live +
Your guide to staying healthy, happy, alive
BALANCED BODY
PROBIOTICS AND PREBIOTICS
Supporting gut balance and wellbeing
HYDRATION AND GUT HEALTH
Why fluid balance matters
SUSTAINABLE WEIGHT LOSS
How supplements support long-term habits
HAPPY, HEALTHY FEBRUARY
In this month’s Live+ Catalogue, we explore overall health built from consistent, everyday choices. From a pharmacist’s perspective, the most effective health strategies are simple, sustainable, and tailored to the individual. Whether managing a health condition or aiming to feel better day to day, focusing on the basics can help make a difference.
A few key areas to support overall health include:
• Balanced nutrition: Aim for variety rather than restriction: adequate protein, fibre, and hydration to support energy levels, digestion, and metabolic health.
• Medication awareness: Take medications as prescribed and understand why you are taking them. Review medications regularly, especially if health goals, weight, or symptoms change.
• Weight management: Weight is influenced by more than diet and exercise. Sleep quality, stress levels, hormone balance, and medications all play a role. Small, consistent changes tend to be more sustainable.
• Quit Smoking: Smoking affects nearly every organ in the body and increases the risk of many chronic diseases. Quitting smoking improves overall health, supports lung and heart function.
• Chronic condition management: Conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, thyroid disorders, and digestive issues often overlap. Coordinating medications, lifestyle choices, and monitoring improves long-term outcomes.
Our Prescribing Pharmacists can assist with prescribing medications for specific minor illnesses, acute conditions, and some chronic disease management, including antibiotics for UTIs and skin infections, oral contraceptives, and acne treatments. One of our Alive Pharmacy team members will be happy to talk and guide you through the consultation process.
Good health is not about doing everything perfectly. It comes from awareness, balance, and informed decisions that can be maintained long term—and we’re here to help make that easier. Wishing you a healthy February full of balanced progress.
Managing Director
PROBIOTICS, PREBIOTICS AND THE POWER OF BALANCE
Supporting digestion, immunity and even mood
When it comes to overall health, balance matters, and one of the most important systems involved is the gut. Inside the digestive system lives a large community of microorganisms, often referred to as the gut microbiome. These bacteria play a role in digestion, immunity and metabolism and can also influence things people may not expect, even mood.
When the gut is working well, most of us don’t give it much thought. When it’s out of balance, it can show up in a range of ways, from changes in digestion to feeling generally off. This is where probiotics and prebiotics come in.
Probiotics are live, beneficial bacteria that help support gut health. Prebiotics are the fibres and nutrients that feed these bacteria. They work together. Without enough prebiotics, probiotics struggle to thrive, which is why both are important when aiming to support gut balance.
Everyday eating habits can sometimes leave the gut feeling a little off balance. This can happen when the foods we’re eating end up fuelling less helpful bacteria, particularly foods that are highly processed, high in added sugars or artificial sweeteners, or low in fibre. Busy lifestyles, ongoing stress and the regular use of certain medications can also influence the balance of bacteria in the gut.
Foods such as yoghurt with live cultures, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi and miso naturally contain probiotics. Prebiotic foods include bananas, oats, garlic, onions, asparagus and legumes. Fibre also plays an important role by helping nourish beneficial gut bacteria.
For many people, consistency is the hardest part. Supplements can help make gut support easier to maintain day to day, especially when routines are busy or diets aren’t always ideal. Supporting gut balance is rarely about perfection, but about steady, ongoing care.
Fun Fact
The gut is sometimes called the body’s second brain because it communicates closely with the nervous system. This helps explain why changes in gut health can sometimes be linked to changes in mood.
Hydration and gut health
WHY FLUID BALANCE MATTERS FOR DIGESTION AND COMFORT
Hydration supports nearly every system in the body, and digestion is no exception. Water plays an important role in the production and function of digestive enzymes, which help break food down so nutrients can be absorbed properly. When fluid intake is low, these processes can become less efficient, which may affect digestive comfort.
Water also helps move fibre through the gut and supports regular bowel movements. Without enough fluid, digestion can feel slower or heavier, even when food choices are otherwise balanced. This is one key reason hydration and gut comfort are so closely linked.
It’s not uncommon for people to notice bloating or a feeling of puffiness when they first increase their water intake. This can be frustrating, especially when the intention is to feel better. In many cases, the body is simply adjusting to more consistent hydration and temporarily holds onto fluid. As fluid intake becomes more regular, this response usually settles.
How fluids are consumed can also make a difference, including timing. Drinking large amounts very quickly, particularly around meals, may contribute to temporary
fullness or bloating. Spreading fluid intake more evenly throughout the day is often gentler on digestion. Salt intake can also influence fluid retention, especially when hydration habits fluctuate.
Hydration affects more than digestion. It supports circulation, energy levels and physical balance. Even mild dehydration can show up as fatigue, headaches or a general sense of feeling off, which can make everyday activities feel more demanding.
As a general guide, daily fluid needs are around 3 litres for men and 2 litres for women, though individual needs vary depending on activity level, climate and routine. The aim isn’t to reach a perfect number, but to maintain a level of consistency that supports how the body functions day to day.
sustainable weight loss SUPPLEMENTS FOR
Supporting long-term habits, not quick fixes
Sustainable weight loss is rarely about doing more. It’s about supporting the body so healthy routines feel manageable over time. Energy levels, digestion, hydration and appetite cues all influence how easy it is to stay consistent, especially when routines are busy or changing.
When used alongside balanced eating and regular exercise, supplements can help support the body systems that influence consistency. They don’t cause weight loss on their own, but they can help fill gaps when routines aren’t perfect, making healthy habits easier to maintain over time.
Hydration plays an important role in this picture. When fluid balance is off, it can affect digestion, energy levels and hunger signals, making it harder to tell the difference between thirst, fatigue and appetite. This can complicate weight management, even when intentions are good.
It’s also helpful to understand the difference between water weight and fat loss. Day-to-day changes on the scale often reflect hydration levels, salt intake and digestive comfort rather than true fat loss. This is normal. Fat loss happens gradually and is best assessed over time, not from daily fluctuations.
Myth busting
Drinking less water reduces bloating
Dehydration can actually encourage the body to retain fluid. Consistent hydration helps regulate fluid balance over time.
Hydration supplements cause weight loss
Hydration supplements do not cause fat loss. They support hydration and body balance, which can help make healthy routines easier to maintain.
Water weight and fat weight are the same
Water weight is temporary and related to fluid balance. Fat loss happens gradually through sustained habits.
Product recommendations
Endura Low Carb Hydration
A low sugar electrolyte formula with no added carbohydrates, suitable for people following low carb or calorie-controlled approaches. Contains sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium to support hydration and fluid balance.
Musashi Fat Metaboliser + Carnitine Capsules
Contains L-carnitine, which plays a role in fat metabolism when used alongside diet and exercise. Also includes electrolytes to support hydration, particularly during periods of increased activity.
OptiSlim Shakes
Liquid meal replacement shakes that contribute to daily fluid intake while providing protein to help you feel fuller for longer. Often used alongside regular exercise as part of a calorie-controlled eating plan to help manage overall energy intake.
Sukin
