I use hand sanitizers a lot in my practice. I normally do not use them a lot in my everyday life outside of work- except for now. There is a good reason for this. While hand sanitizers are great at killing the bad viruses and bacteria, they also kill the good bacteria that naturally has a way of making it into our gut from our skin.
These good bacteria are workhorses that do a million miraculous things for our health. From our gut they help to regulate mood, digestion and in this case, most importantly, immunity.
To give our guts a fighting chance with the overload of hand sanitizers being used at the moment it is extremely important that we support our digestive health now more than ever. You can easily do this by making smart choices at the grocery store. Next time you leave for an essential trip to the store pick up a few of the following:
- Probiotics that specify “enteric coated”- this means they have the ability to survive stomach acid and make their way into you digestive track where they belong.
- Natural, refrigerated sauerkraut
- Kim Chi
- Tempeh
- Miso (miso soup is delicious). check out this recipe: https://minimalistbaker.com/15-minute-miso-soup-with-greens-and-tofu/
- Natural, refrigerate pickles
- Yakult or another shot-like probiotic that can be consumed once a week.
- Yogurt and Kefir
All of these are great additions to eat on a daily basis.. even just a few bites help your gut do its job. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to seeing you in my practice once we all get through this. Please, please, please stay home as much as possible right now so we can all work together to flatten the curve.