Why is it so important?

It is a community of different specials of bacteria that live on our skin, in our gut and are all around us in the environment. The gut specifically is home to trillions of microbiota made up of bacteria, fungi and viruses. Everyone’s biome is unique to them, this applies to us and our pets! Interestingly, families and dog’s living together actually share similar gut and skin biomes.

So, what does it do?

EVERYTHING! It literally maintains our health, from digestion to mood and behaviour. It is so vital to support and encourage a healthy biome.

The microbiome is a relatively new discovery. So much is being studied and much is still, yet to be learned. What we do know is that it is hugely important and influences everything.

It’s job is to extract nutrients from our food and protect the body from pathogens. It has many other roles, including influencing the immune system, endocrine system and producing essential short-chain fatty acids from fibre.

How does it work?

There are beneficial (good) bacteria and pathogenic (bad) bacteria. These pathogens are opportunistic species’ and if able to proliferate will cause harm.

This is why it’s important that a healthy balance is maintained. The good guys need to keep their numbers up to keep the bad guys in check.

What can you do to improve gut health?

The most obvious and important thing we can do is to nourish our pets with a variety of nutritious foods. Many pets eat the same food at every meal, every day of their entire lives. This is not a healthy way to eat for so many reasons. That’s another blog!

Try to avoid chemicals and toxins as much as possible. This includes unnecessary flea & tick pesticides, worming treatments and vaccinations. Many of these things are used when they are not needed. Also avoiding as many chemicals around the home such as cleaning products and scented candles can be a great help.

It has been shown that antibiotics alter the microbiome instantly and it can take anything from months up to two years for the species to repopulate.

Stress has been shown to drastically affect the biome so trying to avoid this will help. This can prove difficult as our pets have to deal with situations beyond our control a lot of the time, such as vet/grooming visits, fireworks, car travel. Even going for walks, if you’re a reactive dog is a hugely stressful event.

Allowing our pets outside in nature to get their feet and noses in the soil is great for their biome. Next time your dog annoys you by digging holes or burying bones, think of the positive effect it’ll be having on their microbial diversity!

If you would like to find out more about microbiome testing you can find information here…

http://biome4pets.com

Tina Clyde LCGI 💚