As unglamorous as it may be, we know that a healthy gut is essential to overall wellbeing.
What we’re only just becoming fully aware of is how much gut health can affect conditions ranging from mild skin sensitivity to eczema, acne and urticaria.
To understand more about the role probiotics can play in keeping skin and gut health in check, we caught up with probiotic experts, OptiBac for two exclusive guest posts on probiotics, skin health and gut health.
Did you know that your digestive tract has 100 trillion bacteria in it made up of around 5000 different strains, and each different strain has a slightly different job to do?
This is called your microbiome and more and more research is going into the effect these bacteria have on your health.
Your gut bacteria help digest food, produce certain vitamins and importantly, also fight the invasion of unwanted bacteria. It also plays an enormously important role in the immune system, 70% of which is based in our gut.
More recent research has linked our gut bacteria to obesity, anxiety, depression and allergies – some experts are now describing our gut bacteria as an organ in its own right.”
So how can probiotics help?
A healthy and balanced gut bacteria is key to ensuring a proper digestion and good health. Unfortunately these bacteria can be imbalanced by many aspects of modern life including antibiotics, sugar, other medications, alcohol, even stress.
Once imbalanced, the digestive system is vulnerable to pathogenic bacteria and inflammation. Symptoms of an imbalanced gut flora can be pain, bloating, constipation, diarrhoea.
However, the effects of an impaired digestive system are more far-reaching than this. It can also result in malabsorption of vital nutrients having a knock on effect on other aspects of health. There is a lot of research to show that inflammation of the gut lining is linked to autoimmune diseases, allergies and skin problems.
Probiotics are an excellent way of replenishing and rebalancing your gut bacteria, but as with all supplements, it’s worth doing your research and consulting a specialist.”
Stay tuned for the next post on the impact of digestive health on the skin.
For more information visit: www.optibacprobiotics.co.uk.
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