There are a wide variety of reasons why people should take probiotic supplements, regardless of gender. Of course, today we’re talking about men! If you’re male, then you should definitely consider taking a probiotic supplement, and there are so many reasons why.
They are good for raising your testosterone levels, making sure the health of your prostate is in good condition and they can even help to increase your sperm count.
Probiotics may sound complicated, but they really aren’t. They are basically all of the good bacteria that are hanging out in the intestines, and they serve an important role in all of our bodies.
They’re so small you can barely see them, but they do a lot of things, helping your bowels and digestion and even making your immune system and cognitive function better.
They really are that powerful! Not only that, but there’s data that suggests that your gut bacteria can be linked to some chronic illnesses, so it’s important that it gets in check.
These supplements are a real lifesaver if you want to improve your vitality and general well being.
Today, we’re going to cover the specific reasons why it’s a good idea for men to take a probiotic supplement.
- Related article: What Do Probiotics Do?
The Reasons That Men Need a Specific Probiotic
This should be fairly obvious, but men and women are not the same – they need different things in order to optimize their health. The same goes for the kinds of probiotics that they need to take.
There are benefits that pretty much everyone can get from having a daily probiotic supplement, but there are also specific benefits that you can get based on your sex if you take the right probiotic supplement.
If you are a woman, for instance, probiotics can be a great tool for supporting vaginal health. Likewise, they can be good for ensuring that you have a healthy pregnancy.
For men, a probiotic can be good for immune health, metabolism and even your physical fitness.
A Few Advantages of Probiotics
As we have established, Probiotics are basically the kind of bacteria that you want to be swimming around in your intestines. The bacteria in your gut is also known as microbiome.
They are tiny microorganisms that help to keep you healthy. They can do a lot of things in your body, and it may come as no surprise to learn that probiotics come with many health benefits.
The problem lies in the fact that the vast majority of people don’t have nearly as much good bacteria in our guts as we should. This can actually disrupt the way that our bodies function.
Things can affect the bacteria in our guts, such as alcohol consumption, stress, unhealthy diets and over the counter medications. These things can all mean that the healthy bacteria in our guts is killed off.
- Related article: Is It Bad to Take Probiotics With Alcohol
You will usually know if you have an imbalance in your gut bacteria because you may experience unpleasant symptoms such as constipation, bloating, gas and diarrhea.
After a while, this can end up resulting in a weaker immune system, issues with your skin, constant headaches and even brain fog.
Studies have shown that alterations in the microbiome may contribute to the development of serious conditions like chronic liver disease and Alzheimer’s.
For these reasons, it’s vital to ensure that you have plenty of good bacteria in your body. Taking a probiotic supplement can help.
Here are just 14 of the advantages that men can have from taking probiotic supplements.
1. They Put More Good Bacteria in Your Gut
If you take a probiotic supplement, you are encouraging more good bacteria to populate your gut. This is important for ensuring that your body works at its peak level.
There are a lot of strains and species of probiotics. The species is basically like a group, whereas the strain is just one part of the group. You will get more variety in the species and they can all have different functions.
Most strains are similar in a specific species of probiotic, but they also have different roles in the body. What you may not know is that you have around 400-600 different species of probiotic bacteria in your gut!
2. They Are Great for Diarrhea
Did you know that there are four main causes of diarrhea? Well, now you do! Probiotics are capable of effectively helping in every single situation too.
Foreign Pathogens
Diarrhea has one pretty important function in your body – it gets rid of any damaging substances from your body, such as pathogens like viruses, fungi and problematic bacteria that shouldn’t be there. Your body needs to remove these awful substances from your body as quickly as it can.
That’s basically why you have diarrhea when you have food poisoning, a stomach virus or sometimes when you are traveling.
There are some kinds of probiotics that are specifically made to deal with certain viruses and bacteria. Not only that, but probiotics are good for the microbiome in your gut.
If there’s more good bacteria in your gut then there are fewer opportunities for the bad bacteria to flourish.
Medications like Antibiotics
There are some kinds of medications like antibiotics that are helpful for fighting infections in your body, but they are not so good for your gut! Antibiotics and other similar medications can really disrupt the microbiome in your gut.
If you take probiotics then you can ensure that your microbiome is well balanced and healthy to help reduce side effects of these medications.
In fact, there are studies to suggest that probiotics are fantastic for dramatically reducing antibiotic associated diarrhea.
Bowel Inflammation
There are certain kinds of chronic diseases such as Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, which can cause chronic diarrhea.
Not only that, but there are some kinds of foods that when eaten can cause inflammation in your gut. Some examples of these foods include gluten, dairy and processed sugar.
If you take a probiotic supplement then you can make the barrier in your gut much stronger, and this is very important in the event that you experience inflammation.
