Gut Health - the Key to Aging Well

My first experience with the body's remarkable ability to health itself began with changes to my gut. I had been taking several medications for anxiety and depression for years, but they were no longer giving me any relief. Since childhood, I'd wrestled with discomfort in my digestive system, but it seemed like most of the people around me had similar issues. My wife started pushing me toward looking at my gut health, and when things got to a very low point, I finally did. And boy, am I glad I listened. As my gut healed, I started to get my energy back, feel more upbeat, and become more engaged with life again.

What scientists are finding is that gut health is affecting all of us, even in the absence of unusual pain or other problems. In fact, our gut bacteria is linked to age related illnesses like cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

We are learning that greater the diversity of gut bacteria, the better the health of the gut. There is now believed to be a relationship between gut diversity and Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and even colorectal cancer, among other conditions.

Here's where it really ties in to the aging process: In a 2017 study, researchers transferred gut microbes from older mice into younger germ-free mice, and they showed inflammation that would normally occur in old age.

So what can we do to encourage greater diversity of beneficial gut bacteria? Research shows the greater the diversity of vegetables consumed, the greater the bacterial diversity in the gut. What can we do that negatively affects diversity? Well, one study showed that the more medications a person was taking, the more Klebsiella bacteria, which is very harmful, was found in the intestines. Klebsiella is tied to antibiotic resistant disease like pneumonia, meningitis, and surgical site infections. It's also known that a broad spectrum antibiotic will create less bacterial diversity, allowing harmful bacteria to proliferate.

So why did changing my diet to include more vegetables, fermented foods, and good quality meats affect anxiety and depression positively? A little know fact is that the gut contains more neurons than the spinal cord as well as the enteric nervous system. A gut full of harmful bacteria can't heal itself properly, and toxins that should stay out, get in. This causes symptoms like brain fog, depression, low energy levels. When this started for me, I began to drink more and more caffeine, which depletes the adrenal glands. I wound up with a sick gut and a depleted adrenal system. It took time to come back, but as the interference was removed, the body began to heal. This is the foundational principle of chiropractic--the body can heal itself if we remove the interference. It was my body's ability to heal that led me to becoming a chiropractor.

1. Age and the aging process significantly alter the small bowel microbiome

   Leite, Gabriela et al.

   Cell Reports, Volume 36, Issue 13, 109765