Why Does Healthy Gut Bacteria Matter?
Hi, and welcome back to our channel.
Today we're going to talk about the connection between our gut bacteria and our gut microbiome,
As well as does gut bacteria matter for your overall health,
And how can you maintain healthy gut bacteria and how can you keep a healthy gut microbiome?
We'll also discuss the common factors that disrupt our gut bacteria and how we end up with an unhealthy gut microbiome.
[Video Transcript Below Video - it is the same information]
But before we begin, my name is Marcie Vaske, and I'm a licensed nutritionist with Oswald Digestive Clinic.
At Oswald Digestive Clinic. I see a lot of people who struggle with gut health, and if you are struggling with gut health, I'm going to link our website HERE where you can easily make an initial appointment.
I will also link our free guide HERE, which is five Ways to Improve Your Gut Health.
So now let's dig back into our topic, which is:
Why does a healthy gut bacteria matter?
And working at a digestive health clinic, I'm always interested and fascinated with the world of gut health.
If we don't have a healthy gut microbiome, we oftentimes will end up with symptoms that are random, sporadic, not knowing where they came from, but how much of that has to do with your actual gut microbiome?
So first, to kick it off,
What is gut bacteria and what does it really mean for your health?
So gut bacteria makes up our gut microbiome, which is made up of trillions of different organisms. Now, these bacteria along with fungus and also even viruses, cohabitate in our microbiome, which make up what keeps us healthy and what keeps our gut clicking along.
And you may have heard of your gut, also known as a second brain, because also our gut connects to our brain health and our mental health.
And keeping a healthy gut microbiome having good bacteria in there specifically is what we're going to talk about today, keeps your overall wellbeing much better.
So what is the connection between gut bacteria and our gut microbiome? Oftentimes, you'll hear these two terms used interchangeably.
Now while we're going to discuss mostly gut bacteria today, our gut microbiome really does encompass our entire intestinal tract and helps what really keeps us going well, this diverse community of little microorganisms that live in our gut help to keep our functions running smoothly and it impacts our overall wellbeing as well as our mental health.
Why does gut bacteria matter for our overall health?
Gut bacteria really plays a vital role, and we're going to go through a few of those topics.
First and foremost, our gut bacteria helps to support our digestion and absorption of our nutrients. So as you intake food, it breaks it down into usable parts for the rest of our body, helping us to absorb our carbohydrates, our proteins, our lipids, our fats, as well as then using those nutrients as vitamins and minerals to help support the rest of our body.
Having a good amount of healthy gut bacteria also helps to support our immune system.
Roughly 85% of our immune system is in our intestinal tract. So by having healthy gut bacteria that helps keep the possibility of autoimmune disorders at a much lower rate and helping your immune system stay strong so you can bolster through this upcoming winter, we're going to be going through healthy gut bacteria also helps to support our mental health.
We make 90% of our neurotransmitters in our intestinal tract and neurotransmitters are things such as serotonin and dopamine, and those are made in our intestinal tract and are then relayed to our brain to help support anxiety or depression.
ADHD and such healthy gut bacteria also helps to support our weight. And the way it does that is by helping to support our energy balance and our metabolism. It also helps to regulate where we store certain nutrients as well as how we burn fat.
And lastly, a healthy gut bacteria also helps to reduce chronic disease and chronic disease.
Things like type two diabetes or even heart disease, things like different kinds of cancers, those are all going to be better.
You're going to be at a lower risk if you have a better gut microbiome or gut bacteria. So by going through a few of these, it helps you understand how important our gut bacteria is to our overall wellbeing. So now the question is:
How to get healthy gut bacteria?
And we talk about many of these things on various videos that we do, and one of 'em obviously that I would talk about because I'm a nutritionist, is your diet getting a diverse amount of fruits, vegetables, healthy proteins, healthy carbohydrates, healthy fats is all going to support a healthier bacteria environment in your gut. Now, by adding in all of these healthy foods, we will obviously hopefully limit processed foods and sugars.
A lot of processed foods packaged are high in sugar, and sugar can very easily disrupt our gut bacteria, creating a unhealthy environment. And this may be where issues or symptoms start beginning. Now, another way to keep your gut as healthy as possible is limiting or really reducing the amount of antibiotics.
Now of course, antibiotics are needed when they're needed, but taking them just more routinely or often, meaning let's say you're getting some UTIs or getting ear infections, trying to get more to the root cause of why you keep getting the UTIs versus just taking antibiotics, really reducing that amount of medication can be helpful.
