Hippocrates once said, “All diseases lead to the gut.” It sounds like hyperbole, but scientific study has shown time and time again – it’s true! The gut influences nearly every part of the body, from your heart and brain to your weight and the appearance of your skin.
“The gut, just one thing to understand and a big takeaway just right out of the gate, is it impacts everything,” said Dr. Terri DeNeui, DNP, ARNP, ACNP-BC, and Founder of EVEXIAS Health Solutions and creator of the EvexiPEL Method in episode 6 of her podcast, The Dr. Terri Show. “Every single body system. The gut impacts the brain, the heart, the endocrine system, your skin, your reproductive health— literally every single system is impacted by the gut.”
Whether you think your gut is in tip-top shape or you’re constantly dealing with tummy issues, understanding how the gut works, the myriads of symptoms that can appear when the gastrointestinal system isn’t functioning properly, and how to correct gut issues is essential to restoring and protecting your energy, vitality, and long-term health.
What exactly does the gut do?
To put it simply, the gut, or gastrointestinal tract, is everything that happens between when you put that first bit of food in your mouth and the bowel movement you have later.
“We eat food, it starts with the tongue, right? This is the first part of it, and it ends on the back end. So, there’s this one long tube that goes all, all the way through,” said Dr. Terri.
As food moves through the gastrointestinal tract, the gut breaks down the food, extracts its nutrients, and pushes the rest through the system to be evacuated as waste. Meanwhile, the nutrients that are extracted are used to fuel our bodies and help keep our systems—including the brain, the cardiovascular system, and even the reproductive system—running smoothly.
Recently, a scientific study has also suggested there is a potent brain-gut connection. So much so, that many have begun calling the gut the “second brain.” This is because the gut is home to the enteric nervous system, a thin lining of millions of nerve cells that send signals to the brain from the gut.
The impact of these signals is felt throughout the body. While this connection helps to trigger processes related to digestion, it may also impact our moods and emotions, which can lead to depression and anxiety.
“For decades, researchers and doctors thought that anxiety and depression contributed to these problems. But our studies and others show that it may also be the other way around,” reports John-Hopkins Medicine. “Researchers are finding evidence that irritation in the gastrointestinal system may send signals to the central nervous system (CNS) that trigger mood changes.”
What are some signs of gut issues?
When it comes to signs of gut issues, it’s important to look beyond stomach upset. There’s a laundry list of symptoms that arise in other parts of the body that are very connected to how the gastrointestinal system is functioning.
“If you are a person that deals with issues with your gut or things that might not even sound like the gut, like acne or hormonal issues or mood issues, it could have started in the gut,” said Dr. Terri.
For instance, there’s an army of billions of microbes in the gut that help with digestion and immunity called the gut microbiome. What we eat impacts our microbiome, and if we over-emphasized processed foods like chips or foods with certain pesticides or allergens present, it can lead to an overgrowth of “bad” bacteria that causes adverse symptoms like gas, rashes, aching joints, and chronic fatigue. This condition is called gut dysbiosis.
Likewise, many people develop Leaky Gut Syndrome, a condition where your intestines become more permeable and leak their contents into the bloodstream. When this happens, the body recognizes the toxins being leaked from the intestines as foreign and queues up a full-fledged histamine response. This feels like an allergic reaction in the body and can show up as bloating and gassiness, low energy and mood, and skin rashes or acne.
“What are some signs that you might have a leaky gut? Well, the obvious things are gas, bloating, belching all the time, especially after a meal, feeling heavy, sluggish, and tired. Like you just want to go lay down and go to bed after a meal,” said Dr. Terri.
Other signs of gut dysfunction include autoimmune disorders like Hashimoto’s, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus, as well as mental health issues like depression, anxiety, mood swings irritability, and even ADD.
The reproductive system and fertility can also be impacted by poor gut health. According to scientific research, the gut microbiota “plays a major role in the reproductive endocrine system throughout a woman’s lifetime by interacting with estrogen, androgens, insulin, and other hormones.”
As a result, gut imbalances can lead to pregnancy complications, adverse pregnancy outcomes, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis, and even cancer.
“The immune system is so focused on putting out all these fires everywhere, that it’s not available to fight all the toxins that our body needs those warriors for to fight off cancers, right?” said Dr. Terri.
How do you heal your gut?
Perhaps the most important question, especially if you’re already suffering from some of these issues, is how do you heal your gut?
According to Dr. Terri, it takes about 12 weeks to heal a damaged gut, and the best place to start is to look at what you’re eating. An effective way to discover what foods trigger your symptoms is to track how you feel after you eat, look for patterns, and experiment with eliminating certain foods.
“So, the first thing you do is you remove the offending foods, so you know what they are,” she said. “If you go eat Mexican food and you’re down for two days, that’s probably corn, nightshade vegetables like tomatoes and peppers, and spicy things. You have to step away from that stuff because it’s very inflammatory when you’re trying to heal your gut.”
Seed oils, like canola oil, and packaged, processed foods are also common offenders and major staples of the American diet. For example, studies show that people who consumed “more ultra-processed food had an increased risk of Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome (IBS), with a significant dose-response relationship.”
As you work to discover what foods hurt your system, start emphasizing more whole, fresh foods in your diet. Also consider adding in fermented foods like sauerkraut, and bone broth, as well as supplements like L-Glutamine, berberine, and Cat’s Claw (Uncaria tomentosa), all of which have gut-healing properties. You could also consider adding in a probiotic.
“Eat a rainbow. Eat fresh foods, fresh vegetables, preferably organic if you can,” said Dr. Terri, adding that, when it comes to supplements for the gastrointestinal system there are a lot of great products available. “You want just get something that is rated well and has been third-party tested for potency and purity.”
Lastly, it’s always smart to look at how much fiber you eat. According to the American Society for Nutrition, just 7% of Americans are getting the recommended daily fiber recommendations, raising the risk of developing chronic diseases.
“Fiber, it’s the biggest thing that we’re missing. Fiber feeds the good bacteria in the gut,” Dr. Terri said.
Once you address your diet and add in supportive nutrients, give it time. It usually takes about three months for the gut to heal from issues like Leaky Gut or dysbiosis. If you’re patient and you continue to treat your system with care, you’ll start feeling – and looking – better.
“When you start really paying attention to your gut, you’re going to notice all the improvements in your energy and how your skin looks, in your hormone balance, in depression and anxiety,” Dr. Terri said. “Common things we deal with every day that we may not have ever attributed to our gut [start to resolve].”
