Inside your digestive tract live 10 to 100 trillion bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microorganisms. Don’t be alarmed! They are helpful microorganisms: the symbionts that make up your gut microbiome.
What does your gut microbiome do, exactly? That is currently the focus of intense scientific study, although consensus holds that the gut microbiome has far-reaching effects on the body.
- Digestion. The 1,000 or so species of bacteria living inside you help break down carbohydrates and fibers that otherwise would have gone undigested. Those bacteria also produce the enzymes your body needs in order to synthesize crucial vitamins, including B12 and K. In no uncertain terms, if your gut microbiome were to disappear suddenly, you would effectively starve to death.
- Anti-inflammatory response. Certain microbes in your gut produce enzymes that convert otherwise indigestible carbohydrates into short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). These molecules have anti-inflammatory properties which can ward off skin diseases such as eczema, psoriasis and acne. SCFAs also directly impact metabolic and inflammatory processes in skeletal muscle tissue.
- Immune system. Gut microbiota have a direct impact on the production of T cells: a type of white blood cell that is essential to the immune system, and which protects the body against infection and possibly cancer. Gut microbiota additionally stimulate maturation of “natural killer cells” – another type of white blood cell, which hunts down and eliminates cells that are infected by viruses.
As you may already have surmised, your gut microbiome is critical to your ability to recover from physical injury. A healthy gut microbiome supplies the nutrients a body needs in order to function healthily and normally, which has benefits ranging from stronger bones to higher energy levels. It suppresses systemic inflammation before it can interfere with healing as well. And in addition to fighting off cancer and infection, gut immune cells may have a direct role in healing organs and other soft tissues throughout the body.
Gut Health and Physical Therapy: A Potent Combo
Physical therapy doesn’t just benefit from good gut health. It also improves it by enriching microbiota diversity, which includes increasing the number of Firmicutes bacteria that can help maintain healthy body weight and reduce the risk of obesity-related conditions. And that’s only scratching the surface of moderate physical exercise’s benefits to gut health.
Physical therapy’s positive impact on gut health only becomes stronger when it is combined with functional medicine. The patient-centered, science-based approach to wellness focuses on identifying the core underlying causes of disease and injury, such as allergens, genetics, toxins, stress, and nutrition.
Naturally, functional medicine is heavily concerned with the gut microbiome as well, and offers patients practical solutions to improving their gut health. That’s why a physical therapist who practices functional medicine might offer their patient any number of solutions to improving their gut health, including:
- Improved sleep habits. Multiple studies have illustrated poor sleep’s disruptive effects on the gut microbiome. Going to bed earlier, abstaining from screen use within two hours of bedtime, and sleeping for a full seven to eight hours can do a great deal to improve gut health.
- Regular exercise. Just 30 to 90 minutes of moderate- or high-intensity exercise at least three times a week can dramatically improve gut health. Take care to avoid excessive exercise, however, as that can have severe ramifications for your body’s homeostasis.
- Reduced stress. There is strong evidence that chronic stress can affect gut health for the worse – just one reason why stress management can help anyone accelerate their recovery from physical trauma. That’s why a physical therapist may advise multiple calming techniques, which can be as straightforward as spending more time in nature.
- Reduced antibiotic use. Antibiotics can be lifesavers – but naturally, substances designed to kill harmful bacteria can also have the same effect on good ones. This is why a practitioner of functional medicine will check to make sure their patient is only taking necessary antibiotics, as well as recommend avenues to healing which don’t rely on drugs.
- Reduced alcohol intake. Alcohol also harms beneficial bacteria. Excessive consumption may suppress the gut microbiome’s ability to promote a healthy immune response, as well as enable bacteria to enter the bloodstream where they no longer serve any benefit.
Are you currently recovering from a physical injury? Acucare Physical Therapy offers much more than physical therapy. Our functional medicine approach can help you heal faster by fortifying your gut health, too! We welcome you to contact Acucare Physical Therapy today to learn more during a consultation at our clinic in Sioux Falls, SD.
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