Wouldn’t it be great if you had a magic wand that could make all your health problems disappear? If you want to improve your health, one of the best things you can do is work on your gut health.
If you have digestive problems such as constipation, bloating, gas, acid reflux, or abdominal pain, you need to improve your gut health. If your sleep is poor, your thyroid is not functioning as it should, or you are experiencing symptoms related to menopause, these could be signs that you have gut issues.
What is the gut?
The digestive system is often referred to as “the gut.” Before I tell you how to support your digestive system, it’s important that you understand what it’s made of. First, the digestive system starts at the mouth and ends at the anus. Various digestive organs are found mostly along this tract.
The system that helps the body to break down and absorb food is called the digestive system. It is made up of a series of hollow organs, including the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and anus, which are all located along the digestive tract. The organs that help with digestion are the pancreas, liver, and gallbladder.
Why is gut health important?
Gut health is usually referring to the good bacteria to bad bacteria balance.
We have over 100 trillion live bacteria, or our microbiome, living in our gut which helps our bodies with a number of tasks.
This microbiome actually accounts for 90% of the cells in our body. 2
Our gut health can suffer if the balance of natural bacteria gets upset.
How can a healthy gut improve overall health?
A healthy gut with the right balance of bacteria may help your body in the following ways:
- Immunity: maintaining a healthy balance of bacteria in the gut can help to support your immune system . In the same way as taking too many antibiotics – and disturbing the balance, can weaken the immune system 3
- Heart health: evidence suggests that probiotic supplements can help control total cholesterol levels in the blood 4
- Digestive issues: a healthy balance of bacteria in the gut has been seen to help with bowel disorders like lactose intolerance and antibiotic-induced diarrhoea 5
- Sleep and fatigue: our gut microbiome may affect the quality of our sleep . This is because our gut is responsible for producing most of our serotonin – a hormone that affects sleep 6
Your gut is your ‘second brain’
The brain in our gut helps to control digestion by sensing the food we eat and responding to it. It also adjusts digestive secretions, absorbs nutrients, and tells our brain what is going on.
The brain and the gut are closely connected in order for digestion to occur in the right circumstances.
Eating a meal when we’re stressed can cause symptoms like bloating because our body is focused on fight or flight rather than digesting our food.
If you get upset while you’re eating, you’re more likely to have indigestion.
If you get upset while eating at a certain restaurant, you may develop symptoms around the contents of that meal. For example, if you get bad news at a fish restaurant, you may then react to fish.
Is your gut healthy?
Gut health is a tricky one to determine.
There is not always a straightforward answer of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when assessing the health of our gut, as there is not just one factor to consider.
There are some signs that may give you an indication of whether someone is lying or not.
3 signs of a healthy gut
- Healthy bowel movements
The wellbeing of our gut can be determined by examining our stools.
Ideally, stools should be smooth and sausage-like, rather than hard, lumpy, or really squishy.
If you smell a bad odor in the bathroom, this could be a sign that something is wrong.
You’re not bloated often
If you don’t often experience bloating after meals, it may be a sign that your gut is healthy.
This being said, passing gas 10-20 times a day is still considered normal, but if you’re doing it much more than that, it might be time to look into improving your gut health.
- You can poo without pain
If you can use the restroom without experiencing any discomfort or having to put in a lot of effort, that’s a good sign that your gut is healthy.
Three ways to put you on the right track toward better gut health
Today I will share three ways to improve your gut health. These foundations can also lead to improvements in other areas of your health.
1. Is the food you are eating good for you?
Every time we eat or drink, it affects our body. Food that is nutritious and good for our bodies gets broken down so that we can get the nutrients we need to stay healthy. If we eat unhealthily, we get sick.
One way to figure out which foods make you feel good and which ones don’t is to keep a 3-day food log. Eat your regular meals and take note of what you eat and how you feel afterwards. Sit down and analyze your experience at the end of three days. Then make changes and watch your health improve.
If you’re looking for more advanced food issues, try eliminating the following from your diet for 30 days: gluten-containing foods, dairy, eggs, corn, soy, sugar, caffeine, and alcohol. After 30 days, slowly reintroduce each food once every three days while monitoring for any unusual symptoms, even if they seem mild (abdominal cramps, acid reflux, constipation or loose stools, headaches, runny nose, stuffiness, insomnia, etc.). If you have a negative reaction to a food, eliminate it from your diet for 3 months, then try it again.
It is advisable to consult a practitioner before undertaking an elimination diet. Go to damianacorca.com if you’d like support with this.
2. Are you digesting your food well?
We assume that our bodies do a good job at breaking food down when we eat it. Things are often not that simple.
The pancreas produces digestive enzymes that help digest carbs, protein, and fat. This is based on the many tests I’ve done on people where I often find that the digestive enzyme production is stunted due to long-term stress, poor signaling and communication in the gut, and not chewing your food thoroughly. There are pancreatic enzymes that you can take with each meal to help digest your food, such as Digestive Enzymes Ultra from Pure Encapsulations. Take digestive bitters 10 minutes before each meal to improve your digestion. And most importantly, before each meal, take a few deep breaths and chew each bite 15 to 30 times.
