Health, Beauty and Lifestyle with Denise McNamara

Medics tell us that the gut is one of the most important organs in the body so keeping it healthy is crucial to our overall wellbeing.  Learning to look after your gut has huge benefits as it has the power to impact everything, from our mood to immunity and weight.

It’s vital to give it the love and attention it deserves, explains registered dietician Jo Travers.

As well as having its own ‘brain’, which contains 150 million nerve cells, the gut is also home to trillions of bacteria that play a vital role in providing essential nutrients, tuning the immune system and even altering the function of the brain and other distant parts of the body.

The gut can influence our mental health and mood, due to a direct link between the gut and the brain, called the gut-brain axis.

“The gut and the brain ‘talk’ to each other on a regular basis using special chemical messengers produced by the bacteria that lives in our gut. Among these we can find dopamine and serotonin – also known as happiness or ‘feel good’ hormones.

“Although gut-brain axis communication is two-way, over 80% of the messages are sent from the gut to the brain, rather than the other way round. However, if conditions are less favourable in either place, then this can affect the other.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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