coronavirus Archives

graphic of a digestive system with a virus next to it. Text reads "Long Covid: Gut Bacteria (im)balances May Affect Your Risks

Stop Long COVID

Multi-Strain Probiotics: A Long COVID Solution

The balance of bacteria in the human gut goes a long way toward dictating the state of your health and the ability of your immune system to defend you from health challenges as they come.

So, it wasn’t surprising to learn that gut bacteria imbalances have emerged as a new marker for Long COVID.

As many as 7 percent of all COVID-19 patients experienced at least one symptom of Long COVID up to six months later, according to a report in Nature Communications issued late last year.

Although hard numbers are difficult to come by, some experts believe as many as 23 million Americans have been affected by Long COVID symptoms, and at least 1 million have lost their jobs as a result.

Fortunately, a very simple non-drug solution — a multi-strain probiotic — may be a huge help in treating acute and Long COVID symptoms.

Probiotics To The Rescue!

Interest in testing the benefits of probiotics kicked into high gear after an informal app-based study by Kings College in the UK involving more than 400,000 patients found that those who were taking probiotics regularly lowered their COVID risks.

British researchers took the next step by measuring the benefits of probiotics formulated with five strains of beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Lactococcus families and a prebiotic taken by 126 COVID patients for 30 days.

(Four of the five strains tested in this study are key ingredients contained in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.)

Among patients taking probiotics, a majority (86) had been dealing with Long COVID symptoms for an average of 120 days while the remainder had presented COVID symptoms for about 10 days.

Not surprisingly, three key COVID symptoms — coughing, fatigue and overall wellbeing — improved significantly after a month-long trial of probiotics, along with reports from patients about improvements in their gut health-related symptoms.

One interesting finding: Patients who were treated in a hospital setting for COVID with probiotics and were older and more sedentary enjoyed greater health improvements.

What’s more, scientists attributed those probiotic benefits to relief from gut health issues related to taking antibiotics and other medications.

Taking Preventative Measures

Another important reason why the results of this UK-based study are so important: COVID will be around for the foreseeable future.

Even if you’ve already had COVID, there’s a chance one of the growing number of variants circulating could infect you a second time, depending on your precautions, existing health risk factors and vaccine status.

Having a strong immune system is more important than ever, especially if you want to protect your health from COVID or, worse, the lingering symptoms of Long COVID.

Given what we already know about Long COVID symptoms linked to a less diverse microbiome, taking a multi-species probiotic like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic makes good gut sense!

Resources

NHS/Cambridge University Hospitals

Infectious Diseases Diagnosis & Treatment

U.S. Government Accountability Office

BMJ

Nature Communications

Cleveland Clinic

Stop Long COVID Read More »

Vector graphic of a large intestine next to a magnifying glass hovering a vector image of the coronavirus molecular structure. Text reads "Long Covid: Gut bacteria (Im)balances May Affect Your Risk

The Connection Between Gut Health and Long Covid

Disease, Healthy Aging / By @drHoberman

Long COVID: Gut Bacteria (Im)Balances May Affect Your Risks

Although most patients who contract the coronavirus recover within weeks, some COVID symptoms persist for some people long after an initial bout with the disease.

A study appearing late last year in Nature Communications estimates about 7 percent of patients infected with COVID-19 experienced at least one Long COVID symptom six months later.

Common symptoms of Long COVID include:

Shortness of breath
Joint and chest pain
Cognitive challenges
Fatigue and brain fog
Insomnia

As time goes on, the more modern medical science is learning how the gut plays an increasingly important role in protecting or harming your health.

So far, we’re seen how some key variables come into play with COVID-19 in relation to your microbiome, like how you manage your diet and stress levels which help you maintain a healthy balance of gut bacteria.

Failing to protect a healthy balance of bacteria in your gut may also increase your risks of developing Long COVID many months after your initial run-in with the coronavirus, according to a recent report in the medical journal, Gut.

Gut Dysbiosis And Long COVID

A group of Chinese researchers examined the gut health of 106 COVID patients hospitalized over a six-month period in 2020 to 68 healthy patients by using stool samples to monitor any links to Long COVID.

More than three-quarters of patients participating in the study reported symptoms of Long COVID, with fatigue, brain fog, hair loss, anxiety and sleep problems among the most common challenges at the six-month mark.

