Video Transcript:
Before we dive into GI integrity, what the ingredients are, and how this can help impact gut inflammation.
I actually want to talk about gut inflammation more specifically, what it is, how it occurs, and what are some of the risk factors for this, because I think this is a really important thing to understand if you are interested in incorporating the supplement into your routine.
So gut inflammation is a really common issue. It affects a lot of individuals, especially people within Western nations like the United States.
This can have a significant impact on overall health because the gut really is at the center of so much of our health status because it's where we absorb nutrition from food, right?
So inflammation in the gut can occur due to a variety of factors, including poor diet, stress, and even certain medications. Lack of sleep can be a big factor in this as well.
So when the gut becomes inflamed, it can lead to a range of uncomfortable symptoms like gas and bloating sensitivities to certain foods, diarrhea, constipation, and even more serious conditions can occur like irritable bowel syndrome, known as IBS or inflammatory bowel disease known as IBD.
Hi there, my name is Megan and I'm one of the registered dietitian nutritionists with Flusso Nutrients where we provide high-quality supplements and education to you so that you can navigate the world of supplements and nutrition a little bit easier.
So as always, make sure to check in with your main nutrition-literate healthcare provider before adding in any new supplements or regimens to your routine as we can't possibly know your full medical history or information to make personal recommendations.
So without further ado, let's dive into today's topic, which is gut inflammation and how GI integrity can help.
Importance of the Gut in Overall Health
As I mentioned earlier, the gut plays a crucial role in overall well-being, and this is because it's responsible for breaking down food, absorbing nutrients, and eliminating waste and toxins. And so when inflammation occurs in the gut, it disrupts these processes and leads to nutrient deficiencies, which can lead to compromised immune systems.
And so chronic gut inflammation or gut inflammation that occurs over a long period of time can be linked to various other health issues like autoimmune diseases, allergies, or even mental health disorders because our gut and our brain are actually very intertwined and influence each other.
Understanding the Gut's Protective Barrier
Another really crucial factor when thinking about gut inflammation is maintaining the barrier that our gut has to keep pathogens, toxins, and even undigested food particles out. And this is something that if is not occurring and we are kind of having that compromised barrier, it can really induce more inflammation.
And so this barrier is known as the tight junction barrier within our gut. So cells within our gut create a tight border like this, and when this is intact, nothing can pass through into the bloodstream and enter the body and create more inflammation.
But for a lot of people, this tight junction border is actually compromised, and so it kind of opened and because of that, those toxins are undigested food particles or even bacteria pathogens that can enter.
And so a lot of things can kind of contribute to looser tight junctions within the gut. A lot of things we mentioned earlier like stress or poor diet, especially including inflammatory foods in the diet or even certain medications.
And so thankfully while there are things that can obviously compromise this gut barrier, there are also several ways that we can support the GI lining naturally.
Natural Ways to Support the GI Lining
One of the most important things is consuming a nutrient-dense diet filled with lots of plant varieties, fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
Of course, managing stress levels is really important. Even acute stress or short-term stress can kind of inflame the gut lining. So make sure your stress response is within normal ranges at most times within reason. We can't always control stress.
Other things are getting continual exercise, avoiding inflammatory foods like high-sugar foods or processed foods, and focusing on a well-rounded holistic approach.
When it comes to the gut, there's often more than one thing that is contributing to that inflammation. And so making sure we're kind of ticking all of our boxes in these areas can really promote healing of the gut lining.
Supplement to Reduce Gut Inflammation: Introducing GI Integrity
So we've talked about some of the ways through diet and lifestyle that we can help focus on maintaining and rebuilding that lining of the gut and reducing inflammation.
But now I want to talk about some of the supplemental ways that we can help because, obviously lifestyle changes like this are really important, but sometimes we need the support of supplements and certain nutrients that are targeted and can really help maintain and rebuild especially that lining of the gut.
So GI integrity is one of those. It's something that we have on the Flusso website, and this is basically a powder filled with lots of different nutrients and extracts that can be really, really important in again, maintaining and building that gut lining and reducing inflammation.
So what I want to do is break down the ingredients in GI integrity and talk about how they can help rebuild that gut lining, reduce inflammation, and promote long-term healing.
