Why It's Important for Everyone to Take a Probiotic

Probiotics have been steadily gaining more attention as research continues to reveal just how important a healthy gut microbiota is. Your microbiota has an astonishing level of impact on your nutrient absorption, it plays a role in immune defenses, and even produces neurotransmitters like serotonin (the “happy” hormone!). When we consume beneficial bacteria in our foods, or as supplemental probiotics, they can join forces with our natural resident microbiota, helping to prevent our gut microbiota from getting out of balance.

What is a probiotic?

Probiotics are made of good live bacteria and/or yeasts that naturally live in your body. You constantly have both good and bad bacteria in your body. When you get an infection, there’s more bad bacteria, knocking your system out of balance. Good bacteria helps eliminate extra bad bacteria, returning the balance. Probiotic-supplements are a way to add good bacteria to your body.

Can I use probiotics to help with medical conditions?

There is currently a large amount of research happening around the idea of what probiotics can do for your body. Even though there are a lot of possibly positive outcomes, researchers are still working to find definitive answers about how probiotics can help with various conditions.

However, there are some medical conditions where probiotics may help. This can vary between people meaning that what works for one person may not work for another.

Some of the conditions that might be helped by increasing the amount of probiotics in your body (through food or supplements) include:

Diarrhea (both diarrhea caused by antibiotics and from Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) infection)

Constipation

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

Yeast infections

Urinary tract infections

Gum disease

Lactose intolerance

Eczema (atopic dermatitis)

Upper respiratory infections (ear infections, common cold, sinusitis)

What time of day do I take my probiotic? With or without food?

That depends on what probiotic you are taking. However, when you have a high-quality probiotic with the proper technology to protect the live beneficial bacteria from stomach acids and bile salts, timing is not all that important. What matters more is that you simply remember to take it daily.

Do I need to take a probiotic after I take antibiotics?

Antibiotic medications are often needed to fight an infection. However, while antibiotics are killing the bad bacteria, they are also knocking out the good bacteria in your body. Some people develop conditions like diarrhea after taking an antibiotic. In other people, this may allow for really bad bacteria to take over and populate the gut, such as with C. diff. Some research has shown a positive connection between taking probiotics after an antibiotic and relief from diarrhea. This hasn’t been proven yet and doesn’t work for everyone.

The thought behind adding probiotics back into your body after taking an antibiotic is that it can repopulate the good bacteria that was destroyed by the antibiotics and re-boot your system. The extra good bacteria helps repopulate your gut and fight off any remaining bad bacteria. Many people feel that adding in probiotics won’t hurt, might help you feel better a little faster and prevent diarrhea.

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.

However, it is important to talk to your child’s pediatrician before giving them any probiotic supplement or changing the child’s diet to include probiotic-rich foods.

What is a high-quality probiotic?

Meet NeoLife Acidophilus Plus™, an intestine-targeted probiotic developed by a world-class group of doctors and researchers who teamed up to develop an incredibly unique solution to the problem of probiotic protection and delivery. With Acidophilus Plus™, researchers had created a high-quality blend of five types of clinically proven probiotics, with each capsule containing five billion live microorganisms (that’s the equivalent of 10 servings of yogurt). Then they developed a special enteric protection system called Gel-Gard, designed to protect the probiotics from stomach acid and harsh bile salts in order to maximize their delivery to the intestines, exactly where your body needs them most.

Choose a high-quality, intestine-targeted probiotic product from a trusted brand to free yourself from worrying about having to get the timing perfect. NeoLife’s unique Gel-Gard Enteric Protection system helps protect the live bacteria from stomach acid in order to deliver them to the intestines, regardless of the time of day.