Side Effects Of Probiotics

Just like eating a carrot won’t leave you with an X-ray vision, likewise, drinking fermented milk won’t leave you with a gut full of pesky bugs! If you think that sour milk and cultured dairy products are nothing but cesspools of bacteria, it’s time to debunk the bug-myth and sample some friendly bacteria ridden cheese and yogurt. For those who are already squirming at the thought of eating bugs, know that the human gut is a deep reservoir of hundreds of thousands of organisms, both good and bad and probiotics are those few friendly microorganisms that do more good than harm to your body. Probiotics not only assist in digestion, but also destroy the dangerous bacteria in your intestines. What’s more, probiotics help boost the balance of intestinal microflora in your gut and have been therapeutically used to treat a host of digestive and other ailments. However, there is a downside to these friendly bacteria as well. To discover more on the side effects of probiotics, just scroll down this piece.

Risks Of Probiotics

Agreed, regular consumption of friendly ‘probiotics’ like yogurt and acidophilus milk can offer you quick relief against lactose intolerance and constipation and even meliorate flatulence and bloating. However, in some cases, probiotics can set off adverse reactions and can cause severe digestion problems and bloating.
Although probiotics are known to aid digestion, heal a leaky gut and even boost body immunity, consuming probiotics can trigger severe abdominal cramps in some cases. People with poor immune systems may be intolerant to probiotics that might cause them more harm than good.
People with impaired immune systems are also at a high risk of developing fungal infections. In such cases, it is best to choose a probiotics strain that is best suited for your health.
Although probiotics are consumed to defend the digestive system from the incursions of harmful bacteria, at times probiotic intolerance might lead to overstimulation of the immune system. In addition to aggravating the autoimmune responses of the body, probiotics may also disrupt the normal metabolic processes in the body.
A rare but life-threatening side effect of consuming probiotics is intestinal infection. People with underlying diseases or compromised immune systems like those suffering from AIDS or patients undergoing chemotherapy suffer the risk of acquiring intestinal infections after consuming probiotics. Some of the common symptoms of intestinal infections are fever, skin rashes, and bloody stools.
People who have just started dieting on probiotics often complain of a mild, dizzying headache during the first few days. However, decreasing the probiotics dosage overtime has been found to deal with the situation effectively.
Apart from intestinal and fungal infections, probiotics are known to bring on large numbers of bacterial and yeast infections that can be only cured with antibiotics.
Medical studies conducted reveal that probiotics might interact with immunosuppressive drugs triggering life-threatening complications. People who are on immunosuppressive medications should therefore strictly stay away from ingesting probiotics.

Although clinical trials have confirmed that probiotics are good for the body, not all types of probiotics are suited for all and have their own pitfalls, with flatulence, bloating and infections being some of the recurrent side effects of probiotics.

How to Cite

Related Articles

See also

More in 'Health & Fitness'