How Your Gut Microbiome Influences Your Mental and Physical Health

How Your Gut Microbiome Influences Your Mental and Physical Health
How Your Gut Microbiome Influences Your Mental and Physical Health
Although it might seem like a stretch, the “good bacteria” in your body – including your gut – can have an impact on lots of different areas of your health.

Gut Microbiome

In other sections of the Cam’s Kids blog, we’ve discussed the relationship between anxiety and food. There is evidence to suggest your health can be affected by not just genetics, but by environmental factors including the food that you eat. One of these factors is the health of the bacteria that live in your gut – where your food is digested, among other things.

Although it might seem like a stretch, the “good bacteria” in your body – including your gut – can have an impact on lots of different areas of your health, including:

  • Weight
  • Immune Function
  • Diabetes
  • Mental Wellness and Mood Disorders

Dr. Joseph Mercola’s article on gut biome is informative, and includes a number of practical recommendations that you can try at home in order to optimize your gut health. See the complete article, How Your Gut Microbiome Influences Your Mental and Physical Health, and scroll down to see his list of practical tips:

Do:

Eat plenty of fermented foods. Healthy choices include lassi, fermented grass-fed organic milk such as kefir, natto (fermented soy), and fermented vegetablesIf you ferment your own, consider using a special starter culture that has been optimized with bacterial strains that produce high levels of vitamin K2This is an inexpensive way to optimize your K2, which is particularly important if you're taking a vitamin D3 supplement.

Take a probiotic supplement. Although I'm not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics are an exception if you don't eat fermented foods on a regular basis.

Boost your soluble and insoluble fiber intake, focusing on vegetables, nuts, and seeds, including sprouted seeds.

Get your hands dirty in the garden. Germ-free living may not be in your best interest, as the loss of healthy bacteria can have wide-ranging influence on your mental, emotional, and physical health. Exposure to bacteria and viruses can serve as "natural vaccines" that strengthen your immune system and provide long-lasting immunity against disease. Getting your hands dirty in the garden can help reacquaint your immune system with beneficial microorganisms on the plants and in the soilAccording to a recent report, lack of exposure to the outdoors can in and of itself cause your microbiome to become "deficient."

Open your windows. For the vast majority of human history the outside was always part of the inside, and at no moment during our day were we ever really separated from nature. Today, we spend 90 percent of our lives indoors. And, although keeping the outside out does have its advantages it has also changed the microbiome of your home. Research shows that opening a window and increasing natural airflow can improve the diversity and health of the microbes in your home, which in turn benefit you.

Wash your dishes by hand instead of in the dishwasherRecent research has shown that washing your dishes by hand leaves more bacteria on the dishes than dishwashers do, and that eating off these less-than-sterile dishes may actually decrease your risk of allergies by stimulating your immune system.

Avoid:

Antibiotics, unless absolutely necessary (and when you do, make sure to reseed your gut with fermented foods and/or a probiotic supplement). And while some researchers are looking into methods that might help ameliorate the destruction of beneficial bacteria by antibiotics your best bet is likely always going to be reseeding your gut with probiotics from fermented and cultured foods and/or a high-quality probiotic supplement.

Conventionally-raised meats and other animal products, as CAFO animals are routinely fed low-dose antibiotics, plus genetically engineered grains loaded with glyphosate, which is widely known to kill many bacteria.

Chlorinated and/or fluoridated water. Especially in your bathing such as showers, which are worse than drinking it.

Processed foods. Excessive sugars, along with otherwise "dead" nutrients, feed pathogenic bacteria. Food emulsifiers such as polysorbate 80, lecithin, carrageenan, polyglycerols, and xanthan gum also appear to have an adverse effect on your gut flora. Unless 100% organic, they may also contain GMO's that tend to be heavily contaminated with pesticides such as glyphosateArtificial sweeteners have also been found to alter gut bacteria in adverse ways.

Agricultural chemicalsglyphosate (Roundup) in particular is a known antibiotic and will actively kill many of your beneficial gut microbes if you eat foods contaminated with Roundup.

Antibacterial soap, as they too kill off both good and bad bacteria, and contribute to the development of antibiotic-resistance.

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