The condition of our gut is linked to many other aspects of our health, including energy, immune function, and mood. Our gut is incredibly complex and comprises a delicate balance of various microorganisms, both good and bad. Trillions are living inside of all of us! This is known as the gut microbiome.
But this balance can easily be disrupted. Our modern lives are filled with stress, lack of sleep, and unhealthy foods everywhere we look, so it's not surprising that many of us have poor gut health. As a result, we are more susceptible to illness and diseases.
Luckily, with a bit of dedication, you can alter your gut health by making some lifestyle and dietary changes. In this article, find out more about the gut microbiome, how to tell if you have poor gut health, and most importantly, how to improve it.
The Gut Microbiome
The gut microbiome consists of a combination of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes, which play an important role in our overall health. These microbes often get a bad rap and are associated with disease.
But in fact, many play an essential role in keeping us healthy. They help control digestion, support a healthy immune system, and regulate weight, energy levels, and mood.
However, they aren’t all good for us. Some can harm our health and cause illness. A healthy gut microbiome consists of a good balance of “good” and “bad” microbes which coexist peacefully together.
But things like poor diet, alcohol, and medications can affect the delicate balance of microorganisms in the gut and reduce the number of good bacteria.
When disruptions like this occur, it can lead to gut inflammation and the release of harmful metabolites and toxins in the body. This may have negative impacts on our overall health and make us more susceptible to diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease and obesity.
Warning Signs Of An Unhealthy Gut
Stomach Complaints
An unhappy gut struggles to process food properly and eliminate waste. This can result in digestive issues such as gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, and acid reflux.
Tiredness
Serotonin is a hormone that not only affects our mood but is involved in regulating sleep. The majority of serotonin is produced in the gut. An unhealthy gut may affect the amount of serotonin and have a knock-on effect on your ability to sleep properly. This can lead to fatigue and daytime tiredness.
Poor gut health means your body also won’t be able to effectively extract nutrients and energy from the food you eat. People who suffer from chronic fatigue often have poor gut health and research suggests that altering the gut microbiome may help improve symptoms 1.
Weight Changes
Gaining or losing weight without altering your diet or levels of exercise can be a sign of something going awry in your gut. Gut imbalances affect your body's ability to absorb nutrients, regulate blood sugar, and store fat.
A condition called small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is pretty much what it says on the tin - an excess amount of bacteria colonizing the small intestine. It can lead to malnutrition, as the bacteria use up all the nutrients, weight loss, and diarrhea.
On the other hand, a lack of healthy gut bacteria impairs blood sugar regulation and decreases nutrient absorption, which may lead to weight gain and overeating.
Skin Irritation
A poor diet can lead to inflammation in the gut. This causes the release of certain proteins out into the body that trigger skin conditions like eczema.
Impaired Immune System
Scientists have found a link between an unhealthy gut and improper functioning of the immune system, due to systemic inflammation. This can lead to autoimmune diseases which cause the body to attack its own issues, such as diabetes and arthritis.
Food Intolerances
Food intolerances may arise when there are not enough good bacteria in the gut. This can make digesting certain foods more difficult and may lead to unpleasant stomach problems.
It is also believed that food allergies may be linked to gut health 2.
Mood Changes
Gut problems cause inflammation which affects the nervous system. Inflammation has been linked to mood and mental health problems, including depression and anxiety 3.
How To Improve Your Gut Health
If you think you might have poor gut health, there are several things you can do to help it.
Follow these 10 strategies to get your microbiome in tip-top shape.
1. Probiotics And Prebiotics
Probiotics are live bacteria and yeasts that are commonly referred to as “friendly” bacteria. This isn't because they come and say hello, but because they help support a healthy digestive system.
People often recoil in horror when they hear the word bacteria, but these guys help restore and improve the balance of bacteria in your gut. Boosting the healthy bacteria in the gut may help improve mental health, reduce cholesterol, help treat digestive disorders, boost the immune system, and more!
Probiotics are commonly added to foods, such as yogurt, or taken as supplements. Research suggests probiotic supplements can help improve microbiome health and prevent inflammation 4.
Whilst they have a very similar name, prebiotics are quite different from probiotics. They are a form of non-digestible fiber which provides a rich source of food for the good gut bacteria living in your lower digestive tract, helping them grow, thrive, and multiply.
Foods that contain prebiotics include:
- Onions
- Garlic
- Asparagus
- Bananas
- Wholegrains
- Beans
Taking a supplement like Performance Lab Prebiotic can help support digestive health and boost the existing probiotics in your gut. It also provides fiber to aid digestion, support a healthy immune system, and promote fat loss.
2. Limit Your Consumption of Unhealthy Foods
A diet high in sugar, fatty, or processed foods can destroy good bacteria in the gut and promote the growth of harmful bacteria. This can lead to unhealthy cravings, as these bad bacteria are communicating with our brain that they need feeding!
Limiting the amount of these unhealthy foods in your diet can help improve your gut health. We aren’t saying to never eat them, as that is unrealistic for most of us - and frankly, quite depressing! But eating unhealthy foods regularly will cause damage to your gut and affect your overall health and wellbeing 5.
3. Limit Stress
We know that completely removing stress from our lives is pretty much impossible, but learning to manage it can improve your gut health. Studies have found that stress disrupts the balance of microorganisms in the gut through increased inflammation and the release of stress hormones. 6
Try some stress management activities such as meditation, yoga, and exercise regularly to blow off some steam.
