We get it. It can be so frustrating. You feel like you're doing everything right. Getting enough sleep, getting your daily exercise, practicing being mindful and meditating, yet something still feels, well, off. You think you've got your nutrition on point but there could be one thing missing, a healthy gut.
The term "gut health" has been making its way across the latest sales pitches and headlines as of late. But what you may not know is that gut health is extremely important for many different reasons.
Our newest product, The Keystone, is our collagen superprotein that benefits the body in a number of different ways. One of those ways being the improvement of your gut and all of its functioning parts. But before we get into how your gut can benefit from supplementing with collagen, how do you even know if you have poor gut health in the first place?
Related articles: Why Do I Love Collagen?, What Are the Top 3 Benefits of Collagen?
Signs of Poor Gut Health
Believe it or not, poor gut health has been linked to a number of problematic symptoms. After all, our gut is responsible for keeping a lot of things in balance. And when the balance is thrown off, things can start to get out of whack. While you're bound to come off the balance every now and then, it's when you're out of balance for a while that things can become damaged.
If you're experiencing symptoms such as anxiety, depression, weight gain, bloating or brain fog, you might want to take a deeper look at what could be causing it.
The Function of the Gut
You see, your gut has a natural protective barrier. The mucosal lining around the gut is impermeable. Within your gut, food is broken down so it can pass through the intestines and sent out to the body to use. However, if your gut lining has been damaged, it can result in a "leaky gut." This means that food particles and other bacteria can pass through your gut lining and enter our bloodstream.
Yikes.
This damage can be caused by a bacterial imbalance, high levels of stress, lack of sleep or poor diet. With all of this damage happening in the forefront, it can be hard to see what it's doing in the background.
You see, when the bacteria is sneaking into the bloodstream, it's causing a much larger issue: inflammation. Inflammation has been identified as the root cause of most disease today. While inflammation is a natural defense mechanism by the body and is a sign that the body is trying to heal itself, the real cause for alarm is chronic inflammation.
So how does collagen play a role in all of this?
When it comes to gut health, the ultimate goal of collagen is to prevent any of this from occurring by healing the gut and sealing the lining to be sure these symptoms have a decreased risk of occurring.
Collagen is considered one of the top supplements to improve gut health due to the fact that it's the most abundant protein found in the body and the fact that it contains key amino acids. The main amino acids that make collagen the superprotein that it is are glycine, glutamine and proline.
These amino acids (glycine in particular) are especially important in improving digestive health. Glycine helps to stimulate the production of stomach acids, improving its ability to break down fatty acids and absorb nutrients.
In the same way that collagen increases the strength and tightness of your skin, it does the same thing for your digestive tract. I mean, think about it, your skin and digestive tract are made up of the same amino acids that you can find in collagen. While our body naturally produces collagen, the production decrease as we age. With the stress we put on our gut, this could be quite damaging if you aren't proactive in its health and function.
Thinking you might be lacking some collagen in your diet?
Related articles: Why Do I Love Collagen?, What Are the Top 3 Benefits of Collagen?