I'm TT and I'm Zakiah, and this is Dope Labs. Welcome to Dope Labs, a weekly podcast that mixes hardcore science with pop culture and a healthy dose of friendship. I saw this TikTok where people were taking a shot of apple cider vinegar every morning to keep their stomach on flat flat.
Ooh, that's a lot of ascid.
I am not that kind of scientist, so I have no idea what that's supposed to do.
I just feel like there are so many wellness trends like that, and they're just things that make you wonder like is this legit or just social media science.
One of the.
Biggest ones like that is probiotics.
Yo.
Probiotics have been all over my timeline every day. It feels like I'm getting hit with ads this probiotic and that, probiotic drinks, gummies, face cream, even pillows, probiotic pillows.
That's crazy, but I think I think a lot of times the question is like what are these probiotics supposed to actually do? Like are we really helping our bodies or are we just buy an expensive yogurt.
That's why we're in the lab today to figure out what probiotics are how prebiotics fit in and why we're hearing about bacteria like they're the new wellness MVPs.
Let's get into the recitation.
Okay, here's what we know.
There is bacteria living all over us, inside and out.
That's what I learned from my friends and many. That's right, because I didn't believe it. Yeah, it's your microbiome.
And it's not just bacteria. There's fun guy to And those bacteria aren't random. They have evolved alongside us humans, you know, doing important jobs, like they help us digest food in the gut. They're trading our immune systems, protecting our skin.
So that's the microbiome.
But where I get stuck is all this talk about probiotics and prebiotics. I see those words everywhere, but I'm like, what's the difference. I know pro and pre are different prefixes, but what's the difference and how do.
They actually work?
Listen, even as someone who knows the science, I still have questions because here's the thing. If I'm saying, Okay, I know our bodies already have established microbial communities, so and those organisms are surprisingly consistent across different people, you know, So that means these systems are resilient. So when I see a supplement this li we have billions of colony forming units, you know, means that in that little pield, they're saying, all these bacteria are capable of being alive
and making a little colony of cells. I'm wondering, by taking probotics, are you actually able to change that resilient community that already exists or are we just adding more stuff that has no real impact. Okay, that's a deep cut. Okay, for me, it's even more straightforward.
I just want to know our probiotics and probiotics something I need to be taking.
Is it gonna help me?
I want to know how do they work in different parts of your body, your gut, your skin, your hair? And is it enough to eat some yogurt? Should I be putting yogurt in my hair? I did that before one time. Yeah, you know, I wouldn't recommend it.
We don't want to go back to banana brea head. Okay, right, Oh, go.
Back and listen to that episode. It was poor advice to my friend that I gave her. But do I need to put yogurt everywhere? Or can I just take a pill? Well, I think tt that's exactly what we need to dig into. With doctor Raj, a gastro entrologist an expert in science behind probiotics, she'll help us figure out what's.
Legit and what's just marketing.
Perfect, let's jump into the dissection.
I'm doctor Roshni Raj. I'm co founder of Yaday and Tula. I'm an Associate Professor of Medicine at NYU School of Medicine, and I can be reached my website, which is gut Renovation dot net or on Instagram, Dr Roschi Raj.
So we're talking about probiotics, and our first question, doctor Raj, is like, is this new? Because for a long time, bacteria we're seen as the bad guys. You know, we think back to the gold yellow dial soap. It was like sanitize everything, bleach this, wash your hands with antibacterial soap. We know that that's kind of gone away, but we're also seeing this shift where people are talking about probiotics in the gut and on the skin, and even when
we think about fermented foods like kombucha. Is that girl? So it feels like bacteria is having a rebrand.
Yeah.
No, I think first of all, I just want to say, I'm so excited to be speaking with you both, and especially at this moment in time, to be speaking to women in science. And as we all know, science is a little bit under or a lot under assault right now, so it's really important the work that you're doing, and I'm really I'm really honored to be part of your program today. But talking about bacteria, it is a fascinating story.
