PHARMACY
Is Your Gut Healthy? This ‘second brain’ can affect mood and overall wellness By Dr. Alexandra Prach and Tara Storjohann
E
ver wonder why you feel “off” after having to take antibiotics for a prolonged period of time? The term “gut health” is usually mentioned when talking about overall well-being, but what does it really mean? The truth is, your gut is tied to all aspects of health including mental, physical, emotional and immune. There are many products on the market that target improving gut health such as prebiotics, probiotics, apple cider vinegar and “gut shots.” Throughout this article, we will discuss what it means to have a healthy gut and how to get there. The human microbiome consists of thousands of bacteria, fungi and viruses that colonize our nasal passages, mouth, skin and gut. Each person’s microbiome is individualized and affected by many lifestyle and environmental factors. It’s important to keep your microbiome diverse because it has many important jobs including defending against pathogenic bacteria, making vitamins, absorbing nutrients and producing hormones.
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Your gut is intimately connected to your brain and affects mood, cognition and overall health. The gut is known as the second brain and produces serotonin and short-chain fatty acids, which inf luence brain cell development and function. Microbiome diversity is also strongly tied to mood. For example, those with less of a variety of good bacteria in their gut usually have associated depressive symptoms. Many factors can impact your gut health such as stress, the environment, sleep and medications. A healthy microbiome increases resistance to stress. As previously mentioned, the brain and gut are intimately connected. They communicate bidirectionally (gut to brain and bring to gut). When the brain is under stress it sends messages to the gut that can disrupt the microbiome, further leading to inflammation, mood disturbances and chronic health conditions. In the environment, exposure to toxins such as heavy metals, pesticides, air pollution and molds
can cause gut imbalance. Next, your circadian rhythm (your sleep-wake cycle) is directly linked to the microbiome. Poor quality of sleep may be due to unhealthy microbiome, but an unhealthy microbiome may be due to poor sleep habits. In other words, it is important to have both quality sleep habits as well as a healthy gut. Lastly, medications such as antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, acid-reducing medications and antipsychotics are all culprits of causing gut dysbiosis. Now that we know what may hurt our gut, we can discuss how to heal it using the “Five R Framework.”
The “Five R Framework”
Remove – When starting to heal the gut, we want to remove everything that may be hurting it. Foods that cause inflammation are important to remove. These irritating foods can be identified by having a foodsensitivity test done (which may be costly) or completing an elimination diet. In an elimination diet, we first eliminate common foods that cause reactions, including dairy and eggs, soy, peanuts, corn, gluten, processed foods and alcohol. After eliminating these foods from the diet for four weeks, food groups are reintroduced, one at a time every three days, and a food diary is kept to recognize what is causing any symptoms. This diet has shown to clear up symptoms such as chronic runny nose or congestion, skin conditions such as eczema, chronic bloating, constipation and nausea. Replace – Next, we must replace components that aid in nutrient absorption, such as digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid (great for patients on long-term acid-reducing medications, vegans and vegetarians). Supplements that contain amylase, lipase, lactase and pepsin can be found to help aid digestion. Hydrochloric acid supplements will contain an ingredient called “Betaine HCl,” which may even be found in combination products with the previously listed digestive enzymes.
