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Many people underestimate the role of our gut in our overall health. While ‘gut health’ has become a trendy term in recent years, the importance of maintaining a healthy, balanced, and diverse gut microbiome should never be overlooked.
There are many ways to support a healthy gut microbiome, including adopting a healthier and more diverse diet or introducing probiotic supplements to restore the gut to a healthy and balanced state. Be sure to choose dietary supplements from a trusted and reputable company, like Inner Health Probiotics, to ensure you are ingesting safe and high-quality ingredients.
What is the Gut Microbiome?
Bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microscopic living things are called microorganisms, or microbes for short. Trillions of these important microbes live primarily in your intestines and on your skin.
The majority of microbes can be found tucked away in a ‘pocket’ in the large intestines called the cecum, which is more commonly known as the gut microbiome. Although there are numerous types of microbes inside the human body, bacteria are the most studied.
Our body is a complex ecosystem, hosting roughly 40 trillion bacterial cells, outnumbering our human cells. In the human gut microbiome alone, there are over a thousand species of bacteria, each contributing uniquely and significantly to our body’s functions.
Health Impact
Your intestinal tract is the largest immune system organ in the body, and an estimated 80% of your immune-producing cells are found here. Your gut microbiome plays an essential role in digestion, metabolism, and inflammation.
While research is still ongoing to explore the connection between the gut microbiome and the brain, heart, liver, and lungs, it has been proven that it impacts one’s health in several ways.
Body Effect
Humans have evolved over millions of years to live with these valuable microbes. At the same time, microbes have learned to play a crucial role in the human body, affecting the body from the moment you are born. Babies are exposed to their first microbes when they pass through their mother’s birth canal. However, new research suggests that babies are exposed to some of these microbes while still in the womb.
As you grow up, the diversity of your gut microbiome grows with you, and a higher diversity is considered better for your health. The different foods you eat can affect the diversity of your gut bacteria. Some of the first bacteria to grow inside the intestines aid in digesting the healthy sugars in breast milk, which are essential for growth.
Weight
While thousands of bacteria live in your intestines, many of which positively influence your health, having too many unhealthy microbes can lead to disease. This imbalance of healthy and unhealthy microbes is sometimes called gut dysbiosis and can contribute to weight gain.
Several well-known studies have shown that identical twins’ gut microbiomes completely differed when one was obese, and the other was not. These findings proved that the differences in our microbiome were not genetic.
Probiotics have been found to be good for a healthy microbiome and can help with weight loss. However, some studies suggest that the effects of weight loss are relatively minimal.
Gut Health
The microbiome can also affect gut health, and many experts believe that it could play a role in intestinal diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Cramps, bloating, and abdominal pains commonly experienced by IBS sufferers are often due to gut dysbiosis, with microbes producing excess gas and other chemicals that contribute to this discomfort.
Alternatively, the healthy bacteria found in this microbiome can improve gut health. Certain bacteria found in probiotics and yogurt help to seal the gaps between intestinal cells and prevent leaky gut syndrome.
Diabetes
Many studies have been conducted to investigate the connection between the gut microbiome and diabetes, with some suggesting that a healthy biome may help control blood sugar, potentially reducing the risk of type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
A recent study examined 33 infants who all possessed an increased risk of genetically developing type 1 diabetes. Findings showed that the diversity in the microbiome dropped immediately before the onset of diabetes, with a number of unhealthy bacteria species increasing in numbers at the same time.
Improving Your Gut Microbiome
There are several ways to improve one’s gut microbiome. Firstly, you can eat a diverse range of foods, including a wide variety of colorful fruits, vegetables, legumes, and beans. These contain high levels of fiber and promote the growth of healthy bacteria. Furthermore, increasing the number of whole grains and foods rich in polyphenols, a plant compound found in red wine, green tea, dark chocolate, and olive oil, provides essential fiber and beneficial carbs and stimulates the growth of healthy bacteria.
Fermented foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, and kefir naturally contain elevated levels of healthy bacteria and can actively reduce the amount of disease-causing species in the gut. Some evidence found that artificial sweeteners, like aspartame, can cause elevated blood sugar by supporting the growth of unhealthy bacteria.
New mothers should try to breastfeed for at least six months if possible. Breastfeeding plays a critical role in the development of gut microbiomes in newborns. Children who have breastfed for at least six months benefit from higher levels of healthy bacteria than bottle-fed children.
Finally, antibiotics kill harmful bacteria that cause sickness and illness but also kill good bacteria in the process, which can contribute to weight gain and antibiotic resistance. Many health experts recommend only taking antibiotics when medically necessary for a limited period of time.
Image Credit: depositphotos.com