And if you go back to kind of the history exactly as you were saying ze Key about, but we used to think all bacteria were bad, and in fact, the first antibiotics, which was penicillin, was really discovered I believe around the time of World War Two and the battlefield and all these wounds and getting infected, and it was such a life saving thing to discover antibiotics that
can kill bacteria and cure infection. And so that kind of idea of bacteria is being bad and causing illness really has remained in medicine up until and now I'm dating myself, but during my gasterentrology fellowship, so we're talking about two thousand and one, two thousand and two, that's when I first learned about this term probiotics, the fact that actually there's some bacteria that are not only not bad for you, but actually good for you. They can
actually cause some real benefits in your gut. And back then, all the discussion about probiotics was really just about digestive health and how it can keep your DIGESTIONI in balance and keep all the good bacteria in balance. But now when we shift over twenty years, we realize that your gut microbiome and those healthy bacteria can actually have positive effects throughout your body, not just your gut, but your mental health, your metabolism, your immunity, your risk of cancer,
heart disease, almost any disease under the sun. This is what motivated me to write my book Gut Renovation a couple of years ago, which is all about how your microbiome can really impact your overall health. So, yes, bacteria is definitely having a moment, and I'm very excited about that because the research really does show that having a healthy microbiome and that's the community of bacteria in your gut really can have so many far reaching effects throughout your body.
Yes, it feels like bacteria has the right PR team behind them. You hear the word bacteria and it doesn't make you like.
Screen, you know what I mean.
And there has been a shift because when I started co founded Tula, which is our probiotic skincare brand, we started that in twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, early fifteen, and at that time, the thought of putting bacterial extracts on the skin there definitely was still an ick factor and why would we be doing that? Isn't that kind of gross? There was a lot of education involved in really educating the customer about what all the benefits are of doing that.
And now there's a skin microbiome conference every other week practically, Like it's just so shifted. The information has exploded, consumer scientists, everyone's really embracing this idea of your natural microbiome and why it's so important to keep it balanced and intact.
I really want to get people to understand the differences between good bacteria and bad bacteria. So probiotics and the bad stuff that makes you sick. Yeah, how are they different from one another?
Yeah? So we know that in our digestive tract and mostly I'm talking about your coal and your large intestine. That's where we have the hosts. The majority of the bacteria in our gut. We do have a community of many good, beneficial strains of bacteria that can do many different things. They can help strengthen the lining of your gut. They can produce metabolites that affect your immune cells, they can produce neurotransmitters that affect your mood, all sorts of things.
But we also do have some communities of bacteria that are not so great for you, especially if they become overpopulated. So if you think about sort of a garden and there's beautiful flowers, there's some regular plants, and there are some weeds, and you know they're always going to be some weeds, but you want to just keep them under control so they're not sucking up all the fuel that should be going to the good stuff and basically destroying all your good bacteria. And going along with this kind
of flower garden metaphor is the concept of prebiotics. So prebiotics, you can think of that as the fertilizer for your good, beautiful flowers. So prebiotics usually are fiber based, and these are things that feed the growth of beneficial bacteria, and that's why we think fiber is such a key crucial component of our diet, because that's really how you can feed the growth of your good bacteria, make sure they're in abundance so that the bad bacteria doesn't have a
chance to overgrow. One example that we see a lot in medicine of a bad bacteria is something called C. Deficile or Cloustridium deficile. This is a bacteria that we all have a little bit of, usually just walking around, but it's small, it's a low enough amount it doesn't
cause problems. But sometimes when you take antibiotics, say you have an ear infection or a respiratory infection, you take antibiotics, it does get rid of whatever causing the ear infection or the respiratory infection, but it can also destroy some of your good protective bacteria in your gut, and that allows this bad bacteria Sea deficile to overgrow and it can cause inflammation, severe diarrhea, It can be quite serious.
So that's an example of when you throw things off balance, bad bacteria have a better chance of growing and causing problems.
Okay, so we can think about probiotics as the good bacteria we want, and prebiotics are there fertilizer, But what about post biotics. It feels like we're just making up worries at this point.
