If I Go Even A Few Days Without My Favorite Supplement, My Gut Feels It

There are so many supplements out there nowadays promising a variety of benefits depending on your needs. I have my few standbys, but there's one that I take religiously every day—and I immediately notice if I miss it, even for just a few days.

I've been taking a probiotic for over four years now, and I've tried a few different brands and bacteria strains to find one that works best for me.

If you need a refresher on what a probiotic actually is, it's a supplement of live microorganisms, taken with the intent to help restore your gut microbiome with good bacteria, which can have a bunch of benefits. (Here's a quick list of our favorites to try yourself!)

The main reason I started taking probiotics, personally, was because I had read (on mindbodygreen, actually!) that eczema can be a sign of poor gut health but the right probiotic strains might help.

Lucky for me, they really did! And while I still get the occasional patch of dry skin here and there during the colder months, it doesn't even come close to how angry and inflamed my skin got before.

And the benefits of probiotics don't stop there. On the topic of skin, I noticed my acne improved along with the eczema. And when it came to digestion, after a few months of consistently taking probiotics, one day I realized, Wait, when was the last time I was even bloated? It's been a minute...

By now I've set myself up with a subscription service so I never miss my daily probiotic. Once upon a time, however, I was buying them at the store, and there would always be a few days, or even a week when I would run out.

And to say I could feel the difference almost immediately is not an exaggeration. Not only does my body seem less primed to handle inflammation when I haven't taken my probiotic (i.e., itchy skin, angry acne, etc.), but my stomach is way more...noisy, for lack of a better word.