Reasons Why Gut Health is Important

Jun 4, 2020

Reasons Why Gut Health is Important

People are always talking about gut health wherever you go despite not having any stomach problems. Little did we know that it is a big deal. The gut protects sixty to eighty percent of our immune system, and when something in your digestive system has a problem, it will cause problems. BlackDoctor explains in detail what will happen if we neglect our gut.

Poor Gut Health

Studies show that there are several signs of poor health in our gut, and a few of them are your particular stomach problems like constipation, bloating, diarrhea, heartburn, and nausea. Among many other symptoms that include unhealthy gut are weight fluctuations, anxiety, sugar cravings, depression, mood swings, insomnia, diabetes, food intolerances, fatigue, autoimmune disorders, and skin problems.

Unhealthy Gut Causes

The gut is composed of fungi, viruses, and even bacteria. These microbes are living together in our digestive systems in a microbiome, which is working in unison to break down food particles, converting them to the nutrients that our body needs. There are trillions of microbes in each gut, and when microbes go out of balance, the body cannot properly absorb or digest nutrients, our gut becomes inflamed and unhealthy, and will affect the body’s system in many ways. There are a lot of ways to heal the unbalanced microbiome in our guts. Listed below are the ways to make our guts healthy again.

Diet Changes

Diet change is one of the first things that we need to do to check for food intolerances. For example, we may have celiac disease without us knowing. Studies have mentioned that 22 percent of those with celiac disease have damage in their small intestines without gastrointestinal symptoms. It is essential to know if we have any intolerances so we can adjust our diet by eliminating those foods.

Stress Management

If we feel stressed, the balance of the microbiome in our gut becomes compromised. Stress increases cortisol, which will activate inflammation in the stomach due to cortisol suppressing the immune system. To fix this issue, we need to reduce inflammation stress.

A way to reduce stress is to stimulate the vagus nerve. This nerve is part of the parasympathetic nervous system. Clean eating, deep-breathing exercises, and cold temperatures can reduce cortisol and health the gut by activating the vagus nerve.

Intermittent fasting

Fasting gives the gut the time to heal, and it activates anti-inflammatory responses. Intermittent fasting is a method of eating where you need to consume all your calories within a specific time or “eating window.”