Are You Taking Care of Your Gut Guests?
Did you know the less than ten percent of the cells in your body are really yours and that you are host to over three trillion microscopic carers who are responsible for your health and life 24 hours a day, 365 days a year? They are the microscopic critters in your gut and all over your body. They form your ‘Microbiome’ and are essential for your very survival and good health.
Your microbiome is unique to you, as each of us hosts a different population of these little ones. In fact your microbiome is a better identifier of you than your DNA.
Rather like the macroscopic ‘Black Holes’ in the universe, about which we know very little, so down here on Earth we all have a mysterious ‘Black Hole’ in our gut that houses trillions of living critters working hard to keep us alive and well. Only in recent years have we been able to start to get to know them personally.
These micro-organisms include some bacteria that produce completely new substances to feed us; ninety percent of our nutrition comes from what we eat and ten percent comes from what our gut bacteria have made for us. Other bacteria identify any toxic substances we may have ingested and set about destroying them. More bacteria are able to identify whatever kind of enzyme may be needed to deal with the meal we just ate and then go ahead producing enough of it to digest the newly arrived food. Some bacteria are invaluable in times of food shortage as they help extract every possible calorie from our food; not good for anyone with a weight problem though! There are others who manufacture vitamins as needed. Others are composters who deal with waste and produce useful food for other bacteria. There are gatekeeper bacteria that check everything that tries to get through our gut into our body and bloodstream; they keep out the bad guys and only let the good guys through – now that alone is a miraculous service they offer us 24/7!
So what do these three trillion guests want, in return, from you? How can you keep them happy?
They are very economical guests because generally they only eat what we can’t eat, that is vegetable and fruit fibre. So the message here for us all is to not starve our microbiomes, by making sure you eat plenty of food containing fibre. It so happens that we can get plenty of this bacterial delicacy from fruit, vegetables and grains and none from meat and dairy produce. If you live on a high meat, dairy and refined food diet you are starving your guests and they won’t thank you for that!
The second thing to remember that if you need to take any antibiotic medicine, guess what, you knock out millions of your valuable guests and they may not recover their numbers for weeks or months. Hence, often people are recommended probiotics to help recolonise their gut. The trouble is that there maybe tens of thousands of different bacteria and other mini critters, and most probiotics will only give you a handful of different ones. You have been gathering your gut guests and skin guests ever since you were born.
The third thing worth knowing is that evidence is growing to suggest these little guests may have more control over our lives than we used to think. Not only can they affect the way we deal with our intake of calories though also may help control our cholesterol levels, may damage our stomach lining and even have a profound influence on our minds. There are a vast array of nerve connections from our gut to our brain, which might explain why we sometimes make decisions “on our gut feelings”. It is no accident that we speak of our gut brain. So why not start to take care of your guests and treat them with the courtesy they deserve, feed them well and try to avoid harming them.
Michael Lingard BSc.DO. PBNut.
TotalHealthMatters
References:
‘Gut Bliss’ and ‘The Microbiome Solution’ by Dr Robyn Chutkan
‘Gut’ by Giulia Enders
