How do you keep your intestinal villi healthy?

How your gut keeps you healthy or makes you ill

What nutrients are absorbed and what toxins, allergens, and microbes are kept out depend on the health of your gut. It is directly related to your body’s overall health. The best possible food digestion, absorption, and assimilation could be characterized as intestinal health. However, it’s a big job that depends on a lot of other things. Let’s look at a few of them ….

First, there are bugs in your gut that create an ecosystem that is diverse and dependent upon one another, similar to a rain forest. In fact, there are 500 different species and three pounds of bacteria in your gut, which together form a massive chemical factory that aids in digestion, hormone regulation, toxin excretion, and the production of vitamins and other healing substances that maintain the health of your gut and body. For you to be healthy, this ecosystem of beneficial bacteria needs to be in balance. Your health can be seriously harmed by having too many undesirable bacteria, such as yeasts and parasites, or not enough beneficial bacteria, such as Lactobacillus or Bifidobacteria.

Second, there is your gut-immune system. A lining that is only one cell thick protects your entire immune system, as well as the rest of your body, from the toxic environment in your gut. If that barrier is breached, you can become allergic to foods you may normally be able to digest perfectly well, you will get sick, your immune system will become overactive, and it will start producing inflammation throughout your body. If this lining were spread out, it would take up a surface area the size of a tennis court, covered entirely by a sewer. Another crucial aspect of gut health is separating good molecules from bad molecules and protecting your immune system.

The nervous system in your gut is the second brain in your body. Did you know that your gut has its own brain and that it contains more neurotransmitters than your brain? The “enteric nervous system” is a very complex component of your biology that is intricately wired to your brain. Your gut and head brain are constantly exchanging messages, and when those messages are disrupted in any way, your health will suffer.

Fourth, your gut also needs to eliminate all the toxins that your metabolism produces as waste products, which your liver excretes as bile. When you are constipated, things will back up, making you toxic and harming your health.

Last but not least, your gut must disassemble all the food you consume into its component parts, separate out the vitamins and minerals, and then move everything across the aforementioned one cell-thick layer so that it can nourish your body and brain.

Your gut has quite a lot to manage. Even in an ideal world, maintaining this balance would be challenging. But in today’s world, there are countless challenges that can throw our digestive system out of balance, making it even harder to maintain excellent digestive health.

How to know if your gut is out of balance

In order to improve your digestion, you must first comprehend what is causing your gut to become out of balance in the first place. The list is short:

Our low-fiber, high-sugar, processed, nutrient-poor, high-calorie diet, which causes all the wrong bacteria and yeast to grow in our gut and damages the delicate ecosystem in your intestines

Overuse of medications that damage the gut or block normal digestive function — things like acid blockers (Prilosec, Nexium, etc.), anti-inflammatory medication (aspirin, Advil, and Aleve), antibiotics, steroids and hormones

Undetected gluten intolerance, celiac disease or low-grade food allergies to foods such as dairy, eggs, or corn

Chronic low-grade infections or gut imbalances with overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine, yeast overgrowth, parasites or even more serious gut infections

Toxins like mercury and mold toxins, which damage the gut

Lack of adequate digestive enzyme function, which can come from acid-blocking medication use or zinc deficiency

Stress, which can alter the gut nervous system, cause a leaky gut, and change the normal bacteria in the gut

What happens then is obvious: you get sick.

But it’s crucial to realize that many illnesses, including eczema, psoriasis, and arthritis, that appear to have nothing to do with the gut are actually brought on by gut issues. By focusing on the gut, you can get better.

Gut health: For better absorption of nutrients, you need a healthy gut with good bacteria. Here are some tips that can help you have better gut health and digestion.

Water consumption can be beneficial for gut health.

Include a variety of foods in your diet

Make sure you eat both probiotics and prebiotics

Take less stress for better gut health

Our body needs nutrients to function ably. It requires a combination of micronutrients like minerals and vitamins, along with macronutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. As our food is broken down during digestion, our body receives the nourishment and energy it needs. This process results in the further breakdown of macronutrients like carbohydrates into glucose for energy and proteins into amino acids. We need nutrients from foods to function well. And to better absorb nutrients, we need a healthy gut. Read on for advice on how to enhance intestinal absorption of food and gut health.

5 tips to keep your gut microbiome healthy | UCLA Health Newsroom