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Prebiotics and probiotics have taken the health supplement world by storm over the last decade due to their often-hyped ability to help fix any number of medical issues relating to the gut. However, as with most marketing campaigns, there is the need to separate the truth from the hype.
The reality is that probiotics and prebiotics can help you stabilize and make your digestive system more efficient, but they are not the end-all-be-all that they were hyped up to be a decade ago. They can help those in genuine need, and have absolutely no effect for those that already have a smoothly working digestive system.
Can My Problem Be Fixed with Pro and Prebiotics?
It depends on your unique situation. If you deal with occasional bloating, constipation, or diarrhea, then it is worth trying out a probiotic to see if it helps. If it doesn’t, make an appointment to speak with your doctor. He or she will be able to help you figure out the best course of action for your situation.
What is the Difference, Anyway?
A probiotic is a bacterium that helps digest your food. It literally breaks down the morsel you ate and passes the resultant nutrients along to your body, in return for giving the bacterium a safe place to live. To put it simply – without these bacteria we would not be able to digest even the simplest of dishes.
Prebiotics is a term for anything that helps probiotics to flourish. They are normally feedstocks that sustain the probiotics until they are well situated in your gut. As such, they are like the extra bit of fuel that helps get a fire going. A nice thing to have, but not necessarily vital. However, for some people with tricker digestive system issues caused by bad bacteria, a good prebiotic can be the tool needed in order to successfully replace the bad batch with the good batch.
The following are our favorite probiotic dietary supplements. Many of them, which we note in the reviews, include prebiotics as well. Here is how we determined which of the hundreds of dietary supplements we reviewed deserve a posting in our list:
Price
We don’t take kindly to products that cost hundreds of dollars when there are perfectly fine alternatives that cost less than twenty dollars. This means we immediately remove from contention any product that costs an arm and a leg. However, if some other feature of the probiotic dietary supplement makes the price worth it, we have no qualms about including it on the list.
Ingredients
There are neutral bacteria. There are good bacteria. And then there are bad bacteria. When it comes to this topic, we take great care to only highlight those brands that devote the time and energy needed to provide you with the best possible bacteria to ensure that your digestive system is working at peak efficiency. This means constantly looking at medical studies to see if the bacteria exist naturally in the gut. And for those that aren’t, we look hard for any reliable facts as to why they are superior to what nature has given us.
We will freely admit, this part of the review process took the longest. Crunching the numbers forced us to double and triple-checking our work, often putting in extra hours just to make certain everything was completely accurate.
Customer Reviews
This was the most fun, yet still grueling, part of the review process. We needed to carefully read through all of the customer reviews and determine the common characteristics behind them all. Now, there is something important to note about reviewing reviews. People tend to complain more than praise, making it essential that you weigh them accordingly.
As such, we added a quarter star to all of the reviews in order to account for the silent majority that was pleased with the product but couldn’t be bothered to pop in and leave some feedback.
Even with this addition, many of the products we had the good fortune to perform were immediately removed from consideration due to the scores. If a thousand people said your product did the exact opposite of calming your digestive system… well, we are not comfortable recommending it to you.
Thankfully, with the earlier weeding, this process was relatively simple to carry out. To be blunt – we started this process with nearly one hundred products to consider from brands big and small. By the time we got to this point, the list was narrowed down to 24, which we whittled down to just 12.
Top 12 Probiotic Dietary Supplements
Finding the right probiotic dietary supplement can be a monumental challenge to those who are not used to sifting through the thousands of dietary supplements available in the American marketplace. Thankfully our team of experienced product reviewers and researchers have the time and energy needed to sift through thousands of potential products and bring to you only the best.
The following are 12 of the best probiotic dietary supplements available to Americans. We were impressed by each and every one of them and hope that you can consider choosing one of them to be your next favorite probiotic dietary supplement.
Are you looking for the best probiotic offer to people throughout the United States? Elm & Rye has a long and storied tradition of offering only the finest dietary supplements to discerning customers throughout the country. With their probiotics, this trend continues. All you need to do is take a single tablet or gummy and for the rest of the day, your digestive system will be filled with the good bacteria it needs in order to operate at peak efficiency.
Members of our team were well versed in this brand before we started our review process. As such, we knew going into the review what to expect. Excellent customer reviews. All-natural ingredients. And a dedication to excellence that is second to none. Our results after carefully reviewing everything from the ingredients list to customer reviews and the price show that this is one of the best brands available for those looking for a high-quality and affordable probiotic dietary supplement.
