How can you tell if your gut is not as healthy as it could be?
Here are six signs that can point to an unhealthy gut.
1. Digestive Issues
Struggling with bloating, gas, heartburn and changes in your bowel movement? These can all be signs that your digestive system is having to work hard to process food and move it along the digestive tract
2. Skin problems
Eczema, skin rashes, and other skin conditions can sometimes be linked to an unhealthy gut. Inflammation in the gut can set the scene for inflammation for elsewhere in your body too. And that could be bad news for your skin.
3. Low Mood and Anxiety
If you gut bacteria isn’t balanced, there’s a pretty good chance that it will affect your mood and metal health in general.
4. Low Immunity
Always seem to get sick and struggle to shake things off very quickly? It could be down to your gut. According to research, as much as 80% of your immunity may start in your gut, so its super smart to focus on gut health if your immunity isn’t great
5. Chronic Yeast Infections
Get yeast infections more that you’d care for? An unhealthy guy can contribute to this as it allows yeast to run wild.
6. Fatigue
Constantly feeling tired and worn out? Poor gut health can sometimes affect your body’s ability to absorb nutrients from your good and this can have an impact on energy levels. Poor sleep can be another factor in this. If your gut isn’t as healthy as it could be and you’re not producing as much serotonin, this can affect sleep quality.
How can you improve your gut health?
The number of “good” bacteria in your gut can be affected by stress, poor sleep, taking antibiotics and easting lots of sugary and processed foods. Be sure to look at your lifestyle and see how you can improve it.
7 Simple ways to improve your Gut health
- Eat whole foods with plenty of nutrients
- Eating whole, clean foods is important for your gut. Aim for a wide range of colors to get as many nutrients as you can.
- Avoid processed and sugar rich foods
Stay clear of processed foods, which can feed “bad” gut bacteria and upset the delicate balance in your gut. Sugar is another one to avoid. Like processed foods, they’re incredibly bad news for balancing your gut.
- Chew your food thoroughly
Tend to bolt your food or eat on the go? Time to change that! Chewing your good well before swallowing can improve your digestion.
- Get plenty of sleep
Melatonin is produced in the pineal gland but there’s actually 400 times more of it in your gut.
- Exercise Regularly
Exercise helps to control your weight, which can be super important for having a diverse range of gut bacteria.
Add more fermented foods to your diet, including sauerkraut, live yogurt, kimchi, miso, tempeh and kefir. Don’t forget about prebiotics too. They help to support the growth of good bacteria. Good choices include bananas, garlic, leeks, onions and artichokes.
- Cut your stress levels
Stress releases can kill off good gut bacteria. If you are chronically stressed, your gut health can suffer a lot. Start reducing stress levels.
