Improving your gut will change your life. There are many who believe the gut has the answers to the overall health and that certainly holds some truth. In fact, 80% of the immune system is in the gut. When the digestive system isn’t in full working order, the rest of the body is affected negatively. Inflammation leads to unnecessary pain and discomfort and the mental health is affected.
A poor digestive system can lead to a lack of nutrients being absorbed by the body. This can lead to various health problems due to deficiencies, despite eating healthily and well. It’s important to get supplements into the diet to help improve the health of your gut and improve the overall health.
While supplements shouldn’t replace a healthy and balanced diet, they can be used to help support the system. The idea is that they supplement the nutrients, adding extra to make sure you get enough. Here are seven you’ll want to consider to aid your gut health.
Add More Probiotics to Your Meals
You’ve likely heard of bacteria in the gut. Both good and bad bacteria can grow in the gut. If you don’t get enough of the good, the bad will take over and lead to health problems. The great news is that getting the right balance of good will make sure the level of bad is kept under control.
Probiotics are your friend. The probiotics are the good bacteria and are found naturally in the gut. The problem is things like acid-blockers, antibiotics and steroid can damage the good bacteria. There’s more space for the bad bacteria to take over.
You can get probiotics from yogurts and some other dairy products. However, you can also get them through supplements and should consider them if you don’t eat any animal products at all. There are various types of probiotic strains though, so it’s important to do some research on the different options and how they can help support your system. You’ll want to make sure you get the best options for your overall health.
Some probiotics help to improve the immune system, while others will support your hormone production and balance. Your doctor will help determine which type of probiotics is necessary for your current health.
When you do choose probiotic supplements, make sure you check the quality. You want something that has multiple strains of bacteria, rather than just a couple.
Consider taking probiotics while you take antibiotics. Because of the way antibiotics will just kill all bacteria, you want to make sure you add more of the good stuff to protect the balance and the gut for the long-term. Check out more info on foods to eat while on antibiotics here
Don’t Forget Antifungal Supplements
Many people overlook the need for antifungal products in their diet. After all, you likely don’t consider how fungi can affect your health. This isn’t until you have a type of fungal infection causing a problem, such as a nail fungal infection, thrush or something similar.
You can avoid fungus infections by using antifungal supplements. There are natural options, including oregano oil, cellulose or caprylic acid that will help to destroy the fungi and leave the gut healthy.
If you have the leaky gut syndrome, you’ll want to consider this supplement more than others. The syndrome is often linked to an imbalance in the flora within the gut, which needs to get out of the body somehow. If you have a lot of intestinal stress you’ll also want to consider antifungal supplements to repair some of the damage, as well as repair some of the damage!
Even if you don’t have an imbalance of flora within the body, antifungal supplements will help to establish better intestinal order. You help to resolve some of the problems of extra yeast within the gut, reducing inflammation and improving the overall health. You can also limit the external reactions due to the extra yeast and fungi.
When you take antibiotics, you’ll also want to consider more antifungal supplements. When you take antibiotics, you’ll kill all bacteria (good and bad). This can lead to an increase in yeast within the gut, which can lead to other health problems. Adding more antifungal supplements will help to keep the yeast growth to a minimum.
Get More L-Glutamine
Something you’ll want to look out for through supplements is L-Glutamine. While vitamins and minerals are important, L-Glutamine is an essential amino acid. L-Glutamine helps to improve the digestive system function, which also helps to boost the immune system. The gut and body work more in tune with each other, helping to fight off infection, reduce inflammation and improve the overall health.
This is a supplement especially important for those who suffer from chronic anxiety or have a stressful lifestyle. Both conditions increase the cortisol in the body, causing lower glutamine levels than is good. You’re at a higher risk of various gut conditions, particularly leaky gut syndrome. Your gut doesn’t move the waste properly, leading to the intestines not absorbing the right nutrients.
You won’t feel like you have the energy from the food. The L-Glutamine is a fuel source, lining the intestines and improving the absorption rate. When you do eat, you’ll gain more of the other nutrients to improve the rest of your health.
L-Glutamine has also been linked to repairing some gut damage. It’s possible to reverse leaky gut syndrome and reduce inflammation within the body.
Consider Supplementing Your Macronutrients
While you will need micronutrients, don’t forget about getting enough macronutrients. Your body needs proteins, carbohydrates, and fats for various reasons. The gut health will be improved, while you also look after the muscles, energy levels, organs and more. If you don’t get enough of the macronutrients through your food (which is more common than you would initially think) then you’ll want to consider taking them in supplemental form.
