IT’S 9:30 am and you’re feeling a little under the weather. He’s just finished a round of antibiotics and knows his gut microbes have taken a hit. You take a pill and head out, knowing that while the microscopic communities in your intestines may take a while to regroup, the health benefits they confer will be replenished much sooner. Welcome to the world of postbiotics.
As evidence accumulates about the importance of our microbiome to our health, so does the desire to boost it. First came probiotics, the live bacteria you need in your gut. Then there were the prebiotics, or the foods these microbes need to thrive. Now, there’s a new kid on the block: postbiotics, a general term to describe dead bacteria and the products excreted by live microbes.
As it turns out, postbiotics do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to the relationship between the gut microbiome (made up of bacteria, fungi, and viruses) and good health. And by cutting out the middlemen, you can sidestep many of the problems that arise when trying to optimize gut health through other means. “There is excitement around postbiotics,” says Colin Hill, a microbiologist at University College Cork in Ireland. “It looks like we’re at a nexus where this field is potentially going to explode.” Indeed, lifestyle magazines and health food stores are extolling its benefits for all…
