Best Probiotics For Women
When it comes to the best probiotics for women, the preference is to focus on the most researched top probiotic strains that are backed up by science as both safe and effective; a common best practice seen in many studies is to combine multiple probiotic strains such as the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains for increased effectiveness.
Probiotics for women have many common uses and benefits, especially as a natural way to support a healthy gut flora balance in cases of low immune system function, yeast infection, candida overgrowth, constipation, bloating and other digestive issues. To make sure you choose the best probiotic supplements that are the right ones for you, it is important to consider your current state of health along with any symptoms or concerns you may have. Different probiotic strains have different properties and as such, they have different uses, benefits and side effects.
In This Experts Guide
This experts guide summarizes our experience working with probiotics. A big part of our work and natural protocols focus on issues related to compromised gut flora in women such as digestive issues, constipation, bloating, yeast infections, candida overgrowth and low immune system function.
In addition to the best probiotics for women, we also cover common issues with probiotics for women you should be aware of. Some of these issues are the reason behind the probiotic side effects many women experienced.
We hope this guide will help you get the many probiotics benefits for women while minimizing the side effects and risks.
- Are probiotics really needed for women’s health?
- Best probiotic supplements for women.
- Probiotics for women’s ph balance.
- Probiotic foods.
Top Probiotics For Women
| Best probiotic strains for women | Best probiotic supplements for women |
|---|---|
Bifidobacterium, top strains:
Lactobacillus, top strains:
Prebiotics: Inulin, Gum acacia | FloraTrex. 50 billion CFUs 2 capsules dailyFor yeast infection, see: Probiotics for yeast infection. |
Are Probiotics Really Needed For Women’s Health?
Benefits Of Probiotics For Women
The benefits of probiotics for women are directly related to the ability of probiotics to promote the growth of good bacteria in the digestive tract. According to research, the good bacteria in the gut play a key role in digestion, immune system function, and overall good health.
For this reason, probiotics are often recommend when there’s a need to encourage the growth of good bacteria in the gut, especially in the following cases:
- Treat and prevent yeast infections and candida overgrowth. To learn more, see: best probiotics for yeast infection.
- Digestive related issues such as diarrhea (7), constipation (8), bloating (9) and flatulence (gas) (10).
- Promote healthy gut flora, especially during of after use of antibiotics (11).
- Support normal immune system function (12).
Benefits Of Probiotics For Women – Additional Uses
In addition to these main uses of probiotics shown above, there is a growing number of evidence suggesting that probiotics may also be helpful in the following cases:
- Intestinal disorders such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) (3), Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) (1).
- Skin conditions such as eczema, Atopic Dermatitis (itchy inflammation of the skin) (1).
- Neurological disorders (2).
- Weight loss and obesity (4).
- Anxiety, depression (5).
- Allergies (6).
These claimed benefits of probiotics are suggested by some studies as promising although more studies are needed in order to fully understand the effectiveness of probiotics in these cases.
The bottom line: using probiotics to treat or prevent yeast infections, support healthy digestion, gut flora balance, immune system function and overall good health is widely accepted as both effective and safe. This is exactly the focus of the best probiotics supplements and the ideal best probiotics for women use.
Using probiotics for weight loss, anxiety, depression, or brain function still don’t have enough solid data to be considered as an effective option, unless you have a reason to believe these are related to a compromised gut flora.
Best Probiotic Supplements For Women
When it comes to the best probiotics for women, there are 3 key factors to consider:
- Probiotic strains safety and effectiveness.
- Probiotics purity.
- Probiotics potency and stability.
Many women that experienced side effects such as gas, bloating and other digestive issues are surprised to learn the cause of these was their probiotic supplements. This is a common problem not just for women, but also for adults and kids as well.
It turned that a large number of probiotic supplements contain probiotic strains that are derived from allergens such as dairy, soy, wheat or gluten which can cause digestive issues and other unpleasant side effects, especially if you already have digestive issues.
Other cases where taking probiotic supplements showed no benefits was a result of low quality probiotic supplements that weren’t potent enough or didn’t meet label claims.
To help you get the most out of your probiotic supplement, here is a summary of the key properties to look for as well as common problems and concerns you should be aware of:
dairy free probiotics
A common problem with probiotic supplements for women and one of the main reasons of the digestive issues many people experience, is that they used probiotic strains that contained or were derived from dairy or milk. It turned that many people are sensitive to dairy even in small amounts.
These unpleasant probiotics side effects can be easily avoided by using vegan probiotic supplements. Vegan probiotics are 100% plant based, which means no dairy. Please note that vegetarian probiotics can still contain dairy or milk.
We were very surprised to learn that some of the top brands that claim to have the best probiotics for women, didn’t label them as suitable for vegans. When we contacted the companies, we learned that there were traces on milk or dairy and therefore weren’t suitable for vegans.
In addition to dairy free probiotics, you also want to make sure that the probiotic supplement you use do not have common allergens, especially gluten, wheat and soy.
Probiotic supplements potency
Another common issue with many probiotic supplements is that they are either not strong enough, unstable, or not meeting label claims. One study that tested 15 different probiotic supplements found that only 4 out of the 15 products (27%) that had specific claims of viable organisms met or exceeded their label claims (14).
For this reason, it is very important to get your probiotic supplements from a trusted source that have their strength and potency guaranteed.
prebiotics and probiotics
Prebiotics are nondigestible food ingredients known to promote the growth of probiotics by serving as a food source for the probiotics (13). Supplementing with probiotics may help to initially populate your intestines with good bacteria; prebiotics can help this new population of good bacteria to better grow in your intestines.
