Can I Take Probiotics At Bedtime
When should I take probiotics? The best time to take probiotics is right before bedtime because the gut is pretty inactive at night. If you think about it, you usually dont wake up in the middle of the night to poop, explains Dr. Patricia Raymond , doctor of gastroenterology and internal medicine.
Probiotics : How Good Bacteria Help Your Gutand More
Theres been a lot of buzz around probiotics for some time now. Theyre commonly known as the good bacteria in your bowels that can support healthy digestion and help ease uncomfortable issues, like gas, bloating, and occasional bowel movement irregularities.
These problems are as old as time and can also be brought on by a change in routine, like travelingor on the opposite end of the spectrumquarantining. While probiotics certainly deserve all the kudos they get for helping address these digestive concerns, theres far more benefits of probiotics.
For instance, growing research has shown an important link between the human gastrointestinal tract and the immune system. And guess whos the matchmaker bringing together this unlikely pairing? Its those friendly bacteria in your gut. As Dan Peterson, assistant professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine commented, A huge proportion of your immune system is actually in your GI tract. And he was speaking specifically about probiotic bacteria.
Its true. You have literally trillions of microorganisms living inside your body, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses. This is why so many immune boosting yogurts, full of friendly flora, are heavily promoted. But is morning, when people tend to consume yogurt, even the best time to take probiotics?
What exactly does this probiotic good work entail? A lot, actually, including:
Get A Probiotic With Prebiotics
Prebiotics dont contain bacteria as probiotics do. Instead, they simply serve as food for probiotics. They provide the necessary fuel to help bacteria grow, and probiotics are living microorganisms that need this sustenance in order to function.
When used in conjunction, prebiotics and probiotics are referred to as synbiotics. Synbiotics are especially healthy because probiotics may have a hard time surviving when they are trying to pass through the intestinal tract. This means that they often don’t actually make it all the way to the lower intestines .
The idea behind synbiotics is that using pre- and probiotics together can increase the chances that the healthy bacteria will get to your gut alive and well. Synbiotics are noted to be especially useful for those suffering from conditions such as IBS and diabetes.
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Check Label Instructions First
With more and more research going into probiotic delivery technology, some probiotic manufacturers might have specific reasons for recommending you take their formulas with or without food, or at a certain time of day. So, check the label on your preferred formula and follow instructions for best results.
If no specific timing directions are given, follow these top tips for taking your probiotics
Probiotics Improve Gut Health
Probioticshave been shown to positively affect digestive health in several ways:
- Increase the diversity, or health, of the living organisms in your digestive system.
- Fight pathogens and their toxins.[2,3,
- Brain fog
- Sleep
Ok, weve established that probiotics are good foryour digestivehealth and your overall health. Lets take a closer look at somemyths and facts about taking probiotics.
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When Is The Best Time To Eat Probiotic Foods
Adding probiotic-friendly foods to your daily diet will boost the numbers and strength of the beneficial bacteria living in your gut microbiome. But just as you dont drink coffee at night, timing is everything. For the probiotics to achieve their maximum effectiveness, you have to take them at the right time.
Probiotic foods are most effective on an empty stomach.
For most people, this means that the best time of day to eat probiotic food is either early in the morning, right before a meal, or right before bed. Probiotics consumed after a meal have been shown to be less effective.
Your yogurt at breakfast or probiotic tea before bed isnt just delicious. Theres also solid scientific evidence as to why it increases your beneficial bacteria levels more than, say, a kefir smoothie for dessert.
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Powerful Blend Of Strains
When thinking about a quality probiotic, the first thing that likely comes to mind is the blend of bacteria strains included. But, believe it or not, this doesnt necessarily inform when is the best time of day to take probiotics. In any form and at any time of day, there are thousands of different identified probiotic strains busy in your system. The most thoroughly researched for supporting overall GI health are Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Saccharomyces, Streptococcus, Enterococcus, Escherichia, and Bacillus. And what these heavy-hitters all have in common is that they must survive the gauntlet of stomach acid before reaching your intestines, making the best time of day to take probiotics an important consideration.
This is really the first indication that the best time to take probiotics is likely when stomach acid is at its lowest.
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How To Take Probiotics
Once the decision to repair the gut is made, the selection of the appropriate probiotic is a must. This article on the best probiotics outlines the selection process in detail. Here is a list of top quality brands to consider to make the task easier given the dozens of probiotics on the market today:
Once you have your chosen supplement in hand, how to take probiotics? Morning or night? On an empty stomach or with food?
