If YOU Have Probiotics, You NEED To Stop!

[00:00] I don't take probiotic supplements as a

[00:02] doctor and a scientist and if you take

[00:04] them daily, the latest science is

[00:06] telling us they're probably not doing

[00:09] much and they might even cause harm.

[00:11] I've been interested in gut health for

[00:13] many years, both during and after

[00:16] medical school, and I've recommended

[00:18] probiotic supplements in some very

[00:20] specific cases, but the supplement

[00:22] industry has turned this into a complete

[00:24] marketing gimmick. and your gut's much

[00:27] more complex than a couple bacterial

[00:30] species crammed into a pill. So, today I

[00:32] want to show you when probiotic

[00:34] supplements actually make sense versus

[00:36] when they're just a waste of money and

[00:39] when they can actually backfire. And

[00:41] we'll also talk about a much better

[00:43] option for most people. For more

[00:45] breakdowns of science and popular trends

[00:48] and different supplements with no sales,

[00:50] subscribe. When we hear probiotic, we

[00:53] usually associate that with a healthy

[00:55] gut. And there's some truth to that.

[00:58] Your gut contains trillions of microbes

[01:01] that help break down food. They talk to

[01:03] your immune system and they also nourish

[01:06] your gut wall. But the supplement

[01:07] industry wants you to make this logical

[01:09] leap that if gut bacteria are a good

[01:12] thing, then adding more bacteria in a

[01:15] pill must be good for you. And the

[01:17] scientific evidence is showing us this

[01:19] is a big mistake because probiotic

[01:21] supplements have a number of problems.

[01:24] Number one, there's almost no

[01:25] regulation. The seller doesn't need to

[01:27] show that the product works or even that

[01:30] it contains what's advertised on the

[01:32] bottle. Studies have shown that it's

[01:34] quite common for the content of these

[01:36] pills to not match what's advertised.

[01:39] Sometimes the concentration is wrong.

[01:42] Sometimes the species don't match. So,

[01:45] for anyone going for a probiotic

[01:46] supplement, it's always better to go

[01:48] with a third-party certified brand. That

[01:51] way, you know what's on the bottle is

[01:53] what's in the pill. Also, you want to

[01:55] get used to the fact that all of these

[01:56] claims on the bottles gut health, immune

[02:00] support, immune boost, that's marketing.

[02:04] It's not science. Okay. The second

[02:05] problem with probiotic pills is that a

[02:08] lot of these microorganisms are actually

[02:11] very sensitive to heat, to oxygen, and

[02:14] to the acid in your stomach. So, even if

[02:16] the pill does contain what the

[02:18] manufacturer says, by the time it's been

[02:21] stored in a warehouse and shipped and

[02:23] sits in a shelf and you take it and it

[02:26] crosses your stomach, there might be

[02:28] very little or nothing left to get to

[02:31] where it needs to be. Studies have found

[02:32] that up to twothirds of people show no

[02:36] evidence of probiotic supplements

[02:38] actually working, actually colonizing

[02:39] their gut, or reported any digestive

[02:41] benefits. And finally, these pills

[02:44] hugely oversimplify gut biology. Your

[02:47] gut contains hundreds up to a thousand

[02:49] different strains of microorganisms, all

[02:52] interacting in an equilibrium with each

[02:55] other, all with individual different

[02:57] roles. And so picking two or three or

[03:00] five random ones and cramming them into

[03:02] a pill, that might not be what you need.

[03:05] Could even be counterproductive. A

[03:06] famous study from a couple years ago

[03:08] found that the effect of probiotics

[03:10] varies enormously from one person to the

[03:13] next. Some people show colonization by

[03:16] these microbes. Other people are really

[03:18] resistant. The microbes just don't take

[03:20] hold. So you want to be careful with a

[03:22] friend or a neighbor saying, "Hey,

[03:24] probiotics worked really well for me.

