When you’ve fallen ill, how does your body respond? Does it bounce back quickly? Does it seem to take longer than it should?
Whatever the challenge or condition, following doctors’ instructions, taking medicine, doing physical therapy, resting can put you on the path to getting better.
But unless you have the most important, health-supportive force on your side, your journey to feeling your best may take longer than it has to.
That’s another reason why keeping your gut microbiome in top shape is so important: The trillions of bacteria that live in your gut control your immune system.
That’s why, for staying feeling your best and one step ahead of the bad guys, it’s crucial to support a well-balanced gut microbiome.
Your Immune System's Most Important Ally
Trillions of bacteria – good and bad – call your gut their home. (The bacterial populations in your gut are known as your gut microbiome.)
When the good bacteria (probiotics) outnumber the bad bacteria (pathogens), your gut microbiome can be your most powerful ally in staying healthy and strong.
That’s because about 70-80% of your immune system is in your gut. Plus, your gut microbiome plays a huge part in immune system development.
Starting at birth, the good bacteria in your gut help “educate” your immune system, teaching it how to recognize friends and foes. They help your immune system respond in a balanced manner, so it doesn’t underreact (leaving you vulnerable to whatever is going around) or overreact (which is the cause of allergies and autoimmune conditions).
When your body encounters a threat, the probiotics in your gut microbiome spring into action. They signal your immune system to both take action (to neutralize the bad guys) and calm down once the threat has been handled. But... If your probiotic bacteria don’t have adequate numbers to crowd out the pathogenic bacteria, your important immune signals can get hijacked.
Gut Imbalances Slow Down Optimal Health
When your gut falls into a state of dysbiosis, where pathogens outnumber probiotics, your immune system gets burdened and confused. Not only do the important (and accurate) “seek and destroy” signals get turned off, sometimes your immune system will target healthy cells by mistake – making it much harder to feel your best.
And there’s no shortage of things that can knock your gut microbiome out of balance and into dysbiosis – Poor diet, environmental toxins, stress... Plus, many medications (yes, the ones your doctor prescribes when you’re not well) can cause dysbiosis:
- A single course of antibiotics
- Proton pump inhibitors (drugs used to treat conditions like acid reflux and indigestion)
- Pain relievers, including NSAIDs (like ibuprofen) and opioids
- Statins (drugs used to lower cholesterol)
- Chemotherapies (drugs used to treat cancer)
When pathogens dominate your gut microbiome, they set off all kinds of alarm bells. Bad bacteria trigger inflammation, improper immune system reactions, and toxic streaming (where toxins from your gut escape into your bloodstream, gaining access to all the organs in your body).
That’s why it’s so important to support the beneficial bacteria in your gut microbiome while you’re healthy… and give them extra TLC when you’re not doing well. Because according to a mountain of research, a gut microbiome that’s in healthy balance is the key that unlocks the kingdom to your optimal health and wellbeing.
Your Microbiome Addresses Wounds and Fractures
You may be wondering how bacteria in your gut can help fix a broken bone – it sounds kind of crazy, but it’s true.
Your gut microbiome plays a key role in tissue repair, meaning it helps heal all kinds of wounds – internal and external. That includes:
- Surgical incisions
- Broken bones
- Skin wounds
- Intestinal ulcers (open wounds inside the gut)
Your good gut bugs work their magic in several ways, including crowding out pathogens, stimulating special cells called fibroblasts that repair damaged tissue, and activating your most important immune players. New research shows that beneficial bacteria even help bones remodel, getting rid of damaged bone tissue and replacing it with a healthier upgrade.
Your Microbiome Creates Intelligent Immunity
When your gut is in healthy balance, your immune system works like a well-oiled machine. Beneficial bacteria drive a healthy inflammatory response, which allows your immune system to respond the right way when needed (and power down the threat has passed).
One reason your gut microbiome is such a health-supportive superstar: It creates intelligent compounds that know how to address pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and funguses. In fact, your gut does such a good job of this that researchers are beginning to look deeper into the gut microbiome as a means of developing smarter, more effective medicine.
But if you think a healthy gut only helps ward off everyday bad actors (like viruses and toxins), think again. Science has shown that your good gut bugs can also support strong pulmonary, cognitive, emotional, and even cardiovascular health!
Your Microbiome Manages Medicine
Along with supporting a strong immune system, your gut microbiome helps your body cope with injury and illness in another very important way: It encourages the absorption of medications so your body can make the best use of them.
Beneficial bacteria in your gut support optimal drug effectiveness while minimizing potential ill effect – a fine line that can mean all the difference when it comes to you feeling your best.
An incredible new study showed that specific probiotics in the microbiome could change the way medications work. Scientists looked at how well 76 different human gut bacteria broke down and transformed 271 oral medications. The results: At least one of the bacteria tested affected 176 of those drugs, many more than the researchers had expected. Some scientists now believe that balancing and reshaping a patient’s gut microbiome could lead to better outcomes than changing medication alone.
Your Microbiome and Chemotherapy
The latest research shows that the gut microbiome plays an important role in how well chemotherapies work for cancer patients. Studies show a well-balanced microbiome can:
- Support the efficacy of chemotherapy
- Minimize toxicity in the body
- And encourage patient treatment tolerance
Though this is a fairly new area of research, the results are promising.
How to Support Your Healthiest Microbiome
For a powerfully supported immune system, you need a well-balanced microbiome packed with beneficial bacteria. That means holistically supporting the health of your gut with proper diet, sleep, stress management and supplementation.
Of course, when choosing the right supplement, it’s important to note that not all products are created equal. Particularly when it comes to probiotic supplements, the vast majority have proven to be ill equipped at encouraging healthy microbial balance. (Roughly 99% of probiotic supplements die well before they ever make it to your gut.)
Unlike regular off-the-shelf probiotics, spore probiotics arrive in your gut 100% alive and active. They quickly get to work neutralizing harmful bacteria and clearing space for a rich, diverse population of beneficial bacteria. This allows beneficial bacteria to grow and flourish and reestablish a healthy gut microbiome.
In turn, you’ll enjoy a healthier, more balanced immune system!
To support a strong, resilient immune function that can drive your optimal health all year long, you’ll want to replenish beneficial bacteria every day with Just Thrive Probiotics.
Just Thrive Probiotics contains four clinically studied strains of spore probiotics that keep gut bacteria well balanced and support healthy immune responses. Each of these four spore probiotics delivers unique support to your immune system:
- Bacillus coagulans helps manage harmful bacteria and normalize immune system function.
- Bacillus clausii helps regulate immunity and direct immune cell function.
- Bacillus indicus HU36 produces several key antioxidants, such as lycopene and astaxanthin, that improve immunity and regulate immune function.
- Bacillus subtilis HU58 produces several antimicrobial compounds that help neutralize pathogens.
Keep your gut microbiome healthy and balanced with Just Thrive Probiotics… and give your immune system the support it deserves.
