Are The Benefits of Probiotics Overstated?

In my last post, I described the differences between probiotics and prebiotics.  As noted, there, probiotics are widely available in supplement form and are often referred to in connection with gut health.  While probiotics in supplement form can play a role in gut health, we may be misunderstanding or overestimating what they can and cannot do –as a result, there may be a general over-reliance on them.  

Here are a few reasons why you may not want to overly rely on probiotics only to improve gut health:

Strain Specificity 

Probiotics are strain specific - meaning specific strains take specific actions - and may not contain strains that you are lacking or contain too much of what you don’t need.  You need to know how to match the action of the specific strain with the condition you are looking to address.  Which is tough - the information about what strains perform what actions is not easily available and is the subject of much ongoing research as well.  Taking large doses of unknown strains may not help with the task that you are looking for it to address.  Work with your physician or someone knowledgeable about probiotic strain specificity to address your specific needs. 

Label and Dose Inaccuracies

All of this assumes that the label on the probiotic reflects the accurate strain and dosage.  To be clear, this is an issue with any supplement - not just probiotics.  Therefore, at best, many probiotics may not yield the full scope of the intended benefit.  Your practitioner may be able to steer you towards verified, tested and reputable brands.

Lack of Gut Colonization

Probiotics do not colonize (or stay in) the gut - they are transient - not permanent guests.  They can play a more important role in healing the gut with the right strain of bacteria if it has been depleted or doesn’t exist in the gut.  This is addressed in the phase of gut healing that corresponds with RESTORE in the 4 (or 5) R approach as discussed in a a prior post, here.

Probiotics Do Not Feed the Microbiota

Probiotics provide beneficial bacteria to the gut but they don’t actually feed the microbiota the way prebiotic foods do, as discussed below.  Rather, they seem to coexist in the microbiota for the time that they are present in the gut.  As noted in an earlier blog post, prebiotics are non-digestible foods that selectively stimulate the growth of certain beneficial bacteria in the colon - meaning, they feed the gut bugs so they can flourish. Prebiotics, because they are foods that you can incorporate into your daily meals, may be able to result in better colonization of the gut with beneficial bacteria and can actually favorably change the composition of the microbiome. Overall, they can improve your health at a systemic level by improving the health of your gut and they may be a more sustainable way to support gut health than probiotics in supplement form (unless addressing a specific health condition with a specific strain and dose). 

Don’t Forget Fermented Foods

However, actual foods that are fermented and have live beneficial bacteria in them, like yogurt, kefir, kimchi and sauerkraut may be more favorable in terms of building up your gut flora than probiotic supplements due to the higher potency of the live bacteria in them and synergistic effect of the different compounds in food. 

Please reach out, if I can help you with any gut health questions or concerns that you may have!