Your gut health is crucial for your overall well-being. Did you know 100 trillion bacteria, both unhealthy and healthy, live in your digestive system? This is known as gut microbiota and it greatly influences and improves your overall physical health.
Your gut health is crucial for your overall well-being. It is involved in different metabolic functions and can get adversely affected by regular and excessive consumption of gluten, sugar, highly processed foods, antibiotics along too much stress.
It’s no wonder why we need to take good care of our gut and heal it to heal ourselves.
Gut health is more important than you think
Your gut microbiome has a crucial role to play when it comes to your health. Not only does it help to manage digestion and improve your immune system, your gut also contributes to various other aspects of your health. An imbalance of good and bad microbes in your intestines can lead to high cholesterol, high blood sugar, weight gain, and other disorders.
Basic gastrointestinal and microbiome problems like candida overgrowth, leaky gut syndrome, and SIBO usually lead to every health problem we face in this modern day.
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Why you need to be concerned
Around 80% of your immune tissue is in your digestive system. It means a healthy gut is a determining factor for a healthy immune system.
Furthermore, an unhealthy gut can result in many issues like –
- Cancer
- Autoimmune conditions
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Fatigue
- Weight gain
- Type 2 diabetes
- Inflammatory bowel diseases
- Heart disease
- Arthritis
Some of the most common symptoms of an unhealthy gut include-
- Acid reflux
- Diarrhea
- Constipation
- Bloating
- Stomach pain
- Irritable bowel syndrome
However, the absence of such common signs does not imply that you have a healthy gut. The fact is underlying gut problems most often don’t have any noticeable gut symptoms. Almost 22% of individuals facing gut problems can damage their small intestines significantly without experiencing any gastrointestinal symptoms.
If you think just because you have a normal bowel movement, you don’t have any gut issues then you couldn’t be more wrong. Regardless, practicing gut-friendly habits is important if you are concerned about your gut health.
Healthy gut means a healthy body
If you’re wondering if your gut is unhealthy and how long it takes for your gut to heal, then you’re in luck. But first, we need to understand our gut a little more. The surface area of the human gut is about 300 square meters. If you decided to spread your gut around it would cover an entire tennis court. These court-spanning gut-lining cells inside you are known as enterocytes which are regenerating themselves continually.
According to research, a typical healthy gut can regenerate into a completely new gut lining every 2 to 3 weeks. However, if your gut is not that healthy then it could take from 2 weeks to 12 weeks to heal completely considering you’re a healthy person without any inflammatory health issues, food sensitivities, autoimmune conditions, or other chronic conditions.
A Harvard study, published in Nature – a medical journal, observed that significant improvement in gut bacteria occurs actively within just 3 days after changing diet.
This clearly goes to show the impact of the food we consume and how diet can affect our health directly. If you take enough effort to change your diet & lifestyle, you will have better gastrointestinal function, less bloating, a balanced weight, better energy, and clearer skin. It may also improve various conditions like autoimmune diseases, anxiety, and depression, migraines, eczema, allergies, and asthma.
However, as most of us have some health issues, improving your gut health becomes a more complicated and difficult process.
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Gut healing can be considerably slower if you have any of the following conditions:
- Leaky gut syndrome
- Chronic inflammation
- SIBO
- Chronic viral infections
- Histamine intolerance
- Lyme disease
- Adrenal fatigue
- Candida overgrowth
- Autoimmune conditions
- Blood sugar issues
The good news is that when your gut manages enough time to completely heal itself, you will experience better health and well-being.
How to heal your gut
If you wish to improve your gut health, then one of the best ways to heal your unhealthy gut is to follow the ‘4 R’s of Gut Healing’ approach. This process is highly effective and takes a significant amount of perseverance, commitment, and time.
Let us take a closer look at the details of the 4 R approach and how you can utilize it:
1. Remove
Remove all factors that affect your gastrointestinal (GI) tract negatively and lead to symptoms like candida overgrowth, food sensitivities, stress, and parasites. You need to cut out foods elements like eggs, soy, corn, dairy, gluten, yeast, caffeine, alcohol, and drugs from your diet.
2. Restore
Replace and restore all elements that your gut may be lacking like digestive enzymes, stomach acid, and nutrients. You can improve your inflammation and intestinal repair responses by including HCL and digestive enzymes in your diet. This will also improve nutrient absorption, digestion, and deal with nutrient deficiencies.
A nutrient-rich diet consisting of a lot of fruits, vegetables, organic leafy greens, high-quality proteins, and healthy fats is recommended.
3. Reinoculate
Reintroduce good bacteria to your gut and maintain a healthy balance through a high potency, multi-strain, and high-quality probiotic supplement. It also helps to provide nutrients and support the development of the right organisms. This can significantly help in improving gut health.
