How do probiotics (tablet or otherwise) survive the stomach?
In: Biology
Many of them don’t. Their health claims aren’t supported by the FDA and there no legislative body preventing them from claiming many things on the packaging. You would need to be more specific about the individual species that you are interested in for a meaningful answer. Otherwise the best anyone can say is that they generally don’t survive the stomach or really do anything verifiable.
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It’s important to remember that stomach acid doesn’t inherently just destroy everything it touches. It affects different things in different ways. Several “probiotic” bacteria, such as lactobacillus acidophilus, actually thrive in acidic environments, while others may simply survive transit through the stomach and recover once they’re in a more favorable environment in the gut.
A well packaged probiotic will be supplied in an enteric coated capsule that does not dissolve in acid but is digested in the small intestine.
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