Frequently Asked Questions

Probiotics are one of the fastest growing sectors of the supplement market, and with so much research becoming available, it can be confusing to know how to select the best probiotic strain for your clients. We have a huge number of published resources on the Professionals site, including details of the latest research in areas such as Children's Health, Digestive Health, Mental Health, Weight Management, and Female Health. Use our Search function to bring up related articles.

For your convenience, we have also put together a selection of Frequently Asked Questions (see below). These detailed responses have been written by our team of qualified nutritionists in answer to some of the questions that concern our practitioners the most. We keep these pages up to date and are constantly adding more topics, so do always check here first if you have a query.

If you can’t find the answer to your question in our list of FAQs or on the website, or just want the opportunity to talk through your thoughts with one of our probiotic specialists, then our team of trained health professionals are always on hand to support health practitioners. If you have any questions regarding the best use of probiotic supplements. then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Nutrition Team on enquiries@probioticprofessionals.com.

The Probiotics Database

For more detailed information, CAM & healthcare practitioners may also wish to visit the Probiotics Database for details of the clinical trials that use some of the world’s best probiotic strains.

 This impartial educational tool aims to detail some of the world's most researched probiotic strains, and the respective research undertaken on each. We have included some of the most well-researched strains in the world, as we want to give you a balanced, non-commercial resource which you can trust and use with your clients and patients.

You will learn about how probiotic strains are classified and how they are related to each other; how each strain has been researched, and in what areas of health they've been found to be helpful. One of the first things on the database you'll see are the taxonomic trees.  All probiotics should be classified using genus, species and strain, as research shows that the health benefits of probiotics are strain specific. For example, one strain of L. rhamnosus may be good for vaginal health, but another may be more helpful for occasional diarrhoea.

On each strain page you'll be able to read about clinical trials that have been undertaken on that specific strain. The research we have documented on the database only includes human clinical trials, we do not detail in-vitro tests on the database as these are not significant in showing the benefits of probiotics in human health. We only detail clinical trials as these are considered the gold standard in research. We hope that the Probiotics Database will be a really useful educational resource for CAM and healthcare practitioners, and we hope that it gives you more confidence when considering probiotics with your clients.