Do probiotics work? This is a common question that a lot of people ask. Probiotics are made of good bacteria or and yeasts that live in your body. Your body has both bad and good bacteria. When you get an infection, there are more bad bacteria in your body, knocking your system out of balance. You need enough good bacteria to eliminate bad bacteria and return your body to balance. Probiotic supplements are an effective way to add good bacteria to your body.

What are probiotics?

These are a combination of live useful bacteria or/and yeasts that live in your body. These good bacteria keep your body healthy and functioning well. They help you in numerous ways, including killing bad bacteria in your body when you have an excess of them. This helps you feel better.

The microbiome is a diverse community of various microorganisms and they work together to keep you healthy. This community is made up of microbes. The human body has trillions of microbes. These microbes are comprised of viruses, bacteria, fungi and protozoa. Every individual has a unique microbiome. For a microbe to be referred to as a probiotic, it should have several features such as being isolated from a person, having a proven benefit to your body, surviving in your intestine once consumed, and being safely consumed.

Where do microbes live in the human body?

Probiotics for health or microbes should live in your body for them to be able to help you. Although the most common place that microbes live is in the gut, you have several locations in your body that host good bacteria. These locations are often in contact with the outside world such as your mouth, gut, vagina, lungs, urinary tract, and skin.

How do probiotics work?

Maintaining a healthy balance in your body is the main function or job of probiotics. Think of it as keeping you neutral. When you get sick, bad bacteria will enter your body and increase in number. This will knock your body out of balance. Probiotics work to fight off the bad bacteria in your body and restore balance, making you feel better. Probiotics keep you healthy. They support your immune system and control inflammation. Probiotics can also help your body digest food, support the cells that line up in your gut to prevent harmful bacteria from entering the bloodstream, create vitamins and breakdown and absorb medicines.

The act of balancing naturally happens in your body always. You do not need to take supplements to make it happen. Probiotics are naturally part of your body. You just need to eat a well-balanced diet that is rich in fiber to keep a wide range of good bacteria at the recommended levels.

The most common types of probiotics

Now that we have answered the question “do probiotics work?” let us look at the common types of probiotics. There are a lot of bacteria that can be considered probiotics but there are two main types known as Bifidobacterium and lactobacillus.