gut health Archives

Can You Meditate Your Way to Better Gut Health?

Digestive Health, Healthy Aging, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

Can a meditation practice improve the health of your brain… and your gut?

Meditation is one of the best things you can do to support the health of your mind and body.

Many people use meditation as a drug-free alternative in a myriad of ways, including reducing stress levels, controlling anxiety, improving concentration and supporting better sleep.

No doubt, investing a few minutes each day in a quiet place away from the world to meditate is a peaceful, mindful way to better health.

But, can you meditate your way to better gut health? Let’s travel across the globe to find out…

Let’s meet some Tibetan monks!

A team of Chinese researchers put the powers of meditation to the test with the help of 37 Tibetan Buddhist monks in a study appearing in BMJ Journals: General Psychiatry.

Scientists analyzed stool and blood samples from those monks who had practiced mediation for an average of 19 years, then compared them to samples taken from a control group of 19 residents in neighboring areas.

None of the patients participating in this trial had taken any antibiotics, antifungal drugs or probiotics that would affect their gut health for the previous three months, and both groups were matched for age, diet, blood pressure and heart rate.

You probably won’t be too surprised to learn that the makeup and volume of bacteria in the guts of monks was very different and much healthier, than those found in the control group.

Although the gut health of the monks wasn’t as diverse, their microbiomes were populated in far higher volumes with beneficial bacteria that reduced incidences of depression and promoted better behaviors.

What’s more, meditation was associated with healthier metabolic functions that are critical in protecting the integrity of the gut barrier and better regulating immune functioning.

You don’t need to move to Tibet to protect your gut health!

Despite the good news about the benefits of meditation for your gut health, scientists acknowledged the geography issue with this study.

Tibetan monks live very, very differently than we do. Their diets comprise a more limited range of foods and they live in higher altitudes away from almost all modern distractions.

There’s no doubt that meditation is a great practice that serves as a springboard to cultivate better mental health, but that probably doesn’t mean you can ignore the health of your gut either.

The safest and best way to protect the health and diversity of your gut — whether you meditate or not — is also the simplest, if you take a probiotic formulated with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria like those found in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

Resources

BMJ Journals: General Psychiatry

PsyPost

Healthline

Can You Meditate Your Way to Better Gut Health? Read More »

Your Gut Needs Water

Diet, Digestive Health, Disease, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

Summary: Drinking lots of clean, fresh water is good for the health of your body and your gut.

There’s not a day that goes by without someone somewhere reminding us about the importance of drinking clean, fresh water for our good health.

This certainly makes sense. As much water as you consume every day, your body is using and losing large amounts of it for vital things like breathing, protecting your skin, transporting waste and toxins out of your system and maintaining your muscle strength.

But experts neglect to remind us about why water is so important for maintaining our good gut health. Here’s a few things to think about.

Absorption: Drinking water improves how your body breaks down food and absorbs the nutrients it needs.

Constipation: The presence of water in your digestive tract keeps your stools softer, preventing constipation.

Your diet: Eating foods containing high amounts of water — such as cucumbers, watermelon, oranges and strawberries — can be a great way to keep up with the water your body and gut needs.

Dehydration: In some cases, your body will lose more fluids than you’re taking in when suffering from acute diarrhea and vomiting, another reason to ensure you’re consuming enough water to maintain good health.

Did you know the source of the water you drink may influence the health of your gut too?

The best water for your gut?

An interesting finding from a 2022 study taken from data collected by the American Gut Project on 3,000 patients in the UK and America concluded that the source of the water you drink (tap, well, filtered or bottled) may have some influence on the makeup of your gut microbiome.

Compared to filtered, tap or bottled water, patients who drank well water had greater fecal microbial diversity, considered an important measuring stick of good gut health.

For example, patients who drank well water had lower amounts of bacteria from the Odoribacter family that is associated with gut-related health issues and problems with stool consistency and the Bacteroides family that is linked to a less diverse microbiome.