Yeah, great question. First everyone learned about probiotics, then they have to learn about probiotics. Now we're throwing post biotics in there. So post biotics are really the metabolites, the actives that a probiotic bacteria can release, but it's not the actual bacteria. So if you think of the bacteria as almost like a sack holding some really important things in there, the sack burst releases all that good stuff.
The good stuff is the post biotics, but the bacteria itself is gone, it's dead, it's no longer there, but it's releasing those active metabolites which can remain active even though the bacteria has died. So, for example, with tula, what were you putting on your skin? Those are not live bacteria. Those are probiotic extracts or post biotics. There's another term called symbiotic, which is a combination of a
prebiotic and a probiotic. So sometimes now if you take supplements, maybe you used to take just a probiotic, Now you can often find a combination of pre and pro So these are all different, you know, different methods of really boosting the health of your microbiome.
Okay, so prebiotic, probiotic, post biotic. Prebiotic plus probiotic equals symbiotic.
Did I get everything?
I know it feels like a lot you did. I think when we break it down and think about that garden, uh huh. Probiotic is the fertilizer in a probiotic is the flower. The flower is that bacteria. Now, sometimes you may just feel like, hey, I'm getting enough in my diet. I don't need fertilizer. I just want the probiotic.
Mm hmm.
Sometimes you may say, hey, I'm gonna take this probody, but I know I'm not doing right. I need the fertilizer too. So that's called a symbiotic. That's put planting your flowers and adding fertilizer directly to the soil as soon as you do it. The post biotic is like if you said, Okay, I'm just gonna skip the flower and the fertilizer, give me the extract. I'm gonna take these flowers and steep them. I'll drink the tea, and the post body is the tea. When you take those
flowers and you say, what was in those flowers. I'm gonna extract that out. That's what the post biotic is, Okay, Lavender.
I don't want this to be a reach, but I don't know, if you remember, I don't know if we're gonna be aging ourselves when like everything in the haircare industry was like ion technology. Oh yeah, and I always turn to t TEA for help with anything like this.
Ions are everywhere like it was. It just sounds good, you know.
It sounds scientific, but most people had no idea what that meant. Is there a solid science that tells us if we understand that we have acrobiome that's established, does the science back this up? Aside from what we know can sometimes happen with placebo effect, do we see that adding probiotics and post biotics can shift the composition or regulate dys biosis so when things are out of proportion in the gut? Is there a strong case for that?
Yeah, it's a great question, and I think first we have to go back to is there science supporting just the fact that the microbiome itself does have importance and effects throughout our body? And that the answer is definitely yes. So you know, there's something called the Human Microbiome Project where scientists have really gone and mapped out all the different strains or possible strains in the human microbiome and what genes you know, confer different strains and what they
all do. So we know the microbiome exists and it actually has a real purpose. But the question that you raise, which is an interesting one, is intervention. So do interventions
like adding probiotics or adding probiotics make a difference? And there it is still an early feel, I would say, in certain in terms of research, but yes, there are compelling studies looking at everything from adding probiotics to an antidepression regimen, to adding probiotics to something for immunity, and does that mean children will get less colds in a given year? And there is compelling evidence to say, yes, it does actually work. Do we know exactly what doses,
what strains should be for which people. I don't think we're there quite yet, but it's definitely an active area of research and I think we're going to get those answers relatively soon. But there's just so many fascinating studies out there looking at this. I mean, they have done studies looking at people with depression and people without depression, and then they examine their stool and they examine their micromiome and they find real stark differences between the two.
And the question is, if you can supplement the person with depression with the kind of non depressed type of bacteria, is that going to help them? And they've shown some small studies where it does help, but we need larger amounts of evidence to really prove that. There are other things looking at sleep in the microbiome, There's one that I found really interesting looking at medical students who are notoriously sleep deprived and specifically during a night shift, like
I think it was a three week night shift. They looked at their microbiome kind of profile before they started the night shift and after the three weeks, and they saw significant changes. So that just being sleep deprived, and they may have also eaten different things because they were sleep deprived, but there were changes in their microbiome. There's certain bacteria that they found to be more pro insomnia or more pro good sleep. So there are just so
many connections that are being made. It's still in early field. We still have a lot to learn, but there's definitely something there.
