We hear all the time that a healthy gastrointestinal “gut” microbiome is important for overall health and vitality. But do YOU really understand what that is and what it means?
Your actual gut microbiome starts in the small and large intestine, further down the digestive tract from your stomach. This is where nutrients from your food are absorbed and trillions of bacteria, viruses, and fungi live and contribute to our overall health in many ways. These microorganisms are referred to as microbes.
Most of these microbes in your gut microbiome are “good” bacteria, but if you have an imbalance between the good and the pathogenic, or “bad” organisms, we call that condition dysbiosis. Excess pathogenic bacteria can cause many symptoms: “irritable bowel” syndrome, constipation, diarrhea, bloating/abdominal distention, cramping and abdominal pain, fatigue, unhealthy food cravings, repeated infections, and even mood swings. We are learning more and more about how some bacteria in your gut are associated with disease and others benefit your immune system, digestive system, and even your weight and mood.
Diversity of gut microflora is characteristic of a healthy GI microbiome and contributes to overall health and vitality by promoting optimum digestion, assimilation, gut integrity, motility, and efficient removal of toxins and wastes. Our goal for health and resilience is to increase the health promoting bacteria and decrease the negative influences that impact our microbial balance. What are some of those factors? Stress, a poor diet, food sensitivities, medications (such as PPIs-proton pump inhibitors, Metformin, laxatives, statins, NSAIDs, antacids, antidepressants, sleeping pills, and cancer therapy drugs), environmental toxins, food additives, and many different disease conditions.
Here are a few simple strategies that can go a long way towards getting your gut back on track.
1) Eat a Microbiota Accessible Diet (MAC) that includes dietary fibers that are non-digestible polysaccharides that are not always present in adequate amounts in the standard American diet. These carbohydrates are a main source of energy for gut bacteria and support the good bacteria in your gut. Eat a diet high in fiber, resistant starches, whole grains, raw leafy greens, garlic, artichokes, chicory root, leeks, unripe bananas, onions, raw jicama, and apples. These fibers are known as prebiotics which you can also supplement with an over-the-counter fiber product.
2) Include fermented foods like sauerkraut, fermented vegetables, Kiefer, yogurt, kombucha, and natto. The Mediterranean diet also benefits gut health with its greater emphasis on whole fruits and vegetables and legumes and moderate consumption of animal derived foods like fish, lean meat, poultry, and fermented dairy.
3) Supplement with probiotics that include both Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium in high volume containing at least 1 billion CFUs. Make sure the bacteria are alive and formulated to survive stomach acids so they will reach your intestines. Beware of high sugar content probiotic aids, there are many of them out there.
This is why I have specifically chosen our TruProbiotic™ Daily formula to provide a high quality, highly absorbed, multi species product. TruProbiotic™ Daily contains Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus plantarum, both showing excellent adhesion to human epithelial cell-lines,* Bifidobacterium longum, resistant to low pH and bile salts and is well-suited to the intestinal environment,* and Saccharomyces boulardii. a probiotic yeast that play a role in gut ecology by supporting intestinal barrier function and integrity.*
It is challenging to produce reliable and stable probiotic supplements that keep the stability of the beneficial bacteria organisms during distribution and sitting on store shelves. It is also challenging to create probiotics supplements that insure the survival of the good bacteria after they are swallowed and travel through the acids of the stomach to the lower digestive tract to reach the targeted tissue.
To improve stability, Truth for Health Foundation packages of TruProbiotic™ Daily are capsules in sealed, nitrogen-purged blister packs to serve as protection from heat, moisture, oxygen and other factors proven to compromise the stability of probiotics. Careful selection of organisms is another way our product is designed to ensure stability and digestive survivability. To further support resistance to low pH and the delivery of microorganisms to the small intestines, TruProbiotic™ Daily from Truth for Health Foundation encapsulates the ingredients in gastro-resistant DRcaps™. These uniquely designed, innovative capsule formulations help slow exposure of active organisms to stomach acid, which in turn promotes a more targeted release.*
Clinical Applications for TruProbiotic™ Daily
- Helps Maintain a Healthy Intestinal Microecology*
- Supports Bowel Regularity*
- Supports Gastrointestinal-Based Immunity*
For those of you that experience digestive symptoms, have immune challenges or chronic conditions, a regular probiotic supplementation regimen may be appropriate. If you are new to probiotic supplementation or have taken a recent round of antibiotics or take some of the medications mentioned above that negatively impact the gut microbiome, you may do best by starting with our more potent, more diverse, TruProbiotic™ Complex for one or two rounds (two weeks each round) to help better restore your healthy gut microbiome, and then continue with our TruProbiotic™ Daily on a regular basis.
To your improving health!
Elizabeth Lee Vliet, MD
All Truth for Health Foundation Formulas are Meet or Exceed Quality Standards set by FDA Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP). For more information, references from studies are listed in the Product Data Sheet.
Under medical practice regulations, we are unable to answer individual medical questions or make specific individual supplement recommendations for people who are not established patients of Dr. Vliet’s independent medical practice. *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
