The Importance of Gut Health Explained

In today’s blog, we are going to look into the importance of your gut health. As well as giving you some background information on what your gut is, so you’ll leave today with a well-rounded understanding of your gastrointestinal system, as a whole. 

The purpose of our gut

Your gut or gastrointestinal system consists of your stomach and intestines. The main purpose of this system is to break down the food we have consumed and absorb the correct nutrients (proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, minerals, and fat) that will support the function of our body. For example, the production of energy to hormones. So in simple terms, if your gut health isn’t up to scratch your whole body will be affected. 

Another purpose of your gut is to coordinate with your immune system to fight any external pathogens. For example: viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. Within this process, your gut supports your immune system to learn what are beneficial and harmful bacteria. This is an important task, enabling your body to know what to fight off.

The bigger picture

Your gut health is linked to your overall well-being. Example symptoms such as stomachaches or abdominal pains can affect your day-to-day life and ability to complete tasks. Having health conditions such as Crohn’s disease, Celiac disease or gut cancer will also have a significant impact on your body and overall being.

Trying to improve your gut health can reduce the risk of your having various conditions such as:

Autoimmune Diseases:

This is characterised by having a weak immune system, leading to healthy cells within your body being attacked. 

Example: Rheumatoid arthritis.

Metabolic Diseases:

This is known to be a combination of “diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity.” 

Examples of symptoms of metabolic syndrome: are being overweight, or having a lot of fat around your stomach area; high blood pressure and not being able to control your blood sugar levels.

However, having a healthy gut and having beneficial bacteria in your system can help prevent these diseases. 

Ways to improve your gut:

Taking probiotics: this will contain the much-needed microbiome that your gut needs.

Getting your 8 hours of sleep: this may seem to be over-talked about. However, if you aren’t getting enough sleep it could lead to an imbalance of hormones, meaning there is potential for the stress hormone “cortisol” to rise. Therefore, this can cause intestinal permeability issues, meaning “food and toxins are able to pass through the intestine and into the bloodstream”. 

The main side effects are bloating, stomach pains, and inflammation.

Exercise regularly: this will help prevent problems and increase blood flow to muscles, including the muscles in your stomach. Furthermore, allowing the food consumed to keep moving.

If you are interested in reading another blog on gut health, there are plenty over on our blog page. If you enjoyed this blog, you might be interested in one of our previous blogs on improving your digestion, click here to read now.