Gut Health and Immunity – 70% Starts in Your Gut
Many people believe that immunity comes from taking vitamins, supplements, or avoiding germs. In reality, about 70% of your immune tissue is located in or around the gut.
This means your digestive health has a big impact on how well your immune system works. Problems like inflammation, allergies, frequent illness, and ongoing health concerns often start with an imbalanced gut.
Here’s how gut health and immunity are connected, and some simple ways you can support both.
The Connection Between Gut Health and Immunity
Your gut does more than digest food. It also plays a key role in controlling your immune system.
When your gut is healthy, your immune system stays balanced. If your gut is out of balance, your immune system can become either overactive or too weak. This can lead to inflammation and ongoing symptoms.
This is why so many people experience allergies, autoimmune issues, chronic inflammation, and frequent illnesses.
The Immune System
Your immune system has two main parts, innate immunity and adaptive immunity. Both work together to keep us healthy and protected. Your innate immune system is your body’s first responder to invaders and helps to regulate inflammation.
Your adaptive immune system kicks in next when it receives information from the innate system. The adaptive immune system stores memories of previous invaders and helps our bodies respond more efficiently. It can also create memories for new invaders.
Your gut plays an important role in supporting both systems. Remember, the goal is to have an immune system that isn’t overactive or underactive; it’s to become balanced and resilient, which is why gut health and immunity are so important.
Biofilm – Your Gut’s Protective Layer
One way to picture gut health is to think of your intestines as the roots of a plant. Just like plant roots need healthy soil to take in nutrients, your intestines need good bacteria to absorb nutrients and support your immune system. This layer of helpful bacteria in your digestive tract is called gut biofilm.
A healthy biofilm is a layer of beneficial microbes that lines your digestive tract and helps protect it. It acts as a shield to support digestion, protects against harmful microbes, helps regulate your immune response, and reduces gut irritation. When this layer is strong, your gut and immune system can work well together.
If the gut biofilm gets damaged, this protective barrier becomes weaker. A weakened biofilm can lead to inflammation, digestive and mood issues, frequent infections, and fatigue. That’s why gut health and immunity are often at the root of ongoing or recurring health problems.
Four Ways to Support Gut Health and Immunity
Here are four simple ways to help restore balance in your gut.
1. Support Healthy Gut Bacteria
Focus on eating foods that support healthy gut bacteria, such as fermented foods and whole, nutrient-dense foods. You may also want to consider adding probiotics and prebiotics to your daily regimen.
2. Reduce Gastrointestinal Irritation
Processed foods, common allergens, alcohol, and excess caffeine, as well as medications that irritate the gut, are the top culprits. Cutting back on these things can help give your digestive system a chance to heal:
3. Repair the Gut Lining
A stronger gut lining can help reduce inflammation and improve nutrient absorption. Bone broth, L-glutamine, soothing herbs (slippery elm, aloe, and marshmallow), as well as digestive support like digestive enzymes, to help you break down food. All these things can help you repair your lining.
4. Balance Immune Responses
A healthy immune system is not too active or too weak. With today’s inflammation and stress, supporting your overall health with B-complex vitamins or adaptogens for stress support, and eating anti-inflammatory foods, as well as medicinal mushrooms, can be very beneficial.
When your gut health improves, you may notice you don’t get sick as often, or you have better digestion with less bloating. You usually will have more energy and may notice you feel less inflamed. Improving your gut health and immunity can take time, and the best way to do it is to build small, consistent habits.
What’s Next
You don’t need extreme measures or quick fixes to support your gut. If you want to support your gut one step at a time, try The Healthy Habits Challenge. It’s a simple, sustainable way to build daily habits that help your gut health and immunity, digestion, and overall health. If you are already living a healthy lifestyle, join our 30 Day Gut Reset program to heal your gut.