In the same way women and men differ in their requirements. Multi-nutrients or women:Multi-nutrients for menThis busy and less than optimal lifestyle often also results in a lack of exercise, which is also of course important to health. Exercise: Good or bad for immunity?Regular exercise is one of the pillars of healthy living. It improves cardiovascular health, lowers blood pressure, helps control body weight, and protects against a variety of diseases. But does it help to boost your immune system naturally and keep it healthy? Just like a healthy diet, exercise can contribute to general good health and therefore to a healthy immune system. It may contribute even more directly by promoting good circulation, which allows the cells and substances of the immune system to move through the body freely and do their job efficiently. Gut Health Throughout life, we are constantly exposed to new things in our gut, nose and lungs, via our food and environment, such as food additives, pollen in the air or non-pathogenic microorganisms in dust or dirt. But thankfully, most people have healthy immune systems that handle all of these invading objects with ease. If it didn't, it would result in an inflammatory response every time you tried a new food or visited a new country with different types of trees. This would be a highly ineffective and unnecessary use of energy. The essential task of the immune system is to maintain a balance and a diverse gut flora established in early life with many types of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms, is crucial for this, as it teaches the cells of the immune system that not everything is bad. Since balance of bacteria in our gut influences the balance of our immune system, an unbalanced bacterial flora can shift the immune system to an increased inflammatory state with a so-called "leaky gut". This inflammatory state may then affect other body systems and increase the risk of obesity, type 1 and type 2 diabetes and even depression. Bad gut bacteria can lead to diseaseMost bacteria are beneficial, but some are responsible for disease. It is obvious that gut bacteria play a significant role in diseases directly related to the gut, such as inflammatory bowel diseases. Today, treatments are available to correct this and aid recovery of beneficial bacteria. Most people are also familiar with the use of probiotics especially during exotic vacations. An example would be:
Bacteria are survivors in the best Darwinian style, and they will to some extent adjust to the environment they are in. This is, for instance why resistance to antibiotics occurs. This also means that if good bacteria are removed due to for example diet or medication, some of the opportunistic commensals, or pathogens, will immediately move in and try to fill the gap. There are probiotics specifically designed to help for people on antibiotics: Probiotics are fed by fibre. Thus, if you want your gut health to be optimum, think about fibre. There is a useful article here. |
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