This direct benefit to the gut sounds great until you look at the numbers away from the study that really matter. For one, only 15 percent of Americans (43 million) have access to well water, according to the EPA.

What’s more, having access to well water is no guarantee that the water is safe to drink. Flooding and other environmental problems can also allow toxic substances to leech into well water, exposing you to high amounts of arsenic, nitrites and chemicals from fertilizers that certainly aren’t safe.

If your main source of drinking water comes from a well, experts recommend that you have it tested once a year to monitor those chemicals.

The fact remains that your water intake goes hand-in-hand with good gut health, but the good news here is that you don’t need access to well water to improve it.

The safest and most effective way to protect the health and diversity of your gut is also the simplest, if you take a probiotic formulated with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria like those found in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic every day with a glass of clean, fresh water.

Resources

Journal of Nutrition

Gut Microbiota For Health

Your Gut Needs Water Read More »

10 Beneficial Strains of EndoMune Advanced Probiotic

The 10 Beneficial Strains That Make Up EndoMune Advanced Probiotic

Digestive Health, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

Summary: Learn more about the 10 beneficial strains of beneficial bacteria that make up EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

For a long time, we’ve talked about the many advantages a multi-strain probiotic like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic with 10 strains and 30 billion CFUs of beneficial bacteria (plus the awesome prebiotic FOS) contains in each capsule.

Some of you have been asking what those individual strains of beneficial bacteria can actually do for the health of your gut and body. What follows is a quick and easy-to-understand review of each powerful strain of beneficial bacteria featured in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

Bifidobacterium bifidum: Based on research, this bacterial strain may be helpful in treating certain kinds of diarrhea, infections related to H. pylori and relieving symptoms of IBS and constipation.

Bifidobacterium breve: This bacterial strain helps you fight nasty bugs that could cause health problems and also allows your body to absorb nutrients and break down food.

Bifidobacterium lactis: This bacterial strain promotes human health by aiding in absorbing minerals and vitamins and helping your microbiome rebound from antibiotic-associated diarrhea, upper respiratory tract infections and constipation. (This bacterial strain treats your fussy baby’s colic too!)

Bifidobacterium longum: One of the most common species in your gut while you are an infant, the amount of this bacterial strain lessens as you get older but it still does the hard work of working generating short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) like butyrate that lowers your gut’s pH levels and protects it from pathogenic bacteria.

Streptococcus thermophilus: This bacterial strain can help you better digest nutrients such as proteins and lipids as well as milk. (That’s why this bacterial strain is contained in some brands of yogurt.)

Lactobacillus acidophilus: One of the most studied probiotic strains, Lactobacillus acidophilus can be an effective way to treat diarrhea and help with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), high cholesterol, yeast infections, cold and flu symptoms, bacterial vaginosis and reducing eczema in young babies.

Lactobacillus casei: This bacterial species has been shown to display antimicrobial strength against antibiotic-resistant bacteria and protect the function of the intestinal epithelial cells that line the large and small intestines.

Lactobacillus plantarum: Besides increasing the diversity of flora in your gut, this bacterial strain may support the health of your brain and heart and improve your body’s absorption of iron.

Lactobacillus rhamnosus: In addition to treating diarrhea and promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria in your gut, this bacterial species may help in preventing urinary tract infections (UTIs) and even cavities.

Lactococcus lactis: Along with improving how you digest food, this strain of beneficial bacteria may also lessen your risk of serious health problems including diabetes and cancer and reduce your stress levels.

