Eli5: If people have different types of gut bacteria what is the point of probiotics?
In: 19
Probiotics (the ones that make sense*) are very specific species of bacteria or yeast that are proven to be beneficial for you. The population of your gut depends on 3 things: what you’ve been exposed to, what you’re feeding it, and what works well together. Probiotics can aid with the first and the third one, introducing some beneficial folk that will boost the general positive population. Makes 0 sense if you don’t feed it though, or if it’s not the proven, registered strain that is produced in pills surviving the stomach acid. Regarding what to feed them: some probiotics are enhanced with prebiotics – kind of a starter meal for them, the rest relies on your diet. Good bacteria generally team up and fight the bad ones, usually not to kill off completely but to keep them in check (barely anything in nature is so black and white that it’s good or bad, what matters is the proportion). You are constantly bombarded by harmful microorganisms that will make you ill, and your gut is your second (after stomach acid) line of defence against the ingestible ones. In addition to that, how well you will process your food, absorb nutrients, and turn the food into beneficial and not harmful compounds (see: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-develop-a-healthy-gut-ecosystem/) depends on it. So you want to keep the population nice and healthy.
To conclude: people have different bacteria in the first place because of exposure differences, antibiotics usage, and their diets. Two people exposed to the same bacteria and having the same diet will have very minor differences in their gut flora. Imagine a garden in a non-sealed jar that you have to take care of for a pretty accurate analogy. With probiotics we can make sure everyone has been exposed (or re-exposed) to the bacteria & yeast strains we know for sure we all want to have.
*Most of them do not and are ineffective or even harmful – the market of dietary supplements is unregulated, if you want a good product pick one with registered medication status. For more info see: https://www.worldgastroenterology.org/UserFiles/file/guidelines/probiotics-and-prebiotics-english-2017.pdf
Latest Answers