Gut Brain Connection: How Gut Health Improves Mental Health

Keeping an overall healthy body includes making sure you're taking care of yourself mentally and physically, including your gut health. What's not mentioned all that much is the relation between gut health and mental health.

Many people treat these as separate issues, but in reality, the gut and brain are actually connected in some ways. In this article, we'll discuss the gut-brain connection and how improving your gut health can also improve your mental health.

Gut Health and Mental Health; What Is The Link?

Have you ever had anxiety before? You may have realized that anxiety has caused you to feel nauseous or have stomach issues. This is because the gut and brain communicate with each other through a connection called the "gut-brain axis. 

As the brain sends signals to your gut, the opposite could happen as well. If your gut isn't healthy, it can send signals to your brain and affect your mood and mental health.

Our gut bacteria produce hundreds of neurochemicals that not only help regulate our physical processes but also influence our mental state, including cognition, memory, and mood. For example, after eating fast food high in unhealthy fats and sugars, have you ever felt more anxious or less able to focus on tasks? This could be due to the bad bacteria growing in your gut as a result of those poor dietary choices.

Believe it or not, 95% of the body's supply of Serotonin (a chemical that helps regulate mood) is produced in the gut.

What Mental Symptoms Could Be Caused By An Unhealthy Gut?

There are many symptoms that can be caused by an unhealthy gut, including:

• Mood disorders such as anxiety or depression (Gut and Mental Health Connection).
• Fatigue: This could affect your mood by making you constantly grumpy.
• Brain fog and trouble concentrating (Apart from the gut and mental health connection).

Now you know where the saying, "I can feel it in my gut," comes from. Now we're going to dive into ways you can improve your gut health to improve your overall mental health.

What Are the Symptoms Of An Unhealthy Gut As A Whole?

We mentioned the symptoms an unhealthy gut could cause mentally, however, there are also physical symptoms to look out for. These can include:

Digestive issues such as bloating, constipation, and diarrhea.

This happens because an unhealthy gut can cause an imbalance of good and bad bacteria, leading to digestive discomfort.

Skin issues like acne or rashes

This is the bad bacteria taking over and showing through on the outside of our bodies.

Constant food sensitivities and allergies

This is due to the gut not properly breaking down and digesting certain foods, leading to sensitivities or allergies.

Chronic Fatigue (always feeling tired)

As stated above, serotonin and other neurochemicals are produced in the gut. When our gut isn't healthy, it can lead to a decrease in these neurochemicals and cause us to feel tired constantly.

Craving Sugar Frequently

An imbalanced gut can cause excessive cravings for sugary foods, leading to further imbalances and potential weight gain.

Migraines

As the gut and brain communicate, an imbalanced gut can also cause frequent headaches or migraines. Interaction between the gut and the brain seems to be influenced by various factors such as inflammatory mediators, gut microbiota profile, neuropeptides and serotonin pathway, stress hormones, and nutritional substances.

What Are The Best Ways to Get Your Gut Healthy?

There are multiple methods you could consider when improving your gut health. Below we will go over a few of them.

Supplementation

Sometimes it may be hard to get a great number of probiotics (the good bacteria in your gut) through diet alone. Luckily, through our supplements, you could introduce more good bacteria into your gut.

What Supplements Do We Offer for Gut Health?

U.T. Biotic: U.T. Biotic contain 25 Billion CFUs (colony-forming units) of seven different probiotics to promote gut and digestive health. The sourcing of our probiotics is done very carefully, which makes our product more effective. It also contains Cranberry extract, which has been found to have antioxidant properties and support urinary tract health.

U.T. Vibrance: U.T. Vibrance is designed for fast-acting gut health support. It contains D-Mannose and is said to be used as a prophylaxis (action taken to prevent disease) for recurring urinary tract infections, as well as supporting gut and digestive health.

Digestive Vibrance: Digestive Vibrance contains 100 billion probiotics from 8 strains, prebiotics, and fermentable fibers as well as botanical extracts such as ginger root, ginkgo Biloba, and Boswellia. The Antimicrobial properties found in Digestive Vibrance could support your gut's immune system.

Keep a Proper Diet With Whole Foods

The second thing you should consider when it comes to gut health is your diet.

Eating whole foods that are high in fiber, such as fruits and vegetables, can promote the growth of good bacteria in the gut and support healthy digestion.

Staying away from processed foods is very important as well. As processed foods in the gut are linked to inflammation and can affect the balance of good and bad bacteria in your gut.

Eating too much in one sitting is another thing that could upset, and overwhelm your gut. Eating smaller portions throughout the day is another good practice for gut health.

Last but not least, you want to limit acidic things like alcohol and caffeine as these could potentially upset the balance of your gut.

Manage Stress

Constant stress and anxiety could affect the way your gut functions.

Managing your stress through exercise, deep breathing or even therapy can all have positive effects on not just your mental health but also your gut health.

Since your brain is constantly sending messages to your gut, and your gut is constantly sending messages to your brain, it is important to take care of both. So try incorporating some of the steps above for a healthier gut and improved mental well-being.

Drink Enough Water

Water is essential for almost everything going on in your body. This includes your gut health. When you drink the proper amounts of water, it helps aid in digestion, which can improve your gut's function (overall gut health).

To be more specific, water pairs up with your stomach acids and digestive enzymes, which breaks down what you eat a lot easier.

You may realize through drinking a lot of water, that you're less likely to be constipated (a sign of poor gut health).

Why You Should Shop All Your Health Needs At Vibrant Health

Here at Vibrant Health, we have supplements for everyone. Our supplements help with immunity, urinary health, digestion, joint health, strength, overall wellness, and weight management.

Our best seller is Green Vibrance which is a superfood supplement designed to support overall health and well-being.

If you have any questions in regards to any of our supplements, you can easily hit the message button at the bottom of our home page and ask away. We also have an extensive amount of blog posts for you to learn about all things health and wellness related.

In summary

When it comes to your gut health, there are multiple things you can do to improve it. Supplementation, maintaining a proper diet with whole foods, and managing stress can all have positive effects on your gut health and in turn, your mental health as well.