If your gut is troubled, you’re not alone. Every 30 minutes, someone in the UK is diagnosed with IBD; that’s nearly half a million people.
There are over three million inflamed intestines in the USA and Canada, while Australians have one of the highest IBD incidences per capita. Bloated, inflamed, and too often unloved and unheeded, 10 million tummies in the UK regularly suffer from IBS. Many sufferers don’t even make it to their GP, choosing to muddle through their gut trouble solo.
The vast majority of those with a troubled gut live in the West. Scientists have also noticed a new trend: gut trouble is spreading into new territories. Places and people with no previous history of gut health diseases.
Has gut health reached a crisis point? What’s up with your Gut? And what can we do?
Well, one area which may hold many of the answers to this question is the Gut microbiome.
The gut biome is used to describe the bacteria populating the gut and is sometimes called the ‘second genome’. So how many bugs do you have?
Well, the 4,000 species have a population of around 100 trillion, which are right now nestled in the intricate folds of your large intestine. Wow! We have co-evolved with this fantastic array of tiny beings. It turns out we simply can’t live a happy, healthy life without them.
While scientists are busily trying to map the genome, what’s becoming clear is that there’s a relationship between the increase in gut problems and the typical Western microbiome. And because the diversity and complexity of the bacteria that live on and in us are far greater than our own human DNA, we cannot just draw simple conclusions from this complex conundrum. But there’s pretty compelling evidence that those of us with gut health issues have a reduced range of gut bacteria, and those of us with IBD and IBS appear to have an imbalance in the profile of our gut bugs compared with healthy people.
The good news is that there are simple things we can do to improve our gut health. I share the simple 3 Ps of Probiotic, Prebiotic, and Polyphenol-rich foods in my new book ‘Calm Your Gut’ check out the link below and see my website to find simple FREE resources that can support you to calmer happier gut throughout 2022!
Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash
