Most people view the inner workings of their bodies as isolated individuals. What happens in your mouth never comes in contact with what happens in your immune system. Everything is neat and disconnected. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Instead of isolated individuals, your body’s organs and systems are like a big nosey family. If someone’s crying, everyone’s crying. If one person’s mad, well, then they’re all mad. Everyone is in everyone’s business.
In a real sense, we can see clear evidence that every part of our body is tightly connected. For example, Periodontal disease in your mouth has negative effects on pregnancies. Being mentally stressed or overwhelmed actually causes your heart to beat faster. And the most compelling to me is the tight connection between the state of your gut and your mental health. In fact, your gut can play a role in serious conditions such as depression, anxiety and even autism.
The gut and the brain are so insync that when your gut becomes out of balanced it can change how your brain functions and vice versa. Research has shown that people who suffer from depression normally have gut issues as well. Take a second to think about this and it’ll make perfect sense. The gut is sensitive to emotion; we have felt nauseous in stressful situations or intestinal pain before a big presentation. These are examples of a troubled brain interacting with the gut and causing physical pain and discomfort. Likewise, the gut can send messages to the brain. This interaction can play a part in developing depression or anxiety.
In your big nosey family, there are 78 organs and 60,000 miles of blood vessels working together to keep you alive. Since everything is interlocked, you cannot target one thing without causing a train reaction of good or bad. So choose to have a good train reaction. Treat your gut through making good food choices, fueling bacteria with probiotics and exercising consistently.