Optimizing your Health Through Digestion
Did you know that we have more bacteria in our digestive tracts than we have cells in our body? The types of bacteria that live in us greatly dictate the quality of our health. When the ecosystem is out of balance, we not only suffer from more digestive symptoms of heartburn, gas, bloating, abdominal pain, constipation and/or diarrhea, we are also at an increased risk of symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, obesity and fatigue. Detoxification is also dependent on the flora balance of our digestive tracts. Our diet plays the biggest factor in which type of flora thrives in our digestive tract. By optimizing your diet, you can greatly eliminate the symptoms of dysbiosis and optimize your overall health.
When bad bacteria such as non-toxigenic E. coli overgrow in our digestive tracts, they ferment the carbohydrates from our food, producing gas and bloating. This can cause more problems with indigestion, constipation and diarrhea. They also produce toxins (lipopolysaccharides) that are absorbed into the body and directly affect our mitochondria. Mitochondria are the engines of the cell and they help turn fuel into energy. When they are slowed down by toxicity, our metabolism slows down so the fuel we eat is not used and is turned into fats and stored, causing weight gain. When mitochondrial function slows down, every cell function slows down, leading to more fatigue, brain fog, body aches and pains.
When bad flora is overgrown in the digestive tract, the immune cells in the gut produce more glutamate. Glutamate is a neurotransmitter that stimulates the brain leading to more anxiety and insomnia. It is also neurotoxic so symptoms of brain fog, memory loss, and attention deficit are more prevalent. We also do not detoxify well when bad flora is present, since they can clip the bonds of glucuronic acid that the liver adds to toxins to help it get excreted from our stool. When the glucuronic acid is broken off the toxin, it is reabsorbed by the body, making the liver have to work overtime. This can be identified by elevated bilirubin levels in the blood (known as Gilbert’s syndrome), since that is one of the waste products that the liver attaches glucuronic acid to, facilitating detoxification and elimination. When the body cannot eliminate toxins, they build up and will also cause a slower metabolism leading to fatigue and weight gain.
If you have symptoms of gas, bloating, alternating constipation and diarrhea, start with a low FODMAP diet. This stands for fermentable oligo-, di-, and monosaccharides and polyols. They are the fermentable sugars that feed the bad flora in the gut and lead to irritable bowel syndrome symptoms. You can learn about this diet further from a resource page on our website: naturopathicmedicalclinic.com or on smart phone app called FODMAP by Monash University. We can test what type of flora you have in your digestive tract to more fully eradicate it, but at least starting with a quality probiotic such as Metagenics Ultraflora Balance without prebiotics in them, can help.