Do probiotics help with bloating? If you’ve ever overindulged at a meal and experienced an uncomfortable sensation of fullness or a distended stomach, it’s a question you may have found yourself pondering.

Probiotics are live bacteria that benefit the host and are found in foods like yogurt and the best probiotic supplements. They are purported to enhance gut health and boost immunity and while there are promising results that probiotics may ease gastrointestinal issues such as bloating, the research is far from clear-cut.

To complicate matters, probiotics attract a lot of hype, which makes it tricky to tell whether claims are science-backed. Occasional bloating is also considered normal and not necessarily a cause for concern — although if symptoms are persistent, it’s important you consult a doctor to rule out any underlying causes.

Below, we speak to an expert and examine the evidence to find out if probiotics really can help with bloating.

Do probiotics help with bloating?

While research evidence is promising, it’s tricky to draw firm conclusions. Many of the studies are small-scale, and the results are mixed. Often they focus on particular groups, like people with irritable bowel syndrome, and there are few trials specifically on bloating.

For example, one 2020 review published in the International Journal of Surgery demonstrated that probiotics alleviate symptoms of bloating in people with IBS. Yet another clinical trial found little difference in bloating symptoms between those taking probiotics and the placebo group.

The effectiveness of probiotics depends in part on the cause of your symptoms. “If your bloating is because of intestinal dysbiosis, a science-y term for imbalance in your gut bacteria, then probiotics like Bifidobacterium can be beneficial,” says Vishnumohan. This may be relevant if you've recently had an infection and taken a course of antibiotics, as they can disrupt the delicate balance of microorganisms in the gut.