Probiotics: 5 Surprising Health Benefits

Having a healthy level of good bacteria is beneficial for a whole host of health reasons, not least to ensure you have healthy digestion.  However, there are a few additional health concerns for which you may wish to consider supplementing with probiotics.

Firstly, if you have symptoms of IBS or any other digestive complaint I would always recommend testing BEFORE trying out any probiotic supplements.

The main reason being that with some conditions, SIBO for example, the addition of probiotics may aggravate your symptoms.

If you’d like to learn more about eating to ensure your gut microbiome is healthy, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support your digestive system whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods. 

1. Digestive Health

Because so much of your health begins in the complex microbiome of the gut, proper balance of your gut bacteria is crucial to overall health.

If you have specific digestive symptoms then probiotics may well help you out (although in all likelihood they’re not the only course of action you’ll need to take).  Although, as mentioned, bear in mind they may aggravate things if you haven’t tested first.

3. Immune support

A whopping 70-80% of your immune system is located in your gut.  Therefore a sub-optimal gut environment will certainly have a negative impact on your immune health.  In addition to this certain strains of probiotics have been shown to be particularly benefical to immune health, particularly the lactobacillus paracasaii strain.

Taking probiotics, such as lactobacillus and bifidobacterium, can also help your body to reduce inflammation and inflammatory conditions.

5. During and after antibiotics

You can absolutely take probiotics whilst taking antibiotics to mitigate some of the ill effects.  Just ensure you don’t take them at the same time.  Antibiotics kill off both the good and bad bacteria, so its always nice to give them a helping hand to replenish themselves.

6. Probiotics whilst travelling

You can start taking probiotics a couple of weeks before you plan to travel, if you’re going to a region where you’re likely to become illl with travellers tummy, then take them whilst you’re there and continue for a couple of weeks after you get back.  The strain of benefical yeast saccharomyces boulardii is especially useful here.

If you’re generally in good health and eating a great diet, you really are unlikely to need to take  a specific probiotic supplement.

A great approach is to ensure you’re cultivating an optimal environment for your bacteria to flourish.  They thrive on ‘prebiotic’ foods including leeks, onions, garlic, green bananas and a nice diverse range of different coloured veg (remember to eat a rainbow!)

Probiotic foods

Probiotic foods are a great addition to your diet in order to keep your gut health ticking over nicely.  Include –

• Sauerkraut
• Milk or water kefir
• Natural yogurt
• Certain raw cheeses
• Kombucha
• Miso

Be careful to check labels on shop bought products though, and avoid any added sugar.

PS: The Ultimate Gut Health Programme includes plenty of inspiration on how to eliminate foods safely, to optimise your gut health, with meal plans, recipes and video lessons.