Better digestive health for the back-to-school season
It’s back to school and work for another round of attempts at normalcy. Healthy eating, adequate sleep, exercise, and activities to reduce stress are excellent ways to support your family’s health. However, even the best-laid plans can go awry when kids and adults face back-to-school and work-related stress.
Stress and Immunity
Stress occurs when life events exceed your ability to cope. Stress is part of most of our lives and can be short or long-term.
- Short term – a final exam
- Long term – caring for a sick loved one, a pandemic
Stress causes the body to produce a higher level of cortisol, the main long-term stress hormone. For short periods, stress can boost immunity by limiting inflammation, but over time the body can get used to having too much cortisol in the blood, which opens the door to more inflammation.1
According to Dr. Rajita Sinha, a professor and director of the Yale Interdisciplinary Stress Center in New Haven, Connecticut, “We want cortisol to go up a little bit during stress and then come back down since it helps encode information into the brain. The idea is that the hormone helps us register and remember aspects of stressful events. So, you can adapt your response if you face the same situation again.”2 For example, imagine you are in a total panic before a public speaking event. If all goes well, the cortisol helps you remember the resulting sense of relief, so you don’t have to relive that kind of anguish. However, if things don’t go well, you know you will need to be better prepared next time.
Stress can reduce the body’s lymphocytes, which are the white blood cells that help fight off infection. The lower your lymphocyte levels, the more at risk you are for viruses, including the common cold and cold sores. High stress can also cause depression and anxiety, which again leads to increased inflammation levels. In the long run, a high, sustained level of inflammation indicates an overworked and tired immune system that cannot protect you properly.3
Your Body’s Bacteria and Chemical Messages
Bacteria have been shown to produce and/or consume a wide array of neurotransmitters, which are the body’s chemical messengers. These include dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, and GABA.
- Dopamine is known as the reward neurotransmitter, regulating pleasure, addiction, decision making, motivation, motor control, and learning.4
- Norepinephrine is an excitatory neurotransmitter, which means it stimulates activity in the brain, stimulating the function of different cells to keep the brain and body working efficiently.5
- Serotonin plays an important role in the limbic system and contributes largely to feelings of well-being. It is estimated that 90% of the body’s serotonin is produced in the gut, and close to 95% of the body’s serotonin resides in the gastrointestinal tract.6
- GABA is the most abundant inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. Since it plays a fundamental role in balancing brain cell activity, altered pathways can cause anxiety.7
The best defense is a good offense!
The bacteria that naturally live in the intestinal tract not only help to nourish and defend the digestive system, but the entire body.8 Renew Life’s full line of children’s and adult probiotics continues to be one of the top choices in Canada for people to improve their quality of life through better digestive health.
Renew Life® Kids Daily Boost Probiotic is formulated with 10 billion active cultures and 2 clinically studied probiotic strains to support children’s digestive and respiratory systems. Taken daily, this innovative probiotic supplement helps support respiratory tract health, gut health, and gastrointestinal health. The product is offered in a convenient, quick-dissolving, fruit punch-flavored powder in a fun, child-friendly format. It is shelf-stable, non-GMO, and xylitol-sweetened.
Calm from the inside out
Renew Life® Ultimate Flora Probiotic Plus, Mood & Stress is formulated to not only support good digestive health, but it also contains the clinically studied probiotic strains Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 and Bifidobacterium longum R0175 to help moderate feelings of anxiety and reduce GI discomfort associated with mild to moderate stress.9
Defense from the inside out
Renew Life® Ultimate Flora Probiotic Plus, Immune Support is formulated to not only support good digestive health, but it also contains the clinically studied probiotic strain Bifidobacterium bifidum R0071, which has been shown to reduce the incidence of cold symptoms in stressed adults. It also includes 4 other beneficial strains that provide 30 billion active cultures in a convenient once-daily dose.
Relax to support your nervous system
According to Dr. Andrew Goliszek, MD, “The mind’s primacy over matter is not merely a slogan. It’s a truth based on what we know to be a fact: the brain, if given the right set of directives, the proper stimuli and living in the right environment, will always choose healing over disease.” So, do yourself a favour and avoid TV and social media that are full of fear and negativity. Try calming activities for yourself and your family, including meditation, yoga, deep breathing, knitting or crocheting, walking, hugging a tree, watching a funny movie, reading a good book, and other activities that help reduce stress.
by Caroline Farquhar, RHN, EMP, BA, Renew Life® National Training Manager.
References:
[1] Cleveland Clinic staff. (2017). What Happens When Your Immune System Gets Stressed Out?. Available: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-happens-when-your-immune-system-gets-stressed-out/. Last accessed 23 Feb 21.
[2] Puniewska M. (2019). What is Cortisol? Here’s How it Impacts Your Body When You’re Stressed. Available: https://www.health.com/condition/stress/what-is-cortisol. Last accessed 22 Jun 21.
[3] Cleveland Clinic staff. (2017). What Happens When Your Immune System Gets Stressed Out?. Available: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-happens-when-your-immune-system-gets-stressed-out/. Last accessed 23 Feb 21.
[4] Del Rio, J. et al. (2018). Steroid Hormones and Their Action in Women’s Brains: The Importance of Hormonal Balance. Available: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00141/full. Last accessed 22 Jun 21.
[5] Dellwo, A. (2020). What Is Norepinephrine?. Available: https://www.verywellhealth.com/norepinephrine-what-does-or-doesnt-it-do-for-you-3967568. Last accessed 22 Jun 21.
[6] Stoller-Conrad, J. (2015). Microbes Help Produce Serotonin in Gut. Available: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/microbes-help-produce-serotonin-gut-46495. Last accessed 21 Jun 21.
[7] Del Rio, J. et al. (2018). Steroid Hormones and Their Action in Women’s Brains: The Importance of Hormonal Balance. Available: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00141/full. Last accessed 22 Jun 21.
[8] Loyola University Health System Authors. (2010). How Bacteria Boost the Immune System. Available: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100614171907.htm. Last accessed 23 Jul 20.
[9] Michaël, M. et al (2011) Beneficial psychological effects of a probiotic formulation (Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 and Bifidobacterium longum R0175) in healthy human volunteers, Gut Microbes, 2:4, 256-261, DOI: 10.4161/gmic.2.4.16108
[10] Goliszek, A. (2014). How Stress Affects the Immune System. Available: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-the-mind-heals-the-body/201411/how-stress-affects-the-immune-system. Last accessed 26 Nov 20.
