Simply put, probiotics are the “good bacteria” that help in keeping your gut healthy. They aid in digestion, by enabling your gut to absorb the essential and beneficial nutrients and flush out the harmful toxins from the body.
In addition to effective digestion, they boost your body’s immunity and help elevate your mood. The benefits of probiotics in Malaysia are many and multifaceted. In addition to the health benefits stated earlier, they are also known to help with the treatment of many health issues like irritable bowel syndrome, urinary tract infection and yeast infection etc.
How Do They Work?
In summation to the above, we can safely assume that adding probiotics to your daily regime will give you multiple health benefits. When it comes to taking probiotics you must be wondering how they work, how should you take them and when should you take them.
Let us tackle this one by one.
- There are many natural food sources of probiotics that you can include in your diet such as yoghurt, cheese fish etc. You can also find supplements in the market in form of liquids, pills and powders. Whatever form of supplement you go for, be sure to fix a dose in consultation with a doctor preferably and be regular with the dose and intake of the probiotic.
- How probiotics work has helped us realize that not all bacteria are bad. Probiotics are in fact the good bacteria that maintain that very important balance between the good and bad bacteria. If your body is lacking in good bacteria, for instance after doing an antibiotics course, your body will need to replenish the stock and that’s where the probiotics come in.
- How probiotics should be taken: You can take a fixed predetermined dose of probiotics on a daily basis. If you are taking any other medication, consult your doctor about how you can take them, because if you are taking antibiotics, you should not take probiotics at the same time you take the antibiotics. Moreover, in terms of supplements, probiotics come in the form of single strain and multiple strains based on which aspect they are targeting. For initial use, it is better to use multiple strains so as to address more than one health concern.
When Probiotics Should be Ideally Taken
According to experts while there is no hard and fast rule when it comes to scheduling a time for taking your probiotics, the main factor to consider is staying consistent. In order to have a routine, you can pick a time of the day when it is convenient for you to take the probiotic and you can stick to the habit.
Take it Thirty Minutes Before You Eat
Experts also suggest that it is best to take probiotics thirty minutes before you eat a meal. This is mainly because the probiotic will have greater chances of reaching your intestines before you eat, and that is where their effectiveness is most required. Jack Ting, a professional alcohol cake baker, says that if you take probiotics during or after the meal, the acids in the stomach released for food digestion would make the environment somewhat hostile for the probiotic and hamper its effectiveness.
Take it Before Breakfast in the Morning
Although we mentioned that there is no particular rule about as to at what time should you take them. According to experts ideally, you should take a probiotic in the morning before breakfast as they are most effective at that time. Let us tell you why
Breakfast is the first meal of the day and is usually smaller in proportion compared to your lunch and dinner intake. When you take a probiotic first thing in the morning, your stomach is a relatively safe zone providing a neutral environment for the probiotic. Since usually, the portion consumed is small, the stomach juices released may not be too hard on the probiotic and let it do its work.
Alternatively, if you take the probiotic before or during your lunch or dinner meals, chances are your probiotic will be disintegrated along with the meal you have taken by the acids in your stomach. By the time they reach the intestine, they might not have many constitutions left to work effectively. With the exception of the probiotics that have the protective covering to withstand the stomach acids, all the others must be taken a significant time ahead of the meal.
Word of Caution
Although probiotics are generally assumed to be safe for everyone before you take them do consult your doctor if it is a good idea. If you have an underlying health condition, you may need to get clearance from your doctor for taking them so as to ensure that probiotics do not intervene with your medication regime.
Some people may suffer from diarrhoea or bloating during the first few days of use. Be sure to stop use if you observe any alarming signs of an allergic reaction and consult your doctor.
