Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said: “All disease begins in the gut”.
So, can conditions like acne, rosacea, and eczema also be directly related to gut health?
Well, more than 80% of the body’s immunity lies within the gut and is dictated by hundreds of naturally occurring bacteria that live in our digestive tract.
Some of these are harmless ‘good’ bacteria that help with digestion, while others are not so harmless ‘bad’ bacteria, which may contribute to causing diseases and other health problems like skin problems.
How does the gut health get affected?
What we put into our body in terms of food and nutrients can have a huge impact on our gut. What we eat is more than just nutrition, it also feeds the bacteria that live in our gut.
Bacteria can affect our behavior and is often referred to as our second brain.
How does this affect the skin?
If we have an unhealthy gut it can have a big impact on our overall health and especially the appearance of our skin. This includes problems like spots, inflammation, eczema, and rosacea. The gut microbiome is the bacteria found in your intestines that influences your overall health, especially your skin.
What are other symptoms of poor gut health?
Apart from skin problems, these symptoms may also make gut health issues clear:
- Food sensitivities or allergies
- Digestive problems like gas and bloating
- Weight gain
- Skin issues like acne, eczema, and rosacea
- Fatigue
- Mood swings
- Autoimmune disorders
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Difficulty concentrating
- Joint pain
What are the causes of poor gut health?
The culprits that can play a part in damaging your gut health are:
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
NSAIDs such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen relieve pain and inflammation by blocking an enzyme called cyclo-oxygenase.
The problem is that this enzyme also performs important functions, such as protecting the stomach from the corrosive effects of its own acid, which strengthens the activity of the immune system. Because of this, they can cause intestinal inflammation, damaging the lining of the intestine and causing intestinal permeability.
This process can turn on an autoimmune response in the body. Among people who chronically use NSAIDs, research estimates that 65% will develop intestinal inflammation and up to 30% will develop ulcers.
Antibiotics
Frequent use of antibiotics can decrease your beneficial, protective gut bacteria (good flora). With your body’s natural defences down, antibiotics are more prone to damage to your gut’s lining. What’s worse is that without some healthy intervention, your body’s unique diversity of trillions of beneficial bacteria won’t automatically be recovered after it’s lost.
Stress
Chronic stress will weaken your immune system’s response to infection. Your brain and intestines are mediated by many of the same hormones (which is why your gut is referred to as your second brain). This connection is referred to as the gut-brain axis.
Alcohol
Overuse of alcohol has a negative impact on just about every system in your body. As far as your intestines go, alcohol can irritate the stomach and intestines and suppress the hormones which protect against the inflammation that contributes to leaky gut syndrome.
Grains
The negative impact of gluten is well documented now, but in a few years research will find a similar, possibly even worse, the negative impact from other gluten-free grains. With their abundance of amylose sugars that cause inflammation, anti-nutrients such as lectins and phytates that bind to the intestines and make nutrients inactive in the body, grains can cause a wide array of damage to your gut and your health.
How do we treat poor gut health?
Your diet is the most important factor in getting a clear complexion because the gut microbiome, which is the bacteria living in your digestive system and intestines, influences your overall health which ultimately improves your skin.
Remove the bad
The goal is to get rid of things that negatively affect the environment of the GI tract such as inflammatory foods, infections and gastric irritants like alcohol, caffeine or medication (if possible).
Inflammatory foods such as gluten, dairy, corn, soy, eggs, and sugar can lead to food sensitivities.
Follow the Manna 7-day damage control program to get rid of all the “bad” foods.
Infections can be from parasites, yeast or bacteria.
A comprehensive stool analysis is key to determining the levels of good bacteria as well as any infections that may be present.
Removing the infections may require treatment with herbs, anti-parasite medication, anti-fungal medication or even antibiotics.
Replace, restore and repair
Replace the “bad” food with “good” food, which is beneficial to your gut health.
Add back in the essential ingredients for proper digestion and absorption that may have been depleted by diet, medication (such as anti-acid medications), diseases or aging.
Restore the balance in the gut with the correct digestive enzymes, probiotics, and l-glutamine that are required for proper digestion.
Consuming foods high in soluble fibre is very important.
Follow the FREE Manna Digestive Health Protocol
The Manna Digestive Health Protocol will give you a total overview of what to do in order to get the gut health back to where it should be.
Take the Manna GUT Support Daily
