The One Question Everyone Has About Probiotics, That We Don’t Talk About Enough

Think of probiotics like little helpers in your digestive tract that work to maintain harmony in your gut ecosystem,* says Vincent Pedre, M.D., a board-certified internist and gut health expert. Adequate numbers of good bugs in the gut, “outnumber and antagonize unwelcome pathogens, including unfavorable bacteria, yeast, and parasites.”

In other words, probiotics—which are live bacteria and yeasts—are fighting for you, helping to restore and maintain balance in your gut.* When you’re getting poor sleep, are overly stressed, or are living off processed foods (to name a few things), these challenges can knock your gut out of balance.

Probiotics are the good bacteria that enter your gut, providing nourishing strains of bacteria to elevate your gut microbiome and combat microbial imbalance.*

But how does that happen, exactly? Probiotics essentially push out the unwanted gut residents.* The good bacteria invade their space and steal their food and nutrients, creating an environment where the undesirable organisms can’t survive. Eventually, those guys die off while the probiotics thrive and grow in numbers. 

As probiotics feed on fibers, they also produce beneficial byproducts called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). SCFAs fuel your intestinal cells and help strengthen your gut barrier, two things that can improve your overall gut health and help strengthen it for future threats.* Will Bulsiewicz, M.D., MSCI, a gastroenterologist and internationally recognized gut health expert, calls SCFAs a “real game-changer” and says that their production can literally transform your gut—and overall—health.*