What is gut flora?

Key Points

• Gut flora is influenced by birth, diet, environment, and lifestyle.
• Gut flora impacts your brain, immune system, metabolism, and more.
• You can support healthy gut flora through diet and lifestyle.

If you’ve looked into gut health, chances are, you’ve encountered the term gut flora. It’s a rather unique term – “flora” brings flowers to mind. But there are no plants involved here, just a fascinating and complex system of bacteria, fungi, and more that make up the gut microbiome. So, what is gut flora??

Your gut flora plays a crucial role in your overall gut health. Let’s explore what gut flora is and how it impacts your gut microbiome.

What is gut flora?

“Flora” refers to microorganisms in the human body. Gut flora includes bacteria, yeast, viruses, fungi, and other microbes. Gut bacteria, gut microbiota, intestinal flora, and gut microbiome all refer to these microbes.

Where does gut flora come from?

You inherit gut microorganisms from birth, so your initial microbiome is influenced by your parents. It is then further populated by your food intake (initially breastmilk and/or formula, then food) and environmental exposures.

Gut flora primarily reside in the large intestine. Stomach acid and enzymes inhabit the stomach and prevent bacteria from colonizing there. These microbes are diverse, with an estimated 1,000+ different types.

The makeup of your gut flora is influenced by:

• Diet: “Good” bacteria thrive on fiber, so a diet of whole foods including plenty of fruits and vegetables is ideal.
• Environmental factors: Pollutants, pesticides, heavy metals, and more can all cause harm to the gut and increase harmful bacteria.
• GI motility: How fast food moves through your digestive system impacts your overall nutrient absorption. If it’s too fast, as with diarrhea, your body doesn’t have enough time to process all the nutrients. If it’s too slow, as with constipation, bacteria overgrowth can occur.
• Medication: Antibiotics are perhaps the strongest association with medications that can alter your microbiome, but other drugs like metformin, proton pump inhibitors, SSRIs, and laxatives can all impact your gut flora.

How gut flora influences your health

Your gut microbiome and gut flora’s influence extends far beyond your digestive system, impacting almost every other bodily system. That’s because your gut produces signal-transmitting microbes that distribute throughout the body and communicate. While there is still a lot to learn about exactly how these tiny microbes work, what’s clear is that they play a significant role in overall health.

Immune system support

Your immune system is one such system heavily impacted by gut flora. How? Gut bacteria produce short-chain fatty acids which help maintain your gut barrier. This barrier keeps the bacteria and bacterial toxins within the gut, preventing them from escaping into your bloodstream.

When the barrier is weak or compromised, increased permeability can occur (often referred to as leaky gut syndrome), potentially resulting in various health issues like autoimmune diseases such as celiac disease or inflammatory bowel disease.

Gut bacteria also work to fight off disease-causing bacteria and other invaders. They may help prevent and treat rheumatoid arthritis, recover from a stroke, and treat inflammatory bowel disease.

Brain health

Your gut and brain communicate with one another via the gut-brain axis, a bilateral network of nerves. The gut-brain axis sends signals you might expect, like hunger and satiety, food cravings, digestion, and metabolism. But it also communicates about mood, stress, pain sensitivity, immunity, and even cognitive function.

This means your gut flora can influence your overall mood, well-being, and illness. That’s because gut microbes play a role in producing the neurotransmitters that send these messages between your brain and gut. Research is finding more and more connections between the two, with those who have IBS showing a strong overlap with those who have anxiety.

Metabolism influence

Of course, your gut flora has a large role in your metabolism. They are responsible for processing dietary fiber, one of the most important components of any healthy diet. Fiber supports appetite and weight management, insulin sensitivity, and liver health. It also helps moderate gut bacteria to keep things balanced.

Vitamins are also processed by gut flora. That means that if your gut bacteria are imbalanced, you may not be able to absorb vitamins properly, potentially causing malnutrition or other health issues.

Gut flora processes bile, which is essential for gut homeostasis. Bile acids both stimulate bacterial growth and inhibit bile-acid-sensitive bacteria, helping protect both gut flora and the intestinal barrier. They can also help fight off disease.

Finally, gut flora may play a role in weight regulation. Gut microbes interact with endocrine cells which secrete hormones. Hormones play a role in metabolic conditions like obesity and insulin resistance. However, more research is needed to determine exactly how this relationship works.

Wondering if your gut health might play a role in your weight issues? Find a trusted gut health dietitian today with Fay.

Bowel movements

An unbalanced gut can become leaky and result in watery bowel movements like diarrhea, which, as mentioned, can negatively affect your gut health if it is recurring. Similarly, if food moves too slowly through your digestive tract, bacterial overgrowth may result.

This imbalance can lead to other unpleasant gut symptoms, like boating, cramps, and abdominal pain, which may be part of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Gut microbes produce gas and other chemicals which can contribute to this discomfort.

Signs & symptoms of gut flora imbalance

An unhealthy gut is generally considered to be in dysbiosis, which means your gut bacteria are out of balance. Dysbiosis can lead to some obvious gastrointestinal issues, but some of the signs and symptoms of imbalanced gut flora may surprise you:

• Gas and bloating
• Diarrhea or constipation
• Atopic dermatitis or acne
• Gum and teeth issues
• Unexplained weight changes
• Unexplained mood changes

How to restore a healthy gut flora

Now that you know what gut flora is and how it impacts your health, you may be wondering: how can I support my gut flora?

Here are top dietitian-approved tips to support healthy gut flora.

Eat gut-healthy foods like probiotics, prebiotics, legumes, and whole grains. This includes cultured yogurt, lentils, oats, bananas, asparagus, sauerkraut, miso, artichokes, and apples. Chances are, if it’s a fruit or vegetable, it’s going to be good for your gut!

Chew slowly. This helps break down your food as much as possible which makes it easier to digest.

Focus on whole foods and minimize processed foods. Ultra-processed foods are hard to digest and can promote unwanted bacteria growth.

Minimize stress. Remember the gut-brain connection? Consider how stress might affect your digestive system as a result. Ever get a stomachache from anxiety or butterflies in your stomach from excitement? The same phenomenon can happen with stress, but if it’s chronic, it can cause real damage (and be harder to identify because you become used to the sensations).

Find more gut-healthy habits here.

FAQs

What damages gut flora?

Gut flora don’t become “damaged” so much as they become imbalanced, leading to dysbiosis symptoms. Imbalanced gut flora can be caused by poor diet, medication, gastrointestinal conditions, obesity, disease, antibiotics, and more.

Can you heal gut flora?

If your gut flora is out of balance, you can regain control through diet, lifestyle changes, and medication if necessary.

How long does it take to restore gut health?

How quickly your gut heals depends on its current condition. If you have been living with signs of imbalanced gut flora or dysbiosis for a long time, it may take a while to restore bacterial harmony in your gut. Your medical provider and dietitian will be able to give a more accurate estimate based on their assessment and treatment plan.

Support your gut health with a registered dietitian

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the jargon and advice around gut health, you’re not alone. Cut through the noise and get the customized care you need to support your gut by working with a registered dietitian.

Your gut health dietitian will help identify the potential causes of your discomfort and design a plan tailored to your symptoms, goals, and lifestyle. It’s one of the best ways to give your gut the care it needs.

Find a trusted gut health dietitian today with Fay.

The views expressed by authors and contributors of such content are not endorsed or approved by Fay and are intended for informational purposes only. The content is reviewed by Fay only to confirm educational value and audience interest. You are encouraged to discuss any questions that you may have about your health with a healthcare provider.