A one-time purchase is $44.99 though you can say 20% by signing up for a monthly subscription service. For those looking to try out a probiotic dietary supplement, we wholeheartedly recommend that this brand be the first you go to. After all, why should you consider going with a cheaper brand if you cannot guarantee that it will be the best product available for your dollar?
2 – Physician’s Choice Probiotic
Having trouble finding a healthy mix of probiotics and prebiotics? Physician’s Choice is here for you with its amazing line of probiotic dietary capsules. Each capsule contains 10 individual strands of healthy probiotics designed specifically to help ease your digestive system and promote a healthy experience in the restroom. Added to the mix is a healthy prebiotic fiber blend that helps nourish the bacteria, helping them gain a foothold in your stomach and digestive tract.
This means that you will be able to gain the full benefits of all 60 billion probiotic bacteria that are included in each capsule without having to worry about a thing. Within a week of trying out this brand, you will begin to see an improvement in your digestive system experience from beginning to end.
Our team of expert product reviewers pored over reams of data about this particular brand and are quite pleased with the end results. It is exceptionally well-reviewed and liked by thousands of happy consumers throughout the United States. They liked how easy it was to take, how effective the product was in dealing with digestive system upsets, and the price is second to none.
A 30-day supply is $17.97 and can be easily purchased online or from your local pharmacy. We recommend this brand to anyone looking for a value offering or that is unsure whether or not a probiotic dietary supplement is for them.
3 – RenewLife Extra Care Probiotic
This company promises to help you fill your best every day thanks to 30 billion live cultures from 12 probiotic strains that are included in each capsule. This brand offers something different that most companies should consider incorporating into their own design: a delayed-release capsule that helps most of the probiotics bypass the stomach and enter the digestive tract.
A one-month supply is $16.44. You can save 10% by signing up for a monthly subscription service.
4 – California Gold Nutrition Probiotic
Finding the perfect probiotic requires an eye for detail and a willingness to dive deep into the topic in order to find out which ones will work best for you. California Gold Nutrition Probiotic includes eight active and clinically researched probiotic strains that are guaranteed to be potent and effective in treating a wide range of common stomach and digestive health.
Each batch of probiotics has been verified by a third-party lab to ensure the highest quality possible. This means you are guaranteed to have a high-quality experience every time you pop the seal on one of these capsules.
A 60-day supply can be had for just $20, although you can save 5% by signing up for a monthly subscription that includes free shipping. While this product costs more than some of the other brands we have reviewed, the high quality shows that it is worthy of consideration for anyone seeking out a probiotic.
5 – Now Foods Probiotic
One cannot simply stumble upon the right probiotic digestive supplement. Finding the one that works best for you is a journey that will have many starts and stops with some interesting detours along the way. Such was our experience with this brand of probiotic. A 60-day supply is $14.99, making it one of the most affordable once we have had the opportunity to review.
If cost was the only metric we cared about, this would be a clear front runner for the top spot in our list. However, the fact that you can only obtain this brand by visiting their website makes it hard to recommend for anyone who prefers to purchase their dietary supplements at a regular store or through a major online retailer.
Setting aside such issues, we have no qualms about recommending this brand for anyone who is striving to find a value offering or are looking to dip their toes into that probiotic field for the first time.
On the quality front, we were impressed by the lengths the company went to in order to ensure the highest possible standards are maintained. Every strain included in the product has been verified using DNA fingerprinting technology, meaning you know exactly what you’re getting with each capsule.
6 – Florastor Daily Probiotic Supplement
Are you looking for a probiotic that can help you maintain a healthy digestive system every day? Florastor is proud to offer you the opportunity to enjoy a healthier digestive system thanks to its once-a-day capsule that contains 250 mg of unique probiotic strains.
This probiotic has been carefully designed to help you maximize the number of good bacteria in your gut, leading to an easier time digesting even the most annoying of food. Beyond that, by ensuring you have the right bacteria in your gut you can help alleviate the common concerns that arise with many digestive system elements.
One of the key selling points of this probiotic dietary supplement is the fact that the bacteria have been carefully designed to thrive even during antibiotic use. This means you can take it even if you are recovering from a nasty bacterial infection or have a stomach full of bad bacteria.