Key Ingredients in GI Integrity:
L Glutamine: is one of the most important ingredients that is within the GI Integrity proprietary blend, and we've talked about this before in a previous inclusive blog. So if you'd like to learn more about L-glutamine, please feel free to do so.
But briefly, I'll touch on some of the benefits of L-glutamine for gut inflammation here. One of the biggest things that L-glutamine can help with is boosting gut immunity because our gut and our immune system are very intertwined, so it helps with the production of white blood cells, which reduces inflammation.
L-glutamine is also really helpful in rebuilding and repairing the structure and lining of the gut so that there are better defenses that our gut has and less inflammation can kind of impact the lining and increase inflammation.
Zinc Carnosine: plays a really crucial role in this blend that GI integrity has. So zinc is something that can exhibit antioxidant-like properties, which helps defend the gut lining against those inflammatory compounds that inhibit inflammation.
Not only that, but zinc is something that can help with the mucosal membrane or basically the natural protective barrier that the gut has against a lot of those inflammatory compounds or even natural things within our gut like acids.
So our stomach produces lots of acids obviously to digest food, and so naturally there is going to be a barrier that kind of protects the cell lining for a lot of people with upper GI issues, inflammation and damage to that mucosal barrier can actually increase a lot of these symptoms that we discussed.
So zinc carnosine can be a really helpful way to reduce inflammation not only in the upper GI but also in the lower GI.
DGL (Licorice): I want to talk about some of the ingredients within GI integrity that either can promote the mucosal barrier production or can kind of create an artificial barrier so that again, there are a little bit less of those inflammatory compounds affecting the lining of our gut, which of course is what helps reduce inflammation.
So DGL is one of these ingredients. This is a licorice-based supplement and there's been lots of studies done on this particular ingredient. DGL has been shown to promote mucus activity and can heal some of the damaged tissue to prevent further issues, especially if acid or other inflammatory compounds are damaging the gut lining.
In fact, for people with gastric ulcers, this is something that's been used to treat those ulcers and kind of heal the lining and promote blasting effects that reduce inflammation and irritation within the gut.
Marshmallow powder and the slippery elm powder: create a kind of artificial barrier that is found in this product. Basically, these aren't going to help kind of promote that mucus production, but what they can do is create a barrier along the lining of the gut and this can prevent or promote, I should say, a lot of that short-term relief when it comes to reducing symptoms, particularly in the upper GI system.
So basically a gel-like substance is formed when these products are taken with water and that gel-like substance kind of accumulates along the lining of the gut. And this is a barrier, right?
Our body may not naturally be producing this barrier, but especially for people who are looking for short-term relief, like I mentioned, this can be really important and I've used this a lot with my clients who deal with acid reflux or GERD or even ulcers, and it helps us kind of give them relief while we're looking at other root cause analyses and other things that might be contributing to that inflammation.
Okra: I think this is something that isn't common knowledge. A lot of people don't necessarily realize some of the healing benefits of okra, especially for the gut. And so I want to talk about the ways that it can help promote healing, especially at those root cause issues, but also promote the healing, especially for short-term relief.
Obviously, since it's a vegetable that has a lot of great fiber, it has also lots of important nutrients like polyphenols and flavonoids that can reduce inflammation, and help promote a healthy balance of gut bacteria that is really helpful for maintaining a really healthy gut environment.
Not only that, but okra actually contains mucilage, and this acts as a natural lubricant within the gut. It soothes the digestive tract and it acts similarly to the ways that marshmallow or slippery elm act that we mentioned earlier and that it kind of creates a lining along the gut and a protective barrier when combined with water.
This is something that can promote short-term relief, whereas polyphenols, flavonoids, and fiber can help promote some long-term relief and balance within the gut lining in the long-term.
Now, there are other great ingredients within the GI integrity line, but I wanted to highlight these main ingredients here that have especially lots of great research around them and I've seen to be especially effective for my clients and patients.
So if you want to learn more about GI integrity, you can go ahead and check out our professional-quality supplement on our website.
Please again, remember to speak with your nutrition-literate healthcare provider before adding anything new to your regimen, as we can't possibly know your personal health history or even your preferences to determine if this is a supplement that's right for you.
Thank you again for taking the time to spend with us during today's topic. We will see you in our next one. Until then.