Resources

https://www.verywellhealth.com/the-health-benefits-of-bifobacterium-4684233

https://www.healthline.com/health/bifidobacterium-bifidum

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1666/bifidobacterium-bifidum

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1665/bifidobacterium-breve

Bifidobacterium lactis

Bifidobacterium longum

Streptococcus thermophilus

Streptococcus thermophilus: A Surprisingly Warm Probiotic

Lactobacillus

https://www.verywellhealth.com/acidophilus-and-other-probiotics-88321

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9668099/

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/lactobacillus-acidophilus#TOC_TITLE_HDR_7

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/lactobacillus-rhamnosus#_noHeaderPrefixedContent

https://www.healthline.com/health/digestive-health/lactobacillus-casei

https://www.optibacprobiotics.com/professionals/probiotics-database/lactobacillus/lactobacillus-casei

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intestinal_epithelium

https://www.optibacprobiotics.com/professionals/probiotics-database/lactobacillus/lactobacillus-plantarum

Exploring the Lactobacillus Plantarum Benefits from Probiotics

https://atlasbiomed.com/blog/top-12-lactobacillus-probiotics/#rhamnosus-gg

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/lactobacillus-rhamnosus

Lactococcus lactis

https://www.digicomply.com/dietary-supplements-database/lactococcus-lactis

The 10 Beneficial Strains That Make Up EndoMune Advanced Probiotic Read More »

Safe to use Probiotics to help treat type 2 diabetes.

Probiotics: An Effective Treatment For Type 2 Diabetes?

Digestive Health, Disease, Drug interactions, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

Summary: Is it safe and helpful to take a probiotic if you’re coping with type 2 diabetes? This survey of studies gives a thumbs-up to probiotics!

As the epidemic of metabolic syndrome continues in America — thanks to a Western lifestyle that can kill you faster than smoking — the number of Americans dealing with type 2 diabetes is growing by the day.

Among the 38 million Americans who currently suffer from diabetes, roughly 90 percent of them are dealing with type 2 diabetes. (An alarming 22 percent don’t even know they have diabetes at all!)

You can do plenty of things to manage your health if you have type 2 diabetes, from diversifying your diet to include more unprocessed whole foods to finding more time during day to get moving with some form of exercise.

Researchers have also learned so much about how an unbalanced gut microbiome affects many aspects of human health, including how it creates many challenges for type 2 diabetes patients trying to regulate their blood sugar.

If you or a loved one is struggling with managing type 2 diabetes, taking a probiotic should be at the top of your to-do list too, based on a recent review of 33 studies appearing in Nutrients.

Nearly two-thirds of the studies Canadian researchers reviewed reported improvements in at least one measurement related to glycemic levels while taking a probiotic.

In addition, nearly half of those reports cited improvements in lipid levels after taking a probiotic. That’s very important given that elevated levels of LDL lipoproteins can greatly raise one’s risks of cardiovascular diseases.

Also, the benefits of multi-strain probiotics formulated with strains from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families really stuck out with 16 studies reporting improvements in at least one glycemic measurement.

This makes sense given that the Bifidobacterium family enhances the production of healthy fatty acids and the digestion of fiber while promoting immune health and the Lactobacillus family assists the protection of the barrier lining the gut.

Finally, probiotics also worked very well with metformin, a go-to drug prescribed for type 2 diabetics, enriching the composition of gut bacteria, decreasing insulin resistance and increasing the abundance of beneficial short chain fatty acids (SCFAs).

While there’s much more research to be done, there’s little doubt that probiotics, especially those formulated with multiple strains of bacteria like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic, can be a boon to the health of type 2 diabetes patients.

Resources

Nutrients

News-Medical.net/Life Sciences

CDC

Mayo Clinic

Medline Plus

Probiotics: An Effective Treatment For Type 2 Diabetes? Read More »

Women: Are You Protecting Your Gut-Brain Axis?

Digestive Health, Mental Health, Women’s Health / By @drHoberman

Women: Are You Protecting Your Gut-Brain Axis?

A healthy and balanced gut microbiome keeps a woman’s gut-brain axis working smoothly and makes a world of difference to her emotional health. Women: are you protecting your gut-brain axis?

Not so long ago, science debated the existence of the gut-brain axis, the connection that links your gut, emotions and brain.

