The ultimate guide to good gut health
Why is gut health important?
One of the main reasons gut health is important is because it directly affects health throughout the body. In this article, I will explain how you can identify poor gut health and improve your gut health naturally using foods and natural remedies. Good health is not just about the foods we choose to put on our forks. Rather than “we are what we eat” in fact, our health may depend on how well we digest our food. This article will help you assess your digestion. And how to improve it if necessary.
What are the signs of an unhealthy gut?
Answering yes to several of the following questions could suggest that you need to heal your gut:
- do you have diarrhoea or constipation that occurs most of the time?
- is bloating a common symptom for you and does this occur especially after a meal?
- do you frequently have heartburn, excessive belching, or food that “repeats”?
- have you ever had stomach pain or abdominal cramps after eating?
- does your stool contain undigested food?
- do you frequently have flatulence or wind?
- do you feel discomfort on the right, upper abdomen, just under the ribs, especially after eating fatty foods?
- is nausea a common symptom for you?
- do you suffer from rectal itching?
- is there the sensation of food lingering in your stomach?
- do you suspect that certain foods are the cause of your symptoms?
These are all signs of an unhealthy gut but did you know that poor gut health can cause problems in other parts of the body? Less obvious signs of an unhealthy gut include headaches, joint pain, fatigue, skin rashes or itching, sinus congestion, unexplained changes in weight and food intolerances. Psoriasis, acne and eczema are typical examples where the underlying cause can often be a problem with digestion.
The importance of good gut health and digestion is a central focus in ancient healing traditions such as herbal medicine. Now, scientific research confirms the role that gut health has in many conditions. It seems that Hippocrates may have been right when he said “All disease begins in the gut.”
Find out what can go wrong with the digestive system?
Gut Health Testing
Do you want to know why you have a history of digestive problems such as irritable bowel syndrome? Stool testing can help. I can provide and analyse a number of functional lab tests to identify and assess the underlying cause. As a patient of mine, you can benefit from the substantial discount that I offer on lab testing kits.
The digestive tract and digestion
Briefly, the digestive tract is a long hollow tube extending from the mouth to the anus. However, it is more than just a neat and simple tube. In fact, it’s shape is complicated and it’s workings complex. For ease of describing the different areas, we can break down the parts of the digestive tract. For instance, the mouth, throat, oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, rectum and anus. Plus, there are several organs that are not part of the digestive system but have important roles in digestion. Such as the salivary glands, pancreas, liver and gallbladder.
The gut-brain connection
The gut is richly supplied with a network of nerves, often called the enteric brain. This gut-brain connection explains a lot about why emotions can affect our digestion. In fact, this is a good example of why the body should be viewed holistically rather than as individual parts. Traditional medicine systems have always known the importance of considering a holistic view. Taking account of mind, body and spirit, rather than focussing on just one part of the body.
The digestive process is complex. It requires a great deal of communication between various organs to ensure the whole process goes smoothly. Much of the process is under the control of hormones. Special substances made within the digestive tract and also by ancillary organs. The timing of the release of these substances can be crucial.
Digestion breaks down our food into nutrients our bodies can use. But, the digestive tract has another important role. It provides a major barrier that protects us from harmful substances that we consume with our food or drinks.
The digestive process
Yet, digestion actually begins before we put food in our mouths. Have you ever noticed that just thinking about food starts your mouth watering? Saliva production increases in readiness for the arrival of food. Saliva is full of enzymes that start the process of breaking down your food. Adequate chewing is probably the best thing you can do to help your digestion.
Stomach
Once we swallow food it travels down the oesophagus to the stomach. Here it mixes with more enzymes as well as stomach acid. This acidic environment is very important to the digestive process. An acid pH helps the enzymes to work properly to break down your food.
The stomach churns the food with the digestive juices, breaking it down into a semi-liquid form. But, its not just the consistency of the food that is changing. Churning ensures the food breaks down into smaller and smaller particles.
Small intestine
When food leaves the stomach it enters the small intestine. This is the major site for digestion and absorption of nutrients. Digestive organs secrete substances to aid the process. Digestive enzymes from the pancreas and bile from the liver and gallbladder enter the small intestine. These substances help to further break down food particles for absorption. The small intestine lining is made of special cells with frond-like projections called microvilli. The large numbers of microvilli create a huge surface area. Which provides more opportunity for the tiny particles to pass through the gut lining and into the bloodstream.
Food moves through the intestines with a wave-like motion. Which is controlled by the nervous system. After a while what remains of the food, mainly fibrous material enters the large intestine.
Sometimes, bacteria that are usually found in the large intestine can multiply in the small intestine causing bacterial overgrowth. Find out more about small intestine bacterial growth, SIBO.
Large intestine
We once thought that the large intestine was there to simply reabsorb water from the gut back into the body. Now we know that it contains a huge colony of microbes that have an impact on our health. Microbes turn this fibrous material into beneficial substances for themselves and for us. In fact, this microbial population is currently a huge area of research. In particular, the role that a healthy and diverse population of gut microbes has on our health.
We have at least the same number of microbes in our gut as the number of cells that form our body. Or perhaps more. Importantly these microbes collectively contain a huge number of genes. A number that vastly outnumbers our own genes. This is important because genes provide instructions for cells. Telling them what to do and when to do it. Just like different people have different genes, so do the microbes. So the population of gut microbes can influence our health.
