{"id":19196,"date":"2019-06-06T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/burnbootcamp.com\/?p=19196"},"modified":"2019-06-06T09:55:29","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T13:55:29","slug":"your-gut-health-anxiety-whats-the-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/burnbootcamp.com\/your-gut-health-anxiety-whats-the-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Go with Your Gut"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ever hear the phrase \u201cyou are what you eat\u201d? What if we told you that what you are eating could be the root of one of the most common things people deal with on a day-to-day basis? Turns out, your gut health could be wreaking havoc on your mental health without you even knowing! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More and more research is being done to help us understand\nthe true impact of gut health on other systems in the body. Commonly\nreported symptoms<\/a> like weight gain, weakened immunity, anxiety, depression,\nchanges in mood and energy levels, aches and pains are being reported alongside\ninflammation, digestive issues and other diseases. Do you see the pattern here?\nThey all stem from the gut! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anxiety in particular is something a lot of us carry with us\nand thus is an important topic of conversation. Out of all mental health\ndiagnoses, it is the number one issue\nin the United States, affecting 40 million adults every year<\/a>. Maybe you\nfall into this category or know someone who does. Health journals have been reporting\non anxiety for years. And recently, scientific reviews of these journals have\nbeen suggesting thatyour gut could be a major factor playing into your\nmental health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a review published in General Psychiatry<\/em>, researchers from the\nShanghai Mental Health Center<\/a> looked at over 20 studies, examining more\nthan 1,500 participants, to see if gut bacteria had any effect on anxiety. Some\npeople might say this is out of left field, but in fact, a growing amount of\nresearch indicates that bacteria found in the gut play a role in brain and\nmental health\u2014namely, the gut-brain axis, which facilitates communication\nbetween the nervous, immune and endocrine systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as we heard this, we had to know more! After all, Dr. Jennifer Noonan recently sat down with our co-founder Morgan Kline for the Coffee & Kettlebells podcast<\/a> to talk about how important a healthy gut really is. So, there must be something to this whole \u201cgut health\u201d thing. When your gut is out of balance, everything else in your body is too. Balancing your gut is essential to living your life with greater vitality.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First things first: What makes a gut healthy?<\/strong> There are trillions, yes trillions<\/em>, of microorganisms in the gut. We call them microbiota. These little guys perform important functions in the immune system and metabolism by providing essential inflammatory mediators, nutrients and vitamins. When intestinal flora is affected, a series of changes in physical and\/or mental symptoms can occur. Here\u2019s where we hear about the ever-so-popular IBS, IBD, GERD and a number of other acronyms related to gastrointestinal (GI, in case you needed another one) issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re unsure whether your gut is healthy or not, here are some symptoms that might indicate bad gut health<\/strong>. Please note that this is not a comprehensive list but does address some of the most common symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Gas, bloating and bowel movement changes<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The number one telltale sign of gut dysfunction is digestive issues like bloating, gas or bowel movement changes. This is due to the number and diversity (or lack) of bacteria living inside your gut, intestines, stomach and colon. Gas in particular should signal to you that food is fermenting in your gut because your stomach acid is falling down on its job. This leads to an imbalance of bacteria, resulting in the inability to break down the food you\u2019ve eaten\u2026and, yes, gas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Bad breath<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But I swear I brushed my teeth!<\/em> Sometimes bad breath isn\u2019t just a result of poor dental hygiene. In fact, chronic bad breath, aka halitosis, stems from odor-inducing microbes, which increase when the ratio of good and bad bacteria in your gut is off. This may start as a mild inconvenience for your social life, but if your gut flora is off, you are more vulnerable to health conditions linked to bad breath such as kidney infections and diabetes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Skin problems<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Diving further into the realm of vanity and mild inconveniences, another sign of an unhealthy gut might be staring right back at you in the mirror. Your skin can tell you a lot about what is going on inside your body. For many people, food intolerances or poor digestion of foods consumed can cause things like eczema and breakouts. By balancing the microbes in your gut, you might be doing more for your skin than any face wash ever could. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Sugar cravings<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scientists have determined that the bacteria in your gut produce proteins similar to leptin and ghrelin, which are dubbed the \u201chunger-regulating hormones.