Does optimising your gut health really help your immunity and the fight against colds and flu? 

Scientists are increasingly focusing on the link between our immune system and our gut. Recently it’s been recognised that the ‘friendly’ lactic-acid producing bacteria within our large intestine may even help to protect us against common infections such as colds and flu, so the link between immunity and gut health is very real indeed.

Immunity and your gut

This isn’t at all surprising when you realise that around 70 per cent of our entire immune system is found within the lining of the intestines, in what is known as our gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT). In fact, this is where you’ll also find 80% of our antibody producing immune cells hanging out. They form white patches throughout the gut, known as Peyer’s Patches. Perhaps even more importantly, this is where our T-cells form any new immune memories needed against newly discovered infections.

Funnily enough, when I see clients for IBS and we start to tackle their gut health, one of the first improvements they tend to notice is with their immunity.  They comment that although everyone around them is dropping like flies, they’ve escaped unscathed! 

Immunity & gut health: The mucosal barrier

Our first point of contact for bacteria, viruses and other pathogens is our mucosal barrier. This is the layer of mucus which covers our oral cavity, digestive system, reproductive and respiratory tracts.

This mucus layer should be packed with antibodies and will eliminate potential invaders before we’ve even had a chance to realise we were under attack.

How do you keep your mucosal layer healthy?

Vitamin A and zinc are vital nutrients for keeping your mucosal barrier healthy, strengthening both your gut health and immunity.

Prebiotics from food and supplements keep your friendly bacteria well fed. Prebiotic-rich foods to include are –

• Leeks
• Onions
• Garlic
• Boiled and cooled potatoes
• Chicory
• Asparagus

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

Eat to strengthen your immunity & gut health

It goes without saying that a nutrient-dense diet is what’s needed if you want a robust immune system, so focus on –

• Leafy greens
• Berries
• Ginger
• Citrus fruits
• Sweet potato
• Peppers

Minimise stress – vital to strengthen your immunity

Ongoing stress weakens your body’s ability to fight infections. It’s not always possible to avoid sources of stress, but its our reaction to it which is important. That’s where practices such as meditation and gratitude are vitally important. Whereas herbal teas containing chamomile and lemon balm can be especially soothing.

I hope this helps you avoid the dreaded bugs this winter,

Hydration. It’s something that’s so fundamental to great health and well-being that there’s absolutely no point in doing anything else – fancy supplement plans, all-out exercise regimes, meditation and mindset courses, or anything else – until you’re in the habit of ensuring you’re not affected by dehydration. Particularly if you’re someone who suffers with their digestion.

With that in mind, if you’re not a keen water drinker (and let’s face it many of us aren’t!) I’ll give you a few hints and tips at the end to help make all things water-related so much more appealing for you, and help you put that spring back in your step.

Why pay particular attention to dehydration if you’re prone to gut trouble?

Having a healthy and hydrated gut promotes –

• Healthy skin (what’s going on on the inside is generally reflected on the outside)
• Better immune function
• Improved sleep
• Positive moods

Dehydration and gut function –

Right at the beginning of the digestive system is your stomach. Your stomach needs to secrete plentiful hydrochloric acid in order to break down your proteins efficiently, and ensure they get adequately assimilated further along the digestive tract. Put simply, if you aren’t drinking enough water your stomach can’t produce the acid and your food will sit in your stomach causing bloating and discomfort.

The same thing will happen with the pancreas. The pancreas needs plenty of water to enable it to produce all the juices which contain the enzymes needed to break down your food. Again, the stomach’s contents will be unable to be moved along and digested efficiently.

If you’re dehydrated this will without doubt cause bloating.

Further along the digestive system, if there’s a lack of water in the colon this will cause constipation – not what you want at all. Constipation may damage the gut lining and cause more pressure in the stomach.

And all that is just in your gut.  What else may be impacted by dehydration?

Your body will be unable to –

• Detoxify any waste
• Enable your brain to function efficiently
• Ensure your heart pumps properly
• Repair cells
• Curb food cravings
• Enable optimal kidney function
• Help your blood carry nutrients around the body

What are the signs that dehydration may be an issue?

• Feeling tired
• Headaches
• Dry skin and mouth
• Feeling dizzy and/or confused
• Anxiety and depression
• As well as all those digestive symptoms previously mentioned

How do you know if you’re adequately hydrated?

We should, as a rough guide, be aiming for around two litres of water each day. Of course this varies due to what the weather’s like, how much exercise you’re doing and how big you are. So a better way is to keep a note of the colour of your urine. Your first wee of the day will likely be quite dark, but as the day goes on you want to be aiming for pale-straw coloured urine. If it stays this colour, you know you’re drinking enough.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

And don’t forget your food!

