Until it starts giving us trouble, we may tend to ignore our digestive system. maybe a stomach having us run to the bathroom or bloating after a meal making our pants too tight.
It would serve us well to pay more attention to our gut on a daily basis. It can be the key to many solutions when it comes to our health . . . even when those health concerns have nothing to do with constipation or acid reflux.
The gut regulates much of how the rest of the body works. So, if you have poor gut health, your overall health is suffering as a result.
The reason it is such a big deal . . . you have more bacteria cells in your gut than you have human cells in your entire body. If your gut is unhealthy, those bacteria are unhealthy, and you’re unhealthy as a result.
Additionally, consider that every bite of food and nutrient passes through your gut before they become available to you, the health of your gut influences the health of every part of your body. If your gut can’t do it’s job, the other parts of your body can’t either.
If you have any of the following concerns, you may want to consider the health of your gut.
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Digestive Distress
This is the most obvious, but diarrhea, bloating, constipation, gas, heartburn, or other gastrointestinal discomfort can be a sign of poor gut health. A healthy gut is able to process and eliminate waste with minimal difficulties. Regular gastrointestinal distress can be a sign of a bigger issue.
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Severe Carbohydrate Cravings
Eating sugar (and all carbohydrates break down into sugars) helps the bad bacteria in your gut to grow. Those bad bacteria like to eat more sugar. If you have regular cravings for foods with a high sugar content, it might be a sign you have too many bad bacteria resulting in an imbalance called dysbiosis. .
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Difficulty Concentrating
A reduced ability to concentrate is a common complaint among those struggling with their gut health. It’s usually described as “brain fog”. It’s believed that the inflammation caused by poor gut health affects the brain’s ability to focus. Fortunately, we can clear the fog by cleaning up the gut.
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Unexplained Fatigue
Fatigue is another common symptom. If you’re frequently tired without explanation, your gut may be to blame. If you frequently suffer from fatigue, consider how much sleep you’ve been getting. If you’re getting plenty of sleep and you’re still tired, gut inflammation and difficulty with nutrient absorption may be the problem.
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Difficulty Losing Weight
If your diet and exercise are unchanged, but your weight is changing significantly, you might have an issue with your gut bacteria. Gut issues can affect your body’s ability to digest and absorb nutrients. The bacteria in your gut also has an affect on your metabolism and ability to burn body fat.
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Autoimmune Disorders
There are numerous autoimmune disorders that can either be caused by, or exacerbated by, poor gut health. The bad bacteria in your gut are able to travel around the body and create inflammation in various tissues and organs. An autoimmune disease can be worsened when your body starts to react to these foreign invaders.
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Skin Problems
Skin difficulties, such as psoriasis, acne, eczema, and rosacea can all be caused by gut-related issues. Enhancing your gut health can often eliminate these annoying conditions. more quickly than you would imagine.
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Poor Sleep
Between the gastrointestinal distress, inflammation, skin issues, and autoimmune disorders, it’s no wonder that sleep quality can become an issue. The connection may not be obvious, but any type of imbalance in the body will affect your cycles of wakefulness and sleep.
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Frequent Illness
About 70% of our immune system is in our gut. That means keeping your gut healthy will allow your body to fight off illness and foreign invaders. If you find yourself getting every cold and stomach bug that comes around you may need to look at improving your gut.
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Joint Pain
Recent research has linked an unhealthy gut to joint pain, with specific emphasis on rheumatoid and osteoarthritis. It’s thought that the imbalance of good and bad bacteria in the gut triggers inflammation that can manifested in the joints causing chronic pain.
The last note about inflammation is probably the big picture idea here. When an inflammatory response is triggered in our body, numerous health issues arise. In fact, some researches believe nearly all preventable diseases of our time stem from increased inflammation in the body.
That makes gut health a pretty serious issue. You can’t be healthy if your gut is unhealthy. If you consistently have symptoms of poor gut health, it’s time to do something about it. And the good news is you can improve your gut health and start your way back to healing these frustrating conditions.
When you ensure that your gut is healthy, you’re greatly increasing the odds that the rest of your body will be healthy, too. If you are ready to take that next step in repairing gut damage and regaining bacterial balance, click the link below to discuss your next best step with our Health Coach.
In a short Discovery Session, we can unpack which symptoms are bothering you the most and what one thing you can start doing today to get your gut back on tract.
