Hey loves,

This week’s blog post is a 5 step guide towards healing your gut. In this post, I will go over what the gut is, what the signs of an unhealthy gut are, why it’s important to heal our guts and 5 steps towards healing it.

What is the gut?

The gut refers to our gastrointestinal tracts. It includes the stomach, intestine and colon. The gut consists of types of protective bacteria, its function is to digest nutrients from food and excrete waste.

The gut consists of trillions of microscopic organisms which include the aforementioned bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites.

The gut is also home to the neurotransmitter serotonin where 95% of it is created. Serotonin is responsible for happiness, memory, learning and our hunger and sexual drives.

Finally, the gut is also home to our emotions in an energetic sense. We can also have ‘gut feelings’ which are intuitive insights from our gut.

What are the signs our gut health is off?

• Digestive issues such as IBS and constipation
• Skin rashes and allergies
• Fatigue and sluggishness
• Weight gain or weight loss
• Depression and anxiety
• Autoimmune problems such as type 1 diabetes and thyroid issues

Why is it important to heal our guts?

You want the gut to consist of as much protective and ‘good’ bacteria as possible whilst reducing the amount of ‘bad’ bacteria.

You essentially need to balance the ‘good’ bacteria because they help in the following ways:

• Get rid of toxins
• Fight diseases and harmful viruses and bacteria
• Help transmit energy from your food
• Produce happiness hormone serotonin

What are 5 ways that we can heal our gut?

Step 1: Reduce your stress levels

Exceeding a certain amount of stress (the orange zone in the graph) can lead to detrimental outcomes including a disrupted gut. Here are eight ways to reduce your stress levels:

• Prioritize your sleep

• Eat nutritious foods

• Exercise

• Have a good self-care routine

• Connect to others

• Let go of perfectionism

• Reduce social media consumption

• Get out in nature

Step 2: Take a probiotic supplement

Probiotics are an excellent way of boosting the ‘good’ bacteria in the body. You can take it either in supplement form via a probiotic pill or you can find it in certain foods.

Foods including yoghurt or cottage cheese are rich in probiotics, for example!

Step 3: Exercise

Exercises improves circulation to our guts and other organs. This, in turn, allows the body to maintain the right balance of healthy bacteria.

You can start by walking 30 minutes a day in 3 segments (ie: three 10 minute walks ) or you can do a YouTube at home workout or a gym session in order to boost the serotonin and circulation!

Step 4: Eat fermented foods

Consume foods such as Kimchi, miso, kefir and kombucha. You can find them at any Korean, ethnic food shop or any organic eatery/store.

Step 5: Reduce inflammatory food intake

Reduce or cut from your diet any sugar, transfats, fried food, caffeine, alcohol in order to heal your gut.

The reduction of inflammation alone will balance out the healthy bacteria in your gut and lead to a reduction in bad gut health symptoms.

In conclusion, the gut refers to our gastrointestinal systems and includes our stomach, intestines and our colon. It is home to trillions of microorganisms including bacteria and fungi.

The gut is also the center of our emotions and serotonin creation. Healing our guts help our bodies to fight against disease and give us energy.

Bad gut health can cause us to suffer from diabetes and fatigue or weight gain. From reducing stress to eating probiotics, this post has your 5 steps towards healing this important epicenter of the body.

I hope that you enjoyed this 5 step guide towards healing your gut, please let me know what you thought about it in the comments section below!

Sources:

https://mentalhealth.cornell.edu/self-care/stress-management-strategies

https://www.piedmont.org/living-real-change/signs-of-poor-gut-health