To digest your protein properly, you need enough stomach acid. People often talk about having too much acid in their bodies and taking antacids to balance it out. If we don’t have enough stomach acid, the sphincter above the stomach doesn’t close well, and then we experience acid reflux. When you take Betaine HCL as a supplement, it will increase stomach acidity and help with digestion. If you’re looking for a good dietary supplement, Betaine HCL Pepsin from Pure Encapsulations is a great option. Theddigestive bitters mentioned above can also help with increasing stomach acid production. Check for overgrowth of H-pylori bacteria before using Betaine HCL as a supplement. Betaine HCL can cause stomach ulcers if the bacteria is present.
Once again, if you have trouble digesting fat or do not have a gallbladder, you can improve your situation by taking pancreatic enzymes as well as bile acids or ox bile. A favorite formulas is Digestion GB from Pure Encapsulations.
3. Is your microbiome balanced?
The large intestine’s bacteria is incredibly important for your health. We often hear people talk about taking probiotics to improve their gut microbiome.
Before you start taking probiotics, it’s important to make sure you’re doing everything you can to support your body with prebiotics. This will result in a healthier digestive system, as well as a stronger immune system A diet rich in prebiotic foods (foods containing non-digestible fiber) will help to develop and grow the beneficial bacteria in your gut, resulting in a healthier digestive system and a stronger immune system. Some of the foods you eat contain this type of fiber. Some examples of healthy foods are green bananas, plantains, garlic, onions, asparagus, dandelion greens, endives, jicama, legumes, honey, sunchokes, and whole grains. Thorne’s FiberMend is a prebiotic fiber supplement that can be taken every morning.
Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that are found in fermented foods and supplements. These bacteria help to keep the gut and digestive system healthy. There are several types of probiotics that can be taken for general maintenance. These include a combination of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium (such as FloraMend Prime Probiotic from Thorne), Saccharomyces boulardii (a non-pathogenic yeast that helps prevent or treat gastrointestinal issues), and soil-based probiotics using different bacillus species (such as Ion Gut Health).
If you want to improve your gut health, try out these three methods for three months. You’ll be surprised at how much better you feel afterwards.
4 foods and supplements to help you have a healthy gut
What you eat can have a big impact on the types of gut bacteria you have.
A diet high in animal proteins, saturated fats, sugar, and salt can create an environment that is conducive to the growth of pathogenic bacteria.
Improved gut health has been linked to consuming complex carbs, plant proteins, omega-3s, polyphenols, and micronutrients.
As well as following the above advice, the following foods may help you maintain a healthy gut:
- Yogurt
Yogurt is made by adding Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilu to milk and allowing it to ferment. This creates lactic acid, which thickens the milk and gives yogurt its characteristic tang.
There is evidence that consuming yoghurt with live and active cultures, like probiotic yogurt, can improve digestion for those with a lactose intolerance. 23
- Probiotic foods
/7 Pharmacy Probiotics are live microorganisms that can help to restore a balance in your microbiota.
There are also probiotic drinks that have a similar effect.
Some foods that can be classified as probiotics include yogurt, sauerkraut, kefir, pickles, kimchi, and tempeh. These foods contain live bacteria that are beneficial to human health.
Read more: Are fermented foods the secret to a healthy gut?
- Prebiotic fibre
Prebiotics are non-digestible foods that can be beneficial for gut health.
Because we can’t metabolise them like normal foods, our gut bacteria metabolises them into short-chain fatty acids, which help our bodies with a number of tasks.
Some foods that are high in prebiotics and good for your gut health include bananas, onions, artichokes, garlic, oats, honey, and asparagus.
- Vitamins and minerals
In other words, micronutrients are important for supporting regulating energy metabolism, immune function and cellular growth, and they can also have a positive effect on your gut.
The microbiota in our gut has been seen to produce B vitamins and increase the abundance of strains that produces vitamin D.
Worried that you have a gut condition?
If you have tried to improve your gut health but are still experiencing discomfort, there may be another factor at play.
If you’re having gut problems that keep reappearing, it might be worth investigating if you have IBS or are gluten-intolerant, since both are relatively common.
Is it IBS?
Individuals with IBS experience abdominal pain, cramping, bloating, and either constipation or diarrhoea, or both. The symptoms of this condition vary from person to person, and they may also vary from day to day.
The root cause of IBS is unknown, but it is thought to be a combination of genetics and triggers such as gastroenteritis.
Hormones may also play a role in triggering IBS. Women are more likely to suffer from IBS than men.
Although there are treatments that can help manage the symptoms of IBS, many people find that their GP is unsympathetic because IBS is not widely recognized as a serious disorder.
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