How To Rebalance Stomach Bacteria

How To Rebalance Your Digestive Tract Bacteria

What do you know about your digestive tract bacteria? Normally, a wide range of bacteria helps us digest our food and works together to keep us healthy. But when infections or antibiotics intervene, the variety of beneficial bacteria drops and undesirable strains like Clostridium difficile can gain the upper hand.

Good Bacteria For Gut Health

Heres one of the hallmarks of a healthy gut: a thriving population of beneficial microbes, and a diverse mix of them. These good guys support overall human health, but they also prevent the bad microbes from taking overaka the harmful bacteria that can contribute to inflammation andchanges to your weight.

What does that mean for you? Be mindful when youre dealing with factors that can impact your healthy bacteria. Some factors, like age and getting sick, arent in our control. But you can take positive steps with other factors, like what you eat after taking antibiotics, the amount of sugar in your diet and how you manage stress. Below, well expand on a few of these, plus general tips to restore gut flora. As always, maintain open communication with your healthcare provider.

S To Fix A Gut Imbalance

You can rebalance an unhealthy gut and keep it in healthy shape by making five simple changes to your daily routine. Keep in mind that when considering how to improve gut health, you must achieve better balance between of the microorganisms in your gut.

1. Detoxify Your Gut

In order for probiotic bacteria to survive, you need to remove the toxins that threaten them. Using natural detox and cell-supporting agents like clinically proven modified citrus pectin can help your body get rid of toxins and other culprits that cause dysbiosis, while actively supporting gut health and protecting cell function.

2. Take Probiotics

High-quality probiotics help restore an unhealthy gut back into balance. Giving your body a fresh supply of probiotics every day is a crucial part of keeping your gut and your immune system in harmony.

3. Nourish Probiotics With Prebiotics

Beneficial gut bacteria require a special diet made up of prebiotic fiber. Prebiotics sustain probiotics and allow them to produce healing compounds like SCFAs.

4. Eat a Healthy Diet

Sugary, fatty, processed foods harm your gut microbiome. Fresh, natural, whole foods provide the nutrients and fiber your gut needs to stay in healthy balance.

5. Exercise Regularly

Moderate physical activity increases probiotic populations and enriches probiotic diversity. Exercising on most days improves your microbiome health and your overall health as well.

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What Are The Signs

Consistent pain in the stomach, nausea, vomiting are the signs of bacterial infection in stomach. Bacterial infection in the stomach is caused when infection-causing bacteria enters your gut. This happens when you eat or drink contaminated food and water which can be due to several reasons like:

• Incorrect storage at grocery stores that may cause contact with bacteria
• Improper handling or preparation of food in restaurants and kitchens
• Use of contaminated water
• Use of spoilt ingredients and dairy products that have been out of the refrigerator for long
• Eating or preparing food in dirty utensils
• Eating raw fruits and vegetables that have not been washed properly
• Eating raw and uncooked meat and eggs

Good Gut Bacteria Vs Bad

Bad bacteria can enter the body in a number of ways. You can ingest bad bacteria via the food you eat, the water you drink, or the air you breathe. Their job is to multiply as fast as possible to make you sick. When you’re sick, they make your body contagious so that they can be passed on from host to host.

Once bad bacteria have entered your body, the good bacteria come into play. These microorganisms work hard to provide essential nutrients to help you stave off infections.

Without good bacteria, your body stands no chance against the bad stuff. Bad bacteria are everywhere. We ingest them every day. Fortunately, you arent usually aware of this because the good bacteria does such a good job of keeping your body healthy.

Types of Bacteria in the Human Gut

Three main types of bacteria exist in your gut. They are either beneficial, opportunistic, or harmful.

We already know what harmful and good bacteria do. Opportunistic bacteria can either be neutral or harmful. If you’re healthy, then opportunistic bacteria have no effect on the body. However, if the body is weak, this type of bacteria flourishes and has an adverse effect on the body.

