Probiotics And Vaginal Health
Probiotics may also be of use in maintaining urogenital health. Like the intestinal tract, the vagina is a finely balanced ecosystem. The dominant Lactobacilli strains normally make it too acidic for harmful microorganisms to survive. But the system can be thrown out of balance by a number of factors, including antibiotics, spermicides, and birth control pills. Probiotic treatment that restores the balance of microflora may be helpful for such common female urogenital problems as bacterial vaginosis, yeast infection, and urinary tract infection.
Many women eat yogurt or insert it into the vagina to treat recurring yeast infections, a “folk” remedy for which medical science offers limited support. Oral and vaginal administration of Lactobacilli may help in the treatment of bacterial vaginosis, although there isn’t enough evidence yet to recommend it over conventional approaches. Probiotic treatment of urinary tract infections is under study.
Probiotics are generally considered safe they’re already present in a normal digestive system although there’s a theoretical risk for people with impaired immune function. Be sure the ingredients are clearly marked on the label and familiar to you or your health provider. There’s no way to judge the safety of unidentified mixtures.
How Should You Take Wellness Shots
Because they’re mostly made up of fruits, veggies, probiotics, or other supplements you would take on a regular basis, there’s no harm in taking them every day. You may not need to, though, depending on why you’re taking them in the first place. If you’re just looking for an energy boost, Tracey recommends that you take them as needed. For something like immune support, you may choose to take them all Winter or just on travel days.
Just remember, “any opportunity to increase the produce and phytochemical content of your diet is going to be beneficial, but wellness shots aren’t meant to replace the produce on your plate,” Tracey said. Laura pointed out that “wellness shots aren’t cure-alls that can heal all of your health woes, but they can definitely be a part of a healthy lifestyle.”
A big reason for this may simply be that healthy habits beget healthy habits. “If you are someone who is taking wellness shots, you’re probably doing other things to work on your health as well, like getting more sleep, drinking more water, eating healthier foods, and working out more often,” Laura told POPSUGAR. Simply put, consider wellness shots a health insurance policy to supplement an equally healthy lifestyle.
Image Source: POPSUGAR Photography / Leta Shy
Health Benefits Of Probiotics
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Probiotics are live microorganisms that can be consumed through fermented foods or supplements .
More and more studies show that the balance or imbalance of bacteria in your digestive system is linked to overall health and disease.
Probiotics promote a healthy balance of gut bacteria and have been linked to a wide range of health benefits.
These include benefits for weight loss, digestive health, immune function and more (
This is an overview of the key health benefits linked to probiotics.
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What To Look For
Prebiotics can be consumed in foods or in supplement form. Since prebiotics are non-digestible fibers they are found in many plant-foods that provide good nutrition. So when you increase your intake of prebiotic foods you gain health benefits from the other nutrition that they provide.
These prebiotic foods include many items that you’d find in your local market.
- Asparagus
Oligosaccharides are the best-known prebiotics.
If you choose to buy a supplement, the National Institutes of Health recommends that you look for a Supplement Facts label on the product that you buy. This label will contain vital information including the amount of fiber per serving, and other added ingredients like fillers, binders, and flavorings.
Lastly, the organization suggests that you look for a product that contains a seal of approval from a third party organization that provides quality testing. These organizations include U.S. Pharmacopeia, ConsumerLab.com, and NSF International. A seal of approval from one of these organizations does not guarantee the product’s safety or effectiveness but it does provide assurance that the product was properly manufactured, contains the ingredients listed on the label, and does not contain harmful levels of contaminants.
Should I Give Probiotics To My Kids
Probiotics can be beneficial for both adults and kids. If your child has an illness that requires an antibiotic medication for treatment, taking a probiotic can help shorten symptoms. Probiotics can also be used to help relieve constipation, acid reflux, diarrhea, gas and eczema in children.
Introducing probiotics into your childs diet through food is typically a safe way to give them probiotics. Foods like yogurt and cottage cheese are often part of a balanced diet and can add in good bacteria without much risk.
There are commercially available probiotic supplements specifically designed for infants and children. However, it is important to talk to your childs pediatrician before giving them any probiotic supplement or changing the childs diet to include probiotic-rich foods.
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Our Pick Of The Best Probiotic Drinks From Yakult Shots To Kefir Drinks
Feeling run down? Gurgly stomach? A mad bathroom rush after drinking your morning coffee?
The makers of probiotics drinks claim to be able to help by restoring the balance of natural bacteria in your gut.
Whether taken in the form of fermented drinks such as kefir and kombucha, or daily yoghurt shots with live cultures added, the idea is roughly the same: delivering specific good bacteria cultures that are thought to have various health benefits.
There is some research to suggest that probiotics can be beneficial for those suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome or diarrhoea caused by antibiotics. However, its important to note that the wider benefits of probiotics are disputable.
The NHS, for example, points out that there is no evidence to suggest that probiotics can help treat eczema, as some manufacturers claim. Probiotics are also classed as food, not medicine, meaning they dont go through the same rigorous testing or regulation. Although probiotics may help with various problems, they shouldnt be treated as medicine.