Yet, despite no significant differences in common risk factors (age, pre-existing conditions or the use of antibiotics), a majority who suffered from Long COVID symptoms a half-year later experienced gut dysbiosis, meaning they had a less diverse mix of gut bacteria.

In fact, the overall makeup of gut bacteria among patients with Long COVID included 81 harmful species. For example, some harmful species from the Streptococcus and Clostridium families were linked to persistent respiratory problems.

Overall, the gut microbiomes of sick patients who didn’t develop Long COVID were similar to those who never contracted COVID at all.

What You Can Do

For the foreseeable future, Long COVID is here to stay and scientists are searching for answers. However, there are steps you can take to protect and strengthen your immune health and make that run-in with COVID a shorter, more uneventful one if it happens.

We already know that the lack of balance in the gut microbiome for COVID patients is a real problem and how these imbalances can show up in your blood. What’s more, just like the previous study, the depletion of key bacterial species associated with boosting immunity really matters.

For starters, cleaning up your diet (cutting out the sugar), starting some form of daily movement and working on a better sleep schedule can do a lot of good.

One more important thing you can do to give your immune system a direct boost: Take a probiotic formulated with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic, uniquely fortified with 10 strains of beneficial bacteria from the Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus families.

Resources

Nature Communications

The Connection Between Gut Health and Long Covid Read More »

Illustration of woman holding her hands in the shape of a heart over her gut while arrows point in cyclical directions from her gut to her brain. TEXT: Gut-Brain Axis 101 A gutsy link to your emotions.

Gut-Brain Axis 101

Diet, Mental Health, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

Gut-Brain Axis 101: The Gutsy Link to Your Emotions

How often do you make decisions based on a gut feeling during the day? And, do you notice butterflies in your stomach when you do make them?

We’re not exactly sure about the origins of those sayings but it seems as if we have known about the gut-brain axis — the connection that links the brain, intestines and emotions — for a very long time.

Although its existence had been debated in the past, that became impossible once modern medicine proved some 90 percent of serotonin (a neurotransmitter chemical that governs mood) in the body originates in the human gut, and specific bacteria play important roles in producing it.

The gut and brain are linked by the enteric nervous system (ENS), a network of 100 million nerve cells that line the gastrointestinal tract from the esophagus down to the rectum. Although the ENS doesn’t “think,” it transmits signals between the gut and brain.

Unfortunately, we begin to notice the gut-brain axis in our lives when these two-way signals become scrambled due to disruptions in the healthy balance of gut bacteria due to variables like a poor diet that lead to more stress and less restful sleep.

The good news: There are safe and effective tools you can use to bring balance to your gut and calm your brain.

Protecting Your Gut-Brain Axis At Work

The world of information technology (IT) — encompassing everything from information processing to building computers and websites like this one — is known for the high-pressure, 24/7 demands it places on its workforce.

Given those many stressors, a team of Chinese scientists investigated how to create more emotional stability to IT workers via the gut-brain axis with the help of a daily probiotic.

Out of 90 recruits, 36 IT workers (ages 20-60) met the criteria to participate in an eight-week trial, largely based on high initial stress test scores.

During the trial, workers took a probiotic containing a proprietary strain of Lactobacillus plantarum (one of the 10 strains of beneficial bacteria contained in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic).

After the testing period, stress test scores dropped significantly in terms of self-perceived stress, depression and overall negative emotions as well as gastrointestinal problems.

Additionally, scientists also noted a decrease in cortisol (the body’s primary stress hormone) with a coordinated increase in positive emotions with IT workers taking a probiotic.

The Gut-Brain Health Solution

You can tell the popularity of the gut-brain axis has grown by leaps and bounds given all of the new attention by medical experts looking for alternatives for the alarming rise of prescription drugs to treat anxiety, depression and insomnia just during the coronavirus pandemic.

Making lifestyle changes in the form of eating healthier diets full of nutrient-dense foods rich in dietary fiber and getting more sleep really do matter, but those aren’t the only tools at your disposal if you want to keep your gut-brain axis working as it should.

Taking one more precaution — a probiotic — gives your gut-brain axis the extra protection you need, especially on those extra-long workdays from home or at the office.

Make sure that any probiotic you select contains proven, lab-tested strains of beneficial bacteria and a prebiotic, made from non-digestible plant fibers and carbohydrates that feed the good guys in your gut (they may help you fight cancer too).