Common examples of good bacteria:

Common examples of bad bacteria:

• Clostridium perfringens
• Escherichia coli

Common examples of opportunistic bacteria:

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What Is A Gut Bacteria Imbalance

An imbalance occurs when the bad bacteria start to outweigh the good, or the diversity of bacteria is lost. This can happen in a variety of ways:

• A diet of processed and unhealthy foods.
• A sudden change in diet such as an increase in fat, sugar, or protein intake.
• New or a change in prescription medications.
• Alcohol and substance abuse.
• Ingestion of chemicals such as pesticides.

Diet Approach To Modulate Gut Microbiota

A diet-based approach to modulate the microbiota should consider the effect of long-term diets . Recent studies have highlighted important differences in the ability to modulate microbiota composition in long-term and short-term diets. In short-term diets, changes are significant and rapid, but the magnitude of changes is modest and insufficient to relocate individuals from one enterotype to another . In contrast, long-term diets are adequate to relocate enterotypes . If an enterotype is shown to be causative/linked to a disease, long-term dietary interventions could represent a good strategy to help . Among diet interventions, a feeding regime with a low content of fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharaides, and polyols was shown to reduce gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with IBS in less than 48 h .

In IBS patients who experienced a low FODMAPs diet, carbohydrates fermentation is reduced, and a decrease in luminal osmolarity and gas generation is observed. Consequently, typical IBS symptoms of gas and bloating are reduced/eliminated . However, more studies should be carried out on the effects of a long-term low FODMAPs diet. It should be borne in mind that FODMAPs, especially oligosaccharides, play an important role in stimulating the growth of beneficial bacterial groups. The long-term assumption of a low FODMAPs diet could have unpredictable effects on the composition of gut microbiota.

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The Key Is To Balance The Good With The Bad

At its best, your stomach should be roughly 85% good bacteria and 15% bad. There is a need for the bad guys believe it or not.

The good news is you are in complete control of those numbers. What you eat will determine the level of bacteria and enzymes in your digestive system.

The downside is that modern diets and medications cause serious harm to our gut health.

S To Rebalance Your Gut Microbiome

nutritionJan 21, 2021

Did you know that your gut could be called your second brain? As researchers learn more and more about the connections between your brain and your gut, the old saying, Follow your gut, becomes more and more true. Your mental health, immune system response, and gut health are all intimately connected. If youre dealing with symptoms like weight loss resistance, fatigue, poor immune response, and brain fog, you might need to take a closer look at the health of your gut.

Your intestinal tract is full of bacteria. When you have a good balance, you have about 80% beneficial bacteria and about 20% deleterious bacteria held in check by the beneficial bacteria. These levels fluctuate. A diet full of sugar and grain, chemicals, antibiotics, hormones, stress, diabetes, alcohol consumption, chronic illness, and low immune response can all upset a healthy balance.

If your gut is unbalanced, you may experience a poor immune response because about 80% of the health of your immune system is tied to gut health. Emotional trauma also makes an impact on your health. Think of the expressions we use to convey powerful emotions: A punch in the gut,butterflies in your stomach,gut wrenching. These expressions all speak to the truth that we experience emotions in our gut. An upset stomach can be either the cause OR the effect of stress.

How do you rebalance your gut?

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Diagnosis Of Bacterial Gastroenteritis

When symptoms are mild, a diagnosis of bacterial gastroenteritis can often be made without seeing a doctor, and the condition can be treated at home. However, if there is any uncertainty or concern over the condition, or symptoms are severe, seeing a doctor is very important.

A doctor will take the personâs medical history and perform a physical examination, taking care to rule out other gastrointestinal conditions such as gastritis. In most cases, it will not be necessary to order tests to confirm the diagnosis of gastroenteritis. However, in cases that are severe or long-lasting, a doctor may request blood tests and/or stool tests.

