What Happens To The Body When You Start Taking Probiotics?

When you first begin taking any new supplement, you are expected to have some questions regarding how long it can take for them to start working and what might happen to the body during the early stages. These are very common queries to have when you start taking a new supplement, which is why we will be using today's blog post to inform you of what can happen to the body when you first begin taking probiotics. Now there are no significant changes to expect as probiotics are natural and not a medicine; therefore you may not experience any initial changes or reactions when you start your probiotics. Although, this is not the case for everyone as some people can experience mild side effects… 

What happens when you first start taking probiotics?

Within the first few days of taking a new probiotic supplement, some people may experience some very mild side effects. These side effects may include:

• Passing gas more frequently
• Mild abdominal discomfort or bloating
• Nausea 
• Diarrhoea

All of the above side effects are typically related to digestion and are just the body's way of processing the new adjustment inside the gut microbiota. The adjustment, of course, is the new probiotics and the bacteria that are now being regularly pumped into the body. The probiotic bacteria are supposed to affect your gut microbiota to help restore a healthier gut (if that is your reason for taking probiotics). Therefore you can expect the body to need a few days to re-adjust and settle down again; to be able to utilise and process the additional probiotic bacteria. These side effects are nothing to worry about as they should only last a few days but may not occur in some cases. 

How long does it take for your body to adjust to probiotics?

We did briefly touch upon this above when we were making you aware of the possible side effects that a new course of probiotic supplements might entail. If you experience any side effects from the above list when you start taking your new probiotic supplements, then you can expect the body to need just a few days to adjust to the new bacteria. Now, we need to point out that the adjustment period and expected time to see results are very different time scales! If you experience mild discomfort in your first few days of taking probiotics, this does not mean they have begun working immediately. On the other hand, if you do not experience any side effects this does not also mean the probiotics are not going to work. The body's adjustment period to taking probiotics is different for everyone and depends on their gut microbiota; just like the time, it can take to notice the results - is also slightly different for everyone. Although it is important to note that the body's adjustment period is not always a clear indication of how efficiently or how quickly your probiotics are going to work.

To clarify, whether you experience any side effects or not, it can still take the body a couple of days to adjust to probiotics. However, this does not have any direct correlation to how effective or quickly they will work to improve your (gut) health. 

How long after taking probiotics should my gut health improve?

If you are taking a high-quality probiotic especially to help support and aid your overall gut health then it depends on how ‘hard’ the probiotics need to work on your gut health. You might be a very healthy individual who is deciding to take probiotics to help keep the gut microbiome healthy, but this is not the same for everyone. Many individuals are likely to begin taking a probiotic as they are beginning to experience several digestion-related symptoms; alerting them that their gut needs support! Some people have been suffering from digestive and gut-related health issues for some time and are now researching the benefits that probiotics can offer to their health. With all of that said, this of course means that everyone's reasons for taking a probiotic can be different depending on how much support the gut needs. Resulting in us all experiencing and feeling the effects of probiotics at different paces. If you believe that your gut health is just in need of some additional support and any symptoms you have been experiencing are quite mild then you can likely begin to feel a significant improvement in your gut health within 2-3 short weeks. The time until you feel or notice the benefits of taking probiotics regularly does come down to how much support your gut needs to be healthy. 

How do probiotics work at improving your gut health? 

The process of how a probiotic supplement can work to improve your gut health is pretty straightforward. For the gut to get healthier the probiotics will have three main objectives: 

1. Probiotics need to increase your ‘good’ bacteria count
2. Next, they need to decrease and neutralize your ‘bad’ bacteria count
3. Then the probiotics work to reduce any inflammation that could be the reason for your symptoms. 

When your probiotics have been able to work on those three primary objectives for a considerable amount of time, then you should begin to notice as well as feel an improvement in your overall gut health. This will happen when the probiotics can keep ‘bad’ bacteria neutralised as well as increase your ‘good’ bacteria count; then any abdominal or digestive-related issues you've been suffering with should slowly begin to ease away.