It really takes a community of beneficial bacteria and prebiotics to protect your gut-brain axis. That why EndoMune Advanced Probiotic is formulated with 10 strains and 30 BILLION CFUs of beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families, plus the prebiotic FOS.

Resources

Frontiers in Nutrition

Healthline

Johns Hopkins Medicine

Caltech

Neuroendocrinology

Mayo Clinic

University Hospitals/Cleveland Medical Center

Gut-Brain Axis 101 Read More »

Yellow illustration of a gut with a magnifying glass being held up to it and showing probiotic bacteria while enlarged red illustrations of coronavirus are being smashed against the gut illustration and breaking

Does Diet Affect Covid Symptoms?

Diet, Digestive Health / By @drHoberman

How Your Gut Health May Affect The Severity of the Coronavirus

Eating a poor diet like the typical Western diet — full of processed foods full of sugar, fats, and refined grains — creates all kinds of problems for your health related to your gut.

For starters, these nutrient-poor diets increase your risks of obesity and your vulnerability to a cluster of serious health conditions (cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer) known as metabolic syndrome.

Now, some health experts believe unhealthy diets may also increase your risks of a more severe case of the coronavirus too, based on a recent review of research published in mBio, the journal of the American Society of Microbiology.

Another Culprit: Leaky Gut

The report stems from a question posed by Dr. Heenan Stanley Kim, a microbiologist at Korea University’s Laboratory for Human Microbial Interactions: Why are countries like the U.S with solid medical infrastructures being hit so hard by the coronavirus?

As we know very well, the common link, the Western diet already disrupts the healthy balance of bacteria in the gut.

Another gut health problem Dr. Kim points to is leaky gut, a condition in which breakdowns in the intestinal wall allow toxic waste products, undigested food, bacteria and viruses to break through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream.

Leaky gut may be a pathway in which the coronavirus spreads from the gut into the bloodstream and other organs in the body, leading to more severe cases. (A healthy gut supported by the presence of butyrate may block that kind of response.)

Rebalancing Your Gut

This report supports a study we shared with you recently that found a link between imbalances in the gut and the severity of coronavirus. Its chief finding: The guts of coronavirus patients contained fewer strains of beneficial bacteria that could muster an immune system response.

What’s more, studies appearing in other medical journals (Gastroenterology and Clinical Infectious Diseases) in 2020 have found similar links to gut health imbalances and the coronavirus, so there’s a likely connection.

Fortunately, you can improve the health of your gut very easily by taking some simple steps.

First and foremost, it’s critical to eat a healthy, balanced diet, especially when you’re prescribed an antibiotic, a well-known disruptor to your gut health.

Make sure that diet includes a daily “dose” of dietary fiber. Just 1 ounce (30 grams) is all it takes and that’s pretty easy to do, especially if you enjoy eating strawberries, lentils, beans, apples, and whole grains.

Another way to ensure the bacteria in your gut stay in balance: Take a probiotic formulated with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria like EndoMune Advanced Probiotics,‑with 10 buildings blocks from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families, plus a prebiotic (FOS) that feeds the good bacteria in your gut.

Resources

mBio

Gut Microbiota For Health

Mayo Clinic

Clinical Infectious Diseases

Gastroenterology

Does Diet Affect Covid Symptoms? Read More »

Your Coronavirus Mask Protocol

Disease / By @drHoberman

For most Americans, the beginning of Spring now marks the one-year “anniversary” of the World Health Organization declaring the coronavirus/COVID-19 a global pandemic and the huge shakeup on how we conducted our daily lives.

Not too long ago, wearing a mask that covered our faces and noses during a quick trip to the grocery store was unimaginable, but became very necessary to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

With new coronavirus cases and deaths on the decline in the nation, a number of states have eased some indoor restrictions for restaurants, shops and schools and, in some cases, lifted them entirely.

Depending on where you live, states are likely to leave the enforcement of coronavirus mandates to cities, counties and businesses to make the best decisions for their citizens, employees, and consumers.

And, in those localities, the decision to wear a mask or not remains largely up to you.

What should you do?

Despite the lifting of mandates at the state and local level, many businesses, offices and schools still require workers, students, patients, teachers and shoppers to wear masks.

That’s a good thing because it’s important NOT to let your guard down when we’re trying to get past the coronavirus and restore some normality in our lives.

