Gut Health

Meaningful Microbes

What is Gut Health?

The gut is responsible for breaking down food, absorbing nutrients and eliminating waste products. When you have a healthy gut, you can efficiently digest and absorb nutrients from the foods that you eat. Your body will receive the essential micronutrients in the form of vitamins and minerals that it needs and the energy necessary for proper function.

Immune function

About 80% of your immune system resides in your gut. If your gut is healthy, you maintain a strong and balanced immune response that protects you from infections, viruses and other harmful pathogens. A healthy gut provides a barrier from pathogens by not allowing them into your body and bloodstream, the immune response also provides beneficial antibodies.

Why is Gut Health Important?

  • Digestion & Nutrient Absoption

  • Immune Function

  • Mental Health & Good Brain Function

  • Balanced Blood Sugar

  • Disease Management

For thousands of years, Ayurveda the "sister science" to yoga has practiced healing the gut because disease begins or is healed in the gut. Good gut health (meaningful microbes) supports our immune system, because most of it resides in the gut and our enteric nervous system (the second brain) resides in there too. Because the gut-brain axis is bi-directional, a healthy gut is critical for good mental health and with antidepressants the most prescribed pharmaceutical, we have some work to do around healing gut health in this country.

Research shows that a dysbiotic or imbalanced gut can impact brain function, mood and mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, ADHD and autism to name a few. A healthy gut on the other hand, may likely contribute to improved emotional well-being and cognitive function.

Good gut health is also connected to balanced blood sugar regulation and weight management. The composition of a “good” gut could impact how the body stores fat, maintains energy from food, and even regulates appetite. In mouse models, a microbiota from a thin mouse transplanted into an obese mouse, causes the obese mouse to lose weight. Maintaining a healthy gut through a healthy, whole food diet can help support blood sugar, metabolism and other chronic diseases.

Other diseases such as digestive disorders, allergies, autoimmune conditions and even some cancers has been associated with poor gut health and an imbalanced microbiota. On the other hand, a healthy gut with diverse and balanced microbes appears to protect again these diseases and promotes over-all good health.

How Do You Make Meaningful Microbes?

Meaningful microbes are our resident bacteria, that when in balance, contribute to our health and wellbeing. Our gut bacteria (meaningful microbes) plays a significant role in supporting and protecting our metabolic and immune functions. When our microbes recieve the necessary nutrients from dietary fibers and resistant starches (whole foods) thay will produce short chain fatty acids (SCFA). SCFA’s, butyrate, propionate, and acetate, are the metabolites created by our microbes that regulate our T reg population (we want LOTS of these) and have many physiological effects thoughout our body.

1.  Zhang YJ, Li S, Gan RY, Zhou T, Xu DP, Li HB. Impacts of Gut Bacteria on Human Health and Diseases. Int J Mol Sci. 2015;16(4):7493-7519. doi:10.3390/ijms16047493