Imagine feeling on top of the world — resilient, energetic, focused, calm, in peak physical fitness, and optimal wellbeing. But instead, you have diminishing motivation, bone-crunching tiredness, and you feel your emotional tank is running low or completely depleted. You are struggling to find the time and energy to get everything done.
This is where the quick fixes of caffeine, vitamin tablets, and sugar enter. In the desperate hope to get through another day without collapsing in a heap. It doesn’t have to be that way. There is a secret, but it isn’t in a quick fix.
It may interest you to know that gut health is one of the key protagonists in our energy and overall wellbeing. Being a crucial factor in optimal physical and mental health. The secret is to make sure your gut is in peak condition before you can be genuinely healthy. This is because your gut is designed to protect your body, supply you with energy, regulate your mood and produce all that you need to not only survive but thrive.
The Digestive System and how it Impacts your Energy and Wellbeing
It can be considered a simple equation. Food in = energy out. But that isn’t the whole story! Just because you are putting good food in, doesn’t mean you will get optimal energy out. When the gut microbiome is compromised, there are several issues directly related to energy and fatigue, which may arise. Let’s look at how the gut impacts on your energy and feeling of wellbeing.
Optimal Absorption and Production of Nutrients
We’ve been told our entire lives ‘you are what you eat.’ While this is true, and food is our fuel, it is not just about the food we eat. It still needs to be absorbed and assimilated to power our bodies. This is where a healthy gut microbiome with an ideal balance of beneficial bacteria plays countless roles in the body’s energy equation.
At its most basic level, if gut health is compromised, it leads to an inability of the resident flora to break down food properly. This impedes nutrients being available for the energy equation to take place. You can’t feel energised without essential nutrients being available for cellular energy production.
A healthy microbiome has other vital roles in the metabolic-energy equation. The good bacteria in the gut help absorb B vitamins from our dietary sources, but they also create specific B vitamins. These are essential co-factors in several metabolic pathways. This means if you have deficiencies in your B vitamins – in particular, B12 – you will have energy and fatigue issues.
The gut microbiome also communicates with other cells in the body to help regulate blood sugar levels. When the microbiome is healthy, it enhances insulin sensitivity. This helps the body’s ability to avoid fluctuating energy levels through spikes and crashes.
Protection from chronic Inflammation
When there is an optimal balance of bacteria in the gut, there is little chance of dysbiosis (bacterial imbalance). This protects the intestinal wall from being damaged. If the intestinal lining fails, toxins and undigested food particles enter the bloodstream (known as leaky gut syndrome). In turn, this sets off inflammatory alarm bells in the immune system. This syndrome often presents with differing symptoms in individuals, but fatigue and brain fog are common.
Protects our Body from Disease
We all know that when faced with illness, we are not at our most vibrant and energetic selves. Interesting fact – 80% of the immune system resides in the intestine. Knowing this, it’s easy to understand that a healthy gut will lead to a healthy immune response. However, there is more to it. A healthy intestinal lining is when there is a vast and diverse range of bacteria. It creates a film-like barrier along the inside wall. When there is a balance of beneficial and harmful bacteria, the gut lining is protected, and the good bacteria crowd out the disease-causing bacteria and toxins. The absence of disease makes us at ease!
Production of our happy chemicals
One of the most critical roles of the gut microbiome is in the regulation of mood, sleep, and ultimately energy and wellbeing. This is done by the gut bacteria that create and regulate neurotransmitters such as serotonin, tryptophan, and dopamine. These are the chemicals that are responsible for happiness, sleep, motivation, and mood. All these are tied directly to feeling energised and having a sense of wellbeing. Check out our blog post on the gut-brain axis here which explains this in more detail.
The Bottom Line
Gut health impacts all aspects of our health. It is the critical player in our energy and overall wellbeing. Your gut health needs to be in perfect working order to protect, invigorate, and regulate all your bodies functions. We must support the gut so it can function in all its roles.
One quick and easy way you can achieve this is by taking Gut Performance™ every day. It has been scientifically proven to be an excellent prebiotic that feeds your beneficial bacteria, helping it to flourish. Taking just one scoop daily will give you a significant boost to your prebiotic intake. Let us know via our Gut Performance ™ Instagram page and #gutperformance how you prepare your daily Gut Performance™ dose. We love to hear how Gut Performance™ has taken your gut health to the next level.