[03:27] the same pill might not do anything for

[03:29] you. But the most surprising part is

[03:31] that in some contexts, probiotic pills

[03:34] can actually harm you. They can actually

[03:36] work against you. So when we take an

[03:39] antibiotic for some infection, it's very

[03:41] common for the antibiotic to wipe out

[03:44] some of our gut microbiome and then that

[03:47] will recover gradually over time

[03:49] depending on diet and other factors. But

[03:51] in a fascinating study, scientists found

[03:54] that when they gave the participants a

[03:56] probiotic, a pill containing 11 species

[03:59] of microbes that they selected, it

[04:01] actually delayed their recovery. So they

[04:04] did worse. They recovered slower than

[04:06] the folks who got nothing, who just got

[04:08] a placebo. So this was a shocking

[04:10] finding because this is exactly the

[04:12] context where you'll assume that it

[04:15] makes sense to take a probiotic. you

[04:17] just took an antibiotic, your gut

[04:18] doesn't feel right. And so you buy a

[04:20] probiotic that says gut health on it

[04:22] because you're trying to rebuild your

[04:24] gut, right? But like we said, our gut

[04:26] microbiome, it's a living organism in a

[04:29] balance. And so throwing in the wrong

[04:31] microorganism,

[04:33] can actually mess up that balance, can

[04:35] actually be worse. We're going to talk

[04:37] about which probiotic strains can help

[04:40] in that situation in specific cases.

[04:43] Just want to point out that probiotics

[04:45] can also cause some side effects. Gas,

[04:48] bloating, discomfort, although usually

[04:51] it's mild and temporary. Now, everything

[04:54] we're saying doesn't mean that

[04:56] probiotics are poison for everyone at

[04:59] all times. I'm not anti-supplements. I'm

[05:02] anti-arketing

[05:03] that's taking advantage of you. So, you

[05:05] want to take the right thing for you at

[05:08] the right time. Medicine isn't cookie

[05:10] cutter. This is why it's good that I

[05:13] reject all sponsors and I don't sell

[05:15] anything on the channel because when

[05:16] something like this comes up, I don't

[05:19] care. I can just tell you the truth,

[05:20] what works, what doesn't work. There's

[05:22] no financial pressure. So, for example,

[05:25] in people taking antibiotics, this

[05:27] specific strain of probiotic sacroyces

[05:31] bulardi, it's a type of yeast, and

[05:34] there's some evidence that that can help

[05:36] prevent cadiff infection. It's not the

[05:39] highest level evidence, but it's

[05:40] defensible. Someone in that situation to

[05:42] give that specific probiotic to prevent

[05:46] CIFF infection. That's a defensible

[05:49] medical decision. There's also some

[05:50] specific GI conditions. There's

[05:52] something called pouchitis if you have

[05:54] that. Pre-term infants sometimes are

[05:56] given probiotics as well. So, very

[05:58] specific situations. Notice how

[06:00] different that is from everybody go take

[06:03] this random probiotic pill. Healthy,

[06:05] unhealthy, doesn't matter. Also, if you

[06:07] have specific conditions, if you're

[06:09] immuno compromised, for example, if you

[06:12] have cancer and you're going through

[06:13] treatment through chemotherapy, you want

[06:15] to be especially careful with

[06:17] probiotics. In some cases, they can

[06:19] actually cause infections if the immune

[06:22] system is weakened. Okay, so we've

[06:24] covered a lot of the myths and the facts

[06:27] around probiotics, but here's a twist.

[06:30] If probiotic pills are overhyped and

[06:32] they're not needed by most healthy

[06:34] people, what about probiotic foods?

