If you’ve been living with stomach discomfort, indigestion, and more, you’ve been suffering from pain that can feel endless. The good news is that there are ways to improve your gut health, and vitamins can help you reclaim your sense of self. Whether this means changing your diet to get enough of these vitamins naturally, or taking vitamin supplements, these little changes can make a huge difference for your health and happiness.
Signs Your Gut May Be Unhealthy
Gut problems and the subsequent pain can be extremely difficult to deal with. If you’re wondering if you might have an unhealthy gut, here are some signs.
- One of the most obvious signs that your gut is unhealthy is that you are experiencing frequent stomach discomfort. Everyone has stomach problems every now and then, however, if you are experiencing symptoms more often than not, then this isn’t a good sign. Some of the most frequent stomach symptoms include gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, indigestion, cramping, and abdominal pain. And even though many of these symptoms can be temporarily alleviated with over-the-counter products, these only provide temporary relief from symptoms. Instead, you need to be addressing the cause of the discomfort to get long-term relief.
- Chronic fatigue, sleep disturbances, and mood issues are possible symptoms. Linked to serotonin, which is a chemical produced by your nervous system that affects your mood and sleep. Most of your body’s serotonin is produced in the stomach, so if your stomach isn’t functioning properly, it may not be able to produce enough serotonin to keep you awake during the day and asleep at night.
- Skin irritation and allergies can be a sign of an unhealthy gut. This is because your gut’s microbiome influences the skin and can lead to inflammatory skin conditions and reactions if it’s not properly balanced. Gut problems have been linked to acne, psoriasis, eczema, food allergies, and even respiratory allergies!
If you are experiencing any of these issues on a regular basis, consider your gut health before you try to patch these problems with medications that won’t necessarily treat the root cause. One of the best things you can do to improve your gut health is to make sure that you’re supporting and balancing your body with key vitamins you may be missing.
6 Vitamins For Digestion & Gut Health
Your stomach is a complex system that requires careful care and maintenance to keep it healthy and running smoothly. Here are six of the most important vitamins that help keep your gut healthy:
- Vitamin B Complex: Your gut needs a variety of the vitamins in the B complex to function, but B12 is especially beneficial for gut health. It helps your body absorb iron and gain energy from food!
- Vitamin C: It helps the stomach absorb the iron that aids digestion.
- Vitamin D: Does vitamin D help digestion? Well, yes! It helps the body absorb calcium and produce defenses that help maintain healthy gut flora.
- Zinc: It helps increase the body’s production of digestive enzymes that keep your entire digestive system running smoothly.
- Magnesium: It helps minimize inflammation in the gut that can cause chronic digestive symptoms.
- Iron: Iron helps support good anti-inflammatory bacteria in the gut that help to balance out the entire system.
Lifestyle Changes for Better Digestive Health
While vitamins support maintaining a healthy gut, they are just one piece of the puzzle. In order to get real results, you will have to make healthy lifestyle choices that help your stomach and body altogether function at an optimal level.
Here are some other ways that you can keep your gut healthy when vitamins aren’t enough:
- Change your diet: If you currently don’t eat a healthy and balanced diet, this is one of the most important things that you can do to improve your gut health. What goes in absolutely impacts your gut health, this means not eating a lot of processed foods that contain high amounts of sugar and fat. Instead, make sure that you are eating plant-based foods and lean proteins with enough fiber to help get your gut back in shape while eliminating pain and discomfort.
- Sleep more: If you aren’t sleeping enough, you really aren’t doing your gut any favors. There’s a reason why your stomach feels upset after only getting a few hours of sleep! Unfortunately, dealing with stomach problems can make it hard for you to sleep at night -- locking you into a vicious cycle. Try getting better sleep by incorporating things like blackout curtains, essential oils, humidifiers, and fans. It will be well worth it when you’re well-rested with less pain!
- Reduce stress: Stress and sleep are usually linked together, but stress and the gut are linked as well! Most people have experienced a stomach ache when they’re stressed. Reducing stress really requires a lifestyle change by incorporating things like meditation, yoga, exercise, to sweat out the fight or flight hormone called cortisol.
- Add probiotics: Probiotic supplements can provide you with beneficial gut bacteria. Even though you might automatically associate all bacteria as bad, it’s actually essential for your stomach. By introducing more “good bacteria” into your gut, you can better balance out the bad bacteria and improve your gut’s microbiome.
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We hope this detailed guide shows how important your gut health really is! It is more than just your digestive system since it’s connected to your mood, sleep, and skin. Promoting a healthy gut requires more than just eating a healthy diet with sufficient vitamins and minerals -- it also requires getting enough sleep at night, managing your stress, and making overall healthy lifestyle changes.
It doesn’t have to be all at once, but just slowly incorporating each of these steps one at a time can really make a huge difference in how your gut feels on a daily basis. Good luck!
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