Wearing a mask can be very important if you’re older, or have conditions like COPD, cancer and the cluster of symptoms that make up metabolic syndrome that worsen coronavirus symptoms.

In fact, wearing masks during this post-coronavirus era is a good addition to the steps we’ve recommended previously to protect you and your family’s health during the flu season.

Protect the center of your immune system — your gut — by taking a probiotic composed of multiple strains of beneficial bacteria like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.
Maintain good hygiene by washing your hands often with soap and water.
Set aside a few minutes each day for a little exercise.
Create a workable sleep schedule and stick to it.
Make sure you’re eating a more diverse diet full of whole foods that are low in sugar and higher in dietary fiber.

Even as a trio of coronavirus vaccines circulate across America, keeping your immune system strong should be the center of your personal strategy to stay healthy.

For now, wearing a mask, in addition to following this simple immune system checklist, will do so much good to help us move past the coronavirus and get back to living the social parts of our lives with our loved ones nearby and far away.

Advisory Note:

Facts and findings are always being updated on the status of the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. For the most updated advisories on the COVID-19/coronavirus, visit CDC.org (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html).

References

Your Coronavirus Mask Protocol Read More »

Our Campaign Against Hunger Continues

Children’s Health, Misc / By @drHoberman

We are proud to announce a new 2021 campaign to support Feeding America. EndoMune will donate $1 for each bottle of product sold on the EndoMune.com website to Feeding America’s disaster response efforts for those impacted by the 2021 North America winter storms.

We are committed to helping people facing economic hardship and hunger, particularly in the aftermath of devastating winter storms that left so many Americans challenged to access food.

Through its network of 200 food banks across the U.S., Feeding America secures and distributes 4.3 billion meals per year as the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization to children and families in need.

Each dollar we donate to Feeding America can help provide at least ten meals to those in need.

To place orders that benefit Feeding America’s disaster response efforts, visit https://endomune.com/shop-probiotics/.

Our Campaign Against Hunger Continues Read More »

Woman wearing mask with text on photo "Got maskne? Here's the Gut-Skin-Brain axis solution"

The Gut-Skin-Brain Axis Solution For Maskne

Misc, Probiotics, Women’s Health / By @drHoberman

More than ever before, people are experiencing skin problems related to acne, especially around their faces, due to wearing masks, sometimes for extended periods throughout the day. This issue has become so common and chronic, people refer to it as maskne — mask + acne — and dermatologists take this problem just as seriously as their patients.

Living in the coronavirus pandemic hasn’t been easy, but you’ve been making the best of it by following the healthy steps to stay out of harm’s way and protecting your immune system.

Wearing a mask outdoors when running simple errands — going to the grocery store, taking a walk around your neighborhood or navigating situations where social distancing is not feasible — has become our new normal, and it’s likely to stay that way for a little while longer.

It’s nothing new

Maskne isn’t new. Way before the coronavirus pandemic, this issue arose more than you think, mostly with sweaty athletes who wear helmets with straps.

However, maskne has become such a thing that medical experts from Yale Medicine and John Hopkins Medicine to the American Academy of Dermatology have weighed in on treating it.

Most of the steps these institutions recommend are based on common sense.

Keep your face clean with mild soaps (definitely no antibacterial soaps).
Easy on the makeup and skincare products if you use them.
On masks, be sure you’re using ones made from materials that don’t irritate your skin and wash fabric masks you’re regularly wearing.
Men with facial hair or fair skin and extra hair follicles, pay attention to excess irritation and ingrown hairs.

Some professionals even believe probiotic cosmetic creams can be a good way to treat acne. Certainly, some creams may help but do they get to the heart of the problem?

Your gut’s role

When it comes to acne, the health of your gut really matters in several ways, demonstrating that the gut-skin-brain axis connection is a real thing.

For one, doctors prescribe lots of medications to treat acne. In moderate to severe cases, antibiotics are the go-to drugs that create all kinds of problems we’ve discussed a lot in this space.

Unmanaged stress is another concern that triggers acne. There’s certainly plenty of that to go around with having to deal with the coronavirus every day, not to mention poor Western diets full of sugar and a lack of exercise.

These challenges disrupt the balance of bacteria in the gut, triggering inflammation that shows up on your body as acne or, in this case, maskne.

So what can you do about it?

An extensive report detailed in Frontiers in Microbiology points to a simple solution: Successful treatments of acne with varieties of beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families in the form of probiotics.

