What if your supplements are doing more than you think?
The study that caught our attention.
Broccoli in Liver Love and Organic Daily Greens & Reds. Paeonia and licorice in Cycle Essentials. Grape seed in Skin Nutrition. On the surface, these are four different blends formulated with distinct areas of health in mind.
Yet here’s the thing.
Nature – or your body – doesn't work in neat, isolated departments. Which is why a piece of research exploring these same three medicinal herbs and a food caught our attention.
The study
In a preclinical study, researchers investigated a formula containing broccoli, white peony, licorice and grape seed extracts. Mice fed a high-fat, high-sugar diet alongside the formula gained less weight, accumulated less fat in their livers and showed lower systemic inflammation than mice fed the same diet without it. They also found that some of the signalling pathways that normally switch on inflammation in the liver were less active.
But what was happening beyond the liver was particularly interesting. Researchers observed changes in the composition of the gut microbiota, alongside signs of improved intestinal barrier integrity. And when researchers transferred gut microbiota from mice receiving the formula to other mice, some of the beneficial effects were transferred too, suggesting changes in the gut microbiota contributed to what they were seeing.
The body rarely does one thing at a time.
This study wasn’t conducted on Liver Love, Organic Daily Greens & Reds, Cycle Essentials or Skin Nutrition. And because it was an animal study, we can’t assume the same results would occur in humans. But that’s not why it caught our attention – it’s the bigger picture it reveals.
Three medicinal herbs and a food brought together in one study. Effects observed across the gut, intestinal barrier, inflammatory signalling and liver. A reminder that while we might put words like ‘liver’, ‘cycle’ and ‘skin’ on a label, the body itself doesn’t draw those same lines. Benefits can extend beyond this.
It’s also why we think about a blend as more than a collection of individual ingredients. We consider what each ingredient brings to the formula, but also the company it keeps. Because when it comes to the body, everything is connected.
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