That changed once modern medicine proved that as much as 90 percent of the serotonin (a chemical that governs your emotions) your body produces comes from your gut and specific bacteria play key roles in making it.

Your ability to generate the amount of serotonin your body that keeps your gut-brain axis working as it should and your emotions on an even keel depends on the healthy diversity of bacteria in your gut.

This balance or imbalance of gut bacteria concerning emotional health was the chief finding in a recent study appearing in Psychological Medicine.

The Study

In the first phase of research, scientists from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard surveyed more than 200 middle-aged women about their feeling over the past 30 days, asking them to report positive and negative emotions along with how well they handled them.

Three months later, women provided stool samples that were analyzed in ways that enabled researchers to find patterns in human health and how their emotions influenced them.

No surprise, women who suppressed their emotions had less diverse gut microbiomes and higher levels of bad bacteria while those who reported happier feelings had lower levels of those specific species.

“This was what you would expect, but it was kind of amazing that we saw it,” says Dr. Laura Kubzansky, a professor in the Chan School’s department of behavioral science at Harvard.

The Solution

There’s a lot a woman can do to give her gut-brain axis a gentle reset in a good direction, starting with making lifestyle changes. For example, eating healthier meals including foods rich in dietary fiber is a great start.

When life gets in the way and you’re on the go, here’s an additional step you should consider: Take a probiotic formulated with multiple strains of lab-tested beneficial bacteria and a prebiotic that feeds the good bacteria in your gut.

If you’re looking for a probiotic that will protect the healthy balance of bacteria in your gut and strengthens the connections in your gut-brain axis, consider the proprietary blend of 10 strains from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families plus a proven probiotic (FOS) in each daily dose of EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

References

Psychological Medicine

Brigham and Women’s Hospital

The Harvard Gazette

Women: Are You Protecting Your Gut-Brain Axis? Read More »

8 steps to protect yourself from the flu

8 Easy Steps to Protect Yourself From The Flu

Disease, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

8 Easy Steps to Protect Yourself From The Flu

Are you far from ready for the 2023-24 flu season? These easy-to-follow steps can go a long, long way to protect you.

With the extreme heat of the summer finally fading away and the kids getting back to school, the CDC has already begun its annual campaign of dos and don’ts for the 2023-24 flu season.

That’s no surprise, considering last year’s unique “tripledemic” problems with the flu, RSV and the recent strains of COVID-19. What’s more, we may experience an earlier-than-usual flu season that may peak sooner just like last year, according to experts at Johns Hopkins.

The good news: Many of you are more prepared than usual, and have already scheduled appointments to get vaccinated for the flu, COVID-19 and RSV.

But keeping current on vaccines alone won’t protect you and your family entirely from the flu or any other respiratory virus. Fortunately, there’s a lot more you can do to protect your health from the flu. Here are 8 steps that can help you do just that!

Follow these 8 steps to protect your family from the flu

Avoid close contact with people who are sick. (Do your part to protect your loved ones if you’re sick by keeping your distance too.)
Wash your hands often with plain soap and water thoroughly for at least 20 seconds. (When you can’t access soap and water, use a hand sanitizer formulated with at least 70 percent isopropyl alcohol.)
Do your best to keep surfaces at work and home as clean as you can. (The flu virus can live on hard surfaces for a long while, according to the Mayo Clinic.)
Get the right amount of sleep you need every night. (Sleep is one of the easiest and best things you can do to stay healthy!)
Don’t even think about asking your family doctor for an antibiotic to treat a case of the flu. (It’s completely unnecessary if you follow these steps.)
Drink plenty of water. (Don’t overdo it with caffeine-heavy drinks like coffee, carbonated beverages and energy drinks.)
Keep moving by incorporating some form of exercise in your daily routine. (Even walking makes a difference!)
Pay close attention to your emotions and stress levels, and give yourself the gift of free time every day. (Stepping away from the world for just 30 minutes of peace and quiet helps.)

