Beyond Digestion: How Gut Health Affects Your Mind and Body

When you hear the phrase “gut health,” you might think this refers to only your stomach and digestive system. Although it’s true that your gut is made up of your stomach, intestines, and colon, gut health affects your overall health in many ways beyond digestion. From enhancing mental health to helping maintain your immune system, having a healthy gut has a big impact on your well-being.

Your gut contains its own miniature ecosystem made up of hundreds of different species of bacteria, viruses, and fungi. These microorganisms are known as the gut microbiome. Bacteria in the gut help break down food into nutrients to fuel your body. But some bacteria and other microorganisms can be harmful to your health and contribute to the development of diseases. That’s why maintaining a healthy gut is so important for your overall health.

How Gut Health Affects Your Body

Your immune system is intertwined with your gut, which contains approximately 80% of your body’s immune cells. As a result, having an unhealthy balance of microbes in your gut may make you more susceptible to chronic disease or make it harder for your body to fight infectious illnesses.

The variety of bacteria your gut contains has a big impact on your gut health. Many factors affect the types of bacteria in your gut, including some that are out of your control, such as age, sex, and genetics. But many lifestyle factors can also harm your gut health, including:

• Being sedentary
• Drinking too much alcohol
• Eating ultra-processed foods
• Having high stress levels
• Smoking
• Taking antibiotics (which destroy good bacteria along with bad bacteria)

When these factors upset the balance of good and bad gut microbes, your health can be directly affected. Researchers have found that poor gut health is linked to many conditions, such as:

• Cancer
• Cardiovascular disease
• Gastrointestinal diseases, such as irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
• Type 2 diabetes

The Connection Between Mental Health and Your Gut

In addition to your physical health, your gut also plays a big role in your mental health. This is because your brain and gastrointestinal system are closely connected. You have likely experienced times when being anxious or upset made you feel nauseous or affected your bowel habits. But it can also work the other way around.

When your gut is off balance, it can signal the brain that something isn’t right. This may happen in many ways, including through the vagus nerve, which sends messages between the brain, heart, and digestive system. Microorganisms in the gut can also produce and manage neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and dopamine, which affect both the brain and immune system.

These issues can lead to anxiety and depression and could also cause the progression of mental health disorders. On the other hand, having a healthy balance of gut microbes may improve your overall mental health.

Do You Have a Healthy Gut?

There is no single test that can determine the health of your gut microbiome. However, certain symptoms can be signs of issues with your gut health. These include:

• Anxiety and low mood
• Fatigue
• Gastrointestinal problems, such as constipation, diarrhea, and bloating
• High frequency of contagious illnesses, such as colds
• Trouble sleeping

If you notice any of these signs of an unhealthy gut, making healthy lifestyle changes can help. By taking steps to improve your gut health, you can also help lower your risk of many related health issues.

Eating for a Healthy Gut

Your diet can have a big impact on your gut health, as the foods you eat can directly affect the balance of bacteria in your microbiome. Eating a wide variety of fresh, whole foods, including fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans, and nuts can help you have a healthy microbiome.

You can also improve your gut health by:

• Choosing foods high in polyphenols. These natural plant compounds act as antioxidants and can increase good bacteria while reducing bad bacteria in the gut. Many herbs, spices, fruits, veggies, nuts, and seeds contain them, as well as green and black tea, coffee, and cocoa.
• Drinking a lot of water. In addition to promoting a healthy diversity of bacteria in your gut, water can help your body absorb nutrients from food and help prevent constipation.
• Eating plenty of fiber. Fiber-rich foods, such as fruits and vegetables, legumes, and whole-grain breads and cereals, aid in digestion and absorption of minerals. Prebiotic fibers also promote the growth of good bacteria in your gut.
• Limiting ultra-processed foods. Avoid foods like hot dogs, packaged baked goods, frozen pizza, chips, and other foods high in sugar and fat that can disrupt the balance of bacteria in your gut.

Some research also shows that eating fermented foods, such as yogurt, sauerkraut, and kimchi, can also help maintain a healthy gut.

More Ways to Support Your Gut

Diet isn’t the only way you can promote good gut health. Adopting other healthy habits can also help, such as:

• Getting plenty of sleep. A lack of quality sleep can affect the balance of bacteria in your gut. Aim for 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep per night.
• Exercising regularly. Aerobic exercise, like walking, biking, or dancing, can help with digestion and support a healthy microbiome.
• Managing stress. Practicing relaxation techniques, such as meditation, journaling, yoga, and breathing exercises, can help reduce stress and keep your gut healthier.

Your primary care provider can also give you advice on improving your gut health or refer you to a gastroenterologist if you have symptoms of gastrointestinal conditions like IBD.

Have questions about your gut health? Find a provider.