For this reason, a common best practice is to combine prebiotics with probiotic. Combining probiotics with prebiotics at the same formula was shown to be a convenient way to enhance the effectiveness of the probiotics, saving you the need to take two separate probiotics supplements: one for the probiotics, and the other one for the prebiotic.
Probiotic supplements: the other ingredients
Another common problem with many supplements is the added ingredients. The ones you see listed under the other ingredients section. Toxic fillers and binders are often added to reduce manufacturing costs, make ingredients bind together or look/taste better. Lubrication substances are commonly used to prevent powders from getting stuck to the machines. This has been a very serious concern raised by many health authorities, not only because our bodies do not need these toxins, but because these toxins can cause health issues and even cancer.
This is usually an indication of a low quality product. There should be very few added ingredients in addition to the probiotics and the capsule, with the purpose of each added ingredient explained.
Best Probiotics for Women: FloraTrex
FloraTrex is our preferred choice for probiotics supplement for women and it has been a part of many of our natural protocols for women’s health, especially to promote healthy digestion, immune system function and to restore gut flora balance in cases of yeast infection, candida, antibiotics use and other cases of compromised gut flora.
With 50 billion CFUs (Colony forming units) of the 23 most studied key probiotic strains, optimized with organic inulin prebiotic, FloraTrex is one of the best probiotics for women we have tested, shown to be both effective and safe with no adverse side effects reported.
The biggest advantage we see in FloraTrex is its complete probiotic strains profile as well as the purity the probiotic strains used. FloraTrex uses exclusivity vegan probiotic strains with no dairy, soy, wheat, gluten or other allergens. As we mentioned, this is where many probiotic supplements fail, and one of the reasons of the digestive issues such as gas and bloating people experience when using dairy based probiotics.
FloraTrex combines the Lactobacillus with the Bifidobacterium strains which were shown in many studies to be very beneficial and it is considered a common best practice.
For a complete list of all the probiotic strains that are included in FloraTrex: FloraTrex Ingredients.
Best Probiotics For Women’s pH Balance
Using probiotics for women’s pH balance issues has been commonly suggested as a natural way to prevent or treat vaginal yeast infections. Oral probiotics are usually preferred over probiotic suppositories or other methods involving inserting probiotics into the vagina.
This is a very important point that is often overlooked, and where many mistakes are made.
When it comes to vaginal pH balance issues, it is very important to understand the root cause, whether it is local only (as a result of harsh feminine products) or whether it is also internal with multiple symptoms in different parts of the body. The treatment you may need can be completely different. Choosing the wrong treatment can cause more discomforts, even if its natural.
In fact, the majority of the vaginal yeast infections are caused by a systemic yeast infection problem in the body. In other words, the vaginal infection is only one symptom of a larger problem of candida yeast overgrowth in the body. Inserting probiotics directly into the vagina may help the yeast infection in the vagina, but it won’t help to balance the infection in other areas in the body. Oral probiotics however, may help to address the problem on a systemic level.
To learn more, see: probiotics for yeast infection.
Probiotic Foods
Fermented and probiotic foods are very popular and are associated with many health benefits (15). They are not however, considered as the best probiotics for women, especially if you already have digestive issues or other concerns related to your gut flora, yeast balance and others.
It is definitely possible to get probiotics from natural fermented foods and drinks. The challenges are usually stability, quality issues, and contamination risks, especially store-bought probiotic foods.
With yogurt and other dairy or milk based fermented foods and drinks, the concern is usually sensitivity to dairy.
Vegan sources such as live probiotics cultured coconut yogurt, plant based kefir, Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Kombucha tea may work for some people, but are also known to cause digestive issues in other people. It is important to note that most store-bought probiotic foods can’t be compared to the quality of homemade fresh raw probiotic foods that are properly made.
For this reason, fermented foods and probiotic drinks are usually not recommended for women that already have digestive issues, food sensitivities or compromised gut flora. So unless you make your own homemade fermented foods and know for a fact they have worked for you personally in the past, counting on these foods as a good and safe source of probiotics may not provide the best results. Very often, probiotic foods cause digestive issues such as gas and bloating. This is very common.
When to use probiotic foods? High quality probiotic foods such as Sauerkraut, Kimchi or raw fermented salsa do taste great and can make a wonderful healthy addition to any diet. If you do enjoy the taste of probiotic foods and have no digestive issues or other concerns, you may want to slowly introduce them to your diet and see how they make you feel.
Best Probiotics For Women – References
- Clinical Uses of Probiotics (1).
- Probiotic, Prebiotic, and Brain Development (2).
- Effectiveness of probiotics in irritable bowel syndrome: Updated systematic review with meta-analysis (3).
- Probiotics in prevention and treatment of obesity: a critical view (4).
- Gut emotions – mechanisms of action of probiotics as novel therapeutic targets for depression and anxiety disorders (5).
- Probiotics and allergy (6).
- Probiotics for prevention and treatment of diarrhea (7).
- The effect of probiotics as a treatment for constipation in elderly people: A systematic review (8).
- Clinical trial: Probiotic Bacteria Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM and Bifidobacterium lactis Bi-07 Versus Placebo for the Symptoms of Bloating in Patients with Functional Bowel Disorders – a Double-Blind Study (9).
- Effectiveness of probiotics in irritable bowel syndrome: Updated systematic review with meta-analysis (10).
- Role of Lactobacillus in the prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhea: a meta-analysis (11).
- Immune enhancing effects of Lactobacillus acidophilus LAFTI L10 and Lactobacillus paracasei LAFTI L26 in mice (12).
- Prebiotic effects of inulin and oligofructose (13).
- Assessment of commercial probiotic bacterial contents and label accuracy (14).
- Functional Properties of Microorganisms in Fermented Foods (15).
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