New Year, Fresh New You! - Probiotics

New Year, Fresh New You!

Seven healthy ways to detoxify and renew your body and mind in the New Year.

Forget those popular, yet overly ambitious, New Year’s resolutions that aim to completely overhaul your life. Instead, focus on making small but concrete lifestyle improvements to build a foundation of good health. Because your body is exposed to a myriad of harmful chemicals every day, shoring up your detoxification system with a cleanse is a great place to start. Here are the best ways to optimize your body’s ability to flush out waste and toxins so you can be ready for whatever the next 12 months have in store for you.

Improve Your Eating Habits

Starting out the New Year with a detox diet is great, but it doesn’t do you much good if you simply revert back to your old patterns once the detox is over. Rather than a temporary shift in eating, strive to incorporate foods that support detoxification into your everyday routine. The best detox foods are high in antioxidants—think berries, nuts, and dark leafy greens—which effectively and safely counteract the dangers of oxidative stress and free radicals.1

Of course, limiting the amount of toxins that go into your body is just as important as eating detoxifying foods. Try to avoid ultra-processed foods that contain a plethora of synthetic ingredients, from preservatives and additives to artificial colors and sweeteners—all of which have been linked to a variety of health problems.

Get Better Sleep

Sleep doesn’t just recharge your energy levels; it’s also essential for proper detoxification. That’s because when you sleep, your glymphatic system kicks into gear. This network of vessels moves beneficial cerebrospinal fluid into your brain and removes metabolic waste.2 But since this process only occurs during non-REM sleep, it’s important to get seven to nine hours of quality shut-eye nightly.3

Drink More Water

Since as much as 60 percent of the human body is made up of water, it’s little wonder that staying hydrated provides a number of health benefits. For instance, your kidneys rely on water to remove waste and extra fluid from your body. Making sure you’re drinking enough water also helps to prevent the buildup of waste products in your large intestines. What’s more, studies show that healthy hydration can protect against constipation and relieve the bloating and discomfort that accompany it.4 How much should you drink? Experts recommend drinking at least half your body weight in ounces every day. For example, a 140 pound person should drink a minimum of 70 ounces, or about nine 8 oz. glasses, of water daily for adequate hydration.

Reduce Your Alcohol Consumption

Limiting the amount of alcohol you drink—or abstaining from it altogether—is one of the best ways to keep your body’s detoxification system on track. There are two primary reasons for this. First, alcohol has a negative effect on the composition and function of your gut microbiota.5 Second, your liver can’t function adequately or perform its necessary tasks when you routinely consume alcohol. This includes filtering waste and other toxins from your body. So while a Dry January will help to get your liver’s detoxification capabilities back on track, reducing the number of alcoholic beverages you consume the rest of the year will help your body and mind stay clean.

Break a Sweat

Being active plays a key role in the elimination of toxins. When you move, your blood flow increases, and that delivers more oxygen and nutrients to cells while clearing out waste.6 Aerobic exercise also improves the function of your lymphatic system, which plays a vital role in waste elimination.7

According to the current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, adults need 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week. That breaks down to just 20 minutes per day!

 Keep Stress to a Minimum

Stress is unavoidable. And, although a little stress here and there is sometimes the best motivation, living with constant pressure can have serious implications for your body and your mind. Stress affects every system in your body, including your cardiovascular, respiratory, endocrine, gastrointestinal, nervous, muscular, and reproductive systems.8 Pinpoint your stressors and find ways to work around them. If you can’t sidestep them, try out a meditation app, deep-breathing or yoga to help you cope with the things that put you on edge.

Try a Supplement

No matter how vigilant you are in maintaining good health, it’s likely your body could use some additional help giving toxins the boot—and that begins in your gut. Here are two of the best supplements that enhance detoxification and gut health:

Digestive enzymes. Support healthy gastrointestinal function with a digestive enzyme supplement that includes amylase, lactase, lipase, and protease. Supplementing with these four enzymes will ensure that the carbohydrates, dairy, fat, and protein you eat are properly digested. This not only supports a healthy gut, it also ensures that the nutrients in the foods you eat are absorbed, maximizing their nutritional value. Digestive enzymes can also help relive stomach upset. In one double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of Italian adults experiencing functional dyspepsia, treatment with digestive enzymes—particularly protease and lipase—was found to be effective for reducing indigestion and improving sleep quality.9 What’s more, since enzymes help speed up chemical reactions in the body, including your gut, they play a role in ridding the body of toxins.10 For best results, look for a multi-enzyme supplement and take it just before eating. This allows the enzymes to go to work immediately when food reaches your stomach.

Probiotics. When the bugs that live in your belly—a.k.a. your microbiome—are in balance, they act as the body’s first line of defense against toxins by competing with harmful bacteria for nutrients and by producing metabolites that can neutralize toxins.11  A healthy microbiome also helps to maintain the integrity of the gut lining, preventing toxins from leaking into the bloodstream (commonly known as “leaky gut”).12 Unfortunately, poor lifestyle choices can upend this defense system. Luckily, you can fortify your microbiome’s superpowers against toxins with a comprehensive probiotic. Studies show that supplementing with probiotics and prebiotics (special fibers that feed your beneficial microbes) can help to keep your microbiome in balance and strengthen your intestinal barrier.13,14 Together, these studies suggest that probiotics and prebiotics are potent tools for detoxification and protection against future exposure.

As you can see, creating a fresh, healthy start in the New Year can be easier than you think. By changing up your diet and lifestyle habits, your body’s natural detoxification process will be better equipped to handle the demands of modern life. Toss in a combination of supplemental digestive enzymes and probiotics, and this year will likely be your healthiest yet!

References

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  2. Hablitz LM. Circadian control of brain glymphatic and lymphatic fluid flow. Nature Communication. 2020;11:4411.
  3. Reddy OC. The sleeping brain: Harnessing the power of the glymphatic system through lifestyle choices. Brain Science. 2020;10(11):868.
  4. Yurtdaş G. Risk factors for constipation in adults: A cross-sectional study. Journal of the American College of Nutrition. 2020;39(8):713–19.
  5. Bajaj JS. Alcohol, liver disease and the gut microbiota. Nature Reviews: Gastroenterology and Hepatology. 2019;16:235–46.
  6. Jensen FB. The dual roles of red blood cells in tissue oxygen delivery: oxygen carriers and regulators of local blood flow. Journal of Experimental Biology. 2009;212(21):3387–93.
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  9. Enzymes Ullah H. Efficacy of digestive enzyme supplementation in functional dyspepsia: A monocentric, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical trial. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. 2023;169:115858.
  10. . Cleaveland Clinic. 2021. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/21532-enzymes.
  11. Claus SP, Guillou H, Ellero-Simatos S. The gut microbiota: a major player in the toxicity of environmental pollutants? NPJ Biofilms Microbiomes. 2016;2:16003.
  12. Van Hul M, Cani PD, Petitfils C, et al. What defines a healthy gut microbiome? Gut. 2024;73(11):1893-1908.
  13. Olvera-Rosales LB, Cruz-Guerrero AE, Ramírez-Moreno E,et al. Impact of the gut microbiota balance on the health-disease relationship: The importance of consuming probiotics and prebiotics. Foods. 2021;10(6):1261.
  14. Zheng Y, Zhang Z, Tang P, et al. Probiotics fortify intestinal barrier function: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials. Frontiers in Immunology. 2023;14:1143548.

This article is for informational purposes only. This article is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment and should never be relied upon for specific medical advice.