“With 70-80% of your immune system being in your gut, it goes without saying, boost your gut health = boost your immunity.”

Now that we are well and truly into the chill of winter here in Australia, it is not uncommon for our immune system to take a hit. The common cold, Covid and the flu can run around waiting for their next host. For those that are more vulnerable and susceptible to viral infections such as the elderly, infants or those with existing health conditions that may weaken their immunity, it's important to take preventative measures and ideally those that are as natural as possible.

So how can we strengthen our immune system that in turns boosts our prevention ability of becoming unwell? Surely it can't be as simple as taking vitamin C, either supplement or in foods...? Well yes and no.

Studies suggest that around 70-80% of our immune system resides in our gut with our immune cells playing an intricate role with our gut microbiome so it goes without saying, if we boost our gut health we boost our immunity.

To really understand immunity, is to understand the gut and how to create and nurture an environment for our microbiome to maintain its' strength and ability to fight off illness, at any time of year!

The makeup of the gut microbiota (microorganisms) is influenced by many factors, such as genetics; gender; age; socio-economic factors; nutrition; stress; and environmental factors such as pollutants, antibiotics, pharmaceutical medications and others. Our external environment significantly influences our health so it's important to ensure we are nurturing the right elements to enhance our gut health. 

Without turning this into a science lesson, essentially our gut flora are microorganisms which include bacteria, fungi and viruses that live in our digestive tracts. This gut flora is busy busy busy with work on resisting pathogens (an organism causing disease to its host, for example the common cold is a viral pathogen), maintaining the intestinal tissue cells, metabolising nutritional and pharmaceutical substances, controlling immune function, and even the behaviour through the gut–brain axis. 

With strong and healthy gut flora, this in turn strengthens our immune system and the body response to illness.  It’s important to understand that the immune system can play a crucial role in the susceptibility of becoming unwell, the persistence of illness (how long you are unwell for) and in turn the clearance of infections. 

With that said, here are the top 5 natural ways you can use to improve your gut health and strengthen your immunity:

1. Stress

The effects of stress are becoming more and more well known with further studies being done into how the body responds to prolonged periods of stress.  Our modern life has plenty to keep us busy and pushing us beyond our limits.  Even with work, family, school, financial or other commitments, it’s not hard to see why we are often in a perpetual state of stress.  Physiologically, this state pumps a continued supply of cortisol into our body and creates inflammatory responses, changes our gut flora and for some people can even manifest into noticeable physical systems affecting their digestion (think Irritable Bowl Syndrome).  

It probably goes without saying, try and reduce the level of stress you have even if you may not notice, it may be subconsciously affecting you. 

Aim to disconnect from devices (phone, laptops, tv etc) as much as possible throughout the day and especially in the evening.  The addiction to watch short reels on Instagram continues to breed the short attention span cycle we are getting into and affects our brain pathways.

Spend time doing calming or creative activities like painting, drawing, walking your dog, reading a book, or just simply taking a nice hot relaxing bath with some incense and candles. By lowering the cortisol in your body, you are reducing the negative impact on your gut flora so it can stay strong enough to fight off any viruses. 

2. Sleep

So many of us have difficulties sleeping these days with many complaining of insomnia or even waking at odd hours during the night and not being able to return to sleep.  

How would you describe your sleep hygiene?  Do you go to bed before 10pm and wake with the sun in the morning or do you stay up late watching Netflix and move to bed to continue scrolling on your phone under the light of electronics?

In Ayurveda, there are three Doshas that make up our body constitution. Kapha, Pitta and Vata.  Each have different characteristics.  They also represent different times of the day and night and those individual characteristics are present in those times. For example, Kapha hours are 6am to 10am and then in turn 6pm to 10pm.  That’s important to know because Kapha is a slow, steady, dense and heavy Dosha so to avoid gaining weight or increasing those qualities, we aim to rise with the sun and move our body before 10am and then have our smallest meal of the day (dinner) close to 6-7pm and be in bed by 10pm to honour those characteristics and allow our body to naturally move into a state of rest in the evening. 

