Five Steps For Better Gut Health
Poor digestion affects millions of people every day. Digestive disorders can cause a lot of trouble with your health. It can affect mood and tiredness levels, as well as general wellbeing. It can be hard to get on with everyday things when you are in pain or suffering with cramps. So to function at your best, you want to have a healthy gut. How can that be achieved, though? Here are some suggestions for you.
Keep a Food Diary
Monitoring what you eat can play a big part in finding what foods are worse for you than others. Illnesses like irritable bowel syndrome can be triggered by a variety of foods, and they are different for everyone. So make a note of what you eat and how you feel afterward. If a pattern emerges, then you know what you need to start cutting out.
Use a Supplement
Using a supplement, or just eating foods that can help your gut is worth a try. Many people like to have a probiotic drink or eat live yogurts. For some people, though, dairy can cause more digestive problems. So it won’t work for everyone. Using foods like fermented vegetables can act as a source of probiotics. So try to include things like sauerkraut in your diet. You could also use coconut yogurt (a sugar-free version) or miso. If you find it easier to add supplements to your routine, then look for ones that are as natural as possible. It has been said that activated charcoal can be good for digestive health. But it seems like the jury is still out on that one. So it might be worth doing some research into whether charcoal is good for you or not.
Exercise and Stretch
There isn’t much that exercise won’t cure. Gut health is another of those things. Exercise can help to almost massage your digestive system as it will get it moving in ways that it wouldn’t normally. It is a good idea to practice relaxing and calming exercises like yoga or walking too. This can help you to destress. Stress is a cause for an unhealthy gut, so you want to eliminate stress as much as possible.
Get Plenty of Sleep
It might be hard to believe, but how much sleep you get can affect how well your digestive system works. As you rest, it gives your body time to reboot and refresh itself. Your digestive system needs time to be able to detoxify and rid your body of the waste from the previous day. If you find that you don’t need to go to the bathroom first thing in the morning, then perhaps you are not getting enough rest.
Use Essential Oils
If you find that not much else is helping, it could be worth giving essential oils a try. Massaging a few drops of oil, with a carrier oil, into your stomach, can help a lot. The best essential oils for gut health are tarragon, thyme, rose, peppermint, and clove.
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