How to choose a good probiotic

There are many things that go into choosing the right probiotic. Everything from the type of strain you take to the brand itself, can influence how effective a probiotic is on your health.

1. The type of strains

As we mentioned above, with so many beneficial strains of bacteria, how do you know that you are getting the right ones for your body? Working with a functional medicine practitioner is one way to get tailored recommendations based on your lab work and particular health case. Otherwise, a safe bet is to look for a probiotic that contains the strains Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. Not only have these strains been extensively studied, they are the dominant strains (6) in most people’s guts.

2. The delivery method

While capsules are the most common way to take probiotics, you can also find probiotics in liquid and powdered form. When choosing what form you should take, it’s important to really consider your overall health case and how that might benefit from each of the different forms. For example, if you are struggling with severe digestive distress, capsules might be harder on your gut and esophagus and it would be better to choose powder or liquid probiotics.

3. CFU count

If you’ve ever looked at probiotics before, chances are you’ve seen the term “CFUs” listed on the packaging. This stands for colony-forming unit and represents the estimated number of bacterial cells in each serving that are bioavailable and able to thrive in your gut. I generally recommend at least 10 billions CFUs per day however, you may need more if you are working at healing severe gut dysfunction.

4. The research

You also want to look at how much research has gone into the bacterial strains a brand uses in their probiotic. A reputable brand should be completely transparent on their website with links to the research they used when formulating their supplement. Also, if you are wanting to take a probiotic for a specific health concern, you may want to consider choosing a probiotic that has been studied and proven to help with that area of your health. For example, some strains have been studied for their ability to help with IBS whereas others have been shown to be more beneficial for immune health.

5. Ingredients

Another thing to look at is whether or not there are any unnecessary added preservatives and ingredients. The list of ingredients should be extremely minimal with the main ingredients being the bacterial strains themselves. Too many supplements on the market go for marketability rather than effectiveness with the addition of sugar, coloring, and flavors to make it more appealing for consumers without considering that these could further aggravate digestive distress and the reason for taking probiotics in the first place.

What about prebiotics?

First off, probiotics and prebiotics are not the same. However, they are both equally important for a healthy gut. Unlike probiotics that are live bacteria, prebiotics are a form of dietary fiber found in certain foods that act as a food source for the good, live bacteria already in your gut so they can multiply and thrive. Ultimately, both are necessary so focus on incorporating a high-quality probiotic followed by prebiotic-rich foods as your digestion can tolerate.

The best probiotics for women

If you Google probiotics, hundreds if not thousands of brands come up. Again, the right probiotic for you is going to be different than the right probiotic for someone else. As your health case requires, you may need a more targeted, specialized probiotic blend, but I’ve found the best probiotic for women comes from these trustworthy brands.

1. Sun Genomics

Sun Genomics is a great option for probiotics as they offer customized probiotics based on your own at-home microbiome test results. Everyone’s microbiome is unique, so they believe that your probiotic should be also. They also customize their probiotics based on age with probiotics for adults, kids, toddlers, and babies. 

2. mindbodygreen’s probiotic+

mindbodygreen’s line of supplements includes their clinically-backed probiotic+. This blend contains four strains of bacteria - B. lactis Bi-07, B420, HN019, and L. acidophilus NCFM - designed to ease bloating, aid digestion, and promote overall gut microbiome health. In fact, this probiotic is the only formulation in the world that contains all four of these beneficial strains.

3. Dr. Brighten Women’s Probiotic

If you are looking for the best probiotic for women, look no further than my good friend and women’s health expert Dr. Jolene Brighten’s, supplement. The Dr. Brighten Women’s Probiotic is formulated with the beneficial strains Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and a Bacillus blend, along with prebiotics and antioxidants designed to support a healthy estrobolome for balanced hormones and vaginal microbiome.

4. The Probiotic

As a part of my personally curated supplement line The Collection, The Probiotic fills the gap of a high-quality all-round probiotic. With 100 billion CFUs per capsule, The Probiotic contains four strains of beneficial bacteria, including the extensively studied HN019 strain of Bifidobacterium lactis.

The Probiotic is sealed in nitrogen-purged aluminum blister packs to protect the bacteria from heat, moisture, and oxygen with each capsule packaged in gastro-resistant capsules to ensure a more targeted release for restored microbiome balance, boosted immunity, and enhanced overall health.

Seeking help from a functional medicine doctor

Ultimately, the best probiotic for women is going to come down to your particular health case. Whether you are dealing with hormone imbalance, yeast infections, UTIs, or general gut dysfunction, there are many well-studied strains that have been proven to help overcome these women’s health problems.

In my telehealth functional medicine clinic, I run an extensive list of labs to get to a comprehensive look at your gut health:

1. Gut permeability labs

I always run tests for Zonulin and occluding antibodies. These two proteins control gut permeability, and the presence of antibodies can indicate damage to the tight junctions that keep your gut lining sealed. I also test for actomyosin antibodies, which can indicate destruction of the gut lining, and lipopolysaccharides (LPS) antibodies, which can also indicate leaky gut syndrome, if these antibodies are not contained within the digestive tract.

2. A comprehensive stool analysis

This test can uncover everything from the presence of parasites to bacterial imbalances to conditions like candida overgrowth or SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) or SIFO (small intestinal fungal overgrowth)—any of which can negatively impact gut health.

I also run hormone specific labs to determine if estrogen dominance is a factor in your health case. Urine and saliva hormone labs can give us a complete overview of how well your hormones are functioning. These labs look at sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone as well as cortisol levels and your HPA-axis function.

Working with myself or another functional medicine practitioner can help you get to the root cause of your gut problems and identify the best probiotic to help achieve your health goals. Remember, your gut is the foundation of your entire health. Once you identify and address any underlying gut dysfunctions, your overall health will also reap the benefits.

If you want to learn more about how we can help you find the best probiotic for you and help you restore your gut health, check out our telehealth functional medicine consultation.

As one of the first functional medicine telehealth clinics in the world, we provide webcam health consultations for people around the globe.

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