If you are just as focused on achieving your best health as so many people are these days, chances are quite good that you have heard about probiotics and all of their incredible benefits. With that being said, even if you had heard a podcast or two, or read a story about what probiotics are, chances are still pretty good that you really don’t know everything that they can offer.
Believe it or not, probiotics are seen as something of a miracle drug for people and have been found to help everything from gut health (obviously), to skin health, allergies, mental health and so much more.
So, if you are thinking about adding probiotics to your daily health regimen, click here and keep reading to find out about all the amazing benefits you could enjoy.
Let’s get started!
Contents
1. Probiotics help pump your guts with healthy bacteria
While you might think that all bacteria and germs are bad for your body, you would be very, very wrong! In fact, our entire bodies defend the many microbiomes that live and thrive in our bodies. Microbiomes exist in our mouth, on our skin, in our reproductive organs, and yes in your gut.
The gut microbiome is considered to be the most important in the body, and when the balance of bad bacteria outweighs good bacteria, you can face many health issues.
Imbalances can take place due to illness, poor diet, antibiotic use and more. The consequences can be dire, but an easy way to avoid them is to increase the number of probiotics that you are taking. They can be found in fermented foods and drinks, but it is much easier to control the kind of probiotics you are taking and how many you are taking thanks to probiotic supplements.
2. Probiotics prevent and treat diarrhea
One of the most common signs that the imbalance of healthy and unhealthy bacteria in your gut is diarrhea. That’s why diarrhea is such a common side effect of antibiotic use.
Lucky for you, there is a lot of science to support the idea that probiotics can help cure diarrhea.
In one study, researchers found that taking probiotics reduced antibiotic-related diarrhea by a whopping 42 percent!
On top of that, a large review of 35 individual studies found that certain strains of probiotics can reduce the duration of infection diarrhea by an average of over 24 hours. That means over a day less of not having to deal with the uncomfortable illness.
3. Probiotics can improve mental health conditions
One of the most fascinating connections that exists in the human body is known as the gut-brain axis. This is the connection between the chemicals that are made in the gut that are sent to the brain to impact our mood and mental health.
For example, did you know that serotonin – otherwise known as the “happy” molecule – is produced in your gut? A healthy gut microbiome means a gut that is more capable of producing healthy chemicals and molecules rather than unhealthy ones. Eating healthy foods and foods known as prebiotics (which feed healthy germs) is one of the best ways to make sure that your healthy germs can grow, colonize and impact your health in many different ways.
In fact, certain strains are known to positively impact issues related to anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, memory and even autism.
If you are on anti-depression medication, consider speaking with your primary care provider to see if starting to use probiotic supplements could be beneficial to your mental health.
4. Probiotics can help your skin
It can be hard to find the right facial cleanser regimen to make sure that you don’t have to worry about pimples on your face and body. It can also be quite a hassle to deal with skin allergies and rashes such as eczema.
One of the best ways to reduce both the risk of acne flare-ups and skin allergies is taking probiotics. You can both ingest probiotics to create a healthier gut biome and can use probiotic topical creams and serums to help improve the biome on your skin to help fight nasty germs that can lead to whiteheads and more.
5. They can lead to a healthier heart
One of the biggest killers in the United States is heart disease, and the use of probiotics as well as a healthy diet and workout regimen can vastly improve cardiac health now and in the future.
Probiotics are believed to help your heart healthy by lowering LDL cholesterol in your blood pressure. Certain types of lactic acid-producing bacteria may also reduce cholesterol in your bloodstream by breaking down bile in your gut. While bile is crucial when it comes to your body’s ability to break down food, it is mostly made of cholesterol.
Consuming probiotics may also lower blood pressure.
6. Probiotics can help strengthen your immune system
Now, more than ever, we all know the vital importance of having a strong and robust immune system. Our immune system is our body’s natural defense system against pathogens. In fact, the vast majority of our immune system because so many pathogens enter our body into our mouths, then to our guts before getting us sick.
Using them helps the immune system in many different ways. The first way is by acting as auxiliary forces alongside white blood cells to attack and kill pathogens. Beyond that, probiotics are also able to act as a sort of target practice for our immune system, making our white blood cells stronger and more adept at killing foreign microbes.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are so many ways that probiotics can help you lead a healthier and happier life. Now that you know the benefits, all that’s left for you to do is to start researching what kinds of probiotics are best for you!