Shape up for life

Being in ‘great shape’ is to glow with health, have clear skin, bright eyes and a spring in your step. You are strong and resilient. All these outward signs of being in shape start from the inside.

People in great shape have one thing in common: a healthy gastro-intestinal (GI) system that digests food efficiently, absorbs essential nutrients and offers protection from germs and toxins. Signs of GI distress on the other hand, present as bloated tummies, indigestion pains, acid reflux and constipation.

Not So Minor Complaints

These so-called “minor complaints” are in fact early warning signs that we need to take better care of our GI health. Left unheeded, or worse still, treated with preparations that mask their symptoms, these everyday discomforts can easily manifest into more serious diseases either in the GI system or elsewhere in the body.

Failure to fully digest food proteins for example can provoke local inflammatory conditions such as Coeliac and Crohn’s diseases and if combined with a loss of integrity of its barrier function, these undigested particles can be absorbed into the blood stream to establish peripheral inflammatory conditions such as asthma, arthritis, eczema and chronic fatigue.

Essential Enzymes

Feeling tired or bloated after meals, acid reflux, excess wind and constipation are sure signs of a weakened digestive process precipitated by our typical Western diet which is mostly devoid of natural digestive enzymes.

This lack of enzymes forces the pancreas to produce its own digestive enzymes in order to digest our food. Such is the lack of food enzymes, that by the age of 35, this organ is significantly stressed in most people and an overworked pancreas fails to produce the many systemic and immune enzymes it is also responsible for - leaving us susceptible to energetic, hormonal and metabolic breakdown. Put simply: tiredness, ageing and illness.

Undigested food means a malnourished body and one of the first places malnourishment appears is in the loss of integrity of the GI tract: thus the downward spiral begins! Over time, failure to absorb nutrients and eliminate waste products leads to further physical and mental decline.

Probiotics

Probiotic means “for life” a term that aptly reflects the very positive contribution that our “friendly bacteria” make to our overall health. Besides promoting digestion and overall intestinal health, these organisms account for more than 60% of our immune defences.

It has long been recognised that having the right bacteria in the digestive tract was essential for good health. The balance of this bacterial community, weighing some 1.35kg, is meant to be self correcting, but we know that aspects of our modern life; poor diet, stress, anti-biotics and even chlorinated water can upset the balance quite easily allowing the not so friendly organisms to proliferate.

An overgrowth of ‘bad’ bacteria in the GI system can cause diarrhoea/enteritis/colitis and has also been linked to worsening or even causing arthritis and even implicated in various dysfunctions of the nervous system; Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and Autism/ADD/ADHD.

Even people with no signs of GI discomfort should supplement regularly with good quality probiotics to take advantage of their disease prevention and anti-ageing properties.

Combined Enzymes and Probiotics

It makes sense that a combination of digestive enzymes and probiotics will promote optimum digestion and body defence. vitalSHAPE does just that: it combines Aspergillus derived digestive enzymes with three high quality proven probiotic strains: L. Acidophilus DDS-1, L. Bulgaricus DDS-14,Bifidobacterium Bifidum. These ingredients work together to improve GI health, alleviate common digestive complaints, boost immunity and revitalise the whole body.

How to Take It: Take one capsule three times a day at the start of a meal. Double the dose if you have a bacterial or viral infection.

How to Buy: vitalSHAPE costs £7.99 for 30 easy-to-swallow vegetable cellulose capsules from Simplyvital.com.