good bacteria in your gut.
Probiotics can also assist with other types of diarrhea not linked to antibiotics. Strains of bacteria like Lactobacillus rhamnosus and the yeast called Saccharomyces boulardii are usually linked to a reduced risk of diarrhea.
Can improve mental health conditions
An increasing number of researches associate gut health with both mood and mental health. Studies on both humans and animals suggest probiotic supplements may improve mental health conditions. For example, supplementing with Lactobacillus strain for at least 1 to 2 months can improve depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Some studies even concluded that taking a daily probiotic capsule or probiotic yogurt can alleviate depression, general health, anxiety, depression, and stress. Even better, taking probiotic supplements may reduce C-reactive protein which is a marker of inflammation.
It can keep your heart healthy
Probiotics can also reduce blood pressure and LDL cholesterol. You can find some lactic acid-producing bacteria that can decrease cholesterol by digesting bile in your gut. It’s worth noting that bile is considered to be a naturally occurring liquid mainly made of cholesterol and helps digestion.
Therefore, by breaking down this bile, these good bacteria help with preventing it from being reabsorbed in your gut. This is especially true where cholesterol can enter your blood as cholesterol.
Studies also suggest that consuming probiotics can also lower blood pressure. But to experience any benefits associated with blood pressure, you have to take probiotics supplements for at least 8 weeks.
Can decrease the severity of some allergies and eczema
As if this is not enough, certain probiotics can decrease the severity of eczema in infants and children. Several studies indicate that eczema symptoms improved in infants who were fed probiotic-supplemented milk rather than those who were fed milk without probiotics.
But remember there is still a need for further studies to determine the link between reduced eczema severity and probiotics. That said, some probiotics can also decrease inflammation responses in individuals with dairy or milk allergies.
It can decrease symptoms of some digestive disorders
Unfortunately, many people suffer from inflammatory bowel conditions, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. For these people, you can find certain types of probiotics from Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains that can improve the symptoms.
Surprisingly, there is a study that suggests that taking supplements with the probiotic E. coli Nissle can be just as effective as taking medication to maintain remission in individuals with ulcerative colitis.
No doubt, probiotics have several benefits for many bowel disorders. Some studies show that probiotics can assist with irritable bowel syndrome symptoms. They have also been known to decrease significantly the risks of severe necrotizing enterocolitis.
To sum it up, you can find live probiotic cultures in fermented dairy products like milk and yogurts. Fermented foods, such as tempeh, vegetables, and soy products can also have some lactic acid bacteria. Also, you can take probiotics as capsules, tablets, and powders that have bacteria in dried form.
