Why Your Gut Health is More Important Than You Think
By Alexis Mills
Over the past few years, there has been a jump in focus on people's gut health and how much an unhealthy gut can affect your overall health. For good reason, because having an unhealthy gut bacterium can create extensive symptoms such as digestive issues, chronic stress, mental issues, skin problems, vitamin deficiencies, and autoimmune diseases. It's crazy to think that this one part of the body can have such an affect over our health and wellness.
All the bacteria that is in the gut can either help or hurt your health. The kind of bacteria that is in your gut has to do with the food that you consume. It's been found that gut health could be why people with obesity struggle so much to lose weight. Obese people don't have sufficient good bacteria in their gut, so when they adopt a low-calorie diet to lose the weight, the bacteria increases. But making this change comes with difficulties because, when you are eating a high sugar and fat diet for a long time, the bad bacteria in the gut is built up so much and it just craves more. If people who are struggling with obesity are able to fight off these cravings and stick to a healthy diet, they may be able to change their gut bacteria, which in turn will make it much easier to lose weight. But when the gut has been unhealthy for so long, it makes the change that much harder.
Gut health has mostly to do with the quality of food you are putting into your body and listening to your body when a food doesn't agree with you. When you go down a route that isn't fueling your gut, you are at risk of getting leaky gut syndrome, in which the bad bacteria in your gut can leak to other parts of your body. Symptoms to look out for if you have an unhealthy gut are bloating after meals, abdominal pain, acid reflux, headaches, fatigue, joint pain, and a weak immune system.
How to Heal Your Gut
With a bit of planning and time it's entirely possible to heal your gut and restore it to full health and have effects on your entire body. First, figure out if you have a problem with your gut and if you do you can treat it effectively with some of the below tips.
- Consume bone broth
- Be active
- Avoid processed foods
- Take probiotics
- Stay away from sugar
- Consume more fats and fiber
- Hydrate
- Eat fermented foods
- Manage stress
- Find out what foods you are allergic to or have intolerance to
Gut health is not glamorous, but it is extremely important to your overall health.
To learn more about your health, wellness and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Westlake, Tex.