Now I'm thinking of all of my ailments.
There's a connection, and that's partly why I love the concept of prebiotics and fiber, because we don't know exactly what strain we should be taking for what. With prebiotics, you're sort of getting that broad benefit because you're feeding all of your good bacteria. You know, it's a way to sort of head your bets a little bit, like I'm not sure which bacteria should be feeding more, but if I'm taking a ton of fiber, all of my good bacteria are going to be plentiful and abundant.
Like miracle grow.
Yeah, exactly.
More on the flower metaphor, yes, Yes.
In the research for this episode and just talking to my friend because she's very smart and knows these things. Yeah, I learned that we talk a lot about the gut microbiome, but I also learned that your skin has microbiomes, there's vaginal microbiomes, there's even.
Mouth and scalp microbiome.
Can you help us understand how these ecosystems differ across the body and why they matter totally?
Well, I think now we're realizing that this concept of microbiome is important in many different parts of our body. Like you said, and I think any woman who's ever had a used infection in their life understands the importance of a vaginal microbiome, right. So we know that particularly if you take antibiotics or if something even up from that throws off the ecosystem in the vaginal microbiome, you can develop an overgrowth of yeast or potentially other infections.
So we know that there's a very delicate balance in the vaginal area in terms of pH which is governed by bacteria in many cases, and just the balance there, so that's important. Then the oral microbiome is really fascinating because now there are many studies showing that your oral
health really can impact again your overall health. Things like heart disease, for example, is a big one because we think that if you have more sort of plaque or infection in the oral area, it can cause overall body inflammation. And we know that inflammation is kind of the root of all evils when it comes to most diseases. So, yes, the oral microbiome is very important to maintain, and skin microbiome for sure, and that's partly what TULA is all about.
But the fact that we have a delicate balance of microbiome on our skin of good bacteria, and that really the good bacteria on your skin can really help strengthen your skin's natural defense barrier. And what that does is help you hold onto moisture. It can help decrease skin inflammation. And we know inflammation on the skin is what causes collagen breakdown a last and breakdown that leads to wrinkle formation as well as dryness, redness, irritation, all those things.
So that's how the skin microbiome can be very important, and other things like pollution can disrupt it. Different products can disrupt it as well. And scalp microbiome is also particularly in people who have conditions like dandruff. For example. There are now thoughts that the scalp microbiome plays a role there as well and may allow for a certain overgrowth of certain bacteria that can lead to more scalp issues like dandruff.
It's so interesting even an.
Under our microbiome. I was actually interested in looking at that at one point. Deodorant and the microbiome and what causes odor, all of those things have to do with bacteria to a large extent, So kind of cracking the code on that I think would be really interesting as well.
We're understanding that we have this established micro biome and it's not static, but the microbiome that are on your feet or on your hands look different over time. We actually have a friend from grad school, Keisha, Our friend Keisha TT did a study of the microbiome on the hands and feet and she was really a fungal microbiologist and so she showed like, if you ever had athletes foot,
there's a microbiome's signature. If you've used like tough acting to enacting or whatever the stuff for athletes foot, you don't re establish those fun guy like you see a different composition years later just because of that disruption to your microbiome.
Okay, that's amazing.
Yeah, so that's cool. So that kind of shows that you can make changes that can be super lasting. So that also helps us understand why it's so important to repopulate some of those key players when you lose them. But yeah, when we introduce those players, like are we changing? I guess I want to understand, like are we changing the neighborhood? Like are we bringing in new people? Is it like back to your gentrification or are we like you know, like are we kicking out the other people
and bringing other folks in. Or are we just like supplementing what's already there that don't normally exist.
No great question, And I would say for the vast majority of probiotics that you might buy off the shelf are strains you already have that humans already contain, but in higher doses to really give your natural ones a boost. There are a few even kind of genetically modified probiotics that have been kind of boosted to give some extra benefit of some kind. But for the vast majority, it's
strains we already have. And these are certain families that are common, like Bifittobacter or Lactobacillus or some so these are things that we already naturally produce, but something may have caused us to not produce enough, whether it was antibatics. I mean, it's interesting what you said about the long
lasting effect of the fungal antifungals. There are studies looking at children who get antibotics in childhood, for let's say, repeated ear infections twenty thirty years later have a higher incidents of things like Crohn's disease or other autoimmune diseases, so they can really have long lasting effects these disruptions of the microbiome, which is why it is so important to do everything you can to take care of your gut.
