How to Build Healthy Gut Flora for Better Sleep

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

The Gut Clock – How Gut Bacteria Can Wreck Your Circadian Rhythm

Over the past few years we’ve discovered just how important having good gut bacteria is to overall health.

Considering that our guts are home to diverse communities of over 30 trillion of these microbes, it makes sense that they play key roles in digestion, inflammation, immune response, weight, and even the development of colon cancer.

But a question has remained: How far does their influence over our health reach? As it turns out, pretty far. Research is now showing that our gut microbes can affect our circadian rhythms, which can alter our behavior, mood, energy levels, and gastrointestinal health.

What is the Circadian Rhythm?

The term circadian rhythm refers to what is essentially our “body clock.” This internal clock, which is present in almost all living organisms, is responsible for regulating sleep and wake cycles, hunger and satiety, hormone balance, and behavior.

The circadian rhythm is driven by a master clock located in our brains called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which is connected to other “peripheral” clocks located in different organs like the liver, as well as the gut.

This master clock runs on a 24-hour schedule by receiving cues from our environment, such as light, darkness and food.

When things are running smoothly and our circadian rhythm isn’t disturbed by artificial night lights or a bad diet, our bodies naturally feel well-rested and happy. When our circadian rhythms are disrupted, however, our health can go south quickly.

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What Does the Gut Have To Do With Sleep?

Researchers have discovered that our gut bacteria actually have their own circadian rhythm, and that these have a major influence over ours.

In essence, these microbiota influence our bodies by moving around our intestines every 24 hours, coming into contact with different intestinal cells that regulate genes and biochemical processes, such as fatty acid production. The bacteria touching these cells cause them to send signals to our master and peripheral clocks, which then have an effect on our health and behavior.

When our gut microbes are disrupted, it throws a wrench in our circadian rhythm, while disruptions in our circadian rhythm also disturb our gut microbes. It is essentially a continuous feedback loop between us, our environment, and our microbes.

This is also one explanation for why we see links between gut disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and night shift workers, who are constantly disrupting their gut microbes and, consequently, their circadian rhythms.

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How Food and Light Exposure Affect Your Gut Clock

Light exposure has a huge effect on circadian rhythm. After all, the reason you feel sleepy when it gets dark outside is directly due to your circadian rhythm regulating your melatonin levels. This interaction with light is so powerful that studies have shown just shining a small amount of light on the back of a person’s knee is enough to affect their body clock.

However, research is now showing that another factor may be just as important as light in regulating circadian rhythm, and it’s diet. Of course, we also know that our diet and gut bacteria are closely tied. High-fat, high-carb processed food diets severely disrupt the circadian rhythm of gut bacteria.

For instance, research shows that high-fat, high-carb processed food diets severely disrupt the circadian rhythm of gut bacteria.

In one study researching mice, this disruption caused their metabolisms to fall apart, leading to high cholesterol and obesity.

On the other hand, diets low in inflammatory fats and processed carbs, and high in Omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants help bring circadian rhythms into balance.

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What Happens When Your Circadian Rhythm is Disrupted?

Since our gut bacteria and circadian rhythm are so intertwined, it’s easy to see how unhappy gut bacteria could keep us up at night – or worse.

Some of the other scary side effects of a disrupted circadian rhythm due to a bad diet, or disturbed sleep, include:

• Increased risk of developing or aggravating gastrointestinal diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or peptic ulcer disease.

• Accelerated aging.

• Tumor growth and formation in the liver and gastrointestinal tract.

• Obesity.

As you have probably noticed, most of these side effects are related to the health of your intestines and bacteria. Even your liver is affected by your gut bacteria, since the rhythms of cells in the liver are influenced by circadian rhythms. These effects truly remind us of the fact that the body is a holistic system.

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How to Keep Your Gut Happy and Sleep Better

According to research, it really does seem that happy gut bacteria equals a happier you. Or, at least, one that sleeps better and has more energy during the day.

Knowing this, it makes sense to nourish these bacteria as best as you can throughout the day.

Below are some tips to help you get your gut bugs and circadian rhythm back on track:

• Add in more fermented foods to your diet like sauerkraut, kombucha, coconut water kefir, non-dairy yogurts, and kimchi.

• Invest in a probiotic supplement.

• Feed your good gut bacteria with prebiotic foods like Jerusalem artichokes, cooked and cooled sweet potatoes, green bananas and plantains.

• Consume raw honey to help get rid of bad bacteria.

• Switch to natural shampoos, soaps, and household cleaners, as chemicals can affect your gut microbes.

Some other ways to avoid disrupting your gut bugs and circadian rhythm are to avoid lights from electronics after sunset or an hour before bed, and to try to get on a wake/sleep schedule with the sunrise.

Of course this isn’t possible for everyone, but even going to bed and getting up at the same time throughout the week will help your body adapt to a schedule.

Also, try and eat at the same time every day and avoid snacking too late at night or eating at erratic times. This will help your gut bacteria get on a regular feeding schedule.

Sticking with these tips will help you build healthy gut flora that also helps you sleep better and wake up refreshed.

Watch this video – How to optimize your gut and brain bacteria | Dave Asprey | Big Think

Written by Megan Patiry

Author Bio:

Megan is an inquisitive nutrition and wellness writer harboring an editorial love affair with the decadent and the nutritious. She is a dedicated researcher in all areas of ancestral health, a certified specialist in fitness nutrition, personal trainer, and professional almond milk latte addict.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.

To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook

How the American Diet Affects Gut Bacteria and Weight

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

How an American Diet Changes Gut Bacteria, Linking to Obesity

New studies find that immigrants coming to America experience damaging changes in their gut bacteria. 

Researchers discovered that the gut bacteria of immigrants is altered for the worse once they adopt an American diet – even when they’re coming from third world countries. The theory that diet affects gut bacteria has been widely researched, but these new studies give us crucial insight into how certain foods affect our own microbiome.

Here’s what this connection between diet and gut bacteria could mean for your own health.

How the American Diet Alters Gut Bacteria

To find out how immigration impacts overall health, the University of Minnesota conducted a study tracking several generations of Hmong and Karen people immigrating to the U.S. from the rural regions of Thailand and China.

Originally, these immigrants’ native Southeast Asian diet consisted mostly of boiled vegetables and rice. After adopting a new American diet higher in sugar, processed carbs, fat, and protein, they experienced a six-fold increase in obesity, along with a 10 percent loss in gut bacteria diversity.

Scientists were surprised by how rapidly these gut changes occurred. In just one generation, Hmong women who immigrated to the U.S. went from an obesity rate of 5 percent to over 30 percent.

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Why Diversity in the Gut is So Important

The shift in gut bacteria diversity is one of the most important findings of this study. In fact, the newly obese immigrants lost roughly 10 percent of their microbial diversity.

People in developing nations naturally harbor a more diverse gut microbiome than those living in America. When they relocate to the U.S., these immigrants increase their odds of metabolic disease.

However, it’s not just the diversity of gut bacteria that seemed to cause a problem, but also the types of flourishing bacteria. For instance, the study found that the Western strain Bacteroides displaced the non-Western bacteria strain Prevotella in just six to nine months.

Scientists believe that Prevotella aids in the digestion of native fiber-rich foods, like tamarind, konjac, and coconut. When the strain is no longer “fed”, it dies off.

While neither of these strains appears to be better or worse than the other, it seems that when certain strains are “dominant” without a balanced blend of other strains, the risk of obesity increases.

Aside from conditions like metabolic disorders and obesity, a lack of microbiome diversity can also impact your immune system.

Studies show that gut bacteria play a huge role in protecting us from pathogens, as well as helping our bodies extract nutrients from foods. This means that we should consider whether the lack of certain nutrients from not having the right types of gut bacteria could also be playing a role in obesity.

A lack of good gut bacteria is also associated with chronic inflammation, which can lead to issues like inflammatory bowel diseases and obesity. It seems that inflammation stemming from a lack of certain bacteria could be causing problems as well.

Why Environment Matters Too

Many of these studies focus specifically on how the American diet influences gut bacteria. However, we should also consider the impact of an American environment on gut bacteria.

For example, the chemicals we use in household cleaners, drinking water, and even cosmetics can alter our bacteria for the worse. That means your gut bacteria can be disrupted by so much more than what you are or aren’t eating.

On the positive side, studies show that gardening can have a positive impact on gut bacteria. The diversity of bacteria in soil can add more diversity to your microbiome over time, and simply having contact with the earth (also known as “earthing”) reduces inflammation and stress, which can improve the overall health of your gut bacteria.

How to Improve Gut Bacteria Diversity

Maintaining a healthy diversity of gut bacteria plays a huge role in helping to keep healthy. 

Here are a few suggestions on how to diversify your microbiome:

Eat plenty of probiotics from fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, non-dairy yogurts, and coconut kefir.

Enjoy a wide variety of veggies, greens, and fruits.

Try gardening several days a week, or walking outside barefoot on soil or grass.

Switch to all-natural household cleaners, shampoos, and body care products.

Try taking probiotic supplements.

Eat prebiotic foods that “feed” good bacteria, like taro root, chicory, and Jerusalem artichokes.

