How Bad Gut Means Bad Health

It’s the next day after Elsa’s birthday party, and the struggle to get out of bed is crazy. Last night was so much fun, and Elsa consumed all sorts of drinks containing lactose. Nothing was going to stop Elsa from having a blast, not even her lactose-intolerant state. Unfortunately, the after-party effect has Elsa rolling on her bed with cramps and running helter-skelter from her visits to the toilet. She is completely drained and extremely weak. We have all been an ‘Elsa’ at some point from consuming things that are not exactly good for our gut and health in general. But it’s never too late to take a U-turn to begin the journey to an overall healthy lifestyle.

Have you ever heard the popular saying, “You are what you consume?” Well, that’s absolutely true, as our health and overall well-being are greatly influenced by the food we ingest into our gut. The gastrointestinal tract often called the “gut”, could be imagined as a dumping bag for anything that comes in through the mouth. It is also highly vascularized, so digested substances get absorbed into the blood and transported across the body after ingestion. Our gut sometimes eliminates harmful substances that might affect our health by causing vomiting or diarrhea. However, this innate body response might not be able to clear up the mess every time, so it becomes extremely important to be mindful of what we consume to prevent instances like this.

Taking the bold step to start a healthy diet plan is one way to have a healthy gut, increasing your chances of living healthier. Even though this healthy journey can be challenging, it becomes easier and more practical with the right guidance.

Do you want to learn how to improve your gut health, the signs of a bad gut, and what to do in such situations? Keep reading!

Ways To Improve Your Gut Health

Good Diet For A Better Gut

Working on your gut begins with your diet. It’s almost impossible to talk explicitly about the gut without emphasizing on the food we consume. A bad diet equates to a bad gut and, eventually, bad health. It is also sometimes recommended to see a dietician who can draw up a diet plan that contains healthy foods you should consume more and the ones to avoid

Here are some practical ways to improve your diet

• Take more fruits and vegetables: Half of your daily consumption should contain fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables help with better digestion because of the fiber component, and they also supply your gut with the important nutrients the body needs. An extra benefit of incorporating more fruits and vegetables into your diet is that they contain fewer calories, and this helps with weight loss.
• Reduce your consumption of processed food: Processed foods have been associated with an increased risk for obesity, cancer, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and many other chronic medical conditions. These processed foods also contain fewer minerals and vitamins, which are essential for most body functions.
• Cut down sugar intake: the advantages of reducing carbs are endless. It helps reduce bloating and abdominal discomfort, usually from gut inflammation. Increased sugar intake alters the growth of resident normal flora, the good bacteria that help ward off foreign pathogens. So when they get reduced in number due to increased sugar intake, it predisposes the gut to an increased risk of infections.
• Drink more water: drinking at least 2 liters of water daily prevents constipation, reduces inflammation, and helps with digestion, generally improving your gut health.

Taking The Right Supplement

The gastrointestinal tract contains trillions of bacteria called the normal flora. They are generally referred to as ‘the good bacteria’ because they contribute to our immune system and help fight off infectious agents. They also help with the digestion of unabsorbed substrates and the production of essential vitamins like vitamins B12 and K.

Supplements that can improve your gut health contain the right amount of probiotics, prebiotics, vitamin C, vitamin E, omega-3 fatty acids, apple cider vinegar, ginger, and glutamine, all of which will help boost your gut health. Probiotics mimic these good bacteria in our gut, while prebiotics serve as nutrients for the growth of resident normal flora. The result of consuming the right supplements is that it builds up our immune system and keeps our gut clean and healthy. Sometimes, we lose this natural normal flora after a series of inflammation from an ongoing infection, and the only way to replace this is by taking probiotic-containing supplements.

Exercising Regularly

Food movement (peristalsis) in the gut helps eliminate any harmful substance present, and exercising helps improve this food movement by increasing blood flow to the gut. You don’t need to go out of your way to keep fit; 30 minutes of brisk walking at least 5 days a week should do the trick. Exercise also helps with reducing stress and improves your sleep pattern. Reduced stress eventually helps to boost the immune system.

Going For a Microbiome Test

Routine checkups to test your gut microbiome are essential to live healthier lives. It’s called a microbiome test, and it involves you taking a small poop into a sample bottle to test for the resident bacteria and viruses that reside in the gut. This test might be a pointer to an underlying gastrointestinal condition like an inflammatory bowel disease or colorectal cancer, which usually presents with an underlying gut inflammation. It is, however, recommended to see a doctor with the results of this test for better clinical management.

Symptoms Of An Unhealthy Gut 

For most people, finding out if you might have an unhealthy gut can be confusing simply because sometimes the symptoms are just not clear enough to make that definitive conclusion.

Here are some signs that you need to pay close attention to your gut health

 Abdominal cramps: this is usually a pointer to an ongoing inflammation, which may be due to food allergies or poisoning.

 Depression: Our GI tract connects with our brain through the vagus nerve, stimulating gastric acid secretion and enhancing peristalsis. The activation of the afferent vagus nerve causes the release of serotonin, which helps elevate our mood. When this pathway gets affected by bad gut health, there’s reduced serotonin production, leading to a depressed state.

 Fatigue: an unhealthy gut is usually a sign of ongoing inflammation, and when this happens, it reduces appetite. This reduced food intake contributes to the weakness and fatigue experienced by an unhealthy gut. An unhealthy gut also results in poor sleep patterns, which ultimately causes fatigue.

 Digestion problems: difficulty with digestion usually occurs in the absence of gut bacteria, with symptoms such as bloating, heartburn, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and constipation. The root problem with digestion in an unhealthy gut is inflammation, which causes major changes in the gut flora. Consuming more plant-based food helps reduce this gut inflammation.

 Skin changes: poor gut health is associated with certain skin diseases like eczema, acne, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, urticaria, etc. Our skin is a mirror image of how healthy the gastrointestinal tract is. An imbalance of the gut microbiome reduces the absorption of essential vitamins and minerals like vitamins A, B2, B3, C, E, zinc, and selenium needed for healthy skin.

 Sleep disturbances: serotonin, the ‘happy hormone,’ is majorly produced from the gut by the enterochromaffin cells of the gastrointestinal mucosa. Serotonin is needed for the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone. So, when there’s a reduced production of serotonin from an unhealthy gut, it can affect your sleep-wake cycle, which can lead to insomnia.

 Thyroid disorders: the leaky gut theory causes gut lining permeability, allowing bacteria to transport from the gut to the bloodstream. Bacteria translocation can over-activate the immune system, which attacks normal healthy cells and has been implicated in thyroid disorders like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Grave’s disease.

 Change in bowel habits: a change in frequency, consistency, or color of your stool from your usual pattern might be an early sign of an unhealthy gut. It usually manifests as diarrhea or constipation. A common cause of change in bowel habit is gastroenteritis which happens when your bowel is irritated from a harmful substance ingested. However, it’s always important to rule out other possible causes of change in bowel habits like colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, colon polyps, and irritable bowel syndrome.

Conclusion

Good gut health contributes largely to your overall well-being. There is a high chance that you might have a bad gut if your diet contains fewer fruits, vegetables, and more carbs; living a sedentary lifestyle might also contribute to this. All of these can be fixed once you decide it’s time to work on your health. Once you start focusing on your gut health and seeing results, it becomes easier to continue this healthy journey. These results are usually a breath of fresh air and make you feel like a brand-new person.

Your gut health is integral to your glow-up. Become accountable for every part of your health that you can control by watching what you consume, being alert to early symptoms of an unhealthy gut, and possibly booking an appointment with the doctor to be sure everything is fine.