How To Maintain Healthy Blood Sugar, Starting With Your Gut

Keeping your blood sugar in check is one of those tricky balancing acts that our bodies are constantly trying to manage. You're probably familiar with what happens when it dips too low—better known as being hangry.

And while factors like diet and exercise play a major role in balancing your blood sugar, ultimately it comes down to—like so many other things—your gut.

Also known as glucose, blood sugar is your body's preferred source of energy, and it is one of two products from the food you eat (the rest is stored as fat). Your blood is the vehicle that carries this source of energy to your body's cells, allowing them to do...basically everything.

All of this is regulated by a complex process involving your liver, small intestine, and pancreas (aka the gut). The pancreas releases a hormone called insulin, which allows your cells to absorb that sweet, delicious glucose in the first place. Those with type 2 diabetes however, produce less insulin—or their insulin isn't working as it should—and, over time, they have trouble regulating their levels of blood sugar.

Correct. So let's move on to the hero of our story: Your gut (also known as the gut microbiome). As you probably already know (you did click on this article, after all), your gut microbiome plays a huge role in a multitude of bodily functions. And aside from affecting your digestive system or brain heath, bacteria in your gut can have profound effects on your blood sugar as well.

Glad you asked. Focusing on a diet that's rich in soluble fiber is a great place to start. Think: whole foods like fruits and vegetables (especially garlic, jicama, and leeks), as well as foods that contain polyphenols, like coffee, dark chocolate, and teas.

Beyond that, cutting-edge probiotic brands like Pendulum are changing the game by making people healthier through microbiome-targeted solutions. While "gut health" products are a dime a dozen these days, Pendulum's medical probiotic puts them in a league of their own with nine patents, five pending, and 20-plus more in the works.

Their flagship product—Pendulum Glucose Control—is the first and only probiotic that lowers A1C levels and blood glucose spikes for the dietary management of type 2 diabetes, and they have a peer-reviewed clinical trial that proves it.

Not all probiotics are the same. In fact, most probiotics use the same two groups of bacteria: Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, which provide generic gut health benefits. Pendulum Glucose Control is different from what you'd find at the grocery store and here's what separates them from other probiotics:

First is that their formula clinically tested. Regular probiotic supplements typically speak to clinical data for certain strains they include in their product, but their actual formulation hasn't been clinically tested to demonstrate the results they cite.

Pendulum Glucose Control is also targeted, addressing unique deficiencies in your gut microbiome and restoring lost functionality to help manage chronic disease.