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Understanding the importance of a healthy digestive tract has grown over the past several decades, so has the awareness of multibiotics supplements and the important role that they can play in maintaining overall health--yet many people who have heard of multibiotics still don't know exactly how a multi-biotic supplement can benefit them or think that the range of positive side effects from a daily multi-biotic supplement are small. This couldn't be further from the truth; multibiotics offer a huge range of positive health effects for your whole body. So what exactly do multibiotics do?

The Basics: What Multi-Biotics Are

Let's start with a brief overview of what multibiotics are. In short, multibiotics refers to good bacteria found in foods like yogurt and in dietary supplements that are meant to augment the population of good bacteria already found in your gut. Your gastrointestinal tract has about a thousand different species of bacteria; this complex and diverse population of microorganisms is also known as the gut microbiome.

The microbial populations of the gut play an important role in a wide range of bodily functions, but it is key to have the right balance of "good" and "bad" bacteria. Whether due to antibiotic use, stress, an unhealthy diet or any number of other factors, having too much bad bacteria or too little good bacteria can negatively affect many of your body's important systems. That's where multibiotics come in: adding multibiotics to your diet (both in the foods you eat and via a dietary supplement) can help balance your gut microbiome and provide a wide range of beneficial side effects.

The Important Role that Multi-Biotics Play in Digestive Health

When most people think of multibiotics, they associate them with improvements to digestive tract health. This is certainly true, but often the complete extent of the gut health benefits that multibiotics can provide is underestimated.

To begin with, multibiotics can help alleviate constipation, a conclusion supported by scientific studies. Research has also shown that regular multi-biotic use can reduce bloating and gas. The duration of diarrhea caused by routine intestinal infections in both children and adults can be shortened by up to a day with regular multi-biotic use, according to Swansea University researchers.

For those with more serious digestive health issues, multibiotics have also been shown to be helpful. Several studies have demonstrated the benefits of multi-biotic use for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) sufferers, and other researchers have found evidence that multibiotics can help manage gastric ulcers.

How Multi-Biotics Support a Strong Immune System

Gut health and immune system function are closely linked, so it should be no surprise that multibiotics can help boost your immune system strength and increase your body's ability to fight off illness.

A study conducted by researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand found that taking a multi-biotic supplement reduced the number of colds and gastrointestinal infections that the study's otherwise healthy subjects experienced; a similar study undertaken by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey found that two particular strains of multibiotics--Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium animalis--have the potential to reduce the length and severity of upper respiratory tract infections.

Research has also uncovered the potential for multibiotics to help regulate the body's immune system response in relation to a number of immune system diseases such as allergies and eczema, offering evidence that multibiotics have significant therapeutic potential. Even very serious diseases such as chronic liver disease, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers have been shown to benefit from the immune system-boosting effects of multibiotics.

The Many Other Benefits of a Daily Probiotic Supplement

While improvements to digestive and immune system health may be most widely associated with multi-biotic use, the truth is that multibiotics can provide a much wider range of health benefits. For example, multibiotics have been shown to improve skin health, from inhibiting acne and treating rosacea to providing protection against signs of aging such as wrinkles and photo damage. Probiotic supplements have also been linked to tangible improvements in metabolic function, which in turn plays an important role in diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Multi-Biotics can even improve your mental health, with numerous studies finding that adding multibiotics to your diet can reduce anxiety and allow for a calmer and less stressed response to emotionally-charged stimuli.

So what do multibiotics do? In short, by bringing balance to your gut microbiome, multibiotics can help improve the function of almost every key system in your body and can aid in boosting your overall health and sense of well-being.

References

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