As you age your gut becomes a less suitable environment for beneficial bacteria.
Stress, toxins in the food, air, water, medications, sugar and alcohol test your bacteria’s resilience.
Declining hormones and digestive function add to the less than stellar environment.
Exposures compound along with gut lining irritation the longer you’ve been on this earth.
Since the beneficial bacteria are the first line of defense against invaders you don’t want to forget about them when it comes to boosting your immune health.
In my last email I talked about the 4 strains of beneficial bacteria that are best for humans.
– Lactobacillus acidophilus, NAS strain
– Lactobacillus bulgaricus
– Bifidobacterium bifidum
– Bifidobacterium infantis
A century of research shows these good bugs have been evolving with you.
Your gut is the epicenter of your immune system.
Beneficial bacteria function as gate keepers, hormone regulators, immune boosters and more.
Those gate keepers change based on your current environment.
This can be external or internal thought based environment too!
Ever notice you get sick when stressed or after a stressful experience?
Did you ever notice that people often get sick when weather changes from warm to cold and vice versa?
Turns out cold weather allows different groups of bacteria to thrive than warm or hot weather.
This is why it’s beneficial to increase your probiotic consumption with weather changes or when traveling to an area that has different weather.
Natren probiotic’s Healthy Trinity is a good option for travel and can be kept cool in a lunch pack while traveling.
Prior to interviewing Natasha Trenev, I didn’t think much about increasing probiotics based on any environmental changes or stressful events.
But it makes sense!
What I also didn’t think about is that humans turn over all their cells throughout the course of a year.
You are a new person every year!
And you have an entirely new gut lining every 3 or so days…
…so wouldn’t it make sense to be consistently replenishing your beneficial bacteria since the cells underneath them are turning over?
If you’re putting in the effort to choose quality foods to put in your body.
It makes sense to support the system that protects what gets into your body.
With autoimmune conditions on the rise and their source being the gut…
…why wouldn’t I want to advise clients to do what makes sense to strengthen the immune system naturally?
Did you know that over 90% of your happy neuro-chemical serotonin is made in your gut by beneficial bacteria?
And did you know that many genes are turned on by toxins called LPS (lipopolysaccharides)?
If you supported your gut microbiome with key species you may not experience anxiety, depression or expressions of genetic mutations like sensitivities to certain foods.
Hormone imbalance, peri-menopause and menopause symptoms might not be as severe or show up at all if beneficial bacteria are supported regularly.
All of these benefits of probiotics may seem too good to be true…
…especially if you’ve taken probiotics and not seen any benefit or had side effects.
I challenge you all to re-think probiotics and do some homework on the brands that you chose.
If you’re taking spore based probiotics consider taking a break and adding in the Healthy Trinity by Natren or something similar.
Consider taking probiotics daily and increasing dosage based on exposures.
It makes sense to put more effort into the gut microbiome as it’s the root of all illness.
And it’s the weakest link because of the many ways you beat up on it with age.
- overeating
- eating too fast
- eating too many spicy foods
- overeating cold or frozen foods
- drinking alcohol
- eating foods with chemicals, dyes and toxins
- using chemical sweeteners
- breathing poor quality air
- taking pharmaceutical medications
- drinking non-filtered water
- intense exercise
- negative thoughts
- mental and physical stress
- travel
Keep in mind you can’t supplement your way out of a poor diet, negative thoughts and toxic environments.
I’ll keep repeating that statement over and over again!
If you are struggling to get your health on track and are looking for guidance on aging gracefully hit reply and let’s chat.
Check out my podcasts on probiotics with Natasha Trenev – HERE and HERE.
Stay tuned for next week when I dive into how your breathing is affecting your microbiome, circulation, energy, hormones and so much more!
Here’s to your health,
Dr. J
