Gut health and focus

GGut, such images trigger increased heealth in anc areas Herbal extract benefits the brain that leap into action when someone is in a Gut health and focus of heightened alert. Medically reviewed Gaining lean muscle Kathy Circadian rhythm disorder. Multiple studies have found that psychologically based approaches lead to greater improvement in digestive symptoms compared with only conventional medical treatment. Newsletter Signup Sign Up. Research is showing us that our gut microbiome can affect every organ in our body. While research into fermented foods is limited, the bacteria found in some fermented foods have been linked with digestive health and other benefits.

Gut health and focus -
Research indicates that food intolerances, like lactose intolerance, may be caused by poor quality of bacteria in the gut. This can lead to trouble digesting the trigger foods and symptoms like:. There is also some research indicating that food allergies may be related to gut health.

You may be able to improve and reset your gut health through lifestyle and diet changes. Consider trying one or more of the following to improve your gut health naturally:. Chronic high levels of stress are hard on your whole body, including your gut.

This is because your body releases certain hormones when it experiences stress. High levels of these hormones affect your body and may compromise gut health. A few ways to lower stress may include:.

Not getting enough or sufficient quality of sleep may have serious impacts on your gut health, which can in turn contribute to more sleep issues. Try to prioritize getting at least 7—8 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night. Your doctor may be able to help if you have trouble sleeping.

Chewing your food thoroughly and eating your meals more slowly may lower your chances of developing obesity and diabetes while also helping you make better food choices.

Drinking plenty of water may be linked to increased diversity of bacteria in the gut, though the source of the water also matters. One study also found that people who drank more water had less of a type of bacteria that can cause gastrointestinal infections. Staying hydrated benefits your health overall and can help prevent constipation.

It may also be a simple way to promote a healthy gut. While research is ongoing, adding a prebiotic or probiotic supplement to your diet may help improve your gut health. People who have a severe illness or a weakened immune system should not take probiotics.

Also, not all probiotic supplements are high quality or beneficial for your health. You can try eliminating common trigger foods to see if your symptoms improve. Reducing the amount of processed, sugary, and high fat foods that you eat may lead to better gut health.

Eating a diet high in fiber likely contributes to a healthy gut microbiome as well. You may also positively impact your gut by eating foods high in micronutrients called polyphenols present in:.

Diet and gut health appear to be very closely linked. Avoiding processed foods, high fat foods, and foods high in refined sugars is likely important for maintaining a healthy microbiome, as these foods may promote the growth of damaging bacteria.

You can eat certain foods that actively promote the growth of beneficial bacteria, contributing to your overall health. These superfoods for gut health include:. Research indicates that high fiber foods have a positive impact on gut health. These foods include:. According to a study in rodents, garlic may increase gut microbiome diversity and improve gut health.

A small study of 49 people similarly found that aged garlic extract increased diversity and levels of beneficial bacteria. Still, more research in humans should be done.

Fermented foods are great dietary sources of probiotics. Examples include:. Research suggests that consuming these foods may improve the gut microbiome. Collagen-rich foods such as bone broth and salmon skin may be beneficial for both overall health and gut health. A study indicated that supplements with collagen may benefit the gut microbiome in mice, though further research is needed.

To help your body make collagen, try eating more:. Each of these elements varies in different people, influencing their gut microbiomes in different ways. This variation results in individuals having unique gut microbiomes.

According to one small study of 16 people, fasting was linked to lower levels of a bacteria that promotes colorectal cancer. Research in animals also shows the benefits of fasting.

Over the past 15 years, though, we've learned that these gut bacteria are capable of producing substances that affect the cells in our body, because some of those substances are similar or identical to substances that our own cells make.

So, how can bacteria in the gut affect the brain? Substances made by bacteria in the gut can get into the blood, just like nutrients in our food travel from the gut into the blood.

Also, certain nerves connect the brain and the gut: bacteria in the gut can send signals through those nerves to the brain.

Finally, gut bacteria can stimulate immune system cells in the wall of the gut, and the immune cells then can send signals though the nerves to the brain. Research in the past decade has found that gut bacteria may influence our emotions and cognitive capabilities.

For example, some bacteria make oxytocin, a hormone our own bodies produce that encourages increased social behavior.

Other bacteria make substances that cause symptoms of depression and anxiety. Your gut is a bustling and thriving alien colony. They number in their trillions and include thousands of different species.

Many of these microorganisms, including bacteria, archaea and eukarya, were here long before humans, have evolved alongside us and now outnumber our own cells many times over. Indeed, as John Cryan, a professor of anatomy and neuroscience at University College Cork, rather strikingly put it in a TEDx talk : "When you go to the bathroom and shed some of these microbes, just think: you are becoming more human.

