The Importance of Gut and Longevity
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
There are three important players in ensuring longevity. The first two would be Gut Bacteria and Mitochondria. Now it’s time to meet the third: your gut wall. The gut wall is the protective barrier between your gut and the rest of your body. It consists of a single layer of mucus-producing cells that line your intestines. Tightly packed together, the gut wall is interspersed with immune cells – specialised white blood cells that act as sort of a gatekeeper in the wall.
This gatekeeping role is important because many things lurk in your intestines. While some are good for the body, others are bad. The gut wall and immune cells decide which ones to let through and which ones to keep out. This means that the rest of the body gets the nutrients and keeping all the nasty things out.
LSPs, or lipopolysaccharides are the main villains of this longevity story. They are waste products or discarded fragments of your bacteria’s cell walls, which gets shed when your bacteria die or divide to reproduce themselves. Trillions of LSPs get produced every day – hence they can be very harmful if they breach your gut wall to reach your blood, organ, tissues, or lymphatic system.
When the immune cells in the rest of your body encounter LSPs, they perceive them as foreign invaders and their react accordingly. They attack them, and this leads to inflammation. If this happens ovre and over again, it’s chronic inflammation, whihc is one of the ultimate causes of many of the most common ailments associated with ageing, such as diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, cancer and Alzheimer’s.
Hence keeping your gut wall strong and able to ward off invaders is a key part of ageing well.
How to strengthen your gut
Fortunately, there are some simple ways to strengthen your gut wall. One of the simplest ways is to eat plenty of food that provides your body with a source of organic compounds known as polyamines. Sources of these include leafy greens, mushrooms, nuts, seeds, lentils, shellfish, chicken liver and aged cheese. When they are given these foods, your gut bacteria use them to product and transport polyamines, which then help to protect your gut wall.
These compounds also help combat inflammation, and they provoke a beneficial process known as autophagy, which is the result of another phenomenon called hormesis, which is a beneficial way in which your body responds to stress.
To live a long and healthy life, make your bacteria hungry
One of the most effective strategies for enjoying the benefit of hormesis and autophagy is also one of the least enjoyable strategies to implement: partial, intermitten fasting. It is recommended that you limited yourself to consuming few than 900 calories per day for five consecutive days per month.
When the bacteria sense a lack of food, they send a message to your body cells. This provokes your cells to engage in autophagy, leaving them stronger than before. But it is not just your cell that are listening to the alert messages sent by your gut bacteria; it’s also the mitochondria within your cells. Now, you would have known the important of mitochondria through Wellaholic’s Resveratrol supplement – which extends mitochondria. Mitochondria produce energy within your cells. Mor emitochondria means more energy for the cells. This turbocharges your body engines. The better or worse your mitochondria function, the better or worse you age. So if longevity and youth is your aim, you want your mitochondria firing on as many cylinders as possible!
To assist your with this, consider Wellaholic’s Probiotics Complex which augments and strengths healthy bacteria colonies for gastrointestinal support. Also consider our Resveratrol High-Absorption which is a super antioxidant for cellular regeneration and supports mitochondria energy levels.
