A healthy gut is important, as it affects your overall well-being and health. It supports the digestive system and influences your immune system. So, if your gut isn’t healthy, your body is likely to send signals, such as bloating, an upset stomach, and fatigue. Having an unhealthy gut may also result in a stomachache and diarrhea.
Fortunately, there are ways to keep and maintain a healthy gut. For example, you can change your lifestyle and include healthy products like Dr Ohhira’s probiotics in your regular diet.
If you want to monitor the condition of your gut, read on to learn about the signs and remedies of an unhealthy gut.
- Upset Stomach
A sign of an unhealthy gut is frequent stomach problems, such as pain, gas, bloating, discomfort, heartburn, diarrhea, or constipation. Having an upset stomach is your body’s way of showing you that something’s wrong within your digestive tract, particularly if your symptoms often happen.
Remedies: Following a healthy diet, practicing mindful eating, and staying hydrated
An effective way to ease bloating and rebalance your gut includes adding healthy foods to your daily meals. For instance, you should incorporate prebiotics into your diet. Examples of prebiotic foods are flaxseeds, asparagus, jicama, and artichoke. Aside from prebiotic foods, consume foods that contain probiotics, such as kimchi, yogurt, miso, and tempeh. Foods rich in polyphenols help too: cherries, berries, plums, and beans. Eat plant-based foods as well, like vegetables, fruits, herbs, and legumes.
Mindful eating is another reliable approach to prevent an upset stomach. You should take the time to chew your food since enzymes in your saliva begin the digestion process. So, if you don’t chew your food, you may experience digestive symptoms, such as gas and bloating.
Besides eating healthy and practicing mindful eating, stay hydrated. Drinking enough water not only prevents constipation but also reduces a type of bacteria that causes gastrointestinal infections. Overall, staying hydrated will help you have a healthy gut.
- Sugar Cravings
Gut bacteria may secrete special proteins similar to hunger-regulating hormones, such as ghrelin and leptin. Such proteins affect both your mood and food cravings.
Bacteria try to make you eat foods they thrive on. Therefore, if you eat more sugar, you feed bad bacteria, which secrete the proteins to make you crave more sugar.
Remedy: Following a healthy diet
To avoid sugar cravings, consider eating foods rich in quality probiotics to eliminate the bacteria that cause sugar cravings. Once you stop craving an enormous amount of sugar, you stop bad bacteria from damaging your gut.
- Unintentional Weight Changes
Losing or gaining weight without changing your exercise habits or diet can signal that your gut isn’t healthy. An unhealthy gut may impair your body’s ability to store fat, regulate blood sugar, and absorb nutrients. While weight gain is due to insulin resistance or the urge to overeat because of reduced nutrient absorption, weight loss is due to bacterial overgrowth in your small intestines.
Remedy: Following a healthy diet and exercising
Eat healthy and find the time to work out. You can go for a walk, try yoga, or swim. Engage in any physical activity you enjoy.
- Poor Skin Health
Aside from an upset stomach, sugar cravings, and weight changes, skin problems may be a sign of poor gut health. It’s because your gut communicates with your skin through what’s referred to as the gut-skin axis.
Your gut health plays a crucial part in your physiologic pathways and skin homeostasis, which keeps your skin healthy and clear. Your skin may also have a unique microbiome, and your gut’s bacteria influence the balance of your skin’s bacteria.
Remedy: Taking bone broth, collagen and anti-inflammatory products
To address skin health issues caused by poor gut health, take bone broth. You may also consider taking quality collagen products to prevent leaky gut syndrome and reduce gut permeability. In addition, anti-inflammatory products may help you heal and soothe your skin.
- Food Sensitivities And Intolerances
Typically, food sensitivities and intolerances are felt in your gut. Once you eat a particular food, your bowels may suffer, or you might feel bloated.
Some typical food intolerances include nuts, dairy, gluten, and so on. If you experience these intolerances, you might have leaky gut syndrome, which is when your gut barrier is compromised. This is never a good thing because your gut barrier serves as the gatekeeper that decides what stays out and gets into your digestive system.
Anything that goes into your mouth and isn’t digested well might pass right out the other end. An essential function of the gut is to avoid foreign substances from entering your body and your bloodstream.
When your intestinal barrier becomes permeable, it’s known as a leaky gut syndrome. Bigger food protein molecules may then escape into your bloodstream. Since such proteins don’t belong outside your digestive tract, an immune response is activated, which comes in the form of food sensitivities and intolerances.
Remedy: Staying away from dairy and gluten
To prevent food intolerances and keep your gut healthy, avoid dairy and gluten. However, if you want to understand more about food intolerances, you should consult your doctor to know the best foods for gut health and the proper treatment you need.
- Constant Fatigue Or Sleep Disturbances
An unhealthy gut may contribute to sleep issues like insomnia, which will result in chronic fatigue. Most of the body’s serotonin, the hormones that affect sleep and mood, is produced in your gut. Therefore, gut damage may impair your ability to sleep well.
Remedies: Following a healthy diet and getting enough sleep
To protect your gut health and prevent sleep issues or constant fatigue, take probiotics regularly to help your body absorb the nutrients that they provide. Furthermore, make sure to sleep at least seven to eight hours. If you still have trouble sleeping, seek professional help.
- Autoimmune Conditions
The other prevalent sign of an unhealthy gut is the presence of any autoimmune condition or disorder. An increased inflammation throughout your body may cause your immune system to work improperly, resulting in autoimmune disorders. For this reason, it turns your body against itself to combat inflammation rather than working against invaders.
Remedies: Exercising, relaxing, and eating healthy
What you can do is to exercise, but don’t forget to get enough rest. Relaxing activities, like yoga, massages, and deep breathing, are just as effective. Moreover, you need to consume nutrients, such as vitamins C and D, fish oil, and probiotics. These nutrients will help relieve your immune response naturally.
Wrapping Up
Your gut health is just as important as your overall well-being and health. It plays a vital role in cardiovascular health, immune and digestive systems and affects your sleep and mood. If you notice any of these signs, reach out to your doctor immediately and live a healthy lifestyle.
