Hands up if you’ve been working from home and found yourself making one too many trips to the snack drawer every day? Or is it so close to 5 o’clock somewhere that your weekend beers are now slipping into “every other night or so” territory?
While many of us are staying safe indoors, changes to your daily routine and diet can have a massive impact on your digestive/gut health without you really noticing. I’m not just talking about eating some more treat foods here and there, but the subtle signs you need to improve your digestive health.
In this short post, I’m going to discuss what to look out for, how you can improve your digestive health at home, and what to do if you feel you may have underlying problems that need to be addressed.
How to know when your gut is acting up
Feeling queasy/sick and having poor digestive health are not one and the same. You have to take a step back and consider if any of the following signals are something you experience:
- You find yourself getting irritation after eating
- You have problems going to the toilet frequently
- You find yourself craving sugary foods at odd times
- You feel fatigued regularly without doing much
- You find your weight flips flops up and down when you haven’t changed your routine
These are just a handful of common signs highlighting poor gut health. You might also want to read up on food intolerances and “trigger” foods which most people don’t realise cause problems for your guy.
So how do you help improve gut health at home?
There’s no need to go rushing out to the nearest health food store and start buying supplements galore. Just like getting used to working from home, simple adjustments and understanding what you triggers are, do the most to help your gut health.
Water is your best friend in having a healthy gut. Your intestines and kidneys love having lots of water to keep things moving along nicely; think of it like a car having the right level of oil to keep the engine running as it should. Oh, you’ll also want to chew your food correctly to help aid digestion from the get-go.
Probiotics are a surprisingly simple way of getting that good bacteria in your gut. Boosting those bacteria levels help fight off infection and give your stomach an easier time breaking down foods. Most people will already know of probiotics from those dinky little yoghurt bottles you find in supermarkets. Still, for those who don’t like yoghurt (or can’t take dairy), you can also take supplement tablets or get probiotic powder to mix in smoothies.
Getting enough rest and decompressing (i.e. reducing stress levels) may seem slightly left of field when thinking about our guts, but if you can reduce stress on your body throughout the day, you can help your digestive health. This doesn’t mean doing yoga every day or lighting some incense, but if you get a good level of sleep and simply let the body relax when it is telling you “hey your gut has problems here”, it helps.
Understanding when an issue is persistent
When you’ve self-treated for a digestive problem, be that through a change in diet, or feel you may be experiencing some form of irritable bowel syndrome, and still feel that your digestive health may have problems, it helps to seek specialist help.
Visit https://onewelbeck.com/digestive-health/ for more information on meeting a digestive specialist, the types of problems they treat, and how they help identify digestive disorders.
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