The Importance of the Gut in Whole Body Health
This blog is a long one but an important one. It links in to the previous blog about the importance of good sleep for overall health and wellbeing.
As Osteopath’s we primarily treat musculoskeletal pain. That’s physical pain associated with the muscles, joints, bones, ligaments and tendons. Though, as Osteopath’s we look at you in a more holistic manner than simply the machinery that transports your brain around.
We like to look at you as a whole. That is all of your constituent elements, both physically and metaphysically! This includes what you do for a living, your family situation (parent, partner, carer etc), your beliefs about pain, the amounts of stress in your life, your mood and mental state, your physical activity (or lack thereof), what you enjoy doing and even what you’re eating.
Pain is not a one dimensional phenomena. Your pain systems are incredibly complex and sophisticated. They take into account every part of your being and process this data to produce the sensation of pain (or not, the majority of the time).
Therefore, it would not be prudent to simply pay attention to the exact location of your pain. We must look at the system in which it exists and find out the root cause of the problem.
Some people have musculoskeletal pain which is a direct result of an internal organ dysfunction/pathology. For example, a patient with severe aching pain of the lower ribs and flanks associated with a kidney infection, back pain associated with an incoming shingles outbreak or in an even worse situation, pain traveling down the left arm during a heart attack!
This is not the only way dysfunction of our internal organs can lead to musculoskeletal pain though. Our gut health is fundamental in our whole body health.
Our gut bacteria, or gut flora is our collection of helpful, good bacteria which modulate and catalyse a huge amount of important processes that keep us healthy and pain free. This gut bacteria helps us digest nutrients from food, assists our immune system, helps regulate hormones, prevents bad bacteria from infecting us and helps us manage our weight and energy levels.
We have roughly 1.5kg of bacteria in our gut and the physical number of bacterial cells in our body outnumbers our own cells 10 to 1. Try wrapping your head around that!
If you’re gut flora is not healthy. You’re not healthy, and if you’re not healthy, you’re more likely to suffer from pain.
Have you been diagnosed with, or suspect you may have a gluten or dairy intolerance, IBS, Leaky Gut, Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Gastrointestinal Reflux Disorder (GORD), Stomach Ulcer, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), skin condition (eczema/rosacea), depression or any number of other increasingly common gut conditions?
People with these conditions are more likely to suffer from fatigue, lethargy, headaches, gas, bloating, diarrhoea, constipation and musculoskeletal aches and pains. If you’re suffering from these symptoms and can’t seem to get on top of it you could benefit from taking a look inside.
Many aspects of our modern lifestyles can disrupt your gut flora and lead to a state of dysbiosis (unbalanced, unhealthy gut flora). These can be either pharmaceutical or from our diet/environment.
As an Osteopath I see a lot of people taking anti-inflammatory drugs, pain killers and muscle relaxants for relief of musculoskeletal pain. In the short term these can be helpful but even after just a few days it can start having serious effects on your gut health.
Other Pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics which indiscriminately wipe out most bacteria (not just the bad ones), antacids for indigestion, the birth control pill or chemotherapy all have strong negative effects on our gut flora.
Factors pertaining to our diet include consumption of soy products, artificial sweeteners, dairy, gluten, alcohol and sugar. Remember these nasties are hidden in most packaged foods these days (besides alcohol, I’d hope).
It is really important respect the complexity of your body and invest in taking care of yourself holistically. As an Osteopath I recognise the importance of a healthy gut in people for overall wellbeing as well as musculoskeletal health.
Here are some of my best tips for a healthy gut from my own personal research and countless discussions with Naturopaths, Nutritionists and Gastroenterologists:
Avoid antibiotics unless medically necessary
Avoid eating foods high in sugar or that contain soy, artificial sweeteners and flavours (get used to reading food packaging)
Don’t overindulge on alcohol
Don’t put things ON your body that you wouldn’t put IN your body. This includes skincare products and shampoos
If you’re going to take a probiotic consult your healthcare professional about which one will be most effective
Eat lots of vegetables, try squeeze 1-3 in every meal
Eat fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kimchi
Use a chlorine filter for your tap water
There are many more things you can do to help your gut microbiome but for the most of us, these are the most practical an effective measures.
Thank you for your sustained attention. That was a long one.