Healthy digging
The arrival of Spring and the welcome return of longer days is always a signal in our house that the garden needs sorting out. The first cut of the lawn, weeding then mulching of flower beds, spreading compost on the vegetable patch often all coincide with the Easter holiday period. I have written before of the physical and mental health benefits of spending time in the garden. However, research over the last few years has also shown further benefits that gardeners accrue from the greater diversity of microbial life found in their intestines.
The best way to explain this is to use a horticultural analogy and thinking of our intestines as a garden. There are an enormous number of different microbes that live there in our guts, the same way that our gardens have a large variety of flowers, shrubs, herbs. All of these have a multitude of species that spread and thrive according to the season and the composition of the soil. They all require basic nutrients to survive and some, like roses, require specific feeding with special fertilisers. For the garden to flourish and produce colourful flowers and large vegetables the gardener has to optimise the environment. The intestines are similar; we know that microbes will produce vitamins and hormones that as well as aiding digestion are also absorbed to produce important benefits elsewhere in the body. If we create an environment in our bowels that promotes beneficial microbial growth our body will reap the rewards. We therefore need a gut flora that is optimally balanced and the food we eat is analogous to the soil in our gardens.
Bacteria were present on Earth long before humans. We share DNA with them as we evolved from them over millions and millions of years. Amazingly there are as many microbes living in our bodies as there are cells; we are a 50/50 split. Each of us consists of approximately 30 trillion human cells and 30 trillion microbial entities (bacteria, viruses, fungi) but because they are so small they only make up a very small percentage of our weight. 99% of these bugs live in harmony with us with only about 1% identified as being pathogenic ie causing illness. We are all familiar with how our intestines adapt to our specific environment; bacteria in the water in some countries will be pathogenic to those who are travelling there, hence ‘travellers’ diarrhoea’. Antibiotics taken for whatever reason will kill some of our intestinal bacterial, upsetting the balance and producing the common side effect of loose stools.
The research shows that for optimal health we need a healthy gut flora that is fed, via the food we eat, to produce the best microbial balance for our bodies. Fresh fruit and vegetables of varied colours (a rainbow diet), fibre rich food and regular meals with a chance for your bowels to rest overnight are all key. Having a diverse number of different organisms is also essential and recent studies have shown that gardeners have a healthier mix. This could be because they eat their home-grown fruit and veg but more likely it is simply that getting grubby in the garden exposes you to a richer variety of microbes that infiltrate your gut.
So this Easter, get digging and get dirty to get healthy.
Dr Anthony O’Brien
Wyndham House Surgery