Photo credit: Newsweek
Do you know when you’re nervous, you get butterflies in your stomach, or you can feel tired or ill all day when you’re constipated?
This shows that the gut and the rest of the body influence each other. In recent years, research has made that connection even clearer. Heart disease, diabetes, and autoimmune conditions have all been linked to various factors associated with a troubled gut. But you can boost your well-being by taking care of your 25-foot-long GI tract. Here’s why your gut health matters.
The Right Microbes Mean Fewer Illnesses:
The trillions of bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses that live inside the gut, collectively known as the gut microbiome, play a huge role in our overall health and the health of our digestive systems.
The microbiome is so intricate that distinct colonies reside in different parts of the GI tract, says Eran Elinav, M.D., Ph.D., head of the systems immunology department at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science. Scientists don’t yet know the ideal mix of organisms, but having an imbalanced microbiome has been linked to numerous illnesses, including diabetes and childhood asthma.
The food we eat, which becomes the food the critters in our guts feast on, is a crucial component in fostering a diverse microbiome. “Of the many environmental factors that impact our gut microbes, nutrition is probably the most important,” Dr Elinaz says. Other things contribute, too: For example, changing your sleep schedule may alter the microbiome’s composition.
What you can do:
X Eat a Mediterranean diet.
Not only is this good for your heart, brain, and general health, but studies also show that this diet—which is rich in vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats—increases microbiome diversity.
X Move your muscles.
Exercise enhances the number and variety of beneficial microbial species.
X Don’t rely on supplements.
Getting probiotics from food is always best. For people with certain gut illnesses who have too many of the wrong organisms, taking probiotic supplements may worsen the imbalance, delaying the natural diversity of organisms.
Taming Gut Inflammation Can Help Your Whole Body:
Certain bowel diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, are defined by inflammation. However, not all inflammatory cells stay inside the gut. They also produce inflammatory mediators that can impact the entire body, leading to a higher risk of inflammatory diseases elsewhere, including the skin, the joints, and the cardiovascular system. Researchers have found that younger people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are more likely than their peers to have heart attacks. Treating gut inflammation with prescription meds often helps other symptoms of inflammation, such as joint pain and arthritis. (NSAIDs such as ibuprofen should be avoided if you have IBD, as they could make it worse.)
What you can do:
X Get seven to eight hours of sleep each night.
Avlin Imaeda, M.D., Ph.D., a gastroenterologist at Yale Medicine, says sleep plays a significant part in immune function, weight, and overall health, says Avlin Imaeda, M.D., PhD, a gastroenterologist at Yale Medicine.
X Eat various fruits and vegetables, naturally high in antioxidants that tamp down gut inflammation.
X Stop smoking: It contributes to inflammation in the bowels and can worsen inflammatory bowel disease.
You Hava another “Brain” In your Gut
The brain in your head sends signals to your body about almost everything you feel, including emotions and pain, and many of those signals travel to your digestive tract. Thanks to the large number of nerve cells in the intestines, your gut and brain are more connected than any other body system. The vagus nerve, which goes from the brain to the gut and beyond, is the main superhighway for this information exchange.
Chatter along the gut-brain axis influences digestion and can also affect pain sensitivity, cognitive function, and the immune system. A large study found that people with severe irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) had twice the rates of depression and anxiety as people without IBS.
What you can do:
X Snack on fermented f apies such as cognitive behavioural therapy, biofeedback, or progressive muscle relaxation to gain better control over the nerves in your colon.
X Stimulate your vagus nerve with yoga, meditation, or slow and controlled breathing.
The Gut Is a Hormone Hub
Nerves aren’t the only means by which the belly talks to the rest of the body. Many hormones (including insulin, which helps control blood sugar, and GLP-1, the hormone mimicked by popular diabetes, are produced in the stomach or intestines or connect with receptors that let them go to work. These hormones influence nearly all aspects of physical and mental health, contributing to conditions including diabetes, obesity, cancers and other tumours and anxiety. The gut also provides approximately 95% of the mood-regulating hormone serotonin, which may be why eating a healthy diet can positively impact mood.
What you can do:
X Choose whole foods wherever possible to keep your digestive hormones healthy.
X Taking relaxing walks in nature. Stress reduction is especially crucial for gut health because when the body’s fight-or-flight hormone response is activated, digestion slows to a crawl, which can lead to irritation.
Culled from: Prevention, July, 2024
