By Laura Rancie.
As we hone in on the party season and shake off the Winter blues, we must remember to take care of ourselves. Party season often means overeating, drinking too much and not getting enough sleep. Today, we turn to researcher and leading international expert on the gut microbiome Aubrey Levitt and a new product revolutionising how gut health will be treated in Australia forever.
What is wrong with the lifestyle that we lead in this modern day?
Metabolic syndrome is the real pandemic of the 21st Century; the lifestyles we lead wage a continuous assault on our bodies. Working as a doctor in Australia for 40 years, I've seen it all in my clinic. We're stressed and overworked, we're on our devices 24/7, we eat the wrong kinds of foods, we don't do enough exercise or get enough sleep and we might smoke or drink too much.
We don't make time for our relationships. Our lifestyles are driving a metabolic crisis and we're seeing rising rates of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, stroke, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, cancers, obesity, gout and fatty liver disease, among other things.
Do you think that Aussies tend to have the approach 'if nothing is badly wrong with our health, then we must be healthy'?
Yes! As we learn more about the gut microbiome, what is missing are formulas that address the full function of a healthy gut microbiome, what takes place when you have healthy gut bacteria (probiotics) being fed, healthy fibres (prebiotics) creating health-promoting byproducts (postbiotics).
What’s the significance of gastrointestinal health and how does this correlate with wider, general health?
When people talk about gut microbiome health, they’re talking about the bacteria in your gut that help you break down food; they create vitamins and minerals, and as we now are learning, the gut and its microbiome impact virtually every system and organ in the body. On the most basic level, the gut aids in nutrient uptake and absorption, bacteria in the gut synthesise and produce essential vitamins.
Which are the main systems within the body that are impacted - what about those 'connections' between the gut and other organs?
The gut contains hundreds of millions of neurons that communicate with our brain. Our gut is like a second brain, it produces dopamine, GABA, and 95% of the body's serotonin. It also impacts metabolism and immunity, playing a role in obesity, blood sugar responses and immune and inflammatory responses - 70%-80% of the body’s immune cells are in the gut.
There are many proven connections - the gut impacts heart health, cognitive function and mental health, cancer outcomes, auto-immune and inflammatory conditions, medication responses and athletic performance.
Aussies are familiar with pro and prebiotics, but what is a tribiotic?
Rather than one specific function, a tribiotic is like a multivitamin for the gut, providing many essential elements needed for a healthy microbiome. Theronomic tribiotics can be broken down into three core elements: prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics. Using a sport analogy, each of these does its part to create a winning team.
- Prebiotics are food and fuel for healthy gut bacteria to thrive.
- Probiotics are healthy bacteria that crowd out pathogens, support healthy immune function and gut diversity.
- Postbiotics are products created by healthy bacteria that are necessary for overall health. Fermented foods contain elements of a tribiotic, support for a complete ecosystem, with pre-pro- and postbiotics.
Our guts are constantly being assaulted with modern lifestyles the way they are. If we wait until we hit a health crisis or a tipping point, it's much harder to return to health. Instead, we need to support the gut and its microbiome, so that it can provide essential nutrients and functions that support almost every aspect of health.
In terms of pro and postbiotics, there are 20 different variants in the formula of Theronomic Tribiotic Gut Shield, what's the function of these live cultures?
Theronomic Gut Shield’s Tribiotic contains 15 probiotics and five postbiotics mentioned in more than a thousand clinical publications. These ingredients work together to improve the health and overall function of the gut microbiome, in turn assisting with overall GI health, weight loss, heart health, immune health and prevent infection.
Tribiotic Gut Shield is a TGA-certified product, associated with this certification is the ability to make specific claims around the efficacy and benefits, what are those?
There are approved indications for Tribiotic Gut Shield. These include the product helping to:
- Maintain general health and wellbeing.
- Support assimilation of nutrients.
- Maintain beneficial flora within the intestine.
- Help support friendly gut flora during antibiotic use
- Maintain gastrointestinal system health.
- Support immune system health.
For more information on gut health, you can visit The Gut Foundation or Theronomic.
