The beauty industry's latest fixation doesn't start with skin; it begins with your gut. Not glamorous, we know, but what's going on inside your digestive system is responsible for how you look and feel says editor Trudi Brewer. Read on to find out why.
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Naturopath Jane Cronin
To better understand the connection between your gut and the rest of your body, we asked Naturopath Jane Cronin from Clinicians what’s going on.
How does our gut affect our entire body?
Like the skin, the digestive system is a barrier to protect us from the outside world. It defends against ingested parasites, bacteria, and bugs with physical barriers such as digestive linings, and chemical barriers such as stomach acid, good bacteria, and minerals like zinc. These act as an antimicrobial in the mucosal fluids. The digestive system's other job is to break down our food into small particles, extract and absorb the nutritional goodness, and to dispose of what is not needed. It's important for the correct assimilation of many B vitamins, and vitamin K. Recently science has discovered our digestive system is key for immune health and also plays a part in neurotransmitter creation that can affect our mood and mental health.
What symptoms can we expect to feel if our gut is out of balance?
As a naturopath, I often focus on digestive healing as a root cause to improve many areas of health. The obvious signs of digestive imbalance include wind, bloating, discomfort, acidity, and nausea after eating. Some people will also have changes to bowel motility, such as constipation or loose bowels, or fluctuate between both. Symptoms that might be less obvious would be things like aches and pains and allergies, this is because, within the digestive system, we have an immune system, when this gets out of balance, due to factors such as food intolerances, microbiome imbalances or leaky gut. This can lead to inflammation and the immune system becoming over sensitive and overreacting.
Could our skin issues be a sign that our gut health is awry, and why?
Skin health is one area that can reflect the health of our digestive system and our food choices. Leaky gut (I mentioned earlier) is where there is a weakening of our gut barriers. This can lead to things getting through like undigested proteins that can aggravate the immune system leading to inflammation, which extends to the skin. Therefore inflammatory skin conditions that show as dryness, itchiness, or redness can be helped by improving the digestive health and isolating food intolerances. Also, gut integrity can be affected by stress, alcohol, junk food and too much caffeine. These all need to be processed by the liver, which processes the toxins and waste into the digestive system, removed via the bowels. With poor digestive integrity, these toxins can be reabsorbed, and if the liver gets overwhelmed, toxins move into the lymphatic system and then are removed via the skin. The result is breakouts and poor skin health.
There is lots of talk about having a 'balanced microbiome', what does this mean?
Amazingly within the digestive system, there is a whole ecosystem. There can be different kinds of bacteria, yeasts, and even parasites that can all happily coexist. Our good bacteria help maintain the gut walls; they keep the balance of other less beneficial populations and help produce energy to power the digestive system. They are also broken up by the immune system and sent out in fragments into the body to signal immune attack, which switches on the immune system. Everything works well when they are in charge. However, if good bacteria populations are affected, then other less beneficial bacteria and yeasts can take over. They can damage gut walls and can consume our carbohydrates producing toxins that can lead to wind, bloating and poor bowel motility. They can also affect energy and mood. So you can see that keeping a good level of beneficial bacteria is vital for a healthy gut.
What are pro-biotics vs. prebiotics and now post-biotics?
Probiotics contain live species of the good bacteria we just discussed. We can take them at times when we feel our bacterial numbers may have become depleted, for example, during and after antibiotics. Many different strains are providing various benefits within the digestive system. Prebiotics are specific types of carbohydrates that act as food for the good bacteria and to support the mucosal cells in the digestive system. They assist healthy cell walls and are used by good bacteria as food and energy. Post-biotics is a new term that refers to the metabolic by-products produced by bacteria. Emerging research reveals that substances produced by gut bacteria can affect many areas in positive or negative ways such as energy, mood, cholesterol, inflammation, appetite, and blood sugar balance - to name a few. Post-biotic depends on the microbial composition of the gut, and the type of food it's getting.
What should we be eating to encourage a healthy, balanced gut?
Many substances classed as prebiotics are found in fibre-rich food such as fruit, vegetables, and grains. Fibre has the positive effect of feeding our good bacteria, removing toxins, spring cleaning our insides, and helping maintain healthy blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Fruit and vegetables are also rich in flavonoids that work as antioxidants in the digestive system, but also help to maintain digestive wall integrity. Herbs like turmeric and ginger can help support healthy digestion and are anti-inflammatory substances. Garlic, onions, and chilli have brilliant antimicrobial substances and help kill ingested bugs. Fermented foods are popular now as they contain live bacteria and all the metabolites they create have beneficial effects on the body via the digestive system. Finally, drinking water is vital to the body, as it helps flush waste and is essential for healthy bowel motions.