The bacteria in your gut is known to play an important role in overall health, and probiotics are generally thought to be perfectly healthy to take for those with a normal immune system. So while the claims made by probiotic companies should always be treated critically, theres little risk in trying them for yourself to see whether or not they help with your digestion.
Some Signs That You Have Too Much Or Not Enough Probiotics
Even in liquid form, it can take some time for those probiotic drinks to kick into your system. You might want to track your progression and write down any symptoms from taking the product. If you are under the care of a doctor, make sure to check in with him or her, especially if:
- Your symptoms get worse
- You are experiencing new issues
- You are exerting food or drink intolerance
- You see a change in your mood, such as anxiety and depression
If you are looking for ways to prevent some of these symptoms, be sure to keep hydrated throughout the day. For this reason, many people choose probiotic drinks to introduce this bacteria into their systems. Not only are you getting all those benefits of good bacteria, but you can stay hydrated throughout the day.
Probiotic drinks can do wonders for your health and help your gut get back into balance. These probiotic drinks are the perfect way to restore your well-being in a tasty and convenient beverage.
Learn More: How to Make Water Kefir
While it might take some time for your gut to adjust to the new probiotics, you know that these bacteria are working hard to keep you healthy.
Looking to boost the health of your digestive system? From elderberry to turmeric, Sunny Culture offers a wide range of delicious probiotic drinks.
Rany Bochi
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The Best Way To Benefit From Probiotics
You can get probiotics from a variety of foods or supplements.
If you want to buy a probiotic supplement, then there is an with thousands of customer reviews.
Live probiotic cultures are often found in fermented dairy products such as yogurts and milk drinks. Fermented foods like pickled vegetables, tempeh, miso, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut and soy products may also contain some lactic acid bacteria.
You can also take probiotics as tablets, capsules and powders that contain the bacteria in dried form.
However, be aware that some probiotics can be destroyed by stomach acid before they even reach the gut meaning that you get none of the intended benefits.
If you want to experience any of the health benefits discussed above, its important that you consume adequate amounts.
Most of the studies showing benefits used dosages of 1 billion to 100 billion live organisms or colony-forming units per day.
More about probiotics:
How Probiotics Are Good For You
They might lower the number of “bad” bacteria in your gut that can cause illness or inflammation. They can also replace those problem germs with good or helpful bacteria.
Researchers are studying when and how probiotics might best help. There’s more research for some illnesses than others. They might help people with:
- Diarrhea, especially when it’s linked to specific antibiotics. Probiotics also might help with infectious diarrhea, especially in children.
- Inflammatory bowel diseases including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Some probiotics might keep ulcerative colitis in remission and prevent Crohn’s disease from relapsing and getting worse.
- Irritable bowel syndrome. Probiotics can sometimes help ease symptoms, including stomach pain, bloating, gas, diarrhea, and constipation.
Probiotics also are being studied for many other conditions. There isnât as much research yet, but some people say that probiotics have helped them with:
- Decreasing inflammation, such as from rheumatoid arthritis
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Do Probiotics Do Any Good
Dr Chris van Tullekan sets out to discover whether probiotic products are really good for our health, and whether theres a cheaper and easier way to get health benefits through our gut bacteria.
Every year, we in the UK spend about three quarters of a billion pounds on probiotic products, which contain live bacteria that are supposed to boost our health. Our guts especially our large intestine are full of bacteria, fungi, viruses and other living organisms. In fact there are more of them than there are cells in the rest of our body, meaning that what we think of as our own bodies are more bacterium than human!
Your instant reaction might be to want to get rid of all these foreign bodies inside us, but actually they are vital to our wellbeing. They help us absorb nutrients from our food, metabolise drugs, and educate our immune system. Our own personal mix of gut bacteria makes us the person we are, and changing what bacteria we have can affect our health.
The idea of boosting bacteria that we know are good for our health has been around for a very long time, but actual scientific research on whether it works or not is still in its relatively early stages.
Although the probiotic companies claimed such health benefits for many years, now they have changed their advertising in Europe as the European Food Safety Authority ruled that not all these pieces of evidence are yet there.
I Drank Wellness Shots For A Week And Felt Unstoppable So I Asked Rds If They’re Legit
Lots of brands have introduced wellness shots to the market, claiming they’ll improve sleep, boost immunity, and more. But do they actually work? That’s the question I posed to dietitians after experiencing their magic or what I thought was magic for myself.
It’s a tough sell, the idea that you can buy health in a bottle, but when my whole family fell under the weather, I decided to throw back Suja’s Immunity Shots, hoping the turmeric and probiotics would help me fend off whatever was plaguing our house. To my surprise, I still felt that familiar tickle in my throat, but it passed without developing into a full-blown cold. Feeling empowered, I took Medlie’s Digestion Veggie Shot which contains tomatoes and apple cider vinegar every morning for a week to see if it would soothe my stomach. Even after some questionable late-night movie snacks one evening and a couple of beers on Sunday to calm my Game of Thrones-induced nerves, I woke up without feeling bloated or rumbly.
