Written by: Dr. Kim Foster, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Do you feel tired all the time? Maybe you feel like you can’t exist without coffee. And even that’s not enough. You have no energy during the day, and you have no idea why.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fatigue is one of the most common reasons people visit their healthcare provider. In fact, it's estimated that up to one-third of adults report feeling fatigued or excessively tired.
There are a lot of potential reasons why someone might be feeling tired all the time. But there’s one reason not a lot of people know about, and it’s possible this reason is at the root of your constant lack of energy.
Your gut.
In this article, I’m going to reveal the secret connection between our gut and our energy, and explain how your gut might be causing a constant feeling of fatigue – and that’s even if you don’t have any digestive symptoms at all.
Gut health is at the root of overall health
Gut health is something we’re only just starting to understand. But we are learning, now, that the health of our gut is intricately connected with our overall health.
There’s a well-known connection between the gut and our brains, and we now know our gut can affect our moods and our thinking, through the gut-brain axis.
But what about our energy levels?
Well, research shows that the gut can impact our energy in surprising ways.
To understand how this works, you need to understand what the gut microbiome is. If you haven’t heard of the gut microbiome, it’s a complex ecosystem of microorganisms that live in our gastrointestinal tract. It consists of trillions of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microbes, and together they all play a crucial role in maintaining our overall health and well-being.
The gut microbiome performs a wide range of important functions, such as helping to digest food, producing essential vitamins and nutrients, regulating the immune system, and protecting against harmful infections.
And what we have found is that overall, people who experience a lot of fatigue tend to exhibit less diversity in their gut microbiome, basically fewer species of microorganism. We know that the more diversity someone has in their gut microbiome, the better.
So what’s going on here? Why does this matter?
Why does the microbiome matter?
For one thing, there’s the issue of properly absorbing all the nutrients from our food.
The microbes living in your gut help your digestive tract to process all the food that you eat, and one key part of this process is absorbing the nutrients in the variety of foods that you eat.
The truth is, your gut microbiome needs to be well-balanced to do a good job of helping you absorb the nutrients you need.
If you have too few of the beneficial strains of bacteria, or too many harmful ones, then your digestive tract may not be able to completely absorb all the vitamins and minerals found in the foods that you eat.
And when you have poor nutrient absorption, that can have a whole bunch of negative effects, everything from lowering your immune system to causing your muscles to feel achy…and yes, having lowered energy.
Feeling sluggish all the time can be a sign that your body isn't getting the nutrients it needs — and if your diet is balanced, then there’s a good chance your gut is to blame.
Next, though, let’s talk about inflammation.
How inflammation causes fatigue
When you have an imbalance of good and bad bacteria in your gut, the bad guys can generate byproducts that trigger the lining of your intestines and your immune system to release inflammatory molecules, creating an environment of low-grade inflammation in the gut.
It’s kind of like how you feel exhausted after getting hit by a cold or the flu. It’s not the virus itself that’s causing you to feel like that, it’s your body’s own immune response. It’s telling you to shut down non-essential functions so it can have extra energy and resources for going to war with the infection.
When you have the flu, you crawl under the covers and watch Netflix for a few days, and then it passes. But when you have chronic low-grade inflammation in your gut, happening all the time, that creates that vague feeling of being tired that’s kind of lurking in the background and it can last for months or even years.
So now that we’re starting to get a sense of what the problem is, the next question is: what do we do about it?
8 Ways to improve your gut microbiome
Basically, it all comes down to improving your gut microbiome, which will improve your gut health as a whole.
And what are some ways to improve and support a healthy gut microbiome?
Well, let’s go through eight different things you can do.
1. Eat whole, unprocessed foods
When you eat a diet rich in whole foods, mostly plants, that can help to nourish the beneficial bacteria in your gut.
You also want to eat a diverse range of foods, because there are hundreds of species of bacteria in your intestines, each of which plays a specific role in your health, and requires different nutrients for growth. And as we talked about, a diverse microbiome is considered a healthy one.
If you want more guidance with what foods to eat and which ones to avoid, for gut health, I’ve put together a food checklist and you can download that checklist for free by clicking this link.
2. Eat fermented foods
Here we’re talking about food like yogurt, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, and kombucha. These foods contain live bacteria that can help support a healthy gut microbiome.
When foods undergo fermentation, the sugars they contain are naturally broken down by microorganisms, before you even eat them. And this is a good thing.
However, be aware that many yogurts, especially flavored yogurts, contain high amounts of sugar. Your best bet is to opt for plain, unsweetened yogurt or a flavored yogurt with minimal added sugar. Also, make sure the label says “contains live active cultures.”
