Words like “gut feeling” and “gut instinct” are used at one time or another to describe why we made confident choices based on something other than cold hard facts. This way, we credit our gut with a decisive role in life – and for a good reason.
Scientists and doctors know that our gut can be at the very heart of our health. An exciting aspect of the gut is that it isn’t only referring to the stomach. Your gut starts in the mouth, down the throat, down the esophagus, right into the stomach, and all through the intestinal tracts and out the other end.
Having a healthy gut means that you have a good balance of good and bad bacteria in the lining of your gut. Just because you hear the word bacteria and connect it with a bad thing, it doesn’t necessarily mean being true for gut health.
Bacteria is mandatory to eat up what is no longer required in the body itself. That said, have you ever wondered about having some underlying gut issues that might be damaging your health?
Here is the list of potential health issues caused by an unhealthy gut:
Autoimmune Illnesses
There is loads of evidence that the gut impacts autoimmune diseases. For instance, certain autoimmune diseases result from an unhealthy gut, such as psoriasis, Hashimoto’s disease, and celiac disease.
It is believed that an unhealthy gut produces systemic inflammation in different parts of the body, which causes autoimmune problems. Nonetheless, by controlling some of the gut issues, you might curb other parts of your body affected by an unhealthy gut, decreasing any autoimmune condition.
Weight Fluctuations
Weight fluctuations – either gaining weight or losing weight can be a potential sign of some issues inside your gut – or an unhealthy gut. Usually, a really imbalanced gut microbiome can alter how you absorb certain nutrients. It can also change the way your blood sugars are and ultimately affect and change your energy level as well.
All of this can, in turn, affect how much weight you actually gain or lose. An unhealthy gut can induce different problems, such as insulin resistance or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, which can change your gut microbiome, subsequently causing changes in your weight.
Skin Irritation
When it comes to an unhealthy gut and subsequent issues, there is a lot happening – we are referring to eczema, acne, and dry skin. All of these different types of skin irritation can signify a leaky gut or inflammation going on inside your gut.
Specific food allergies can also increase the chances of a leaky gut, which in turn can lead to skin irritation.
Gut Issues
When it comes to gut issues, there are loads of causes, such as bloating, pain, constipation, diarrhea, distension, etc. You get the idea – things are just not going through very well. All these symptoms are widespread signs of a condition known as irritable bowel syndrome.
For many people, this means a change in the gut microbiome, which is why one might benefit from a gut microbiome analysis service. Simply put, having an unhealthy gut means that you have poor gut health issues, as we mentioned before.
Brain Fog
Another potential sign that you have an unhealthy gut is brain fog. Brain fog can feel like you are not really there – you know what is going on, but you just don’t feel like yourself. Brain fog can usually be due to something going on inside your gut.
It might be caused by certain foods that don’t sit well with your gut and might cause a condition known as celiac disease.
Sleep Issues
Another potential sign that you have an unhealthy gut has something to do with your sleep. We refer to sleep disturbance or the consistent feeling of fatigue and tiredness. Scientists have discovered more and more evidence that loads of sleep issues can be related to one’s gut health.
The underlying reason can be an imbalance of your gut microbiomes, such as an excess of harmful bacteria or a lack of good bacteria. It could also be some bad fungus or some sort of changes going on inside the gastrointestinal tract.
It is essential to know that the vast majority of your body’s serotonin (a sleep hormone) is produced in your gut.
That said, if your gut isn’t working correctly, those signals will not be present – or the signals could be too much and subsequently cause issues with sleep and fatigue.
There is loads of research that shows that a healthy digestive system is not just a cornerstone of physical wellbeing but also impacts our mental health. We know that serotonin is our happiness hormone, and serotonin is produced in the gut.
So, another good reason to keep the gut healthy is to keep yourself mentally healthy – in other words, to keep your moods healthy.
Food intolerance
If you have ever had problems eating certain foods, where you might have gotten a lot of gas, bloating, distension – perhaps, constipation and diarrhea as well; this condition has nothing to do with food allergy, but it might instead be a food intolerance.
The most common food intolerance is gluten. Nonetheless, food intolerance can be due to the poor quality of your gut microbiome, making it more difficult for your GI tract to digest certain foods.
These food intolerances can lead to loads of unhealthy gut issues, such as bloating, nausea, diarrhea, and gas.
Maintain a Good Balance of Good & Bad Bacteria
For better gut health, the idea is to maintain a good balance of good and bad in your gut. Apart from what is being ingested internally, external factors also impact your gut health.
For instance, stress plays a big part in your gut health.
We are always living under a low level of stress, and our cortisol levels are up while our adrenal glands are out of balance. The truth is that our bodies are not designed to handle that kind of stress because people are under a lot of stress and haven’t learned the means to deal with stress – which upsets their gut health.
The good news is that gut health is often readily attainable by simply integrating the right diet and lifestyle choices.
