What Are the Best Probiotic Strains for Women?
What are the best probiotic strains for women?
If you’re searching for the best probiotics for women, you probably already know about the microbiome—the trillions of micro-organisms at work in the gut that play a powerful role in health, from supporting digestive health, mood and immune function. Probiotics help support a healthy microbiome.
Did you know that certain strains of probiotic bacteria are more important for supporting women’s health? Did you also know the vagina also has its own microbiome?
The primary reason for probiotic bacteria being of particular importance to women is because anatomically women have a uniquely different urinary and genital environment. As in the gut, the vagina contains trillions of micro-organisms. And, just like in the gut microbiome, the vaginal microbiome functions optimally when those micro-organisms exist and work in balance. Just as things like diet and environment may play a role in supporting the microbiome balance of the gut , they also help to maintain the delicate balance of micro-organisms in the vagina as well.
A bacterial balancing act
For women it is of great importance to support their urinary tract and vaginal environment. Much like the digestive environment, the vaginal and urinary tract environment have a unique microbiome of their own. Probiotics are supplemental tools that can be used to support the urinary tract and vaginal environments in hopes to maintain a healthier environment. Balance of this delicate microbiome is important for women.
Not your brother’s probiotics
According to research it suggests that specific strains (genus and species) of probiotic bacteria are of key importance for women and studied specifically for supporting vaginal and urinary tract health. The following four species have been identified as some of those key studied strains:
- Lactobacillus reuteri
- Lactobacillus plantarum
- Lactobacillus fermentum
- Lactobacillus rhamnosus
Scientists categorize bacteria with genus, species and strain names. Lactobacillus is the genus. Reuteri, plantarum, fermentum and rhamnosus are species of lactobacillus. Lactobacillus is one of the most common probiotics in the world. When lactobacilli metabolize glucose, they produce lactic acid.
Lactobacilli are found in yogurt, cheese and fermented foods like sauerkraut, miso and pickles. It also naturally exists in the vaginal microbiome.
How they work
Research suggests that taking lactobacilli strains of probiotic bacteria supports the balance of the urinary and vaginal microbiome. How? The lactic acid they produce supports health pH/acidic level in the microbiome. The probiotics are also uniquely equipped with tactics that enable them to act in a manner that further supports the microbiome of not only the digestive environment and Immune function but also the vaginal and urinary microbiome environments as well.
Research also suggests that these strains of lactobacilli help support digestive, immune and mood health.
The right species of probiotics still need help
While it’s critical to find a formula that includes the correct probiotic species to support women’s health, it’s also important that the formula includes prebiotics and postbiotics. Prebiotics are food, or fuel for the probiotics. Postbiotics are metabolites and other compounds released by probiotics as they work that also support the microbiome and is an emerging science that is revealing a broader understanding of other ways that probiotics support our bodies.
Even the best strains for women can’t work if they don’t arrive alive
To help support women’s health, probiotics must survive two treacherous journeys. First, they must make it from the lab to your door without being killed by heat or cold. Next, they need to stay alive through the acidic journey to your gut.
Probulin Total Care Women’s UT Probiotics harness the power of the top four probiotics species to support women’s health and enabled to arrive alive to do their work in your body. Probulin developed a special delivery system to transport probiotics safely through the digestive track.
The MAKTrek 3-D Probiotic Delivery System uses a sustainably harvested extract of brown seaweed to enclose the probiotics, protecting and nourishing them as they travel. Think of it as a “seaweed submarine.” Watch this short MAKTrek® 3-D video to see it in action.
Probulin probiotics always ship cold and protected in environmentally-friendly packaging—made from recycled jeans—that keeps the probiotics alive and happy.
Learn how naturopathic doctor-formulated Probulin Total Care Women’s UT, taken daily, supports women’s health.