What even is the Gut Microbiome?
Did you know that its only in the last 15 years since doctors and scientists even discovered we have this thing called The Microbiome? This is why you are now seeing the words gut health or gut friendly everywhere, it’s NOT another fad or trend.
More and more research is now showing how important the Gut Microbiome is to our overall health.
The Gut Microbiome is made up of trillions of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes live in your gut and make up your individual gut microbiome. These microbes influence many aspects of our overall health and well as help digest the foods we eat. It is mainly present in the large intestine.
Everyone’s microbiome is different. Diet, drugs, genetics, the way you were born, and your ages all play a role in determining which microbes live in your gut.
What the gut microbiome is responsible for
- Control your blood sugar.
- Produce vitamins such as B and K
- Hormonal balance
- Host 70% of our immune system
- Produces 90% of our serotonin.
- Protect your body from pathogens.
- Communicate with your nervous system and brain.
The Gut Microbiome and Mental Health.
The gut and the brain are intrinsically linked with communication going both ways, from the gut to the brain and the brain to the gut. They communicate via the Vegas nerve and chemically through hormones called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters play a key role in regulating how your gut works and your mood.
So what can we do to improve our gut microbiome and keep it diverse and thriving.
Here are your 5 fundamentals I use with all my clients.
- Plant foods – a high fibre diet containing a variety of plant-based foods, such as veggies, fruit, seeds, nuts, beans, legumes, and spices can nourish the beneficial bacteria within your gut. Plant diversity is key for good health and getting the bowels functioning how they should.
- Regular exercise. This can simply be a walking, yoga (in fact your gut love low intensity) or something a little bit more intense but getting the body moving can help enhance the number of beneficial Microbial species, enrich the microbiome diversity, and improve the development of bacteria
- Good bacteria and fermented foods, a diet rich in fermented foods or a very high-quality prebiotic enhances the diversity of the gut microbes and decreases molecular signs of inflammation. Remember that you are currently taking a good probiotic so don’t go to overboard on adding in lots of fermented foods at this stage.
- Stress management – when we are in our stressed state which I now call the modern lifestyle where we are all very busy. We go into something called the sympathetic nervous system. We produce more adrenaline and cortisol, and we tell our digestive system to not digest the food we have eaten because I need to be ready an alert to attack what is coming. Managing our busy lifestyles and trying to create some calm war, benefit your gut and your brain.
- Sleep – when we are sleep deprived it has a negative change in our gut microbiome. Low quality sleep means the body does not sufficiently suppress the production of cortisol the stress hormone and that can alter the balance of your gut microbes. Also, when we sleep, this is when we are preparing ourselves so getting good quality sleep will benefit not just your guts, but your overall health.
