Support a Healthy Microbiome for a Healthy Gut
You may have heard by now, a healthy microbiome protects integrity of gut lining barrier. The gut barrier is designed to keep bad things out of our bodies, like toxins out of bloodstream. When things get into our bloodstream that don’t belong there, it sets off an immune response.
Microbial diversity and large populations are necessary to provide resilience as well as an abundance of species that produce butyrate and those that support the mucus lining.
A healthy and diverse gut microbiome does these things for us:
Maintains Thick Mucus Layer – A thick mucus layer in the gut lining is necessary to keep bad things from getting into our bloodstream from the gut. Beneficial gut bacteria support production of goblet cells in intestinal mucosa that produce the thick mucus layer.
Reduces Inflammation – A healthy gut lining should not be inflamed. Certain beneficial bacteria help us keep down inflammation by fermenting nondigestive dietary fiber from plants. They produce a byproduct of short chain fatty acids (SCFA’s) such as butyrate which is anti-inflammatory.
Maintains Tight Junctions – A metabolite of many beneficial gut bacteria, butyrate decreases low grade inflammation of the gut lining, supports maintenance and repair of tight junctions in gut lining, and has many other functions throughout body.
Fights Pathogens – A diverse microbiome competes with pathogens, keeping them at bay from wreaking havoc on our bodies.
Maintains Gut Motility – The microbiome helps us to have normal gut motility. This not only helps with proper elimination, but also accelerates healing of damaged cells post infection.
Supports Maturation of Immune System and Healthy Immune Tolerance – By keeping things balanced and calm in the gut, and by supporting gut lining integrity, foreign entities are unlikely to cross over into the bloodstream where the immune system might overreact.
We need the gut microbiome to “tend” to our gut. If your gut microbiome is not “tending” to your gut lining, you are more vulnerable to inflammation and leaky gut and even the onset of chronic diseases like Type 2 Diabetes.