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Diet And Its Effects On The Gut Microbiota

Luminal conversion by intestinal microbes may play an important role in hostmicrobiota interactions. Orally consumed nutrients may be converted by intestinal microbes into bioactive compounds that could affect the health of the host and the intestinal microbiota. GABA, gamma-aminobutyric acid SCFAs, short-chain fatty acids.

Avoid Processed Food To Prevent Unwanted Weight Gain

According to researchers, processed foods that are high in fat and sodium lead to a reduced microbiome. Not only do they lack the nutrients for microbiomes to thrive, but eating high-calorie processed food also leads to unwanted weight gain.

Here are some healthier alternatives to processed food:

• Swap bacon with avocado for good fat.
• Snack on corn on the cob instead of microwaveable popcorn.
• Try frozen fruit instead of dried fruit for less sugar.
• Dip your food in tomato paste instead of ketchup.

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Gut Bacteria In Health And Disease

Gut health and disease go hand in hand. Therefore an excellent way to combat bad health is to rebuild good bacteria in the stomach. The healthier the gut, the healthier the body that surrounds it.

Can Gut Bacteria Cause Weight Gain?

The enzymes contained within your gut bacteria help you break down and process food. Every person is different when it comes to the composition of bacteria in their gut, which means some people are more likely to suffer from obesity than others.

Of course, what you eat has a huge effect on gut health and your overall weight, but gut bacteria composition can mean the difference between staying slim easily and struggling to keep off the pounds.

Can Gut Bacteria Affect Mental Health?

Since gut microbes produce neurotransmitters, their role in your overall mental health is huge. Bad gut health can lead to a variety of mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety.

Gut Bacteria and COVID-19

It’s been discovered that the makeup of your gut biome can determine how severe the symptoms will be should you contract COVID-19. This gut imbalance also plays a role in whether or not you’re likely to suffer from “long-covid” or not.

Studies have shown that COVID-19 patients have far less immune system enhancing beneficial bacteria like bifidobacterium adolescentis, faecalibacterium prausnitzii, and eubacterium rectale. They also have much higher numbers of certain bad bacteria, such as ruminococcus gnavus, ruminococcus torques, and Bacteroides dorei.

Ban Added Sugar From Your Life

Added sugar is like rocket fuel for your microbiome. That sounds like a good thing, but unfortunately it appears to encourage specific families of bacteria to take over, crowd others out and tip a balanced gut into dysbiosis. In one study, mice fed high-sugar diets lost gut microbial diversity, and developed leakier guts: the tight junctions in their gut walls actually opened wider due to inflammation caused by high sugar intake .

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How Do You Know If You Have A Healthy Gut

This has to be the most common question I get asked in my clinic and on social media, and its one I can never give a simple answer to, says Rossi, adding that theres no single measure to assess gut health. She does not recommend commercial gut microbiome testing kits. To establish a clients likelihood of having a diverse microbiome, she asks them questions about their plant intake, sleep quality, stress levels and exercise pattern.

Your gut microbiota changes as you age, but a review suggests it is not clear if these changes are due to physiological changes, age-associated inflammation, gradual deterioration of the immune system, diet, medications, or chronic health conditions.

Taking time for your gut will be a worthy investment, says Patel, adding you can never be too young or too old to ensure you are improving your microbiome.

Move Your Body Regularly

According to one research review on the effects of exercise on the gut microbiome14, aerobic exercise can increase the amount of bacteria in your digestive tract and contribute to overall bacterial diversity.

While any movement can help, it appears that the more physically fit you are, the more diverse your microbiome is.

If youre sedentary, start small by exercising a couple days a week, then work your way up to including exercise as part of your regular, everyday routine.

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How Long Does It Take To Repopulate The Gut With Good Bacteria

Theres no simple answer to this question because it depends on the state of your microbiome, the quality of your diet, any medication you take, your level of exercise and more. However, the gut microbiome is very adaptable and responds to positive lifestyle choices.

