heart gut
You must have heard the notion that the way to a person’s heart is through his stomach. This is clinically true. Better gut health will show good health and is linked with a fully functional heart. It is no surprise in the fact that heart diseases have taken over human health like a storm. Heart problems are the issues of the leading death in the United States alone. The effects can take families by surprise. Almost every person in the world knows another person suffering from a heart issue.
While there has been much contradiction on what is best for the heart, the gut is the prime factor responsible for the health of our heart. We might also consider good eating habits, avoiding alcohol or smoking, eating less fat and a good exercise regime for good heart health. But no one does the job as good as eating good does. Which means if your gut is healthy, the heart is happy.
Heart gut connection
Since childhood, we have been told to eat right to stay healthy. We do exercises to develop a strong heart. Cereal boxes and other nutritious food enter into our life with labels like “healthy living healthy heart” or “the prime source of healthy heart”. These foods decrease our cholesterol and took care of our heart. Even schools encourage eating a healthy diet for the heart.
But despite all these efforts, there seems to be a piece of the puzzle missing. This is because the death toll of heart patients have been on the rise till today, despite the advances in medical science. The research growing in this field points to the microbiome of our gut. This also indicates that there is a strong connection between our heart and gut. The link is the reason why cardiologist is now advising their patients to go through gastroenterologist diagnosis.
The time is not far away when your stool sample, a breath test or oral swab can easily predict a common heart problem. Additionally, a common gas problem or a bloating can lead to a heart issue.
You must be wondering how the gut affects your heart the most? The answer lies in the type of gut bacteria and their movement. The type of bacteria found only in our colon can easily migrate to the small intestine. This can cause unwanted problems for a start. Later, the specific bacteria, when exposed to a protein-rich diet, can cause the production of byproducts that are harmful. These byproducts are dangerous for our heart. When this particular bacteria leak through the lining of the intestines, it reaches the bloodstream. From there, it can spread to other organic and cause inflammation in arteries. This exerts pressure on the heart and may also cause it to rupture.
Starting the fight for the heart with gut health weapon
Gut and heart connection simply tell us how eating right is healthy. It can take heart health to a new level. When you eat healthily, you will make the microbes work in your favor. You can leverage the opportunity and take steps to increase the health of your gut and hence, that of your heart. Here are a few steps you may adopt:
Avoid sugar
Avoid sugar as much as you can. The sweet thing is not good for our gut microbiome. This is because harmful bacteria and even fungus can grow easily by feasting on sugar. Diets containing high levels of sugar are clinically rested to alter the composition and metabolism of our microbiome composition. A fungus named Candida Albicans also loves to grow with the help of sugar ingredients.
Avoid NSAIDs and antibiotics
Reduce the consumption of NSAIDs or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Drugs such as Advil may alter the composition of the gut microbiome. They can also decrease the integrity of the lining of the gut. They may also be the reason behind a leaking gut. One may also reduce the use of antibiotics. These cause alterations of the gut microbiome as well. Antibiotics do not differentiate between good and bad bacteria and kill even the good ones present in our gut.
Say no to smoking
Smoking drastically changes the microbiome gut composition. People who smoke have microbiome of the gut that is identical to those people who are suffering from obesity. The smoking gut is also similar to people having inflammatory bowel syndrome. And above all, quitting smoking is always good for our respiratory system which affects our heart too. If you are still smoking, this is another good and valid reason to quit immediately. Quitting smoking can eventually improve the gut health and hence, the heart condition too.
Stress
While you might still be digesting the fact that the heart is linked with the gut, you might be amazed to know that the gut is also connected to our brain directly. This connection is through the vagus nerve. When the gut hormone signaling occurs, the message is transferred to the brain through neurotransmitters. Various other metabolites also have a role in the process. Hence, if you are stressed out or tense, the brain will affect the gut microbiome. Alternatively, the gut microbiome and its disposition can cause stress. This two-way junction is harmful to our heart. Reducing stress and leading a stress-free life is beneficial for our gut health.
Avoid preservatives
We know that processed food is unhealthy for our body system. It might not come as a surprise that they can affect our gut microbiomes. Preservatives with the likes of carboxymethylcellulose or polysorbate 80 are extremely dangerous. These are used as emulsifiers in various food preparations. They affect our microbiome composition in a harsh manner. To avoid having these, always check the label for ingredients in the food you are consuming.
Avoid Genetically modified foods
We often fall prey to the good looks and tantalizing appeal of foods such as fruits and other food items. In reality, however, these non-seasonal offerings are genetically modified. While they may be good or even delicious to have, they are not healthy for your gut. This has largely to do without the gut microbiome. GMO foods are modified so that they can service strong pesticides. When you consume these, you are consuming more chemicals than you usually would. This damages our gut. Pesticides included in the GMOs are bad as they kill the good bacteria in our gut.
