Gut Instinct: 10 Things You Didn’t Know Probiotics Could Help With!

Almost every Nutritionist would agree that probiotics are an essential part of maintaining a healthy gut. Since the digestive tract is home to more than 70% of the body’s immune system, it’s important to keep it full of healthy bacteria… which is where probiotics come in. But the gut affects so many other aspects of our overall health, that we might not even realise.

As well as being readily available in fermented foods, probiotics can be taken as a supplement. Natalie Lamb, Nutritional Therapist at Protexin Probiotics, explains 10 things you may not know about the importance of getting that good bacteria into your tum:

Mood – Not many of us are aware of how well connected the brain and the gut are. Research has shown that maintaining a healthy gut flora can help to reduce anxiety, by lowering levels of brain activity linked to emotion and pain, whilst increasing activity associated with decision making.

Sleep – The gut is largely responsible for the production of ‘happy hormone’ serotonin, as well as the relaxation hormone, ‘melatonin.’ Taking a multi-strain probiotic could therefore boost the production of these hormones to help you sleep soundly.

Fatigue – A lack of energy often arises when you aren’t getting the vital vitamins and nutrients from your food needed to keep you running. A multi-strain probiotic helps to sustain healthy levels of good bacteria, to help you absorb the goodness from the food you’re eating.  A healthy gut flora also aids in the production of extra B vitamins, which are essential for energy production throughout the body.

Teeth – Clinical studies have shown that probiotics and the maintenance of a healthy gut flora could be useful in preventing and treating oral infections, including dental cavities, periodontal disease and halitosis.

Stress – As stress can disturb the mixture of bacteria in our gut by reducing the number of beneficial strains, this can allow an increase of the bad bacteria. Stress has been shown to irritate or worsen a range of diseases; probiotics are therefore valuable for encouraging the growth of beneficial flora which supports healthy immune functions.

Allergies – Allergies are said to be a malfunction of your immune system. With 70% of the immune system lying in the gut, maintaining a healthy gut flora could help to manage the pesky symptoms of allergies.

Weight Loss – New studies show that the mix of bad and good bacteria in our gut can play a role in weight gain. By ensuring that you are getting lots of good bacteria alongside a healthy diet and fitness regime, you can help to reduce unwanted weight around the middle.

SAD – Taking a daily probiotic was recently shown to increase vitamin D levels by more than 25% (well known to be low during the winter months and the cause in SAD) and to modulate the area of the brain responsible for mood.

IBS – IBS is caused by an imbalance of the normal ‘friendly’ bacteria in the intestine, and is becoming increasingly common due to our modern stressful lifestyle. Anyone with IBS should add a good probiotic with a large range of bacteria to their diets, to top up levels of the healthy bacteria which can help to maintain a healthy digestive function.

Bloating – It is the bad bacteria in the gut which produces gas which can cause bloating in the stomach. Sugary foods feed this bacteria, helping it to multiply. Taking a multi-strain probiotic such as Bio-Kult can help to top up the beneficial bacteria to prevent an imbalance in the gut and reduce the effects of bloating bad bacteria.

For information on Bio-Kult, a multi-strain live probiotic visit: www.bio-kult.com