A Guide to Caring for Your Gut Health and Immune System
As many as 70 million Americans, and billions of others around the world, struggle with gut health issues. Our gut health and immune system are intimately connected. It’s impossible to have a healthy gut without a strong immune system, and vice versa.
So what are the lifestyle practices that help to promote a healthy gut health and immune system?
Read on to find out more about the easiest ways to develop a strong immune system and gut.
Reduce Processed Foods
High-sugar and high-fat foods are common qualities of processed foods. These can have a harmful impact on your gut health, as our bodies have not developed to cope with this diet.
If you consume a lot of processed food, you are likely to experience unintentional weight changes, an upset stomach, and regular fatigue in addition to a compromised immune system and poor gut health.
It might seem like an insurmountable challenge to eliminate processed foods from your diet. Instead, try to make small but meaningful changes to what you consume.
One of the best first steps is to incorporate a moringa supplement into your diet. Moringa tree benefits are extensive and wide-ranging. You’ll soon notice improvements to your digestion system, energy levels, skin health, and athletic performance.
Another good idea to start by swapping out unhealthy processed snacks for more natural alternatives. Why not exchange a packet of chips for some chopped banana with organic peanut butter?
Find Strategies for Stress
Another important method for improving the immune system is finding ways to deal with stress. Stress, and our mental health more broadly, is closely connected to our gut health. The gut is sometimes referred to as our “second brain” because we experience digestion issues more frequently when going through periods of stress and trauma.
By finding ways to minimize the causes of stress in our lives and develop coping mechanisms for when stress is unavoidable, we can improve our gut health. There are many different techniques available to try for handling stress.
Some of the most popular options include meditation, physical activity, having a massage, socializing, and using essential oils. The most effective solution will vary from person to person as we each have different ways of de-stressing.
What’s more, by finding solutions to stress you’ll be able to make your immune system stronger. Have you ever noticed that you get sick with colds and the flu during more stressful periods?
By keeping stressful triggers at bay, you can improve both your immune system and the health of your gut.
Look at Prebiotics and Probiotics
Next, in addition to the moringa tree, we can look to other natural gut health remedies to relieve symptoms of poor gut health. Prebiotics and probiotics are two of the foremost solutions for improving your gut health.
While it’s possible to take supplements, prebiotics and probiotics can also be found in food easily available to us. But what are these micronutrients that work wonders for your gut?
Prebiotics work as a kind of “food” for your gut’s bacteria. They stimulate the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut. Meanwhile, probiotics are live bacteria that further assist the health of your gut microbiome.
Note that probiotics are not suitable for everyone, such as people with SIBO. It’s always a good idea to consult with your physician if you have any questions about your gut health.
Prebiotics can be found in legumes such as lentils, chickpeas, and beans. They are also in vegetables including leeks, onions, and asparagus.
Meanwhile, you can find probiotics in yogurt and fermented food such as miso, kimchi, tempeh, and sauerkraut.
Rethink Your Diet
There are other ways to adjust your diet in a way that provides natural remedies for the immune system. A great place to start is by consuming moringa in the form of a morning tea to get your day off to a great start. This helps to detoxify the body via perspiration, circulation, and metabolism.
You might also need to explore the possibility of food intolerances. If you regularly suffer from bloating, diarrhea, abdominal pain, rashes, and fatigue, this could be a sign of food sensitivity or intolerance.
In addition to medical tests, the best way to identify this is through a food diary. Make a careful note of what you consume throughout the day, paying particular attention to common triggers such as gluten, lactose, caffeine, and sulfites. Then, try excluding each of these from your diet and track any ongoing symptoms.
Consider Sleeping Habits
The final way to encourage a healthy immune system and boost your gut health is by examining your sleep cycle. A lack of sleep has vast consequences on the body. These include high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks, depression, and more.
A lack of deep and continuous sleep can also increase stress levels, and put a strain on your gut and immune system.
The goal is to get 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night. You might need to sacrifice other events in your schedule to make room for this.
If you have trouble sleeping, try keeping your phone in another room and avoiding all screen activities for two hours prior to sleeping. Make sure your room is at a comfortable temperature and take a bath in the early evening to help you relax.
That’s How to Look After Your Gut Health and Immune System
From moringa tree supplements to getting a good night’s sleep, there’s plenty of simple ways to boost your gut health and immune system. Try introducing these different practices into your day-to-day routine, and watch for improvements across your digestion, mood, physical health, immune system, and more.
Check out all of our immune system products here. You can also browse our website to learn about the many other health benefits of moringa forte and our associated supplements.