What Is Symprove? A Guide to Liquid Probiotics and Your Microbiome
Unpacking the gut health supplement popular with influencers and creators.
What are Symprove and liquid probiotics?
Symprove is a liquid probiotic drink. A daily shot of this supplement aims to deliver live cultures to the gut, improving gut health. Some of the stated benefits include improvements in bloating, digestion and regularity. Improvements to the gut microbiome are believed to help with things like IBS symptoms, skin conditions, and even mood and sleep quality.
Community Reviews
‘I have this, I love it. Really helped with bloating and regularity 💩’
‘Yes I’ve tried this for 6 months & felt good, worked for me.'
‘I had a huge break out. Not sure if it was related but I was too scared to carry on just in case.’
‘I used it once and it went straight through me, it was very distressing - my bf liked it though!’
‘Actually helped me, but I’m sure I could have just eaten better and saved £££.'
‘CHANGED MY LIFE. Suffered with IBS for 10 years and it's cured me.’
Research
The research into liquid probiotics is relatively new and short-term but shows some promise. Most of the studies have examined the effects on specific conditions like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), and Ulcerative Colitis (UC). These studies have shown various results, from insignificant improvements to symptoms to moderate improvements. One 12-week study also found significant improvements in IBS symptoms.
There is currently very little evidence on the benefits of taking a supplement like Symprove to improve gut health in people without previously mentioned conditions. However, in my experience as a Nutritionist, I know these conditions often go undiagnosed or unrecognised. Because of this, many people seek to improve their symptoms independently, meaning anecdotal evidence is equally important in understanding efficacy. This gap in healthcare support also creates an opportunity for a profitable industry, which can be both positive and negative.
Expert Insight
This week's expert is me. I completed my Nutritionist training in 2019 and practised for four years before starting Trust Her, so I know a thing or two about gut health!
When discussing probiotics and gut health, it’s helpful to understand how gut health works. To preface, healthcare scientists and experts are still learning exactly how the gut works. Even experts are still in the early stages of fully understanding the gut and how it affects our bodies and minds.
Your gut is filled with hundreds, maybe thousands, of bacteria, often called the gut microbiome. A healthy microbiome is diverse and balanced, which means it has many different strains of bacteria in balanced quantities (an imbalance of bacteria is called dysbiosis and can cause digestive issues, skin conditions, and mood changes). Your diet feeds these bacteria, so the more varied your diet, the more varied your microbiome.
Probiotics supplements aim to give the microbiome more diversity or rebalance the bacteria within the gut, thus improving unwanted symptoms that may be present.
Gut health is definitely a topic to watch over the next few years, but be wary, often new science is misunderstood and taken out of context on social media, so don't believe everything you see!
Reflections
Understanding the gut and the associated research into probiotic supplementation is so new that it’s challenging to conclude efficacy from the current studies available. However, from personal experience, I know how debilitating conditions like IBS can be, so there’s no harm in trying something that could possibly help.
One of the challenges with probiotic supplementation is that, without testing, it’s impossible to know which bacteria are present in your gut. So, choosing a supplement to complement your own microbiome is tricky. Each supplement contains different strains in different quantities, and some are more likely to reach the gut alive than others (liquid supplements like Symprove believe that their formulations reach the gut alive, as opposed to the powdered capsule formulas).
If you try probiotic supplementation, first make sure your diet is full of variety, and then trial some different types of probiotics to see if any work for you. Remember that the wrong supplement would have the opposite effect, so time your testing wisely.
Female-Founded?
SYMPROVE - Barry Smith founded Symprove, which was first available in 1996 (Mutligerm) as an agricultural supplement for animals. In 2002, the brand was updated to Symprove and launched for human consumption in 2010.
NAKED BIOTICS - Founded by best friends Amy Partridge and Leanne Weston in 2018. The company is wholly owned by Partridge family members and Leanne.
HANNA SILLITOE - a brand with a skincare focus was founded by Hanna in 2019 and later appeared on Dragon’s Den. Hanna is still the sole owner.
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