By: Dr. Michelle Pobega, ND

It is becoming more and more recognized that our overall health depends on our gut health and the balance of our gut microbiome (bacteria and other microbes that live in our GI tract).Research is beginning to discover the various ways that our gut microbiome impacts our lives, and especially our immune system. Here are some key highlights:

• Bacteria teach our immune system how to behave. This education starts before we’re even born and gets amplified at birth. Experiments on mice born in a germ free lab, without any bacteria end up with immature immune systems lacking in important types of immune cells. When they are provided with even a restricted bacteria flora for the gut, the immune cells mature.
• Gut bacteria helps regulate a balanced immune response. Throughout our life we are constantly exposed to various things (like non pathogenic microbes, pollen, toxins, food additives etc) through the food, air and liquids we take in. The health and diversity of our gut bacteria influences the immune system’s response to all these invading objects. A healthy microbiome helps our immune system respond in a balanced and decisive way between reaction and tolerance. Too many non-healthy microbes in the gut will lead to more inflamed immune response and can affect other body systems. Autoimmune disease, allergies and inflammatory diseases are all associated with a dysregulated immune response, and have been connected to imbalanced gut microbiome.
• An abundance of beneficial microbes in our gut not only help maintain the health of our gut lining and produce food for our gut lining cells, but also compete with harmful microbes (including viruses) for space in the the body. The can also communicate with each other when they are in high numbers and strong, to sense each other and react faster. They can maintain the memory of this defense and pass on this immunity to future generations.
• New research is showing that our gut microbes help support our “adaptive immunity”, our specialized immune response, by helping provide the immune system with the right signals to quickly recognize various pathogens to produce antibodies against them.

This is just the beginning of new research emerging in support of maintaining a healthy and robust microbiome in our digestive tract.

So what can you do?

• Start with the basics - drink ample amounts of clean water daily, eat a primarily whole foods diet rich in a VARIETY of vegetarian fibers (vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, fruits and mindful servings of whole grains), avoid or limit the intake of highly processed and high sugar foods, and be mindful of your intake of antibiotics, drugs and alcohol which can all disrupt the microbiome.
• Book an appointment for a personalized deep dive into rebalancing the gut microbiome and optimizing digestive function.