Gut Health 101

We have so many microorganisms inside us, that by cell count, their cells outnumber ours more than ten-to-one. By gene count, we have 23,000 and they have more than 3,000,000. In effect, we are more microbe than we are human. And, importantly: they form a critical part of what keeps our overall organism ticking on.

Read all about it: The role of the gut microbiota in nutrition and health

Our trillions of tiny friends keep us alive, so it really really pays to return the favor.

But how?

Probiotics and fermented foods

You probably guessed this one, but it’d be remiss not to mention it first. It’s no surprise that probiotics help; the clue is in the name. In short, they help add diversity to your microbiome (that’s a good thing).

Read from the NIH: Probiotics: What You Need To Know

As for fermented foods, not every fermented food will boost your microbiota, but great options include…

• Fermented vegetables (sauerkraut, pickles, etc)
  • You’ll often hear kimchi mentioned; that is also pickled vegetables, usually mostly cabbage. It’s just the culinary experience that differs. Unlike sauerkraut, kimchi is usually spiced, for example.
• Kombucha (a fermented sweet tea)
• Miso & tempeh (different preparations of fermented soy)

The health benefits vary based on the individual strains of bacteria involved in the fermentation, so don’t get too caught up on which is best.

The best one is the one you enjoy, because then you’ll have it regularly!

Feed them plenty of prebiotic fibers

Those probiotics you took? The bacteria in them eat the fiber that you can’t digest without them. So, feed them those sorts of fibers.

Great options include:

• Bananas
• Garlic
• Onions
• Whole grains

Read more: Effects of Probiotics, Prebiotics, and Synbiotics on Human Health

Don’t feed them sugar and sweeteners

Sugar and (and, counterintuitively, aspartame) can cause unfortunate gut microbe imbalances. Put simply, they kill some of your friends and feed some of your enemies. For example…

Candida, which we all have in us to some degree, feeds on sugar (including the sugar formed from breaking down alcohol, by the way) and refined carbs. Then it grows, and puts its roots through your intestinal walls, linking with your neural system. Then it makes you crave the very things that will feed it and allow it to put bigger holes in your intestinal walls.

Do not feed the Candida.

Don’t believe us? Read: Candida albicans-Induced Epithelial Damage Mediates Translocation through Intestinal Barriers

(That’s scientist-speak for “Candida puts holes in your intestines, and stuff can then go through those holes”)

And as for how that comes about, it’s like we said:

❝Colonization of the intestine and translocation through the intestinal barrier are fundamental aspects of the processes preceding life-threatening systemic candidiasis. In this review, we discuss the commensal lifestyle of C. albicans in the intestine, the role of morphology for commensalism, the influence of diet, and the interactions with bacteria of the microbiota.❞

Source: Candida albicans as a commensal and opportunistic pathogen in the intestine

The usual five things

1. Good diet (Mediterranean Diet is good; plant-based version of it is by far the best for this)
2. Good exercise (yes, really)
3. Good sleep (helps them, and they’ll help you get better sleep in return)
4. Limit or eliminate alcohol consumption (what a shocker)
5. Don’t smoke (it’s bad for everything, including gut health)

One last thing you should know:

If you’re used to having animal products in your diet, and make a sudden change to all plants, your gut will object very strongly. This is because your gut microbiome is used to animal products, and a plant-based diet will cause many helpful microbes to flourish in great abundance, and many less helpful microbes will starve and die. And they will make it officially Not Fun™ for you.

So, you have two options to consider:

1. Do it anyway, and sit it out (and believe us, you’ll be sitting), get the change over with quickly, and enjoy the benefits and much happier gut that follows.
2. Make the change gradual. Reduce portions of animal products slowly, have “Meatless Mondays” etc, and slowly make the change over. This—for most people—is pretty comfortable, easy, and effective.

And remember: the effects of these things we’ve talked about today compound when you do more than one of them, but if you don’t want to take probiotics or really hate kombucha or absolutely won’t consider a plant-based diet or struggle to give up sugar or alcohol, etc… Just do what you can do, and you’ll still have a net improvement!