All of these simple steps also serve one very important purpose: Protecting the health of your gut, the center of your immune system. We also know that life can get in the way of the best-laid plans, especially during the busy fall and winter months when the flu and other bugs are swimming around us.

That’s why we remind you to take a probiotic, ideally containing multiple strains of proven, beneficial bacteria along with a prebiotic that feeds the good bacteria in your gut like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

Resources

AARP

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

CDC

Cleveland Clinic

8 Easy Steps to Protect Yourself From The Flu Read More »

Ozempic and Wegovy: Are New Weight Loss Drugs Really Safe?

Diet, Drug interactions, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

Ozempic and Wegovy: Are New Weight Loss Drugs Really Safe?

Summary: Recent reports about the safety of Ozempic and Wegovy, injectable drugs prescribed by doctors to help you lose weight, should make you think long and hard about using them.

You’ve probably heard a lot recently about a pair of blockbuster drugs — Wegovy and Ozempic (semaglutide) — for their effectiveness in helping people lose A LOT of weight.

Obesity affects so many Americans — more than 40 percent are obese according to the CDC — that people will try almost anything to lose weight.

Taking weekly injections of Wegovy or Ozempic work to slow down the emptying of the stomach and decrease one’s appetite, and could help someone drop about 12 percent of their body weight.

If these results sound almost too good to be true, the unfortunate reality for some patients has been heartbreaking and life-threatening.

The Problems with Semaglutide

According to reports received by the FDA, the most serious problems are associated with severe gastroparesis, also known as stomach paralysis. And, in one case reported by CNN, a woman suffered from severe gastroparesis along with nausea and cyclic vomiting syndrome (characterized by episodes of severe vomiting that can last for hours or days).

What’s more, the American Society of Anesthesiologists recently issued a warning urging patients to cease taking these medications up to a week before surgery. Their concern: A slower emptying of the stomach could allow patients to regurgitate and aspirate food into their airways and lungs when they’re sedated, even after fasting.

Even if you don’t have an extreme version of those kinds of problems, the most common side effects of Wegovy are nausea (44 percent of all users), diarrhea (30 percent) and vomiting and constipation (24 percent).

Also, for either of these drugs to work as directed, you must take them weekly to keep the weight off, or those extra pounds will come back quickly.

Are Weight Loss Drugs the Only Answer to Effective Weight Loss?

Did you know there’s a better, safer way to slow down your appetite, eat less and lose weight without the expense or common side effects of an injectable drug like Wegovy or Ozempic?

You may want to give your weight-loss journey a fresh start with the help of EndoMune Metabolic Rescue that contains 1 billion CFUs of beneficial Bifidobacterium lactis and 600 mg of the prebiotic XOS.

XOS is a proven prebiotic that spurs the production of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that trigger some of the same mechanisms Wegovy does to slow down the movement of food from your stomach and create a feeling of fullness naturally.

Resources

Ozempic and Wegovy: Are New Weight Loss Drugs Really Safe? Read More »

Is Stevia Really a “Gut-Safe” Sweetener?

Diet, Digestive Health / By @drHoberman

Is Stevia Really a “Gut-Safe” Sweetener?

Have you been wondering, as many people have, if stevia is really a “gut-safe” sweetener?

Whether it’s artificial sweeteners or sugar, both create problems with the gut by blocking proteins that help you maintain a healthy weight or altering the healthy composition of your gut bacteria.

As concerns about real sugar and artificial sweeteners have grown, many have considered stevia, a sweetener derived from the leaves of the Stevia rebaudiana plant.

Stevia is marketed by manufacturers as a natural sweetener, although it’s processed or combined with other ingredients to create a sweetener and, just like artificial sweeteners, it contains no calories. But, it is up to 400 times sweeter than table sugar.

Some experts believe stevia is a better choice for your overall health, and recommend that you use it as you would table sugar. However, before adding stevia to your grocery list, it’s important to ask yourself if stevia really is a gut-safe sweetener.