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4. Repair
In this final step of the process, you need to repair your gut lining. For this phase of the healing process, you need to give exceptional importance to your diet and health supplements recommended by a healthcare professional. You can use supplements like Zinc, Vitamins A, C, and L-Glutamine for repairing your intestinal tract lining.
Habits to boost your gut health
Wondering what are the steps for optimal digestive health?
Here are 7 excellent habits that you need to practice to develop a healthy gut:
1. Drink water when you wake up
The first thing you need to do in the morning is wake your gut up by drinking a glass of warm water with lemon. This will help your gut to get prepared for the day ahead. Acid production in the stomach is stimulated by the lemon’s acidity which makes your system secrete bile.
2. Make sure to drink kombucha
What’s kombucha? It’s a fermented drink made with yeast and bacteria mixed with green or black tea and sugar. Due to its fermentation, this drink is filled with probiotics that help to boost immune function and digestion. However, you need to ensure that you consume kombucha in moderation as too much of it can adversely affect your gut.
3. Eat sugar-free Greek yogurt
If you want a healthy gut then immediately replace normal yogurt with Greek yogurt of the sugar-free variety. Regular yogurt is usually packed with added sugar and contains little live bacteria. In fact, normal yogurt is not good for your gut.
Greek yogurt without any added sugar is a better way to boost the health of your gut. Greek yogurt includes probiotics, calcium, Vitamin B-12, potassium, and protein which heals all stomach problems and improves the immune system. It is also a great idea to add some fruits with a lot of fiber to your yogurt.
4. Workout
Regular exercise can help a great deal to promote a wide range of gut microbiota. According to studies, after around 6 weeks of regular exercise, with 30 to 40 minutes of cardiovascular training 3 days a week, people tend to experience a noticeable boost in gut microbes.
It helps in the formation of short-chain fatty acids that lower the risk of heart disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and inflammatory diseases. However, your gut microbiomes will get back to how they were if you stop exercising.
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5. Eat mindfully
Whenever you are eating a meal, make sure your mind is calm and you chew properly. Mindful eating can help with overall well-being and help your gut to digest food easily. It is best to eat when your body is at rest.
Moreover, you should take around 20 chews per bite. When you eat on the go, your body primarily focuses on diverting energy to various bodily functions and away from digestion.
6. Avoid alcohol
Drinking too much alcohol can be unhealthy for your gut as it will kill good bacteria and completely alter the pattern of your digestion. However, when you drink red wine in moderation and in small doses, it can help to boost good bacteria in your gut. Moreover, it also promotes a healthy gut and reduces the amount of harmful bacteria.
7. Consume a variety of foods
Eating different types of food can help you develop a healthy gut with a flourishing and diverse flora in your gut. Eating foods like whole grains, vegetables and fruits can be a great idea as different foods comprise of different nutrients that aid in bacteria growth. A diverse diet encourages the growth of a variety of bacteria in your gut.
Signs your gut health is improving
Once you put in the effort, give the commitment and follow these strategies, your gut will become a lot healthier and function optimally. But how can you know if your gut is actually healing? Although there are some lab tests that you can do to diagnose leaky gut, there are some basic and simple symptoms that can give you a clear idea if your gut is healthy or not.
Here are a few signs that your gut is healing and that you are doing it right:
1. No more digestive problems
As your gut starts to heal some of the common signs of a leaky gut like constipation, acid reflux, heartburn, bloating, and gas start to disappear. Although a lack of these symptoms doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have a leaky gut, it is still a good sign that your gut is healing.
2. Skin gets better
Skin issues like acne, rashes, eczema, dandruff, and rosacea, are some of the most common symptoms of an unhealthy gut. When these outward manifestations of internal issues start to clear up, it means your gut is repairing.
3. Food sensitivities disappear
When your digestive problems, mood issues, headaches, and fatigue start to disappear, it means your gut health is improving. It is important that you keep eating healthy food and consume a wide variety of food items. This will help you keep your gut repaired in the long run.
4. You feel better
When you are generally healthy and your body is working efficiently then it is an indication of a healthy gut. You will feel energetic and experience a good dose of stamina and vitality. You will also have a lot more mental clarity with a better mood. Moreover, your weight will also become ideal.
5. Autoimmune results get better
Your immune system is greatly influenced by the health of your gut. When your gut health improves, you will see a drastic improvement in your autoimmune lab results.
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A healthy gut is the key
Just like every other vital organ, the health of your gut is crucial for your physical and mental health and overall well-being. As you start healing your gut, you will experience a lot of changes and see signs of improvement during the process. It’s okay if you have some setbacks as long as you get right back on track as soon as you can.
Remember that improving your gut health, and developing a healthy gut requires effort, commitment, and patience. It is not something that will happen overnight. So it is crucial that you follow the strategies mentioned here and stick to a diverse and healthy diet to live a long and healthy life.
As your health will get restored, it will all be worth it in the end.
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