There are many common things that can wreak havoc on your gut health, and they’re things you can improve yourself. Hi, it’s naturopath Michele here, and in this blog I am going to talk about what things upset your gut microbiome.

What is the microbiome?

Your gut microbiome is simply a term used to describe the trillions of micro-organisms such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa and fungi that live inside your gut. They are super important to us because they protect us against pathogens, help train our immune system and enable us to digest our food further to produce energy.

While we are going to focus on the gut in this blog, our entire body has a microbiome that is essential to our health. We have as many bacteria inside of us as we have human cells in the body. Each person’s gut microbiome is unique to them and formed in the first 1000 days of early life.

Hippocrates coined the phrase, “All diseases begin in the gut.” And we now know that the gut is considered the second brain, with our gut microbiome influencing our brain and nervous system function via our favourite nerve - the vagus nerve!

As we grow our gut bacteria are exposed to different dietary, lifestyle and environmental factors that can disrupt their delicate balance and increase your risk of developing bothersome symptoms and even developing certain illnesses.

Some of these factors that can disrupt your gut microbiome are:

 The overuse of antibiotics. Every time you have a course of Antibiotics, they alter your gut bacterial diversity which never fully recovers.

 Having too much sugar. Sugar is an inflammatory food and in most products we eat. Sugar feeds certain microbes at the expense of others and can lead to overgrowths of unfavourable species.Read your food labels and aim to consume less the 5gms in total per day.

 Eating GMO foods. Our bodies were not designed to digest these types of foods and they can alter your gut bacterial composition leading to overgrowths of opportunistic bacteria & fungi.

 Eating Gluten. The protein contained in wheat products called gliadin, loosens the tight gap junctions that hold your gut cells together causing your gut to become leaky. This leakiness allows undigested food and particles direct access to your immune system which can lead to a multitude of symptoms ranging from joint pain to food allergies.

 Too much stress. When you are stressed, the body produces a hormone called cortisol that changes the pH of your gut environment. This makes it a less favourable to your beneficial bacteria causing population reductions.

 Medication overuse. Many common over the counter medications deplete essential vitamins and nutrients as well as disrupt the delicate balance of your gut bacteria.

 Drinking Alcohol. Alcohol is also an inflammatory food like sugar.

 A sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise. A recent study showed that with just 6 weeks of moderate exercise your gut bacteria increased their production of short chain fatty acids which give us energy and reduced the risk of developing inflammatory diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. It also showed that this effect was completely reversed once moderate exercised was stopped. All the more reason to get moving people!

 Over-sanitisation. The use of antibacterial soaps, cleaning agents and sprays has been shown to disrupt our gut bacteria as well as our skin microbiome balance.

 Smoking. This alters your oral microbiome which is your first line of immune defense.

 Poor sleep habits. A 2009 study showed that poor sleep quality negatively affects your circadian rhythm and blood sugar regulation increasing your risk of developing diabetes and obesity.

And to be honest? This is just the things you can quickly and easily change at home yourself. The gut microbiome is complex and individualised.