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Tag: gut bacteria

  • The Survey Says: Try Ashwagandha for Gut Health and Healthy Aging! | Animal Wellness Magazine

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    A new study confirms yet another benefit of KSM-66 Ashwagandha: for gut health and healthy aging in dogs and cats!

    You do all you can to keep furry family members healthy and comfortable—especially as they age. Most routines for animals in their golden years involve supplements, a healthy diet, and gentle exercise, but what if there were more you could do to support your senior fur baby? A new study has found that ashwagandha root extract supports gut health and healthy aging in older dogs, making it an ideal addition to every senior’s daily regimen! Let’s look at the latest research about ashwagandha for gut health and how you can incorporate ashwagandha into your dog’s or cat’s diet to support overall well-being and health.

    Ashwagandha Is a Versatile Herb with Many Health Benefits

    Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is an adaptogenic herb people have been using in traditional medicine for thousands of years. It helps the body manage stress, inflammation, and fatigue while supporting energy, cognitive health, and vitality. And now, it turns out this ancient herb could also be a game-changer for senior dogs.

    “Human health practitioners have known about the health benefits of ashwagandha for millennia,” says Kartikeya Baldwa, CEO of Ixoreal Biomed, manufacturer of KSM-66. “Now, by conducting peer-reviewed research, such as our most recent GI health study using KSM-66 Ashwaghanda, we can demonstrate the benefits of this incredible adaptogenic herb for animals too.”

    Clinical Proof of Further Benefits of Ashwagandha: Gut Health and Healthy Aging

    The new study in Frontiers in Veterinary Science explored the benefits of KSM-66 Ashwagandha root extract in 12 healthy Beagles aged 12 to 15. It found ashwagandha has a significant positive impact on gut health in senior dogs. But that’s not all! The study also found evidence that ashwagandha root extract may:

    • Support a healthy balance of gut bacteria
    • Improve blood and liver function
    • Reduce signs of age-related decline
    • Strengthen the gut lining
    • Encourage better nutrient absorption
    • Contribute to healthier aging overall

    That’s great news, especially considering aging dogs are more likely to experience issues like poor digestion, inflammation, or nutrient deficiencies. And when you feed ashwagandha for gut health, the improvements can also support immunity, mood, energy levels, and even heart health.

    KSM-66 Is the Best Ashwagandha for Gut Health!

    The extract used in the study—KSM-66 Ashwagandha—is a premium, organic, root-only ashwagandha that’s earned an impressive 46 safety and quality certifications, including USDA Organic, Regenerative Organic Certified, NASC Quality Seal, and more. It’s also the most clinically studied ashwagandha on the market and the only one proven in peer-reviewed research to benefit companion animals.

    Beyond that, the company behind KSM-66, Ixoreal Biomed, is a family-owned business with over 80 years of history and a strong dedication to social responsibility. The principles behind KSM-66 include sustainability, the ethical treatment of workers, and commitment to quality. And when it comes to pet health, KSM-66 has a neutral taste, making it a perfect addition to food, treats, and supplements that reduce stress, promote calm, support the immune system, have anti-inflammatory effects, and support whole-body health, including in senior animals!

    Learn more about KSM-66 Ashwagandha for gut health, healthy aging, and overall well-being!


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    Animal Wellness is North America’s top natural health and lifestyle magazine for dogs and cats, with a readership of over one million every year. AW features articles by some of the most renowned experts in the pet industry, with topics ranging from diet and health related issues, to articles on training, fitness and emotional well being.

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    Animal Wellness

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  • ‘Gut on a Chip’: New Tech a Big Step Forward for Gut Health

    ‘Gut on a Chip’: New Tech a Big Step Forward for Gut Health

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    March 9, 2023 – From TikTok to kombucha tea, gut health is having a moment – after we’ve already been hearing about it for years. Rightly so. 

    Your gut – and its diverse mix of bacteria known as the microbiome – is no longer just about digestion. Gut “health” is also linked to the health of your heart, brain, immune system, and more.

    The problem: Much about what’s going in in there and what bacteria populate it at what levels – and how to interpret it all – remains a mystery. Studying the gut is tricky. Animal research may not be useful, because animals have different digestive enzymes and gut bacteria than humans do. And typical lab tests, like growing cells in a petri dish, don’t capture how complex the gut is, a part of the body where many types of cells grow and interact in a moist, flowing, oxygen-free environment. 

    An emerging technology, called “gut on a chip,” promises to change all that, opening the door to experiments never before possible and promising to advance medical research, according to a new paper in APL Bioengineering. 

    Your Gut on a Chip

    It’s among the latest advances in “organ on a chip” technology, the concept of putting human cells in a device designed to mimic the activity of human organs. Scientists have developed models to simulate such organs as the lung, kidney, and vagina. 

