Started on Probiotics

After recovering from the recent bout of indigestion, I thought I should start on another round of probiotics. The last time I took a cycle of it was like..... maybe three years ago... that was effective, and my preference is to always control diet and exercise and lower exposure to whatever allergens and minimize triggers to any allergies and such, instead of taking medication. 

I've had three bouts of indigestion this year, and that's too many in six months. As ill-disciplined as I have been about food, I haven't been that excessive, I thought. I might have upped the meat intake by a little, and that might have been too much for the stomach. This is a little unusual, but the indigestion symptoms remain similar; there's nothing out of the ordinary. But I couldn't be drinking copious amounts of Yakult or kombucha or take plenty of yoghurt or pickles or sauerkraut just to ease the bloat. These are already in my daily diet and I shouldn't take more. 

I was randomly chatting with D and suddenly she said she ordered probiotics for me. I forgot about it. Neither did I bother to pop out to the pharmacy to take a look at the choices or check it out online. Then one afternoon, two boxes of Align probiotics arrived in the mail. I grinned at the boxes rather gratefully. That was the second day of yet another round of indigestion. I had enough of all the burps and farts, and was going to pop in to the pharmacy the next day. Obviously I'm not the type who would simply take whatever over-the-counter pills touted as good. I read up extensively, consider my body, and would have had prior chats with my doctors before embarking on anything long-term. Probiotics are categorized as supplements, not medication. These boxes of Align are such a godsend. There're many strains of probiotics; without a lab test, you wouldn't know what your gut microbiome comprise of, and that changes with your lifestyle and food intake. Align contains Bifidobacterium 35624™, which is supposedly effective. Promptly started on one that night. 

 

I highly doubt that the body suddenly developed an intolerance to gluten, dairy or eggs. I'm feeling like it's a matter of balancing the gut microbiome. I don't know if this has anything to do with the increase in exercise (oddly, yes) these three months. I understand that an increase in exercise is proportional to the abundance of Prevotella, which could increase branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) pathways, which is important in muscle recovery. But I don't know how that the metabolism of those acids would go and how it would affect the gastrointestinal tract.  

With the gyms closed, I've increased at-home pilates and gyrotonic classes to maintain flexibility and core strength, do a bit of HIIT to whatever fun options there are, and mostly, I've increased running. I'm not a fan of running. But it's fast, sweaty and effective. I always run 5km, ONLY. I don't bother running longer or farther. But I've been running faster and improving my timings. I'm clearly not competitive, I just want to be efficient to get the heart rate up and go home and sprawl in the chair. 

Anyway. I've been so concerned with the dog's diet and balancing out her sensitive stomach's gut flora that I've neglected my own. HAHAHAHAH. I was researching on strains of canine probiotics that I forgot about checking up on the human strains. I've taken seven pills. It seems to be helping. Let's see how it goes after I finish one box of probiotics (42 pills).