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You know that pit in your stomach after you failed a test?  That is your gut feeling your stress and disappointment right along with your brain. 

Sometimes we talk about having a “gut feeling” about something that makes us feel uncomfortable.  Your gut is known as your second brain.

Your gut-brain axis is an important collection of neurons, chemicals, and hormones that are constantly feeding and updating information between your body and your brain.

Feeling hungry?  This is also communication between your gut-brain axis telling you that it is time to eat.  

Our gut health plays an important role in our daily lives and yet it is very easy to forget that we need to pay attention and care for it.

WHAT IS GUT HEALTH?

Our “gut” is another way to refer to our intestinal and digestive tract.  The human intestinal tract is extremely complex and has a huge impact on our entire body.

A healthy gut contributes to a strong immune system, cardiovascular health, brain health, improved mood, healthy sleep, and effective digestion.  In fact, maintaining a healthy gut may prevent some cancers and autoimmune diseases.

Inside our digestive tract we have microorganisms living there called our “gut microbiome”.  Each of us has somewhere between 300 and 500 different species of bacterias in our gut as stated in this study.

Our gut microbiome of bacterias influence us from within the gut by communicating with our immune system and participating with a variety of metabolic processes that are beneficial to both sides.

The amount of bacteria in our gut is about 10x that of every cell in our bodies.  These bacteria account for 1-3% of our body mass. In fact, the collective bacterial genome is hugely greater than the human genome.

Many of these microorganisms clean our skin or help us digest our food.  Some do not much of anything (that we are aware of!). Even more strange is that scientists find that almost everyone hosts low amounts of some harmful bacteria types as well.  

When we are healthy, these pathogens coexist with our helpful (and benign) bacteria.  We really don’t know what causes them to turn infectious.

About Your Gut Health

We rarely get to know what is happening in our own gut microbiome, however, we have a lot of control based on what we eat.  

You can read about my 5 favorite gut boosting foods to find out about foods that can improve your gut health.  My absolute favorite food for my gut is kefir.  I make it at home using kefir grains- if you are interested in learning how how easy it is to make then checkout how to make delicious kefir.

Along with eating probiotic foods, it is also very important to have a diet filled with fruits and veggies containing prebiotics.  Prebiotics are what feed the probiotics (good bacteria!) in your intestinal tract.  You can also take a high quality probiotic to improve your gut health.  I use this one because it was recommended by my functional medicine doctor.

Your gut microbiome is as unique to you as your fingerprints and controls more than just your digestion.  The types of bacterias you harbor in your body can determine if you have more or less risk for certain diseases and ailments.

It’s time to start being aware of our gut health.  We are finding that this forgotten organ is of vast importance to our health!  I became passionate about my gut health after working hard to heal from Hashimoto’s disease.  It took me over a year to get my health back under control and it was hard and completely overwhelming at times.  But it all came down to the health of my gut.  

How do you take care of your gut health?