You may have heard about the benefits of probiotic supplements, and if you want a better immune system then you might want to consider supplementing with probiotics which have been shown to be beneficial to health and are largely forgotten about.
In fact, whatever age you’re at, and at whatever stage of life supplementing with probiotics may be beneficial – assuming you get the basics of real food nutrition dialed in first.
Natural probiotic supplements are available in health food stores and if you are considering taking one I recommend seeking one that has higher a number of different strains of probiotic bacteria.
Benefits Of Probiotic Supplements
As part of a nutritional supplementation program, probiotic supplements might help you if you:
- Suffer from colds regularly
- Feel run down
- Have underlying longer term health issues including
- Concerned with weight gain
- Considering supplementing for menopause related symptoms
- Mental health issues such as stress or depression.
Do you suffer from colds or illness more than once or twice annually?
Or do you suffer from longer term ill health, possibly not debilitating but certainly feeling suboptimal.
Even mental health and weight gain are associated with your digestive system, but because it is not so glamorous it is often not considered.
Most people want better health in some aspect of their life but have you considered that your digestive system is responsible for 70% of your immune function, and that if impaired it can lead to more general ill health and longer term health conditions.
Probiotics For A Healthy Immune System
A healthy digestive system is the key to good health, and natural probiotic supplements help to maintain a healthy balance of gut flora. Use them on a regular basis along with foods rich in bacteria, particularly after a course of antibiotics, if you consume alcohol, suffer from stress or take any other medication that destroy the good bacteria in your digestive system.
Since supplementing with natural probiotic supplements in the form of natural foods and high dose multi-strain probiotic supplements I have seen an improvment in my own health. I rarely get colds any more and I feel generally more robust.
Since taking antibiotics periodically through my life I felt it was important to re-establish the presence of good bacteria in my digestive system, and I continue to do this since 2008. To date I have not needed any antibiotic or trips to the doctors since 2008, which to me is very important.
Supplementing With Probiotic For Health
Benefits of taking probiotic supplements range from digestive function, immune health and mental health to taking probiotics for weight loss and better long term health. What to look for:
- A high potency, multi strain probiotic supplement that provides at least 12 billion bacteria per serving.
- Several strains of bacteria in to ensure you replenish your gut with a variety of beneficial flora
- Each capsule to contain a built-in prebiotic to nourish and spread the bacteria throughout the gut
- Lactobacillus strains release unique enzymes which help to break down larger milk proteins for absorption
- Contain Bifidobacterium strains: longum, infantis and bifidum, which help to create B vitamins
Nourishment For Healthy Bacteria
You can supplement with probiotics help to replenish healthful micro-organisms, and it is especially useful to take probiotics after using antibiotics that indiscriminately destroy both good and bad bacteria in the body.
High potency probiotics and multi-strain probiotic supplements providing high dose bacteria per serving ensure you replenish your gut with a diversity of beneficial flora.
Each capsule should contains a built-in prebiotic to nourish and spread the bacteria throughout the gut.
It might be worth considering using probiotic supplements as part of your daily health maintenance programme, and in particular when you are about to have, or have recently undergone hospital treatment, are pregnant or trying to conceive, are planning to travel abroad, have recently suffered from a digestive upset, or have recently completed a dietary cleanse or colonic irrigation treatment.
Probiotic Supplements Benefits
- Robust immune system – so you get less minor colds and sub-optimal health, and eliminate or improve long term health conditions such as digestive, mental, candida, weight gain, vitamin deficiency…
- Re-establish healthy gut flora – so you can be confident your digestive tract is not compromised by leaky gut, prevent toxins entering the blood stream and protect the gut wall from allergens and irritants in our diets
- Better digestion – feel less bloated after food especially if combined with an enzyme supplement
- Improved more regular bowel movements – important especially if you suffer from IBS symptoms
- More energy – feeling the benefits of the B vitamin created in the gut, and generally being able to access all of your food’s nutrient content
- Weight Loss / Balance – feeling fabulous because you are in shape is important and proper digestion is crucial in weight loss and health
- Recovery after antibiotics – repair the balance after any antibiotic treatment, alcohol consumption, or painkillers which destroy gut bacteria
- Stress reduction – Stress has an advers effect on your gut flora and so if you are in a stressful job or lifestyle you will benefit from probiotic supplements.
I hope this helps you make a decision about whether you should supplement with a probiotic supplement. At the end of the day, I always recommend tackling the biggest limiting factors in your life first, and once these are in place further refinement – such as probiotic supplementation – may be an option.
Finally, there is no point in sweating the finer details like this until the major details such as food amount, lifestyle and movement are in place, no matter what your goal.
If you are looking for further support and motivation then I highly recommend you take a look at this free nutrition guide, learn about how I offer nutrition coaching online, and if you’re struggling to eat consistently well then you can save $20 per month on coaching here – it might just be what you need, but you have to feel like ready to make a change.