As medical science integrates concepts from various fields of study, more information is being gathered about the connection between gut health and immunity. Many factors are thought to play a role in the development of autoimmune diseases, including genetics, epigenetics, and environmental triggers.

However, recent research shows that the microbiome of the gastrointestinal (GI) system can affect how well our immune systems function against diseases.

What is Gut Health?

Gut health is considered to be a state of optimal balance between good and harmful bacteria in the body. The gut microbiome consists of trillions of microorganisms that live within our GI system, mainly consisting of bacteria but also including viruses, fungi, and parasites.

This mixture is home to approximately 100 trillion microbial cells that interact with each other as well as with human cells throughout a lifetime. The microbiome has been thought to be a second brain due to its ability to communicate through various pathways with the central nervous system, including the enteric nervous system.

A healthy microbiome may help improve our mood, boost our energy levels, and facilitate weight management by controlling hunger signals. However, an unbalanced or disrupted microbiome can lead to dysregulation of these processes and impair our immune system’s ability to function properly.

This dysregulation has been shown to potentially lead to autoimmune conditions such as lupus, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and rheumatoid arthritis. Many of these autoimmune diseases involve inflammation within the GI system and can affect various body systems outside of the GI tract.

How Does Gut Health Affect Immunity?

The immune system cells are located throughout the body and work to identify and get rid of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, etc. When our bodies come into contact with a pathogen or “invader,” special white blood cells called neutrophils immediately seek out and destroy these foreign microbes.

As the gut is essential for breaking down and absorbing nutrients from our food, the absorption of beneficial bacteria and their metabolites is highly important in maintaining a healthy immune system.

According to recent research, we absorb the nutritional components of the food we eat and necessary microbial metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and amino acids that help regulate gut health.

These microbial metabolites such as SCFAs and amino acids have been shown to play a role in the regulation of neutrophil function. This includes helping to keep them from being recruited out of their normal location in the gut lining, causing them to become overactive and result in chronic inflammation.

Research has also found that a healthy microbiome can support the function of T cells. This is important because an impaired microbiome can lead to poor T cell regulation, resulting in diseases such as IBD and lupus.

How to Promote a Healthy Gut

Getting optimal gut health starts with taking a step back and thinking about all the factors that could potentially cause an imbalance in gut bacteria. These include:

• Stress and anxiety
• Poor diet
• Hormonal imbalances
• Toxins
• Medications (especially antibiotics!)
• Overuse of hygiene products
• Lack of sleep and exercise

Once you’ve established which of these factors is contributing to an unhealthy gut microbiome, you can start making changes in your lifestyle to help improve gut health. Additionally, it may be necessary to take prebiotic or probiotic supplements to repopulate the gut with good bacteria.

Maintain Gut Health for a Healthy Immune System

By maintaining your gut health, you can promote healthy immune system function. This could be the missing puzzle piece in improving your autoimmune condition or relieving chronic and acute conditions like IBS, arthritis, asthma, and allergies.

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