I mean, that's what prompted me to start ya day, is this idea of what's a simple thing that we can all be doing to really optimize our gut microbiome, and that's increasing our fiber. So that's why I really wanted to do this probatic blend of great fibers. But yes, I think most of the time it's what you naturally have, but you want to boost it and make sure you have them enough amounts.
Okay, continuing along with that metaphor that Azekia just said about the neighborhood. Yeah, when these probiotis come in, are they fistfighting with the bacteria that's already in the neighborhood or are they coexisting in a very happy relationship.
How does this work? How do they mix and mingle?
Yeah, so they're coexisting well with the nice neighbors. I would say that they're competing for food with the bad neighbors, and that's good because you want those bad to not get enough food and start to diminish and die off a little bit. So, Yes, they really kind of compliment your good, healthy bacteria and keep the bad guys kind of down to a minimum. That's how it usually works. And another interesting point which I don't think we knew
in the very beginning. We kind of thought, oh, you give someone probiotics, let's say for a week or even a month, and then their body kind of takes over. It now looks like you probably have to keep up the supplementation for quite a while. It's not. It's something that your body probably will need more long term, as opposed to being able to then ramp up its own production and take over on its own.
And preparation for this lab TT and I were talking about understanding that in the same way that our immune system gets stronger when it's exposed to things. Yeah, are microbiome on the skin you know, when you first depending on the method of delivery our birth into the world, you have a transfer of the mother's skin microbiome to the baby skin microbiome, right right, similar microbiome, the microbiome,
and when we think about colonizing that gut microbiome. And I'm thinking about what you said about broad spectrum antibiotics and also antibotics that are not topical, that are not in one place, but that you may take orally as a kid, that could destroy that gut microbiome. If we're thinking about those first two years of life for kids and how they're establishing their microbiome, but may be exposed, especially in daycare, to so many things and so they
may be having to take antibiotics. Is there a case for probiotics for kids.
And is it beyond yogurt because I feel like people say kids got to eat a lot of yogurt, but I.
Think there definitely is a case for it. Yes, yogurt is fabulous because it has calcium and all these other things, and it does have a nice rich mix of diverse organism, so that's good. But these days, exactly as you said, because they're exposed to so many viruses and infections, A, the probiotics can help with immunity overall, and B if they are unfortunately going to have to take antibiotics, and definitely we should always use them sparingly, whether it's for
kids or adults, but sometimes they need them. I think probiotics definitely are an important component of keeping their microbiome healthy. I mean, now they have infant formulas with probiotics. They're even giving it to neonates with certain conditions like premies, depending on what's going on. So I think we're learning that it is extremely important for sure to boost the
microbiome as kids are developing. And I just again, this is something I just find interesting that you were talking about delivery and the mother passing on microbes to the child and they have these. You may have come across this in your research, but studies looking at babies born with c sections versus vaginal delivery and how their microbiomes are much less healthy if they're born through sea section.
So they actually did a study where even if the baby was born with a sea section, they would take some of the vaginal flora of their mother and put it on the skin of the baby and try to like boost their microbiome that way, and it actually did work.
Yeah, well, if you do have to have a c section.
Swab it.
Yeah, well only.
Women could have this discussion. I think, not loving it right now, but.
That sounds amazing.
That sounds amazing to hear that you know, if you do have to go through sea section, that this is not something that you.
Miss out on the things you can do. Yes, I love that. I love that.
My question is about probiotics as a cure for things. Can it actually cure things? Because I mean, I see a lot on TikTok and Instagram where people are saying it could be a cure. But we wanted to talk to an expert, someone who knows what they're talking about, to tell us if it is possible for probiotic secure things, what are they and then what are some misconceptions about the impact of probiotics in some areas when it comes to our health.