There are plenty of fabulous water-rich fruits and vegetables which will all help stave off dehydration.  In fact, they can end up accounting for around 20% of your fluid intake over the course of a day. Cucumber, celery, courgettes, tomatoes, radishes and water melon are all great for hydration, and contain valuable electrolytes.

Add flavours

Add flavours to your filtered water: Lemon and lime slices (not too frequently as it may damage your tooth enamel), cucumber ribbons, mint leaves and berries are just a few ideas. Another great option is to steep one of your favourite herbal tea bags in a jug of filtered water, and keep it in the fridge – fabulous for hot days.
In cold weather, drink it warm. This is what I do as I’m definitely not keen on guzzling cold water on a cold day – no need to boil it, just gently heat it up in the kettle.

Although technically caffeinated drinks like tea and coffee do count towards your overall fluid intake, caffeine is also a diuretic so it’ll increase your urine output.  If you tolerate caffeine OK, a couple of cups of tea and coffee each day is fine, and even has been shown to have numerous health benefits.  But I’d always make sure that plain water and herbal teas form the majority of your daily fluid intake.  

Astonishingly most adults – estimated at between 40-80% – are believed to be deficient in vitamin D. I’ll explain in this post the many reasons why this may be a huge problem. I’ll also look into how you can top up your levels if you think you may be deficient (hint: it’s very likely you will be during the winter months) and what dose to use. Read on to discover what the far reaching signs of vitamin D deficiency are.

Vitamin D deficiency – some people are more susceptible

• The darker your skin, the harder it is for you to absorb vitamin D from the sun
• If you live in the Northern Hemisphere
• People who spend a lot of time indoors, or live in a care home
• If you use sunscreen when the weather is sunny
• If you typically tend to cover up most of your skin

Spending time in the sun, without sunscreen, is the BEST way to ensure you’re getting enough vitamin D throughout the summer months. Your body will naturally regulate your levels too, so you’ll never make too much.

As long as you don’t burn you can be confident you’re not doing any harm to your skin.

Vitamin D deficiency – some foods may help

As far as food sources go, there are some, but the levels of vitamin D they contain are negligible so barely worth mentioning – that said, oily fish, eggs and certain mushrooms are among the best food sources.

Essentially, once you haven’t seen the sun for a while, you’ll definitely need to supplement – more on that in a second.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

What does Vitamin D actually do?

Vitamin D is actually a hormone, not a vitamin, and nearly every cell in your body has a receptor for it. More and more evidence is now demonstrating that its role in the body is much wider than just protecting your bones.

The many roles of vitamin D –

• Contributes to bone health by aiding calcium absorption into the bones.
• Supports the immune system and may help prevent prolonged or excessive inflammatory responses.
• Provides protection against autoimmune conditions

and also  –

• Boosts your energy levels.
• Protects against autoimmune conditions
  Vital for heart health.
• Helps to protect against skin issues such as psoriasis and eczema.

So if you’re affected by any of those things on an ongoing basis, I’d definitely recommend getting your vitamin D levels tested. You may be very low and this could be a major contributing factor to your symptoms.

If you want to get tested you can order here – use code LIZDAVIS10 at the checkout for a 10% discount.  

Preventing a Vitamin D deficiency

When you sit in the sun with your arms and legs exposed, without sunscreen for roughly 10 minutes, you’ll be likely to absorb about 10,000 units of natural vitamin D. However, keep in mind that this amount differs from person to person, depending on your skin tone – the fairer your skin, the more easily you can make it.

So how much should you supplement?

The NHS recommends a minimum of 400 IUs for adults, and not more than 4000 IUs per day.

Well, considering you’d make about 10,000 IUs in about 10 minutes if you sat in the sun I’d suggest more like a minimum of 2000 IUs each day would be about right for most people.
So providing you have no other health conditions which could be exacerbated by low vitamin D, supplementing between 2000 IUs and 4000 IUs per day should be about right.

For school age kids about 2000 IUs per day should be adequate.

What type of Vitamin D should you look for?

You want a D3 supplement with added K2.

The K2 acts as a co-factor and works with the vitamin D to get calcium into your bones.

Testing will tell you for sure how low your levels are and how much you need to supplement – you may need much higher levels than that. 

Omega-3 fats are a type of polyunsaturated fat which, historically, humans have consumed in abundance. Notably Mediterranean and Asian diets tend to be very high in seafood, which is our primary source of Omega-3 fats. These fats are known as ‘essential fats’ because our bodies cannot synthesise them, so we need to consume them. Unfortunately when we don’t consume enough – and many, many people don’t – we may be faced with numerous health problems.