Stress
Things like physical and emotional stress can actually sometimes result in inflammation in your gut, and this can cause you to get diarrhea.
If you are going through a period of stress then your large intestine speeds up its action and motility, meaning that you end up experiencing diarrhea as a result.
Establishing a healthy microbiome with the use of probiotics may provide you some protection against diarrhea triggered by stress.
3. Minimize Symptoms of a Digestive Disorder
If you already have an existing digestive disorder, it’s certainly worth your while to use probiotics.
There are some kinds of digestive disorders like IBS that can drastically change the microbiome in your gut.
In a lot of cases, you are less likely to have a diverse range of good bacterial species in your gut if you have a digestive disorder. As such, taking a probiotic supplement can help to rebalance your gut flora.
4. They Are Potentially Good for Mental Health
If you want to try to make some improvements to your mental health, it may be worthwhile to start taking a probiotic supplement. Probiotics are good for your mental health in quite a few ways.
Good Connection Between Your Gut and Your Brain
Your gut and brain have to have a close relationship in order for your body to function the way that it should. The bacteria in your probiotics are there to help to make the signals and communication from the brain stronger.
As such, the bacteria in your gut can have a big impact on the messages that are being sent between your brain and your gut, and this can largely influence your mental health.
It’s worth noting that a lot of your body’s serotonin – the happy hormone – and dopamine neurotransmitters are made in your gut. If either of these aren’t working as they should, you could end up getting anxiety and depression or other mental health issues.
Inflammation
There’s a pretty big link between gut and brain inflammation. Studies have shown a link between gut dysbiosis and Alzheimer’s, resulting from a pro-inflammatory state in both the brain and the gut.
If you can rebalance the microbiome in the gut then you can minimize the amount of inflammation throughout the entire body, especially in the brain.
Effective Absorption of Nutrients
If your bacteria in your gut are good, you are more likely to ensure that your small and large intestines are in healthy shape, and this is vital for effective absorption of nutrients.
The nutrients that you consume are equally important for ensuring that your brain functions the way that it should. If your gut bacteria is out of balance and your gut is inflamed then your nutrient absorption is likely to be impaired.
5. They Are Good for Your Metabolism
There are a number of different studies that have explored the link between metabolic health and the microbiome makeup in your gut.
If the microbiome isn’t properly balanced then it can take a hit on your metabolism and cause issues if you have metabolic conditions like type 2 diabetes.
After taking probiotics for just six months and making no other lifestyle changes, type 2 diabetes sufferers showed a significant improvement in their inflammatory markers and insulin resistance in relation to the fat tissue on their body.
They also found that their cholesterol levels reduced too.
6. They Can Aid Weight Loss
There are a lot of research studies that show that the way that your gut microbiome is made up can have a big influence on your body weight.
The research is still in its infancy, but there are some kinds of bacteria that appear more often in people that are thin, and other kinds of bacteria that appear more frequently in people who are overweight. Your weight can be influenced by the dominant bacteria that your body produces.
7. Better Immune System
Do you know that a staggering amount of your immune system relies on the action going on in your intestines? That’s why it’s so important to keep them healthy! You can do this by taking a high quality probiotic supplement.
It’s also important to note that doing a lot of strenuous physical activity without allowing enough time for your body to rejuvenate can often result in oxidative stress.
This can sometimes result in gut inflammation. If your gut microbiome is strong and well balanced then you can protect yourself from things like this so you can keep enjoying the time that you spend being physically active.
8. They Can Help To Improve Allergies
Got some allergies that are disrupting your life?
It may be time to start taking a probiotic supplement. Probiotics will help to make the gut barrier stronger, meaning that there’s less chance that food particles can get into the bloodstream.
Food particles in the bloodstream can be an issue, since it will send your immune system on alert and cause immune responses.
You may get some side effects such as headache, nausea, stomachache, skin rash and digestive problems.
In most cases allergies are nothing more than reactions that have been directed incorrectly and your body is on high alert unnecessarily because it thinks that the substance in question is foreign or problematic.
If you take probiotics then you can encourage healthy immune function, and this may potentially protect you from developing allergies, alongside other problems like chronic skin problems and food intolerances.
In fact, there are certain kinds of probiotic bacteria that are designed to protect you against any over the top inflammatory responses, and sometimes can even protect you against autoimmune disease because your body is creating more of something called IL-10.
This substance sends messages around the body in order to help it to deal with inflammation much better.
9. Prostate Health Benefits
If you check the American Cancer Society website, you will notice that prostate cancer is the second most common cancer to affect men, the first being skin cancer.
Some studies that have been conducted in the last few years have explored the link between the microbiome in your gut and the different kinds of androgen deprivation therapy that is used for treating prostate cancer at later stages.
