What state is your gut in right now? Are you a nutrition ninja or a miserable farty failure?
Your answer to that question may well be: ‘I’m not sure, how can I tell?’
Gut health is important but I would say that, I’m a gut geek. Don’t take it from me, take it from Justin, one of our many success stories. More about him in a moment.
What does it mean to say our gut is unhealthy? It means two big things aren’t right:
a) Our gut bugs – also known as our microbiome – have got out of balance, so that there’s not enough good bacteria.
b) Our gut wall has become damaged and leaky. If you’d like find out whether your gut is leaky, take our quiz.
The Signs of Gut Problems
For some people with gut issues, it’s very obvious that their gut is unhealthy because they suffer from all sorts of digestive distress such as diarrhea or bad gas.
However for others it’s far less obvious that their gut is unhealthy because the symptoms show up in other areas of the body, while their digestion remains more or less completely normal.
If you have a health issue that falls into one of these 5 broad categories, there’s a very high chance that your gut is unhealthy.
The good news is that the gut is at the root of many of these problems. This means that when you fix your gut, most of the related issues will be greatly improved or disappear completely.
It also means that as long as you keep your gut in good condition, these related health issues while stay gone, ensuring that you remain vibrant and healthy long into old age, rather than sliding slowly into problems obesity and dementia.
1. Digestive System
The first category is anything to do with our Digestive System.
For example you may have:
- Bloating
- Acid reflux
- Diarrhea
- Constipation
- Excessive and/or foul-smelling gas
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease
These are just some of the problems that crop up when our digestion isn’t working properly, and they are all clear signals that our gut and microbiome are unhealthy.
2. Immune System
The second broad category is the Immune System.
Inflammation is part of our body’s response to something harmful, and it’s generally a helpful process. However, our immune system can get confused and misfire, setting up inflammation against stuff that isn’t actually a threat to us. This can show up with:
- Food intolerances and allergies
- Seasonal allergies – like hay fever
- Autoimmune conditions – like multiple sclerosis or coeliac disease
- Joint problems – like arthritis where we have aching and swollen joints
- Chronic tiredness – which can be caused by leaky gut and low-grade inflammation throughout the body
These are some of the problems that crop up when our immune system isn’t working properly, and they are all clear signals that our gut is struggling.
Why? Because our gut and immune system and very closely connected. So close that certain species of friendly bacteria are in communication with the cells of our immune system, guiding our cells on when to react and when not to.
In this category I’d also mention Candida, which is a yeast that’s always in our body but sometimes gets out balance, causing itchiness, thrush and other unpleasant symptoms.
Candida is normally kept under control by the natural balance of friendly bacteria in our body but runs rampant when the gut is unhealthy.
3. Metabolism
The third category is metabolism and weight control. Like many people you may have trouble:
- Losing weight
- Gaining weight
Being overweight is a clear signal that our gut is unhealthy. Why? Because our gut bugs can directly affect our metabolism, for example by controlling how many calories are extracted from the food we eat and the kinds of cravings we feel.
Being underweight is also common in folks with chronic gut issues, as they may be unable to absorb enough nutrients and energy from their food.
4. Skin
The fourth category is skin. For example you may have:
- Acne
- Rosacea
- Rashes
- Eczema
- Psoriasis
5. Brain
The fifth category is brain and mental health – for example you may have:
- Difficulty focusing or recalling stuff
- Moodiness
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Autism
- Schizophrenia
- Dementia
These are all clear signals that our gut is unhealthy. Why? Because of the strength of the gut-brain connection.
Scientists have discovered that there is constant communication between the gut and the brain, so that whatever affects our gut affects our brain and vice versa.
Our friendly gut bugs also help produce important brain chemicals such as the neurotransmitters, serotonin and dopamine.
If you’d like to learn more about the possible reasons your gut is struggling, take a look at Why Your Gut Is Broken.
Justin’s Testimonial
I’ve just given you a long and depressing list of ailments. That’s because the gut is like the roots of a tree: problems there will spread throughout our system.
