Probiotic supplements are made of strains of bacteria that are known to contribute to a healthy gut flora. Gut-friendly bacteria are important for your gastrointestinal health, protect your intestines from harmful microbes, synthesize vitamin B-12 and vitamin K that your body can rely on and can even promote a healthy immune system, according to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the March 1997 issue of "European Journal of Cancer Prevention." If you often feel bloated, probiotics can help restore your gut flora balance and control your bloating, although your bloating may be worsened when you first start taking probiotics.
Choosing the Right Probiotic
To help get your bloating under control, it is important to choose a probiotic that will be effective for you. Some probiotics contain a single strain of bacteria while others contain multiple strains. Look at the label to determine what strains are present in a particular product. If you are very sensitive, starting with one strain may be best, but some people can tolerate multiple strains right from the beginning. Everyone is different and you will need to experiment with different brands until you find the right one for you. A cheap way to include more probiotics into your diet is to ferment dairy to make kefir, yogurt or sour cream or ferment vegetables to make sauerkraut, or other lacto-fermented vegetables. Fermenting your own foods can help you get a large amount of multiple strains of probiotics in each bite, according to the December 2007 issue of "Applied and Environmental Microbiology."
Short-Term Side Effects
In the short-term, adding probiotics to your diet can cause gas, flatulence, belching and bloating. If you have irritable bowel syndrome, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or fructose malabsorption, adding probiotics to your diet is likely to worsen your bloating. These bacteria can feed on some of your unabsorbed foods, producing gas in your intestines that is responsible for your bloating. Start with very small doses of probiotics and gradually increase the amount you take, as suggested by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, nutritionist and author of "Gut and Psychology Syndrome." Start with 1 tsp. of raw sauerkraut or 1 capsule of probiotic a day for the first week and add one more the following week to prevent excessive bloating and side effects.
Long-Term Benefits
Although probiotics may result in some bloating in the short-term, they will help restore the balance in your gut flora in the long-term. If you have a healthy gut flora, you should not experience bloating, especially if you combine your probiotics with a healthy diet. To prevent bloating, always keep a source of probiotics in your diet, either from supplements or fermented foods, to maintain a healthy gut flora and prevent bad bacteria and yeast from overgrowing in your intestines and causing bloating.
Eating Right
Bacteria feed on sugar, which can be obtained from the digestion of starches and carbohydrates. If you eat a lot of carbohydrates while taking probiotics, you risk suffering from bloating because the bacteria will eat some of these carbohydrates and produce gas. Bloating is caused by this excess gas, produced by the bacteria in your intestines, that is trapped in your intestines. Avoid large amounts of grains, legumes and sugar while taking probiotics to minimize bloating. Some people also have trouble tolerating some prebiotics. Prebiotics are compounds that serve as food for the bacteria in your gut and help to maintain a healthy gut flora. Fructo-oligosaccharide, inulin, chicory root or Jerusalem artichoke are example of prebiotics that can cause bloating in some people. Choose a probiotic that is free of prebiotic to prevent worsening your bloating.
References
- Gut and Psychology Syndrome: Frequently Asked Questions on Gut And Psychology Syndrome
- National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine; An Introduction to Probiotics; January 2007
- "Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology"; Probiotics and Functional Abdominal Bloating; Di Stefano M., et al.; July 2004
- "European Journal of Cancer Prevention"; Intestinal Flora and Endogenous Vitamin Synthesis; Hill M.J.; March 1997
- "Applied and Environmental Microbiology"; DNA Fingerprinting of Lactic Acid Bacteria in Sauerkraut Fermentations; Vethachai Plengvidhya, et al.; December 2007
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