Resetting Your Gut and the Importance of Your Gut Microbiome

by Dr. Nick Zyrowski April 27, 2023

Why is gut health such a huge topic these days? The reason is that we now understand how much the state of our microbiome relates to our overall health and wellness. So, how do you begin to fix these issues? It’s not as simple as getting a generic probiotic from the local grocery store. Reversing microbiome damage is possible, and we’ll discuss how to start the journey to restoring your gut health now.

Why the gut microbiome is crucial

You have bacteria and microbes in your gut that help you digest food. These good bacteria also support your immune system, brain, and heart health and have other health benefits, too.

The gut microbiome contains all the microbes in your intestines. Some of the first bacteria that grew inside you were from your mother’s milk if you were breastfed as a baby. (1) That bacteria helped to digest sugars in the milk that were crucial for growth.

Your microbiome may affect all the critical organs in your body. It even plays a role in promoting the good cholesterol in your blood.

It can also control blood sugar and lower your diabetes risk. In fact, when the microbiome is diverse with plenty of bacteria, it reduces the chances of type 1 diabetes.

Everyone has brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. Certain bacteria species can help produce those chemicals. One such example is serotonin, which acts as an antidepressant and gets made in the gut.

Basically, a healthy microbiome is a driver to prevent chronic diseases. If you want to reverse many illnesses or decrease their severity, you must address your gut health.

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Is your microbiome damaged?

If you’re wondering if gut issues have anything to do with some of your health problems, there are general signs to look for regarding this. Some could surprise you because your doctor may not mention that your microbiome health is crucial. Here are some signs that your microbiome is damaged:

  • You have autoimmune issues - rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 diabetes are often found after a gut imbalance issue (2)
  • Sleep issues
  • Skin rashes and allergies
  • Sugar cravings
  • Fatigue that’s unexplained
  • Cognitive issues
  • Depression and anxiety
  • Weight gain or weight loss

If you see the above list and think none of these apply, you should know that if you have taken a round of antibiotics recently, have been formula fed rather than breastfed, and eat GMO foods, you likely have a damaged microbiome. Our lifestyles directly impact our gut health. That means the foods we eat and the chemicals we allow into our bodies can bring harmful pathogens into our microbiome. We are also in an antibiotic generation where doctors prescribe copious amounts of harsh medicines that can often bring on these diseases and illnesses. It can quickly destroy our gut microbiome. (3)

Balancing your microbiome

One of the challenges you may face is finding something to remove harmful pathogens from the body. It can be a puzzle to solve in some ways. It’s not only about taking a probiotic and being done. Sometimes you must combine different pathways to improve your gut health. There are different steps to replenish good gut bacteria and remove the unhealthy bacteria from our guts. This is where a microbiome reset begins.

Microbiome reset

What if you know you’re having some gut health issues but aren’t sure where to start? You may have noticed some of the symptoms mentioned or realized you’ve not always eaten the best diet.

When you want a healthy rebalancing, a great way to start is a microbiome reset. You can improve your gut health today with Alimentum Lab’s Clear 1 & 2. This two part system contains clinically relevant dosing of specific herbs and nutrients designed to limit undesirable microorganisms. For more information on how to get rid of bad bacteria in your gut, you can read this article. Upon completion of the Clear 1 & 2 µBiomic protocol, you can then recolonize your microbiome with prebiotics and probiotics.

Probiotics

If you’ve heard or read that you need to take a probiotic, there’s much more to it than grabbing whatever you find. Many products you see that are sitting on a shelf at the local grocery store are often useless. They show a large CFU number on the package to make you believe you’re getting a superior product. The problem is you may not get enough strains, and some of them may be dead, which means it won’t be beneficial. Also, many probiotics are destroyed in the stomach before they reach your digestive tract.

Some of the best probiotic sources come from the soil, fermented foods, and dairy. (5) When taking a probiotic, you want to be sure it’s shelf-stable and soil-based. You also want strain diversity. A high CFU count may not mean much if there’s no combination of the correct strains. You can get all these qualities in Alimentum Labs Terra µBiomic.

The perfect probiotic will support a healthy balance between microbes and your body. You’ll get intestinal optimization and immune system support. You also don’t want to find fillers in your probiotic. Many people suffer from allergens and food sensitivities, so it’s critical you get a quality probiotic without all the additives.

