Planning a trip abroad after the pandemic? Don't forget a plan for supporting your gut health too! Travel Probiotics can potentially save you a lot of misery because of uninvited traveler's diarrhea (TD).

One of the biggest gut health tips for everyday life and especially traveling is to keep your belly happy with the right probiotics. A happy gut supports a healthy immune system and can help in keeping your digestive health in top shape to support a healthy barrier against tummy troubles.

Traveling to hotter climates and trying different foods can create challenges to your normal gut flora. The right probiotic supplement may act to support your normal flora to help fend off food poisoning or traveler's diarrhea and let you enjoy the exotic sights, instead of spending time on the porcelain throne.

Why do you get traveler's diarrhea?

When bad bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. Coli), Salmonella, Campylobacter, or Shigella, viruses such as rotavirus or norovirus, and parasites such as Entamoeba histolytica or Giardia lamblia enter your gut through contaminated food or tap water, they can lead to traveler's diarrhea.

Pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and protozoan parasitescause up to 85% of traveler's diarrhea incidences. Of the total cases of TD, 90% are caused by bad bacteria whereas viral pathogens and protozoan parasites are responsible for the last 10%.

Escherichia coli (E. coli) is the most common bacterial cause of traveler's diarrhea and is largely contracted from consuming contaminated food and water. Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), which can be responsible for 30% to 60% of all cases of TD, works by colonizing the surface of the small intestine and producing enterotoxins.

Enterotoxins are harmful proteins that can cause damage to the intestinal cells. ETEC can produce one or both of heat-labile (LT) and heat-stable (ST) enterotoxins. The presence of enterotoxins causes the intestinal cells to release chloride ions followed by water, sodium, and other electrolytes. Although the colon reabsorbs some of this electrolyte rich fluid, the rest is expelled as watery diarrhea.

Learning about Traveler's Diarrhea and its harmful effects may lead you to consider taking preventative antibiotics. The setback with antibiotics is that they do not distinguish between good and bad bacteria. Antibiotics not only kill the bad bacteria but will also kill the good gut flora that you need to keep pathogens in check. Which in turn can lead to side effects such as antibiotics-associated diarrhea, a common effect of antibiotics therapy.

Precautions to take to keep your gut healthy while traveling abroad

Vacations can be a time to let loose for some people, and that can easily turn into trying out exotic foods, drinking alcohol, and late nights. It’s best to take some tried and tested precautions to safeguard yourself against an unwanted bout of traveler’s diarrhea.

Taking probiotics before, during, and after travel can support your natural immunity and overall gut to deal with the invasion of infectious pathogens like E. coli and avoid unwanted stomach issues.

Some tips to keep your gut healthy while traveling are:

• Avoid eating raw seafood, undercooked meat, and cooked food that's been left at room temperature.
• Avoid unpasteurized dairy, cream-filled desserts, ice cubes, tap water, and raw leafy greens in salads when you’re not sure if or how they’ve been washed.
• Try new foods only at restaurants that follow good hygiene practices.
• Take a probiotic to proactively support your microbiome.

The word probiotic originates from the Latin pro meaning 'for' and the Greek bios meaning 'life'. WHO defines probiotics as “live microorganisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host.”

An imbalance or alteration in the intestinal microbiome can make you susceptible to disease and infections of the GI tract. Introducing specific probiotic strains at appropriate doses, usually equal to or over 10 billion colony-forming units (CFU) of helpful live cultures of bacterial strains such asLactobacillus Plantarum, Bifidobacterium Longum, Bifidobacterium Bifido, and Lactobacillus reuteri, have shown efficacy in reducing the duration of diarrhea and maintaining a healthy gut.

Pictured above, left to right:Escherichia coli,

Escherichia coli after addingLactobacillus ruminis

When you take a probiotics supplement, you're introducing a live culture of potentially new bacterial strains to your digestive system. This can sometimes lead to gas, indigestion, bloating or an upset stomach as your GI tract gets used to the new strains and they become a part of your microbiome.

Any potential side effects of introducing new probiotics to your gut will generally ease up in a few days or weeks. If you're considering probiotics for travel, starting them a few weeks before you travel would give you the best results.

Over 45 million people traveled overseas from the US in 2019, and of these 45 million, traveler's diarrhea affected roughly 10% to 40%.