Vegans may find they need to take extra protein, as they don’t get enough by cutting out animal products. Those who exercise a lot can also need extra protein to build more muscle. Meanwhile, those on a low carb diet can find that they struggle with energy levels and those who cut out all fat can suffer from a lack of ketones.
The macronutrients are also known as enzymes and help to improve the way the digestive system works. They can help to improve the bowel movements, the immune support and ease discomfort after meals. It’s also possible to alleviate and reverse some food allergies or sensitivities. This can be the case for the likes of dairy, gluten and egg sensitivities in children. However, you will want to talk to your doctor before you start adding foods you’re sensitive to back into your diet.
There are different types of enzyme supplements depending on the type of macronutrients you need.
Amylase helps to break down the starches in foods into sugar, while lactase will help with the breaking down of lactose into glucose for energy. Protease can help to break down the proteins into the amino acids, while fats are broken down into fatty acids through the use of lipase.
These supplements are likely the ones that you’ll want to discuss with your doctor about to make sure you get the exact ones you need. It will depend on your diet, your health, and other issues.
Get Plenty of Fiber Supplements If Necessary
You want to get as much natural fiber as possible, but sometimes you will need to get it through supplements. Fiber is one of the most well-known but still overlooked nutrients for the gut.
You’ll know that fiber helps to reduce digestive complaints. It eases constipation and can help to reduce trapped wind. This is a nutrient that can help to support the working of the gut. You don’t just improve the flow, but you make sure the muscles and digestive walls work effectively. It’s possible to repair some damage that has happened in the past and reverse some health conditions.
Fiber is necessary to sustain the good bacteria levels within the body. It works with probiotics to make sure the bad bacteria levels remain low. Good bacteria would die without fiber, so can’t protect the body from various invaders.
On top of that, fiber can help to support weight loss efforts. This supports your gut since you manage the amount of food you get to break down. Since fiber takes longer to break down by the gut, you feel fuller for longer, so you don’t put the gut under extra strain.
There are various ways that you can get fiber supplements if you can’t get it naturally from fruits and vegetables. Hemp and flax seeds are common supplemental options. You can also get them through over the counter medications to improve the levels.
Consider More Fermented Foods
Not all supplements involve taking pills. You can get the supplements from natural foods. One of those that you want to add more of is fermented foods. These can include pickled onions, gherkins, and even pickled eggs. Kimchi and sauerkraut are other extremely popular ways of getting more fermented foods into the diet.
The fermentation process helps to support the probiotic bacteria levels within the gut. They work with the fiber to help support the good bacteria levels and keep them alive.
There is plenty of support for adding more fermented products into your diet, but you’ll also want to listen to your overall body. Considering the levels of acid, they can be problematic for those with excessive levels of stomach acid, those with ulcers and if you have some other health problems. They can also be a problem if you’ve had an overgrowth of bad bacteria in the gut before. You’ll want to make sure your gut has fully healed before adding them back into the diet.
Don’t Overlook the Prebiotics
After all that about probiotics, it’s common to overlook the precursors. Many people forget about the use of prebiotics in the diet and you may not have even heard of them! This is because food and supplement manufacturers promote the cousins so much. Well, it’s time to add more prebiotic supplements to your diet.
Prebiotics help your gut grow its own good bacteria, whereas the probiotics ass the good bacteria. You can help to support your body naturally, encouraging homemade cultures to develop. These are often more suitable for the environment since they’re created specifically to fight against invaders and support your actual gut’s system.
Many people with irritable bowel disease have found prebiotics are powerful. An irritable bowel tends to have an overrun of the bad bacteria and it can be hard for the body to absorb the right nutrients to gain more of the good stuff. If you can encourage the growth of the digestive’s own cultures, it’s easier to keep the disease under control.
However, it’s worth pointing out that there are minimal trials at the moment. The research is ongoing and not everyone tolerates prebiotics.
Taking prebiotics can be useful for those who are taking antibiotics. Antibiotics will kill off all bacteria, including the good stuff. This makes it possible for more yeast to take over within the gut. If you use prebiotics, you can help with the development of the good bacteria in the gut, while getting rid of the bad.
Go Natural but Supplement Where Necessary
One of the best things you can do for your body is to go as natural as possible. There are many macro and micronutrients that your body needs. Your gut needs support to develop the good bacteria levels to keep the levels of bad bacteria under control. You need to help manage the levels of fungi and yeasts within the gut while supporting the breakdown of various nutrients.
However, you can’t get everything natural depending on your diet or your lifestyle. There are times that you’ll need to rely to supplements, whether full-time or temporary. Look out for the best quality supplements. Add new foods that you wouldn’t usually try and make sure supplements have been tested fully.
