You might be tempted to think that all bacteria are bad bacteria but the truth is that we depend on a certain amount of bacteria for our bodies to function properly. Bacteria helps us break down food, fight infection, process vitamins and minerals and absorb nutrients. It also boosts our immune system and helps fight off infection. Some bacteria are harmful to the human body but ironically, we often use other types of bacteria to fight them and keep them under control. The human body is all about balance and the level of bacteria in our bodies is no different.
Most people have had the need to take antibiotics at one point or another to combat an illness or infection. Sometimes, a doctor or nurse will tell you to eat yogurt after your pills. Why? It is because an antibiotic does not discriminate between the helpful bacteria in our bodies and the detrimental bateria. It wipes it all away as aggressively as possible. Then, you might feel nauseous or experience bloating afterwards for a week or more as your good bacteria slowly comes back. Yogurt, particularly greek yogurt, contains probiotics, a set of helpful bacteria, that may give you a push as your natural gut bacteria is recovering from the onslaught of antibiotics. Unfortunately, antibiotics are not the only things that can upset this balance of bacteria we need to thrive. Just consuming a poor diet can be detrimental to your microbiome, the combination of your beneficial bacteria and the other microorganisms that live symbiotically within the body. Not getting enough sleep, or experiencing too much stress can also have a negative impact. Smoking, daily or frequent alcohol consumption, and even a lack of physical activity can all contribute to an imbalance and lack of the bacterial support system we need to survive.
While the best practice would be to fix some of these lifestyle issues in order to naturally balance and support your bacteria levels, supplemental probiotics are designed to give you an extra push when you need it. A probiotic supplement is often used when you know you will be under a lot of stress and want to support your body through it or when you are recovering from something like a two week round of antibiotics. There are refrigerated supplements as well as shelf-safe capsules and you might want to speak to your doctor to find out if either would be useful for you. Most importantly, you want to use a reputable company and test your probiotics to make sure you are getting what you paid for. A good supplement should come temperature protected if it needs to be refrigerated and all types should have a “best by” date guaranteeing their quality for a specified range of time. Probiotics should be live as their value is in what they “do” more than what they “are.” A dead probiotic cannot facilitate any of the beneficial processes we value them for so find a provider who protects their product and when in doubt, reach out! We would, as always, be happy to test a specific product for you.
Resources:
Quick Facts about the Microbiome
Cleveland Clinic on Probiotics
A NIH “Need to Know” for Probiotics (Fantastic Resource for Continued Research)
