Probiotics & Gas/Bloating

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small 😎

❝I read about probiotics and got myself some from amazon but having started them, now I have a lot of gas, is this normal?❞

As Tom Jones would say: it’s not unusual.

However, it’s also not necessary, and it is easy enough to get past!

And probiotics certainly have their place; see: How Much Difference Do Probiotic Supplements Make, Really?

What’s going on with your gas is…

We interrupt this article to bring back attention to our regular legal/medical disclaimer; please do remember that we can only speak in general health terms, cannot diagnose you, nor make any firm assurances about your health, nor prescribe treatment. What we can do is share information that we hope is educational, and if it helps you, so much the better. Always speak to your own doctor if you have concerns about your health.

Now, back to the article,,,

What’s going on with your gas is most probably what happens for a lot of people: you’ve just put a lot of bacteria into your gut, and congratulations, they survived (which is definitely not a given, more on that later, but their survival is what you wanted), and they are now thriving sufficiently that the output of their respiratory processes is tangible to you—in the form of abdominal bloating/gas.

Because your gut is a semi-closed system (literally there’s an opening at both ends, but it’s mostly quite self-contained in terms of its ecosystem, unless you have leaky gut syndrome, which is Very Bad™), this will generally fix itself within a few days at most—perhaps it even has by the time you’re reading this.

How does it fix itself you wonder? Because there’s only enough resources to sustain so many bacteria, what happens when we take a probiotic supplement (or food) is initially an overload of more bacteria than the gut can support (because unless you recently took antibiotics, the gut is pretty much always running at maximum capacity, because the bacteria there have no evolutionary reason to leave room for newcomers; they just multiply as best they can until the resources run out), and then the excess (i.e., those that are in excess of how many your gut can support) will die, and then the numbers will be back to normal.

Note: the numbers will be back to normal. However, that doesn’t mean the probiotics did nothing—what you’ve done is add diversity, and specifically, you’ve made it so that percentage-wise, you now have slightly more “good” bacteria in the balance than you did previously.

So, unless there are factors out of the ordinary: this is all usually self-correcting quite quickly.

Tips to make things go as smoothly as possible

Firstly, pay attention to recommended doses. If you take one, and think “that was delicious; I’ll have six more” then the initial effect will be a lot more than six times stronger, because of the nature of how bacteria multiply (i.e. exponentially) within minutes of reaching your gut.

Again, this will normally self-correct, but there’s no reason to cause yourself discomfort unnecessarily.

Secondly, if you take probiotics and do not get even a little gas or abdominal bloating even just a little bit, even just briefly… Then probably one of two things happened:

• The probiotics were dead on arrival (i.e. the supplement was a dud, or a “live culture” product in fact died before it got to you)
• The probiotics were fine, but your gut wasn’t prepared for them, and they died upon arrival

The latter happens a lot, especially if the current gut health is not good. What your probiotics need to survive (and bear in mind, because of their life cycle, they need this in minutes of arrival, which is their multiply-or-die-out window), is:

• Fiber, especially insoluble fiber
• In a place they can get at it (i.e. it was the most recent thing you ate, and is not several feet further down your intestines)
• Not too crowded with competitors (i.e. you just ate it, not last night)

Thus, it can be best to take probiotics on a mostly-empty stomach after enjoying a fibrous snack.

See also: What Do The Different Kinds Of Fiber Do? 30 Foods That Rank Highest

And for that matter: Stop Sabotaging Your Gut ← this covers some common probiotics mistakes/problems

If you’d rather take them on an entirely empty stomach, look for probiotic supplements that come with their own prebiotic fiber (usually inulin); these are often marketed as “symbiotics”.

We don’t sell them, but here’s an example product on Amazon for your convenience 😎

Another thing to bear in mind is that there is (unless your case is unusual) no reason to take the same kind of probiotic for more than one course (i.e. one container of however many servings it has). This is because one of two things will be the case:

• The probiotic worked, in which case, you now have thriving colonies of the bacterial species that that supplement provided
• The probiotic didn’t work, in which case, why buy that one again?

So, if supplementing with probiotics, it can be good to do so with new brand each time, with a gap in between each for your gut to get used to the new order of things.

Finally, if you’re making any drastic dietary change, likely this will result in similar gut disturbances.

In particular, if you are moving away from foods that feed C. albicans (the bad fungus that puts holes in your gut), then it will object strongly, cause you to crave sugar/flour/alcohol/etc, give you mood swings, and generally remind you that it has its roots firmly embedded in your nervous system. If that happens, don’t listen to it; it’s just its death throes and it’ll quieten down soon.

You can read more about that here:

Making Friends With Your Gut (You Can Thank Us Later)

Take care!