Do Probiotics Really Work?

Hey everybody, welcome to my weekly house call. Your chance to ask me your questions. And this week's question is, hey Dr. Hyman, can you tell me more about these probiotics I've been hearing about? Can supplementing with them really help reduce belly bloat in my irritable bowel?

And how do you know which ones are good ones? And which ones are the good ones? And are they a waste of money? Are they good for you? Help me out here. Well, this is the great new frontier in medicine. Our poop and all the bugs that live in there. Who knew the health of the hundred trillion bugs in your gut, which by the way, outnumber you 10 to one, is one of the biggest things that impacts your health. So is it as simple as just taking a few probiotics or eating some yogurt?

Well, not really. We have to learn how to tend our inner gardens by what we eat, by how we live, by feeding the good bugs, and also avoiding gut-busting drugs. and gut-busting habits, things like eating too much sugar and starch and drinking too much alcohol. Even not managing our stress affects our gut bugs. Yes, your gut bacteria are eavesdropping on your thoughts. So... What about probiotics?

Well, this is a huge area of research, and we're really at the infancy of understanding how to create and use probiotics. You see, probiotics are popping up everywhere. They're in yogurt commercials. They're sold at your pharmacy or grocery store. Ever since...

health has come to the forefront probiotics have become a really hot topic so do they really help well in order to understand probiotics we need to understand the gut i see so many people in my office every week who are suffering from uncomfortable and often disabling symptoms, things like bloating and cramps and diarrhea and constipation, abdominal pain. And often these are signs of irritable bowel syndrome, which has become a real big problem.

Because 60 million people have it. That's 20% of Americans. And even if you don't have gut symptoms, so many other diseases are affected by the health of your gut flora. Things like obesity. and diabetes and heart disease and cancer autoimmune diseases also things like allergic disorders like asthma and eczema even things like depression ADT and autism are all affected by your gut flora but let's focus a bit on the gut

What causes an irritable bowel? Well, the biggest cause is bad bugs growing where they shouldn't be growing and a leaky gut and food sensitivities, all of which drive inflammation and irritation. You see, bad bugs grow when we eat a processed diet that's high in sugar and high in starch. And when we don't feed our bugs the right fiber and the prebiotics, or when we take gut-busting drugs, things like antibiotics.

acid blockers for reflux, anti-inflammatory drugs, hormones, and more. And of course, we're affected by the lack of good bugs. Think of your gut as an inner garden. When the weeds take over, you get into trouble. See, if your gut lining breaks down... from any of these things, from stress, from too many antibiotics, from anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin, Advil, or steroids, from intestinal infections, from a low fiber, high sugar diet, from alcohol.

Lots more things. Your immune system is going to be exposed to these foreign particles from food and bacteria and other bugs and other microbes. This is going to trigger an immune response. And that's going to irritate your gut. And that's going to create havoc. that leads to an irritable bowel and often an irritable brain and other problems throughout your whole body. Things like allergy, arthritis, autoimmune diseases, mood problems, even things like obesity, heart disease, and cancer.

The microbial ecosystem in the gut has to be healthy for you to be healthy. When your gut bacteria are out of balance, well, it makes you sick. And among all the gut bacteria, there are good guys, there are bad guys, and there are very bad guys.

And when you have too many bad guys and not enough of the good guys, that's the problem. And this is exactly where probiotics come in. So along with other gut healing nutrients and a low glycemic whole foods diet with lots of protein, fat, fiber, and... good things, probiotics can really help your gut get better. Why? Because probiotics help populate your gut with good bacteria. Now if you're dealing with an irritable bowel, the first thing I recommend is changing your diet.

I created the 10-Day Detox Diet to be a quick gut healing diet. You see, it takes out the bad stuff and puts in the good stuff, and it works fast. Next, I often recommend digestive enzymes and, of course, probiotics. Now, there are lots of them on the market, and they're kind of a varying quality, but I recommend taking a good high-potency probiotic, and you want to look for at least 25 to 50 billion live CFUs, that's colony-forming units, from a whole variety of strains.

