Globally 67% of the population suffer from digestive issues varying from minor symptoms to serious disorders such as Irritable bowel syndrome. For some people, indigestion may be caused by bloating while for others it may be heartburn & constipation. In fact erratic sleep schedules & late night snacking lowers your food motility & can be the starting point of digestive disorders. Prolonged & regular indigestion can be severe & even lead to diseases such as Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s disease & GERD.
Digestion issues have serious consequences ranging from pain, embarrassment, loss of sleep & sometimes deteriorating your overall health.
Here comes the trickiest part! Pharma companies boast that their antibiotics & drugs can give instant relief. However these ill-fated medications can only provide temporary relief & are long term solutions. Besides, these medications have side effects too. As if this was not enough, when we stop consuming such antibiotics, digestive issues & symptoms reappear & our gut microbiome diversity is reduced by 75%.
Let us discuss what causes digestive problems & how we can improve our digestive health. There are many factors that come into play when suffering from indigestion such as stress, medication & wrong dietary choices that do not agree with your unique biology. Some of the most severe digestive issues that occur due to wrong dietary choices include Crohn’s disease, Ulcerative Colitis & irritable bowel syndrome.
Here are some insights on how you can improve your digestive health.
- Unique dietary choices: We are surrounded by generic dietary recommendations & fad diets that do more harm than improving our health. Low carb diets/high protein or fat diets brings an imbalance in hydrogen(H2) production & consumption which is essential for aerobic respiration in the colon. Methanogen, Actinogens & sulphate reducing bacteria all compete for H2. Low carb diet reduces production of H2 which leads to lower butyrate production & alters( increases) colon pH level. This increase in pH level is thriving ground for methanogens & Sulphate Reducing Bacteria & makes these bacteria release methane gas & hydrogen Sulphide gas respectively which leads to bloating & increasing risk of Ulcerative Colitis. You should focus on having food in your meal plate that your microbes are hungry for. Our UP THE GUT solution for digestive & mental health decodes & analyse your unique microbiome to provide personalised recommendations which foods you should consume more frequently & which foods you should avoid to improve your protein fermentation, intestinal barrier health, digestive efficiency & inflammation.
- Do not swallow your food: Given our current busy lifestyle & paucity of time, we end up swallowing our food which results in digestive issues & weight gain. Ideally, a particular food you eat should be chewed 32 times before you swallow. Studies have shown that this can lower your risk of obesity by improving satiety. If you eat too fast, you are done even before your stomach relays to the brain that you are full. If you slowly chew your food, it is less likely that you will have digestive issues.
- Drink a lot of water: Consumption of water & other fluids( obviously not alcoholic beverages) can help you break down the food properly which improves your digestion process. Given the fact we are losing lot of daily due to skin, going to washroom & respiration, it is recommended that men should take 125 ounces of water daily & women should take 91 ounces per day
- Reducing your stress levels: Your gut & brain constantly communicate with each other through the vagus nerve. You can understand the science behind gut-brain connection here:
When you are stressed, your brain releases cortisol which warns your gut that you are being attacked. Your gut immediately, obviously through communication with the immune system, stops the digestive system( non essential body functions) which leads to bloating, gassy, constipation & a host of other digestion issues. In fact, your stress is also connected with your dietary choices. The moment you start following diet that does not agrees with your unique biology, it leads to inflammation which blocks the communication between gut & brain & making us feel depressed & stressed & as a result our brain releases cortisol( as explained above) which causes digestive troubles & this goes on.
- Quit consumption of junk & unhealthy foods & exercise daily for at least 45 to 60 minutes
As explained earlier, digestive issues can be caused by multiple reasons & therefore it is necessary to decode what is the root cause of bloating, constipation or even IBD. We, at Genefitletics, decode & analyse your gut microbiome & provide you unique dietary recommendations categorised into which foods you should consume & which ones you minimise to avoid to prevent inflammation. For more details, please give us a shout here.
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