If you are like most men, you prefer to stay away from doctors and from any medicine they may prescribe for you. While your wife reminding you for the third time of that doctor’s appointment she made you has become quite annoying, you eventually must admit that she is right.
Having a yearly check up done by your doctor is one step in maintaining your overall health. Once you have had your checkup, your doctor may recommend something a little different for you to try: a probiotic. No doubt that you have at least heard of probiotics, but you may be wondering what benefits they can actually give you.
Benefits of Probiotics For Men
Probiotics have been shown to help keep you regular and ease or prevent diarrhea. They can also help to keep your gastrointestinal tract working properly. Keeping your GI tract in top working order is a great way to keep the rest of your body in top health, as well.
Choosing to take a probiotic is a big step and should be discussed with your doctor at regular intervals throughout the year.
This allows your doctor to keep track of how the probiotics are helping your system and allows him to give you the accurate dosage you need to be taking. This is especially important if you choose to take a capsule form of probiotic as well as eating more probiotic foods in your diet.
Sources of Probiotics
Probiotics in your food are most commonly found in yogurt, but you have to maintain a healthy amount of yogurt to make sure that you are not consuming too much. Too much probiotic in your diet can actually have the opposite effect than what you want.
It is best to limit the amount that you intake in food, but they still will not provide as high an amount of probiotics as you would find in a capsule form. Talk to your doctor about what the best daily intake of a probiotic is for you, as your needs may be different from what the national average is.
Taking a probiotic in capsule form is not only the fastest way to get the amount of probiotic you need, but it is also the easiest. Once you and your doctor have decided that it’s time for you to introduce a probiotic into your daily diet, you have to choose which way is best for you to receive the benefits that are associated with probiotics.
Just deciding that you are going to take it in a capsule form is not enough. You need to do extensive research on the product you are considering before you choose. If you just pick one up off the shelf because the package says probiotic, you will probably not be ingesting the right amount or the strongest form for your needs.
Choosing the Right Probiotics
When you are considering which brand of probiotic is right for you, there are a few very important things to consider. How strong you probiotic needs to be and what dosage you will need are very important things to consider.
If you choose a probiotic that has only one or two strains of the bacteria, you aren’t doing yourself any good. You are throwing money away and not giving your body the amount of a probiotic that it needs. The better bacteria in the capsule, the more strains that are present, the more nutrients and good bacteria you are putting into your body.
You must make sure to choose the correct strain of certain probiotics in order to reap the benefits that they present. If you choose a strain that is not the strongest, then you run the risk of not being able to get all of the probiotic benefits.
If you choose to go with a popular brand, make sure to do some research on your own and make sure that people aren’t choosing it just because of the price tag. You want to make sure that you are picking your probiotic because it has the best nutrient value for you and not because other consumers loved the price attached.
Get the Right Size
Once you have chosen your probiotic, there is another important step in the process to take note of. Like many other items you may have in your medicine cabinet or pantry, probiotics only work their best while they are in date. And because the majority of people do not take a probiotic every day, you want to make sure that you choose a probiotic in a smaller bottle. If you choose to use a powdered form of a probiotic, you want to make sure that the container that you use is smaller.
Powered forms of probiotic are stronger and more potent than other forms because they are not broken down as much. For this reason, powdered forms do not maintain a long shelf life. Many people will steer clear of this form of probiotic because they cannot store it for very long and will end up throwing it away when the fresh date has passed. For these reasons it is best to buy your probiotics in a smaller container.
To be able to purchase the right amount of probiotics, you need to first consult with your doctor. He will be able to let you know the correct amount of probiotic that you need to help keep your internal system healthy.
Once you are armed with that knowledge, you can make a trip to your local grocery store or pharmacy to make your purchase. By purchasing your probiotic in a smaller container you can ensure that you are receiving the proper benefits. Buying smaller also allows you to test different products without having to spend a lot of money or throw any probiotics away.
Once you have chosen the right form of probiotic for you, you will be able to start testing what size is the best for you based on your usage over one month.
Deciding on adding a probiotic to your diet is a step that you need to discuss with your doctor first. Keep in mind that they will know more on the health benefits and how to help you properly take the probiotic to receive maximum benefits.
They will also be able to help you keep track of how the probiotic is helping your system and when or if you need to make any changes to your intake.
