In the world of health and wellness, Probiotics are becoming a social media trend, but what exactly are they? Probiotics are live microorganisms that can help our bodies and our gut in keeping us healthy. This may sound like a paradox, as probiotics include bacteria, but the truth is that these bacteria provide numerous health benefits, including contributing to our gut health. Our gut’s health is essential to our overall well-being, affecting a range of processes in our body, including digestion, the immune system and our mental health. In this article, we will demystify the topic of probiotics and shed light on how these ‘good bacteria’, when consumed in adequate amounts, help support our gut health.

What are probiotics? 

Probiotics are live microorganisms that are beneficial to our body’s health. This includes bacteria and yeast, which aim to restore the balance of our gut microbiome, which consists of many microorganisms that inhabit our digestive tract. Here are some popular probiotics:¹ 

• Lactobacillus
• Bifidobacterium
• Saccharomyces
• Enterococcus
• Streptococcus
• Bacillus

These work by restoring the balance of good bacteria in your gut, which may be depleted due to various reasons, including stress, illness and antibiotic use.  They also produce specific enzymes that help with digestion and nutrient absorption, ensuring that all the minerals and vitamins from your diet are being used. By working through many mechanisms, probiotics ensure that your gut has a healthy microbiome, which in turn supports your overall health and well-being.

The importance of gut health

The gut microbiome is similar to an ecosystem, where we have complex and diverse microorganisms, bacteria, viruses etc, that all play a role in shaping our digestive tract. Importantly, everyone's gut microbiome is individual and unique, influenced by factors such as lifestyle, diet, genetics and the environment.

The gut plays a crucial role in ensuring your body stays healthy. For example, the gut is responsible for breaking down and absorbing many of the nutrients and vitamins that you digest, which ultimately gives your body access to the basic building blocks that allow it to function properly. Furthermore, a healthy gut microbiome is essential in an effective immune system, helping us keep a balance of immune cells that are recruited to defend us in times of illness and infections. Interestingly, researchers are starting to see that gut health extends beyond digestion and immunity. Research has shown that the gut microbiome contributes to our mental health and cognitive processes, where we see communication between our gut and brain, also known as the ‘gut-brain axis’, which helps maintain both our physical and mental well-being.² 

This highlights the importance of a balanced gut microbiome in our overall health. However, with the modern lifestyle consisting of processed foods, stress and environmental toxins, maintaining a healthy gut can appear challenging. Fortunately, we can restore this through the use of probiotics, ‘good bacteria’.

How probiotics support your gut health

Restoring Gut Microbiome: Probiotics like Lactobacillus can introduce ‘good bacteria’ to your gut, ensuring that there is a good balance between microorganisms in your digestive tract. These ‘good bacteria’ will also replenish and diversify the community of microorganisms in the gut, which can help with digestion.

Support Immune Function: The introduction of ‘good bacteria’ to your gut can help improve immune function by recruiting immune cells and regulating inflammatory processes, helping your body defend against harmful pathogens, infections, and environmental toxins. Probiotics can also strengthen the intestinal barrier of your gut, preventing pathogens from entering your bloodstream and causing chaos.³

Supporting Your Mental Health: Probiotics, through the communication system we mentioned before, can help keep your mental health and cognitive thinking in balance by restoring the way the gut and brain communicate with each other. Research has shown that probiotics can improve mild cognitive impairment, and bacteria strains such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria can help the elderly with cognitive impairments and patients with Alzheimer’s.^4,5 Interestingly,  patients with Parkinson’s, who normally suffer from constipation symptoms, have shown improvement in their symptoms when given probiotic strains.⁵ However, it is important to know that factors such as the strain, dosage, and duration of intake can ultimately impact the outcomes we see in these studies.

Helping with Digestive Disorders:  Introducing good bacteria through probiotics can help alleviate symptoms such as constipation, diarrhoea and bloating. This happens when probiotic bacteria restore healthy gut function and allow for easier digestion and nutrient absorption. With conditions such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), where 66 people are being diagnosed every day, probiotics are emerging as a solution.⁶ Strains like Bifidobacterium help restore the inflamed gut lining and reduce many digestive disorder-related symptoms in digestive disorders including IBD and Ulcerative Colitis.^7,8,9

Probiotics target many areas of our health that contribute to our overall well-being. These areas include maintaining a balance of the gut microbiome, aiding in digestion, and supporting our immune system. With the variety of probiotic supplements out there on the market, it is a challenge for the daily consumer to decide which one would be best. So how do we choose what probiotic to add to our diets? 

Choosing the right probiotic

When choosing the right probiotic supplement, it’s important to look out for these factors which may change the way the good bacteria may act on your gut:

• Strain Specificity: This just means choosing the right bacteria strain for your health concerns.
• CFU count: The colony-forming unit (CFU) tells us the number of viable bacteria in the supplement, and so the higher the CFU, the more effective that bacteria is likely to be in delivering its many benefits. 
• Added ingredients: Some supplements come with a combination of vitamins and digestive enzymes, so it is important to research beforehand and check if the strain of bacteria you are looking for works well with its added ingredients.

Whilst probiotic supplements offer ways to help improve your gut microbiome, an alternative approach includes incorporating probiotic-rich foods into your diet, such as the fermented foods shown below:¹⁰

• Yoghurt
• Kefir
• Kombucha
• Sourdough bread
• Buttermilk
• Miso
• Kimchi
• Cheese 

FAQs

What probiotic is best for gut health?

Whilst there are many to choose from and incorporate into your diet, Lactobacillus is a key probiotic bacteria genera that are useful in improving your gut health, alleviating digestive issues and supporting the immune system.

Are probiotics safe for everyone?

Probiotics are generally safe however, it is important to take them with caution and in moderation. Individuals with compromised immune systems should consult their GP as taking probiotics could instead increase their risk of infection. Similarly, those with specific medical conditions should do the same. Whilst probiotics have numerous benefits to offer, we should approach them thoughtfully as they may interact with underlying health conditions.

How do you know if your gut needs probiotics?

Your gut might benefit from probiotics if you start to show symptoms relating to digestive issues such as bloating, constipation and diarrhoea. This also includes individuals with digestive disorders such as IBD, where research has supported the use of probiotics in improving and restoring overall gut health. However, it is essential to discuss this with your GP if you feel that probiotics might be your next step forward, as they will provide you with more information that can be tailored to your health.

How to tell if probiotics are working?

You may notice that with probiotics, you experience fewer episodes of the range of digestive issues mentioned previously. As well as changes to digestion, you might also notice improved health through a more supported immune system, as well as improvement in mental well-being. As each person's gut microbiome is unique, when and how strongly these probiotics act on the gut can vary between each individual. Therefore, it is important to give probiotics the time to work, and if you continue to feel no effect, you can consult with your GP for further guidance.

Summary

Probiotics are live beneficial bacteria that play a vital role in maintaining a healthy gut microbiome. With their ability to support your gut health by restoring your gut balance, supporting your intestinal barrier and alleviating digestive issues, probiotics offer a natural way to improve your well-being. With the variety of ways to promote gut health through probiotics, it is important to acknowledge that as with all supplements and diets, probiotics can negatively impact certain individuals, such as people with compromised immune systems. This just means that before starting a probiotic-rich diet or deciding to take supplements, you should consult your GP to ensure that they do not harm your current gut health. However, this does not take away from the numerous benefits probiotics have to offer in improving digestive health, restoring gut balance and holistic wellness.