An Over 50’s Guide To Gut Health

As you might already know, as we age, our bodies require a little extra attention to remain at their peaks and to operate effectively. 

Whether this is related to exercise, mental agility, and gut health, the over 50 crowds should be a little more pedantic about keeping healthy, and your bodies will undoubtedly thank you. 

You may already know when you forgo healthy foods and replace them with fast foods, processed sugars, and alcohol, your body essentially makes life a little more challenging. Operations such as bowel movements are a bit more complicated, your energy levels are lower, and you feel a little lackluster overall. 

In this article, we’ll take a look at an over 50’s guide to gut health and what you’ll need to do to keep your stomach bacteria and digestive system operating as effectively as possible. 

Understanding our Digestive System As We Age

Off the top, it’s essential to keep in mind that when we get older and reach our 50s and beyond, our digestive systems work with a smaller quantity of stomach acids. 

This means that your pancreatic, gastric, and other digestive acids are essentially coming in a reduced amount and you’re needing to focus on eating foods that are more easily digestible. 

In line with this, you might also find that paired with a poor diet, these reduced acid levels can be the perfect recipe for a flawed digestive system and one that causes pain, inflammation, constipation, and much more. 

Sometimes, the over 50 crowds may be left to deal with improper or low nutrient absorption, leading to poor immune function and even a ‘leaky gut’ or something called molecule leakage.

Combatting Issues with Digestive Enzymes

When it comes to getting on top of digestive and gut issues, there isn’t a better place to start than with a colonoscopy — after a diet change, of course. 

These tests will essentially give a good look into how things are operating, whether there is inflammation or anything else out of the ordinary. From here, you’ll be able to work on improving your digestive system by working on boosting your digestive enzymes and assisting your gut is operating better. 

After all, you’re going to want to get the most nutrients from the foods you eat. 

To add to this, you can either improve your digestive enzyme count by altering your diet or taking supplements to add these enzymes into circulation in your stomach. 

You might already know that some of the most helpful enzymes for senior gut health are amylases. These are essentially in charge of the digestion of carbohydrates, fats, and digestive proteins which provide us with energy. 

With low digestive enzyme counts, our bodies are practically unable to digest the food we’re eating, and this means we’re losing a lot of nutrients, energy and even run the risk of being undernourished — regardless of how well we’re eating. 

To conclude, although our bodies will and do create these enzymes on their own, they become less effective at doing this as we age, and when it comes to our 50s and over, you are likely going to need to offer your digestive system a little help. A lifestyle change, new diet and exercise are excellent places to start. 

Considering Supplements or a Change of Diet 

After reading the above, you may be considering the move to supplemental digestive enzymes, probiotics, or other digestive essentials; however, there are some other things to consider before this. 

Of course, some older people lack in pancreatic acid due to a disorder or issue with their pancreas –– and so supplements are essential. However, this isn’t the same for everyone. 

You can take the change of diet route if you’re looking to encourage and nurture an ideal stomach environment for bacteria and enzyme production and efficiency without relying on supplements to do the work. 

One thing to note here is that your stomach enzymes and probiotics are two different things. One of these can live and remain in your intestinal tract (probiotics) the other (enzymes) cannot. This means you’re going to need to ensure a steady flow of these enzymes coming into the body for them to digest foods effectively. 

If you’re dealing with a lack of these enzymes or suffer from a disorder when it comes to the enzymes produced by your body, you’ll need to rely on supplements for this operation. 

It might be in your best interest to look at some of the foods and dietary changes needed to foster an ideal healthy gut and go from there. 

Conclusion

Wrapping up, it’s imperative to keep in mind that as we age and move beyond our 50s, our bodies have some different requirements for us regarding gut health. 

With fewer enzymes excreted into the gut and less effectivity in the digestion of food, you’ll need to work on dietary improvements and assess whether you’re going to need stomach enzyme supplements. 

These supplements will ensure your body has all of these proteins needed to digest food and extra nutrients most effectively.