Is Your Lifestyle Upsetting Your Gut?

By Dr Alena Pribyl, Senior Scientist at Microba

Your gut can impact your overall health, with researchers finding increasing links between the bacteria that live in your gut and states of health and disease. Taking care of your gut and your gut bacteria can help prevent chronic disease and contribute to healthy ageing. Some easy ways you can manage your gut bacteria is through your everyday food and lifestyle choices. Of course, some people have gut issues that they should speak to a health care professional about before making dietary changes.

Dr Alena Pribyl is the Senior Scientist and Research Officer at Brisbane-based gut health testing company Microba. She explains some of the simple choices you may be making that are in fact, upsetting the balance of your gut bacteria. 

Are you eating enough fibre or any at all?

“Fibre is key to good gut health because it is the main food source for our beneficial gut microbes, yet according to a recent study, most Australians are not getting enough fibre in their diets,” Dr Pribyl says.

“Try adding some wholegrains, legumes, vegetables, seeds, nuts and fruits into your diet to increase your fibre intake.”

Are you moving enough?

“Exercise plays an important role in maintaining not only your overall health and weight, but also your gut health. Emerging research is indicating that regular exercise can provide health benefits through the increased production of beneficial substances called short chain fatty acids by your gut bacteria. Short chain fatty acids suppress inflammation, regulate appetite and help maintain the gut cell barrier.”

Are you eating too much fat?

“Eating excessive amounts of saturated fat can impact the community of bacteria in your gut. Specific bacteria that can produce pro-inflammatory substances have been correlated with diets high in saturated fat. Saturated fat can be found in butter, full-fat dairy products, processed meats, treat foods such as pastries and biscuits, and even plant-based oils such as palm or coconut oil.”

Are you too stressed?

“Your gut and brain are in constant communication with each other, and thus chronic stress can have real impacts on your gut health. Apart from affecting our body’s ability to breakdown and absorb nutrients in our small intestine and influencing the rate at which food travels through our gut, emerging research is also indicating that stress can impact the balance of bacteria in our gut.”

Are you taking too many antibiotics?

“Antibiotics play an important role in maintaining our health. However, the unnecessary use of antibiotics can have the unintended consequence of removing the beneficial bacteria as well as the pathogenic bacteria. Frequent antibiotic use can also increase the number of antibacterial resistance genes that are present. In general, studies have indicated that it can take between 1 -2 months for the majority of your native gut bacteria to return after a short course of antibiotics, although some species do not return even after several years. It is important to take antibiotics when necessary, but it is also important to be aware of when they will not be effective, such as in the case of viral infections.”

You can find out more about your individual gut microbiome with Microba Insight™ home analysis kit.