Top 6 Rules of Choosing a Best Probiotic

Hi, my name is Evan. As a team member, I get lots of questions about probiotics. Just the other day I noticed a customer scanning the probiotic section with a confused look on her face her name was Megan. It turns out she was having problems with digestion. She'd been watching TV with a friend and saw a commercial about probiotics. Her friend was taking a probiotic and suggested that she give them a try. So Megan decided to drop by and see what she can find out finding the probiotics was not easy enough. She just didn't count on there being. So many choices don't worry. I said it's really easy I'm going to let you in on a secret there are only six important rules to consider when selecting a probiotic.

First off you need to consider the culture count or in other words, the total amount of bacteria per capsule that's potency with probiotics more is better 15 billion 30 50 80 100 even 200 billion the second rule is the number of strains. You want your probiotic to include several different types of bacteria choosing a probiotic with at least 10 strains is a good start.

The third is to make sure your probiotic has a delayed-release this is important since a delayed-release is designed to resist stomach acid and help deliver the probiotics to the intestines where they are needed most. Fourth is a potency and stability guarantee if there isn't one you may not be getting what you pay for look for one that guarantees potency through to the end of the expiration date not just at the time of manufacture look closely at the label and fifth look for a probiotic that has its full dose in one daily capsule that way there's no confusion about what to take and when making it easier for you to get the correct dose.

Wow she said those are easy and really make sense so what's the sixth rule well in studying about probiotics eyes learned it's important to consider that different strains of probiotics benefit specific parts of the digestive tract more than others lactobacillus strains work best in the small intestine and Bifidobacterium work best in the large intestine so the sixth rule is to look for a multi-strain probiotic with lots of ls for the small or little intestine and lots of bees for the large or big intestine great .

Megan said that definitely gives me something to work with but what exactly are probiotics and how are they going to help me feel better well I told her probiotics are live microorganisms that help improve intestinal microbial balance to understand what this means you need to take a closer look at what is really going on in your intestines where the majority of the body's bacteria reside now there are a lot of bacteria living in your gut when I say a lot think about this there are about 10 trillion cells that make up the tissues of the human body but roughly 100 trillion bacterial cells that exist in the digestive tract alone.

That means there are ten times the number of bacteria in your gut as there are human cells in your entire body and there are over 1,000 different species living in the intestines at this point Megan seemed to get a disgusted look on her face sounds pretty gross she said are there supposed to be that many well I told her most of them are good for us and play very important roles in our overall health-friendly bacteria help in the production of vitamins like certain B vitamins and vitamin K or help fortify and protect the intestinal lining against potential bad bacteria some stimulate antibody production in the immune system while others aid in enzyme production for digestion.

But living among all the good bacteria there are some bad ones we could do without these can be harmful in large quantities now the balance between the good and bad is always changing and sometimes there are more harmful bacteria than there should be so is that why I'm having digestive problems she asked is it because there are a bunch of bad bacteria living in my gut possibly I said the balance of good bacteria to bad bacteria can be upset by a number of things in 13 antibiotics poor diet chlorinated water food preservatives certain medications stress and other environmental factors.

Keep in mind whenever you take antibiotics you kill off large numbers of good bacteria in addition to the bad ones and the good bacteria do not always repopulate back to their ideal levels when the balance is upset you can experience problems like occasional diarrhea constipation decreased immune health yeast imbalance gas bloating for other digestive problems by taking probiotics the gut has a chance to restore balance and improve the overall health of the intestines which promotes a healthy immune system ideally there should be plenty of good bacteria and only small amounts of bad bacteria living in your gut and the higher the ratio of good bacteria the less space available to support the harmful ones.

Remember there are just six rules to consider when choosing a probiotic high culture count or high potency number of strains delayed-release potency and stability guarantee once-daily convenience the rule of L's and B's to improve the health of your small intestine focus on probiotics with lactobacillus or lots of else if your large intestine needs a recharge to go for probiotics with several strains of Bifida bacteria or lots of bees best to have lots of both ELLs and bees by now Meaghan knew the ins and outs of probiotics she turned back to the shelves and picked out a high potency 50 billion probiotic.

Do Probiotics Work? It Depends on What You Want to Happen

strong-healthy-happy-vegan

I’m telling you….GT’s Kombucha is outta this world good! I’m usually a hardcore devotee to their Trilogy flavor, but I decided to change it up this time and buy a bottle of Gingerberry.

Let me tell you why I love kombucha so much:

Naturally, the plant foods that we eat would have loads of good probiotic bacteria present that would help keep us (and our guts!) healthy. Since we live in a society where very few people have access to fresh, organic, locally-grown produce, most of the fruits and veggies that we consume have lost a great deal of their probiotic content.

Because of this, it’s important to supplement probiotics into your diet. Kombucha is a healthy, delicious way to increase the probiotic profile of your gut.

The best part? It’s fizzy and tart! It’s like drinking a soda that’s actually good for you!

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.