My stress system runs hot — I'm the classic reactive type who wakes up already braced. I found the trial where a specific pairing of L. helveticus R0052 and B. longum R0175 lowered psychological distress over 30 days, and decided to test it on myself while also doing five minutes of slow breathing before bed. I know the human trials are small and I might just be a placebo responder. But my logged morning-anxiety score fell from a 4 to a 2 over the month, and it crept back up the week I ran out and got lazy about the breathing. That little natural experiment convinced me more than any study did.