How a Probiotic Can Boost Your Health

Many may be aware of the impact that a healthy diet and exercise can have on their overall health, but what they may not know is that probiotics can be just as important when trying to stay healthy. Probiotics can affect many parts of your health, from how healthy your digestive system is, to how easy it is for you to lose weight, and even your mood. If you're considering taking a probiotic, here are a few things to think about.

What Are Probiotics?

Probiotics are live bacteria and yeast that live within your digestive system. While bacteria and yeast may not sound like things that you would want living in your body, the reality is that probiotics can have a big impact on your gut health, and overall health as well. There are typically two kinds of bacteria in your body, good bacteria and bad bacteria. Probiotics are good bacteria, which help to keep the bad bacteria that enters your body in check. If you don't have enough good bacteria in your system, you can increase it by either eating probiotic rich foods, like kefir or sauerkraut, or by taking a probiotic supplement. However, when choosing a supplement it can be helpful to do your research and look for things like active pk ingredients to help ensure you're getting the right one for you.

Soothe Digestive Issues and Leaky Gut

One of the primary benefits of probiotics is that they can help reduce or eliminate many digestive issues. In many cases, if you frequently experience things like bloating and indigestion, poor gut health could be at least partially to blame. Probiotics will not only improve the balance of your gut, but will help it to function more efficiently, and may even play a role in healing leaky gut, an issue that is at the root of many health problems. Leaky gut is when your gut health has deteriorated so that there are perforations in the lining of your gut, which allow toxins to pass through into your blood stream. Not only can this cause digestive issues, from diarrhea to constipation, but it can also cause other health concerns like autoimmune diseases, migraines and skin rashes.

Improve Your Mood

Along with having a big impact on your gut health, probiotics can have a significant impact on your mood, as well. This is due to something called the gut-brain axis. The gut-brain axis refers to the connection between your gut and brain that is formed through your nervous system, specifically the vagus nerve, which is a long nerve that runs from your skull to your gut. Because of this axis, your brain can affect your gut, and it can go the other way around, too. Not only that, but your gut can produce many of the same happiness hormones that your brain can, like serotonin. By keeping your gut healthy and balanced, you can often improve your mood, and may even be able to reduce or improve mental health issues like depression and anxiety, too.

Boost Weight Loss Potential

While taking probiotics may not necessarily cause you to drop pounds, taking them can help support weight loss in different ways. One way is that they can help your body to better extract nutrients from the food you eat, which can help your body and metabolism to function better. Also, because your gut will be functioning better, it will mean less bloating, and less toxins hanging out in your system, which can lead to a better ability to lose weight efficiently.

The Final Word

Although many may know that things like diet and exercise can have a big impact on overall health, what they may not know is that probiotics can have an equally significant impact. From helping reduce digestive issues, to boosting your overall health and even improving your mood, there can be many benefits to including probiotic rich foods and supplements into your health regimen.