I will tell you as a gas terentrologist firsthand, I have had many patients who either have severe bloating or constipation or diarrhea, whole host of things, and they start taking certain probiotics and they feel one hundred percent better. So, just anecdotally, I can tell you that for some people in some conditions it can definitely work. Now globally and there are studies that show for certain conditions it works,
especially in the digestive tract. But like I was saying before, in terms of other parts of our body, whether it's depression or other conditions, even they're looking at things like autism and Parkinson's and dementia. There, the research is still ongoing, so I don't think we can conclusively say we have cures yet. I think we can conclusively say there is a connection between the microbiome and these conditions. But how we come up with the cure yet, I don't think so.
I mean, there's a probiotic that they've done some good studies on showing that it helps with blood sugar control. So is this something that maybe not a cure, but a method of really helping control diabetes. I think there is some evidence for that, So I think that's more of an ongoing story. But certainly within the digestive world there are conditions where probatics have been shown to help.
But I just think probably over the next five to ten years, we're going to see a lot more proof points and a lot more conclusive evidence.
FDA has no indications that say probiotics are used to treat this or can treat xyz. Yeah, but we also know that sometimes the FDA is a large ship that is slow turning.
Yeah.
Yeah, And so I think the question becomes without any guidance or without something that has an ingredient or label that says this will absolutely rebalance your skin microbiome where this will help you not have embarrassed saying and stomach rumbles in network? Right, How what should people be looking for to know if a probiotic blend is for them.
I do think it helps to talk to an expert, like whether that's your healthcare practitioner or maybe it's your dermatologist. For me, when I'm looking at because I'm looking at products all the time just for various reasons, to see what people are doing, and I'll do a quick search. I'll look at the strains and I'll do a quick search of what is the science behind these strains, like has this strain been shown to improve skin hydration or improve acne, or has this strain been shown to help
with bloating. I think because like you said, there's so many things out there, there's really no regulation it is, it can be very confusing, and so it's hard to give a blanket answer of oh, look for XYZ and you're good. I think you have to really look at the label always off the bat, it's generally better to go with a reputable company, one that you can kind
of see where they're coming from. I mean, I think one of the good news things about probiotics is there's very little downside, so unlike many supplements, yeah, herbs and things where you know, people think like, oh it's herbal, it's all good, But herbs can cause liver failure, they can cause all yeah, as you guys know, so to me. Because probiotics usually are just a bacterial strain, there's usually
very little downside to it. But you want something that's actually going to be effective for sure.
Just like we're talking about gut health, we want to think about healthy skin. How do you define healthy skin? And then how do topicals or probiotics work differently depending on your skin type.
I mean, first of all, Toola, we always want to make sure we're not trying to say everyone needs to have perfect skin. There is no such thing as perfect skin, and what you see on Instagram is usually not reality. But generally, what we are aiming for with healthy skin our skin that is not overly dried or irritated. Hydration and irritation and dryness are the main things there. In terms of topical probiotics, I think there are some topical
probiotic extracts that work very well for hydration. There are others that specifically work for things like rosation and acne, and those are one of those areas where there's a lot of active research going on. But I think it's different strains for different things. But for overall the average person who doesn't have examo roseaesia acne but just wants healthier skin or glowing, moist good skin, there are some general families of bacteria that they can find that are good for that.
Okay, you've covered so much. We talked about digestion for the gut. We talked a little bit about the mind gut access and like how that can effect mood and mental health. But I'm curious if you have any breakthroughs that you think are happening or that things that you're seeing that feel like, oh, this is exciting around the area of good bacteria, a good fun guy or good microbes in medicine.
