Good health begins with gut instincts

Eating well is only as good as one’s discerning palate, and one’s digestion. It doesn’t help at all if your appetite cannot be satiated due to the inability to digest your food well, leading to discomfort. Paying attention to gut health solves multiple problems such as indigestion, irregular bowel movements, bad complexion, and importantly, a weak immune system.

While mainstream science has not defined what is required for gut health, it is clear that the gastrointestinal tract is one of three key areas of the body that is exposed to the external environment. This makes it a strong player in maintaining our immunity. From this fact, we can infer that what we eat, and within this, the introduction of probiotic bacteria, will be a key player in overall immunity, shared Dr Gwee Kok Ann, Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine, National University of Singapore. He further defined gut health as the absence of complaints of diarrhea, food intolerance, heartburn, indigestion and constipation.

How important then is probiotics in minimising the negative conditions of gastrointestinal diseases? Dr Gwee added that probiotics appear to be able to reduce certain side effects of antibiotics. “Other conditions where probiotics have reported benefits are in the management of irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, and traveller’s diarrhea.”

These conditions may be triggered by lifestyle stressors, and it’s helpful to restore the balance of good bacteria in the gut when the system is overwhelmed by the imbalance of harmful microbes. Taking probiotics help to regulate these flare-ups. A strong contender in the probiotics market is DUOLAC, which has proven its effectiveness from a patented dual-coating technology that increases the survival rate of lactic acid bacteria in the intestine.

Its product range serves multifunctional purposes that target lifestyle requirements. For instance, DUOLAC ® Multivitamins contain four probiotic strains and nine types of vitamins to aid metabolism and enable the release of energy from food to support a healthy immune system, a foundation for keeping everyone in the family healthy. Busy executives with hectic schedules will find the DUOLAC ® Awake useful in helping to maintain healthy intestines, stomach and liver with five probiotic strains, liquorice extract and milk thistle extract.

Demand for probiotics has risen as consumers seek to improve the quality of life, especially since it has become synonymous with good nutrition by assisting with health maintenance through the prevention, control and treatment of diseases. Together with probiotics that can be taken as a supplement, food sources loaded with good bacteria should be a regular part of your diet as well, starting with the likes of plain Greek yoghurt, kefir and fermented vegetables.