If you like the idea of metabolic health, good immune function, absorbing nutrients from your food, and staying at a healthy weight, then you’ll need to ensure that your gut is functioning healthily. This also includes the gut flora, the lining of the gut and the intestinal wall. Most people who eat a “modern” diet suffer from some form of gut symptoms. These could be constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, or serious illnesses such as celiac disease.
If you’re looking for a way to minimise these issues, or at least help improve them, then exercise is a big factor. It seems like exercise shouldn’t have anything to do with those problems, but there is a lot of evidence that suggests that physical activity can be part of the process to healing from gut dysfunction, especially with the use of mind-body activities such as pilates or yoga.
How can exercise heal my gut?
One of the most significant ways in which exercise can help with gut-healing projects is by improving inflammation. Inflammation in the gut is a huge part of two important gut disorders: Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Both IBD and IBS involve inflammation in the gut. In the short term, exercise is inflammatory, but it’s a powerful anti-inflammatory in the long term too, so it’s completely reasonable to suggest that it may be helpful.
One particular type of exercise with benefits for gut problems is yoga. This makes logical sense, since yoga is a mind-body practice, and a lot of gut disorders have a mental component. Research has suggested that yoga reduces the sensitivity of the intestine pain and improved the overall symptoms of IBS.
If you find yourself suffering from guy problems, then perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate your exercise routine to see if you can make improvements to help improve your gut!