When Is the Best Time to Take Probiotics

when-to-take-daily-probiotic

If you’ve ever heard anyone talking about “good bacteria,” there’s a chance that they were talking about probiotics.

Probiotics are live microorganisms found in foods and drinks like yogurt, miso, kefir, kombucha, kimchi, and more. They’re also widely available in supplement form.

People take probiotics through supplements or their diet because probiotics have a long list of potential health benefits for your body. These include supporting gut health and a healthy microbiome, helping your body maintain a normal community of microorganisms, and regulating the absorption of nutrients that may support the body’s essential systems, including a normal immune response.

But it’s not enough to increase your yogurt intake or to start a probiotic supplement. As it turns out, when you take your probiotic can significantly influence its effectiveness. But when is the best time to take probiotics? Keep reading to find out!

When is the Best Time to Take Probiotics?

There are different probiotics strains, so it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor about which strain might be most beneficial for you. Regardless of what strain you find works best for you, one thing doesn’t change, and that is timing matters.

When you take your probiotic matters because they don’t stick around in your stomach for very long. One bowel movement and they could be gone. Probiotics are most effective in the body when it is actually in your body. So it would stand to reason that the longer a probiotic stays in your body, the better.

That’s why the best time to take probiotics is at night, right before you go to bed. As Patricia Raymond, MD, a board-certified gastroenterology and internal medicine doctor, explains, that’s because “the gut is pretty inactive at night. If you think about it, you usually don’t wake up in the middle of the night to poop. So that means that the probiotics will stay in your gut during the 8 (give or take a few hours) hours you’re in dreamland. That gives the probiotic a lot of time to stay put, divide, and even potentially become more integrated into your gut.”

Now that you know when is the best time to take probiotics, the next thing you might be wondering about is what probiotic supplements should you consider? There is a lot to choose from, but we’ve tried to take some of the guesswork out of this and suggest considering HLC High Potency by Pharmax and PureProbiotic from Pure Encapsulations.

HLC High Potency – Pharmax

Human lactic commensals (HLC) are probiotic strains that are supported by research and clinical studies. Pharmax’s HLC High Potency formula contains proprietary, non-pathogenic human-sourced microflora bacterial strains; Pharmax utilizes these strains because they have strong epithelial adherence and naturally high tolerance to stomach acid. Along with 10 billion viable cells of HLC, HLC High Potency also contains:

  • Lactobacillus acidophilus (CUL-60).
  • Lactobacillus acidophilus (CUL-21).
  • Bifidobacterium bifidum (CUL-20).
  • Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis (CUL-34).
  • Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) 100 mg.

The result is that these easy-to-take liquid drops help support a healthy, balanced digestive flora.

Pure Probiotic – Pure Encapsulations

Not only is this multi-strain probiotic formula an easy way to help support a healthy gut and immune health, but the Pure Probiotic formulation from Pure Encapsulations is allergen-free. So if you have food allergies, you can feel confident that while each capsule of Pure Probiotic will be less likely to interfere with your normal gut health. This formula also contains a blend of beneficial probiotic microorganisms, including a total of 5 billion CFU per capsule of Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium lactis, and Bifidobacterium breve. These strains may help aid gastrointestinal health and immune cell function.

When do you take your probiotics? Do you think you will start taking them at night now?