Probiotics have become more and more popular in recent years, with a wide array of research noting that they can help to address numerous physical problems.
Indeed, probiotics formulated for women have been found to be very helpful in a variety of areas, including fighting off infections, improving your digestion, and improving certain mental health symptoms.
However, with the array of probiotics available on the market, a key question must be asked: Just how are probiotic formulations validated?
What are Probiotics?
Probiotics are a form of yeast and bacteria. Unlike most bacteria, this kind is good for you. It may sound counter-intuitive – after all, many of us constantly hear about how problematic bacteria can be. However, the specific formula of probiotics makes them work to our benefit.
Probiotics from places like Probulin have been found to be most beneficial for your overall stomach and digestive health. They appear to work by helping to keep your body in a state of homeostasis. Specifically, they help your body and stomach digest food and can also help to fight off certain types of bad bacteria.
They also seem to strengthen your stomach lining, thus helping you digest food, and assist in the overall digestive process.
Probiotics are a broad description. There are many specific types of probiotics.
Probiotics can be found in two ways:
- Probiotics are naturally found in many types of food. These include yogurt, certain types of bread, cottage cheese, and more.
- Many people take a supplement that contains probiotics. These often come in capsules, powders, or more, and can be consumed at any time.
Guidelines & Limitations
One of the challenges facing probiotics, in general, is the issue of credibility. Probiotics are treated as dietary supplements. This means that they are less regulated than other drugs or medicines. As a result, it can be too easy for less scrupulous vendors or company’s to lie about what is truly a probiotic.
This is more than just a problem for the industry in general – it can also be dangerous, particularly if someone takes a supplement that actually does something other than what they think.
Unfortunately, there are no guidelines in place by the Food & Drug Administration that provide specifics as to when a company can say they are selling a probiotic. This creates dangers for consumers. The World Health Organization has created guidelines for probiotics. These recommended guidelines include:
- Company’s should identify the strain of probiotic that they are selling
- They should specifically not the attributes of the strain and its proposed benefits
- They should ensure that any claim is backed up by human study
- They should transparently label all of their medicine bottles and marketing materials
Unfortunately, the lack of clear regulation in the United States means that consumers must be extremely careful about the probiotics that they take. All consumers should conduct extensive research into any probiotics that they take and make sure that the company that they purchase their probiotics from is a reputable one.