The answer will surprise you…

A Disruptive Presence

Despite very different approaches, a pair of research teams from Israel in separate studies came to very similar conclusions that stevia may have a disruptive effect on the gut.

In a 2021 study featured in the journal Molecules, scientists at Ben Gurion University studied the effect of stevia extracts (steviol, Reb A and Stevioside) when they come in contact with a strain derived from harmful E. Coli bacteria with an emphasis on digesting food

In this case, the use of stevia disrupted the healthy microbial balance by delaying how gut bacteria communicate in the microbiome, which can often lead to problems with gas, constipation, stomach pains and other gut-related issues.

These disruptions were far more evident in a very recent study conducted by the Weizmann Institute of Science that compared the gut health of patients consuming three artificial sweeteners (saccharin, sucralose and aspartame) or stevia far below suggested “normal” levels for two weeks.

During that short interval of time, any sugar substitute used — stevia or artificial sweeteners — altered the composition of gut bacteria very differently and they were related to a patient’s impaired glucose tolerance.

The Take-Home Message

Despite the not-great news about stevia and other zero-calorie sweeteners, you do have lots of options at your disposal to protect your microbiome and keep the pounds off. And, you can act right now to protect your gut microbiome by taking these steps.

Stay hydrated with clean fresh water. (A healthy tip: Add lemon slices along with a dash of cinnamon or turmeric to your water for extra flavor.)
Moderation, moderation and moderation. Pay attention to what you’re eating or drinking and how your body feels afterward (even if it tastes great).
Read the Nutrition Facts labels displayed on any processed foods you eat for signs of added sugars. You’ll be surprised about how many added sugars are used to produce processed foods. (Brands of flavored yogurt labelled as low-fat may contain as much as 33 grams of sugar per serving!)
Protect the bacteria in your gut so they keep working as they should behind the scenes by taking a probiotic with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria.

If you’ve been looking for a proven probiotic, ideally formulated with beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families, consider the proprietary blend of 10 strains plus a proven probiotic (FOS) in each daily dose of EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

EndoMune is built to protect your microbiome and keep it communicating, even in the presence of a “natural” sweetener like stevia.

And, if you need some extra help to get started on your weight loss journey, consider EndoMune Metabolic Rescue, a probiotic uniquely formulated with Bifidobacterium lactis and the prebiotic XOS that promotes a sense of fullness in addition to protecting the health of your gut.

References

Is Stevia Really a “Gut-Safe” Sweetener? Read More »

Woman bringing yellow suitcase through airport.

Don’t Let Traveler’s Diarrhea Ruin Your Vacation

Digestive Health / By @drHoberman

Don’t Let Traveler’s Diarrhea Ruin Your Vacation

You know what time of year it is…

You’ve been planning and saving a long time for that special vacation of a lifetime with your family. Now that the planning is over and the trip is nearly here, you may still be wondering if you’ve covered all of the bases.

Is your vacation taking you to a warmer, international destination thousands of miles and several time zones away (even on a cruise)? If so, you will want to take steps to avoid a run-in with traveler’s diarrhea, the most common and predictable illness travelers face.

Consuming contaminated foods and liquids are the main culprits of traveler’s diarrhea. Depending on what time of year, where people travel and the precautions you may or may not take, as many as 70 percent of you could be dealing with traveler’s diarrhea.

So, why is traveler’s diarrhea so troublesome and harmful to your health?

The Persistent, Harmful Cause Of Traveler’s Diarrhea

Researchers at Boston University and Umea University in Sweden have studied Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (E. coli) or ETEC, the leading cause of traveler’s diarrhea, in hopes of finding ways to eliminate the bad bacteria without harming the good bacteria in a patient’s gut.

Under the microscope, scientists got one step closer to understanding how ETEC can do so much harm. Using long thick filaments (also known as pili), ETEC cells bind themselves to cells in the gut through a process of winding and unwinding to help them hang around in your body and make you sick.