Health is complicated and complex, though, and I really didn’t know if it was all in my head or if these wellness shots were the real deal. Turns out, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
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Given The Very Heavy Involvement Of The Industry Clear Conclusions As To Whether Probiotics Are Truly Helpful To Humans Remain To Be Proven Erin Elinav
The rate of continued moderate to severe gastroenteritis within two weeks was slightly higher in the probiotic group than in the placebo group . And there was no difference between the two groups in terms of the duration of diarrhoea or vomiting.
Despite evidence such as this, the demand for probiotics is large and growing. In 2017, the market for probiotics was more than $1.8bn, and it is predicted to reach $66bn by 2024.
Given the very heavy involvement of the industry, clear conclusions as to whether probiotics are truly helpful to humans remain to be proven, says Elinav. This is the reason why regulatory authorities such as the USs Food and Drug Administration and European regulators have yet to approve a probiotic for clinical use.
Taking probiotics when your gut health is weak may not be a good idea
But that is not to write off probiotics completely. The problem with them may not be with the probiotics themselves, but the way we are using them. Often probiotics are bought off the shelf consumers may not know exactly what they are getting, or even whether the culture they are buying is still alive.
Elinav and his colleagues have also carried out research on who will benefit from probiotics and who wont. By measuring the expression of certain immune-related genes, the team was able to predict who would be receptive to probiotic bacteria colonising their gut, and for whom they would simply pass through without taking hold.
Best Types Of Probiotic Drinks
If you are ready to choose the right probiotic drink for you, there are several options. For first-time drinkers, you might want to try kefir. This dairy drink is made from goat’s milk, and it is unsweetened and organic. You can also find plenty of other drinkable yogurts, but you need to look for the seal with the words “Live & Active Culture. With that, you will know the product contains live probiotics.
Related: Water Kefir
Kombucha is another great drink to try, especially for those who love the taste of tea. However, you want to choose a product that is low in sugar. Coconut kefir is a hot item on the market. Instead of dairy, it uses coconut water in the drink.
Some probiotic-infused waters are an excellent way to stay hydrated and introduce those probiotics into your digestive system. Finally, kvass might sound scary, but you can find this drink made with beet or strawberry juice for a sweeter taste. Whatever your preference, you can choose a probiotic drink that will taste great and provide a boost to help with your digestive system.
You might want to try several drinks to find your favorite. Make sure to read the labels and look for a product that identifies the strain of probiotics in the drink. Along with that, you need to know the CFUs that are also contained in the probiotic beverage.
From turmeric to elderberry, Sunny Culture offers a wide range of probiotic drinks that may boost the health of your digestive system.
Rany Bochi
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Should You Take A Daily Probiotic Supplement
Probiotics are good for your gut, but the source matters.
Theres a lot of buzz around probiotics. Theyre endorsed by celebrities and fill grocery stores aisles.
Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that promote a healthy gut. Scientists believe they could unlock a deeper understanding of our health. Probiotics are found in some foods and drinks, like yogurt or fermented tea.
Just like vitamins, probiotics are available as supplements. Manufacturers make steep claims about their benefits. They include digestive health, strengthened immune system, weight loss and reduced cancer risk. But can a supplement really do all that?
To learn more about probiotic supplements, we spoke with Carrie Daniel- MacDougall, Ph.D., M.P.H., a nutritional epidemiologist at MD Anderson who studies diet and the microbiome.
Heres what you should know about probiotic supplements.
Its always better to get nutrients from food. That includes probiotics.
More research needs to be done on probiotics in general and probiotic supplements, but its always better to get your nutrients from food rather than supplements, Daniel-MacDougall says. They just dont deliver the same benefits as food.
One reason is because supplements arent regulated as closely as medications. So the quality and ingredients can vary greatly from product to product.
Unless your doctor is prescribing probiotics for a specific purpose, stick to getting them from foods like yogurt that may have other nutrients, like calcium.
Are Probiotic Supplements Effective
In addition to naturally being found in many foods, probiotics are sold as supplements and added to other foods where they dont naturally occur, like orange juice and peanut butter. Mills says a balanced diet with foods that naturally feature probiotics may be the best bet.
Getting probiotics from food is something most people can easily do and may have an edge over taking supplements, Mills explains. Food seems to have the fastest effect on changing the gut biome. Plus, the fermentation of the food may make other nutrients more bioavailable.
Right now, probiotics efficacy is theoretical. Probiotics might have some effect on the immune system, whether its good, bad, or neutral to people avoiding diseases is unknown, says Pieter Cohen, MD, an associate professor of medicine at the Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Theres a growing body of evidence that probiotics may boost immunity, but that varies with the type of probiotics, a persons health and other factors. Theyre usually not necessary.
If you take a healthy person, someone who doesnt have any health issues to begin with, no need to take a probiotic supplement. Theres no evidence that thatll improve your health, says Dr. Cohen. If youve been a little unhealthy lately, probiotics cant fill those gaps, he adds.
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