Avoid processed foods, sugars, and artificial sweeteners.

Read – 4 Simple Steps to Fix Your Gut Bacteria Imbalance, and then try these 3 HEALING VEGAN RECIPES ‣‣ for better gut health.

Watch this video – How Your Gut Bacteria Affects Your Weight and Health

The Bottom Line

While we all know that diet affects gut bacteria, the typical “American” diet may cause more damage than we thought. In fact, as these immigration studies reveal, an “Americanized” gut could result in obesity or other health issues.

Still, scientists don’t know what comes first. Does an unhealthy diet make you obese and change your microbiome, or does your diet change your microbiome, leading to obesity?

While more research is needed, one thing is for certain: an American diet harms the gut microbiome. To protect yourself, eat an array of gut-healthy foods to keep a diverse microbiome.

Written by Megan Patiry

Author Bio:

Megan is an inquisitive nutrition and wellness writer harboring an editorial love affair with the decadent and the nutritious. She is a dedicated researcher in all areas of ancestral health, a certified specialist in fitness nutrition, personal trainer, and professional almond milk latte addict.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.

To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook

What are the Best Natural Remedies for Acid Reflux?

 

Discover How, Five Minutes from NOW, Your Acid Reflux Can Be Totally Gone & You’ll Feel Great Night and Day

Natural Remedies for Acid Reflux – One Item Cures Acid Reflux

If you have been suffering from acid reflux for some time, it’s likely that you’ve developed a sense of which foods make the problem worse.

A new study published in the Journal of the Formosan Medical Association pinpoints how cutting out just one specific food item can drastically reduce, even eliminate, heartburn.

And you probably didn’t expect it to be this particular item.

12 people with gastroesophageal reflux disease, an average age of 52 years, and a healthy body weight were given two liquid meals, one for lunch and one for dinner.

Meal A consisted of 500 ml of liquid containing 474.4 calories with 10.4 grams protein, 10.4 grams fat, and 84.8 grams carbohydrate.

Meal B also consisted of 500 ml of liquid but contained 850.4 calories with 10.4 grams protein, 10.4 grams fat, and 178.8 grams carbohydrate.

Three days before the study, the participants were given an endoscopy to examine their esophaguses and their esophageal sphincters (the valve that is meant to prevent reflux of stomach acid into your esophagus).

Throughout the study, they wore a pH probe with pH sensors connected to a digital recorder to test the level of acid in their esophaguses.

With all this information available, they could see that, compared with the lower-carbohydrate meal, the higher-carbohydrate meal caused:

1. A longer total reflux time

2. More periods of constant reflux

3. More reflux periods longer than five minutes, and

4. More heartburn sensation and acid regurgitation.

Therefore, to relieve your symptoms, you should eat lower quantities of carbohydrates.

But there is a simpler way to eliminate acid reflux—and, using this method, you can eat almost anything without experiencing pain. I’ll explain this simple method in detail here…

Natural Remedies for Acid Reflux – 5 Things That Eliminate Acid Reflux

Acid reflux is a serious condition that can cause numerous lethal diseases.

That’s probably the reason that many doctors jump to immediately prescribing medications. Unfortunately, these medications have proven to be more dangerous than the acid reflux itself.

So, we welcome a new study from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

These researchers identify five simple lifestyle changes you can make to drastically reduce or even eliminate acid reflux.

The five lifestyle factors they identified were normal weight, no smoking, moderate-to-vigorous daily physical exercise for at least 30 minutes, no more than two daily cups of coffee, tea, or soda, and a prudent diet.

If you think about it, with the exception of the 30 minutes of daily exercise, these guidelines are not too difficult to follow. For example, they don’t tell you to follow a Mediterranean or a DASH diet, just any carefully thought-through sensible diet. You are even allowed two cups of coffee or soda per day.

They obtained their data from the Nurses’ Health Study II, a large nation-wide study that asked its participants to return detailed health and lifestyle questionnaires twice a year from 1989 onwards.

For this study, the researchers used data from 42,955 women aged 42–62. From 2005 to 2017, their questionnaires included questions about acid reflux and heartburn.

Those women who followed all five of these lifestyle guidelines managed to reduce their acid reflux symptoms by 37%. Some of them managed to reduce it by almost half.

To ensure that acid reflux medications did not interfere with their results, they separately examined the data for women on these medications, establishing that these lifestyle factors worked in their cases too, by approximately the same amount.

Therefore, whether or not you are on some unhealthy medication, these lifestyle factors work to reduce symptoms.

One of the most effective of these lifestyle factors was physical exercise, which the scientists speculated probably worked by promoting movement in the digestive tract that, in turn, cleared away the excess stomach acid.