These are very common questions and the answer depends on the probiotic manufacturer, according to the staff at Biodynamic Wellness, which specializes in helping people recover their gut health.
Some probiotics are packaged in time-release capsules and some are not. Finding out this information usually requires a phone call to the manufacturer, so when in doubt, assume that they are not time release.
Since it is possible that the high acid environment of the stomach could destroy some of the probiotic bacteria:
< < It is recommended to take probiotics at the END of a meal > >
Does this mean that it isnt of any benefit to taking a probiotic on an empty stomach?
No. It just means to play it safe to ensure the probiotics are protected from any reduction in potency due to stomach acid by taking them after a meal has been consumed.
Obviously, the use of probiotics in this fashion is primarily for the health of the mouth and sinus tissues, not just the gut.
What 3 Foods Are Bad For Your Gut
Worst Foods for Digestion
- 1 / 10. Fried Foods. Theyre high in fat and can bring on diarrhea.
- 2 / 10. Citrus Fruits. Because theyre high in fiber, they can give some folks an upset stomach.
- 3 / 10. Artificial Sugar.
- 4 / 10. Too Much Fiber.
- 5 / 10. Beans.
- 6 / 10. Cabbage and Its Cousins.
- 7 / 10. Fructose.
- 8 / 10. Spicy Foods.
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How Fermentation Creates Probiotics
For centuries, people have used fermentation to process food, transforming one type of food into another: cucumbers become pickles, milk becomes yogurt, soybeans become miso
As it turns out, fermentation doesnt just preserve food. It also optimizes the foods health potential with beneficial bacteria.
During fermentation, naturally-occurring bacteria feed on the sugar and starch in the food, creating acid as a byproduct. This generates an environment that supports the growth of enzymes, B vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, and of course, beneficial bacteria. For example:
Lactic Acid Bacteria
Fermentation is sometimes referred to as lacto-fermentation, because the most commonly produced acid is lactic acid. And as a result, the probiotic most often found in fermented foods is lactic acid bacteria or Lactobacillusthe same beneficial bacteria often advertised on probiotic yogurts, for example.
Acetic Acid Bacteria
Fermentation will sometimes produce acetic acid instead, which is associated with the development of vinegars. Kombucha and apple cider vinegar both produce acetic acid as part of their fermentation process. The beneficial bacteria created as a result is Acetobacter, also known as acetic acid bacteria.
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- Tempeh
- Yogurt
Fermentation changes a foods scent and flavor quite a bit. In general, they are a bit stronger and may take some getting used to. Not everyone is going to be a fan of pickles from the first bite!
Never Take Probiotics And Antibiotics Together
This is common advice thats also based on conjecture.
We know that antibiotics kill good bacteria, so itfollows that taking probiotics and antibiotics together is pointless,right? Actually, no. Our biology is wonderfully complex and we shouldnt thinkabout it in terms of simple mechanics.
Rather than cancelling each other out, research shows that taking probiotics and antibioticstogether is a more effective treatment than taking antibiotics alone.
The most relevant study to show this effect is a systematic review of 20,215 patients with H. pylori infections. Patients who took probiotics and antibiotics together were able to clear their infections better than patients who only took antibiotics.
This sort of finding has been found in SIBO and other gut infections too. Probiotic co-administration with antibiotics tends to enhance treatment results.
Bottom line: Its beneficial to take probiotics and antibiotics together.
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Nighttime Is The Right Time
Remember how probiotics must run the gauntlet of stomach acids in order to reach your gut, where they can colonize and get to work doing their good deeds? You can minimize the dangers of this journey by taking your probiotics at night, right before bed.
Why? Because this is the time when gastric activity is usually at a minimum.
When you eat a meal, your body reacts by secreting stomach acids and digestive enzymes to break down the food. The larger and heavier the meal, the more these chemicals are secreted and the slower the digestion process takes. On average, a meal takes 4 to 5 hours to move through the stomach, so its ideal to eat your healthy dinner many hours before bedtime. Not a fan of early bird dinners? Waiting 2-3 hours after you eat to take your probiotics probably provides sufficient buffer time.
Best Time To Take Probiotics
Although there hasn’t been a ton of research done the best time to take probiotics, there is an older study that was published in Beneficial Microbes in December 2011 that showed that survival of all the bacteria in probiotic supplements was best when that probiotic was taken with a meal or 30 minutes before a meal. On the other hand, the bacteria in probiotic supplements that were taken 30 minutes after a meal didn’t survive well.
