Eight Pillars of Gut Health: A Cornerstone of Well-being

Gut health plays a pivotal role in maintaining multiple essential functions within your body, making it a cornerstone of overall well-being. Prioritizing your gut health means investing in a more robust immune system, better digestion, improved cognitive function, overall vitality, and many other benefits. The advantages are clear—your body thrives when your gut does!

We interviewed Dr. Inna Lozinskaya, MD, of Midlife Wellness Institute, to get a broader perspective on gut health. Below is our video interview with Dr. Lozinskaya and a transcribed written version of the interview. We hope you find Dr. Lozinskaya’s interview helpful and insightful in why you should prioritize gut health for longevity, energy production, and overall well-being. 

Digestion

Every process and reaction in your body that makes you healthy is based on the nutrients you receive from your food. Your gut has to digest, absorb, and deliver those nutrients to the rest of your body. However, if your digestion is weak, you will be nutrient deficient, even if you eat the best food possible. As a result, you will experience various adverse side effects, such as low energy, fatigue, poor sleep, unbalanced hormones, etc. Conversely, when your gut is healthy, it allows for better digestion, absorption, and delivery of nutrients to the rest of your body, providing optimal energy levels, hormones, and overall health. 

Detoxification

Whatever you ingest or pass through your skin ultimately gets inside your body. Some things that get inside our body are good for us and valuable for health, wellness, and longevity. However, some things that enter the body are toxic, and your body has to work hard to get them out. The primary cleansing function falls on the liver, with approximately 85% success. Interestingly, the gut is the second largest and most important detoxifying organ. So, when you consider all the additives and chemicals we ingest through food, it’s important to remember that the gut acts as a detoxifier to eliminate harmful properties. 

Hormones

The gut is a significant part of your hormone metabolism. Your body doesn’t necessarily make hormones in your gut but utilizes nutrients your gut delivers. For example, your stool eliminates estrogen when your gut is healthy. On the other hand, when your gut is not processing nutrients correctly, your estrogen does not get eliminated with your stool. When your gut is healthy, you will have perfectly balanced hormones. But when something is off with your gut, you will have hormone dominance or deficiency. 

Brain and Cognition

The gut plays a crucial role in cognition and brain wellness. Some neurotransmitters, the chemicals that govern your brain, are made in the gut. For example, serotonin, your happy hormone, is a neurotransmitter made in your gut and affects your mood. GABA is another neurotransmitter made in your gut by your healthy bacteria, which calms the body. Often, when people feel anxious, they have an imbalance of microbes. So, getting your microbes in balance typically results in a feeling calm and less anxious without needing prescription medication.  

Immune System

The next pillar of health and longevity affected by the gut is the immune system, which is vital for sustaining the environment around us. In fact, 84% of the immune system resides in the small intestine. So, it’s no wonder that when your gut is on fire due to an overabundance of harmful bacteria or deficiency of good bacteria, your immune system goes out of balance. Several adverse effects resulting from a poor immune system include allergies, autoimmune disease, thyroid disease, arthritis, etc. All of these may be prevented simply by balancing the bacteria in your gut. 

Energy Production

Energy production is a very complex process that occurs in your body and requires multiple nutrients delivered by your gut. For example, B12, produced by the flora, and Vitamin D are essential nutrients affecting energy production. Thus, it’s vital to have the correct nutrition, but equally important to have a robust gut that can digest, absorb, and deliver to your cells so you can make energy 

Muscle Mass 

Your muscle mass has multiple functions in your body. It’s a magical organ of longevity. The proteins that your muscles are built from come from amino acids that are processed in your gut. It’s very common for people to digest and absorb certain nutrients, but they struggle with proteins. Even though they eat good, nutritious meals and have a healthy diet, they are protein deficient. Consequently, they lose muscle mass, making them insulin-resistant, gaining fat, and becoming more inflamed much sooner. So, muscle mass depends on the gut's ability to bring essential nutrients into the system. Additionally, the hormones affected by your gut keep your muscles awake and open to respond to exercise.  

Bone Health

Your bones are essential for supporting your body and enabling you to keep doing all you love as you age. For the bone to stay healthy, it must maintain its integrity, structure, and mass. To accomplish this, your bones depend on collagen from your protein and minerals, which are absorbed, digested, and delivered to your body from the gut. Also, certain hormones stimulate your bone to stay strong, which will partly metabolize in your gut. For example, your bones need optimal thyroid, testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, and cortisol. This requires your gut to be available, healthy, and functioning at some point in its lifecycle.