While boosting our immune system is especially important during cold and flu season, it shouldn’t JUST be a seasonal thing. Besides living a healthy lifestyle including: eating plant based foods, exercising regularly, and getting adequate sleep and relaxation. There may be one key thing you’re missing!
Immunity is in the gut.
When we think about gut health, the first thing that comes to mind is digestion. But did you know that as much as 70 percent of your immune cells actually reside in the gut? That means if you have a slow imbalanced gut, you may have a weakened immune system. In fact, there is an increasing amount of research being done on how different organ systems are affected by the gut environment.
If you think about it, the food we eat doesn’t actually enter our blood stream until it passes through our gut wall. So this makes our gut the first defense against any nasty things we consume, and it helps to break down and absorb the nutrients we eat.
This is where our gut microbiome plays a BIG role in immunity! It’s responsible for strengthening the gut wall, killing harmful bacteria, and it regulates the inflammatory immune response, just to name a few. Moral of the story; a healthy gut makes for a healthy immune system.
Probiotics may help strengthen your immune system.
So how do we keep our gut healthy and ensure there is more good bacteria in the gut than bad? Well as was mentioned, eating healthy and exercise is very important! But let’s face it, were human, and sometimes the junk food is just too irresistible! That’s why I play it safe by taking a probiotic daily.
So what exactly is a probiotic and what does it do? Well in a nutshell (because no one has time for all the science), your gut needs healthy bacteria to replace the bad bacteria, and probiotics help do this. Probiotics also inhibit the growth of harmful disease causing bacteria, giving your immune system a boost.
If you know me (or have followed me for awhile), you know I’m not one for supplements. I believe we can get what we need through nutrient dense plant based foods. However, there are a few supplements I religiously take daily, and this is one of them! I haven’t been sick with the flu in over 2 years and I attribute this to my change of diet, and my daily probiotic.
Just a side note, I even give my dogs probiotics when they are experiencing some kind of ailment such as, after a round of antibiotics for a UTI, or ear infection. Recently two of my dogs had a bout of diarrhea and vomiting (from something they ate), so I followed it up with a round of probiotics to replace any of the nasty bacteria in their guts. Just a warning though, I’m not a veterinarian, I’m just telling you what works for my animals and me. If you wanna know more about what I feed my dogs check out: What I feed my dog to prevent bladder stones!
How to choose a probiotic.
Probiotics come in a variety of forms from powders, tablets and capsules, and choosing one can get a little tricky because there is a lot of crap out there on the market. Now I like a bargain as much as anyone, but QUALITY probiotics are not cheap, so don’t even bother taking a probiotic from Walmart or CVS pharmacy because they won’t do anything for you.
Remember probiotics are live strains of bacteria, so when looking for a quality product, make sure it’s refrigerated (to prevent the bacteria from dying), in a glass bottle, and preferably uses bioshield capsules (which insures the probiotic gets to your small intestine). In addition, make sure you purchase a probiotic with at least 5-100 billion (not million) colony-forming units (CFU). Start low and increase your tolerance.
Recently I started using TruFlora Probiotic’s with enzymes, it’s not shipped with a cold pack but they give an explanation on their website,Β I do however store them in the refrigerator during use. So far I really love Truflora, they do third party testing on their products and offer a money back guarantee. They are one of the better probiotics on the market (that I can buy online), instead of going to my local health food store, and they aren’t too expensive either.
If you have any questions or comments on probiotics please comment below, I love to hear from you! Also if you like this article please share it on your favorite social media app, by clicking on one of the bubble icons to the right β‘οΈor below if you’re on the mobile site. Mahalo!
That was awesome, now I want probiotics. You sure can write and capsulate the info so it’s not long and booting. Love you honey. Keep up the good writing. Waiting for a good mystery book from you. π
Thank you mumsy! I would love to write a mystery!! haha #goals!