Home Remedies: Herbs That Are Good For You Gut

If you suffer from bloating, abdominal pain, or reflux and flatulence, what can help? Let’s look at what can help from things you can grow in your garden.

Why is this important: A healthy gut supports supports not only your digestive system but also your nervous system, which makes you feel whole rather than feeling overwhelmed.

Chronic illnesses such as irritable bowel syndrome have been associated with stress and anxiety.

Somehow, our gut and mind are connected? Yes, they are. The gut has been called a second brain. It contains trillions of neurones and it is where up to 90% of our feel good chemicals (e.g. serotonin) are manufactured^{1, 3}. (See my article on natural ways to increase ‘happy’ chemicals.)

Brain gut connection

So between the brain and our gut, there is this two-way connection that influences our mental health as I wrote in my article listing ways for calming the chaos we feel.

Various aspects of normal psychology, such as pain perception, emotion, cognition, character, stress management, and social behavior, are impacted by the gut microbiota².

Liang et al, 2013

A Good Gut is a happy you

So it’s all connected and is a good reason to appreciate a good gut. A spastic gut is no fun.

It you can reduce stress and lower anxiety, you gut may benefit. Herbs that help with calming our nerves include lemon balm, which I wrote about and another is sage, which you can grow yourself and consume for its benefits or through smudging use to invite positive vibes.

Final Thoughts

Eating fermented foods is a way of getting a dose of probiotics for gut health but having home grown herbs on hand to calm the nerves helps with gut upsets associated with nerves.

References

1. Yano, J. M., Yu, K., Donaldson, G. P., Shastri, G. G., Ann, P., Ma, L., … Hsiao, E. Y. (2015). Indigenous bacteria from the gut microbiota regulate host serotonin biosynthesis. Cell, 161(2), 264–276. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2015.02.047
2. Liang, S., Wu, X., & Jin, F. (2018). Gut-Brain Psychology: Rethinking Psychology From the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis. Frontiers in integrative neuroscience, 12, 33. doi:10.3389/fnint.2018.00033
3. Ramakrishna, B. S. (2013), Role of the gut microbiota. J Gastroenterol Hepatol, 28: 9-17. doi:10.1111/jgh.12294