Guest Post Article By:
Richard Lin
Founder / CEO
www.thryveinside.com
As our “Father of Medicine,” Hippocrates said, “All disease begins in the gut.” Yet, the precursor to all disease is inflammation. Since our immune system is responsible for inflammation, there must be a tie between our gut health and our immune system. Well, there is! In fact, up to 80% of our immune cells reside in our gut. That’s why the key to a strong immune system is to improve your gut health!
What Causes Chronic Inflammation?
There are many triggers that set off an immune response in our system. Perhaps none are greater than our food sources. Many of the foods we eat are deficient in nutrients. They are fried in unhealthy fats, preserved with artificial ingredients, and sweetened with refined sugars.
Many of these foods are made of ingredients that our healthy bacteria don’t enjoy. Therefore, solid food particles and artificial molecules remain in the body. So, our immune system kicks in to eliminate these potential hazards by causing inflammation. Once the threat is eliminated from the system, inflammation ceases. All is merry again.
Unfortunately, our round-the-clock diets have evolved to include a lot of inflammatory foods. From GMOs to increased sensitivity towards allergens to the use of pesticides, our food supplies set us up for a lifetime of inflammation.
How Chronic Inflammation Ruins Gut Health
Our body is composed of trillions of microbes that range from bacteria to fungi to viruses. We depend on our gut bacteria to help keep a lot of these other microbes in check. All the while, we also depend on our gut bacteria to break down food, help create energy, and boost nutrient absorption. That’s a lot of burdens!
For our gut bacteria to work optimally, we must feed them a diet rich in fiber. Unfortunately, a vast majority of us don’t get enough fiber. So, over the course of this lifetime, we end up starving out our healthy bacteria.
Even worse, the immune system doesn’t have an ally that can help modulate inflammation. In turn, inflammation becomes chronic. As a result, immune cells and beneficial gut bacteria start to die off.
Without healthy gut bacteria, the body is susceptible to viral, bacterial, and fungal attacks. When this happens, we can develop a litany of life-threatening illnesses, including cancer.
How to Improve Gut Health and Immune System
Everyone’s body is different. Therefore, we all have different ratios of gut bacteria in the body. The key to fixing your gut health and immune system is to get a gut health test kit.
Microbiome testing company, Thryve, sends you everything you need to collect a sample from your toilet paper safely and mail it to their laboratory. Their specialists will analyze your DNA and give you an in-depth report of bacteria living in your gut.
Even better, they offer custom probiotics to help bring balance to your system. In turn, your immune system will have the backup necessary to help control chronic inflammation that can cause many chronic life-threatening conditions, including cancer.