Are Probiotic Supplements Good For You?

"If you're healthy and are not planning to take antibiotics, go into the hospital, or maybe take a trip out of the country, then there is no benefit from taking probiotics," said Lynne McFarland, a microbiologist at the Veterans Administration Puget Sound Health Care System and coauthor of "The Power of Probiotics." Probiotic supplements can be found in food, powders and capsules around the world and are believed to contribute to healthy immune and digestive systems. Even so, not all Americans are convinced there are any benefits. Here is some info on the popular probiotic products to help you decide whether or not they're for you.

Activa probiotic yogurt is one of the most widely accepted probiotic supplements. The idea of bacteria living inside dairy products has been around for years, so Americans aren't so "creeped out" by it. You can eat one four-ounce yogurt containing bifidobacterium each day for a month for $20. This product claims to reduce gas and bloating, while restoring digestive regularity again. According to Dannon's own research, food took 10-30 hours less to travel from one end of the GI tract to the other. In sales volume, Dannon's Activa is the best probiotic food in the American market.

Kashi Vive Cereal is another one of the probiotic supplements you may try. For $27/month, you'll get a daily dose of lactobacillus probiotic acidophilus. The cereal's manufacturers promise "digestive balance and immunity." Even though this is the first probiotic wellness cereal on the market, skeptics argue that there's no demonstrated evidence that the probiotic acidophilus strain has these health benefits. The Kashi spokespeople argue that this probiotic survives digestion, which is why they chose to include it, even if survival doesn't equate with end results.

For $30/month, Align is one of the probiotic supplements with positive test results in treating Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The University of Manchester gave 173 women with IBS the Align probiotic and found that within four weeks, the Align takers had less pain, bloating, gas and constipation. The manufacturer has never tested on healthy adults, but they say their product is an ideal treatment for the people who need it most.

More about probiotic supplements

Probiotic Bacteria

Antibiotics were arguably one of the most amazing achievements of the 20th century. However, curing illness does come with some drawbacks. Health professionals believe we need some healthy bacteria to form a barrier that protects us from the dangerous bacteria, in the same way that an immunization will build up our defenses against a given disease.

Probiotic

Good bacterium flourishes in our bodies alongside potentially harmful bacteria. In our mini-ecosystem, thousands of species work symbiotically with other body organisms. In other instances, they are in fierce competition for resources with alternate strains.

Probiotic Formula

The idea of adding more friendly bacteria to our guts is still foreign to Americans. However, Europeans and Asians have been ingesting probiotic products for decades already in the form of probiotic yogurt, cereal, milk, cheese and probiotics supplements. As of 2001, Nestlé introduced the first probiotic formula for babies, which contains the beneficial bifidobacterium lactis bacteria aimed at easing the stomachs of colicky babies.