Lifestyle changes for gut health
Adapt nature
People have moved from natural livelihoods to artificial cities. This means that now we come in less contact with natural elements such as trees, rivers, mountains, crops, etc. A good way is to go outside and explore the natural surroundings when possible. This way, we can live in fewer microbes as compared to living inside a house using harmful gadgets. When you expose yourself to a greater variety of surroundings, you can balance your microbiome of the gut. You can also take part in picnics, beach activities and alike leisure acts involving nature.
Try adopting a pet
This might come as a surprise to many people as pets carry microbes and bacterias. On contrary to this, having a pet has found to be beneficial for the gut especially for kids. Children having pets have lower rates of allergies. Also, they are less susceptible to become overweight. The reason lies in the fact that microbes on pets increase the overall diversity of the microbes in your gut. This may keep your gut healthy by providing the gut some beneficial microorganisms.
Don’t skip exercises
Exercising and working out is not only healthy for your muscles, but for your inner gut as well. When you exercise regularly, the diversity of beneficial bacteria increases in your body. This boosts the overall gut health. A brisk walk, a jog or a meditation session can boost your gut health. An important thing to remember here is that too much exercise may harm your gut.
Intermittent Fasting
This is a great practice for your gut and its microbiome. You can try remaining without food for 9 to 12 hours. But if we take a closer look at our schedule, we already fast that long when we sleep. If you practice a little more time without food, it might create a good atmosphere for gut bacteria to thrive. Many bacteria love a calorie-deficient environment which may prove to be healthy for our gut and heart.
Get good sleep
The famous notion of “early to bed early to rise makes you healthy and wise” stands true in this case as well. Having proper sleep makes you feel active and relaxed all day. Contrarily, not getting enough sleep makes you feel lethargic and unhappy. Needless to say, poor sleep can affect your gut microbiome.
Scientists suggest that taking 7 or 8 hours of sleep is just the right thing. But the quality of sleep should also be high. This means that the sleep you are embracing should be peaceful and if not anything else, should be deep. Disturbed sleeping patterns are near to no sleep at all. Various factors contributing include using mobile phones, staying awake forcefully or watching TV late at night. Improving sleep quality can affect or improve many aspects of your life.
In the end, stick to a schedule
Concluding, it is important to remember that you should always try and stick to the schedule. It is a fact that various gut microbes operate according to our circadian rhythms. This shows that sticking to the schedule can help run everything smoothly. Maintaining your gut health is not a task that can be done in a day or a week. You cannot move out of the track after some time. You need to schedule your habits for a lifetime as it can pose danger to the gut.
Another important thing to remember is to keep your home and premises microbe healthy. Children who live in clean homes are less likely to have allergies. Using veggies and local organic food is another concluding factor in our effort to keep the gut healthy. These reduce the gut damaging chemicals and have a beneficial effect on the microbiome.
Concluding note
Many of us might still argue about the gut and heart relation. But, on the positive side of things, having a healthy gut improves health and it also includes our heart health. Our body mechanism is made to allow the gut to produce healthy compound that protects our heart. These are called short-chain fatty acids. By not keeping our gut healthy, we might object to the formation of these healthy compounds.
Scientists believe that bacteria in the gut have risk factors for heart diseases. It also affects cholesterol levels in our blood and causes blood pressure to rise. The bacteria also shows the effect on atherosclerosis in our heart arteries. This is a common heart disease that can be deadly. The Atherosclerosis is the leading cause of most heart attacks where a clot is formed the artery becomes narrow. The gut microbiome is found to be the cause of the plaque to rupture. It also reduces the ability of the artery to open up which increases the chances of a blood clot.
Hence not keeping our gut health can lead to severe circumstances and one should always consider this aspect of body health. The heart might be the most important organ of our body but its health is connected to other organs, including the gut. If you keep your gut healthy, you might just have increased a few years of your life.
Concluding, here are some important facts you might wish to take note of:
- There are trillions of bacteria in our gut that plays a role in the cardiovascular health of our body
- Gut bacteria in healthy people differ considerably from that of people suffering from heart diseases
- Gut bacteria also affect our digestion and play an important role in keeping our body immunity intact
- Various types of healthy foods can improve your gut healthy. The common ones include fibers, fruits, roughage, fermented food, green leafy vegetables, and garlic.
- Though not all, many metabolic syndromes start by the bad microbiome of our gut. This also includes heart-related diseases
- If you have an infected gut, you might need the cure for two to three weeks to heal it. The gut develops new lining in this time which allows it to function properly once again
- There has been scientific evidence that gut affects our heart health and is associated with a good and bad heart condition