\u201d Here\u2019s a quick breakdown: Bacteria try to get us to eat foods that they thrive on. So if you eat a lot of sugar, you feed the unhelpful bacteria that love it and they pump out the proteins to make you crave more<\/em> sugar. It\u2019s a vicious cycle! Not to worry, though\u2014there is still hope! By fixing your gut, you can eradicate the bacteria that cause you to crave these foods in the first place and\u2014boom<\/em>!\u2014no more sugar cravings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Mood changes and mental health problems<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Last but not least, we underestimate the impact our gut function plays on the levels of our \u201chappy hormones,\u201d serotonin and dopamine, as well as vitamin D. Part of the reason people with leaky gut may experience mental health issues is the micronutrient deficiencies that happen when the body is unable to absorb nutrients. The majority of the happy hormones are actually made in<\/em> your gut. If you are unable to absorb micronutrients that help facilitate these hormones, it is likely you could experience moodiness, anxiety or depression due to a lack of crucial hormones responsible for regulating emotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Don\u2019t worry, we won\u2019t leave you high and dry to figure this out on your own! If you are wondering how you can get your gut health back on track (or keep it on track), there are a few things you can start being aware of in your diet that will definitely have in impact.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like we touched on before with sugar cravings, a diet high in processed foods and added sugars can decrease the number of good bacteria in your gut. High amounts of refined sugars, particularly high-fructose corn syrup, are what the bad bacteria crave, helping them to outnumber the good guys. Cut out the sugar, cut out the bad bacteria, lessen the cravings and make more room for good bacteria to thrive! So stay away from added sugars. Instead, try eating a wide variety of whole foods. A lack of diversity within the gut bacteria limits recovery from harmful influences, such as infection or antibiotics that kill off good bacteria. Fruits, vegetables and whole grains can lead to a more diverse gut flora. This is because the food you eat provides nutrients that help bacteria grow. A diet rich in whole foods provides your gut with a variety of nutrients that help promote the growth of different types of bacteria, resulting in a more diverse gut flora. The adage \u201cthe more the merrier\u201d applies here! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Also, if you don\u2019t eat probiotic-rich foods already, now is\nthe time to start! Foods like yogurt, miso and tempeh and drinks like the ever-popular\nkombucha<\/a>\nall have the wonderful microorganisms that make up a healthy gut. One great\npart about the research we told you about earlier is that they looked into the\nuse of probiotic-rich foods to help address symptoms of anxiety. Their findings\nindicated that more than half of the studies found that regulating gut bacteria\nhelped to improve anxiety. Obviously, there is still a long way to go with\nresearch in the gut-brain axis world before determining direct causation\nbetween anxiety and gut health. With that said, eating more gut-friendly foods has\nbeen shown to help the bacteria already in your intestines flourish (instead of\nsimply introducing more bacteria, which happens when taking supplements). If\nyour gut is flourishing, the cause-and-effect chain can ripple on up to your\nbrain, improving your mental health as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A huge bonus of eating a diverse diet with loads of probiotic-rich foods is that you\u2019re also going to be getting more prebiotic foods! Not to be confused with pro<\/em>biotics, pre<\/em>biotics are a type of fiber that passes through the body undigested and promotes the growth of good bacteria. Again, many whole foods have naturally occurring prebiotic fiber. Some examples include legumes, oats, bananas, asparagus, garlic, onions and nuts. Including these in your diet will help your body flush out the bad stuff and leave room for more of the bacteria that can absorb all of the micronutrients necessary to help regulate emotions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mental health issues like anxiety can be overwhelming, but\ngetting your gut health in check could be just what the doctor ordered to give\nyou some peace of mind. Isn\u2019t it wild that whole foods have the ability to heal\nsuch an intricate system of hormones in the body\u2014minus all the extra pills and supplements\nthat can rack up a huge bill and actually have a negative impact on your gut\nhealth in the end? The potential for a more accessible solution for mental\nillness, like anxiety, with small changes in your diet and lifestyle is an\nincredible step in a positive direction! As always, we encourage you to speak\nto a doctor before making dietary changes or if you think you may have anxiety.\nHead to the BE. blog to learn more about prebiotics\nand probiotics<\/a> as well as the\nlink between gut health and cravings<\/a>, and to\nlearn more about the importance of gut health and how to heal your gut, listen\nto this\nepisode of Coffee & Kettlebells<\/a>!\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prebiotics & Probiotics: Do They Really Heal Your Gut Health?<\/a><\/blockquote>