It can be devilishly easy to opt out of taking your supplements, skip out on the gym, or go out for drinks with the gang after work. However, Rome wasn’t built in a day—and neither is your gut health. In fact, consistency has biological value, and maintenance requires both the routine and discipline to adhere to it. Make sure to follow the advice of the experts; take your gut supplements, go on that run, and if something doesn’t feel right—trust your gut and consult your physician.
In the following article, we will discuss why it is important to take your supplements every day, as well as make gut-friendly practices a cornerstone of your daily routine.
Homeostasis and Gut Health
Homeostasis is the process of maintaining a biological balance inside your body, as opposed to the external environment. It’s what keeps your body warm on a chilly day, produces energy between meals, and keeps you breathing.
Maintaining this balance is critical for metabolism, or the process of breaking down materials in the body for digestion and absorption. While a small slip, such as forgetting a single day of a protocol, isn’t cause for worry, missing a week might throw off the balance you are building in your gut.
Your Internal Therapeutic Stockpile
Most medications and supplements are taken over a period of time—this is because the active compounds build up over time. For example, even quick-acting Qing Dai (QD) must reach effective levels in the gut before it begins to work. The dosage and protocols are designed specifically with this in mind, to make sure the proper amount is delivered to the gut at the right time.
Taking too much or too little of a specific compound can lead to adverse effects, in addition to it not functioning properly in the body. High-quality supplements, such as those used in clinically tested protocols like CurQD®, are carefully formulated to optimize dosing and minimize side effects.
Over time, as you routinely take your supplement, your body begins to regulate itself together with the active compound’s assistance. For CurQD®, this means that IBD inflammatory markers may decrease, but as this process takes time, it is important to continue taking the right amounts of Cura® and QD® for your body’s stage in this process. The more routinely you take a supplement or medication, at the same times every day, the more likely it is that your body will fall into a rhythm and work with the compound to improve your health and decrease the risk of side effects.
Circadian Rhythm & Gut Health
Circadian rhythm is the biological clock that governs your body’s internal reactions, including homeostasis. This rhythm is integral to maintaining balance for digestion, sleep, blood pressure, and more.
Circadian rhythm is controlled by hormones, or chemical messengers in your body released over time. For example, cortisol, the stress hormone, rises to its peak level 30 minutes after waking—this is important, as cortisol increases your breathing rate, raises blood pressure, and quickens your heart rate to bring you to consciousness. This rise in cortisol can be replicated with early morning daylight; the exposure to daylight activates receptors that detect changes in brightness, leading to your body sending signals, such as through cortisol, that it is time to wake up—this is called the cortisol awakening response (CAR).
This is especially relevant for gut health, as stress impacts the rate of digestion. As a general rule, the higher your stress levels, the less effective your digestion—this is because cortisol activates the brain-gut axis (HPA axis) to downregulate digestion. In the same vein, then, disharmony within your circadian rhythm (such as through jet lag) can impact your gut health.
Consistency & The Microbiome
Did you know that billions of bacteria live in your gut?
These billions of bacteria, commonly referred to as the gut microbiota, are essential for good gut health. Commensal bacteria (resident bacteria benefitting you without causing harm) improve digestive efficacy by breaking down complex carbohydrates and fibers that our bodies can’t digest on their own, producing beneficial metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids.
Since these bacteria are dependent on you, they are also affected by the circadian rhythm. In fact, studies show that a significant disruption to your biological clock, such as jet lag, impacts the growth of these bacteria and makes patients more prone to gut dysbiosis, abnormal bowel movements, and nausea.
Consistency, Consistency, Consistency
It is essential to maintain routine as much as possible for your gut health. Taking your supplements every day at approximately the same time lets your body know what to expect and reinforces gut balance and health.
Sending the same signals each day through consistent supplementation helps reinforce your body’s internal rhythm and maintain optimal gut balance.
Summer Pitocchelli-Schwartzman
