Improving your lifestyle can make your gut microbiota live a good life; in addition, medical research offers a second approach: Since probiotics may be reduced due to your various unhealthy lifestyles so can we directly supplement them?

Needless to say, this type of research is growing and many studies have shown promising outcomes.

When it comes to adding probiotics, the first thing that comes to your mind must be drinking yogurt. Does drinking yogurt work? Yes, but it's not very effective. Because the probiotics in yogurt itself are achieved by adding a fermentation agent to milk; the probiotics are very limited in type and number. And after entering the body through the acidic environment of gastric acid. the probiotics can reach the intestinal tract are very few.

What about fermented foods? For example, miso, cheese, kimchi, natto, tempeh. These types of foods do provide some probiotic supplementation; but again, they contain a lot of sodium. which goes against health and is not recommended in large quantities.

It seems that supplementation through food is basically not enough. so how exactly do you supplement with probiotics and prebiotics?

Firstly, it is important to address the issue of how the live bacteria are transported smoothly to the intestines. which is the key to whether or not the probiotics will work.

When buying probiotic supplements, you should pay attention to whether the product has a good protective film; the current more reliable is the microencapsulation and dual-layer microencapsulation. These technologies can help probiotics avoid the corrosion of gastric acid; reach the intestines alive and flourish thus achieving the purpose of effective supplementation.

Moving on, how do you find a truly natural and beneficial probiotic? This is not difficult. just choose a strain that meets the nationally published regulations.

When choosing a supplement, you also need to check the strain number. which is the string of letters and numbers after the name of the probiotic. which is like a unique identifier for the strain. Having a probiotic strain number means that it has undergone extensive clinical trials and its safety and efficacy have been proven.

What form of probiotics should I choose? Freeze-dried powder or solid granules in individual packets are generally recommended. This is because liquid probiotics are very less stable and prone to degradation; and even if they are transported using the cold chain there is a risk of temperature loss.

You can also look to see if the product you choose has added prebiotics. Prebiotics are food for probiotics. providing them with nutrients that make it easier for them to survive. Common prebiotics include fructooligosaccharides (FOS), galactooligosaccharides (GOS), xylooligosaccharides (XOS), isomaltooligosaccharides (IMO), and inulin.

As for the specific need to supplement which bacteria. and supplement how much. a lot of research found that there is no standard on this matter for the time being. That is to say each of us in the end suitable for what flora; to supplement how much for the time being, is not clear. However, the current evidence shows that healthy flora will show a rich diversity. we can mix a variety of flora when supplementation.

Who should take probiotics?

Finally, let's talk about which groups of people need additional supplementation.

Firstly, supplementation is recommended for adults who face chronic stress and gastrointestinal discomfort. The evidence for probiotic supplementation in improving irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is relatively strong.

Second, children can also supplement. Supplementation with probiotics can have varying degrees of benefit for diarrhea, functional constipation, lactose intolerance, and eczema. which are common in small children except that the exact choice of probiotics needs to be discussed with the pediatrician.