Your gut microbiome is the ecosystem of bacteria that work together to maximize the efficiency of your digestive system and protect your immune system. Nutrient imbalances, antibiotics, alcohol, and stress can disrupt your microbiome, and can lead to everything from indigestion to food allergies to symptoms of anxiety and depression. The good news is that there are ways you can restore gut health and support a healthy, balanced microbiome.
WHAT IS THE MICROBIOME?
Your body is home to an astonishing number of microorganisms known as your microbiome. Your microbiome is a collection of tens of trillions of microbes that live on and inside you—but mostly inside you. It is the ecosystem of bacteria, viruses, yeasts, and other tiny organisms that live on and in your body.
There are more than 1,000 different species of bacteria and fungi spread throughout the human body. Together, these microbes make up 3-5 pounds of the average adult's total body weight. These microbes can be found everywhere, including on the skin, in the eyes, in the mouth and throat, in the lungs, the gut, and the genitals. The largest concentration of these microscopic organisms is in your digestive tract, which includes the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine (also known as the colon), rectum, and anus.
Most microbes in your body are beneficial or at least neutral. In fact, some are absolutely vital for survival; for example, nutrients from food can't be absorbed without certain species of bacteria living in the gut. Your microbiome helps you digest food and produce vitamins like K and B12. They also help keep you healthy by protecting you from harmful germs.
WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT MICROBIOMES?
Your gut microbiome is a vital part of your immune system, and if it's out of balance, you can experience all sorts of health problems. Understanding your microbiome and how it works can help you make informed decisions about how to improve your gut health.
Each person's microbiome is unique, and it contributes to your overall health in a variety of ways. The makeup of your microbiome can have a significant impact on your overall health and well-being. In fact, the types of bacteria in your microbiome can determine whether or not you're at risk for certain diseases like heart disease and diabetes, how likely you are to be overweight, your mood regulation, and even how well you respond to certain medications.
The makeup of each person's microbiome depends on their age, weight, diet, exercise habits, genetics, and various other factors. For example, a baby's first microbiome is established during birth. Following birth, the makeup of their microbiome depends on factors like whether they were breastfed or formula-fed, whether they had siblings or pets, and other environmental influences.
Your microbiome continues to evolve throughout life based on these same factors. If you've ever wondered why some people seem more susceptible to illness than others or why a particular medication works better for one person than another, the answer could lie within your own microbiome. If you want to stay healthy, you need to keep your microbiome in tip-top shape.
WHAT CAN DISRUPT THE MICROBIOME?
The gut microbiome plays a vital role in your health by assisting with digestion, helping fight off illness-causing pathogens, and even influencing brain function and mental health—as well as weight management.
Even though we need these bacteria to survive and thrive, the microbiome can easily be disrupted. And when the microbiome is disrupted, it can lead to illness or disease. Being aware of what factors can wreak havoc on our gut bacteria can help us avoid them and keep our microbiome healthy.
Three main factors that can affect your gut health include:
1. Microbiome sourcing: the kinds of microorganisms you're exposed to through diet and the environment.
2. Microbiome nourishment: how well you feed the organisms inside you (i.e., your diet).
3. Microbiome protection: how well you protect these organisms from injury and destruction (i.e., toxins, antibiotics, sugar).
The gut microbiome can be disrupted by things like:
Antibiotics
Antibiotics kill bacteria, but they don't discriminate between good and bad bacteria. As a result, while they may kill the bacteria that cause your sickness, they may also kill the good bacteria that keep you healthy. In fact, a single course of antibiotics can alter the makeup of your gut microbes for up to 12 months. This change in the composition of the gut microbiome could lead to altered metabolic activity, reduced species diversity, and antibiotic-resistant organisms. This has been linked to diarrhea, recurrent Clostridium difficile infections, an increase in obesity, and other conditions, including asthma and allergies.
Unhealthy Diet
Diets high in sugar and processed foods can disrupt your gut microbiome. This is especially true for refined sugars such as fructose and glucose monosaccharides. Refined sugars increase the growth rate of unhealthy bacteria while simultaneously decreasing the growth rate of beneficial species like Akkermansia muciniphila and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii.
Stress
Stress is not only a psychological issue. It can play a significant role in the gut and can negatively affect our microbiome. Your gut microbiome eats what you eat and gets stressed when you're stressed. Stress can affect your immune system, which can affect your microbiome and GI health.