Yeah, I think the thing that I'm excited about, I'm so excited about just more and more research on interventions using probiotics. Like I said, I don't think we're that far away from an antidepressant probiotic, which would have all the benefits and none of the side effects of antidepressants. Right now, you know, so I think that would be just revolutionary given the mental health crisis we're going through
at the moment. But one of the things I'm really excited about is this idea of taking a probiotic, a healthy bacteria, and basically modifying it in a way that it can deliver, like you said, some kind of other benefit that it wasn't actually naturally intended to do, but something positive. So, for example, there's a bacteria that they're working on to help with lactose intolerance or even with
silliact disease, which you know, gluten intolerance. So ways to modify these bacteria so that if you take it, you're actually able to process gluten or able to process lactose, things like that. Really engineering these bacteria to serve even more purpose than they already do. That's something I'm very excited about, for sure. And I think you know you
mentioned gout mind. I don't think we talked about it that much, but I do think that's probably the next front here, is really getting more into that gut mind connection, because I mean, it's very real. If you've ever had butterflies in your stomach, you know that it's real. But it goes well beyond that, and how do we what are ways we can modulate our mood by really modulating what's going on in our gut. I think that could
be so fascinating. And they're even studies looking at personality differences when you change the microbiome, like making someone who shine more outgoing or vice versa. Like, there's just so much fertile ground there for exploration, so I'm excited to see where where that goes.
Wow, so we you can make yourself healthier, happier or outgoing, exactly better skin, better hairs.
All these different things. It's amazing.
So if someone is listening right now and they're like, oh my gosh, I've learned so much about probiotics now I know that, you know, probiotics can really help me with certain things that I'm experiencing. They what's the first step do they take that they should take? How do they know what probiotic to use?
So, as I was saying before, I would start with probiotics because that we know is going to fuel the growth of all your good bacteria. So probatics you definitely can find in your diet, things like artichokes, apricots, almonds, many different sources of fiber or good sources of probiotics. Okay, you can also find a lot of probiotic rich foods in your diet. So I have yogurt every day, yogurt
with live and active cultures. But things like kimchi, miso, sauerkraut, fermented pickles, kafir I think you guys mentioned, or kombucha. So there are different ways to get probiotics in. And then yes, taking a probatic supplement and or a probiotic supplement is also a great way to ensure you're getting that.
You know, when we talk about fiber, it's thought that over ninety percent of Americans don't get the recommended amount of fiber, so most of us are fiber deprived and can use more, and it's so important to boost our microbio. But then the other just last thing I'll say is we're talking a lot about diet and supplements, but there are a lot of other things that affect your microbiomes. So stress can cause imbalances in your microbiomes. Sleep deprivation
can do it, lack of exercise can do it. So you want to be thinking holistically about your lifestyle because all of those things can either positively or negatively affect your microbiomes, so make sure you're paying attention to all aspects of your lifestyle.
Such a good point.
If you're worried about your skin care, you should worry about your gut care as well, and your tire microbiome. That's correct, that's such good advice.
All right.
So tt here's what we learn. Probatics are the good bacteria. Probiotics are the fiber that feeds them. Post Biotics are the byproducts, the useful leftovers out of those bacteria, and symbiotics, well, that's a burger fries. It's a combo meal.
But the big takeaway your microbiome matter is not just for your gut, but for your skin, mood, even your sleep. And while the science is still catching up on exactly how to optimize it, we know this fiber is your friend. Probiotics can help, but not all blends are created equal, and your lifestyle, sleep, stress, exercise, all that affects your microbiome.
So whether you're here for the yogurt, komuncha or the skincare, just remember that bacteria more than just germs. They might be your body's best kept secret.
See y'all next time.
Special thanks to Doctor Raj, who can be found to her website gut Renovation dot net.
You can find us on X and Instagram at Dope Labs podcast, tt is.
On X and Instagram at dr Underscore, T s.
H O, and you can find Takiya at z said So.
Dope Labs is a production of Lemonada Media.
Our senior supervising producer is Kristin Lapour and our associate producer is Isara Savez.
Dope Labs is sound design, edited and mixed by James Farber. Leimonada Media's Vice President of Partnerships and Production is Jackie Danziger. Executive producer from iHeart Podcast is Katrina Norvil. Marketing lead is Alison Kanter.
Original music composed and produced by Taka Yatsuzawa and Alex sugi Ura, with additional music by Elijah Harvey. Dope Lab is executive produced by US T T Show Dia and Nikia Wattley.