What’s more, we’ve seen over and over how probiotics formulated with multiple strains of beneficial bacteriathat promote a diverse, healthy gut microbiome make a big difference in the health of your gut which happens to be connected to your brain and skin too.

EndoMune Advanced Probiotic features a proprietary blend of 10 beneficial strains of bacteria, along with a very important prebiotic (FOS), to protect your gut-brain-skin axis and help ease the effects of maskne.

References

The Gut-Skin-Brain Axis Solution For Maskne Read More »

take a probiotic during coronavirus pandemic

Could Your Unbalanced Gut Worsen the Coronavirus?

Digestive Health, Disease, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve reminded you about some simple steps you should be taking to protect the health of your gut during these coronavirus times. Many things affect your gut microbiome’s balance, from the meals you eat every day to the sleep you get every night. All of these things determine how well your immune system functions.

That critical balance — or the lack of it — and the volume of bacteria in your gut may play a critical role not only in how severe your battle with the novel coronavirus may be, but also in how your immune system responds to it.

The lack of gut bacteria balance

A team of Chinese researchers studied how the gut influences the novel coronavirus’s severity by comparing stool and blood samples from 100 hospitalized patients with a coronavirus diagnosis to 78 healthy patients who took part in a microbiome study before the pandemic began.

Among those coronavirus patients, 41 provided multiple stool samples while hospital-bound, and 27 shared stool samples up to 30 days after they recovered. The gut microbiome differences between healthy patients and those who fought COVID-19 were pretty dramatic.

Accounting for the lack of balance, researchers determined the guts of novel coronavirus patients contained fewer beneficial strains of bacteria that triggered an immune system response.

Also, lower numbers of some gut bacteria, including Bifidobacterium bifidum, were linked to more severe coronavirus infections after taking into account patients’ age and their use of antibiotics.

(Bifidobacterium bifidum is one of 10 strains that make up the potent mix of beneficial bacteria in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.)

What’s more, this depletion of bacteria was measured in samples up to 30 days after patients recovered.

The imbalances show up in the blood too!

When COVID-19 infects the human body, the immune system can sometimes go into overdrive, producing inflammatory chemicals called cytokines. If those cytokines become excessive, a destructive “storm” may result, causing the failure of multiple organs, tissue damage, and septic shock.

An examination of blood samples found more instances of these inflammatory cytokines and chemical markers linked to tissue damage in coronavirus patients also experiencing gut bacteria imbalances.

All of these facts led researchers to conclude that the gut microbiome may have more influence on your body’s immune response to the coronavirus, along with its severity and how you’ll recover from it.

What this means for you

Although scientists were unwilling to cite any concrete causes, it’s clear to them there are connections between the microbiome and inflammatory diseases and that boosting the beneficial bacteria in the gut depleted by the novel coronavirus could become a way to lessen its severity.

As you know, many factors play a role in your gut’s health and diversity, from sleep schedules and exercise to your eating habits.

Taking a probiotic is one of the most straightforward steps you can take to protect the health of your gut too. But not any generic probiotic will do…

That’s why it’s important to look for a probiotic with multiple strains of proven beneficial bacteria like those from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families.

EndoMune Advanced Probiotic is uniquely fortified with ten strains of beneficial bacteria from both families along with a very important prebiotic (FOS) to protect your gut 24/7.

References

Could Your Unbalanced Gut Worsen the Coronavirus? Read More »

Your Gut Healthy Protocol During the Coronavirus Holiday Season

Disease, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

It’s THAT time of year when our thoughts turn to the holidays and celebrating the end of the old year and the start of a brand new one.

But this holiday season is unlike any other in recent memory, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.

During the Thanksgiving break, the CDC asked Americans to stay put and not travel. So far, there are no indications that future advisories from federal health officials will change very much at least in the short term.

With families staying at home as much as possible and limiting their contact to very small groups of people — appropriately distanced, of course — the last thing you should be worried about is your gut health, right?

Wrong. Here are 3 reasons why you should be:

How are you sleeping?

The health of your gut (and your body) is affected by shifts in your body’s circadian eat-sleep-wake cycles.

Disturbing that schedule — anything from long work hours to getting to know your new PS5 — messes up those natural processes the gut performs on its own while you’re sleeping.

Getting the sleep you need and sticking with a schedule matters, along with eating enough prebiotics, a natural part of whole foods ranging from onions to almonds and jicama.

