The Cornerstone of Your Health

The Cornerstone of Your Health

The human body is exceptionally complex and there are a great many factors that contribute to good health, but if you're battling chronic illness the very first thing you should examine is the health of your gut. If you have sub-optimal gut health, pathogenic gut bacteria, or even a "leaky gut" then this will manifest in a diverse spectrum of diseases and disorders that you may not immediately associate with the health of your gut.The progression of autoimmune disease, heart disease, liver disease, and even cancer are all heavily influenced by the health of your gut.

Conversely, however, if you can optimize your gut health you can radically transform your health because your gut is truly the cornerstone of your health.

Autoimmune Disease

It may be surprising to hear that the relationship between your gut health and your immune system is very complex and vital. It may not seem apparent at first how your gut affects your immune system, since they seem like two separate systems, but in reality they couldn't be any more intertwined.

Most of your immune cells live in your gut, up to 70%, and the microbes that live in your gut are largely responsible for keeping these immune cells healthy and replenished. However, when your diet is unclean, lacks fiber, and doesn’t support the proliferation of healthy bacteria your microbiome will become pathogenic, and your immune system will weaken or malfunction.

Cancer

When your microbiome is in a state of normobiosis, when you have more beneficial bacteria than pathogenic bacteria, your microbiome is in a healthy state that allows it to ward off disease and infections. On the other-hand, when your microbiome is in a state of dysbiosis, your microbiome has more pathogenic bacteria than beneficial bacteria, it creates an environment that allows disease to proliferate. One of these diseases is cancer.

More and more epidemiological studies are mounting that demonstrate the link between gut dysbiosis and an increased risk of cancer. Pathogenic gut microbiota influence oncogenesis and tumor progression both locally and systemically, making the health of the gut vital in protecting against this major illness.

How to Keep Your Gut Healthy

There are a few things to consider when it comes to managing the health of your gut:

A Plant Based Diet - When you feed your microbiome the food it needs, healthy plant-based fiber, it produces short chain fatty acids that signal to the immune cells in your gut to become specialized immune cells that are most needed in your body.

Avoid Fermented Foods - Fermented products contain trace amounts of alcohols such as ethanol which is very bad for your entire GI tract by producing inflammation. The lining of your entire GI tract is only 1 cell thick and even small amounts of alcohol can damage this lining and cause a lot of inflammation.

Avoid Probiotics - The best probiotic supplements contain up to 29 different species of bacteria, but billions of copies of these 29 species. In actuality, our body needs hundreds of species of bacteria in order to be healthy. When you add limited species of bacteria, you create a monoculture that does not have everything your body needs to thrive and ward off invaders.

If you keep these principles in mind you'll ensure the health of your gut, which will keep the rest of your body healthy, strong, and disease-free.

God Bless,
Mercy Ballard