A Microbiome Mini-lesson

There are few things more uncomfortable than an upset stomach that won’t go away. An out of whack microbiome balance just might be the cause.

Did you know that your body is home to trillions of microorganisms? Don’t worry—it’s totally normal. In fact, keeping a good balance between these microorganisms is essential to many aspects of your health.

Your body naturally has a collection of bacteria, fungi, and viruses in different places like the mouth, the gut, the urinary system, and even your skin. When your body doesn't have enough good bacteria, bad bacteria can overpopulate. With more and more foods using artificial ingredients, sugars, and preservatives; and the use of antibiotics to deal with bacterial infections many people’s microbiome balance is terribly out of sync. 

Imbalance of the body’s microbiota is linked to various health concerns, such as anxiety, arthritis, depression, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, obesity, and digestive issues such as inflammatory bowel disease, constipation, diarrhea and heartburn, and much more. Whoa!  That is a huge list of concerns that are linked to microscopic organisms in the body.

So, if healthy microbiomes are so important, how do we nurture them?

One of the easiest ways to support your body’s microbiomes is to add probiotics and prebiotics to your diet. Probiotics introduce beneficial bacteria to your microbiomes, while prebiotics, or fiber, provide food to nourish them. Probiotics can be found in some fermented foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, kombucha, and kimchi. And you can find prebiotics in foods such as bananas, whole grains, oats, flax, soy, garlic, onions, and leafy greens. Along with adding those good foods, it is also beneficial to limit your intake of processed food, sugar, alcohol, and artificial sweeteners.

Another way to increase the healthy microbiomes in your body is to incorporate prebiotic or probiotic supplements. Some of my favorite products to enhance the microbiome diversity in my body include Optiflora DI, Good Gut and Go, and for support of vaginal health, Flora and Flow.  Each of these products has been carefully developed to support the body’s microbiome so you can truly live well.