Prebiotics

So, how do the probiotics thrive in the microbiome? Not much gets said about the importance of prebiotics. In fact, many of us have removed the sources of prebiotics our ancestors once had. These could be plants that we don’t eat. It could also be the carbs in breast milk that help grow the microbiome. Many babies now get fed formula. Prebiotics feed your gut microbiota, and without them, you won’t have a healthy, diverse microbiome. Prebiotics may be harder to obtain in today’s world without having a vast knowledge of specific spices, plants, and herbs that feed good bacteria. Prebiotics help develop the microbiome you want. They can also regenerate healthy bacteria. (4)

It’s difficult to eat enough of the foods you’d need for the appropriate levels of prebiotics for your gut. That’s why the best prebiotics can be in a specifically designed powder that contains the right amounts. With Alimentum Labs Terra Superfood, you’ll get the ideal nutrients to support healthy colonization of the gut microbiome.

Some prebiotics only have a few ingredients. Those may help, but they won’t get you where you need to be. You want a combination of plant compounds that feed your gut bacteria organisms to thrive and become diverse. Also, don’t fall for the marketing scheme of a pill that claims to be a super prebiotic and probiotic combination. To get the benefits of a prebiotic, it has to represent food levels, so you want to see doses in grams, not milligrams.

Rebuilding

As you get your microbiome balanced, you can begin to work on other issues you may be having. Since gut health affects your entire body, we know specific organisms help with different problems.

Skin issues

Many people with underlying gut problems will develop rashes and other skin conditions, like acne and eczema. (6) It’s easy to forget that your skin is the largest organ of the body and the first line of defense against outside pathogens. There are prebiotics and probiotics that directly impact epidermal immune health. For skin problems, it’s also best to include a topical prebiotic for a natural skin health solution.  Derma Serum contains everything you need to support a normal skin microbiome.

Immune health

Do you find that you get all the viruses and infections that come your way? Another function of your gut microbiome is to develop a healthy and effective immune system. It protects and maintains unique immune modulation. To have a healthy microbiome, you must get specific prebiotics and probiotics that include the correct diversity for your immune function. The Immuno Byome Kit contains both to quickly get the immune system you need to fight off infections.

Brain health

As with all the other parts of your body, the intestinal microbiome is crucial for brain health. We see tons of neurological issues today. Some are severe, and others are moderate. The gut-brain axis is vital to overall immune and neurological wellness. (7) The Neuro Byome Kit includes specific prebiotics and probiotics in a formulation that directly supports brain health. Many people complain about brain fog and not having mental clarity. That can be due to a microbiome imbalance, so you need the right combination of ingredients to impact your neurological health.

How to start

If you’re getting started, a great place to begin is with the Clear µBiomic two-step process. From there, you can cycle through the prebiotics and probiotics, depending on what you need the most. If you’re dealing with some tough immune issues, you can follow up with the Immuno Byome Kit. You can address a particular health issue each cycle. The goal is to drive the growth of hundreds of these good organisms to create a more diverse environment.

There’s a ton of information that we’ve brought together, and we know it can sometimes be overwhelming to take the time and figure out the best process. Frequently, marketing campaigns will send us down the wrong path, but if you want to be healthy, we know it only comes from natural sources. If you need help getting started, we can talk with you and show you the best direction for your specific health needs. Contact us to learn more about these products or any of our natural wellness resources.

Resources:

https://www.piedmont.org/living-better/signs-of-poor-gut-health#:~:text=The%20following%20can%20be%20signs,Sleep%20issues

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/gut-microbiome-and-health#TOC_TITLE_HDR_8

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26358192/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128195413000013

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7732679/

https://www.news-medical.net/health/Health-Benefits-of-Prebiotics.aspx

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/should-you-take-probiotics

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11365013/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7916842/#:~:text=Hence%2C%20dysbiosis%20in%20the%20skin,dandruff%2C%20and%20 even%20skin%20 cancer.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4367209/#:~:text=The%20gut%2Dbrain%20axis%20(GBA,microbiota%20in%20influencing%20these%20interactions.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6469458/

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-brain-gut-connection

https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/physrev.00018.2018

Dr. Nick Zyrowski
Dr. Nick Zyrowski