Did you know your gut microbiome can help you boost your metabolism…

Or it can totally wreak havoc on your metabolism?

That’s right! By improving your gut microbiome, you will be on the road to not only healing your gut, but you can also improve your metabolism!

In this article, we are going to talk about how your gut microbiome:

• Influences hormones that regulate your appetite and metabolism.
• Impacts your sensitivity to insulin.
• Affects how your body stores fat and metabolizes lipids.
• How you can boost your friendly bacteria to support your metabolism.

Your gut microbiome plays a crucial role in regulating metabolism and energy balance. It influences how your body stores fat, how it uses glucose (or sugar), and how it responds to insulin.

Appetite and Metabolism Regulation

Small chain fatty acids (SCFAs), like butyrate and propionate, are metabolites created by your friendly gut bacteria when they eat indigestible fiber in your food. These metabolites influence energy harvesting by stimulating the release of certain peptides like glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and peptide YY (PYY). Peptides are hormones that consist of short chains of amino acids. These hormones regulate your appetite and metabolism.

• GLP-1 is a term you may be familiar with because of popular GLP-1 agonist medications, like Semaglutide. GLP-1 agonists are used to treat type 2 diabetes and help people lose weight. These medications work by slowing down the release of glucagon (sugar) from the liver after meals. It also stimulates the pancreas to release insulin and slows down the process of food emptying from your stomach into your small intestine. This leaves you with the feeling of being fuller for a longer period of time. However, GLP-1 is a peptide hormone that is naturally occurring in your body. By naturally boosting the hormone, you can have these benefits of improved metabolism and reduced appetite without the side effects of the medications.
• PYY is another peptide that has several studies showing the relationship between the Peptide YY and obesity and appetite. The New England Journal of Medicine found PYY reduces appetite and food intake in people of normal weight and that obese people were low in PYY. This suggested a PYY deficiency that may contribute to obesity.

Impact on Insulin Sensitivity / Reduction in Insulin Resistance

Some gut bacteria, like Bifidobacterium and Akkermansia muciniphila, are linked to improved insulin sensitivity. This also reduces the risk of metabolic diseases like:

• Obesity
• Insulin resistance
• Type 2 diabetes
• Cardiovascular disease
• Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

The small chain fatty acids produced by microbes support your cells’ ability to use glucose that is circulating in your blood. This helps support a healthy metabolism.

Side note: Let’s talk about insulin resistance and insulin sensitivity for just a second. What is insulin resistance? It is when the cells in your muscles, fat, and liver no longer respond well to insulin. Imagine insulin as the key that unlocks the cellular door that allows the sugar that is inside the blood to enter the cell. Once the blood sugar is in the cell, it can be used as energy. When it cannot get into the cell, energy is low. When there is too much sugar circulating in the blood and the cells are full of sugar, the cells get where they no longer open the door to the insulin trying to put MORE sugar inside the cells. The key (insulin) gets where it only works part of the time and not all of the time.

Once the cells start ignoring the insulin, this leaves the sugar to just hang out circulating around in the bloodstream. Initially, this is not immediately obvious because the body is so good at compensating for this by producing more insulin. Over time, the cells even ignore the elevated insulin. This results in chronically elevated insulin levels and eventually chronically elevated blood sugar levels. This is why type two diabetes or prediabetes are often referred to as “insulin resistance.”

The high levels of blood sugar circulating in your body cause full body inflammation through microscopic damage to small blood vessels called capillaries. Imagine diluting a bunch of sugar into a cup of water. That water becomes very thick and viscous. The same thing happens to your blood. This viscous blood is trying to move through microscopic blood vessels called capillaries, but the fact that it is so thick prevents it from moving freely. This causes a lot of damage at the cellular level. Places where we notice the damage most often and most severely are:

• In the eyes (leading to blindness)
• In the feet (leading to amputation)
• In the kidneys (leading to chronic kidney disease or even kidney failure and dialysis)
• In the brain (leading to poor brain function and increased risk for stroke)
• In the heart (leading to coronary artery disease and increased risk for heart attack)

High levels of blood sugar also lead to a shift in an abundance of unhealthy organisms. Many disease-causing bacteria and fungal infections feast off the higher level of sugar that a diabetic has in their body allowing for the unhealthy microbes to take over.

Gut Microbiome Influences Your Lipid Metabolism and How Your Body Stores Fat

Believe it or not, your gut microbiome also influences how your body metabolizes lipids in your body. It has been known for more than a century that some lipid transformation is dependent on the gut microbiome. However, recent studies have shown microbes can alter intestinal and circulating lipid concentrations in your body and play a significant role in regulating cholesterol and lipid balance.

It has also been discovered that a gut microbiome imbalance, known as dysbiosis, is associated with increased fat accumulation and obesity. More severe metabolic syndrome and a lower sensitivity to weight loss with caloric restriction is also linked to a loss of variety of gut microbiota. So, if you are one of those people who are not responding well to a calorie deficit diet, this may be one of the reasons why.

How Can You Boost Your Microbiota to Support Your Metabolism?

Akkermansia muciniphila, which some say are “The Holy Grail for ameliorating metabolic diseases” feed on foods high in polyphenols like:

• A variety of fruits and vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, onions, garlic, leeks, artichoke, yams, berries, and bananas.
• Healthy nuts and seeds like flaxseed, pecans, almonds.
• Healthy fats rich in omega 3 like extra virgin olive oil and fish oil.
• Also dark chocolate and other cocoa products.

Bifidobacteria can be boosted by eating more fermented foods containing lactic acid bacteria like:

• Cultured milk, yogurt, or kefir
• Sauerkraut, kimchi
• Sourdough bread

Of course, be mindful if you have sensitivities to:

• Gluten (found in wheat, barley, rye, and other products)
• Oligosaccharides (found in onions, garlic, broccoli, cabbage, kale, wheat and rye, beans, and other products).
• Or other food sensitivities.

Supplement Support:

• Some favorite probiotics, I recommend alternating to get varied microbe species:
  • ProBiophage DF
  • Probiotic Supreme DF
  • ProBioMed 250 - This one is great if you recently took antibiotics or are currently taking antibiotics.
• Some favorite prebiotics:
  • PrebioMed XOS
  • PhytoBiome
• Fiber products that support the gut microbiome:
  • PaleoFiber
  • PaleoFiber RS

As always, listen to your body and find the foods that support your body where it is at. Some people are so inflamed that they benefit from elimination diets, like a low FODMAP diet, carnivore diet, or other elimination diet to support their health. If you are one of these sensitive people, then when you are ready to add new foods back in, do it one at a time to see how your body responds. You may want to consider a food sensitivity test if you are reacting to a lot of foods. You may need some help with restoring your gut microbiome. If that is you, then I recommend you work with someone who specializes in restoring the gut.

Get 10% off your first order of supplements, use coupon code: 10JACKPOT

Start any of these supplements at low doses to allow your gut time to respond and get used to the supplements. Increase to the full dose as you tolerate it. Sometimes your body needs time to adjust.

If you want to go deeper into gut health, you can schedule a FREE Discovery call with me here.

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