Gut Health Problems - September 2017

7
GET MORE EXERCISE
Our gut bugs just don’t like for us to
be lazy; they are much happier when we get
an aerobic workout. A team of scientists
from the University College Cork in Ireland
studied the poop of 40 professional
rugby players. The results showed that
the athletes’ microbiomes were far more
diverse than those of two control groups of
normal people. In a May 2013 control study
published in the journal PLOS ONE, 40 rats
were assigned to one of four experimental
groups: two with free access to exercise,
and two with no access to exercise.
A significant increase in the number of the
bacteria Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium
and B. coccoides - E. rectale group was
found in the micriobiota of rats with access
to exercise. In other studies, as well, it
appears that exercise induces changes
in the gut microbiota that are different
than, say, diet. Several physiological
changes that result from exercise, such
as increasing intestinal transit time (or
flow rate) through the gut, influencing
metabolism, and altering immune function,
are known to affect the microbiota.
8
LOWER STRESS LEVELS
When you feel stressed, your
body will discharge natural steroids and
adrenaline, and your immune system
will release inflammatory cytokines. This
happens whether the threat is real (a bear is
approaching your tent in the woods) or not
(you can’t stop obsessing about all of your
work deadlines). If you tend to be stressed
all the time, your immune response never
stops sending inflammation messages
to all parts of your body - your gut
bugs included. The microbiome helps
keep our immune system in check.
The pair (intestinal bacteria and our
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September 2017