3. Consume prebiotic foods
Prebiotics are types of fiber that nourish the beneficial bacteria in your gut.
Basically, you want to be thinking about what you're feeding the friendly bacteria that are living in your gut right now, because they are counting on you to send the right foods down to them, so they can thrive and flourish.
Prebiotics are mostly fiber or complex carbs that human cells can’t digest. Instead, certain species of bacteria in the gut break them down and use them for fuel.
Foods like garlic, onions, bananas, and asparagus are good sources of prebiotics. Beans and legumes also contain very high amounts of fiber and are great for this purpose, and so are berries, artichokes, and apples.
4. Take probiotics
In addition to the dietary changes you can make to improve your gut health, you might also choose to take a probiotic supplement.
Probiotics contain live bacteria that can help replenish the beneficial bacteria in your gut, which offers a convenient way to enhance gut health. These supplements can help restore the natural balance of gut flora, supporting smoother digestion, stronger immunity, and overall well-being.
When selecting a probiotic supplement, consider these factors:
Strain diversity: Look for a supplement that contains a variety of bacterial strains, including Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species, as each strain offers different health benefits.
CFU count: CFU (colony-forming units) indicates the number of viable bacteria present in each dose. Choose a supplement with a high CFU count, typically ranging from 1 billion to 100 billion CFUs per serving, to ensure effectiveness.
Survivability: Go for a probiotic supplement with strains that are known to survive the harsh conditions of the digestive tract, including stomach acid, to reach the intestines alive and active.
Quality and purity: Choose a supplement from a reputable manufacturer that adheres to strict quality standards and conducts third-party testing to ensure potency, purity, and safety.
Packaging and storage: Select a supplement that’s packaged in a way to protect the live bacteria from moisture, light, and heat. Also, be sure that you follow proper storage according to the manufacturer's instructions to maintain potency.
5. Avoid overusing antibiotics
All I’m going to say about this is that we know that overusing antibiotics can disrupt the balance of bacteria in your gut, so it's important to only take antibiotics when necessary.
Now, sometimes it absolutely is necessary, so this isn’t an invitation to disregard the guidance from your healthcare provider. But we also know that, as a culture, we way overuse antibiotics, so this is really important to be mindful of.
6. Manage stress
We know now that chronic stress can negatively affect the gut microbiome, so practicing stress-reducing activities can be very helpful for improving our gut health.
You can try things like meditation, yoga, or even just doing some simple deep breathing exercises on a regular basis.
7. Exercise regularly
Studies are now showing that regular exercise can help support a healthy gut microbiome by increasing the diversity of bacteria in your gut and promoting a more favorable balance of beneficial bacteria.
Which is yet another reason to get moving on a regular basis!
We’re all aware of the benefits of living a more active lifestyle, and now taking care of your gut microbiome is on that list, too.
8. Get enough sleep
This is another piece of general wellness advice that it turns out is connected to our gut. Studies are showing that adequate sleep is important for maintaining a healthy gut microbiome.
In fact, disruptions in our sleep patterns can negatively affect the balance of bacteria in our gut. So it’s not just that you’re feeling tired because you didn’t get enough sleep last night – it’s that if you’re not getting enough sleep on a regular basis, that’s messing with your gut microbiome which can cause fatigue in a whole bunch of additional ways.
Bonus tip
I want to leave you with one final word of advice, add that is to not accept the feeling of fatigue that you’ve had all this time.
It can start to feel normal, because everyone around us is complaining of the same thing, so it’s not your fault if you think: Oh well, I guess I’m getting older and this seems kind of common, so I guess it’s normal.
But it’s not normal.
Feeling tired all the time can dramatically reduce your ability to enjoy life and participate in your life the way that you want to, and no one should have to settle for feeling that way.
I hope that I’ve given you some new food for thought, when it comes to what might be going on inside you that’s causing you to feel so tired all the time, and what you can start to do about it.
And again, if you want a checklist to help you eat more food to support your gut health, and as a result, your energy…be sure to grab it for free by clicking here.
Dr. Kim Foster, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
After experiencing the frustrations and crushing limitations of the conventional healthcare system for many years, Dr. Kim Foster began her journey into entrepreneurship as the founder of The Wellness Coach Academy. By training new health and wellness coaches through the Academy, she has helped others build their businesses, find freedom, and promote healthy, balanced living across the globe. Subscribe to her popular YouTube channel or visit her website to sign up for free weekly wellness tips.
