Gut Health

I bet you’ve probably heard quite a bit about gut health and that taking good care of your gut is incredibly helpful to your body. Well, there is a ton of information coming out about gut health and its impacts on the body recently. But, what exactly is gut health?

The gut is also known as the gastrointestinal system; and it is the tract that begins at the mouth and ends at the bowel. It is in charge of breaking down our food into nutrients that our body can use for energy. Each organ in the gut has a designated job and a set of microorganisms that do their jobs of breaking down the food so that it can be digested 1.

In normal and healthy circumstances, the gut communicates with the brain through hormones and the neural network - which indicate to our body when we are hungry and full. Each person has a unique gut microbiome so some foods might work well in one person’s gut whereas it might not in another’s. You might have noticed that gluten and lactose have been linked to gut irritation in some people - which explains why there are gluten-free and lactose-free options available in the market 1.

Researchers are now finding that we have a second brain - the gut-brain. It is also known as the Enteric Nervous System (ENS), and it controls everything related to digestion - from when food enters your stomach to the rectum where it is eliminated. The ENS involves two layers of over 100 million nerve cells that line the digestive tract from esophagus to rectum. This gut-brain communicates back and forth with the big brain and has profound effects on our bodies 2.

It has been found that the impacts of the gut go well beyond digestion. It also has effects on the mood and the emotional state of a person. For example: people experiencing Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), with symptoms like constipation, diarrhea, bloating and stomach pain are shown to have a higher chance of developing anxiety and depression. Roughly 30-40% of the general population have some type of functional bowel problem at some point during their lifetime. Irritation to the gastrointestinal system communicates this to the brain which triggers mood changes; which affect the emotional state of a person 2.

Your immunity is strongly connected to your gut by preventing “bad bacteria”, viruses, and fungi from entering your bloodstream through a gut barrier. When this barrier becomes penetrable this leads to a “Leaky Gut” and can allow those germs to get through to the blood and make you ill. Focusing on maintaining a healthy gut, can prevent you from getting ill often. Additionally, it can also prevent you from having problems like hormonal imbalance that can affect things like weight gain/loss, acne, fertility, and mental health 1.

Hormones are chemical messengers (that send messages throughout the body) and are important in telling your body what to do. Hormones are responsible for many crucial bodily processes like: metabolism, growth and development, sexual function, reproduction, mood and more 3.

A hormonal imbalance occurs when there is too much or too little of one or more hormones. Small imbalances have the capacity to cause major changes. Some hormonal imbalances can be temporary while others are chronic and long-term conditions. But daily life changes such as maintaining good gut health and exercising often can be effective treatments to some of these imbalances 3. 

Shaah Tea now offers a digestive blend that aims to help you in maintaining a good gut health. This new digestive blend targets symptoms like gas, bloating, constipation, heartburn, and others. With 9 key ingredients, this blend can help kickstart your goal of having a healthy gut through the use of this herbal caffeine-free tea. Give it a shot, and let me know what you think! 

Microorganisms/microbes - bacteria, fungi, and other living organisms that can be seen through a microscope. This does not include viruses as they are not living organisms 4 

Neural network - systems of neurons 5

Microbiome - the collection of microbes that live in our bodies 6