The health of your gut can impact virtually any other system or function of your body.
Your gut starts at your face and ends at your bottom. It runs the through the whole of you, except for your limbs and impacts their function too.
Your gut:
✨ has more more nerves than your brain
✨ houses the vast majority of your immune system
✨ has more bacteria than human cells
✨ digests food
✨ absorbs nutrients
✨ excretes waste
✨ produces more than 90% of your body’s serotonin
✨ helps regulate your mood
✨ is home to more than 100 million neurons that produce neurotransmitters with functions including regulating mood and communicating satiety
✨ supplies nutrients, minerals, electrolytes, vitamins, and minerals
✨ defends against harmful pathogens
✨ regulates energy
✨ influences brain function
✨ . . . And more
The microbiota that inhabit your gut are of great significance. They’re not just along for the ride. The gut microbiota modulate, influence, and drive the functions of our body. Imbalance of the microorganisms within us will lead to an imbalance in our bodily functions.
The intestinal walls are meant to perform specific functions through selective permeability. Allowing nutrients to be absorbed in the digestive tract while also preventing microbes and food particles from exiting the gut and entering our bloodstream. The wall of the gut is sealed with tight junctions between each cell. These junctions are like a gateway for nutrients to enter our bloodstream.
Damage to the gut through antibiotic use, medications, inflammatory foods, chronic exposure to toxins, etc. will impact the balance of the microbes that keep us performing optimally. It will also irritate and wear down the tight junctions leading to intestinal permeability, or leaky gut. Pathogens, food particles, and other non nutritive material seeping through the gut into the bloodstream contributes to inflammation. Inflammation is at the root of virtually all illness and disease.
There is no overall health without gut health.
This is a fascinating read 👉🏼 The gut microbiota and host health: a new clinical frontier PMID: 26338727