This winding/unwinding of filaments also allows ETEC cells to adjust to their particular microenvironments (the urinary tract or gut) and keep them in place.

Now that scientists better understand how ETEC works, their next task is determining how to get rid of them, a process that has taken nearly two decades in the laboratory just to get this far…

Preventing Traveler’s Diarrhea

Rather than wait around a whole lot longer for a possible “cure” for traveler’s diarrhea, here’s some easy steps you can take right to reduce your risks of illness on the road:

Maintain good hygiene with plain soap and water (avoid antibacterial soaps).
Don’t ask your doctor to prescribe an antibiotic to prevent traveler’s diarrhea, because it could do far more harm than good.
Know where your sources of water are coming from and avoid drinking unsterilized water. (Bottled water is your best friend!)
Take a probiotic, ideally with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria, like those building block strains from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families contained in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

Resources

Structure

The Brink/Boston University

Cleveland Clinic

CDC

Don’t Let Traveler’s Diarrhea Ruin Your Vacation Read More »

Woman laying in bed unable to sleep with her hand over her head. Text reads "Sleep Challenges: Sarcopenia & your gut"

Sleep Challenges, Sarcopenia and Your Gut

Healthy Aging, Mental Health / By @drHoberman

Sleep Challenges, Sarcopenia and Your Gut

We never get tired of reminding you how much a good night’s sleep can do for your health as a natural way to reboot your body, a lot like your home computer, to repair and restore itself after the stresses of the day.

Staying up too late, following a work schedule that includes 24/7 shift duty or traveling across multiple time zones not only disrupts your body’s natural circadian clock, but it takes away valuable time your body needs to replenish itself.

Over time, these sleep deficits can harm you significantly, leaving you more vulnerable to the cluster of health problems better known as metabolic syndrome.

As you know, the gut plays a major role in your sleep too, and even short-term, drastic changes can harm the balance of gut bacteria you need to maintain good health.

Sleep problems and gut disruptions may also play a key role in worsening sarcopenia, the age-related and progressive loss of strength and muscle mass that often contributes to functional declines especially among seniors, according to a study appearing in the journal Sleep.

Analyzing The Data

A group of European researchers based these conclusions about the links between sarcopenia, gut imbalances and poor sleep based on an analysis of 11 clinical studies conducted with health patients ranging in age from 4-71.

In many ways, sleep problems and gut health issues go hand-in-hand in creating an environment in which sarcopenia emerges as one more serious health challenge.

At the gut level, sleep problems influence an unhealthy balance of gut bacteria that also reduces the structural integrity and functionality of the wall of the gut (which could lead to leaky gut problems).

Bad sleep may also be a trigger for imbalances in gut bacteria that can also create the production of pro-inflammatory chemicals. Even one sleepless night creates an environment that favors anabolic resistance and muscle breakdown.

Muscle Growth and Your Gut

We know this initial review of studies is a toe in the water when it comes to understanding the collision of gut bacteria imbalances, poor sleep and sarcopenia, yet there’s no denying the link between muscles and good gut health is a real one.

Interestingly, another recent review of studies published in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle found a very gut-healthy way to improve muscle mass and muscle strength with the help of probiotics.

In fact, researchers noted significant improvements in global muscle strength among adults older than age 50 after taking a probiotic for at least 12 weeks. Also, among the strains of beneficial bacteria cited in this report included several featured in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about the connections between muscle growth and the gut, but we do know how a healthy gut and a good night’s sleep work hand-in-hand to give your overall health a major boost.

If you need some help improving your sleep hygiene, check out our Sleep 101 article that includes many common-sense steps you can implement today to help your health and your gut too!

Resources

Sleep

Nutra Ingredients USA

Cleveland Clinic

Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle

Sleep Challenges, Sarcopenia and Your Gut Read More »