Also, start slowly and observe how the probiotics affect your gut. Now, in some cases, certain people need to delay the probiotics until their guts... better because when you put the bad bugs in with the good bugs they start to fight and you can get in trouble so you kind of have to fix the bad bugs first now one of my favorite brands

And I don't really recommend brands, but when it comes to probiotics, the quality really varies. And it varies a lot. So I have some suggestions. And the one I like is called VSL3. It's actually a prescription in some states. Each dose contains about 450 billion live beneficial bacteria. So you could actually even take a little bit of it and still get the effect. And then it starts to get into the gut and it starts to help balance the flora in there.

So it really helps protect you against inflammation. It helps support immunity. It helps digestive function. So you start real slow and you sort of build up on it. Also, remember, not all probiotics need to be refrigerated. Some of them are really good and they're shelf-stable.

And some are okay to store room temperature and some require refrigeration. So you have to kind of figure out which ones you're going to be most suited to and that are most suited to your lifestyle. So I'm going to link to my favorite brands below.

But the best way to pick a probiotic is to work with your functional medicine doctor and choose trusted products so that are well-made and that you don't have to worry about what's in them or not in them. Another way to get probiotics is actually to eat food. Fermented foods. Now, if you can tolerate those, they're a great source of probiotics. Things like kimchi and kombucha and miso, sauerkraut. These traditional foods are often very beneficial. Sometimes you can also eat whole fat.

organic or grass-fed yogurt if you're not allergic to dairy. You can also try sheep or goat yogurt if it's unsweetened. These are all foods that can help your gut flora get and stay healthy. But I also recommend adding the pill form because it's easy and it's reliable and it's probably the most effective way to get your daily probiotics in. Now, in cases where you're dealing with someone who's got a yeast overgrowth or histamine intolerance,

or who wants to avoid fermented foods, a probiotic supplement also might be really the best choice. Also, if you're dealing with what's called SIBO, that's small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or when you get the food baby, when you blow up after eating,

you have bad bugs growing in the wrong part of your intestine and the upper intestine, you might not be able to tolerate probiotics until your gut's better. And the best way to determine if probiotics work for you really is to work with a functional medicine doctor. Go to functionalmedicine.org, you can find a practitioner. Everyone's different. You see, for some people, deeper gut healing might be required before you start taking the probiotics.

You might need to do the weeding, seeding, and feeding program that functional medicine docs do that get rid of the bad bugs with herbs or meds. then seed with the good bugs, then feed the good bugs with prebiotics and foods and fibers. So now let's review the few things that you can do to help rebalance your gut flora today. Number one, eat fiber-rich whole foods and ditch the process.

high sugar foods and starch, which feed the bad bugs. You should eat a diet that's full of nuts and seeds and whole grains and beans if you can tolerate them, ideally gluten-free grains, and vegetables and fruit, all of which feed the good bugs.

Now, some may not be able to tolerate beans and grains if they have bad bacterial overgrowth or yeast overgrowth, which is why I suggest starting with the 10-day detox diet, which also eliminates gluten and dairy, which are big triggers for irritable bowel. Number two, avoid the use of antibiotics and acid blockers and anti-inflammatory drugs because they change your gut flora for the worse.

You can get off of them if you follow the dietary suggestions and you fix your gut. A patient I just saw yesterday said when she got off gluten and dairy, all of her reflux and irritable bowel symptoms went away. Number three. Take probiotics every day. And probiotics really are not just good for the obvious reasons of gut dysfunction. They've also been shown to help with depression and skin issues and autoimmune disease and lots more. I also want you to incorporate prebiotics.

Prebiotics are a form of soluble fiber and they are like fertilizer that help feed the good bugs in your gut. Prebiotic foods include things like onions and garlic and resistant starch and sweet potatoes and dandelion greens and jicama. So I want you to eat plenty of these beneficial prebiotics. And lastly, number four,

Consider specialized testing. If you're stuck, if you're not getting better, you can do things like organic acid testing, stool testing, gluten and food allergy testing if you don't get better and you need to get to the bottom of your gut dysfunction. You're probably going to need to work with a good...

functional medicine doc who can test and treat those imbalances in your gut. But by following these steps, you can have profound impact on your gut health and it may be effective for most people without even ever seeing a doctor. So there you have it.

There's my tips for taking probiotics and for healing your gut. Now I want to hear from you. What have you noticed since you started taking probiotics? And I want you to share your comments below or on my Facebook page. And if you like this video, share it on your social media. And be sure to submit your questions to drhyman.com and maybe next week I'll make a house call to you.