Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash Are you spending time browsing the vitamin aisle, trying to figure out which Probiotic will work best for your personal health and wellness needs? There are dozens of choices, and while all of them promise to support healthy digestion, …
You may not have realized it, but your level of stress has a direct relationship with your gut. Have you ever felt extremely nervous before giving a major presentation? Or have you been so anxious because of a big test coming up that you’ve completely …
According to research published in the journal Science by researchers from the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, the promotion of a select group of gut bacteria by a diet high in diverse fibers leads to better glucose control, greater weight loss and better lipid levels.
The 6-year study simply provides evidence that eating more of the right dietary fibers may rebalance the gut microbiota, or the ecosystem of bacteria, in the gut that help digest food and are important for overall health.
Diabetes is a group of diseases marked by high levels of blood sugar due to insulin production or insulin action. The most common form is Type-2 diabetes. It is a major contributor to mortality and morbidity. However, this type of diabetes can be completely avoided through lifestyle changes. For those with Type-2 diabetes, there are steps to control it and lower the risk of complications.
In the gut, it is the job of bacteria to break down carbohydrates and nourish our gut to reduce inflammation and help control appetite. Probiotics are the good bacteria in your digestive tract that are the key to healthy digestion and regularity. Levels of probiotics decrease as we age, but can also be lowered by factors like a poor diet and obesity. As the level of probiotics in our bodies decrease, problematic bacteria in the gut thrive. A shortage of short-chain fatty acids have been associated with type 2 diabetes and other diseases.
Researchers randomized patients with type-2 diabetes into two groups. One received standard patient education and dietary recommendations. The other, was given a large amount of many times of dietary fibers, while ingesting a similar diet for energy and major nutrients. Both took Acarbose, a drug used to help control blood glucose.
After 12 weeks, patients on the high-fiber diet had greater reduction in a three-month average of blood glucose levels. Their fasting blood glucose levels also dropped faster and they lost more weight.
The study supports establishing healthy gut bacteria as a new nutritional approach for preventing and managing type-2 diabetes.
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Photo on Katy Belcher on Unsplash Let’s face it – talking about your gut may not be that interesting. But it’s important that you understand just how much your gut impacts your overall health. Everything from hormone regulation to a healthy weight is impacted by …
Trillions of bacteria live in our gut – both healthy and unhealthy. When the body has more unhealthy bacteria than healthy bacteria, it can cause digestive problems such as bloating and gassiness. Research has shown that balanced levels of “good” bacteria is needed for proper …
The interaction between the gastrointestinal tract and the nervous system is called the Gut Brain Axis. And it’s gaining a lot of attention from both scientists and consumers. Though the number of clinical trials that explore this link is limited, recent reviews of this interaction are showing promising results.
Bacteria that exists in your body is often thought of as unhealthy, but certain strains of bacteria in the intestines are crucial for proper digestion and overall health. Your intestines naturally hold about two pounds of bacteria in total, but this bacteria needs to be varied in species and abundant in the healthy strains.
Probiotics are friendly bacteria that make up the microbiome in the gut, or digestive tract; they are a key to good health, and the gateway to good digestion and regularity.
Levels of probiotics tend to decrease with age and are lowered by other factors including poor diet and obesity. As the level of probiotics decrease, problematic bacteria in the gut generally thrive and increase. Research shows that species of probiotics, when naturally present or consumed in adequately supportive quantities, may confer the greatest health benefits to individuals of all ages. These include lactobacillus (which inhabit the small intestine), mouth and vaginal tissue, and Bifidobacterium (which are more numerous and are major inhabitants of the large intestine (colon)). Both create many important metabolites out of our food and these perform a number of functions including burning fat, controlling our appetite, fueling digestion and detoxification, and supporting immunity.
The third critical group of probiotic bacteria known as bacillus, are spore-bearing bacteria that carry around their own house (and are the only ones to do so). This makes them resistant to heat, moisture and light, stomach acids and digestive enzymes and they are readily able to colonize the small intestine.
Prebiotics are non-digestible carbohydrates that act as food for probiotics. These can be found in whole grains, bananas, onions, garlic, honey and artichokes. But when you do not consume those foods in your diet, you can be creating a major deficit in prebiotics. Foods like yogurt are considered symbiotic, as they contain both prebiotics and probiotics – live, healthy bacteria and the fuel they need to survive.
In January 2017, scientists from the University of Colorado, the University of California and Mead Johnson Nutrition reported that supplementing the diet of lab rats with probiotics (galactooliosaccharide and polydextrose) plus lactoferrin and milk fat globule membrane, may improve non-REM sleep in early life and a quicker rebound in REM sleep after stress. Scientists reported, “In addition, the rats consuming the test diet had an attenuated stress-induced flattening of the core body temperature and were protected from the stress-induced decrease in gut microbial alpha diversity. These data are the first to show that a diet rich in prebiotics can modulate the sleep/wake cycle both before and after stress and induce stress-protective effect in diumal physiology and the gut microbiota.”