Everybody knows that Gut Health is crucial for well-being. Yet, most of them wait for their guts to go through a dark time or a gradual decline before taking action.
The Unvarnished Truth
You’ve undoubtedly looked and felt your best several times in your life. Those results could be attributed to three different things: a healthy microbiome, a diverse population of helpful bacteria, and the optimal function of your gut.
Meanwhile, during those times you don’t feel like you’re looking your best, you may have created an imbalance in your body. An imbalance develops when there are too many destructive bacteria and less good bacteria.
Dysbiosis is the term used for this condition. The less diverse your gut flora, the greater your risk of having chronic and inflammatory disorders such as obesity, bowel cancer, insulin resistance, and many more.
In light of this, it’s critical to keep one’s gut bacteria as diverse and friendly as possible. As a result, several people decided to work on improving their diet and lifestyle.
Some also opted to purchase products that could improve their health and wellbeing from known sellers like Bionu Health and many more. Ultimately, there are numerous things you may do to improve the health of your digestive system.
Top 8 Gut-Wrecking Habits
Surprisingly, your gut bacteria can be negatively affected by various dietary, lifestyle, and external factors. Even applying lotions or eating gut-healthy foods can cause problems without you realizing it.
1. Not Consuming A Wide Variety Of Foods
A diet rich in complete foods with a range of nutrients is thought to foster different types of bacteria, resulting in gut flora. Hence, when a person’s food consumption is restricted, the variety in their diet is lost.
For example, people who consume 25 or more various plant-based foods in a week could have a more diverse mix of gut bacteria than those who take less than ten distinct plant-based meals each week.
Thus, a diet deficient in a variety of whole diverse foods can decrease gut flora diversity, which can have several negative health consequences.
2. Insufficient Physical Activity
Exercising or engaging in any physical activity has the potential to alter the structure of your gut bacteria. Physical activity includes such things as swimming, running, walking, and gardening.
A lack of exercise, on the other hand, might become a significant issue. Inactivity prevents your digestive tract from adequately moving waste, resulting in illnesses such as constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, and others.
It would be quite beneficial to move your body at least three times a week.
3. Consuming An Excessive Amount Of Alcohol
Any amount of alcohol is bad for your intestinal health, too. In addition to dehydrating you, alcohol can irritate your digestive tract.
The irritation may cause a halt in the digestion of food, resulting in increased gas production and stomach pains. If alcohol intake is continued, it may lead to dysbiosis.
4. Excessive Consumption Of Processed Foods
The consumption of sugar and processed foods are one of the leading factors contributing to dysbiosis of gut bacteria. Most people, however, consume far too much highly processed fake food, which has disastrous effects on the bacterial balance in their bodies.
One of the most effective strategies to improve gut health is eliminating excess sugar and processed fake food. What’s more, sticking to whole meals is one of the best ways to maintain a broad and balanced population of gut flora.
5. Antibiotic Use
Antibiotics are life-saving drugs that have helped millions of people. They do this by eradicating or blocking the growth of microbes. However, there are certain disadvantages: They affect both good and bad bacteria.
When combined with the modern trend of overprescription or incorrect administration, their ability to annihilate gut health is enormous.
Even low-dose antibiotics are believed to alter the makeup and diversity of the gut flora. This is important since variety is suitable for your digestive system.
6. Cigarette Smoking
It’s common knowledge that tobacco smoke contains a plethora of carcinogens, including thousands of compounds. It’s also been shown to be harmful to practically most of the body’s organs.
But apart from those, smoking has the potential to harm a person’s gut health. Cigarette smoking could cause immunosuppression, respiratory failure, and the production of biofilms on the gastrointestinal membrane and good gut bacteria.
The good news is that quitting smoking is thought to improve gut flora diversity. Within the first three months of quitting, a person could start noticing the indicators of a healthy gut.
7. Not Getting Sufficient Slumber
An internal clock in your body carries out essential functions and processes called the circadian rhythm. It affects the brain, the body, and hormones. It provides signals to your body to keep you attentive and awake, as well as letting you know when it’s time to sleep.
Moreover, the gut appears to have a daily circadian cycle as well. For example, obstructing your body clock through sleeplessness, work shifts, or late-night clubbing may have negative consequences for your health and gut microbes.
Even three days of sleep deprivation can trigger minor changes in gut flora, including an increase in the number of bacteria linked to gaining weight, fat oxidation, and other health issues.
To avoid the negative consequences of lack of sleep on your gut, try to make your sleep pattern as regular as possible and practice good sleep hygiene regularly.
8. Excessive Stress
The modern way of life, when combined with excessive amounts of stress, has a negative impact on the human body. But, to their disadvantage, most don’t intentionally reduce unsafe levels.
When you’re under stress, your microbiome alters in various ways. One example is that increased amounts of stress can deplete the population of good bacteria found in your gut.
Because of this decrease, chronic inflammation is fostered, activating the vagus nerve and causing stress-related symptoms. With that in mind, it might be best to find ways to relieve stress and take care of yourself.
Conclusion
Have you succumbed to any of those bad habits? If so, there’s no need to feel ashamed or guilty. Rather, make a conscious effort to live a healthy lifestyle that includes frequent physical activity, stress reduction, and a diet rich in nutritious foods. This will help your gut thrive in this fast-paced modern world.