The article explores how dietary choices impact anxiety, from breakfast habits to macronutrients like carbohydrates and proteins. It also highlights the role of gut health and gluten sensitivity in mental wellbeing.

There is a tidal wave of post‑COVID conditions hitting us. According to Health Canada, if you are still experiencing physical or psychological symptoms more than 12 weeks after getting COVID‑19, you suffer from a post–COVID‑19 condition (also known as “long COVID”).

Probiotics have extensive potential for therapeutic use, and we continue to discover their specific actions. The previous article looked at classification and the role of probiotics with regards to immune function and digestion, including autoimmunity, atopic skin reactions, and respiratory conditions.

The human digestive tract is a dynamic ecosystem made up of a rich and diverse microbiota consisting of bacteria, archaea, viruses, and fungi. Each person has a unique composition of microbiota, and the balance in this symbiotic relationship must be “respected in order to optimally perform metabolic and immune functions and prevent disease development.

Our knowledge of connections between the human microbiome, immune system, and disease continue to evolve. Gut microbiota are influential in the health of our bodies and function to both increase immune-system function and suppress colonization of pathogens.

Weight loss can seem like an uphill battle, with so much confusing advice about dieting. The science does appear to be quite consistent with the medical risks associated with weight gain such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and overall lowered vitality.

In conditions that promote a leaky gut, the compounds of the food bolus that are usually kept safely in the intestinal lumina—including undigested food macromolecules, toxins, bacteria, or parts of bacteria known as endotoxins—has now the potential to pass through the fragile and unicellular mucosal membrane of the small intestine, and to reach the blood circulation.

By now, most of us have heard the word microbiome—the collection of trillions of functional bacteria of all different species found in many places throughout our bodies, such as our skin, gut, mouth, vagina, and lungs.

The human gastrointestinal tract (GIT) alone contains 1014 microorganisms including bacteria, viruses, and fungi. That’s approximately 100 times more microbial cells than human cells, which shows how much of an impact they can have on human health.

The warm weather does not only signal that summer is on its way, but that the pollen is out! Allergy sufferers worldwide understand this love-hate relationship with spring and summer. My personal experience with allergies as an adolescent drew me to naturopathic medicine. Through the use of nutrition, supplements, herbal medicine and other lifestyle strategies, I no longer rely on antihistamines like I once did.