What does it mean to preserve colon health? Here is the premise.
We have been taught that our colon has the function of absorbing water and some mineral salts from digestion residues, thus transforming them into solid waste that is eliminated as faeces.
Recently, we have focused on the absorption function of some vitamins, produced by intestinal bacteria that live in the colon (the so-called intestinal microbiota). The role of the colon would be to take advantage of these bacteria, and at the same time defend us from their aggression thanks to the production of mucus and barrier substances.
However, these are reductive beliefs. In reality, the colon and the intestinal microbiota constitute a single organ, a single precious whole in which each element is necessary and indispensable to perform unique functions for our body, including:
- regulate the functions of the immune system, training it and keeping it in balance. The colon and the bacteria interact through the production of substances that from time to time activate or reduce the inflammatory response of the body;
- regulate metabolism. Some intestinal bacteria produce substances that stimulate the metabolism and the consumption of calories, while others produce substances that slow it down, favoring the accumulation processes;
- produce and absorb essential substances that our body is unable to synthesize;
- through a rich network of neurons and nerve fibers, return to the body information on the composition of the outside world, analyzing our nutrition and its tolerability.
We can give the example of the uterus and the baby.
The uterus is not just a container where the baby resides during pregnancy. The uterus is at the same time the incubator where the baby grows and finds protection and nourishment, and the defense for the mother from the presence within herself of a foreign organism. But above all, it is the interface through which the world of the child and the mother communicate and come into contact, exchanging hormones, neurotransmitters, chemical mediators and waste products.
The same thing happens between our world and that of bacteria: we are indispensable for each other, we could not survive without the help of these bacteria, and at the same time we would be destroyed if we were exposed to them without protection. Like the uterus for the baby, the interface between us and the bacteria is the colon: it does not simply separate us from them, but allows us to communicate with them efficiently, safely and securely. The colon hosts a rich bacterial flora, like a nursery: its health depends on the balance of the bacterial species that live there and this ultimately depends on our diet.
By choosing our foods, and the rhythms and ways in which we introduce them, we select bacterial species, just like a gardener watering or fertilizing his plants. We can feed them all or favor some of them at the expense of others, obtaining a balanced and lush garden or a field of weeds.
Please find more in my next post…
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