Why Gut Health Is Important
Gut health is extremely important for hormone function, digestion, detoxing pathogens, and absorbing nutrients. The gut refers to the intestines in the digestive tract where absorption of nutrients occurs. A large indicator of gut health is intestinal permeability. The intestine or gut is where we absorb nutrients, and everything left behind will pass through the colon and exit the body as stool. The intestine is lined with a single cell wall called the lumen, which separates the inside of the intestine from the bloodstream. This cell wall is thin so that it is easy to absorb nutrients, and the cells are tightly packed, called tight junctions, to keep out anything that is not a nutrient. If the junctions loosen up, then the cell wall can become permeable and larger substances like toxins and undigested food can pass through into the bloodstream and cause damage.
The goal of gut health is to make our gut bacteria happy. Our gut is lined with a variety of healthy bacteria which aid in the digesting and absorption process. Though we can’t have too much or too little of the healthy bacteria, and we also need a broad diversity of different kinds of healthy bacteria.
Here are 6 reasons answering why gut health is important
1. Reduces excess estrogen
The first reason why gut health is important is that the gut helps to reduce excess estrogen. The gut plays a major role in hormone balance, and estrogen excretion is one of its avenues. Though estrogen is one of our major female reproductive hormones, it needs to be cycled through the body so new estrogen can be circulated. Estrogen needs to be excreted by the body through the stool. When estrogen needs to be excreted, it will get detoxified in the liver and then it’ll move through the digestive tract where it is excreted through the bowels. If constipation occurs from not eating enough fiber, this process is slowed, and estrogen can continue to build up and recirculate in the body. When estrogen recirculates, it increases baseline levels and can lead to estrogen dominance, where estrogen levels are much higher in ratio to the progesterone levels. When one hormone is imbalanced, this usually causes somewhat of a domino effect, and other hormones will overcompensate and become imbalanced too.
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2. Bowel movements
Healthy bowel movements are another reason why gut health is important. Constipation is when you have fewer than 3 bowel movements per week, difficult stool to pass, dry and hard stool, or feeling that not enough stool came out after a movement. With optimal gut health and hormone balance, people should have 1-3 bowel movements daily. Constipation is uncomfortable and not desired. Complications of constipation include hemorrhoid, anal fissure, or rectal prolapse. Healthy bowel movements indicate that you are hydrated and eating enough fiber, and both of these indications have multitudes of other benefits.
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3. Protection from pathogens
Protection from pathogens is another reason why gut health is important. Every day we ingest small amounts of pathogens, bacteria, and possibly toxins. Though these amounts are small, we still ingest them, and we need systems to fight against them. In this case, the gut is a great example of how we defend our body against these pathogens. One of the roles of healthy gut bacteria is to fight against bad bacteria. They can do this by eating all the food, and the bad bacteria can’t survive, and they can make the environment too acidic so that the bad bacteria can’t survive. If we don’t have enough good bacteria to fight against the bad bacteria, pathogens, and toxins, they could pass through the lumen into our bloodstream causing damage all around the body.
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4. Reduces bloating
Reduction of bloating is another one of the reasons why gut health is important. The bacteria in our gut eat parts of the food we eat and most of the time it occurs with no issues. However, if you do not have the right kind of bacteria in your gut or if you eat something you are intolerant to, the bacteria will excrete CO2 as gas after consuming some of the digested food. This gas production can build up in the gut and cause a distended stomach look, and many times it can be painful as well. Therefore, bloating is a sign that you need to improve your gut microbiome either in the diversity or its amount.
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5. Absorbs more nutrients
Absorbing more nutrients is another reason why gut health is important. As mentioned, the lumen is the part of the gut where nutrient absorption occurs. This process occurs so that the smallest nutrient components can be absorbed into the bloodstream, but the process can be inhibited by low stomach acid. This stomach acid is needed to break down chewed food to make it easier to digest and absorb the nutrients in the intestines, so we need a high amount of it to make sure the food enters the gut in the most broken-down form. This is especially important for protein because it is the hardest nutrient to break down in the stomach. If your stomach acid is too low, the stomach cannot break up the food as well, which can cause nutrient deficiencies because the intestines can’t absorb as many nutrients when the food is still in larger chunks. Some common nutrient deficiencies with low stomach acid are zinc, B12, and magnesium. All of these are compulsory for hormone production.
6. Serotonin production
Lastly, serotonin production is one of the reasons why gut health is important. Mood chemicals are neurotransmitters, and they aid us in feeling emotion. Serotonin is one of the mood chemicals that we produce when we are happy. Though many neurotransmitters are mainly produced in the brain, a large amount of serotonin is actually produced in the gut by the bacteria. The gut-brain axis explains this very well because the bacteria have a role in producing other neurotransmitters too. If you have poor gut health and hormones are imbalanced, this affects the mood chemical production of serotonin. Carbohydrates give us a little boost in serotonin, so you may find yourself craving a cookie or bread if you have issues with gut health and hormones.