These studies concluded that the bacteria in your gut can actually impact how your body responds to androgen deprivation therapy and helps to regulate the effects of other medications that may be used for treating late stage cancer.
The studies are still somewhat limited and more information is certainly needed, but the early studies are quite promising that if your gut is in good health then you will see benefits with your prostate health.
Not only that, but there is some data to suggest that taking probiotic supplements can sometimes be helpful for benign prostatic hyperplasia, which is more commonly known as an enlarged prostate.
This particular condition is known for increasing the likelihood of urinary tract infections (UTIs) and causing frequent urination at night time.
There are some strains of probiotics that can help to stop the pathogens that cause UTIs from developing, meaning that you are less likely to have to deal with them.
The data isn’t completely conclusive yet, but it’s worth noting that this could be a benefit.
10. They Can Sometimes Be Good for Ulcers
You may sometimes get peptic ulcers, and these are caused by an infection of a certain bacteria known as Helicobacter pylori, or H. Pylori for short. You can find this bacteria in around half of the population of the world and most of the time it doesn’t result in any issues.
Sometimes though, the bacteria can result in a person forming an ulcer. This can be quite problematic and often results in symptoms like appetite loss, abdominal pain, nausea, lots of burping, weight loss and bloating, even bleeding!
The condition can often be treated fairly quickly with a course of antibiotics, and a probiotic supplement can also be quite useful.
There is some research to suggest that H. Pylori infections can sometimes be managed with probiotics in conjunction with standard treatment regimens.
You can get rid of the bacteria more quickly with a probiotic supplement, and this can result in better symptoms and reduce the amount of side effects that you get from the treatment.
11. Improved Testosterone Levels
As you get older your testosterone levels tend to decrease. This can mean that your sexual function is reduced, alongside sperm formation and your libido.
You are more likely to have increased body fat, your muscle and bone mass will decrease, you may feel more tired, perform at a less than optimal level physically, and may even struggle with your cognitive function.
There are some studies that have been conducted on aging mice that have been given a probiotic supplement in their water.
These mice ended up with more testosterone in their system, larger testicles, and improved sperm development. It was quite the contrast to the other mice in the control group that were following a regular diet.
Some studies have also been conducted on infertile men. One study found that there was a great improvement in sperm count and testosterone in the men that were taking probiotics and prebiotics.
More information is needed in the subject, but so far, results are promising that probiotics may be helpful.
12. Improved Sperm Count
If you are trying to conceive a child, having a good sperm count can be quite important. Of course, there have been studies showing that bacteria in semen can sometimes result in male infertility.
One study in particular looked at the most common bacteria in semen samples of 97 men. They found that a lot of men had a few common kinds of bacteria in their semen – lactobacillus, prevotella, gardnerella and pseudomonas.
Most of the people with good semen samples had a higher amount of lactobacillus and gardnerella in their samples, whereas low quality samples had more prevotella.
In summary, bad bacteria in the semen can sometimes result in infertility. It stands to reason, then, that taking a probiotic that balances the bacteria in the body may help to improve semen parameters.
13. Warding Off Diverticular Disease
This illness is quite common and can often result in sacs and outpouchings in the walls of the colon. Some research has demonstrated that the recurrence of the disease was far less likely in people that took the right strains of probiotics over the course of 12 months.
14. Better Bone Health
The key benefit of probiotics is that they help to keep our intestines in good shape, but what about our bones?
Well, if your intestines are in good shape then your body can absorb necessary vitamins and minerals much more easily, allowing them to be effectively distributed throughout the body.
This is important for the health of your bones, especially as you age.
Check out Bauer Nutrition’s Biotics 8 for Men as a great probiotics option.
Other Ways To Improve Digestive System
Consume Plenty of Fiber
Healthy gut bacteria thrives on fiber, so you will want to make sure that you have plenty of it in your body.
Not only that but the fiber that you consume is important for creating mucus that can make your stool come out of the intestines. This is pretty vital for encouraging bowel movements that are regular.
Drink Plenty of Fluids
As if you needed another excuse to get some H2O in your body. Make sure that you are drinking lots of water to keep your digestive tract in good shape.
Stay Away From Inflammatory Foods
It’s okay to have a treat every once in a while but you really should avoid foods that cause inflammation in your gut.
Some examples include trans fats, processed sugar, gluten and dairy. Sugar is one that you especially want to minimize since it can encourage pathogens to grow.
Keep On Moving
If you are active physically, your bowel movements are much likely to be better. Make sure that you are getting plenty of exercise for better digestive health and general well being!
For other articles on probiotics and gut health, check these are out:
- Best Time of Day to Take Probiotic Supplement
- How to Tell if the Probiotics are Working
- Do Probiotics Make IBS Worse
- Reasons for Seniors to Take Probiotics
