How busy modern lifestyles can disrupt gut, skin and immune health.
In today’s fast paced world, many of us juggle increasing workloads, family and social demands. It is easy to let healthy lifestyle habits slip. Urban living is also increasing our exposure to environmental stressors, impacting wellbeing. Modern lifestyles can affect gut health, immunity, skin appearance and the pace at which we age. Thankfully, there are simple and sustainable ways we can minimise lifestyle impacts.
Gut Health |
Digestive issues are common with a worldwide prevalence of 40%. Most often affecting women they can significantly impair quality of life and mental wellbeing.
Modern lifestyles often change dietary habits. Research shows that urban diets are loaded with sugar, calories, processed foods and refined grains, and are also short on fibre. This western diet can disrupt the gut microbiome leading to dysbiosis, intestinal permeability, inflammation and ultimately impaired digestive function.
Skin Health |
Urban living introduces lifestyle and environmental factors that can negatively impact skin health. Today, we are exposed to more air pollution and blue light from digital devices. We spend less time outdoors in nature and more time in aircon. Modern fast-paced lifestyles have intensified stress and disrupted sleep for many people, often leading to poorer dietary habits and less physical activity. These factors can impair the skin microbiome and overall skin health by promoting inflammation, skin dryness and skin ageing.
Immune Health |
Stress, a lack of physical activity, poor sleep and an unhealthy diet are all modern lifestyle factors that can weaken the immune system.
The gut-immune axis is especially important here. Lifestyle factors, like western diets can disrupt the gut flora, leading to dysbiosis and reduction in beneficial bacteria. Dysbiosis can impair the gut barrier function and trigger systemic inflammation, ultimately impairing our immune responses.
Simple strategies to feel better when life gets busy.
✅Mindful slow eating
Take deep breaths before meals, chew slowly and put cutlery down between mouthfuls.
How we eat can be as important as what we eat. Evidence shows that breathing exercises before eating can change hunger signals, enhance nutrient absorption and improve digestion. This simple technique promotes a "rest and digest" state by activating the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS).
✅Nourishing whole food diet
Choose unprocessed foods and as much variety as possible. Eating in this way and avoiding the typical western diet is fundamental to thriving. When we are time poor, meal planning, batch cooking and grocery deliveries are amazing ways to stay on track. Research shows that people who use these tools are more likely to eat a nourishing diet, maintain healthy weight and have better overall health.
✅Combine movement and nature
We all know that staying active is good for our health. When life gets busy, movement outdoors can be a great way to reap the benefits of exercise, sunshine and nature in one outing. Referred to in the research community as ‘green exercise’, physical activity outdoors is linked to better motivation, enjoyment, mood and feelings of revitalisation. It can provide a much-needed escape from everyday life.
✅Supplement as needed
Supplement ingredients like probiotics, prebiotic dietary fibres and postbiotics can provide a helping hand. GenBalance contains ingredients that promote beneficial gut flora, relieve inflammation, improve immunity and support healthy skin and hydration.
✅Carve out time for loved ones
We all crave and thrive from social connection. Genuine soul-deep relationships can help us in all stages of life and evidence shows that strong social connections have powerful positive impacts on many aspects of our physical health and mental wellness.
✅Have a bedtime ritual to promote deep quality sleep
Find an evening routine that helps you wind down and make this a ritual every night. Turning off lights and screens, a relaxing herbal tea, bath, meditation or essential oils are popular options.
Adults need at least 7 hours of good quality sleep per night on a regular basis to promote optimal health, especially immune function.
Strong gut health supports digestion, immunity, skin, and overall wellbeing. With prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics working hand in hand, the benefits go even further. If you’d like to dive deeper into the different strains and the unique benefits they provide, check out our blog post: “Beyond the Label | Understanding Biotic Strains and Their Health Benefits.”
Publish |
This article was developed in collaboration with Natural Product Centre.
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