Inside your gut, there live “good” and “bad” bacteria. Probiotics are the “good” kind, little microorganisms who fight the “bad” ones for a balanced, healthy, gastrointestinal tract (GI tract). Probiotics can do wonders for your health—from improving digestion to clearing up your skin.
Here are five surprising ways adding a probiotic supplement to your daily routine can make you feel healthier than ever before:
#1 Reduce Your Waistline
Probiotics have the power to help return balance to your microbiome, which may help you drop pounds. They not only increase your metabolism, so you burn more calories, but they also help you crave the healthy foods your body needs, unlike their junk food, sugar-loving “bad” bug counterparts.
Probiotics assist your body in many ways, helping create a cycle of eating healthy, feeling good, and aiding you in losing those hard-to-shed extra pounds.
#2 Increase Your Energy
Need a boost? If you have already tried the zillions of energy drinks, powders and pills only to find out that the artificial boost of energy doesn’t last, then you really should be using probiotics. Unlike chemical-filled energy drinks, which provide a false “boost,” probiotics target the source, not just the symptom.
Medical experts believe that a lack of energy often stems from not getting enough vitamins and nutrients from your food. With a healthy gut, aided by a complete probiotic supplement, food and its vital nutrients can finally be absorbed more quickly and thoroughly. A balanced digestive system can also help produce extra B vitamins—critical to energy production.
#3 Improve Your Mood
Experts often refer to the gut as the “Second Brain” for a reason. An imbalance of microflora in the belly—an imbalance probiotics help to fix—has a significant effect on mental health. Researchers have shown that a healthy gut can help reduce the brain activity that is related to feelings of anxiety, depression and other forms of psychological and emotional stress. Probiotics help to produce serotonin, the “happiness” chemical in your brain that is responsible for your good mood.
#4 Get Your ZZZZ’s
It may be hard to believe that tiny microorganisms in your gut can help you sleep, but multiple studies have shown that probiotics might do just that. Just as probiotics help produce the hormone serotonin, they also help your body naturally manufacture melatonin, the hormone that creates a feeling of relaxation.
#5 Better Teeth and Skin
Probiotics aren’t a substitute for washing your face or brushing your teeth, but evidence suggests that regularly taking a complete probiotic supplement helps to prevent periodontal disease and halitosis, among other dental conditions, plus they have been shown to improve skin clarity as well.
Taking a complete daily probiotics supplement is an efficient way to keep your digestive system running at optimal levels. They help keep your entire body’s cells fully charged with the nutrients and energy they need so you can live life to the fullest.