If you are just starting out on realigning your sleep hygiene, consider our Stress Ease supplements which contain herbs that assist with stress reduction and aiding good quality sleep. 

Getting good quality sleep each night is showing in studies to actually help improve the gut flora and reduce the occurrence of sleep disturbed gastrointestinal issues such as gastroesophageal reflux or microscopic inflammation in the bowel.

3. Exercise

Raise your hand if you workout every day? Round of applause if you do!   In our Western society, it’s definitely not uncommon for people to deter the exercise due to increasing demand on their time.  

We hear it every year around New Years - “This will be the year I use my gym membership every day!”.  And a few weeks in and the demands of life get in the way… or rather we choose those demands instead of prioritising our health. 

Movement is essential to our physical health, being heart health, lung health, bone health and so on. We know it, we are told this all the time.  So why don’t we?

It’s almost as if there’s a perception well if I’m not working hard and breaking a sweat in some gym class where there’s loud music and not enough room in the back row because all the other infrequent gym goers are there, then I’m not doing it right.  Sound familiar?  Well it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, it’s more important to honour what your body is telling you as far as choice of movement. 

You may have a yearning to take up swimming or tennis or some other sport you used to enjoy as a kid. You may really feel a pull towards the weights section of a gym, or a home workout that helps you to develop your strength. 

Or you may be like me, and are drawn to a more gentle nurturing form of movement these days like nature walks along a creek or at the beach and daily yoga.  Whatever your vibe is on movement at the moment, do it. 

Not only is exercise good for our physical health, exercise also reduces the risk of inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer by increasing antioxidant levels, improving the body's immune function and reducing levels of insulin, which can cause tumour cell division and growth within the microbiome environment.  Again, gut health is important when considering strengthening our immune system. 

4. Nutrition

This one may be obvious, but nutrition is definitely a key player in the immune system and gut health duo.  Foods that are naturally high in prana (Ayurvedic Sanskrit for ‘life or energy’) which would be foods that are as close to their natural source as possible. Plant based foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes and some grains are ideal. 

Many gastroenterologist even acknowledge some of the foods to avoid in order to promote healthy gut flora include dairy where possible, processed foods, refined sugar, gluten, red meat, fried foods, alcohol and other carbonated drinks. 

Nutrition often suffers when any of the above areas are also suffering. People who experience poor sleep, are stressed and don’t exercise regularly, will often default to processed foods, quick easy meals that may be low in essential nutrients and these foods will disrupt the healthy gut flora and affect the immune system so nutrition is going to play a big role in boosting your gut health and immunity. 

Aim for high prana foods, fresh foods that contain antioxidants, vitamin C, leafy greens and a variety of fresh ingredients to ensure you are consuming a diverse range of vitamins and minerals. 

5. Supplements

Sometimes, despite our best efforts to eat well and be well, we can still feel flat, lethargic and run down.  It is generally because of stress, poor sleep, lack of sunshine and fresh air and too much screen time.  Not to mention a lot of the foods we have available to us these days in the supermarket giants are sourced from growers who are mass producing fruits and vegetables needing to spray with pesticides to retain as much of the crops as possible in soils that are significantly depleted of nutrients. 

This is where taking supplements can assist to boost your health if you feel you are still needing it.  

Supplements that have a direct positive impact on gut health and your immunity include Triphala, our Gut Health & Immunity Blend, our Multivitamin and our Stress Ease blend. 

Triphala is a blend of three fruits (Amalaki, Bibhitaki, and Haritaki) and is used traditionally in Ayurveda as a herbal remedy with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial benefits. Triphala is known to have various health benefits including that for digestive health and is taken daily to help boost gut health. We package and make our own Triphala vegan capsules at Essence of Nourishment so you know it's good quality!

Our Gut Health and Immunity blend contains Dandelion root and Burdock root, which when paired together, act as a stronger gut boost and prebiotic. In addition, this herbal blend includes Turmeric root and Echinacea root which assist with reducing inflammation and boosting the immune system from the gut. 

If you are interested in purchasing any of our herbal supplements, click here https://essenceofnourishment.com/wellness-with-kat and check out our Wellness Products.