Healthy gut flora is a topic in health and nutrition that has been overlooked for decades. Only now is it starting to come to the forefront and get the attention it deserves, which is why we’re seeing products like Synbiotic 365 hit the market.
But can a probiotic supplement really make all the difference? And is Synbiotic a good choice if that’s what you’re looking for? In this post, we will examine Synbiotic 365 and find out.
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The Role of Good Bacteria in Healthy Digestion
So why exactly would you consider taking a probiotic to begin with? How can this help you, and why do things like Synbiotic 365 even exist?
The Role of Healthy Bacteria
Inside your body is roughly 100 trillion bacteria. If that sounds like a lot… well it is. In fact, that’s more bacteria in your body that living cells! Your body is made more of other life than of human. Scary…
At any time, this bacteria will be made up of a balance between ‘good’ bacteria and ‘bad’ bacteria. The good bacteria works with your body and supports a number of crucial functions. Meanwhile, the ‘bad’ bacteria risks making you ill and places constant stress on your system.
For these reasons, it’s important to think carefully about the balance and to do everything you can to keep it in check. And this is particularly important in the digestive system. Our stomach is teaming with healthy bacteria and so too are the intestines and the appendix. In fact, some people now believe that the job of the appendix is to provide a ‘home’ for good bacteria to encourage it breading and growing.
Bacteria can help to combat bad bacteria and kill it off before it makes it into the blood stream. It does this by providing lactic acid and fatty acids which lower the pH of the colon. At the same time, good bacteria helps by breaking down carbohydrates – using it as food. Healthy bacteria even produces good vitamins like B and K, thereby boosting your nutrition.
Good bacteria produces enzymes that help to break down food and improve absorption of nutrients too. Finally, they produce neurotransmitters that help control our mood and even our alertness and attention. One of these neurotransmitters (which are chemical signalers used in the brain) is “leptin.” Leptin is a satiety hormone that tells the brain the gut is full, and thereby helps you to stop eating. By controlling your metabolism AND your hunger signals, your bacteria plays a big role in your weight gain or loss.
When your bacteria is out of balance, you might therefore feel slow, lethargic, bloated, and hungry. When it is acting as it should, you should feel energetic, satiated, and positive. This is what products like Synbiotic 365 promise to do for us.
How to Support Your Good Bacteria
So, what can you do to support your good bacteria? There are a few options. One is indeed to consume probiotics – which are included in this product. Synbiotic 365 uses what’s known as a “proprietary blend” of probiotics. This means that the company does not need to reveal the precise quantities of each ingredient, only which bacteria have been included.
In this regard, Synbiotic 365 does a good job of including a wide range of different ingredients. A serving (1 capsule) will include:
- Lactobacillus gasseri
- Lactobacillus paracasei
- Lactobacillus plantarum
- Streptoccocus thermophilus
- Lactobacillus casei
- Lactobacillus reuteri
- Lactobacillus salivarius
- Lactobacillus rahmnosus
- Lactobacillus fermentum
- Lactobacillus bifidum
- Lactobacillus longum
- Saccharomyces boulardi
Note that many of these are however unique variations of the most common forms of these bacteria.
In total, Synbiotic 365 contains 20 billion CFU. CFU stands for “colony forming unit” and this tells you how many live and active microorganisms can be found in each serving. So that means you are getting 20 billion bacteria for each serving. What you don’t know, is whether 1.9 billion of those come from a single strain – due to the proprietary nature of the product.
So how many bacteria should you be getting per serving? Many products will provide somewhere in the region of 5-10 billion, making Synbiotic 365 one of the best options available on the market in that regard. One billion is considered the minimum (though children’s products may contain fewer).
You also need to consider whether the strains are useful in the blend you’re looking at. This will largely depend on the intended purpose of the supplement. Seeing as Synbiotic 365 is largely marketed as a weight loss tool, we should be looking for an ingredients list that can offer those benefits.
The good news is that a growing body of evidence seems to support the notion that probiotics can indeed support weight loss. The most popular options for this include:
- L. rhamnosus
- L. gasseri
- Bifidobacterium lactis
It’s good news then that two of these are included in Synbiotic 365.
In one famous case study, a woman who had been slim her entire life found herself ill and in need of a fecal transplant. This unpleasant procedure is precisely what it sounds like! She received the transplant from her mother, who had been overweight her entire life and had had zero luck dieting. When the transplant was completed, the recipient was healthy again but found herself quickly gaining weight which she was never able to get rid of. It is thought that this was because she received the microbiome of her mother and therefore her metabolism and appetite!
Note that there are other potential benefits of improving your healthy gut bacteria. These improving mood and immunity, which are concepts that have been somewhat supported by scientific research too. For example, it is thought that lactobacillus gasseri may be particularly effective at improving immunity and preventing illness. Others can boost energy levels, mood, sleep, and much more.
Eating more fermented foods, such as sauerkraut – can also help by providing the body with another source of probiotics. This is why Synbiotic also contains chicory root, as a natural additional source.
Synbiotic 365 also includes a number of additional nutrients such as thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B6, biotin, B12, and pantothenic acid. These are useful additions as they are known to fuel bacteria production and to help them thrive. Some key elements are notably absent here however, such as omega 3 which is well known to be beneficial for the microbiome.
Some Other Considerations
Keep in mind though that the evidence is currently still in debate and is not considered conclusive. There are many other potential factors that can play a role in your gut health, and in the symptoms associated with imperfect microbiome populations.
For example, it may well be that you currently have a perfectly healthy microbiome and that your health issues are related instead to a condition such as metabolic syndrome. In this case, you might find that a product like Synbiotic 365 has no noticeable effect.
This is a promising area of science that may help a lot of people to lose weight and feel better. Right now however, research is still in the early stages and it may be too soon to draw solid conclusions.
There is also no strong evidence that a supplement such as this will be better than getting probiotics from natural sources. Many people know for example, that they can get probiotics naturally from sources such as yogurt.
Another option is to drink more fermented milk which contains lactic acid for the gut. You can also help your bacteria by consuming more fibrous carbohydrates which will make it through to the colon and provide a food source for the bacteria.
All kinds of other things can also have a big impact on your gut bacteria. For example, did you know that gut bacteria actually has a “sleep-wake” cycle? This can also get out of sync, causing upset to your microbiome if you don’t sleep at regular intervals.
Finally, be wary of antibiotics. While they are sometimes necessary, they should be considered a last resort as they can wipe out your good bacteria!
Pros
- Great balance of bacteria
- Huge cultures at 20 billion CFU
- Lots of added nutrients
- Potential to be the “missing ingredient” in your weight loss attempts
- Could help mood, energy, sleep, and more
Cons
- Scientific evidence is somewhat limited
- Proprietary blend means precise quantities of specific bacteria are missing
- Uncertainty regarding trademarked bacteria strains
- Missing some obvious nutrients such as omega 3 to support gut bacteria health
In short, this is one of the best products on the market in terms of the quantity of bacteria and the list of bacteria chosen – especially if you want to lose weight. There is a very real chance, that taking this supplement could provide significant benefits to your health and your physique.
However, with that being said, it’s also true that the research surrounding these types of products is still in its infancy. We recommend giving it a try, but not committing to a subscription until you’ve had a chance to assess the results yourself!
