In the battle of good vs. bad bacteria in the body, gut health can be a tricky topic to navigate. From digestion to immunity, hormones, skin health and even the gut-brain axis that tells us our gut plays a role in our mental health, one thing’s for certain, taking care of our tums is crucial to our overall wellbeing.
It’s estimated that there are 39 trillion bacterial cells in your body, compared to 30 trillion human cells, meaning technically you are more bacteria than you are human. Mind blown? Us too.
Fortunately, there are ways in which we can lend a helping hand to ensuring our gut stays in tip-top shape and one of the best ways to do so is by supplementing with a quality probiotic, like those available from Cytoplan .
How it works Probiotics (which literally means ‘for-life’) are live bacteria or specific probiotic yeast species that can help to keep your gut healthy by reducing the growth of harmful bacteria and increasing the number of ‘friendly’ ones.
Good gut bacteria supports the enhancement of the epithelial barrier, which regulates nutrient absorption, helps prevent infections by inhibiting pathogen adhesion, as well as strengthening the immune system and the production of some vitamins and short chain fatty acids.
Why we need it Of course, your body is intelligent enough to do most of the work by itself, but many factors can affect the development of our gut flora – it can even go back to when we were born, including the type of delivery we had, feeding, weaning and so on.
Fast forward to adulthood, and there are a host of factors that can then disturb our gut flora, including food choices, stress, poor sleep, medications, antibiotics, the list goes on.
An imbalanced gut flora, often referred to as ‘dysbiosis’, can lead to many symptoms in and beyond the gut, from bloating and digestive issues to inflammatory bowel diseases, obesity, diabetes, liver diseases, chronic heart diseases and even cancers, HIV and autism according to research published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
How it can support you Adding a probiotic supplement to your daily routine is a simple but powerful way to improve not only your gut health, but your overall wellbeing. Potential benefits of probiotics include improvement in sleep, IBS, skin problems, metabolic syndrome, antibiotic-associated diarrhoea and allergies.
What’s more, a happy gut will leave you feeling more energised with improved immunity and can even reduce anxiety. To start being good to your gut, see Cytoplan’s extensive range of probiotics here.
