The Science of Balance: Gut Health and the Microbiome

The Science of Balance: Gut Health and the Microbiome

The idea of "balance" in the body might seem confusing, it's not something we can see or easily measure. But just like balance in nature, it’s real and important.

In the body, balance means that all systems work well together. This includes digestion, the immune system, and the nervous system. When these systems function in harmony, they help maintain overall health.

Many of these systems are closely connected to one central hub: the gut microbiome. This community of trillions of microbes is important for balance. It affects many things, including immunity and mental health.¹⁻³

In this article, we’ll look at how gut health affects the whole body and what you can do to support its overall balance.

The Gut is Your Body’s Command Centre

The gut does more than help with digestion. It also acts as a control center. It constantly talks to other systems in the body. This communication happens through different axis points, such as the gut-brain axis and the gut-immune axis.²⁻⁶

These networks help explain why the state of your gut health can influence everything from your mood to your risk of illness.²⁻⁶

The gut-brain axis is a two-way communication system between the gut and the brain. This connection affects our mood and how we handle stress.¹,² Meanwhile, the gut-immune axis boosts our immune defenses and controls inflammation

Your gut sends messages to different parts of your body. It influences how your systems work together.

The communication between the gut and the body is greatly affected by the variety and number of helpful bacteria. When this balance is disrupted, it can have wide-reaching effects on overall health throughout the body.

What Happens When Your Gut Health is Disrupted

Changes to a healthy microbiome, called dysbiosis, mean that good bacteria levels go down. This can make it hard to keep balance in the body. Factors like stress, a bad diet, low fibre intake, and antibiotic use can cause this imbalance. You can read more about it in this article. The signals from the gut microbiome can change. This may affect how different body systems work.¹

When the bacteria in your gut are not balanced, it can affect your microbiome. This imbalance can prevent your microbiome from producing important substances. These substances are called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). These substances help keep your gut healthy.

If your body doesn’t make enough SCFAs, your gut can’t control inflammation very well. This starts to impact the gut environment and the microbes that live there. Over time, the ecosystem in your gut can become imbalanced and weak.

This can go on to disrupt how your gut 'talks' to your brain, and can also weaken your immune system. When these systems do not work well, the effects can spread throughout the body. This may lead to various health issues.¹,⁷

Bowls of fibre-rich plant foods to support a healthy gut microbiome

Restoring Gut Health One Bite at a Time 

To support gut health, the first step is to nourish the gut microbiome by eating fibre. Fibre is the fuel your gut bacteria thrive on, which supports whole-body balance.

Foods like lentils, oats, bananas, and leafy greens help to feed your inner army of beneficial microbes.

These can help produce SCFAs, which allow your digestive ecosystem to maintain an abundance of beneficial bacteria.⁸ Ideally, you want to aim to eat 20 to 30 grams of fibre daily from a range of different plants. For example, clear benefits have been observed in people who ate at least 30 plant foods compared to 10 plant foods weekly. This was shown to⁹:

  • Increase the variety of good bacteria and overall balance
  • Increase the levels of anti-inflammatory compounds, like SCFAs.

To help you achieve balance, here are a few of our favourite ways to increase plant intake to help boost your gut health:

  • Start your day with oats, mixed berries, chia seeds and honey.
  • Snack on a banana dipped in melted dark chocolate, rolled in crushed nuts.
  • Swap your coffee for green tea or matcha.

In addition to fibre, other tools such as probiotics can also support balance for overall wellbeing.

Probiotics to Restore a Healthy Gut Microbiome 

Lactobacillus rhamnosus (LGG®), found in  Ultra Flora Daily Balance Dairy Free and Ultra Flora LGG Forte is a probiotic with over 1,000 research articles to date. It’s especially helpful when there are low levels of good bacteria in your gut. These help to¹⁰:

  • Encourage Good Bacteria to Grow: LGG® helps other good bacteria by creating a healthy environment for them to thrive. This helps build a strong and stable microbiome.
  • Calm Inflammation: Sometimes the immune system overreacts, resulting in gut inflammation. LGG® helps calm things down to support immune balance.
  • Send Helpful Messages: LGG® also releases tiny particles that act like messengers. These carry special proteins that help lower inflammation and balance the gut ecosystem.
  • Protects the Gut Wall: LGG® makes proteins that help seal and protect the walls of your gut to stabilise your inner ecosystem.


Further, research has shown the benefits of taking LGG® for brain health¹¹ and immune health¹², supporting the benefits of LGG® for whole body balance. To learn more about ways to restore your gut ecosystem, click here to find a local healthcare practitioner to work with.

Rebuilding Balance, One Bite at a Time

Balance in your gut isn’t about being perfect, it’s about consistent, nourishing choices. A varied, high-fiber diet with specific probiotics can help keep your microbiome and your body healthy. By nurturing your gut health and nourishing its microbes, you can support whole-body balance from the inside out.

To learn how natural medicines can support gut health, click here to explore our digestive health and probiotic range.

References

  1. Davenport ER, Sanders JG, Song SJ, Amato KR, Clark AG, Knight R. The human microbiome in evolution. BMC Biol. 2017;15(1):127. doi:10.1186/s12915-017-0454-7\
  2. Holland AM, Bon-Frauches AC, Keszthelyi D, Melotte V, Boesmans W. The enteric nervous system in gastrointestinal disease etiology. Cell Mol Life Sci. 2021 May;78(10):4713-4733. doi: 10.1007/s00018-021-03812-y
  3. Levy M, Kolodziejczyk AA, Thaiss CA, Elinav E. Dysbiosis and the immune system. Nat Rev Immunol. 2017;17(4):219-32. doi: 10.1038/nri.2017.7.
  4. Belkaid Y, Hand TW. Role of the microbiota in immunity and inflammation. Cell. 2014;157(1):121-141. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2014.03.011
  5. Thursby E, Juge N. Introduction to the human gut microbiota. Biochem J. 2017;474(11):1823-1836. doi:10.1042/BCJ20160510
  6. Tilg H, Moschen AR. Microbiota and diabetes: an evolving relationship. Gut. 2014;63(9):1513-1521. doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2014-306928
  7. Valdes AM, Walter J, Segal E, Spector TD. Role of the gut microbiota in nutrition and health. BMJ. 2018;361:k2179.  doi:10.1136/bmj.k2179
  8. Topping DL, Clifton PM. Short-chain fatty acids and human colonic function: roles of resistant starch and nonstarch polysaccharides. Physiol Rev. 2001;81(3):1031-1064. doi:10.1152/physrev.2001.81.3.1031
  9. McDonald D, Hyde E, Debelius JW, et al. American Gut: an open platform for citizen science microbiome research. Systems. 2018;3(3):e00031-18. doi:10.1128/msystems.00031-18
  10. Leser T, Baker A. Molecular mechanisms of Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus, LGG® probiotic function. Microorganisms. 2024;12(4):794. doi:10.3390/microorganisms1204079
  11. Sanborn V, Azcarate-Peril MA, Updegraff J, Manderino L, Gunstad J. Randomized clinical trial examining the impact of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG probiotic supplementation on cognitive functioning in middle-aged and older adults. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2020;16:2765-2777. doi:10.2147/NDT.S270035
  12. Capurso L. Thirty Years of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG: A Review. J Clin Gastroenterol. 2019;53 Suppl 1:S1-S41. doi:10.1097/MCG.0000000000001170
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