Omega-3 Fats and Gut Health

Recent studies have demonstrated that supplementation with Omega-3s impacts the gut microbiome for the better.  These fats seem to increase the production of anti-inflammatory compounds, such as short chain fatty acids.

They are also instrumental in maintaining gut immunity and ensuring gut wall integrity, helping avoid the dreaded ‘leaky gut’.

The balance between Omega-3 and Omega-6

We need to keep the balance between Omega-3 and Omega-6 fats we consume in the right ratio. The trouble is the modern diet tends to provide far too much Omega-6 (it’s in just about everything!) and unless you’re a keen fish eater, not enough omega-3.

Although Omega-6 fats are a necessary part of a healthy diet, having too much tends towards being inflammatory. Omega-3 fats, on the other hand, are anti-inflammatory. Given that most illnesses have inflammation at their root, then you can probably see how many of these problems arise.

An array of very healthy foods are rich sources of omega-6 fats, as are cooking oils such as sunflower oil.

How do omega-3s affect your health?

• Fighting inflammation throughout the body
• Protecting the brain
• They are vital for cardiovascular health
• If you’re pregnant you definitely need them in abundance for foetal development
• They regulate your mood
  Hormone production

What are the signs you may be deficient in omega-3 fats?

• Depression and anxiety
• Dry skin
• Allergies
• Digestive problems
• ADHD in children
• Problems with attention span in adults
• Irritability
• Dry eyes
• Hay fever

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

How can you prevent or reverse a deficiency?

1. Eat Fish Several Times Per Week

The amount you need to eat will vary between individuals, but roughly 2-4 portions a week of mackerel, salmon (wild salmon is preferable), sardines, fresh tuna or anchovies.

3. Reduce your intake of Omega-6 oils

Omega-6 fats are found in everything, so it’s very easy to eat too much. Replacing your usual sunflower cooking oil with healthier alternatives such as olive oil or coconut oil will help with this.
Omega-6 oils tend to be found in a lot of processed foods too, so if you cut down on those it’ll help.

4. If you’re not keen on fish then supplement!

Research tends to suggest that food sources of omega-3s are superior. However, fish is just one of those foods that a lot of people really don’t like.  So if this is you then make sure you take a good quality supplement – of course run this past your healthcare provider if you are on any medications, or have a medical condition.

It is thought that approximately 80% of people have a magnesium deficiency to some degree, so the chances are you may well be affected.

Magnesium is probably the most important mineral in the body, accounting for over 300 actions in just about every body system – including the gut and the brain. It also helps to regulate sodium, potassium and calcium levels, and helps glutathione – your body’s main antioxidant – to do its job. So all in all, it’s pretty important and you’ll definitely feel the effects if you haven’t got enough in your system.

What happens if you don’t get enough magnesium?

If your diet is low in magnesium then your microbiome will definitely take a hit. You can read more about your microbiome here. Scientists have studied mice put on low and high magnesium diets, and compared the two. Their microbiomes differed significantly. Furthermore, the magnesium deficient mice showed less mobility and behaviours that corresponded to depressive symptoms in humans.

The deficient mice had low levels of beneficial bacteria, and high levels of inflammation.

In addition to the digestive problems, low levels of magnesium are associated with –

• Leg cramps and restless leg syndrome
• Insomnia
• Anxiety, irritability and restlessness
  Fatigue
• Deficiency impacts the central nervous system by depleting levels of GABA – a calming neurotransmitter.
• Having adequate levels calms the body, improves mood and soothes muscles.

Low energy, fatigue and feeling weak are common signs of magnesium deficiency.

What causes magnesium deficiency?

Soil depletion – as minerals are stripped away from the soil due to intensive farming processes, crops become depleted. There are far less minerals present in food now, compared to previous generations.
Digestive issues such as leaky gut, SIBO, and IBD may impact your ability to absorb sufficient levels of magnesium.
Long-term use of medications may damage the gut, leading to mineral deficiencies.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

Who is most at risk from magnesium deficiency?

• Certain people may be genetically predisposed to poor absorption.
• Eating a diet low in foods which are rich in magnesium.
• People experiencing high levels of stress, from any cause, may experience the effects of low magnesium. Stress will drain magnesium from the body.
• Anyone with a digestive system issue such as coeliac or IBD which may affect their ability to absorb magnesium.

Magnesium Supplementation

If you’d like an extra boost then magnesium skin sprays are great for people who have difficulty with absorption. Or supplementing with magnesium glycinate, malate or threonine.

Magnesium malate is great if you’re having muscle problems, whereas threonine crosses the blood brain barrier so is great for all things brain and mood related, such as anxiety. Magnesium glycinate is highly absorbable and readily bioavailable to the body.

A dose of around 300-400mg/day is appropriate for most people, but do check with your healthcare provider first if you’re taking any other medications.