Fascia: Why (And How) You Should Take Care Of Yours

Fascia is the web-like layer of connective tissue that divides your muscles and organs from each other. It simultaneously holds some stuff in place, and allows other parts to glide over each other with minimal friction.

At least, that’s what it’s supposed to do.

Like any body part, it can go wrong. More on this later. But first…

A quick note on terms

It may seem like sometimes people say “myofascial” because it sounds fancier, but it does actually have a specific meaning too:

• “Fascia” is what we just described above
• “Myofascial” means “of or relating to muscles and fascia”

For example, “myofascial release” means “stopping the fascia from sticking to the muscle where it shouldn’t” and “myofascial pain” means “pain that has to do with the muscles and fascia”. See also:

Myofascial vs Fascia: When To Use Each One? What To Consider

Why fascia is so ignored

For millennia, it was mostly disregarded as a “neither this nor that” tissue that just happens to be in the body. We didn’t pay attention to it, just like we mostly don’t pay attention to the air around us.

But, much like the air around us, we sure pay attention when something goes wrong with it!

However, even in more recent years, we’ve been held back until quite new developments like musculoskeletal ultrasound that could show us problems with the fascia.

What can go wrong

It’s supposed to be strong, thin, supple, and slippery. It holds on in the necessary places like a spiderweb, but for the most part, it is evolved for minimum friction.

Some things can cause it to thicken and become sticky in the wrong places. Things such as:

• Physical trauma, e.g. an injury or surgery—but we repeat ourselves, because a surgery is an injury! It’s a (usually) necessary injury, but an injury nonetheless.
• Compensation for pain. If a body part hurts for some reason, and your posture changes to accommodate that, doing so can mess up your fascia, and cause you different problems somewhere else entirely.
  • This is not witchcraft; think of how, when using a corded vacuum cleaner, sometimes the cord can get snagged on something in the next room and we nearly break something because we expected it to just come with us and it didn’t? It’s like that.
• Repetitive movements (repetitive strain injury is partly a myofascial issue)
• Not enough movement: when it comes to range of motion, it’s “use it or lose it”.
  • The human body tries its best to be as efficient as possible for us! So eventually it will go “Hey, I notice you never move more than 30º in this direction, so I’m going to stop making fascia that allows you to go past that point, and I’ll just dump the materials here instead”

“I’ll just dump the materials here instead” is also part of the problem—it creates what we colloquially call “knots”, which are not so much part of the muscle as the fascia that covers it. That’s an actual physical sticky lumpy bit.

What to do about it

Firstly, avoid the above things! But, if for whatever reason something has gone wrong and you now have sticky lumpy fascia that doesn’t let you move the way you’d like (if you have any mobility/flexibility issues that aren’t for another known reason, then this is usually it), there are things can be done:

• Heat—is definitely not a cure-all, but it’s a good first step before doing the other things. A heating pad or a warm bath are great.
  • Here’s an example of a neck+back+shoulders heating pad; you can get them for different body parts, or just use an electric blanket!
• Massage—ideally, by someone else who knows what they are doing. Self-massage is possible, as is teaching oneself (there are plenty of video tutorials available), but skilled professional therapeutic myofascial release massage is the gold standard.
  • Foam rollers are a great no-skill way to get going with self-massage, whether because that’s what’s available to you, or because you just want something you can do between sessions. Here’s an example of the kind we mean.
• Acupuncture—triggering localized muscular relaxation, an important part of myofascial release, is something acupuncture is good at.
  • See also: Pinpointing The Usefulness Of Acupuncture ← noteworthily, the strongest criticism of acupuncture for pain relief is that it performs only slightly better than sham acupuncture, but taken in practical terms, all that really means is “sticking little needles in does work, even if not necessarily by the mechanism acupuncturists believe”
• Calisthenics—Pilates, yoga, and other forms of body movement training can help gradually get one’s fascia to where and how it’s supposed to be.
• This is that “use it or lose it” bodily efficiency we talked about!

Remember, the body is always rebuilding itself. It never stops, until you die. So on any given day, you get to choose whether it rebuilds itself a little bit worse or a little bit better.

Take care!