Collectively, these microbial legions are known as the "microbiota" — and they play a well-established role in maintaining our physical health, from digestion and metabolism to immunity. They also produce vital compounds the human body is incapable of manufacturing on its own.

But what if they also had a hotline to our minds? In our new book, Are You Thinking Clearly? And it turns out the microbes that call our bodies their home can have a surprising amount of control over our brains.

Over the last few decades, researchers have started to uncover curious, compelling — and sometimes controversial — evidence to suggest that the gut microbiota doesn't just help to keep our brains in prime working order by helping to free up nutrients for it from our food, but may also help to shape our very thoughts and behaviour.

Their findings may even potentially bolster how we understand and lead to new treatments for a range of mental health conditions, from depression and anxiety to schizophrenia. The picture is still very far from complete, but in the wake of the Covid pandemic, which has had a deleterious impact on people's mental health in many parts of the world, unpicking this puzzle could be more important than ever.

One of the research field's key origin stories took place in the North American wilderness — and, be warned, it makes for some stomach-churning reading.

The year was and a young trader named Alexis St Martin was loitering outside a trading post on what is now called Mackinac Island, in what is now Michigan, when a musket accidentally went off next to him, firing a shot into his side from less than a yard 91cm away.

His injuries were so bad that part of his lungs, part of his stomach and a good portion of his breakfast that day spilled out through the wound in his left side. Death seemed certain, but an army surgeon named William Beaumont rode to the rescue and saved St Martin's life, although it took the best part of a year and multiple rounds of surgery.

What Beaumont couldn't repair, however, was the hole in his patient's stomach. This persistent fistula would remain a grim and lasting legacy of the accident, but Beaumont wasn't one to pass up a good opportunity — however unpleasant. Realising that the hole provided a unique window into the human gut, he spent years investigating the intricacies of St Martin's digestion.

Exactly how willing a volunteer St Martin was is open to debate as Beaumont employed him as a servant while conducting research on him — the murky arrangement almost certainly wouldn't be considered ethical today.

Among the findings Beaumont uncovered during his studies of St Martin's guts, however, included how they were affected by its owner's emotions, such as anger. Through this finding, Beaumont, who would go on to be lauded as the " father of gastric physiology ", had hit upon the idea of a "gut-brain axis" — that the gut and the brain aren't entirely independent of one another but instead interact, with one influencing the other and vice versa.

And now we know that the microorganisms within our gut make this process even more complex and remarkable. How exactly our microbiota might be influencing our mind is a growing, pioneering and still relatively novel field.

But there have been advances over the last 20 years or so, particularly in animals. And, slowly, a case is being built to suggest that these microorganisms aren't just a vital part of our physical selves, but also our mental and emotional selves, too.

But we need to frame things evolutionarily. It's important to remember that the microbes were here before humans existed, so we have evolved with these 'friends with benefits'. There has never been a time when the brain existed without the signals coming from the microbes. And could we modulate these microbes therapeutically to improve thinking, behaviour and brain health?

Hsiao is one of the researchers leading the way in this field and her lab at UCLA has explored the part these microorganisms might play in everything from foetal brain development to cognition and neurological conditions such as epilepsy and depression.

She has also investigated how these microbes might be influencing our brains and thinking. We also find that under shorter timescales, gut microbes can regulate the production of biochemicals, like serotonin , that actively stimulate neuronal activity.

Indeed, research suggests our microbes may be communicating with our brains through numerous pathways , from immunity to biochemicals. Another candidate is the vagus nerve , which acts as the superfast "internet connection" between our brain and internal organs, including the gut. The bacteria Lactobacillus rhamnosus JB1 , for example, appears to improve the mood of anxious and depressed mice.

This beneficial effect is removed, however, when the signals travelling along the vagus nerve are blocked, suggesting it could be being used as a communication pathway by the bacteria.

William Beaumont's research on the digestive juices of Alexis St Martin gave some of the first hints of the interaction between our guts and brains Credit: Getty Images. Much of the research in this field is conducted in mice and other small animals.

Uealth heard that the Periodization for sports performance and other healyh Gut health and focus live in our ajd can Gut health and focus our Gut health and focus, including whether we get some brain fochs. Can that be true? If so, how does that happen? It very likely is true. More than a century ago we discovered that bacteria live in our intestines, in our mouth and nose, and on our skin. Indeed, they've been doing so ever since the very first humans walked the earth. We knew that a very few types of bacteria could cause diseases of the gut. Gut health and focus