Are you feeling tired and depressed? Are you feeling bloated? Are you having trouble concentrating? These are signs your gut is talking to your brain, and you need to listen.
As we explained in last week’s Good Health , your gut, and specifically your gut microbiome (the population of bacteria, fungi and microorganisms that live there), is key to every aspect of your health, from your immune defence to your potential for weight gain.
And we now know that not only does the gut microbiome influence mood and thinking, it’s also important for brain health.
For centuries, our medical system has separated the mind and the body, but while brain issues are still often treated separately from the rest of the body, thankfully, we are gaining a greater understanding of how important the gut-brain connection is in both health and disease.
For example, up to 80% of people with Parkinson’s disease also suffer from constipation, a condition that can appear up to 20 years earlier than other warning signs. And one-third of people with irritable bowel syndrome also suffer from constipation. depression And anxiety.
If your gut flora is unhealthy, you’ll feel the same way: fatigue, moodiness, and digestive problems.
Your gut bacteria and your brain interact in a variety of ways: When your gut bacteria break down food, they produce metabolites – small molecules that play important roles in your health.
For example, short-chain fatty acids are a type of metabolic product produced when gut bacteria ferment fiber. Almost all of the short-chain fatty acids are absorbed into the bloodstream and circulated throughout the body, with a small percentage remaining in the intestine.
It is a powerful anti-inflammatory molecule that helps reduce excess inflammation in the brain. Low levels of short-chain fatty acids have been identified in brain diseases such as Parkinson’s, as well as in mouse studies of Alzheimer’s disease and chronic stress.
These metabolites are associated with health benefits such as mood and appetite.
Some bacteria produce metabolic products that act as chemical messengers that send signals through the immune system and the vagus nerve to the brain. These signals travel from the brain to the gut, to the gut lining, and to the gut microbiome. So how well is your gut-brain connection working?
If your gut flora is unhealthy, you’ll feel the same way: fatigued, depressed, indigestion, etc. Apart from how you feel, there’s a free and easy way to check the health of your gut: open your toilet lid.
Don’t be embarrassed, because the shape, color and frequency of your stool are great ways to check if your gut and gut flora are in good health.
Let me explain: About a quarter of stool is solid. The remaining three quarters is water, which helps keep the stool soft.
Writing in Good Health last week, Dr Emily Leeming explained that our gut microbiome – our collection of bacteria, fungi and microorganisms – is key to every aspect of our health, from immune defence to our potential for weight gain.
The solid portion consists of 25-50% of gut bacteria (live and dead), undigested food remains such as proteins, fiber, fats and small amounts of carbohydrates, parts of dead body cells and dried digestive juices.
If all goes well, you’ll have brown, firm stool that passes easily. It will look like a smooth sausage or a cracked sausage. Good stool will tend to sink, but floating stools can also be a sign of a diet high in fiber and fat. Speaking of color, healthy stool is brown thanks to a pigment called stercobilin. Without stercobilin, your stool would be a pale beige color.
To help digest fats in food, your liver secretes bile into your small intestine. Some of the bile breaks down into stercobilins, which mix with the food you’re digesting and turn everything brown. If stool passes through your body quickly, like when you have diarrhea, the bile doesn’t have time to break down into stercobilins, and your stool may appear yellow or green.
Signs of poor gut health include not only color, but also a sudden change in bowel frequency that lasts for more than 3-4 days, stool that is thick, watery or hard and granular, discomfort or pain when going to the bathroom, feeling like you are not passing all stool when you defecate, or bowel movements that take a long time to pass.
If your stool looks red or black and you haven’t recently eaten beetroot, it may contain blood, which is a warning sign you should see a doctor.
Of course, there are also some obvious digestive symptoms that can point to poor gut health, including bloating, which is not necessarily something to worry about as it’s very common and a normal reaction that most people experience from time to time.
Your gut microbiome not only influences your mood and thinking, but it’s also important for brain health.
For gut health, make half your plate fruit and vegetables, advises Dr Leeming.
For example, you might feel bloated after a big meal, when you’re stressed or anxious, or just before your period (changing levels of estrogen and progesterone cause smooth muscle contractions and sloughing of the uterine lining. For some people, this slows down their digestive tract, leaving you feeling constipated and bloated, while for others it speeds up and makes you go to the bathroom more often).
If your abdominal bloating doesn’t go away, it could be a sign of a problem (and you should see a doctor).
Another sign of poor gut health is wind: when you eat or drink, you can swallow small amounts of air that get trapped in your intestines.
Once gas enters the body, most of it needs to be released somehow, either through burps or farts.
The average person passes the equivalent of one to four cups of gas and farts between 12 and 25 times a day, most of which occur within an hour of eating.
You may also fart while you’re asleep in bed because your anal sphincter relaxes, allowing gas to escape more easily. Farting is normal and is often a sign of a healthy digestive system, especially healthy gut bacteria.
When you give the good bacteria in your gut their favorite food, a side effect is gas. Think of it like when a cat brings you a dead mouse as a gift. Most farts don’t smell, but 1% do. Most of the time, this is caused by the foods you eat.
A compound called sulfur, found in foods such as meat, eggs, cauliflower and bean sprouts, is broken down by gut bacteria into a gas called hydrogen sulfide, which gives off a rotten egg smell.
If you have naturally high amounts of these types of gut bacteria, you’ll likely produce more foul-smelling gas than other people. But if you’re regularly producing large amounts of foul-smelling gas, your gut microbiome may be out of balance. Armed with this information, take our gut health quiz to find out where you stand.
As I mentioned last week, the good news is that there are simple, scientifically proven ways to improve your gut health and make you happier, more energetic, and your brain stronger.
Here are some quick tips for the Gut-Brain Diet (check out my new book for more details):
- Eat more fiber.
- Make half your plate fruits and vegetables, for a double boost of fiber and polyphenols (antioxidants that act as rocket fuel for your gut bacteria).
- Keep your bedtime regular.
- Get your hands dirty. A teaspoon of soil contains more microbes than there are people on the planet. One small study found that when people rub their hands in soil for 20 seconds three times a day (and then rinse, no soap), the diversity of their gut bacteria increased in just two weeks.
- Eat oily fish twice a week.
- Drink a cup or two of coffee every day (if you don’t have a sensitive gut). Coffee drinkers tend to have a more diverse gut flora.
- Exercise regularly.
Genius Gut by Dr Emily Leeming (Penguin, £18.99) will be published on 25 July. © Emily Leeming 2024. To order for £17.09 (valid until 21 July 2024, free UK delivery on orders over £25), Books Or call 020 3176 2937.
