84 Burnett St Bundaberg
Did you know that there is a close relationship between inflammation and gut health? If you have digestive concerns or an inflammatory condition, you need to look at supporting both.
Let’s look at how they are linked and why you might want to address your gut health.
What is inflammation?
Inflammation is a protective mechanism that protects your body from damage and facilitates healing. However, chronic inflammation has been linked to dozens of chronic health conditions.
Why should I care about inflammation?
Unchecked inflammation can do more harm than good, and increase your risk of issues such as:
If you want to protect your health long-term or address a current health concern, you want to look at reducing inflammation. Looking for simple ways to reduce your inflammation? <link to previous article>
The key links between inflammation and gut health
Now that we know why addressing inflammation is important. But why is the gut so critical when it comes to doing so? There are a few important links to understand.
Gut microbes
One of the greatest influences on inflammation is the microbes found in the gut, also known as the microbiome. Theses microbes can produce either pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory compounds. Depending on the balance of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ microbes, your gut may be causing inflammation throughout the body.
Why would your gut microbes be out of balance? Some common reasons include:
The good news is that you can rebuild a healthy balance of good microbes with simple diet and lifestyle tweaks.
Gut integrity
Another way that inflammation can be triggered is by poor gut integrity.
In a healthy gut, the gut wall prevents undigested food, toxins, germs and other particles from passing into the bloodstream. But if this gut wall is damaged, it can lead to them leaking through and triggering inflammation. This is technically known as increased intestinal permeability, but we refer to it as ‘leaky gut’.
The causes of leaky gut include:
As you can see, the causes of an imbalanced microbiome and leaky gut have a lot of overlaps! This is because they also affect each other.
Food intolerance's
One of the most common causes of inflammation we see at Burnett House is underlying food intolerances. This may be because a client doesn’t know they have an intolerance or because they don’t realise the health implications of triggering their intolerance.
When you consume something you’re intolerant to, it can cause localised inflammation to protect your body. But it can also impact on the microbes and gut integrity, leading to widespread inflammation.
Common food intolerances include:
Unfortunately, food intolerances often aren’t identified because symptoms are vague or occur hours after consuming a food. It’s estimated that 20% of people have at least one intolerance. Working with a practitioner can help you to uncover potential food intolerances.
If you suspect inflammation is contributing to your symptoms, the team at Burnett House can help.
Our acupuncturist Jamie combines acupuncture with other tools such as dry needling and remedial massage to relieve symptoms such as pain and stress naturally.
Our naturopath Trish can look at diet and lifestyle factors that can help to address the underlying inflammation and help you to optimise your gut health.
To book an appointment with Jamie or Trish at our Bundaberg clinic, call us on (07) 41522372