If you want to have the best digestive health while you travel abroad, travel probiotics can prepare your gut for your upcoming trip. Probiotics have leaped from being found in fermented food to being readily available in functional foods such as yogurt (Streptococcus thermophilus), and probiotics supplements can give you the best of these friendly bacteria.

The right probiotic for you may contain one or more selected microbial strains. Taking a probiotic daily before and during your trip can prepare your gut for traveling.

Aside from putting a break on your sightseeing plans, traveler's diarrhea can also lead to long-term health challenges that can become difficult to overcome. According to a meta-analysis published in Gastroenterology in 2017, travel diarrhea can add significantly to the risk of post-inflammatory IBS (PI-IBS). Approximately 1% of affected individuals have diarrhea that persists for longer than a month.

The advantage of taking daily probiotics lies in the development of your gut bacteria to maintain a healthy balance between pathogens and beneficial bacteria that will support your digestive system.

Although results vary because of differences in the type of probiotic strain being investigated and differences in doses, strains such as B. longum, L. plantarum,B. bifidum seem to exhibit significant efficacy in reducing the duration of diarrhea.

To support your immune system before you start traveling, consider taking probiotics at least two weeks before beginning your trip so that the probiotics have time to get acquainted with your gut bacteria and establish themselves as part of the team.

Whether you’re eating functional foods or taking a supplement, probiotics will need time and prebiotic support to affect your intestinal tract. Continuing your probiotic journey throughout your traveling and after your return will help you maintain the supportive effects of probiotics as TD symptoms can show up as late as two weeks after contracting the pathogen.

Probiotics such as Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Saccharomyces boulardii have shown efficacy in the prevention of TD and suppression of pathogenic microbes.

Lactic acid bacteria such as Leuconostic mesenteroides and Pediococcus acidilacticiproduce bacteriocins–heat-stable proteins that have an antimicrobial effect. Bacteriocins help in inhibiting the growth of pathogens and degrade toxins.

According to this meta-analysis of 63 studies, probiotics helped decrease the duration of diarrhea by a day.

A review of 559 articles suggests that a lower number of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus species can result in constipation. Taking probiotics supplements rich in Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species can be a helpful way to increase stool frequency.

Source

According to a 2017 review published inAdvances in Nutrition, adults with constipation show a significant lack of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli in their stool samples. These are the species most commonly found in fermented foods around the world and have a long history of supporting a healthy gut and regular bowel movements.

Best probiotics for traveling abroad

The best probiotics for traveling abroad should give your immune system just the boost it needs to fight off food-borne tummy issues as well as suppress the growth of pathogenic microbes, and maintain gut motility to protect you from travel constipation.

Here at BiotiQuest, our probiotics are designed to be shelf-stable at room temperature. Refrigeration will increase the life of the product but is not required to maintain CFU counts. If you are traveling to a very humid area, make sure to retain the small desiccant pack included with your products as this little packet is designed to absorb moisture and keep your probiotics stable.

Quality probiotics can have a range of Colony Forming Units (CFU) per dose. However, the CFU count isn’t a good indicator of the quality or effectiveness of the probiotic supplement. Rather, it is the specific strains and their bacteriocin production against pathogens that are important to look for.

Hot and humid climates can be hotbeds for food-borne illnesses because bacteria thrive in such environments. If you're traveling to India or Mexico in the summer, before or during monsoon, be sure to take probiotics that at least have the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains, as both have shown strong efficacy in the prevention of traveler's diarrhea.

Different probiotic strains have different storage requirements. Some probiotics that survive being freeze-dried and packaged to be shelf-stable can be a convenient option while you're traveling but if you’re set on probiotics that need refrigeration, you could carry them in an insulated carrier box lined with ice packs to maintain their temperature.

Needing to keep probiotics refrigerated while traveling can add undue stress to an otherwise great vacation. Always trying to make sure that your probiotics are at the right temperature can be hectic and there are plenty of quality options that do not require refrigeration.

Probiotics can be the best kind of traveling partner!

Multi-strain probiotics such as Ideal Immunity, Antibiotic Antidote, and Sugar Shift have been designed to support your gut health and a healthy immune system.

Probiotics have shown that they not only produce beneficial short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate but they also produce bacteriocins that inhibit the growth of or even kill bad bacteria.

Let travel probiotics help prop up your immune system against the dual threats of traveler's diarrhea and constipation so that you remember your trip abroad for its happy experiences.