Find out more: What is a microbiome
The final part of the healthy digestive process is the evacuation of the stool, at least on a daily basis. Ideally this should be a smooth and easy elimination, but all too often it is not.
So, what can go wrong with digestion?
Inadequate digestion is incredibly common and probably underlies many of the modern, common chronic inflammatory conditions.
Generally, problems with digestion occur due to issues with the structure or function of a part of the digestive system. Such as inadequate production of digestive juices. Or, a structural problem such as a hiatal hernia.
Functional problems might be caused by eating meals too quickly, and not taking the time to chew food properly. This makes the whole process of digestion more difficult and can often lead to indigestion. I can’t emphasise enough the importance of taking your time with meals, savouring the thought of the meal to come, and chewing food properly.
Eating in a stressful environment can wreak havoc on digestion. Not only does this translate into reduced production of digestive juices but the smooth and rhythmic movement of the gut that transports food through the intestine can be disrupted, leading to constipation or diarrhoea.
Digestion can also weaken with age, primarily due to a reduced production of digestive juices. But, medications can also play a part in this.
In Chinese medicine regularly eating cold foods like salad and ice cream is not advised. The stomach should be thought of as a cauldron, with a gentle fire, cooking and breaking down the food. Cold foods can dampen this fire and impede the digestive process. It’s certainly true that cold, raw food is harder to digest than cooked food, as the cooking process itself helps to start the breaking down of food.
The gut as a barrier
As well as digestion, the other important function of the digestive tract is to provide protection from harmful microbes or noxious substances that might enter the body with food. So, the lining of the digestive tract has to be able to allow the passage of nutrients through, whilst keeping out anything that might cause harm. The one cell think lining of the digestive tract is designed to do just that. Particles can travel through the cells or between the cells, and the body has ways to regulate each route.
However, the incredibly thin lining of the digestive tract is vulnerable to damage. Loss of microvilli greatly reduces the absorptive capacity of the gut, which can result in nutrient deficiencies. Damage to individual cells means that narrow spaces between cells can turn into relatively large gaps making the gut lining more ‘leaky’ than usual.
In fact there are many factors that can increase a leaky gut, otherwise known as increased intestinal permeability. Large gaps between cells means the body is less able to regulate the passage of particles from the gut to the bloodstream. With larger gaps between cells, larger particles or food fragments can penetrate the lining and surrounding tissues.
The immune system is our inbuilt defence mechanism against foreign or harmful material. So, to protect the body from potential harm via the digestive tract, a large proportion of immune system tissue lies between the gut barrier and the bloodstream. The immune cells ’sample’ the flow of particles from the gut and can respond to potential threats by triggering an inflammatory reaction.
If the inflammation becomes a chronic situation this may lead to inflammation in other parts of the body. This process may play a role in many, if not all autoimmune conditions.
See Can a leaky gut make you ill?
What can be done?
For healthy digestion, we need to ensure we have the optimal level of stomach acid, digestive enzymes and other secretions. Herbalists in particular pay attention to liver health, and adequate production of bile.
The good news is that most common problems of digestion are easily resolved by changes in diet, lifestyle and/or habits.
Things to limit or eliminate
Common culprits that we can address include alcohol, tobacco and stress. Alcohol is an irritant to the digestive system and should be kept to a minimum. Likewise, the tar in tobacco is an irritant, and nicotine can promote ulceration of the digestive tract or slow healing of the gut lining.
Stress and anxiety can have a huge impact on digestion via the gut-brain axis. Learning ways to manage stress can make a tremendous difference to digestive conditions.
Medications that suppress stomach acid
Age-related changes in the production of digestive juices, especially reductions in stomach acid production, all too often lead to symptoms. And, these symptoms are very similar to those of having too much stomach acid. This is a common reason for taking medication for suppressing stomach acid when in fact the opposite might be more appropriate.
See How can too much and too little stomach acid have the same symptoms?
or, Home remedies for heartburn
If we suspect a leaky gut we can take steps to heal and strengthen the intestinal lining. We can also improve the balance of microbes in the gut.
See my series of posts on improving digestion, starting with Optimise your digestive health.
There are also some ways to improve digestion with herbal remedies.
See Improve your digestion with bitters
or, Improve fat digestion with herbs
Probiotics, prebiotics and gut health
Our intestines contain trillions of microbes. Research shows us that our health and wellbeing relies on these microbes. In fact the greater the number and diversity of species of microbes the better.
However, not all gut microbes are friendly. Some microbes can cause disease, whilst other species of microbes can be harmful if their numbers are not kept in check by friendly species.
We can temporarily influence the balance of our gut microbes by taking probiotic supplements or by eating fermented foods. However, research shows that once we stop taking a probiotic supplement our gut microbe population returns to its previous state. In fact, there are only two ways to permanently improve the balance of the gut microbe population – by feeding your microbes with prebiotic foods, or by having a faecal transplant.
See Probiotics and prebiotics – what are they? and what’s the difference?
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So, are you happy with your irritable bowel syndrome treatment? If the answer is no, and you want to work with someone who can help, let’s have a chat.
Book a free call with me and say hello. Let me explain how I can help. If it turns out we are not a match there is no obligation to go any further.
Find all my irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) articles here.