4. Eat Fruit And Vegetables
Fruit and vegetables are a great source of prebiotics and fiber, which provide food for the good bacteria in your gut. According to one study, apples can increase levels of the beneficial bacteria, Bifidobacteria, which help reduce intestinal inflammation and improve overall digestive health 7.
Many other fruits and vegetables have a similar effect and can contribute to a more diverse microbiome, which is necessary for good health.
5. Eat Fermented Foods
Fermented foods are becoming increasingly popular among health enthusiasts for their remarkable effects on gut health. These include:
- Yogurt
- Kimchi
- Sauerkraut
- Kefir
- Kombucha
They contain large amounts of friendly bacteria, or probiotics, which provide many benefits for health, as discussed earlier.
One study found that people who eat large amounts of yogurt have higher levels of the good bacteria, lactobacilli, in their intestines and less enterobacteriaceae, a type of bad bacteria that contributes to gut inflammation and disease 8.
6. Avoid Antibiotics
While antibiotics are sometimes necessary if you have a bacterial infection, overuse can harm your gut microbiota and impair your immune system.
Research shows that even 6 months after use, multiple species of good bacteria are still not restored in the gut 9. If possible, try to avoid taking them unnecessarily.
7. Get Plenty Of Sleep
Sleep and gut health are closely connected. Sleep deprivation can increase stress and have negative effects on the gut. While poor gut health can affect our ability to sleep. So you need to be careful you don’t end up in a vicious cycle.
A lack of sleep reduces melatonin production, a hormone that is most well known for promoting sleep but also helps regulate the permeability of the gut.
A highly permeable gut, known as “leaky gut”, allows toxins and other harmful metabolites to enter the bloodstream and increases the risk of disease. Tiredness after a bad night’s sleep can also affect our food choices and make us more likely to eat unhealthily.
According to one study, irregular sleeping habits and disturbed sleep can negatively affect the microbiome and increase the risk of inflammatory diseases, such as obesity and IBS 10. It is recommended that adults should get between 7-9 hours of sleep a night.
8. Stay Hydrated
Water is the elixir of life and helps pretty much all problems. Ensuring you remain hydrated can benefit the mucosal lining of the intestine, which assists with the absorption of nutrients. Water also supports the good bacteria in your gut.
9. Eat Slowly
No matter how hungry you are, you should try to avoid wolfing your food down in 30 seconds. As delicious as it may be, eating slower can help promote proper digestion and absorption of nutrients. It can also reduce digestive discomfort and bloating.
10. Exercise
Exercise is not only good for helping manage your weight, it can also improve your gut health and increase the diversity of species of microbiota and numbers of beneficial species. According to one study, this may help manage obesity 11.
Conclusion
We are not alone in our bodies. Our gut contains a complex combination of trillions of different types of microorganisms, some helpful, some harmful.
Lifestyle factors and poor diet can influence the balance of good and bad microbes, which can have negative impacts on our health and increase the risk for diseases.
Stomach issues, weight fluctuation, tiredness, low mood, and skin irritation are all indicators of an unhealthy gut. Luckily, there are several things you can try at home to improve your gut health.
The most effective strategies involve examining your diet and limiting unhealthy foods, while increasing the amount of healthy and gut-benefiting foods. Take part in regular exercise, ensure you get plenty of sleep, and always stay hydrated.
References
- Newberry, Fiona, et al. "Does the microbiome and virome contribute to myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome?." Clinical Science5 (2018): 523-542.
- Rachid, Rima, and Talal A. Chatila. "The role of the gut microbiota in food allergy." Current opinion in pediatrics6 (2016): 748-753.
- Appleton, Jeremy. "The gut-brain axis: Influence of microbiota on mood and mental health." Integrative Medicine: A Clinician's Journal4 (2018): 28.
- Hemarajata, Peera, and James Versalovic. "Effects of probiotics on gut microbiota: mechanisms of intestinal immunomodulation and neuromodulation." Therapeutic advances in gastroenterology1 (2013): 39-51.
- Singh, Rasnik K., et al. "Influence of diet on the gut microbiome and implications for human health." Journal of translational medicine1 (2017): 1-17.
- Madison, Annelise, and Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser. "Stress, depression, diet, and the gut microbiota: human–bacteria interactions at the core of psychoneuroimmunology and nutrition." Current opinion in behavioral sciences 28 (2019): 105-110.
- Li, Yuhua, et al. "Apple polysaccharide could promote the growth of Bifidobacterium longum." International Journal of Biological Macromolecules 152 (2020): 1186-1193.
- Lisko, Daniel J., G. Patricia Johnston, and Carl G. Johnston. "Effects of dietary yogurt on the healthy human gastrointestinal (GI) microbiome." Microorganisms1 (2017): 6.
- Palleja, Albert, et al. "Recovery of gut microbiota of healthy adults following antibiotic exposure." Nature microbiology11 (2018): 1255-1265.
- Voigt, Robin M., et al. "Circadian disorganization alters intestinal microbiota." PloS one5 (2014): e97500.
- Petriz, Bernardo A., et al. "Exercise induction of gut microbiota modifications in obese, non-obese and hypertensive rats." BMC genomics1 (2014): 1-13.