    To build a gut on a chip, scientists culture cells from gut tissue and bacteria. 

    “These cells don’t grow easily,” says study author Amin Valiei, PhD, a post-doctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. “They need a specific environment.”

    To create that environment, researchers put the cells inside tiny channels designed to allow the flow of fluids and mimic forces found in the gut. That means the cells can interact with each other as they would inside the human body. 

    “These models are getting more and more advanced,” says Valiei. “Compared to a couple years ago, we now have models that can accommodate a few types of cells.”

    Why This Matters: Drugs, Disease, and Dysbiosis

    Researchers can do experiments on the models that would be difficult or impossible in humans. 

    “These devices could be especially useful in the hypothesis stage to test new drugs and therapeutics,” says Valiei. 

    Valiei and his colleagues at UC Berkeley’s Molecular Cell Biomechanics Lab are studying how different bacterial species interact in these gut-chip models. In particular, they’re exploring how certain harmful bacteria can take hold in the gut – a phenomenon known as dysbiosis that’s linked to a range of conditions like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), diabetes, obesity, cancer, and heart problems.

    Researchers are also using gut-on-a-chip models to study IBD, colorectal cancer, and even the effects of viruses like COVID-19 on gut function. 

    To understand how diseases develop, we need to break things down into fundamental steps, and gut-on-a-chip models could help researchers do that, says Christopher Chang, MD, PhD, a gastroenterologist at the Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center in Albuquerque, NM, and the University of New Mexico. (Chang was not involved in the study.) 

    “We can identify literally thousands of species in the gut, and we sort of know, in broad strokes, what microbes are considered beneficial, and what microbes are considered not beneficial,” he says. 

    But how do individual bugs fit into a community? And what combinations lead to a healthy gut versus an unhealthy one? Answers to these questions remain unclear. 

    “We have ways to manipulate the microbiome, through different antibiotics, probiotics, and fecal microbiota transplants,” Chang says. “But we need to know: What should we be manipulating?”

    Room for Improvement

    One part of the gut not yet reflected in gut chip models is the enteric nervous system, aka our “second brain” – neurons embedded in the GI tract, says Chang. This is how the gut and brain communicate, and its dysfunction is linked to bowel disorders such as IBS. 

    People with IBS can have pain, diarrhea, or constipation even though their gut tissue looks normal on biopsies. Gut-on-a-chip models might be less helpful in revealing insights about these disorders, though they could still help answer fundamental questions. 

    The gut-brain connection is still being clarified, so as the science evolves, researchers may be able to add new insights to future gut-on-a-chip models.  

    Gut-on-a-chip models could be useful beyond disease, too, says Valiei. Any medication you swallow goes through your GI tract. If researchers can use gut-on-a-chip models to uncover precisely how we digest and absorb medications, they might be able to refine how we use these drugs.

    For now, the push is on to get this tech into widespread use. Because of the need to do more research, refine the tech, and gather enough data to satisfy regulators, it may still be several years until this kind “precision” medicine will be precise enough to truly personalize its use for patients. But according to Valiei, this is indeed an accurate glimpse of what’s to come.

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  • Gut Microbiome May Play Role in Irritable Bowel Syndrome

    Gut Microbiome May Play Role in Irritable Bowel Syndrome

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    By Cara Murez 

    HealthDay Reporter

    FRIDAY, Jan. 20, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Researchers believe they have found a link between lower bacterial diversity in the intestine’s microbiome and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

    Normally, “more than 10,000 species of microorganism live in the human intestine,” noted study co-author Dr. Jung Ok Shim, a professor of pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition at Korea University College of Medicine in Seoul.

    To study this, the investigators combined their own dataset with nine other published datasets, involving a total of 576 IBS patients and 487 healthy “control” patients.

    What did they find? The gut bacteria was less diverse in IBS patients than in healthy people, Shim said.

    The level of abundance of 21 specific bacterial species also differed between IBS patients and healthy controls, though the findings were not statistically significant, the study authors noted.

    The findings were published online Jan. 18 in Microbiology Spectrum, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

    The study proved this disturbed gut bacterial community “is associated with IBS, though this does not mean that the relationship is causal,” Shim said in a society news release. “Functional studies are needed to prove whether the change in gut microorganisms contributes to development of IBS.”

    IBS is a common affliction, causing bloating, diarrhea, stomach pain and cramps. Its cause is unknown, and there is no effective treatment.

    “Based on the epidemiological studies of IBS patients, altered gut microbiota was proposed as one of the possible causes of IBS,” the researchers wrote. “Acute bacterial gastroenteritis can cause chronic, asymptomatic, low-grade intestinal wall inflammation sufficient to alter neuromuscular and epithelial cell function.”

    More information
     

    The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more on irritable bowel syndrome.

     

     

    SOURCE: American Society for Microbiology, news release, Jan. 19, 2023

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