Prioritizing gut health through supplements

As important as gut health is for digestive processes, did you know that gut health has a profound impact on other areas of your health, too? That’s right, a healthy – or unhealthy! – gut can play a role in things like immune, heart, and brain health, so prioritizing your gut health won’t just benefit digestion or weight loss. 

But what makes for a “healthy” gut? In the simplest terms, a healthy gut consists of a wide and diversified variety of “good” bacteria. These good bacteria help to break down food and pull key nutrients for the body. But, when good bacteria are overpowered by bad bacteria, it can throw your entire body out of balance and have a negative impact on your health.

While we can naturally balance out our gut bacteria through fermented foods and drinks, like yogurt or kombucha, many people opt to take probiotic supplements or digestive enzymes to keep their gut in working order. Although similar, multi-probiotics and digestive enzymes are not the same. 

What are multi-probiotic supplements?

Probiotic supplements are taken to introduce a variety of healthy bacteria to the gut to aid in digestion, immune health, and treatment of symptoms related to diseases like IBS or IBD. 

As you may already know, there are tons of different bacteria strains in the world, and probiotics are similar in their wide variety of available strains, each playing a different role in gut health, but all probiotic strains mostly fall into one of two categories: Lactobacillus (the most common category) and Bifidobacterium. 

Multi-probiotics are simply a mix of different probiotic strains to address several concerns or provide several benefits from one single supplement. They are often considered to be much more effective than individual probiotic supplements because they introduce many different probiotic strains that can then work in tandem within the gut to maximize the effects. 

Benefits of multi-probiotics

While most people only take a multi-probiotic supplement when they’re experiencing symptoms, when they’ve just completed a round of antibiotics to treat an infection, or when their doctor or nutritionist recommends them, almost anyone can benefit from some extra healthy bacteria in their gut. 

Multi-probiotics are very beneficial in digestion, weight loss, and improving the symptoms of some other, less-expected ailments, like:

  • Skin issues
  • Seasonal allergies
  • Vaginal infections
  • Type-2 diabetes or sugar cravings
  • High cholesterol 
  • Mental health conditions (anxiety, depression, etc.)

What are digestive enzymes?

Both multi-probiotics and digestive enzymes are used to promote gut function and aid in digestion, they each support this process in a slightly different way. Whereas multi-probiotics are living microorganisms that play a specific role in digestion and other bodily functions, digestive enzymes are simply proteins that help us more effectively digest the food we eat.

Like probiotics, digestive enzymes come in a few different forms with different ways of supporting the common goal – namely to help us break down food and make it easier for the body to utilize the nutrients. Amylases help to break down carbohydrates, Proteases help to break down proteins, and Lipases help to break down fats and oils. 

Benefits of digestive enzymes

Digestive enzymes taken as supplements can be particularly helpful for those suffering from symptoms of acid reflux, bowel issues, nausea, gas, bloating, and more. 

Some other benefits of digestive enzymes include:

  • More effective weight loss
  • Management of IBD / IBS symptoms
  • Increased energy
  • More effective methylation
  • Decreased inflammation and pain

10X your gut health with 10X Health today

No two people are the same, and therefore, no two people’s guts are the same, which is why it’s so important to work with an expert when considering multi-probiotics or digestive enzymes for your gut health. Both can be effective tools to manage symptoms of an unbalanced gut, but to ensure you’re maximizing the results of your supplements, contact the team at 10X Health today!

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