Medical Doctor Peter Kozlowski, the author of the book Unfunc Your Gut, once stated “Your gut is not Las Vegas. What happens in the gut does not stay in the gut.” So, what is the gut? Why do the things that happen there not stay there? More importantly, what does this mean? In this blog,I am going to answer all your questions about a widely overlooked topic…Gut Heath!
What is the gut?
Let’s start with the basics! The gut includes the anal canal, colon, esophagus, mouth, rectum, small intestine, and stomach. The gut’s role is to digest and break down food, absorb the nutrients, and dispose of the rest. The gut has numerous species of “good” bacteria, including Lactobacillus, Bacteroides, and Bifidobacterium. A healthy gut microbiome typically means that you have more good bacteria than harmful bacteria.
What are the symptoms of an unhealthy gut?
Let’s get into the symptoms that accompany an unhealthy gut. Some of the symptoms of an unhealthy gut include bloating, gas, nausea, discomfort in the abdomen, and constipation. These symptoms are a sign that your digestive system is working improperly, which might be due to your gut microbiome being imbalanced. Gut imbalance is referred to as gut dysbiosis. It is also possible that you may experience none of these symptoms but have issues with your anxiety, skin, weight, or an autoimmune disease, which can be associated with gut dysbiosis. Gut health can also affect estrogen levels, reproductive health, heart health, bone health, and cell health.
Since we are discussing symptoms, I want to take a more detailed view of how an unhealthy gut can impact certain aspects of women’s health.
Pregnancy
Poor gut health can interfere with a pregnant woman’s system. This interference can lead to complications with the unborn baby’s development. For example, babies that were exposed to an unhealthy diet during pregnancy often encounter lean defective intestinal microbiota, which is a “dysregulation of genes involved in lipid and glucose metabolism.” Problems with lipid and glucose metabolism can result in diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In addition, an unhealthy gut during pregnancy can lead to premature births and digestive issues for the baby. These occurrences can cause further health issues for the baby later. For the mother, issues with the gut microbiome are linked to gestational diabetes and preeclampsia. It is important for new mothers to take care of their gut health even after they have already given birth as well because their gut health will continue to affect the baby in the form of breastfeeding.
Gynecological Cancer
The most common gynecological cancers are cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, and endometrial cancer. Chronic inflammation is linked to an increased risk of these cancers. This is especially important because more harmful than good bacteria being present in the gut can lead to chronic inflammation. As I stated above, gut health plays a role in estrogen levels, which can play a big role in the development of cancers such as breast and endometrial cancer. There could be an increase in cancer risk because of the effects harmful gut bacteria have on estrogen metabolism. Lastly, a weak immune system can cancer cells to multiply unchecked. More and more studies are finding new connections between a healthy gut microbiome and overall immune system health.
Women’s Mental Health.
As stated earlier in this post, anxiety is a symptom of an unhealthy gut. Kara Landau, who is a registered dietitian, states, “There is definitely a clear link between women's emotional health and their gut health, with our bodies literally having a direct connection via the vagusnerve to send messages between the gut and the brain (Sager).” This means that negative emotions like stress and anxiety can negatively impact your gut health. However, it also means that poor gut health can play a role in negatively impacting our mental well-being. To add to this,in a study done on 206 women from ages 49 to 67 there was a link between “abdominal pain and irregularity and indigestion” and “anxious and depressive symptoms (Sager.)” For this reason,medical professionals recommend adjusting your diet to reduce the effects of an unhealthy gut on your mental and emotional well-being.
How to improve gut health?
Now for the moment you have been waiting for! Here’s how you can improve your gut health: probiotics and prebiotics. Prebiotics work to make sure that good bacteria are healthy and work, while probiotics put these good bacteria in your system. Prebiotics work by creating short-chain fatty acids that are used to promote immune function and health. You can get prebiotics from whole grains. Because of this, medical professionals recommend that you eat at least three servings of whole grains daily. Foods that contain whole grains include chia seeds, flaxseed, brown rice, and corn. Eating three servings of whole grains can reduce the risk of inflammation, constipation, depression and anxiety, diabetes, and more. Probiotics can be found in sour cream, yogurt, kombucha, and more. You can also take probiotic supplements to ensure that you get enough probiotics in your daily diet.
I hope this answers most of your questions about gut health! I also hope you learned a little bit about what a healthy gut is and how to maintain a healthy one. You now know why what happens in the gut does not stay there!
References
“Feed Your Gut | Center for Women’s Health | OHSU.” Www.ohsu.edu, www.ohsu.edu/womens-health/feed-your-gut.
“How to Promote Gut Health during Pregnancy.” Finn + Emma, 8 Aug. 2022, www.finnandemma.com/blogs/news/how-to-promote-gut-health-during-pregnancy. Accessed 17 Feb. 2024.
“Importance of Gut Health.” Franciscan Health,www.franciscanhealth.org/community/blog/guthealth-why-is-it-important#:~:text=A%20healthy%20gut%20means%20that.
Sager, Jessica. “The Happiest Women Have Lower Levels of These Gut Bacteria.” Parade, 5 May 2023, parade.com/health/gut-bacteria-mental-health-women. Accessed 17 Feb. 2024.
“The Correlation between Pregnancy and the Gut.” UMass Chan Medical School, 18 Apr. 2019, www.umassmed.edu/nutrition/blog/blog-posts/2019/4/the-correlation-between-pregnancy-and-the-gut/. Accessed 17 Feb. 2024.
“Unfunc Your Gut Quotes by Peter Kozlowski.” Www.goodreads.com, www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/91132424-unfunc-your-gut-a-functional-medicine-guide-boost-your-immune-system. Accessed 17 Feb. 2024.
Wahid, Mohd, et al. “Microbes in Gynecologic Cancers: Causes or Consequences and Therapeutic Potential.” Seminars in Cancer Biology, vol. 86, Nov. 2022, pp. 1179–1189, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semcancer.2021.07.013. Accessed 3 May 2023.