But I don’t want to leave you with that. I prefer to focus on solutions. So, let’s take a quick look at one of our success stories.
Justin is a taxi driver and bodybuilder from the UK. He developed terrible Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) but didn’t receive much help from his doctors, who ran tests and said he was fine, when he knew he wasn’t fine at all.
Around that time he started following my Twitter feed and began using some of the strategies I talk about.
Fast forward to a year later and Justin said this:
Isn’t that awesome? You can read more about Justin’s journey in his blog post here.Â
Justin I salute you, you’re our Gut Geek of the Week!
31 thoughts on “How Do I Know If My Gut Is Unhealthy?”
Wow, this is very informative. The more I visit this site, the more I understand my gut more. I love how you added a testimonial to kind make this issue more human.
Im not very conscious of what i eat and i do notice some of the symptoms presented here. Might have to monitor my how my gut is doing the next couple of days.
For someone with FAP any kind of gut health information is so helpful. It is very good information.
gut health has proven to be very important. surely I took the test the basic for your own understanding for me is toilet business: if it works as clock regular and things like that you have less to worry about
There are so many contributing factors that can show you that your gut is unhealthy. I know I need to take better care of my gut health for sure.
This is very useful and informative. I learn so much from your articles. Thank you so much for sharing this!
I have lots of joint problems and also Rosacea. Never knew they could be connected
This is a very useful post. It is important to know if you are having gut issues or not. Thank you for shedding light on this topic! This is something that I need to pay attention too!
Really get points to know if my gut is healthy. A healthy gut contains healthy bacteria and immune cells that ward off infectious agents like bacteria, viruses and fungi. A healthy gut also communicates with the brain through nerves and hormones, which helps maintain general health and well-being.
I didn’t know there’s a connection between gut health and brain but this reminded me that we should also pay more careful attention to our brain health even while we’re still young and try to correct it early on.
I just saw this post again and realized I never cared to thank for your educational work on gut health. you are doing a great job!
This was such a informative post, safe to say I have a pretty unhealthy gut, lol I already knew that but this was just solidification
Aw man, this was a much needed reminder to get back on my work out regiment! This was a swift kick in the butt to get moving. Thank you!
This was a good reminder that I need to be more healthy lol
I have all the Digestive System problems, but zero problems on my immune system.
This was an illuminating post.
I didn’t know that gut health has all these potential impacts on our body.
Thank you for sharing.
Gut health does show a lot about you. What you eat is who you are
ohh…thanks so much for this informative piece, I now learnt better about whether am with unhealthy gut. cheers, siennylovesdrawing
The health of the gut is indeed vital for the overall health of the body. Knowing when the gut is not healthy and can be tricky, these pointers are really helpful.
This hit way too close to home for me. I have been having acid reflux lately and the older I get I have rosacea on my cheeks. It might be time to cut out some food groups and see what’s going on.
This is a very informative post and I will share with my older daughter, she has a lot of GI issues.
This is very interesting. Thanks for your explanations, it’s always good to get medical information from a professional physician.
I have been looking for unhealthy gut health symptoms recently and luckily I have found your post. Gut health is vital for our overall health and we should not ignore its symptoms. Thanks for the useful post.
I must admit that since I started reading your articles and following your guides, my bowel movement has been more regular and my overall digestive system feels better. Thanks.
That’s so great to hear, thank you for the support! 🙌
Gut health is the most important to our body and thanks a lot for sharing the indicators – I had no idea that there are so many way to check and we should be aware of it all of time – Knycx Journeying
Thanks for sharing these information. We need to check our guts for a much healthier lifestyle.
Gut health is very important, being a person with FAP condition I understand it too well. This post was very helpful thanks for sharing.
Leaky gut isn’t something that isn’t known much about in terms of general public awareness. It’s great you are highlighting this and symptoms so people know what to look out for.
This is really informative post. I learnt something new today 🙂
I love that you are bringing more awareness to this very important topic! Gut health affects the whole body and is something a lot of people don’t pay enough attention to. Good work 🙂