How are your emotions?

Because many of you are staying home and glued to your work desk (or that shiny new PS5 next to your TV), your emotions may be up, down or all around depending on your mood and the time of day.

It’s certainly understandable, given that we live for our human connections to the outside world.

Maintaining the vital connection that links your brain, intestines, and emotions — your gut-brain axis — helps you regulate those stressors naturally and effectively.

How’s your diet?

If you’re staying home a lot more, your once healthy and balanced diet may have fallen by the wayside, in favor of more highly processed foods full of sugar — real or artificial — and chemicals that disrupt the critical balance of good bacteria in your gut.

5 ways to protect your immune system

This trio of variables all leads up to one very serious problem: A disrupted immune system that can leave you very vulnerable to an array of health problems.

What’s more, a growing number of experts all over the world are coming around to the belief that gut health is the key, not only to stay healthy in the good times, but to reduce your risk of respiratory infections too.

With all of this in mind, here’s your updated gut-health protocol to help you and your family stay safe during this coronavirus holiday season:

Keep the surfaces in your bathrooms and kitchens as clean as possible.
Get on a sleep schedule and stick to it. (Put the PS5 in the closet when you’re not using it.)
About schedules: Take breaks for healthy, balanced meals away from the TV or computer screens and get a little exercise. Even a short walk with your dog helps!
Keep those hands clean with plain soap and water. No antibacterial soap necessary!
Give your gut health a much-needed boost by taking a probiotic, ideally containing multiple strains of beneficial bacteria.

Although your gut is a diverse environment that requires an array of species to do countless things behind the scenes, lots of probiotics still rely on one strain of beneficial bacteria to do the heavy lifting. Simply, these single-strain probiotics just aren’t up to the job.

Our multi-strain probiotic, like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic, is fortified with 10 strains of beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families, plus a prebiotic (FOS) that feed the good bacteria in your gut.

Protecting your gut by following our updated protocol will help you stay healthy through the holidays and to a better 2021.

References

Microorganisms

Frontiers in Psychiatry

PNAS

Gut Microbiota For Health

UNC Health/WRAL.com

Current Pharmaceutical Design

Your Gut Healthy Protocol During the Coronavirus Holiday Season Read More »

graphic of two cells combating each other

Coronavirus and the 2020 Flu Season: Are You Ready?

Disease, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

About this time of any other year, the medical community would be preparing for the annual flu season. Except for this one…

No one has written a playbook for a scenario quite like a flu season combined with a coronavirus pandemic, and with so many other things in a state of flux too.

Since we talked to you about the coronavirus earlier this year, the news is looking a little better and a bit clearer on the vaccine front, although it still remains a pretty good bet we won’t see one emerge from Phase 3 trials for a while longer.

In the meantime, health officials all over the U.S. are wondering and worrying about how a pandemic that will have killed more than 200,000 Americans by early fall will affect the annual flu season, and maybe worsen it.

A hopeful sign

One indication there’s hope that the flu season could be a little easier to handle: Countries in the Southern Hemisphere like Australia are reporting far fewer flu cases than they expected so far.

It’s an encouraging sign that social distancing, school closures, and mask-wearing have had a real impact.

Despite the dropping numbers of flu cases below the Equator, however, health officials starting at the very top with CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield believe we shouldn’t be letting our guard down at all, especially now.

The one thing health officials agree on with urgency: When a flu shot becomes available, GET ONE.

But that’s just the first step on your to-do list…

Your revised healthy habits list

Now that we’re deep in the season of coronavirus and heading to an unknown flu season this fall, your list of healthy habits has changed some from earlier this year, but a lot of the tips still apply.

Wear a mask when you’re out of the house to run necessary errands or go to work.
Wash your hands often with soap (no antibacterial soaps) and warm water, especially before eating and after touching your face.
Keep the surfaces in your kitchen and bathrooms as clean as possible.
Be sure you’re getting the exercise and healthy meals your body needs.
Protect your immune system where it resides in your gut.

We’ve shown time and again how probiotics work in sync with the flu vaccine to keep you and your family healthy.

Taking a probiotic with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic can give your immune system a gentle boost and better enables the flu shot to do its work.

Advisory Note:

Resources

Science

Frontiers in Pharmacology

Coronavirus and the 2020 Flu Season: Are You Ready? Read More »