So if you eat a diet with lots of fiber-rich whole foods and add some probiotic foods or supplements, you can speed up your gut biome restoration. Plus, getting regular exercise, especially cardio, is associated with higher diversity in your gut.

Rebalance Of The Intestinal Ecosystem

Many therapeutic strategies have been developed to re-establish intestinal eubiosis, and new strategies are constantly proposed and investigated. The main and at present best known and most adopted therapeutic strategies include the administration of probiotic bacteria likely to displace potentially pathogenic bacteria and promote a rebalance of the microbial community the administration of prebiotics to favor the overgrowth of probiotic bacteria and the administration of probiotics and prebiotics combinations . More recent therapeutic approaches have been proposed, including phage therapy, fecal transplantation, BCT, and a still poorly investigated approach based on predatory bacteria. All of these strategies share the same goal of replacing harmful microbes with more favorable ones to restore eubiosis.

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Supplement With Prebiotics And Probiotics

A great way to improve your gut health is to add a prebiotic and probiotic to your diet. Prebiotics can easily be added to your diet by eating more foods such as bananas, garlic, onions, and leafy greens. Probiotics can be found in yogurt and fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, non-pasteurized pickled vegetables, and kefir. Both can also be added as dietary supplements, but consult with your gastroenterologist to ensure you are taking high-quality supplements that wont end up harming your gut biome further.

Add Prebiotics To Your Dinner

Hunter-gatherer societies ate roughly 200 grams of fiber daily, while we get approximately 15 grams with a typical modern-day diet. We have a fiber gap!

The best source of fiber is from complex carbohydrates from fermentable plant fibers or “prebiotics,” which support good bacteria already present in the gut.

The following foods are especially rich in prebiotic fibers:

• Yams and other tubers

Add more cellulose fibers into your diet for contributing bulk to your stool. You can find these insoluble cellulose fibers in the tough parts of veggies and fruit .

Try to include at least one serving of prebiotic food in your dinner. These spiced stuffed sweet potatoes are a great option, as is this sweet potato breakfast porridge recipe.

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The Different Types Of Belly Fat

Body fat is an insulator and a cushion to protect the internal organs from impact injury. Having a bit of fat around your belly and in other parts of your body is normal. Here are the different types of belly fat.

Subcutaneous belly fat: Subcutaneous fat is the type of fat found under the skin. It is the deepest part of the skin located above the muscle. When you pinch a part of your skin, most of what you feel is subcutaneous fat. This is a good type of body fat because it protects the body and houses your blood vessels and nerves.

Visceral belly fat: Visceral belly fat is found deep within the abdominal cavity or inside the belly. It is wrapped around the visceral organs like your liver and intestines, making up about one-tenth of the total body fat. Build up of visceral fat in the body is what causes the belly to stick out.

What Is The Human Microbiome

Heres some of what we know so far, according to the Human Microbiome Project:

• Human microbiota is made of trillions of viruses, fungi and other microorganisms.
• The human microbiota has 10 times more microorganisms than human cells.
• Microorganisms make up about 3 percent of our total body mass, or about six pounds of a 200-pound adult.
• Imbalances in human gut flora have been linked to autoimmune diseases such as Crohns disease and multiple sclerosis, obesity and heart disease.

In 2008, the National Institutes of Health established The Human Microbiome Project to research and compile data to study the microbiomes impact on disease. It has been found that bacteria play a role in multiple diseases, Dr. Vashi says. There are studies now that are showing that changes in bacterial flora can contribute to developing conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome and colitis. Fascinating work has been done where we are learning more and more about gut microbiome playing a major role in many conditions, including obesity.

What can you do? Tips for maintaining your microbiome

Expand your menu. Gut flora is a diverse collection of bacteria. A diverse menu of foods encourages the growth of many types of bacteria, which makes for a healthy microbiota.

Try fermented foods. These foods contain and feed probiotics and help promote healthy gut bacteria. Fermented foods include yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut, miso and tempeh.

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