Do you need to improve your immunity?
You’ve already caught a cold, that nasty flu, and you can feel your throat getting sore now, too. All this and fall has only begun. What more can your body take?
If you’re getting sick more than once a year, then your immune system might just need a little extra support. But if you’re getting sick more than three times a year, then poor gut health may be affecting your immune system.
So, if you struggle with regular sickness, then it’s time to stop popping antibiotics. Let’s take a look at the gut-immune connection.
Gut-Immune Connection #1: Gut Bacteria
Your gut bacteria interacts with your immune system. An imbalance of bacteria weakens immunity, as explained in Frontiers in Immunology. Gut bacteria can be altered by lifestyle factors. This can include stress, poor sleep hygiene, and inactivity – but it’s also affected by the foods you eat.
If gut bacteria balance play such an important role in immune health, then how do you balance it? That’s where diet, supplementation, and lifestyle habits can have such a big impact.
Nutrition Tip: Aim to eat a serving of fermented foods three to five times a week. Kombucha, kimchi, miso, sauerkraut, yogurt, and kefir are all healthy options.
Gut-Immune Connection #2: Leaky Gut
The immune reaction from imbalanced gut bacteria then triggers inflammation. This can lead to leaky gut, as explained in this 2016 article on leaky gut syndrome.
Focusing on healing the lining of your gut is important. This allows you to re-populate gut bacteria for a healthy immune system.
Lifestyle Tip: Stress is a big contributor to gut bacteria imbalances. This leads to a weakened immune system, inflammation, and also leaky gut. Manage your stress by setting boundaries, getting enough sleep, and deep breathing.
Gut-Immune Connection #3: Inflammation
Your immune system is your body’s defense against bacteria, viruses, and infections. With leaky gut, foreign molecules leak into the bloodstream causing damage to tissue. This causes an immune reaction, attacking the molecules, resulting in inflammation.
Chronic inflammation increases damage to the gut, which then affects the immune system.
It’s the circle of, well, gut life.
Reducing inflammation plays a major rule in improving gut health. This can help heal the gut and re-balance bacteria, naturally improving immunity.
Supplement Tip: Fish oil supplementation can be helpful in reducing inflammation. Talk to your healthcare practitioner before starting a new supplement.
Working on your gut health is a win-win because it helps improve immunity.
If you don’t get sick often and have no major symptoms, then your gut health is probably okay.
But if your immune or gut health are in need of some extra TLC, you can start with the Immune Intensive Guidebook. It will help boost immunity. If you want more personalized support, contact me to book a nutrition consultation.
You should also try making this gut-nourishing Pumpkin Spice Baked Oatmeal recipe!
