8 Tips For Improving Your Gut Health And Digestion -And Why It’s So Vital For Your Overall Health
likely you've seen or heard about gut health, and while a term might be popular, it isn't always talked about in a straightforward or easily understood way. So wanting you to have your best health, here is why gut health is so vital not only for digestion but also for your skin, immune system, nervous system, mental health, and your body overall. And it is always helpful to know what to avoid, and what to include to support your gut health in your daily routine.
So What Makes Up your gut’s biome anyway? Trillions of bacteria reside along your Epithelial Wall of your stomach, intestines, colon, etc. Due to the sheer number of bacteria and their effect help provide a barrier to bacterial pathogens trying to enter your gut barrier. There are various forms of healthy and protective bacteria in our stomachs that Work in various roles like stimulating our digestive muscles to contract… yes, we are talking about poop. Again thanks to bacteria, which aids in the creation of Butyrate that has the pivotal role of lining and protecting your colon. Butyrate also acts as an anti-inflammatory to your gut, helping your gut's reaction to free radicals; again, this is all a beneficial relationship to healthy gut bacteria. Other accolades that can be attributed to your gut flora are: your body's ability to properly integrate vitamins like B and K, help your body fight intruders in your urinary tract and genital organs, help defend against strains of E. Coli, the health of our skin, regulating your metabolism, and overall immune function.
And many studies are expanding on the notions of the gut-brain barrier attributing the function of our brain, moods, mental health, sleep cycles, and nervous system are also linked to a healthy gut biome. The fact that ninety-five percent of Serotonin is made in your gut, not your brain. and scientists are still learning how your gut signals to your brain what is needed to be produced, instead of the previous thought notion that our brains produce and Signal is needs internally, so this evolution in understanding is another important facet that is blooming. So what are the main issues and causations that can affect our body's from having a healthy gut and digestive system which in turn trickles out to other health issues?
What To Avoid
Unfortunately, most modern aspects of life don't bode well for keeping us and our guts healthy. Here are some factors that can throw off balance and healthy flora:
Diet
Until very recently, the number of studies and knowledge on how gut microbiota is impacted and its impact on our health in various (still not fully known) ways has been limited. Thanks to the continuation growing number of studies and experiments, we are learning about the wide Array of ways we can support our bodies. Diet has been shown in numerous papers to impact our health; this includes our gut. A problematic area in most western diets consist of low on fiber, fruits, and vegetables. Instead usually relying heavily on processed food and having higher fat and meat content. This diet combination of low fiber and vegetables with high fat and processed food leads to higher amounts of pathogenic bacteria and lower portions of beneficial microbes. it has also been observed and tested that the variety of Beneficial Bacteria is also limited from the wide varying amounts microbes that are normally present in a thriving gut microbiota.
Another prevalent ingredient throughout western diets is sugar. Sugar contributes to inflammation, and it's also beloved by harmful bacteria. This combination of high sugar content hidden in most processed food can lead to an unknown internal cycle of inflammation and unhealthy amounts of harmful bacteria, damaging a healthy flora, gastrointestinal tract, and beyond.
Medicines
For years, many of us have been aware of antibiotics' unfavorable effects on our gut health. Yet currently, studies are underway with continual findings showing the evolving spectrum of the impact of medications like antibiotics. Especially on children who are more prone to be on antibiotics while they are at a younger age. The growing issues arising and attributed to disturbed gut health are Obesity, type 1 & 2 Diabetes, IBS, Celiac Disease, Allergies, and Asthma. One hypothesis being expanded on is that these children don't have as robust of varietals of gut species. Researchers are also learning further about other medications' implications on our gut biomes, as with antibiotics.
Environment
One area that we often overlook when thinking about our overall health is our environmental surroundings, and yes, this includes our homes. While there might be many factors that we can't control in our everyday surroundings, we can help support ourselves and our family's health at home. Recently the use of disinfectants in our homes have been at an all-time high, yet can these products be doing more harm than good?
Detergents and cleaners have the capacity to alter the environmental home microbiome that contributes to your internal biome also coming under attack from cleansers entering our systems that don't discriminate between good and bad bacteria.
A common ingredient that is contained in most antibacterial cleaners, sanitizers, hand sanitizers, and detergents is Triclosan which children are prone to high exposure of was found in one Canadian children's longitudinal study to show some of the effects of this exposure are interference to their metabolism and gut microbiota that can last a lifetime and continue to compound over time. Other attributes linked to common household cleaners can be endocrine disorders, antibiotic resistance, colonic inflammation, tumorigenesis, etc.
And while we can continue in-depth for quite a while with what can cause your gut health to become unbalanced, here are a few other contributors
-Lack or disrupted sleep
-Artificial Sweeteners
- chronic stress
- Alcohol
-Delivery at birth: vaginal vs. cesarean
- How long as an infant you breastfed
Note: this is not to shame parents. we are only sharing how our microbiota is shaped and formed in our first moments