Cartoon drawing of bacteria in a gut microbiome

How to Develop a New Gut for the New Year

Committing to making changes to your gut microbiome will do far more than improve your bowel habits. Your gut health is important to most aspects of your life, including reducing your risk for cancer, metabolic syndrome, depression and type 2 diabetes.

January 9, 2017 | Source: Mercola.com | by Dr. Joseph Mercola

Are you still trying to achieve the goals you set for yourself in 2016? You wouldn't be the only one. According to Forbes Magazine, only 8 percent of people who set New Year's Resolutions will accomplish them.1

There are secrets to achieving your goals that are shared by those elite 8 percent. They aren't difficult or unusual, but they do require you actually take action.

Making your goals specific, measuring your progress, being patient and scheduling the time to work on your goals are just some of the ways people who successfully achieve their goals make it happen.2

Achieving your goal and enjoying success also depends on making the right goals that improve your life and your health.

Committing to making changes to your gut microbiome will do far more than improve your bowel habits. Your gut health is important to most aspects of your life, including reducing your risk for cancer, metabolic syndrome, depression and type 2 diabetes.

The No. 1 New Year's resolution for 2015 in the U.S. was losing weight.3 Goals planned in Great Britain were led by losing weight, followed closely by getting fit and eating healthier.4 These goals tend to be popular in any given year, and each of these goals is impacted by improving your gut health.

Get a Gut Makeover

Hippocrates once said that "all disease begins in the gut," and the more we learn, the more accurate that statement becomes. With research and study, scientists now understand your gut plays a crucial role in many health and disease processes, and actually acts as your body's second brain.

Getting a makeover of your gut microbiome may help you achieve your goals of weight loss, fitness, health and wellness and more.

Your immune system responds to the invasion of foreign invaders, cell injury and toxins by becoming inflamed. The purpose of this is to start repair in your body and help fight the foreign substances.

You experience short term inflammation when you get a bug bite or sprain your ankle. But chronic, low-grade, systemic inflammation triggers a different response.5

Systemic inflammation is now believed to be one of the leading triggers for serious diseases, including neurological degeneration,6 type 2 diabetes7 and cardiovascular disease,8 to name just a few.

Modifying your gut microbiome is an excellent long-term investment in your health and wellness. The number of bacteria in your body is now believed to be 1.3 bacteria to each body cell, with approximately 39 of the 40 trillion bacteria in your body living in your gut.9 

The consequences of a poorly developed microbiome may also affect your mood, emotions, allergies and anxiety.10

The diversity of your gut microbiome begins to be established when you are an infant, and is affected by genetics, whether you are breast or bottle fed, and your immediate environment.

Later in life your microbiome is significantly affected by your food choices. Diets high in sugar and processed foods may reduce the diversity and your overall health.

A study in both mice and humans found that changing your eating habits can alter the diversity of your gut microbiome and affect your bodily responses to dieting and nutritional interventions.11