But the researchers from the study didn’t just look at the timing of probiotics. They also looked at meal composition and found that including some healthy fats, like avocado or olive oil, in your meal can help the bacteria survive too.
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When Is The Best Time To Take Pre And Probiotics
It is okay to take your prebiotic around the same time as your probiotic, but you will want to space them out for about 10 to 15 minutes afterward. In contrast, if they interact too early, they may cause bloating in the large intestine. If you are taking probiotics on an empty stomach, take them first.
Dont Let Probiotic Myths Complicate Your Life
Misinformation about how to take probiotics are rampant onthe internet. Thats because a lot of the information you read is based onconjecture, not on what the majority of research shows. And so much conflictinginformation can leave you feeling stressed and confused about your supplementroutines.
Check this list of common advice about probiotics:
| 7 Probiotic Myths |
| Probiotic foods are better than probiotic supplements. |
| Stomach acid kills probiotics and makes them ineffective. |
| Take probiotics at a specific time of day. |
| Take probiotics with specific foods. |
| Never take probiotics and antibiotics together. |
| Certain kinds of probiotics work best for specific health issues. |
| Try different probiotics to find the one that works for you. |
Today I want to give you up-to-date, science-basedinformation about how to best take probiotics. And I promise to keep it simple. I knowfrom my own clinical practice that when medical advice gets too complicated,people have a much harder time sticking with it.
But first, lets take a quick look at why probioticsare the number one supplement that I recommend to patients.
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Should I Take Probiotics With Food
Some people just want to take probiotics with food, while others like to take probiotics before meals or at certain times of the day. Its really up to you!
However, you should consider how you digest food and how often you take probiotics. You should also consider your lifestyle and what works best for you.
Most doctors recommend taking probiotics with food at least a couple of times a day. Youll find that some days youll need to take more probiotics than other days.
If this happens to you, its probably a good idea to take probiotics with food at every meal that you have. The probiotics will kick in at just the right time and kick your digestive system into gear.
Youll notice an increase in your energy levels and some weight loss too. You should be able to take probiotics for longer periods of time if you follow a couple of tips that are explained in the next section.
You should always take probiotics when youre not hungry. Take probiotics as long as you feel that you need them, no matter how much you want to.
If you take probiotics in the evening, you should take them about 30 minutes before you go to bed.
Some things that are important to remember are that you should not take probiotics with food if you are allergic to them or you have any type of health problem.
When Is The Best Time To Take Probiotics
According to health experts, nighttime is the right time to take probioticsthe best time to take probiotics is before bed. It has something to do with the fact that its a period of inactivity for your gut area, and it doesnt have to work as hard in the evenings.
Believe it or not, probiotics works best in the presence of stationary bowels. While youre sleeping, ingested probiotics that are taken before bed are more likely to stick around until you poop them out the next day. This gives the probiotics a chance to work proactively in your digestive system, allowing you to experience the maximum benefits of its gut-healing abilities.
You should also aim for the probiotics to move through your stomach acid as quickly as possible. Taking probiotic supplements on an empty stomach can help you make sure of that. Experts have backed this as well.
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Tips To Maximize The Health Benefits Of Probiotics
How Time Of The Day Can Affect How Your Body Reacts To Probiotics
While taking probiotics in the morning is the best and the most convenient practice for most people, maybe it isnt the best option for you. After all, we all live different lives. Here are a few options you should consider:
- Taking them with every meal in some cases, this is the best approach, especially if you have issues with your digestive system, such as diarrhea. Continue taking them with every meal until the symptoms pass.
- Taking them before bed research shows that liver issues can have a negative impact on the sleep pattern. Since the gut and the liver are closely related, taking probiotics can help you diminish the symptoms, which will help you sleep better. Also, if you are a night owl, or work until late, taking probiotics before bed is a good idea.
- Taking them in the morning that is generally the best approach, as we have previously explained. It is best suited for people who work the first shift, the same time every day, which allows them to have a home-cooked breakfast, also at the same time each day. If you are an early riser, 30 minutes before breakfast is your best bet.
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Finest Sources Of Probiotics
You will discover stay microorganisms each in probiotic dietary supplements and sure meals. Probiotic meals embrace Greek yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, miso, and tempeh, all of that are naturally cultured or fermented.
These meals are linked to a wide range of probiotic advantages reminiscent of decrease ldl cholesterol, wholesome blood sugar ranges, and assist for weight administration.
If not one of the meals listed above are a part of your common food plan, I counsel taking a probiotic complement.