A 20-day supply is just $19.99 and can be found in many pharmacies and stores nationwide. As such, you may have already stumbled upon this brand during your regular shopping. If so, feel free to grab a box and try it out for yourself. Our experience with this brand has been positive and we are certain that you will have a good experience with it as well.
7 – GNC Probiotic Complex
This brand comes from a company with a long and storied tradition in the health supplement field. You can find stores stocking this in most malls throughout the country and it is available through a wide variety of online retailers, making this one of the easiest probiotics to obtain. A one-month supply is $44.99.
Now, this is among the most expensive brands we have reviewed. However, we chalk that up to the brand recognition and the quality promised by it. Thousands of reviewers have heaped praise upon it making this one of the most recognized and well-reviewed brands we have encountered, pricing aside.
Each capsule comes with 100 mg of fructooligosaccharides, which can help encourage the growth of beneficial intestinal bacteria such as those provided by this probiotic dietary supplement. We strongly encourage you to consider this brand if others on this list fails to provide you with the high-quality results you are looking for. After all, sometimes the cheapest option is not the best for those with unique circumstances.
8 – The Vitamin Shoppe Probiotic
The Vitamin Shoppe is well known for producing high-quality dietary supplements available to consumers worldwide at amazing prices. Take for instance their probiotic brand, which is just $20.99 for a 100-day supply.
Thousands of five-star reviews across a wide variety of online retailers show that this brand is highly regarded in the marketplace and should not be passed on by anyone looking for a true value offering. The ingredients are carefully sourced and standardized in order to provide you with a high-quality experience every time you pop in a capsule. As such, we wholeheartedly recommend this brand to anyone looking for the best bang for their buck.
9 – Align Probiotic
You may recognize this brand from the nationwide advertising campaign that occurred a couple of years ago. It has become the poster child for high-quality probiotics due to its emphasis on providing the right amount of probiotic bacteria in an easy-to-digest capsule.
One thing that caught our attention was the ability to buy a small number of capsules upfront. For roughly $15 you can buy 14 capsules, which will give you enough time to determine whether or not this brand is right for you.
It has been on the market for more than 10 years and has garnered praise around the globe due to its custom probiotic strain that has been proven to help soothe upset digestive systems. As such, we wholeheartedly recommend this brand to anyone seeking out a way to easily and affordably try out probiotics without having to invest in a large bottle.
10 – MegaFood MegaFlora 7 Day Intensive Probiotic
Unlike most of the probiotic dietary supplements we have reviewed, this one is only meant to be used for one week. During that time, it is believed that this probiotic can replace the bacteria in your gut, alleviating many of the common issues that come with having bad intestinal bacteria.
A seven-day treatment cost $22.47, which makes it among the most expensive brands on a per-dose basis. However, it is designed to be an intensive tool to correct issues short-term rather than merely treat them on an ongoing basis.
Does it succeed in this endeavor? We pored over hundreds of reviews in order to determine the answer. We have found, in the majority of cases, that these probiotic dietary supplements can help alleviate many of the issues people encounter on a regular basis. However, it is worth noting that if it does not help you should consult with a doctor as quickly as possible. Your condition might not be the result of bad bacteria in your gut.
We recommend this brand to anyone that believes a quick fix may be all that is needed in order to get their gut to work right.
11 – Silver Fern Probiotic
This is the second of the probiotic dietary supplements on our list that is designed specifically to allow the bacteria to safely pass through the stomach without being destroyed by the strong acid. It is designed and marketed towards those that have tried other probiotic brands before but have found that they do not provide the relief needed.
As such, a one-month supply runs $49.99, making it among the more expensive of the brands we have researched. However, with over 100,000 positive reviews, this brand has proven itself to be effective at helping people deal with common digestive system issues that are the result of bad bacteria.
12 – New Chapter Probiotic
This brand brings to the table the most effective prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics in order to maximize the health of your digestive system. It has been carefully designed and cultivated to provide you with the right amounts of bacteria to allow your digestive system to function at peak efficiency.
It does all this at a reasonable price of $35 for a one-month supply. While this isn’t the cheapest probiotic we have reviewed, it still is remarkedly affordable for even those on the tightest of budgets. You can even save an additional 15% by signing up for a monthly subscription.
New Chapter is a relative newcomer to the dietary supplement scene, but it has put forth many highly regarded products in the United States market. And, true to form, we can safely recommend this brand to anyone seeking relief from bacteria-caused digestive system upset without having to break the bank. Order a bottle online today to start experiencing relief tomorrow.
