‘Tis the season for sharing. We give and receive hugs, exchange gifts and share holiday meals. We also share germs, a less than festive experience at this time of year. If you come down with a sinus or ear infection, you probably head to the doctor and take a dose of antibiotics, which will make your head feel much better.

But antibiotics attack and kill off all the bacteria in your body, depleting your system of the good bacteria that helps your digestive system. And during the winter months, when you’re sampling heavier, richer and different foods, the pathogenic (or harmful) bacteria may build up – through exposure to other people and through those foods.

Consuming probiotics, or good bacteria, helps your body to metabolize the nutrients that you eat, build up protection from pathogenic bacteria and clean some of those nasty toxins out as well – helping build up your immunity for future germ attacks. Probiotics, found in natural foods like yogurt and yeast, can help with uncomfortable issues like diarrhea, vaginal and yeast infections. They can also help tackle other, stronger, and more painful conditions like clostridium difficile, also called C. diff., which can cause life-threatening inflammation of the colon.

If you are eating yogurt on a regular basis, you may not see or feel much of a difference. That’s because yogurt only contains a small amount of active probiotic cultures that rarely survive harsh stomach acid.

But probiotic supplements, like the Ultimate Flora brand from ReNew Life Formulas, contain 15 billion or higher of good bacteria from multiple different strains, allowing you to replace the good bacteria killed off by antibiotics so your body can feel healthier.

Within 24 to 36 hours of taking Ultimate Flora, you will start to feel better, your natural defenses will start to strengthen and you can get back to sharing everything with your family and friends – but in a healthy way. Visit www.tryultimateflora.com for more information about how probiotics can help you balance out the good bacteria in your body so you can feel better, and to take advantage of a special buy two, get one free offer for Ultimate Flora.