LOVE YOUR GUT: Your Microbiome and Your Health
Hello to all readers of this post!
I am an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach qualified from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in the US. By profession, I am a Coaching Psychologist and I went through a self-healing health transformation a few years ago. I coach people to lead healthy and vibrant lives, with my six-month Integrative Living program. Because I am a psychologist, for Health Coaching I focus on the mind-body, Heart and Soul of my clients. Each client is on his or her own journey and the coaching helps achieve many milestones along the say.
In this blog post you can bring all your queries about digestion and we can discuss possible solutions.
According to the ancient science of Ayurveda, everything about health begins with digestion and your gut health. Agni, or the fire of digestion, is the key to achieving optimal health. I am sharing this fact with you to demonstrate that new knowledge and science is now emerging about how gut health impacts everything about your immune system, emotional wellbeing, physical health and much more. In fact newer dimensions of gut-health and wellness connections are emerging with new research almost every day.
So, lets understand the basic facts about gut-health. You are not your gut. I mean, your gut is not yours. Actually I mean, your gut is host to trillions of microbes flourishing in your body. These are bacteria, fungus, yeast, and all other forms of microbial living organisms. The mechanisms of this symbiotic living actually is now being decoded and understood. The bacterial mass in the body is 2-3 kilograms in weight but 99% of the genetic material in the body. You cannot change the genes you were born with in your body, but you can change and improve the 99% genes of the microbes that inhabit you, through what you eat and how you live.
The gut microbiome impacts your health on many levels. Digestion, immunity, inflammation, weight, illnesses, insulin resistance, hormone activity, anxiety and stress response, etc. etc.
There are over 2,000 strains of bacteria in the Human Microbiome. The more the diversity in YOUR gut, the better is your health. Some bacteria are good ones and some are pathogenic and some are helping digest food, some are metabolising drugs we have consumed, some are detoxifying us, some are creating vitamins for us, they create bioactive compound that regulate our immune systems that talk to the cells that line our digestive tract, and supporting our emotional health by signalling to the nerve cells that line the tract which are directly linked to our brain and emotional centers in the brain.
What impacts the gut microbiome? There are many factors:
- Were you born through caesarean section or vaginal birth? Those who have been born through ‘normal delivery’ receive an inoculation of their mother’s gut microbiome. During the time of passage through the birth canal, when the baby emerges, its opens its mouth and receives all the vaginal liquids containing the mothers microbiome flora. This enters the baby’s digestive tract and inoculates it before the stomach acids kick in. Once this is in the system, it populates the large intestines where it flourishes and creates its own ecosystem. In case of caesarean section deliveries, this inoculation is missing and the child is deprived of the microbial start it deserved in life. It takes 3-4 years for the gut of the caesarean delivery to develop its own microbiome and chances are it will get the ‘starter’ bacteria from external food intake which could be good or bad.
- Were you breast fed? Breast fed babies receive their first inoculation of gut microbiome through the microbes present in the mother’s milk, especially the colostrum, and also the microbiome present around the nipple of the mother. Those children that are deprived of breast feeding do not develop a healthy gut microbiome It is left to chance how and what microbes will inhabit the gut of a baby who is not breast fed.
- Were you given antibiotics early in life? A child’s gut bacteria live in a very delicate balance and have not yet established themselves. In the first two years of life, if a baby is administered antibiotics, the healthy bacteria in the gut die along with the unhealthy bacteria. Research shows that children who are given antibiotics early in life, especially strong and repeated doses, never recover their full and diverse microbiome for their entire lives.
- Did you take over the counter pain medications? Chemicals contained in pain medicines particularly, aggravate the extinction of good bacteria in the system.
- Do you drink alcohol? Alcohol notoriously nurtures bad bacteria in your gut which particularly hide behind films of mucus and other liquids in your large intestine.
- Did you have a parasite or a major gastrointestinal tract illness at any time? Obviously the presence of parasitic organisms like worms, or illnesses like cholera, diarrhoea, food poisoning, etc. create imbalance in the microbiome.
- Do you have high levels of stress? It is a well-known fact that there is a direct and causative link between stress and what happens in your gut. Stress produces hormonal imbalance in the body and this causes the gut microbiome to lose its balance. The imbalanced microbiome further exaggerates the emotional stress experience and this triggers a cycle of anxiety, and other stress-related emotional disorders.
From here onwards, many of those reading this post may now want to start building their gut health. This includes inoculating your diet with the right kind of microbes, limiting the use of antibiotics and antibacterials (disinfectants), consuming pro-biotics and pre-biotics, eating a varied diet, adding fermented foods to your diet, and eating more fiber. Why fiber? Because these bacteria feed on soluble and insoluble fiber and what you eat feeds the right kind of bacteria in your digestive tract. A process of weeding is sometimes needed to get rid of pathogenic bacteria in the gut. Herbal microbials are consumed to get rid of these.
A shift in your diet means a corresponding shift in your gut microbiome. It does not happen overnight but takes 3-6 months to make a noticeable difference. The body has an innate capacity to heal itself, and the gut microbiome is no different. When you consume the right foods, you are also feeding the microbiome and healing this very vital part of your body.
An intervention of a Health Coach especially one who understands gut health is necessary if you need guidance to get you on track. The intervention could include a poop analysis (this is not done so far in India, but samples can be sent abroad for pathological testing. While the poop analysis is not mandatory, it does help to know which strains of bacteria are hosted by your gut, so that more diversity can be created through probiotics and fermented foods. Once your gut microbiome has balanced out and healed itself, it does not need any further intervention but a good healthy nutritious diet with plenty of fiber content in the right quantity and quality can help maintain. If in future you are constrained to take antibiotics of any of the other causing factors, you might need to focus on re-building your microbiome once more.
So, once again, “You Are What You Eat”! Right?
