How Do Probiotics Help Your Gut?

By Author: snehal desai
Total Articles: 96
Comment this article

What are probiotics?

Our gut is lined with trillions of microscopic creatures or bacteria having more than 1000 different types of species. Together they create a micro-ecosystem known as our gut microbiome or gut flora. It is unique to each person and plays a major role in keeping our gut healthy and fine. It performs functions like

1. helping in the proper functioning of the immune system as about 70% of our immunity lies in our gut

2. providing a natural defence against pathogens or harmful

3.microorganisms and other toxins

4. aiding indigestion

5. producing the same neurotransmitters as our brain and relays
6. communication between our brain and intestine.

Thus, it is necessary to keep our microbiome healthy by maintaining a healthy balance between the different species of these gut bacteria. Adding prebiotics and probiotics to your daily diet helps to keep your gut healthy.

First, let us understand probiotics and prebiotics.

Probiotics are the live bacteria found in some ...
... foods. They help to maintain the balance of our gut microbiome.

Sometimes bad bacteria invade our gut and disrupt the balance of our gut flora.

The digestive probiotics act as friendly and good bacteria that fight the germs and restore the balance of the microbiome or gut flora.

The doctors prescribe antibiotic medicines to treat bacterial infections.
They often kill some good bacteria along with the harmful ones. This upsets the balance in the gut flora and results in stomach problems like diarrhoea. To restore this balance, the doctors sometimes recommend digestive probiotics with antibiotics.

Prebiotics are the food that helps the good bacteria present in our gut to grow. They are essentially non-digestible plant fibres that pass through our digestive system to become the food for the gut flora.

Prebiotic vs Probiotic

Both Prebiotic and Probiotic contribute to improving our gut health in their respective ways.

While the growth-stimulating specialized plant fibre foods from the prebiotics vs probiotics are the living bacteria that add to the population of good bacteria in the gut that strengthens our immune system.

Thus, we need to boost our prebiotic and probiotic intake by making minor changes in our diet and eating the right things.

Probiotics are found in:

Supplements are available in health food stores, pharmacies and online. The most common variants are from the groups of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.

Fermented foods like Yoghurt, Sauerkraut, Kombucha, Raw Apple Cider Vinegar, Kimchi, etc.

Prebiotics are found in:

many fruits and vegetables like bananas, onions, garlic, berries, legumes, oats, asparagus, leeks, etc.

Prebiotic supplements contain indigestible complex carbohydrates like fibre and resistant starch. Products are targeted for specific conditions like bone health, weight management, etc.