@Tharun - probiotics (and prebiotics - namely fiber) are actually a must for health + nutrition, especially in today’s day and age when our food has become processed and ultra-processed.
Among other things, Probiotics are good bacteria that can help break down food, destroy disease-causing cells, or produce vitamins. However, they need to be taken in a very controlled manner esp. after knowing the state of our body (healthy or unhealthy) and more importantly if there is any presence of gut infections. This then ideally is the deciding factor on which type of strains is to be taken in what quantity and when.
Unfortunately, just like we don’t get all of our nutrition from food (which ideally is suppose to be the case) and hence the need to supplement ourselves. Likewise, there are different controlled strains that are put into capsules, etc to provide us the desired probiotics and its effects which is essential for gut and overall health. Earlier, our diet used to be rich in home made curd / buttermilk, pickles, consuming left over home made foods, etc… these were all natural forms of probiotics which is missing from our food plates.
However, what is important are few aspects:
- Prioritise quantity and a variety of fermented food is very important (the diverse set of good bacteria from fermented foods creates a diverse set of microbiome and microbiota)
- Wild uncultured probiotics found in kefir, kombucha, curds etc may not be beneficial for those with gut infections and hence its best to clear off the infections before consuming these natural probiotics.
- In our practice we recommend probiotic supplements to be taken before sleep, since your gut is at rest in the night and the microbes (healthy bacteria from probiotics) produce post biotic chemicals that help you sleep better and also helps you improve stress, depression, anxiety.
The below is a post from us a while back on this forum.