Gut Health Seems To Be The Real Key To Happiness

Sick is how I woke up yesterday, in my throat, dripping into my ears, causing a headache and some dizziness. I laid low, did my work from my bed, drank tea, and went to bed early. I woke up today in the same condition. I started to feel overcome with sadness. I don’t really have the money at the moment to go to a real doctor, and the cheap doctors here in Mexico City will just prescribe me some general antibiotics that sweep over a large range of infections, in case it’s a bacterial infection. And if it isn’t, I still feel shitty and add to my health problems down the road for introducing antibiotics unnecessarily into my system, allowing my body to become resistant to them. That didn’t seem worth the risk to me, especially after talking to @kindstranger this morning. She told me that my gut health is linked to my brain health, and my brain health is linked to my immunity (high stress lowers the immune system), and that aside from drastically upping my intake of Vitamin C, that I should be putting probiotics instead of antibiotics into my body. That this will change my life.

I took her advice, juiced some grapefruit and kale, blended it with strawberries, and drank an ultra-healthy, immune-boosting smoothie for breakfast. Then, I started doing some research. She’s seriously right. It is likelier than regular likely that I have been feeling deep mood swings, low energy on a regular basis, and getting sick more than usual because my intake of foods that promote gut health is depressingly low. Let me just share a little of my research with you about the neurological tie between the brain and the gut, and how wellness, including physical wellness, begins in the brain.

Apparently, taking SSRI’s (antidepressants) is linked to healthy, regular bowel movements. The reverse is also true because of the link between the brain and the gut. This has been found in study after study after study, doctors observing that psychiatric issues are almost always accompanied by poor gut health. So, instead of putting chemicals in the body to treat neurological issues, another option is available—keep your gut healthy. This doesn’t just apply to people with chronic or serious mental issues, though it does include that with more extreme measures of probiotic consumption. People like me, who are prone to mood swings and depression in a mild way, will likely see a huge improvement in their day-to-day mood and energy when eating probiotic-rich foods and taking probiotic supplements.

In case you don’t know, probiotics are live bacterial cultures that we eat in fermented foods. They create an environment in the gut that keeps the good bacteria strong and the bad bacteria from surviving. And since gut health is connected to neurological functioning, healthy gut=healthy brain. YES! People with everything from DEPRESSION, AUTISM, ADHD, TO ANGER AND OTHER MOOD DISORDERS, can impact the quality of their lives by keeping their guts healthy. So crazy, right?

And another huge benefit to keeping a healthy gut, as if happiness wasn’t enough, is that it is linked to weight loss. That doesn’t mean that you can gorge and lose weight just from probiotic intake, but if you’re eating healthy and keeping your body moving to a decent extent, including probiotics can help shed pounds. Probiotics have also been seen to alleviate bowel aggravation and disorders (IBS, IBD, lactose intolerance), allergies (yay for me and my horrible allergies!), and prevent colds and other infections (yay for me and my recent proneness to getting sick!).

Damn, probiotics, what don’t you’d do?

Brain health contributes to overall health in SO MANY WAYS. Stress and anxiety are horrible for the immune system, for blood pressure, for maintaining a healthy weight. Depression makes it hard to have the energy/motivation to do anything, be it physical activity or writing a blog. Mood swings too cause impulsive and often unhealthy decision-making, easily leading to things like overeating and not hanging out with friends and family. I could go on, but that could go on forever. I hope I’ve made it obvious how having a healthy brain is good for the body and soul. Therefore, keeping your gut healthy is also good for the body and soul, in part because of that link between gut and brain.

What are these foods that are rich in probiotics? Most fermented things are rich in probiotics. Here’s a list:

Yogurt (though make sure it says live active cultures, or else the probiotic presence will be lost)

Dark Chocolate

Green Peas

Anything Pickled (Pickles, Sauerkraut, Kimchi, etc.)

Green Olives

Sourdough Bread

Aged Soft Cheeses (like parmesan, cheddar, gouda, and swiss)

Cottage Cheese

Kombucha (a fermented drink)

Miso (popular in Asian cuisine, fermented soybean base)

Tempeh (fermented soybean base)

Kefir (sour-tasting drink made from a base of fermented cow’s milk)

Beer and Wine (benefits can only be found from these sources when consumed in moderation)

Aside from that, taking a probiotic supplement (like Acidophilus) can work wonders. I am a person that prefers food over supplements, but the real winner is food and supplements. That’s what I have already started doing and what I plan to keep doing for the rest of my life. I am SO SICK of my mood swings and bouts of depression coming way too often. It is beyond likely that my lack of probiotics has been causing the shift in my self toward these mental ailments to more frequent. In any case, in a few months, I’ll let Steemlandia know my progress in mental and gut health. Really lucky for me is that I LOVE sauerkraut. Like eat-it-out-of-the-can love.

A side note to consider is that the artificial sweetener Splenda is particularly bad for gut health, destroying good bacteria in the gut. That’s the only one that has had extensive enough studies for conclusive results. And of course, overusing antibiotics will kill the bacterial flora in the body, making it harder for the body to combat other bacterias that enter and can potentially harm us. Also, things we add to food and water in Western culture to preserve food also eliminate the good bacteria.

I suspect the reason why more information has not come out about the enormous benefits of probiotics is because it is not in the best interest of the people selling us antibiotics and profit margins of food producers. Pharmaceutical companies would lose a lot of money if enough studies were done to categorically say just how good probiotics are for us. We would be way healthier physically and mentally consuming enough probiotics to keep our gut healthy.

Hopefully the information I have collected and provided here is enough to make you feel informed about all this. Since there isn’t a downside to including more probiotics in my life (other than perhaps that it could cost more upfront, though less in the long run when thinking of it as a preventative health measure), I am just going to do it. As I said, I’ll let you know how it goes.

[My sources for this information are so vast. If you google gut health benefits and click on trusted links, you'll no doubt come up with the same conclusions I have.]