Your microbiota is the basic cornerstone of food digestion, nutrient utilization and gut comfort. Scientists now even consider the microbiome to be the intermediary between food and the body, linking its effects in distant organs as the skin, the liver, the kidneys and even the brain shaping even your mood or appetite.
Many experts now consider that the normal gut flora is part of the innate immune system, as they take an active role fending-off pathogens. Maintain a healthy flora and you would be strengthening part of your immunity.
Butyrate is the language between your microbiota and you.
Butyrate is a bioactive metabolite produced by bacterial fermentation in the gut.
Science shows that Butyric acid/butyrate plays a role as a key messenger in the reciprocal communication between intestinal cells - including immune and epithelial cells - and intestinal microbiota.
Many experts agree that keeping your microbiota balanced may help support your overall immunity.
Everyday stresses can disrupt your gut flora
• Stress: you are constantly juggling it all - family and work life in an endless cycle of chronic stress.
• Antibiotics: You have more rounds of antibiotics than you wish during the year or you are on chronic prescriptions drugs. Drugs change your microbiota for the worse, reducing its diversity.
• Diet: You struggle to follow a balanced diet, consuming too much processed food. You smoke or drink too much alcohol or too often.
• You follow restrictive keto or paleo diets (high-fat // high-protein diets) with low or no complex carbohydrates (e.g., whole grains/legumes) and large amounts of animal protein that leads to excess production of harmful animal- protein degradation metabolites as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. These metabolites reduce concentrations of beneficial bacteria such as Bifidobacteria species.
• Food intolerances: You find certain foods just don’t sit well with your tummy. This may be a sign of food intolerances that irritate and deteriorate your gut lining and hinder food absorption. You experience bloating, unpredictable bowel movements, cramps & gas.
• Travel: You are on the move and in foreign regions, eating out, on the go, exposed to highly processed or exotic foods and water that are loaded with new bacteria that may be alien to your microbiota.
• Age: We don't choose to age, but unfortunately our microbiota ages with us, mainly losing diversity. According to the latest science, reduced microflora diversity is linked to a higher incidence of health problems and rapid age-related senescence, due to gut permeability and a chronic onset of an autoimmune pro-inflammatory state.