[06:36] Kafir, yogurt, kombucha. You've heard me

[06:39] talk about these foods in many videos in

[06:42] the past. I've told you that I eat them

[06:44] on a regular basis. So, am I just a

[06:46] hypocrite? So, there's a number of

[06:48] fundamental differences between a

[06:50] probiotic pill and a probiotic food like

[06:53] some fermented foods. Fermented foods

[06:56] contain an entire ecosystem of

[06:58] microorganisms. Kafir, for example, has

[07:01] been shown to contain dozens of

[07:03] bacterial strains and yeast strains. And

[07:05] we know that one key feature of a

[07:07] healthy microbiome is diversity. So

[07:11] these fermented foods already come with

[07:13] that diversity built in that natural

[07:16] ecosystem. You can't get that. You can't

[07:18] replicate that with a pill that has

[07:21] three or four strains in it. But also

[07:23] the types of strains that you're getting

[07:25] in the fermented food are the ones that

[07:27] survived and that evolved in that

[07:30] ecosystem, right? interacting with each

[07:32] other. Not a couple strains that were

[07:35] artificially chosen because they're

[07:37] easier to manufacture at scale or to

[07:39] ship or something like that. But also

[07:41] the concentration and the proportion of

[07:43] the microbes to each other that's

[07:45] already built in because a fermented

[07:48] food is a living organism. It's

[07:51] literally fermenting all the way up and

[07:54] growing all the way up to you consuming

[07:56] it. That's assuming it's not killed by

[07:58] heat, right? That's a common question

[07:59] and that can happen if it's heated then

[08:02] the microbes are killed. So this depends

[08:04] on the food. Kafir for example it's done

[08:06] from pasteurized milk but the

[08:08] pasteurization happens before the

[08:11] fermentation process. So it doesn't kill

[08:14] the bunks. Make sense? And one last

[08:16] point I want to make with the fermented

[08:18] food with the probiotic food you're also

[08:21] getting the entire food matrix. It's not

[08:23] just the microbes by themselves. You're

[08:26] also getting in addition to the

[08:28] probiotics, you're getting the

[08:30] prebiotics. So that's specific types of

[08:33] fiber and specific types of starch that

[08:36] the microbes consume. Those come in

[08:38] there as well. You're also getting the

[08:40] postbiotics. So those are fermentation

[08:43] products, metabolites of the microbes

[08:46] that are in there as well that have all

[08:48] kinds of physiological effects on your

[08:50] body and many other compounds like fatty

[08:52] acids and amino acids. So they're

[08:54] fundamentally different products. A pill

[08:57] with two or three species crammed in,

[09:00] concentrated, isolated versus this

[09:04] complex ecosystem of the fermented food.

[09:06] So this goes back to a principle we've

[09:08] talked about in many previous videos,

[09:10] which is we don't just want to get

[09:13] microbes in there. We also want to feed

[09:16] them properly. It's like planting a

[09:17] seed, but then you got to water it and

[09:19] give it light. Otherwise, it doesn't

[09:22] sprout. It's useless. So, if you're new

[09:23] to the channel, we have a lot of content

[09:25] covering all of this, all the

[09:26] actionables, how to maintain a healthy

[09:28] microbiome. Also, notice that the this

[09:30] matrix, this food matrix wraps the

[09:33] microbes so that they're not directly

[09:35] exposed to the acidity of the stomach,

[09:37] not as much as they are in a pill where

[09:40] they're isolated. And so, there's a

[09:41] landmark trial that showed that

[09:43] generally healthy people given fermented

[09:46] foods, their microbiome diversity

[09:48] improved and their inflammation came

[09:50] down as well. So, this is the twist.

[09:53] People get these probiotic pills to have

[09:55] a healthier gut, a healthier microbiome.

[09:58] But for most people, there are actual

[10:00] foods that are much more likely to

[10:02] deliver that result. Now, bear in mind,

[10:04] fermented foods also have some caveats.

[10:06] So, for example, people with a weakened

[10:09] immune system, people with specific

[10:11] sensitivities like histamine

[10:12] intolerance, talk to your doctor before

[10:14] you start fermented foods. Okay, so

[10:16] let's make this actionable. How do you

[10:17] actually make that decision? You're

[10:19] standing in the store. Look at the shelf

[10:21] with all the probiotics. This is what I

[10:23] tell a friend of mine if they ask me

[10:25] about this. If you're healthy

[10:26] individual, you just heard the

[10:28] probiotics are good for your gut. Save

[10:30] your money. Spend it on some yogurt with

[10:33] probiotic cultures or some kafir or some

[10:36] kombucha or something like that. If you

[10:38] have a specific health condition or a

[10:41] gut issue, then it's possible that

[10:43] probiotics might be right for you. But

[10:46] don't grab a random strain. You want to

[10:48] look up the exact strain and the dose

[10:51] that was shown to help your situation

[10:53] and ideally talk to a

[10:55] gastroenterenterologist. And remember,

[10:56] for specific medical issues, weakened

[10:59] immune system, cancer, going through

[11:01] treatment, talk to your doctor before

[11:02] you start probiotics. For more

[11:04] evidence-based breakdowns of common

[11:06] questions with no sponsors and no sales,

[11:09] subscribe and I'll see you on the next

[11:10] video. Actually, I'll link one right

[11:12] here.