I had some major issues with an intestinal blockage last year. I actually wound up in the ER and had to receive morphine for the pain. After weeks of eating a soft food diet, I had another stomach pain issue (not as intense, but still awful) and the doctors could not figure out what was going on (I had an endoscopy, colonoscopy, and CT scans). I was put on a very restrictive diet as a result, and worried that I wouldn't be able to enjoy the foods I loved (basically anything with flavor) ever again. While the intestinal blockage didn't return, there was definitely still something going on that was preventing me from digesting my food fully. On one hand, I was loosing a lot of weight from my restricted diet, but somehow also felt super-bloated, as going #2 was infrequent and difficult.

About two months into this whole ordeal, I started searching for "gut health" related articles and different products online, which is how I discovered Nella. The fact that these probiotics were engineered to mimic the microbiomes of healthy athletes seemed promising, and, even though I was actually already on a store brand probiotic at the time, I decided to give Nella a try to see if it made a difference. It turned out to be a game-changer for me. So much so that I actually put my teenage daughter on it to help build up her microbiome (she spent most of her infancy on antibiotics, which kills your gut health).

Fast forward a couple of weeks into taking Nella probiotics and both of…