Your microbiome sounds like a word straight out of your high school textbook, yet this term and body function is becoming more crucial to overall health and aging than previously thought. Over the last few years, gut health and probiotics have become more commonplace. Gut healthy foods such as probiotic-rich fermented foods have gained popularity. We hear good bacteria and bad bacteria a lot. Fewer antibiotics and more gut-healthy foods. What does it all mean? We break it down and explain how your microbiome affects your health and how to support a healthy gut.
What is Your Microbiome?
The microbiome simply means “all the microbes in a community”. The human microbiome is the counterpart to the human genome. All the microbes’ genes in the microbiome outnumber all the human genes in the genome approx. one hundred to one.
Our microbiome starts literally with birth – before that we are sterile – as we are colonized by microbes from the birth canal (if vaginally delivered) or with mostly skin microbes (with a cesarean section). Within moments after birth, we are then exposed to an array of microbes from our mothers and every other person we encounter. These microbes adapt and differ throughout our bodies or the human ecosystem. Some will only live in our guts and some only in our teeth. As we grow, our microbial profiles change with us and adapt to the environments we encounter. (1)
Our Gut Microbiome
The gut microbiome consists of trillions of microorganisms, along with their genetic material. These microorganisms live in our intestinal tract and are responsible for helping to absorb and synthesize nutrients and play an important role in how we digest the food we eat. In addition, these gut microbiota play roles in many other functions of the body, including metabolism, immune regulation, cognitive function, and mood. (2)
What is “Healthy Gut”?
Everyone has a fingerprint unique to themselves and everyone has a gut microbiome that is a bacterial fingerprint. Scientists are still researching what a healthy gut microbiome is, but they have become aware of that it is a safety net of sorts. When we have a healthy gut, it keeps things that don’t belong in the bloodstream out, such as undigested food particles, toxins, and microbiota. A healthy gut also helps to fight off infection. What scientists do know is the diversity of bacteria in the gut is good. This allows different types of good bacteria can help to fight off bad bacteria:
- Good bacteria – also known as beneficial bacteria, is any bacteria that enhance overall health. Probiotics are an example of good bacteria
- Bad bacteria – are harmful to our body and usually cause us to be sick. Some bad bacteria can spoil your food or create an unhygienic environment.
However, as with many health functions, balance is key, having about 85% good bacteria and 15% bad bacteria is a good balance for our gut microbiome. Bacteria are needed to break down carbohydrates or sugars, toxins and help our body absorb fatty acids so our cells can grow.
What is Dysbiosis?
When the gut microbiome is imbalanced, it is called dysbiosis. Dysbiosis can be caused by many factors including overusing antibiotics, eating a nutritionally poor diet, being overweight, stress and illness. Eating a diet full of processed foods, lots of sweeteners both refined and artificial sugars can compromise our gut linings. Remember when we mentioned that the microbiome acts as a wall in our gut? If that wall is compromised it can cause “Leaky Gut”, which causes the gut barrier to allow gut microbes and undigested food particles to enter our bloodstream. This can cause our immune system to be triggered and increase the risk of disease.
Symptoms of Dysbiosis:
- Anxiety, depression, mood swings
- Memory issues and spaced-out feeling
- Insomnia or sleep issues
- Skin rash, eczema, psoriasis
- Muscle and joint pain
- Candida
- Diarrhea, gas, bloating, and constipation
- Bad breath and body odor
- Heartburn
- Itching
- Frequent urination
- Frequent colds
- Fatigue.
Ways to Improve Your Gut Health
Reduce stress
If you are chronically stressed, this will affect your gut. Great stress busters include meditation, exercise, and anything that relaxes you.
Sleep
Make sure you get at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night because low quality sleep or too little sleep can impact your gut health. It has been found that your microbial ecosystem can affect your body's sleep wake-sleep cycle and the hormones that help your body to regulate sleep. Research has also shown that an imbalanced microbiome can increase how sensitive someone is to visceral pain, making it more difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Chew your food
Remember when your mother told you to chew your food? She was right. Eating slower and fully chewing your food helps your gut digest and absorb those nutrients.
Are you intolerant of some foods?
If you consistently have an upset stomach, bloating, fatigue, rashes, diarrhea, and acid reflux – you may have a food intolerance. You can have it checked with a test or use an elimination diet to pinpoint the culprit.
Eat less
Reduce the amount of processed, sugary and high-fat foods
Eat more
Eat more plant-based food and lean proteins. Studies show that eating a diet high in fiber is especially beneficial to gut microbiome. (3)
Fermented foods
Foods such as yogurt, kefir, tempeh, miso, kimchi, and sauerkraut are a great source of probiotics. (4)
Take a supplement
An excellent way to improve gut health is to take a prebiotic or probiotic supplement daily.
Boost your collagen
Collagen is beneficial to gut health because it is in the connective tissue in your gut. Collagen can strengthen the lining of your digestive tract - helping support the barrier function of the intestine. This means collagen can help with leaky gut syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease.
Collagen rich foods include salmon and bone broth. In addition, foods such as mushrooms, some dairy and meats can help your body boost its own collagen production. You can also take a collagen supplement and add it to your morning coffee or smoothie.
Gut microbiome and its effect on your health are being researched and new information about this commonly called forgotten organ is being found. The human gut is complex and the role it plays in overall wellness in your entire body was vastly underestimated. Our cognitive function, heart health, immune function, mood, sleep and of course, our digestion is all tied into our gut health. In addition, further research is emerging that it can help prevent some cancers, autoimmune disease, skin conditions, aging and more.
Add L-Glutamine to Your Diet
L-glutamine is a gut-healing amino acid, known to support a strong intestinal barrier, reduce intestinal permeability, support normal immune function and reduce the inflammatory response.
References 1 Luke K Ursell, Jessica L Metcalf, Laura Wegener Parfrey, and Rob Knight. Defining the Human Microbiome. Nutr Rev. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 Feb 1. 2 Kundu P, Blacher E, Elinav E, Pettersson S. Our Gut Microbiome: The Evolving Inner Self. Cell. 2017 Dec 14;171(7):1481-1493. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.11.024. 3 Caleigh M. Sawicki, Kara A. Livingston, Martin Obin, Susan B. Roberts, Mei Chung, and Nicola M. McKeown. Dietary Fiber and the Human Gut Microbiota: Application of Evidence Mapping Methodology. Nutrients. 2017 Feb; 9(2): 125. Published online 2017 Feb 10. 4 Alvaro E1, Andrieux C, Rochet V, Rigottier-Gois L, Lepercq P, Sutren M, Galan P, Duval Y, Juste C, Doré J. Composition and metabolism of the intestinal microbiota in consumers and non-consumers of yogurt. Br J Nutr. 2007 Jan;97(1):126-33.
