What is gut health and why is it important?

Our gastrointestinal system plays a crucial role in our overall health and wellbeing. Our gut can influence our digestion and absorption of the foods and supplements we consume within our diet, as well as the elimination of our waste products.

A healthy gut can be defined as the absence of gastrointestinal symptoms such as pain or disease such as inflammatory bowel disease, as well as the absence of other conditions causing gut discomfort.

We all have gut health and some key reasons why you should consider optimising your gut health include:

To optimise the digestion and absorption of nutrients from our diet

• All food and dietary supplements we consume are broken down by the gut with key nutrients being absorbed into the bloodstream. If your gut is not working effectively, you may not be absorbing all nutrients from the food and/or supplements you’re taking in.

To manage inflammation

• Imbalances in your gut microbiome (we will discuss this in more detail later on) have been known to lead to inflammation which is linked to numerous other health conditions.

To support your immune system

• We have trillions of bacteria (not a bad thing!) living in our gut and these are thought to have an important role in supporting our immune system.

To help regulate mood and behaviour

• Research is also suggesting our gut to influence our mental health with the gut microbiome playing a role in regulating our behaviour and mood. This is often referred to as the ‘gut brain axis’.

Athletic performance and recovery

• In athletic populations, certain probiotics can aid absorption of key nutrients such as protein whilst other probiotics that have anti-inflammatory strains have been linked to improved recovery from muscle damaging exercise.

So with how much of an influence our gut health has across our body, it is important to consider how we can maintain good gut health.

To do so, it is important we eat a healthy diet rich in pre/probiotics and fibre, drink plenty of water, get regular exercise, manage stress and avoid excess alcohol consumption.

What is the gut microbiome and what are the role of prebiotics and probiotics?

The gut microbiome is trillions of different microorganisms living within our gut. Every individual has a completely unique gut microbiome starting from your DNA and then heavily influenced throughout your life through your environment.

Diet and your environment can both positively or negatively influence your gut health and increase your likelihood of some diseases. The microbes within our gut that can have a positive influence or benefit on the human body are known as ‘symbiotic’, whereas the other bacteria that can promote disease are known as ‘pathogenic’. It is thought that over 500 different bacterial species exist in an adult GI tract!

So what are prebiotics and probiotics? You may have heard of these in recent years and sometimes it can be difficult to establish the difference between the two.

• Probiotics are live microorganisms that, when consumed in suitable amounts through your diet or supplementation, can offer a range of health benefits. The aim of probiotics is to restore the balance of the beneficial bacteria in your gut.
• Prebiotics are the food that the beneficial bacteria in your gut needs to continue thriving. Consuming prebiotics may also help to reduce the inflammation in your gut, improve digestion, and support immune function.

In summary, probiotics and prebiotics both have important roles in supporting digestive health, but it’s safe to say they work hand in hand.

Probiotics will provide the beneficial bacteria, whilst prebiotics will nourish the bacteria. Incorporating both probiotics and prebiotics into your diet or through a supplement such as our PhD DIGEST capsules can benefit your gut health.

Gut health and athletic individuals

If you are an active individual, your gut health may even influence your physical performance. As your gut manages your food digestion and how you absorb nutrients from your food, this will directly influence your energy levels and recovery post-exercise. Food related gut issues such as bloating can also disrupt training.

Alongside the growing interest in how our gut microbiome affects our health, there is also growing interest in how the gut microbiome can influence athletic performance and recovery/adaptation to training.

However overall, this is still a fairly new area of interest and there is limited data in athletic performance measures in comparison to what has been investigated in immune function and GI symptoms.

Though, there is some evidence to suggest improved performance. In one study, 4 weeks of probiotic supplementation improved time to fatigue in male runners. Whilst in another research article, they witnessed greater training loads over winter in those who supplemented with probiotics vs those who did not.

Further to this, in resistance trained men, another study suggested 2 weeks of probiotic supplementation led to increased recovery and reduced muscle soreness suggesting probiotics could aid with recovery.

In regard to body composition, there is evidence that alongside a 10 week resistance training programme with a protein and carbohydrate recovery drink after each training session, individuals who consumed probiotics as well, had greater reductions in body fat and increases in fat free mass than those who did not take a probiotic.

Although this is still an emerging area and more evidence is needed, athletic performance is known to be heavily influenced by immune function with time training lost due to illness wanting to be avoided where possible. Supplementing with probiotics to enhance immune function could therefore create a by-product of being able to minimise time out of training due to illness.

What are the pros and cons of taking a probiotic supplement?

As with making any changes to your diet, there are some pros and cons to taking probiotics you should consider. These are summarised in the table below.

PhD DIGEST

Hopefully what you have gathered from this article so far, is that gut health is key for many areas in the human body and probiotics can help in optimising your gut health. So as part of our Life range, we created the DIGEST capsules, specifically designed to help optimise your gut health.

Each of our DIGEST capsules provides 42 billion multi strain gut friendly live cultures in a convenient format. Our DIGEST capsules are ideal for any individual looking to optimise their gut health and maintain a healthy balanced microbiome.

Take home messages

Gut health can influence more than just your gut! As well as aiding your digestion and absorption of food, having good gut health can assist your immune system, reduce inflammation and may even influence your mental health.

Probiotic and prebiotic food/supplements can be used to aid your body in building an optimal balance of good bacteria in your gut.

The PhD DIGEST capsules as part of the Life range are a convenient probiotic capsule containing 42 billion multi-strain gut friendly live cultures.

Support your gut health today and shop Digest from the PhD life range.

Written by Dr Emily Jevons - PhD in Exercise Physiology & Nutrition, Clean Sport Advisor

Emily has worked with Science in Sport since 2021. With a PhD in Exercise Physiology & Nutrition, she currently provides nutritional advice for endurance athletes. Emily not only understands the science behind performance nutrition solutions, but also the physiological and psychological demands of sport after competing competitively in swimming and triathlon for a number of years.