Another factor was normal weight. Obesity puts pressure on your stomach that then compromises the functioning of the sphincter between your stomach and esophagus, where the acid then escapes.

Therefore, if you want to reduce your acid reflux by 37%, follow these guidelines.

Stop smoking, keep your body weight normal, exercise for at least 30 minutes daily, eat a sensible diet, and drink only two cups of coffee, tea, or soda per day.

But if you want to completely eliminate acid reflux in as little as five minutes, then just follow the one little tip explained here…

Natural Remedies for Acid Reflux – Cause and Cure for Acid Reflux Discovered

Around 20% of the population suffers from acid reflux.

The traditional medical system has no solution except popping PPI pills, which can cause serious side effects—from stomach cancer to depression.

This is a shame, because a new study published in in the journal Digestive and Liver Disease reveals a shocking discovery.

Apparently, most cases of acid reflux are caused by easily identifiable and avoidable lifestyle factors. So there’s no need for PPIs anymore.

Scientists from the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine identified 23 studies investigating environmental factors that contribute to acid reflux.

From these studies, they identified seven primary risk factors for acid reflux: being overweight or obese, having fat deposited around the abdomen, smoking, consuming alcohol, using nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), drinking coffee, and have a stomach bacterium called Helicobacter pylori.

The most serious of these risk factors are the ones that cause both gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and erosive esophagitis together. The latter is a symptom of GERD. It involves serious inflammation of the esophagus that eventually causes esophageal cancer.

The risk factors that cause both GERD and erosive esophagitis together are being overweight or obese, having abdominal fat, drinking alcohol and coffee, and having Helicobacter pylori. These are especially important to avoid.

Smoking and NSAID use tend to cause GERD alone, without erosive esophagitis.

Watch this video to learn about the natural remedies for acid reflux – How to treat ACID REFLUX AT HOME – HEARTBURN TREATMENT(GERD)

Now, you may not be able to cut out all these lifestyle factors causing acid reflux. Or maybe you already have, but you still suffer. But don’t despair, because here is an even easier natural way to eliminate acid reflux—starting today…

This post is from Scott Davis’ Acid Reflux Solution. This program helps you to cure your heartburn and acid reflux by using natural remedies to quickly heal your stomach without dangerous medicine or risky surgeries. It can also help you to remove some disorders of acid reflux such as constipation or IBS.

To find out more about the program, go to Best Natural Remedies for Acid Reflux

How to Fully Regain your Sexual Stamina in time for Tonight?

 

Click on Here to Discover How You Can Increase Stamina and Heal Erectile Dysfunction Without Using Drugs

Fully Regain your Sexual Stamina in time for Tonight – Can COVID-19 Cause ED?

For someone who is in intensive care with COVID-19, worrying about ED seems like something of a luxury.

But if you had COVID-19 and managed to shake it off some time ago and you are now struggling with ED, you’re not alone, as explained in a new study in the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation.

Many doctors have reported seeing patients who complain of ED (erectile dysfunction) months after recovering from COVID-19, but most of these reports have been anecdotal and are yet to be confirmed by proper scientific studies. But while studies on the relationship between ED and COVID-19 are scarce, there is enough emerging research to make one wonder whether ED could well be a long-term consequence of the serious illness.

Researchers from the University of Rome decided to survey this literature in preparation for the time when the world can turn its attention to the long-term consequences of COVID-19 survival.

Many of the studies they surveyed provided substantial amounts of anecdotal evidence that people who were infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus complained of ED months after their recovery.

They identified some important possible causes of this relationship from the literature:

1. Vascular symptoms. Due to damage to blood vessels, heart disease causes ED. Erections are only possible if the blood vessels in your penis are flexible enough to allow for the influx and outflow of blood.

Because COVID-19 causes so much systemic inflammation, it can damage these blood vessels and thus make it difficult to achieve satisfactory erections. Many studies have linked COVID-19 to serious damage to the linings of the blood vessels (endothelial dysfunction) throughout the body.

2. Psychological damage. The pandemic has increased rates of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, especially for people who have become seriously ill as a result of the virus. Sexual performance is linked to psychological well-being, so the rise in mental health problems may partly explain the increase of ED.

3. Low testosterone. Low testosterone levels have been tested in COVID-19 patients up to weeks after recovery. Post-mortem examinations of testicular tissue have also found testicular damage. Testosterone is not only necessary for strong erections, but also helps to suppress inflammation by helping to increase anti-inflammatory chemicals in your body.

