Gut Health: Eating Habits, Stress, How to Tackle the Discomfort
Hear Sydney Hummell, Owner of Wellness 360 talk Gut health, business, lifestyle, and eating habits @ https://www.teamironalliance.com/podcast-1/episode/6a0f97b1/gut-health-with-sydney-hummel-owner-of-wellness-360
Why is Gut Health Important?
When we talk about gut health, we’re talking about your gut microbiome. Your body is full of trillions of bacteria, fungi, & viruses. Collectively- these make up your microbiome. While some bacteria are associated with illness & disease, others are crucial to have in order to maintain optimal health of your immune system, weight, heart, & many more.
Your gut microbiome begins to affect your body the moment you’re born, starting in the birthing process & continues to play an important role through the entirety of your life. Everything we ingest, the emotions we feel, are all linked to your gut. This article will dive into the different ways your gut health is affected and how to help yourself keep your microbiome in optimal health & comfort.
Signs of Poor Gut Health
Your gut is essentially your second brain, you’ve probably heard the quote “trust your gut” & that isn’t just metaphorical. Your brain & gut are connected by an extensive network of neurons, chemicals, & hormones. When your gut is out of balance it is easy for many other parts of your body to become out of balance as well. Signs of poor gut health include:
Skin Issues/irritation
Stomach discomfort
Excessive bloating
Sleep disturbances/sleep fatigue
Autoimmune conditions
Unintentional weight shifts
Food cravings- especially sweets & sugars
Anxiousness
Mood swings
Frequent infections
Foods + Stomach Discomfort & Inflammation
The foods we eat are perhaps one of the largest factors to our gut health. Overeating can cause discomfort, but so can eating even small amounts of certain foods. Processed foods are the norm these days, not making it any easier for your body to digest and take in all the essential nutrients you need. Foods that would otherwise offer us their own added enzymes to help our bodies absorb more nutrients are increasingly processed, heated for extended shelf life and stripped of vital elements. Other poor eating habits and even the normal aging process can also contribute to inhibiting a healthy digestive process. This means as we get older, our bodies now need to work harder to absorb essential nutrients to keep us healthy and functioning. You may notice you experience more discomfort after eating heavily processed foods & foods containing grains- this is because your body on its own typically can not properly break down the food & digest it correctly.
Stress + Your Microbiomes
Most people know that foods can trigger poor gut health but what about stress? Just thinking about life’s deadlines, obligations, & events can leave your stomach in knots- But do you know why? Too much stress directly affects the delicate balance of your microbiomes. Living a busy life often leads to constant degrees of stomach discomfort. Alongside that, roughly 80 to 90 percent of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that affects mood, social behavior, sleep, appetite, memory, and even libido, is produced in the gut. When less serotonin is produced, it can negatively impact mood. “Gut imbalances of the microbiome can trigger depressive symptoms,” says Todd LePine, MD, a board-certified physician at the UltraWellness Center in Lenox, Massachusetts.
New research now shows that daily stress can negatively affect any bacteria in your gut, do you understand why? One way this occurs is when elevated stress levels cause your brain to enter a state called flight-or-fight mode. This impacts the blood flow to your gut which is why you may remember experiencing a poorer digestive and immune health during periods of your life when you’ve been overly stressed!
The Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology also published a recent study showing that consistent stress can alter the amount and diversity of your good gut flora, but a healthy balance and quantity of flora helps maintain a barrier keeping unhealthy intruders at bay. When these microbes are weakened, you can become more susceptible to illness, exhaustion, and nutritional deficiencies.
How to Heal the Gut
Some things, such as, water & air quality, are out of our control when it comes to protecting our gut health. Luckily, there are many things that we can do to keep our microbiomes happy & healthy.
Take a Probiotic Supplement- Taking a daily probiotic can help replenish & support healthy gut & bacteria! Taking a probiotic will not only aid in digestion but give your bacteria a healthy balance as well. It is important when shopping for a probiotic to look for a product with high CFU’s & several strains of bacteria. Probiotics-10 also defends against the effects of stomach acid during digestion with BIO-tract®. Probiotics may become ineffective when they meet stomach acid during the digestive process. Meaning, when you take a probiotic supplement, the number of viable strains and CFUs may be greatly reduced by the time they are absorbed into the body. BIO-tract® protects probiotic organisms from stomach acid on their way to the intestinal tract, supporting a significantly higher percentage of organisms to reach the intestine alive.
Get More Sleep- Science shows that there is a direct link between not getting enough sleep and a negative effect on your microbiome health. What can you do about this? Get more sleep of course! Taking an hour away from screens before bed has been shown to improve sleep quality as well as reducing caffeine & sugar consumption in later parts of the day. However, if you still find your mind racing, then try adding Isotonix Essentials Turn Down to your night time routine!
Lower your Stress Level- Easier said than done, right? Being conscious of your stress load helps you to best manage it as well. Although it’s nearly impossible to eliminate all stressors from your life doing things to manage your stress like, working out, avoiding caffeine, praying/meditating, & practicing mindfulness & gratitude may make a large difference in how your body responds to your stress load.
Change Your Diet- Highly processed & sugary foods are not only bad for your gut health- but your skin & waistline too! Adjusting your diet to avoid or reduce the amount of processed & sugary foods plays a crucial role in the health of your gut bacteria. What we eat fuels our bodies, but the amount of work our gut bacteria has to do to break down the foods varies greatly, based on the food choices we make. By filling your body with foods that are tough to break down, you inhibit the body’s ability to correctly digest all foods.
Digestive Enzymes- Digestive enzymes are designed to provide your body with enzymes & good bacteria to promote the absorption of nutrients. Do you often have stomach discomfort or bloating after a meal? Digestive Enzymes work to alleviate the discomfort & bloating faster by helping your body break down food & utilize the complete spectrum of nutrients in the food that you eat.
Cleanse/Detox- Doing a cleanse/detox is a fast way to clean out your gut and start from “ground zero”. This is especially ideal for someone suffering from extreme cases of constipation, autoimmune diseases, & skin issues. Cleanses are a great way to combat the effects of poor diets & environmental toxins.
Gut health is at the center of almost all the issues our bodies face- tackling your gut health first can lead in the right direction to healing many other potential problems your body is facing. With numerous options on the market for your health, it may be hard to know what is right for you- Wellness 360 is just a few clicks away to get all your questions answered & match you with the best products to suit your needs! To set up a Wellness consult, get your questions answered, or order any products mentioned above please visit
Wellness 360
2400 South Kensington Dr, Appleton WI
920.277.2457