Oral probiotic supplements help maintain and enhance the gastrointestinal tract by enhancing digestion, removing toxins and increasing our immune function

Oral probiotic supplements are supplements that contain live bacteria or yeast cultures. The most common supplements contain a strain of bacteria called Lactobacillus acidophilus and a form of yeast called Saccharomyces boulardii. These organisms are “friendly” bacteria that are found within a normal persons intestinal tract. Probiotic supplements are given to people when the population of these friendly bacteria has been depleted and replaced by disease-promoting bacteria.

The friendly bacteria within our intestinal tracts help us digest our food and correctly absorb nutrients. Probiotics are most often prescribed to people suffering from acute diarrhea, or to those who must take antibiotics for a long period of time.

Health benefits of probiotics are varied and include, increased immune function, increased resistance to infection, prevention of yeast infection, removal of toxins in the intestinal tract, help in lowering cholesterol levels, and healthy digestion. Some people claim that probiotics will help people with food allergies but few studies have been done in this area. Many studies have also been done that have found that probiotics may help reduce the risk of digestive system related cancers such as colorectal cancer (cancer of the intestinal tract).

Probiotics are considered safe for the average person. In 143 studies, which involved over 7,500 people, no adverse affects on health were found. The only people at risk for health problems because of probiotics are people who may have immune suppression. With immune suppression there is a risk that the supplements could cause infection. The greatest risk comes with the fact that most often probiotic supplement labels do not tell what is really in the supplement, and because they are not regulated, harmful bacteria may be found in the supplements. The best advice is to research and find a high quality brand.

Learn more about how an nutritional supplement may benefit you.