Like I said, if you need them, you need them. But by every time we take an antibiotic, we're really reducing our bacteria in our gut, and I think it's roughly, it kills 100 billion bacteria per day. So really trying to stay away from those if you don't need 'em.
Now, another thing that does impact our gut bacteria is stress.
Chronic stress is going to cause many issues in our body, but definitely it disrupts our gut microbiome. So finding ways to relax, finding 15 minutes to just do something for yourself, really striving not to overdo things in terms of saying yes to everything if you don't have the time.
So thinking about not only what you put in your body, but also what is affecting you outside. And lastly, a great way to keep your gut bacteria healthy is going to be getting plenty of sleep. We know that the best average for an adult is seven to nine hours per night.
And so really kind of honing in your sleep routine, sticking to a certain bedtime, and of course waking up roughly the same time the next morning. This amount of sleep that you get is going to be very helpful as your gut is doing a lot of work while you're sleeping as well as the rest of your organs.
So keeping a healthy gut microbiome again, not only has to do with what you put in your body, but how do you treat your body?
So I talked about how food is very important to keep a healthy gut microbiome or gut bacteria.
What are some specific gut-healthy foods?
Number one is fiber rich foods.
And you're going to find that in your fruits, in your vegetables, of course, even in different kinds of grains, we'll have some fiber in that, and fiber can really set the stage for keeping your bowel movements happening on a daily basis.
As well as feeding our short chain fatty acids would help to support the integrity of our intestinal tract. So it's not that you have to over fiber, but just making sure that you have fruits and vegetables in your life, in your daily meal plan, and that will really support gut bacteria.
Also, things like fermented foods really support our gut bacteria as well.
Fermented foods like keefer yogurts, full fat, plain yogurt is going to be best sauerkraut. Also, things like miso, those types of foods are going to help to support good bacteria because they have probiotic or healthy flora in them.
So incorporating those either daily or a few times a week into your routine is really going to be beneficial. Now, there's always things as well as the polyphenol rich foods and those types of foods are like berries or green tea or even dark chocolate.
They're really rich in polyphenols, which helps to support our gut bacteria.
And of course, there's going to be healthy fats and specifically omega fish oil or omega fatty acids. Now you can find that those types of foods that are highest or most abundant is going to be fatty fish. So salmon, macro sardines, you're going to find a nice amount of omega threes in that as well as even in flax seeds.
So again, incorporating this into your weekly plan of diet is going to give you the best opportunity to have a healthy gut.
And lastly, to keep your gut healthy is, I already said this earlier, but really getting rid of those processed packaged foods.
They do nothing but trouble for our gut bacteria.
So with the first part of everything I talked about in terms of foods and getting enough sleep and adding in fiber rich foods and all of the things that are going to support healthy bacteria,
If you have an unhealthy bacteria or microbiome, what might you be feeling?
And sometimes what pops up, number one you can guess is digestive issues.
Digestive issues really come from an imbalance, gut microbiome that creates bloating or gas or constipation or diarrhea or various other symptoms.
There's also going to be a poor immune system. Like I said earlier, having a healthy gut microbiome is going to keep you at a lower risk for autoimmune.
But if it's impacted by a poor diet or not getting enough sleep or just a lot of stress, you may end up with a poor immune system where you're just getting sick more often than you should be.
And also, mental health. Mental health is huge when in connection to gut health. So by having an unhealthy gut microbiome, you oftentimes will see people who struggle more with anxiety or depression, A DHD, and things of that nature because they're low in neurotransmitters.
Also, having an imbalance, gut microbiome is going to put you at a greater risk for chronic disease and even weight gain or obesity.
So just to wrap everything up,
Why does having healthy gut bacteria matter?
And I think you've, as I've gone through this video, I think you realize how important having a healthy gut really is. It is impactful on so many different ways within our body and many things that I didn't even discuss today.
Sometimes if we have a gut unhealthy gut microbiome, we're going to see little symptoms other places, our skin, our joints. So just thinking about, okay, how can I make that change to have a healthy gut or to really put more emphasis on better bacteria in your gut?
And I would say stick to a really healthy diet full of fruits and vegetables and proteins and carbs and healthy fats, as well as getting enough sleep and reducing your stress.
I hope that helped give you some more tools in your toolkit to help you stay healthy with a healthy gut.
Thanks for watching.
If you'd like to explore any of this information further or obtain an individualized nutrition plan, you can schedule an initial appointment at our clinic. We also take insurance and some of our clients get full coverage, which is great.
Or you can just start by downloading our FREE GUIDE: 5 WAYS TO IMPROVE GUT HEALTH
