Metabolism-Gut Connection

If you are gaining weight inspite of having that so-called perfect diet or facing bloating- you blame our metabolism! Your nutritionist or trainer will tell you that your metabolism is slow.

Some people seem to struggle to improve their metabolism all their lives. You may be surprised to know it is not you but your gut that drives your metabolism. Your gut plays a prominent role in the digestion process & communicating with every organ of the body. For instance, it communicates with the brain to tell if you are hungry & the brain in turn tells the guy when to start the digestion process.

So what exactly is Metabolism? It is one of those words that everyone uses & no one knows what exactly it is! Many consider Metabolism as an organ tied to specific functions. However, the fact is it is much broader than this. Each & every cell in bacteria, animal or living organisms has its own metabolism

Metabolism is all about energy balance or in other words how our cells produce energy. This energy is used for all sort of things including movement, healing, maintenance & cellular specific activity.

This energy comes from food you consume. The digestion process that takes place breaks down the food into usable & absorbable nutrients that can be dispersed in our blood stream & other parts of our body.

The moment food touches your mouth, your saliva begins secreting digestive enzymes to break down foods. Once swallowed, your stomach gets to work with a high acidic environment and even more digestive enzymes that quickly degrade carbohydrates and proteins, and some fats. When it reaches your small intestine, immediately your body prepares for even more digestive enzymes used to break down all foods into microscopic nutrients easily transported through your bloodstream and to other parts of your body.

Some foods that are hard to digest or cannot be digested by your small intestine, find their way to gut microbiome (microbes living in our large intestine). Here, these foods interact with your gut & impact which microbes survive & thrive & can influence which microbial activities are conducted. These activities not only affect health of our gut & overall health but also how you absorb nutrients, how much energy is produced & even how much fat is stored (influence hunger hormone levels).

Metabolism relies on availability & absorption of nutrients. During digestion glucose through carbohydrates & triglycerides from fats are released in the bloodstream & being absorbed into cells. Depending upon the level of circulation & with hormones such as insulin, our cells extract these nutrients for energy to be used to build, maintain or replicate our cells.

Many of these hormone related activities such as those performed by Ghrelin, Leptin, Insulin & GLP-1 hormones by your gut microbiome in its own way. The activities of our gut microbiome depend upon the type of nutrients they consume. When they have access to healthy foods, they can promote beneficial activities that can regulate our blood sugar level & manage our cravings through gut-brain communication. On the flip side, when your microbes have access to less nutritious foods or a diet high in fat & sugar, they can function in a different way, leading to inflammation which can change how your body stores fat & insulin resistance- leading to type 2 diabetes.

Disrupting activities of beneficial microbes & promoting survival of harmful microbes or even changing the composition of gut microbes even if it means overgrowth of beneficial microbes can lead to gut dysbiosis which leads to inflammation. This imbalance in gut microbiome is pro-inflammatory & makes immune cells overactive.These immune cells are skilled at  bringing down pathogens that require high levels of energy. This may result in your immune cells extracting all that circulating energy meant for your cells and starving them. This can disrupt their normal metabolism and slow it down. This gut dysbiosis driven inflammation leads to fat storage, insulin resistance & slows down metabolism.

This relationship between metabolism & gut dysbiosis is growing which has made scientists believe that the solution to metabolic disorder lies in gut microbiome. As such there is not a single secret microbe that causes metabolic disorders. Different microbes wear different hats in the gut of each person. It all depends upon pattern of microbial activities & stabilising composition of gut microbiome & promoting beneficial microbial activities  holds key to metabolism & overcoming metabolic disorders.

The best way to do this is to consume foods that improve beneficial microbial activities & avoiding food that have pro-inflammatory reactions. We at Genefitletics decode what is actually happening inside your gut by analysing every single biochemical activity & provide you with unique dietary recommendations categorised into food you should consume more frequently & foods you should minimise & avoid. If you are facing weight gain, slow metabolism, weight plateau or a spike in blood sugar level frequently, your cure may lie in understanding functions your gut microbiome perform & personalising food as medicine to make them release beneficial compounds that can regulate your blood sugar level & improve your metabolism/ energy balance. For more details, hit us up here.

Sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27837775/ 

               https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2017.00387/full 

https://genomemedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13073-016-0303-2