Metabolic

Deal with your intestine and it’ll handle you

Admit it. They have a complicated relationship with your gastrointestinal system. It’s often smelly, sometimes loud. It can be grossly persistent or unreliably loose. But in many ways it is the center of your being that is where all kinds of remarkably useful processes take place. Your gut affects your brain health, immune function, sleep quality, sex life, skin, blood sugar levels, and emotional stability. And it’s mainly because of the trillions of bacteria and other microbes that spend their lives working for you.

They work day and night, metabolizing vitamins, minerals and other nutrients from food, delivering life-saving drugs to your body tissues, protecting your organ system from toxins and infectious agents in your intestines and even producing hormones / neurotransmitters that affect emotions and produce vitamin K2 – that is needed for everything from blood clotting to building healthy bones – as well as biotin, vitamin B12, folic acid and thiamine. And these microbes are just getting started.

One study showed that some gut bacteria can reduce the severity of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, while other strains of bacteria are disproportionately increased at the onset of the disease. Another study in genome medicine explains how certain gut bacteria can contribute to metabolic syndrome and obesity, while others can help fight these diseases.

There’s even a University of Chicago study that found that if you gave a specific strain of gut bacteria to mice with melanoma, your body’s immune system would trigger an attack against the cancer cells. And how about this one? A study in the Journal of Psychiatric Research found that if you transfer gut bacteria from a clinically depressed person to a rat, the rat will become depressed!

Further research shows that the connection between the brain and the intestine is due to the production of mood-changing hormones / neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin in the intestine and to the interaction of the bacteria with the body’s own endocannabinoid system (this is a pleasure and pain system, sleep, memory and health influences). Reproduction and mood).

And what do we do with these amazingly useful bacteria? We kill the good bacteria, take care of those that cause us health problems, and then correct any ailments we take, drugs like proton pump inhibitors for acid reflux, metformin, SSRI antidepressants, antibiotics, and laxatives that only aggravate our gut biome . Fortunately, new discoveries offer some easy ways for you to treat your colon with the gentle kindness it deserves.

One avocado per day increases the usefulness of bacteria, reduces the levels of bile acids, and helps you excrete more fat. This is according to a study published in the Journal of Nutrition in which urine and stool samples were taken from participants for three months.

Prebiotics feed the probiotic bacteria. So enjoy asparagus, bananas, chicory, garlic, Jerusalem artichoke, onions and whole grain products.

Take probiotics and eat probiotic foods like kefir, non-dairy yogurt, and fermented foods like kimchi, kombucha, sauerkraut, miso, and fermented vegetables. Fermented foods contain both pre- and probiotics. If you want to take a probiotic supplement, ask your gastroenterologist first. You may need to make your gut healthier through diet changes and medications before it is useful or useful to take a probiotic. Then look for one that survives stomach acid like Digestive Advantage or Culturelle. You should see an improvement in your gut health in about four weeks. If you are lactose intolerant or vegan, read the labels carefully. There are vegan probiotics, but most of them aren’t. Follow the storage instructions on the label to keep the probiotic active.

Ditch added sugar and artificial sweeteners. They disrupt your biome, change your metabolism and contribute to body-wide inflammation. Weight gain, identification problems and metabolic diseases such as diabetes can result.

Try to take 200-300 milligrams of beef colostrum in tablet form daily. It can reduce gas and leaking bowels caused by taking NSAIDs like ibuprofen.

Practice stress reduction techniques such as meditation. It has been shown that stress, even for a short time, disrupts your biome.

Mehmet Oz, MD, is hosting the “Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, MD, is the chief wellness officer emeritus at the Cleveland Clinic. For the healthiest lifestyle, tune in to “The Dr. Oz Show” or visit www.sharecare.com.

(c) 2021 Michael Roizen, MD

and Mehmet Oz, MD

King Features Syndicate

Related Articles