Gut health is all the rage these days and for very good reason. The gut is home to tens of trillions of microorganisms, and collectively, these are referred to as the gut microbiome. These gut microbes make up at least 70 percent of our immune system, impact our metabolism and weight, help produce vitamins for us, and can impact how we feel and how we think. They are definitely a formidable force.
As one of the only integrative gastroenterologists in the U.S., I often get asked about the easiest things one can do to improve or optimize their gut (microbiome) health. Believe it or not, some of the things you might think are the simplest things can actually be the most impactful:
- Avoid toxins
- Move regularly (aka exercise)
- Sleep
- Reduce stress
- Eat a well-balanced diet with plenty of colorful vegetables and plants
Toxins
Environmental chemicals and toxins are poisons to the gut microbiome. These include alcohol, tobacco, heavy metals, fertilizers and pesticides, food chemicals, medications, plastics, certain beauty products and cleaning products, and flame retardants to name a few. The microbiome is sensitive to toxins and these contributors can change the composition of the microbiome, leading to problems with metabolism, nutrient absorption, and immune system dysfunction. When this happens, other downstream health effects can occur as a result of the chronic inflammation. I will often refer my patients to www.EWG.org as a go-to resource for toxins.
Exercise
We all know that exercise is good for our heart and waistline. But why? Well, one of the mechanisms could be through the gut microbiome. Athletes have a higher diversity in the gut microbiome, which is widely accepted as a good thing. Exercise can enrich this diversity and stimulate the growth of beneficial gut microbes that can improve our immunity and gut barrier. This may be one of the major ways that exercising is good for your overall health. I usually suggest at least 2 hours and 30 minutes of movement per week.
Sleep
Sleep is one of the most important factors related to gut health. Chronic interruptions in sleep can actually lead to systemic and fat-tissue inflammation. When this happens, our metabolism gets thrown off, and it is felt that the reason this happens is because of changes in the gut microbiome. When we have fragmented sleep, we can see changes in the ratios of certain bacteria in our gut, and these same changes and trends are noted in the development of obesity and low-grade inflammation.4 I often suggest using a tracker to monitor sleep and sleep quality and to try to be consistent about bedtime. I usually shoot for about seven hours of sleep per night, because the Journal of the American Heart Association also suggested that this was the amount of sleep that was associated with the lowest risk of cardiovascular events.
Stress
Stress is also super important. We know that there is a gut-brain-microbiome connection. This means that the gut, which has its own nervous system, is connected to the brain and information is exchanged rapidly all day long across this information superhighway. Fun fact: the gut contains about 100 million neurons, which is more than the spinal cord. We know that the gut microbes can impact brain signaling, and we also know that the brain can impact the gut microbiome’s composition. I tell my patients that it doesn’t matter to me if you do yoga, meditate, pray, or practice some other type of stress reducing technique; the important thing is to do something and do it regularly. Spending 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening doing some simple breathwork and guided meditations can go a long way. And don’t forget to have fun with your friends, family, and loved ones. The gut microbiome is happy when we are happy and thrives on social interconnectedness as well.
Diet
I saved diet for last because it is often the first (and only) thing people may talk about when it comes to gut health, and the other things mentioned don’t get enough attention. However, it is true that our diet choices make a huge impact on our gut health and the happiness of our microbes. In general, we want to avoid packaged and processed foods as much as possible, and we want to eat clean, whole foods. Microbiota Accessible Carbohydrates are carbs that are made available to the bacteria in our gut as their favorite foods and they are found in vegetables and fruits. They do not get broken down by our digestive enzymes and are not absorbed in the upper small intestine, so they travel to the colon in order to serve as a meal to the majority of our gut microbiome.
Certain bacteria like certain kinds of plant foods, so in order to try to please the entire crowd, I often suggest that my patients eat a wide variety of colorful plants. This is where the common phrase “eat the rainbow” really comes from. If we eat a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, then we will be doing our best at pleasing as many microbes as possible, and this will encourage a better diversity in our little ecosystem. In fact, there is even data suggesting that those who eat a Mediterranean diet have a decrease in levels of E.coli, increased levels of beneficial bifidobacteria, and increased short chain fatty acids (anti-inflammatory compounds that our microbes can make). When people eat more junk and snack foods, essentially the opposite happens.
These five simple lifestyle factors are the quickest path to a resilient, well-balanced gut microbiome. Make it a goal to try to optimize each of these factors—perhaps one every several months—and by the end of a year, you will have a much different gut.
