The Gut, Root of all Disease but also the Key to Health

As promised, I want to share with you over a series of posts some information I learned from the 10-part Gut-Immune Solution health webinar series about how critical our digestive system is to our overall health.

• First off, what do we mean we say our gut? Well, we are actually talking about the entire digestive track from mouth to anus.

Did you know that we have 1.5-2 times more microbial cells than human cells in our body?! Yes, we have 38 trillion, yes TRILLION, microbes in our body. Our microbiome is made up of good and bad bacteria, as well as fungi, viruses, yeast, parasites, etc.

• Akkermansia muciniphila, one of the most important and beneficial gut bacteria we have, helps to maintain our gut lining.

• Those bugs act like the ears and eyes for our immune system, sending signals when intruders or pathogens are present, keeping the barrier lining of our intestinal track strong and tight, and ensuring that toxins and food particles don’t leak into our blood stream.

• Our gut plays an enormous role in our immune system because 70-80% of our immune cells live in our one-cell layer thick intestinal track lining

A healthy gut means greater resistance to pathogens and protection from chronic diseases. Once your gut is compromised, you become more vulnerable to a lot of chronic health issues, such as diabetes, cancers, cardiovascular, mood disorders, and autoimmune diseases.

• If your immune system is weak, you get recurrent infections, while an overactive immune system shows up as allergic systems and autoimmunity, where your body is actually attacking itself.

• According to the American Journal of Gastroenterology, a massive study showed that 2/3 of Americans suffer from gastrodigestive issues that correspond to issues in the microbiome.

It is the microbes in combination with our diet that creates metabolites that ultimately make a difference between health and disease in the body. The microbes break down what we eat into smaller compounds that are critical for human health, specifically short chain fatty acids (SCFAs). The SCFAs are a direct result of the fermentation process that occurs in the bowels when we have the right microbes.

• Many of these SCFAs, such as butyrate, propionate, acetate, and isobutyrate serve as important fuel for the immune cells and macrophages (white blood cells that kill bad actors) that circulate in the body reacting to invaders and incoming infections.

• SCFAs are also important in bringing about the anti-inflammatory stage in the immune response, so that it doesn’t go overboard and result in a cytokine storm which can harm us. SCFAs help regulate the immune response and help the body recover from infection.

To support a healthy microbiome, your body needs to produce SCFAs and to do that you need FIBER. Humans lack the enzymes to digest most of the fiber we eat but our microbes CAN! The microbes turn the fiber into SCFAs that are healing, beneficial, and anti-inflammatory.

• SCFAs can call up the bone marrow to create the cells we need to fight infection, empower the regulatory T cells, helping them to figure out which bacteria are bad actors, affect metabolism, blood sugar regulation, blood pressure, cholesterol, and satiety.

• Butyrate, one such SCFA, also makes your insulin work better, helps regulate blood sugar, can heal a damaged blood-brain barrier, decreases inflammation in your brain, influences which neurotransmitters are produced including how much serotonin you make, decreases pain sensitivity, and is all around anti-inflammatory.

We get SCFAs from dietary fiber but in most Western countries, 95% of us are not getting even the minimal amount of daily fiber. The Standard American Diet (SAD) which is high is saturated fat and added sugars and lacks polyphenols and fibers creates dysbiosis in the gut. We need 25-35 grams of fiber every day.

• Microbes LOVE fiber; they ferment it and make SCFAs that keep our gut and rest of body healthy. Fiber helps attract water to stool, helps to detoxify, and creates SCFAs.

• People with IBS, Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, reflux, high cholesterol, autoimmune disease, mood disorders, etc. often have inadequate SCFAs in their gut microbiome.

So, if you want to help keep your gut healthy, you need to place a priority on getting enough fiber.

• Some great choices include: apples, flax meal, chia seeds, celery, nuts and seeds, dark leafy greens, and prunes.

• You should aim to get 4-5 servings of dark leafy greens and 7-9 servings of veggies a day, along with some fruit. Berries are particularly good because they are low in glucose as well.

• Try adding nuts and seeds to salads and smoothies.

Food can either nurture our microbes in our gut, turning on the genes that make us healthier or it can leave us more inflamed and prone to disease. The best part is we get to choose what we eat!

**Content provided for educational and informational purposes only. It is derived from the Gut-Immune Solution health webinar series. It is not to be considered medical advice.**