The Benefits of Probiotic LayeringHi all, Linsy here! Have you ever heard the term probiotic layering?

Jini believes probiotics are of fundamental importance to gut health – not only in times of infection or flares, but for long-term healing and maintenance. You probably know she only recommends Natren brand probiotics, but if you’re curious why you can read Jini’s blog post, How to Choose a Potent Probiotic. This post is a guide to finding an effective and potent probiotic, and you’ll see why Natren checks all the boxes!

Well, I had a recent conversation with the CEO and founder of Natren, Natasha Trenev, and she explained to me that probiotic layering ensures that all 27 ft of your GI tract are being treated effectively to reap maximum benefits. If this is new information for you, please keep reading to find out what exactly probiotic layering is and how you can implement this newest protocol. 🙂

Probiotic Layering

Per Natasha, “ideally you should take the Healthy Trinity capsule AND layer with powdered probiotics at least twice a day.”

This means taking the Healthy Trinity capsule at the same time as all three of Natrens’ powdered probiotics (click here for dairy-free powders). An easy way of doing this is by following these instructions straight from Natasha:

“The powders can be taken ½ teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of each powder. Fill a glass of filtered water and mix ½ to 1 teaspoon of the powders, then drink it with the healthy trinity capsule right before a meal (at least 20 minutes). This is my layering system to reach all 27 feet of the GI tract and my dietary and nutritional support.”

Why is this beneficial?

1) This layering protocol will reach all 27 feet of the GI tract.

Why? Because, the Healthy Trinity capsule really targets the small intestine, colon, and lower areas of the GI tract, whereas the powders are more focused on the upper GI tract like the mouth, stomach, esophagus, etc. So you can see that taking these in synergy benefits your whole GI tract.

*Please note that many people do fine and get results by taking just the powders or the Healthy Trinity. This is not to say you won’t get results if you don’t do this layering system! However, if you do layer these precision probiotics you can be really confident that all areas are being treated effectively.

2) The powders and Healthy Trinity contain the same bacterial strains but different CFU’s.

I grabbed the below two snippets from Natren’s FAQ section to help explain this:

“Healthy Trinity and the Healthy Start System (the powders) provide the same 3 beneficial bacteria species. Healthy Trinity is our most potent probiotic at 30 billion CFU per capsule. It combines the three most powerful super strains of probiotics protected by a unique oil matrix technology for ultimate survivability in one convenient capsule. It ensures the ultimate survivability of the 3 super strain probiotic bacteria.

The Healthy Start System is a box containing three bottles, each one with a different, gentle serving of one probiotic super strain to customize a supplementation program for the entire family.”

So as you can see, they both provide excellent benefits. The CFU count may be different, but keep in mind they are each targeting different parts of the GI tract.

Remember – the GI tract starts in the mouth all the way to the anus! It’s not just the stomach and intestines, so again (for maximum benefit) layering can help to reach all areas of the GI tract. The powders alone provide benefits by swishing or letting them sit in your mouth, whereas the Healthy Trinity capsules open up in the small intestine.

Probiotic Sensitivity

Now you may be thinking…how should I go about layering if I’m sensitive to probiotics?

bloatingIf you have read or watched my videos and listened to my journey, you’ll remember I was SO sensitive to one of the Natren probiotic powders. This was because I had an underlying overgrowth in my small intestine, that I didn’t know of at that time, so I just could not tolerate it!

Every time I took that particular strain, my tummy would bloat so bad it was hard to walk. This was right at the beginning of my journey, so I had a ton of imbalances to work on. The solution my coach and I came to was to take the Healthy Trinity capsule since the powders were an issue. The funny thing is that although the healthy trinity is the strongest of them all, I tolerated it just fine! That was the solution to the problem, all the bloating was gone in two days!

My point is that my journey went the opposite of what I am going to recommend, so use this as a guideline – but listen and do what your body says!

How I would personally start this layering process:

  • Since the powders contain lower CFU’s, and you can easily manage doses since they’re in powder form, I would highly recommend starting with these.
  • Its recommended to start with one powdered strain at a time. I like to give it at least 3-5 days to make sure I don’t have any reaction to that strain, and then once you get up to the recommended dose (½ – 1 teaspoon twice daily) of that strain, slowly add in the other powdered probiotics, one by one. I started with just a pinch of one strain, and it took me months just to get to a therapeutic dose. It really depends on your microflora, so don’t rush it and cause more issues!
  • Once you are comfortable at the recommended dose (with all three probiotic powders twice a day) then add in the Healthy Trinity.

*Please note that it is recommended to implement this layering process twice daily, but again listen to your gut as I have found this part to be very subjective to your needs and symptoms. I’ve had times where I used them three times daily and times where I only needed them once during the day.

If you decide to try layering probiotics, I would REALLY love to hear from you! Write your experiences in a comment below, or send us an email, as I would love to see how this works for you all.

Until next time, happy healing – and remember to always listen to your gut! 🙂