Your microbial world 🧠 a beginner's guide

The '8 Weeks to a Thriving Gut' series

Happy New Year!

Wishing you health and happiness for 2025 - let’s make this the best yet.

Welcome to Week 1 of 8 Weeks to a Thriving Gut.

This new series is your step-by-step guide to improving your gut microbiome with simple, actionable tips.

Over the next 8 weeks, you’ll learn how to boost energy, curb hunger and cravings, support your gut-brain connection, and create lasting habits for a healthier, happier 2025.

Photo by Diana Oborska on Unsplash

Here’s what we’ll cover today:

• The basics: What the gut microbiome is and how it influences your health.

• The big picture: Why the state of your gut matters for your overall well-being.

• Your action for the week: How healthy is your gut microbiome?

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Happy microbes, healthy you

A ‘healthy’ gut microbiome can help you:

• Feel more energised: Gut microbes extract nutrients and produce molecules that fuel your body.

• Avoid colds, the flu, and other infections: A balanced microbiome supports your immune system, helping you stay well.

• Enjoy better digestion: Less bloating, fewer gut issues, and smoother digestion.

• Manage stress and mood: There’s emerging evidence that gut microbes support your gut-brain connection, for a calmer mind and better focus.

• Live a long, healthy life: A ‘healthy’ gut microbiome is linked to a lower risk of disease and health conditions, like heart disease and type II diabetes.

Photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash

Your gut microbiome, the forgotten engine of health

What is your gut microbiome?

Your gut is home to a teeming mass of trillions of tiny living organisms, or microbes for short.

These microbes include bacteria, fungi, and viruses, all working together (or sometimes against each other) to support your digestion, immunity, mood, and more.

Think of it as a bustling ecosystem inside you, and like any ecosystem, it thrives on balance.

• You’re outnumbered! Microbes aren’t just in your gut - they’re all over your body, from your skin to your mouth and beyond. These tiny organisms contribute a significant portion of the genes in and on your body, and you have a similar number of microbial cells as you have human cells.

• Personalised to you: Your microbiome is as unique as your fingerprint. It’s shaped by your diet, lifestyle, and even the place you call home.

• Fluctuating, changing, responding: Your gut microbiome begins developing at birth, and continues to adapt and evolve throughout your life, responding to changes in your diet and lifestyle.

A ‘healthy’ gut microbiome is a diverse microbiome, one that contains a range of different types of microbes (read more here).

Why your gut microbiome matters

Your gut microbes live in your gut and play an active role in supporting your digestion - after all, the food you eat lands in their home multiple times a day.

And like us, your gut microbes need to eat to function and thrive.

That’s why what you eat is one of the easiest ways to shape your gut microbiome.

And here’s the clincher - it’s the jobs your microbes do (often based on the food you eat) that make them so important for your health.