What is the gut microbiome?
Your gut microbiome is a complex community of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microscopic living things, which are commonly referred to as microorganisms, or microbes, for short. Your gut microbiome, much like your finger print, is unique to you.
Most of the microbes in your intestines are found in a “pocket” of your colon, or large intestine called the cecum. Collectively these weigh up to 2kg – that’s heavier than the average human brain!
Although many different types of microbes live inside you, bacteria are the most studied and make up the vast majority. In fact, there are 10 times more bacteria in and on your body than there are human cells. That means you are more bacteria than human!
Why does your gut microbiome matter?
There are up to 1,000 species of bacteria in the human gut microbiome, and each of them plays a different role in your body. Most of them are extremely important for your health, while others may cause disease. Your gut microbiome performs many functions that are important for health. Your microbiome aids in food digestion to fuel your body, influences your mood and energy levels, helps you adapt to your surroundings to protect against harmful organisms and much much more! However, as mentioned, not all organisms in your gut are friendly and studies show that an unbalanced gut microbiome is linked to numerous diseases.
What influences your gut microbiome?
It all started when you were born, some of the bacteria in your mother’s microbiome were passed along to you, to become to beginnings of your very own microbiome fingerprint. When you were a baby, experiencing the world for the first time, the bacteria in your microbiome were doing the same. By the time you were a toddler, the makeup of your gut microbiome was almost fully matured. The composition of our microbiome evolves throughout our entire life, and is the result of different environmental influences.
Diversity is the key to a healthy microbiome, scientists have discovered that your microbiome fingerprint actually needs to consist of many different types of bacteria to keep you strong, healthy and resilient to drastic of harmful changes. A healthy microbiome likes balance, but given the pressures of a modern lifestyle, it can be a tricky task to maintain a normal, healthy and balanced microbial population. In fact, most of us have a smaller variety of bacteria in our bodies than our great grandparents did.
From the foods we eat, to the medicines we take, and even increased stress levels our modern lifestyles mean that some of those good bacteria are being killed off. Under such adverse circumstances, the harmful bacteria may become predominant (a condition referred to as “bacterial overgrowth”) and create an imbalance or dysbiosis, which may in turn impair normal gut function and lead to various problems, ranging from inefficient digestion, diarrhoea, constipation and flatulence to severe gastro-intestinal disorders.
Biomed Gut Feel® & The Gut Microbiome
Our supplement provides an everyday boost of friendly bacteria & digestive nutrients. Our Daily Digestive Support supplement contains an expert blend of friendly spore forming bacteria, turmeric and ginger. When taken daily, our supplement helps to balance out the levels of good and bad bacteria in your digestive system, helping to improve overall digestive health.
Stomach acids and digestive enzymes make the digestive tract a hostile place. Friendly bacteria need to be able to survive and make it to the gut alive in order to have a beneficial effect and thrive.
Our supplement contains an impressive 2 Billion Colony Forming units (CFU) of the spore forming bacteria or “sporebiotics”, Bacillus coagulans MTCC 5856 (LactoSpore®). Spore forming bacteria offer a number of advantages over non-spore forming bacteria in your gut:
SPORE FORMING BACTERIA ARE SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN TO REACH THE GUT ALIVE
When looking for the best friendly bacteria supplement, you want one that’s guaranteed to ‘reach the gut alive’. The bacterial strain in our supplement is special because it forms spores. Bacillus spores are naturally designed to survive digestion by surrounding itself with an endospore. An endospore is a tough, natural outer shell that protects the strain from light, heat, pressure, acid, lack of oxygen, and other environmental factors. This key feature is what allows the strain to survive easily through digestion without the need for enteric-coated capsules or refrigeration.
SPORE FORMING BACTERIA ARE ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANT & HEAT STABLE
Our supplement can be taken while using antibiotics to help support your healthy microbiome. Furthermore, our supplement is also able to resist antibiotics found in foods, such as meats and dairy, which can negatively affect your gut microbiome. The spores are also heat-stable, so can be stored at room temperature without losing any effectiveness. Due to the spores being heat-stable, the contents of the capsules can also be used in baking (the ginger in the capsules adds a deliciously spicy kick to baked goods!).
We have combined the power of live cultures with two important digestive nutrients, turmeric and ginger. The turmeric in our supplement, Curcumin C3 Complex® , is the number 1 curcumin brand evaluated clinically across the globe and also has the special status of being the most extensively studied and clinically documented, with more than 80 research papers including 100+ clinical studies that have been published in peer-reviewed journals and counting! The name Curcumin C3 Complex® refers to the three main chemical compounds – Curcumin, Demethoxycurcumin (DMC) and Bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDMC) – collectively known as “Curcuminoids”. DMC and BDMC work together to stabilise Curcumin, and studies have shown that these two compounds are more efficient to protect from oxidative stress than Curcumin alone.
Furthermore, Curcumin C3 Complex® is more soluble because of BDMC, therefore, Curcumin C3 Complex® is more absorbable in the gastrointestinal tract and is able to provide more benefits than Curcumin alone. The active ingredients and essential oils within Ginger are called Gingerols and Shogaols. It is these active constituents in Ginger that help support digestive health.
What else can you do to keep your gut microbiome healthy?
As you can see, keeping you gut happy and healthy is extremely important to maintaining overall wellbeing. Here are some top tips to keep your microbiome in top condition provided exclusively for Biomed by Registered Nutritionist Rían Joyce.
- Eat plenty of foods rich in fibre, such as vegetables, fruits and wholegrains; these are known as prebiotics and they support gut health because they provide food for the beneficial bacteria
- Include probiotic rich foods in your diet, such as yoghurt and fermented foods, these contain beneficial bacteria that colonise the gut
- Avoid highly processed and refined foods rich in sugars and fats as these foods can reduce the number of beneficial bacteria in your gut
- Eat mindfully and chew your food properly; this gives your digestive system time to secrete digestive enzymes which breakdown food and ensures maximum nutrient absorption
- Avoid antibiotics unless completely necessary, antibiotics are great as they destroy harmful pathogenic bacteria within the body but they also destroy beneficial bacteria within our gut
