5 Steps to Improve Your Gut Health

Last Updated on January 9, 2024 by Cathy

Researchers linked poor gut health to autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Knowing what to do with that information is crucial to improving your gut health and immune system. Fortunately, there are steps you can start taking today that will improve your health.

I grew up as your typical American kid. Eating processed foods, refined sugar, and refined carbohydrates. I didn’t eat fermented foods which include probiotics. Or spend every day year-round in the sunshine due to cloud cover. I even took many rounds of antibiotics starting as a toddler. Little did I know that I was damaging my gut health and on the path toward an MS diagnosis.

Improving your health begins by improving your gut. This isn’t a simple “popping a pill” solution, this is a nutritious but beneficial lifestyle change. Everything you eat and everything you do affects your gut health.

Step 1: Diet

As the saying goes You Are What You Eat. If you’re eating unhealthy foods, like processed foods, your gut and your body will be unhealthy. It affects every cell in your body from your skin, hair, and energy, to your immune system. Have you ever felt sick after eating too much sugar? There’s a reason for that, it’s your body telling you enough is enough.

It’s not just the type of food you eat it’s the quality of food you eat. Sure eating a bag of candy is obvious but you need to look at what’s in your food. Understandably, food manufacturers and farmers want bigger profits. But our food quality has gone down in the process.

Meats have antibiotics and growth hormones. Produce have pesticides. Processed foods have artificial fillers. These are all toxic to our digestive system. Eventually, they lead to a leaky gut, fungus, and yeast overgrowth. For the top five steps, you need for gut health right now cheat sheet check the bottom of this post.

As you’re trying to heal it’s important to remove these foods:

• Dairy 
• Gluten
• Refined sugar
• Artificial flavors and sweeteners
• Natural flavors
• Corn (it’s mostly a GMO)
• Soy (it’s mostly a GMO)
• MSG (harms the brain and central nervous system)
• Nutritional yeast (it’s has MSG in it)
• Canola oil (it’s mostly a GMO)
• Pork (it’s high in fat and prone to parasites)
• Farmed fish (it’s washed in toxic chemicals due to parasites)
• Processed citric acid (it’s mostly derived from corn)
• Peanuts (a common allergen)
• Eggs – both Dr. McDougall (McDougall Diet) and Dr. Wahls (The Wahls Protocol) recommend avoiding eggs

The foods below are considered healthy but they don’t help the body detox. It’s best to avoid or rarely eat these to help your body heal quicker. You can add these back after your body has healed.

Foods to avoid temporarily:

• Beans
• Chickpeas
• Lentils
• Gluten-free grains like mullet and quinoa 

Foods to eat:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Herbs and spices
• Healthy fats and oils
• Wild-caught fish
• Pasture-raised poultry (e.g. chicken, turkey, quail)
• Grass-fed and finished meats (e.g. beef, bison, wild game)

Step 2: Environmental Toxins

It’s amazing how many toxins we put on our bodies and around our homes every day. It’s in our soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, make-up, and lotion, and that’s just when we first wake up in the morning. Our drinking water has fluoride, chlorine, and metals in the pipes. Our cleaning supplies include dish soap, laundry detergent, and air fresheners. Plastic, non-stick pans, mold, bug, and weed killers, the list is huge.

Start using environmentally friendly products. The less you use the less your body has to deal with:

• Air filters and water filters, I own an AirDoctor to help remove mycotoxins
• Environmentally friendly cleaning supplies
• Glass or BPA-free storage containers
• Natural body products
• Natural weed killers
• Stainless steel or cast iron pans

Step 3: Infections

Infections like yeast, bacteria, parasites, and viruses all disturb the healthy balance. When you have MS you need to address these to calm down the inflammation and heal your gut.

Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is one of the most common human viruses and is a possible trigger to MS. It’s spread through bodily fluids like saliva, that’s why it’s known as the kissing disease. Most people become infected as a child. Then it lies dormant until something comes along to reactivate it. It’s the same as having chickenpox as a child then later as an adult it reappears as shingles. EBV can inhabit cells in certain tissues of the body such as the gut.

Yeast overgrowth, Candida, is another gut invader and possible trigger of MS. When good bacteria diminishes Candida moves in turning into a systemic fungus. It punches its way through the gut lining affecting the entire body. Most people with MS have Candida overgrowth and don’t realize it.

Step 4: Antibiotics

Antibiotics are great for fighting harmful bacteria in our bodies. They saved our son’s life from a deadly bacteria when he was a toddler. The problem is when they’re used too often or misused they throw off the healthy ecosystem in our gut. Antibiotics kill not only bad bacteria but also good bacteria. And if you’re not including probiotics back into your diet the bad bacteria, fungus, and yeast take over. This is what happened to me from the many rounds of antibiotics.

We’re exposed to antibiotics through medications and the food we eat. Farmers use antibiotics in their livestock to prevent diseases and it’s passed onto you. Maintaining a healthy balance of gut bacteria is crucial to healing.

If you need to take an antibiotic take a probiotic at a different time of day. For example, if you take the antibiotic in the morning and then take a probiotic in the evening. It’s also a good idea to load up on fermented foods. For the top five steps, you need for gut health right now cheat sheet check the bottom of this post.

Step 5: Stress

Chronic stress can trigger MS, it’s also what causes flares and makes MS progress faster. Stress is a toxin, it destroys your digestive system and your nervous system. Have you ever become so stressed out that it made you sick to your stomach? When you get stressed it triggers stress hormones, it’s the “fight or flight” response.

Unfortunately, I know this from experience. Several years ago I was going through chronic daily stress due to my job. This lasted for years and it took its toll on my health by setting me back. Long periods of chronic stress cause many bad things to happen in your body.

You can’t avoid stress but there are things you can do to lessen its effects. First,  if possible step away from what’s causing the stress. If you’re sitting at your desk, get up and move away. Listen to your favorite music, go for a walk, meditate, take some deep breaths, or pet your dog/cat.

Improving Your Gut Health

Poor diet, environmental toxins, infections, antibiotics, and stress activate intestinal permeability. Eat organic foods as much as possible including fermented (probiotic) foods. Take a high-quality probiotic daily. Go green with your body and cleaning products, all-natural is always best. If you have to take an antibiotic take a probiotic at a different time of day. And last, lower your stress levels.

A lot is happening in your digestive tract. Maintaining a healthy gut removes inflammation and brings health back to your body.

Gut Health Tracker

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5 Steps to Improve Your Gut Health