74% of those living in America suffer from digestive problems. These problems could likely be solved by measures meant to restore gut health.
If you’ve noticed problems with digestion or pain in your abdomen, you could be suffering from an unhealthy gut. Building a better gut takes time and effort, but the pay off is more than worth it.
Read on for tips and guidance on keeping your gut healthy.
Tips to Restore Gut Health
Is your stomach regularly upset? Are you dealing with diarrhea, bloating, and weight changes? The cause may be hidden in the state of your gut health.
You can focus on your gut health by:
- Adding supplements
- Changing your lifestyle
- Assessing your diet
Visit https://microbeformulas.com/blogs/microbe-formulas/restore-gut-health-fix-diarrhea-constipation-and-bloating to learn more about the signs, symptoms, and causes of bad gut health.
How do you know you’re suffering from an unhealthy gut? Watch out for these symptoms that may indicate you need to restore your gut health:
- Regularly upset stomach
- Consistent weight change
- Irritation to skin
- Difficulty digesting certain foods
- Take a Daily Probiotic
Taking a daily probiotic helps to supplement the beneficial bacteria. By boosting these you can stimulate gut health, prevent inflammation, and cut back on the chances you’ll develop other intestinal problems.
You can pick up a probiotic, generally in small capsules, from the following locations:
- Grocery stores
- Drug stores
- Specialty shops
- Online retailers
Another way to get the benefits of probiotics, without taking a daily capsule, is to work fermented foods into your diet. Some options of fermented foods include:
- Miso
- Kombucha
- Kefir
- Kimchi
Make sure you get guidance from a medical professional when incorporating probiotics into your diet or supplement regime. You don’t want to ‘overdose’ yourself on probiotics as it can cause negative side effects. You’ll also want to ensure what you are adding to your diet is top-of-the-line and sure to offer solid, science-backed benefits.
- Increase Intake of Prebiotic Foods
Now that you have probiotics, you need to keep them going. That’s where prebiotics come in.
Prebiotics are the food that probiotics thrive on. These are carbohydrates that are nondigestible.
An added benefit to prebiotics are their ability to increase probiotic tolerance. This includes tolerance to intense conditions like pH shifts and temperature drops or hikes.
You can add prebiotics to your body by increasing your intake of food rich in pre-biotics – simple as that. Which foods does that include? We’ve whipped together a list:
- Onions
- Whole grains
- Garlic
- Bananas
- Asparagus
- Remove or Reduce Stressors
Stress isn’t just bad for your mental health – it manifests as physical side effects throughout your body. This includes your gut microbiome.
Even short periods of stress have been shown to cause these shifted in microbes within your body. This is why stress management is incredibly important for maintaining a healthy body.
Common stressors that play into gut health include:
- Sleep deprivation from lack of healthy, regular sleep habits
- Exposure to environmental stress from drastic temperature or noise shifts
- Psychological stress from lifestyle, job, or relationships problems
Unfortunately, you can’t just get rid of all stressors in your life. The good part? They can be managed.
Here are some stress management tips:
- Meditate daily
- Begin daily journaling
- Take a walk
- Spend time with animals
- Practice yoga
- Decrease daily caffeine intake
- Incorporate Regular Exercise Into Your Lifestyle
Regular exercise isn’t just good for your weight – it can improve your gut microbiota.
Those who regularly workout are found to have a wider variety of organisms in there microbiota. This improves the way your gut functions leading to less digestive upset.
If you’re looking to add exercise into your daily routine here are some tips:
- Try muscle training at least twice weekly
- Incorporate 150 minutes over seven days
- Let the majority of your exercise be moderate-intensity workouts
- Go Vegetarian
Studies have shown those with a vegetarian diet to have healthy guts and suffer from fewer digestive diseases. Vegetarians tend to have a higher level of prebiotic fibers, which we covered earlier in this article.
As a vegetarian, you will have a different makeup of gut microbiota. This makeup is actually shown to be more beneficial than those who act as omnivores with a high intake of meat.
This improved microbiota is generally accepted as being because less disease-causing bacteria are established. However, studies are still being conducted to determine the exact diet and factors that cause this shift.
- Get Adequate Sleep Each Night
Getting in the eight recommended hours of sleep adults should get doesn’t just affect your mood and cognitive abilities. Gut health is also dependent on you getting the sleep your body needs.
Inflammatory conditions are more common in those who have irregular sleeping patterns or who are consistently woken during their sleep.
You can create healthy sleep habits by waking and going to bed at the same time each day. This will help you to regularly get the recommended hours of sleep and improve your gut health.
At the very least, get seven hours of sleep per night. Talk to your doctor if you’re unsure how much sleep you should be getting. If you have trouble falling or staying asleep, medical professionals will be able to guide you down the right path to improving your sleep habits in a safe and effective way.
- Include Polyphenol-Rich Foods in Your Diet
Polyphenol-rich foods are great for bolstering your gut’s health. These foods are a type of plant compound and have been shown to:
- Reduce inflammation
- Limit oxidative stress
- Improve cholesterol levels
Why are polyphenols good? When you consume a polyphenol-rich food, the polyphenol is not always digestible by human cells. This means it gets redirected to the colon where probiotics – gut microbiota – are able to break them down. Heart disease and symptoms of inflammation are effectively combated during this process.
If you’re looking to incorporate more polyphenol-rich foods into your diet, consider adding:
- Dark chocolate
- Almonds
- Onions
- broccoli
- Green tea
- Red wine
Building a Better Gut
As you work to restore gut health, remember to be consistent in your changes. One day of healthy lifestyle changes won’t completely change your gut’s health. Keep the changes consistent and dedicate yourself to healthy living for a restored gut.
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