New Year, Healthier You: Gut-Friendly Resolutions for 2022

by: Gastro MD

With 2021 coming to an end, we think of the passing year and the things we wish we’d done differently. And if there’s anything a global pandemic does is put our health and wellbeing into perspective. We realize now more than ever that maintaining good health is our best defense against a virus that still has no cure to date. COVID-19 presented a higher risk of fatality in patients with pre-existing health conditions. In addition, the symptoms present in patients infected with the coronavirus, such as fever, cough, chest pain, and shortness of breath, made people focus more on respiratory health.

However, we know that a robust immune system and overall good health is our best defense. Therefore, we should not ignore digestive health, particularly since an imbalanced, unhealthy gut leads to immune dysregulation.

Here are some tips to help ensure you enter 2022 with a healthier gut:

Move more.

Exercise is crucial to your digestive health because it improves your metabolism and digestive performance. If you have any digestive issues, it would be best to avoid high-impact exercise that can cause discomfort. Fortunately, low-impact physical activities help us digest our food better, making time for walking, stretching and yoga. Yoga may even help you manage existing gastrointestinal issues by promoting gut motility and increasing circulation. Yoga and meditation also help decrease stress. Because of the gut-brain connection, avoiding and preventing stress is also crucial to maintaining a healthy gut.

Get enough sleep.

Our bodies heal while we sleep. Therefore, poor or insufficient sleep can lead to a host of health problems. When we don’t get enough sleep, we feel irritated and stressed, causing an imbalance in our hormones. Sleep deprivation also leads us to make unwise dietary choices such as giving into cravings and indulging in quick-to-grab, overly processed food. Therefore, we not only need enough sleep to allow our bodies to heal and function well, but we need it to ensure we don’t make poor food choices that may harm digestive health.

Get screened.

You don’t have to wait until you suffer from symptoms to get a check-up or screening. There’s no reason to be embarrassed or think that you’re overreacting, especially when preventive measures may save your life. We often brush off digestive issues, chalking them up to something we’ve eaten that upset our stomach or thinking it’s normal to have diarrhea or constipation occasionally. However, when these symptoms happen quite regularly, they may be signs of an underlying digestive issue.

Depending on your symptoms and family history, you may only need to go through an assessment, blood test and stool test. However, screening and tests result in a more accurate diagnosis, which may include digital rectal examinations and imaging procedures.