4. Underlying conditions. It is likely that the people who suffered the worst bouts of COVID-19 were those who already had pre-existing conditions like heart disease and diabetes. Since COVID-19 may have exacerbated these conditions, and since ED is a consequence of both heart disease and diabetes, COVID-19 may have pushed survivors from subclinical into detectable ED.

5. Medication. COVID-19 has worsened the status of patients’ heart disease and doctors have prescribed heart disease drugs combat this. Unfortunately, many of these drugs can cause ED. the most common culprits being β-blockers.

Putting all these factors together, it seems quite possible that COVID-19 can lead to ED, even after recovery.

The good news, though, is that no matter what caused your Erectile Dysfunction in the first place, you can use some easy home exercises—found here—to fully regain your sexual stamina in time for tonight…

Fully Regain your Sexual Stamina in time for Tonight – Weird Blue Light Heals ED In Men (and it works)

Now, throughout the years helping men (and women) with all kind of sexual dysfunctions, I’ve heard about many weird cures. Some of them worked, most didn’t.

But blue light to cure ED? That’s one of the weirdest things I’ve ever heard of. Till I read about the genetic research behind it. Then it all makes sense.

How it works is that a specific kind of gene construction that reacts to blue light is injected into the penis (oh, that must hurt). When blue light shines on it, this genetic construction changes to reduce calcium levels in the arteries of the penis.

This makes it possible for the tiny tissues in the penis to relax and let more blood flow into the penis, therefore resulting in a harder erection.

Researchers are still experimenting on rats. So far, everything is positive. But it will be awhile till human research can begin.

Now the negatives are obvious. First of all, you’ll need to inject the solution. It may or may not cause side effects. And then you’ll have to shine a blue light on the penis every time you want to have sex.

I’d rather recommend you take a safer, more permanent route!

Our simple erectile dysfunction exercises work in a similar way to strengthen and loosen up the muscles around the genitals, therefore letting more blood flow into the penis.

Unlike any other method, the results are permanent. Once your pelvic muscles are working properly, you’ll get an erection naturally, just like you did when you were 22.

Learn more about these easy erectile dysfunction exercises and try them out for yourself here to fully regain your sexual stamina in time for tonight…

Fully Regain your Sexual Stamina in time for Tonight – Suffer ED? These Herbal Remedies are Deadly! (better ones recommended)

If you are one of the millions of men who suffers ED, you’ve probably been tempted to try out over-the-counter herbal medications advertised literally everywhere.

Be warned, however, because a new chemical screening of some of these herbal pills proves deadly ingredients. And since they’re not regulated, you have no idea what is in the pills you’re taking.

The FDA (the US Food and Drug Administration) has discovered at least 25 herbal medications include “sildenafil citrate,” which is the active ingredient in Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs.

And we’re not talking traces. Most of these herbs had double the doses found in Viagra. And since these herbal medications are not regulated, there is no mention of these ingredients on the package.

Often they were even labelled “All Natural.”

Sildenafil citrate can cause serious side effects and should only be taken under strong supervision of a doctor. What’s even scarier is that you have no idea what other things are not listed on the ingredient list.

Most of these “herbal medications” are manufactured in China by the same companies that make counterfeit prescription drugs.

So what can you do if you don’t want to take dangerous medications or risk “herbal medications” that may only be prescription drugs in disguise?

I suggest easy erectile dysfunction exercises that work better than Viagra and other prescription drugs.

That’s right, Viagra helps only 40% of men, whereas these exercises have been proven to help over 90% of men gain a great erection.

And the results are permanent! No need to take a pill every time you want to have sex.

Watch this video – How to boost Libido in men and women – Doctor explains

Learn more about these easy erectile dysfunction exercises and try them out for yourself here to fully regain your sexual stamina in time for tonight…

This post is from the Erectile Dysfunction Master Program, which was created by Christian Goodman for men who are looking for the best erectile dysfunction natural remedies.  This is an all-natural system that utilizes the power of exercises to permanently cure erectile dysfunction. By following the techniques in this program, you will be able to get hard fast without pills and maintain stronger erections for hours so you can enjoy sex again. 

Erectile problems can be physical or emotional. If your problem is physical, you need to exercise the muscles around the genital area. If your problem is emotional, then you need to learn relaxation techniques. Erection Master will teach you steps that can help get rid of your erectile dysfunction for good. As long as you’re willing to commit 30 minutes of your time, 3 to 7 days a week for 1 to 2 months, they’ll work for you. You can practice the steps alone or with your partner. 

These techniques are far more effective than Viagra, Cialis or other drugs for erectile dysfunction. The drugs only help about 40% of men who use them and can also cause very serious side effects. 

To find out more about this program, click on Fully Regain your Sexual Stamina in time for Tonight