Your gut is referred to as the “Second Brain” – this is where disease starts or health thrives. Your gut health has a huge impact on your overall health and wellness – 70% of your immune system resides in your gut. Of course, your immune system is vital in keeping you healthy against various diseases and illnesses. If your immune system is weakened, it’s likely that your whole body will be impacted. That’s why it’s so important to take extra care of your immune system. That might be a good idea because bad gut bacteria not only contributes to digestive issues, but this can then cause mental health problems like stress and anxiety, lead to poor focus and brain fog, and many other issues. Here are some signs that the bacteria in your gut are not balanced properly.
Gut or Stomach Discomfort
General discomfort of the stomach and digestive system can come from so many different conditions, that it often takes some time narrowing down the initial cause. The cause is important because that is how you determine the proper treatment. If you are having discomfort like gas and bloating, stomach cramps, heartburn, diarrhea or constipation, looking into your gut bacteria is a good place to start.
Food Cravings
The next common sign to having bad gut bacteria is having specific food cravings. While these can also be from other conditions, you should talk to your doctor about your gut health if you have an intense craving for foods that are sweet. Sweets and sugar tend to be a big sign of an imbalance of your gut health and gut bacteria. Have you had antibiotics recently? It rids your gut of both bad and good bacteria, so you might have an increase of sugar cravings due to the good bacteria being out of balance in your gut.
Unexplained Weight Loss
Any time you start losing weight without making any changes to your diet or lifestyle, it is important to talk to your doctor. There are many conditions that can cause this, including autoimmune diseases like thyroid issues, gluten allergies, and yes, bad gut bacteria. This is often referred to small intestine bacterial overgrowth, which is when you have an excessive amount of microbes that are affecting your ability to absorb different nutrients. If you are having weight loss that you can’t explain, it is a good idea to talk to your doctor and find out if it is from gut bacteria or other digestive issues.
How Stress Affects Your Gut
Everyone knows how bad excessive amounts of stress can be for you in general. It can also cause serious gut health issues that you may not know about. Here are some things to know about how stress can be related to your gut health.
When you experience a lot of stress, your brain enters its survival mode, which affects how much blood goes to your gut. Over time, long periods of reduced blood flow can lead to the good bacteria in your gut being weakened or damaged. This enables bad bacteria to multiply in this region of your body. The result of this is the weakening of your intestinal lining, which makes you more susceptible to illness and nutrient deficiency.
When your gut is compromised due to stress, it manifests itself in a variety of ways. Symptoms can include difficulty sleeping, constant upset stomach, diarrhea, lethargy and an increase in cardiovascular issues. Stress can also lead to esophageal spasms, which can lead to nausea and vomiting. Constipation is also a major issue for people with lots of stress. Contrary to popular belief, stress does not cause gastric ulcers or inflammatory bowel disease. It can, however, aggravate them since your stomach or intestines can’t develop the lining that they need.
What You Can do About it
Now that you know whether or not your gut health is leading to your level of stress, it is time to figure out what you can do about it. The key here is to not only help improve your gut health, but your current stress level as well.
Talk to your doctor if you feel that you need a little more assistance with your gut health or your stress is severely affecting your quality of life.
Tips for Restoring Your Gut Health
Restoring your gut health should always be top priority. Having indigestion problems might not just be from the foods you are eating, but from bacteria and microbiome issues in your gut, and stress which affects your overall health. Here are some tips for helping to restore your gut health.
There are four main steps to improving gut health:
- Removing foods other substances that damage the gut. Foods such as processed sugar, unsprouted grains, refines oils, synthetic food additives, dairy products and GMOs.
- Replacing the damaging foods with gut healing foods such as fermented foods, sprouted seeds, coconut products, bone broth, healthy fats and fruits. Just remember to have more plant-based foods.
- Repairing the gut with specific supplements such as digestive enzymes, liquorice root and L-glutamine.
- Rebalancing the ratio of good and bad bacteria with probiotics
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