Why Are Gut Issues So Common Now A Days?

Do you or anyone you know struggle with any of the following:

• Bloating
• Gas
• Abdominal pain
• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Low energy
• Brain fog
• Skin issues
• Hormonal issues (like low fertility, painful heavy periods, or low libido)
• Autoimmune disease
• Joint pain
• Food sensitivities

I’m willing to bet the answer is yes! In fact you probably know a lot of people that struggle with these. And if you haven’t guessed already, every single one of those (and many other conditions) are a gut issue at root!

Knowing how ridiculously common these symptoms are, you can probably imagine how many people are walking around with gut issues and many not even realizing it!

In order to understand how to heal your gut and therefore overcome symptoms like those listed above, it’s important to first realize why the heck gut issues are so common now a days. So in this article I’m gonna share with you the 6 main reasons why gut issues are so common.

1) Poor Diet-

Sadly the vast majority of people don’t eat a gut supportive nourishing diet. Many fall for the convenience of eating out and/or the standard American diet. Which means a very high intake of inflammatory vegetable oils, processed foods, pesticides, food additives/preservatives, refined carbs, refined sugar, often times alcohol, and other gut damaging foods/substances.

On the flip side many people with a good intention to be healthy, get lead astray by the whole eat tons of plants, avoid animal products bs! I’ll tell you from experience (both my own and the experience of several others I’ve talked too), eating tons of whole grains and veggies while avoiding animal foods will most likely wreak havoc on your gut and overall health!

A plant heavy diet means an excessive intake of plant toxins (like lectins, oxalates, phytic acid, and polyphenols) as well as a very high fiber intake. While our body can handle some anti-nutrients and we actually benefit from some fiber, too much can scrape and damage our gut lining, puncture holes in our gut lining (causing leaky gut), increase gas production and bloating, cause kidney stones, decrease nutrient absorption, slow down the whole digestive system, cause constipation, and overtime can even lead to autoimmune conditions and other serious conditions like IBD.

2) Malnourishment-

To piggy back off the first point, malnourishment (aka nutrient deficiencies) is also extremely common. Both examples I gave (the standard American diet and the more plant based diet) lead to malnourishment.

Nutrients are needed for every system in our body to function properly and that includes the digestive system! Without adequate nutrients we can’t produce enough enzymes to help us breakdown our food properly which in turn can lead to decreased nutrient absorption, increased gas production, bloating, constipation, digestive pain, and more! Nutrients are also needed to repair our gut lining and maintain a tight sealed healthy intestinal barrier.

3) Toxins And Antibiotics-

We are exposed to so many toxins now a days and many of them have a pretty nasty affect on our gut health! Some of the big ones are the weedkiller Glyphosate (aka Round Up) and antibiotics.

Glyphosate is used on 70% of crops and 9 billion kg of it is sprayed globally each year! This weed killer has a long list of side affects, a few of which are leaky gut, gut dysbiosis (an imbalance of good to pathogenic bacteria in the gut microbiome), autoimmunity, neurodegeneration (it opens the blood brain barrier after all), liver disease, infertility, depression, and anxiety!

Antibiotics simply kill bacteria, but they’re not selective about which ones they kill, so beneficial bacteria die right along side the pathogenic bacteria. This can severely disrupt the gut microbiome and lead to gut dysbiosis.

It’s also been shown that antibiotics cause microbes to mutate into more harmful substances that cause many issues in our bodies. It should be noted that taking antibiotics isn’t the only way, we’re exposed to them. We can also be exposed by eating meat from animals that have been given antibiotics, drinking water contaminated with antibiotics, or if we use antibacterial soaps. Over the counter pain relievers can also disrupt our gut microbiome in a similar though not quite as severe way.

4) Over-sanitation-

Now a days there’s a big obsession with cleanliness. However the more determined we are to kill pathogenic bacteria with things like hand sanitizers, bleach, and other harsh cleaning products, the more good bacteria will die as well.

Most of the time the good bacteria probably already had a good handle on the situation and were preventing the pathogenic ones from taking over. But when you kill off a bunch of both good and pathogenic bacteria, you leave a gap in the population which may be replaced by good bacteria or may be by pathogenic ones.

So ironically, over-sanitation gives pathogens a better chance at winning the bacteria war. Most of the time you’re better of doing things to support a healthy diverse population of good bacteria.

5) The Exponential Generational Affect-

I may have given this point a complicated name😂 so let me explain. We pass our gut microbiome onto our children during childbirth. When the baby passes through it gets both the mother and fathers microbiome (It gets the fathers because he leaves part of his microbiome in the women when he spends time in there).

Anyways, if both parents don’t have a healthy microbiome (or if the child is delivered via Cesarean section), their child will start of life at a disadvantage gut and overall health wise. If this child never heals their microbiome, they will pass on a subpar microbiome to their children and so on.

With toxin exposure increasing and peoples diets getting worsening worse, we are seeing an exponential affect off poor microbiome health from generation to generation!

6) Living Stressful Fast Paced Lives-

In modern society so many of us have become obsessed with productivity. This often leads us to live fast pace lives and to easily become stressed! This is a major problem because if we are always in this mode (the sympathetic mode) we aren’t giving our body a chance to rest, repair, and digest (all of which happen in the more relaxed parasympathetic mode).

Stress can also make our gut leaky, impair proper digestion, and impart our bodies ability to repair damage in the gut.

* If you want more info on exactly how to overcome your gut and digestive issues step by step (whether that’s bloating and gas, constipation, diarrhea, digestive cramps and pain, food intolerance/sensitivities, low appetite, skin issues, hormonal issues, or other symptoms) then click here to book a free discovery call with me! Helping people heal their gut and optimize their health is something I’m very passionate about since my own 10 year struggle with chronic constipation and IBS is what got me into the health and nutrition realm in the first place. I was able to fully overcame my gut issues and I’ve helped dozens of other too as well so I know you can too!