Alcohol consumption
Alcohol consumption is associated with various health conditions, including gut dysfunction. Alcohol consumption increases intestinal permeability and reduces the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which are produced by healthy microbes in the gut.
The SCFAs are responsible for reducing inflammation and protecting the gut lining. They suppress the overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria while helping to regulate the immune system and contribute to better sleep and mental health, in addition to proper digestion. Therefore, alcohol can kill off some of your good gut microbes and cause increased tendencies for inflammation, poor digestion, and a host of other conditions.
Sedentary lifestyle
Sitting for long periods of time can negatively affect your gut microbiome. A sedentary lifestyle can negatively impact the diversity of certain bacteria in the intestines, specifically Bifidobacteria and Akkermansia muciniphila, which aid in digestion and absorption of nutrients and also help reduce inflammation. Sitting for long periods of time reduces blood flow to your digestive system, makes you produce fewer enzymes that break down food and absorb nutrients, and kills off good microbes faster than new ones replace them.
Exposure to toxins
Gut health can be harmed by toxins found in food and the environment, which can lead to changes in the microbial balance in your gut.
HOW TO SUPPORT A HEALTHY MICROBIOME
Restoring gut health can help you maintain a strong immune response, help your body process toxins and hormones, protect you against leaky gut syndrome, improve your energy levels, mental clarity, and mood, help control weight gain, and much more.
The good news is - there's plenty you can do to keep your microbiome healthy. If you think your gut microbiome may be unhealthy, consider making a few lifestyle changes. Here are some of the ways to support a healthy gut microbiome.
Eat whole foods
Processed foods are notoriously bad for you. They're often loaded with sugar and other refined carbs, which promote unhealthy bacteria in the gut. As hard as it may be to stay away from those delicious snacks, focus on eating whole foods—like fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, and legumes—and avoid processed foods as much as possible.
Fill up on fiber
Fiber supports healthy digestion by providing food for the good bacteria in your gut. Increase your fiber intake by eating more fruits and vegetables, while reducing sugar consumption. Diets low in fat and high in fiber support the growth of beneficial strains like Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium lactis. Some fiber-rich foods include lentils, artichokes, raspberries, and avocados.
Eat fermented foods
You can promote a healthy microbiome by eating fermented foods, which contain probiotics—living microorganisms that are good for your body, especially your digestive system. Fermented foods can help support both your digestive and immune systems and are part of a balanced diet. Fermentation doesn't just change a food's taste—it also makes it easier to digest by breaking down enzymes and nutrients naturally, making them more accessible to the body. This is why eating fermented foods can be so beneficial for digestive health.
Fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kefir, tempeh, miso, and kimchi contain beneficial live bacteria that can support a healthy gut environment by increasing the good bacteria in your digestive system and balancing out the bad bacteria.
Exercise
Exercise is an effective way to regulate the gut microbiome. Regular exercise is one of the best ways to get your microbiome back on track after a period of inactivity due to illness, injury, or lifestyle changes. For example, research shows that athletes have a lot of Akkermansia muciniphila in their microbiome, while people with metabolic conditions like diabetes or obesity have less of these good bacteria.
Add some mild to moderate exercise into your daily routine, to improve blood circulation, aid digestion, and help your microbiome.
Take probiotics
Eating foods with prebiotics—substances that promote the growth of beneficial bacteria—and probiotics—the actual bacteria themselves—can help support a healthy microbiome. Probiotics support a healthy microbiome by adding beneficial microorganisms to the body. These microorganisms fight against harmful bacteria and yeast that could be causing problems in the gut.
Start by adding more probiotics to your diet, as these will help your stomach digest food more efficiently. If you don't eat fermented foods regularly, you can supplement with a comprehensive probiotic to maximize health-giving properties that benefit healthful strains and discourage the bad.
THE TAKEAWAY
The gut microbiome is the most important part of your digestive system and can be disrupted easily by things like nutrient imbalances or deficiencies, alcohol consumption, certain medications (such as antibiotics), chronic stress, and lack of sleep.
The good news is you can support your gut microbiome by eating a balanced diet with plenty of fiber, drinking lots of water, exercising regularly, getting a good night’s sleep, and supplementing with a probiotic to support healthful bacteria. If you are struggling with digestive issues, testing your mineral and nutrient levels can reveal other patterns that may be preventing you from fully healing. Our personalized nutrition and supplements are designed to help your body repair and heal for more optimal living.