Seeking a ‘Happy Gut’ for Better Health

Most people think of diet in relation to body weight, you eat more healthy foods and less fast foods in order to slim down. For good reason, that works, but there are plenty of other reasons why a healthy diet should be sought after. For one thing, what you put in your stomach has a very strong effect on what happens inside your brain.

Inside your gut is a huge collection of bacteria, and this living bundle of biome has a direct link to your brain through the vagus nerve. So influential is this link that scientists are discovering that the particular bacteria residing in your gut can determine aspects of your personality, some are even starting to see a relationship between gut culture and autism spectrum disorders. This bacteria, it seems, is essential to a proper functioning mind. The New York Times have interviewed a scientist in this field whom has just released a book, ‘Happy Gut,’ he has some interesting things to add:

Q.?What is a ?happy gut??

A.?A happy gut is a gut that is able to do all of the work of digestion. It has a healthy microbiome, it?s able to extract all the nutrients you need from your food without causing any pain, discomfort, bloating or distress, and it creates a bowel movement at least once a day.

Q.?What are some of the more common causes of the gut problems you see?

A.?The majority of it comes down to two main factors: diet and environment. And within that, environment can be defined broadly. The overprescribing of antibiotics is a big problem. There was a study recently that showed that just one course of antibiotics will alter the gut flora for up to 12 months. The study looked at a very common antibiotic, Cipro, which we commonly use to treat urinary infections, traveler?s diarrhea and food poisoning.