20 Low-Cost or Free Ways to Nurture Your Gut and Boost Your Immune System

Did you know that 70-80% of our immune system is located in our gut? This research supports the crucial role our gut plays in our overall health and immunity. Our immune system plays a super important role in our resilience against pathogens and disease and relies heavily on the state of our gut flora. When our gut microbiome is well-balanced and healthy, it helps our immune system to provide optimal protection. However, when there is damage to our gut flora our immune system struggles to keep our body safe from harm. ₁

More and more research abounds all the time about all the powerful ways we can support our gut, including our immune system. We don’t have to have expensive biohacking tools to provide our bodies with this support. In fact, some of the simplest ways are the most powerful. Without supporting the foundations of health and wellness, long-term sustained health is often difficult. I wrote a blog series this summer covering the foundations of health and wellness. If you want to learn more, check out these blog articles: The Key Role of a Nutrient-Dense Diet, Digestion, Mastering Blood Sugar Regulation, Fatty Acids Myths and Benefits Explored, The Impact of Minerals and Hydration.

Some Simple Approaches To Improving Our Health

In today’s fast-paced culture, it’s essential that we find practical ways to support our gut health and immune system. Let’s check out some simple and foundational approaches:

1. Morning sunshine: Exposure to sunlight in the morning can help boost your melatonin stores which helps to create a more positive and calm mood, as well as help with spurring better nighttime sleep. As brief as ten to fifteen minutes of exposure has been found to be significantly helpful!₂
2. Deep breathing: Practicing deep breathing like physiological sighs or diaphragmatic breathing, can reduce stress and inflammation, benefitting both your gut and your overall health.
3. Spending time in community: This study from Purdue University found that spending time with loved ones can help improve sleep, stress, depression, and anxiety.
4. Daily movement: Moderate exercise has been found to decrease “leaky gut”, AKA gut permeability, decrease inflammation, and improve body composition. However, intense exercise has been found to be harmful, specifically in increasing gut permeability and decreasing the protective mechanisms of the gut lining. ₃
5. Spend time in nature: Getting into the great outdoors can reduce stress and improve your mood, benefiting your gut-brain axis.
6. Improve vagal tone: Our vagus nerve connects our gut to our brain, as well as other organs. Research has shown that increasing vagal tone can help improve digestive function, reduce inflammation, and even relieve symptoms of depression and anxiety. To learn more about how to increase your vagal tone, read this article.
7. Prayer and meditation: Stress can cause an imbalance of unhealthy gut bacteria and lead to a “leaky gut”. Prayer and meditation are two powerful tools for increasing relaxation and managing stress.
8. Grounding: Grounding includes standing or walking barefoot or pressing your bare hands into grass or dirt. If this initially sounds a little hokey to you, you might want to think again. More and more research is finding that there are benefits to directly touching the earth or ground. Findings show grounding to be supportive of mitochondrial health, effective in reducing oxidative stress, anti-inflammatory, and helpful in restoring the body’s own defense mechanisms.₄
9. Decrease hurrying: Always rushing through the day results in increased levels of cortisol, which is very degrading to the gut lining. Regularly taking an inventory of what’s most important in your life can be helpful so that you can recognize what you can say “no” to. Make room in your schedule to allow for more margin of time. Not having to regularly rush through your day leads to less inflammation and more healing.
10. Mineral intake: Stress is costly on our mineral stores. Minerals in our soil today are also reduced, resulting in less mineral-rich crops and vegetables. Adding a pinch of unrefined sea salt to each glass of water can help support our mineral stores which will be very helpful with stress, digestion, and energy levels.
11. Epsom salt bath: Magnesium is the first mineral to be depleted with stress. Soaking in Epsom salt increases blood magnesium concentrations. It’s a great way to promote relaxation and relieve stress.
12. Support your oral microbiome by using a tongue scraper morning and night, as well as by doing oil pulling. Pathogens in our oral microbiome can get passed onto the gut microbiome so it’s good to take steps to support our oral health too.
13. Get 7-8 hours of good quality sleep. Our bodies rest, repair, and heal at night while we rest so good quality sleep is paramount.
14. Dry brushing your body. Helps to detoxify the skin by increasing blood flow and promoting lymph flow. It also unclogs pores making it easier for your body to get rid of toxins. Bonus: your skin will develop more of a natural glow, and become more soft and smooth. To dry brush, use a bristle brush and move it in strokes starting at your neck, working towards your hands and feet, always brushing towards your heart. Use circular clockwise motions around your trunk area. This is the brush I use.
15. Cold water exposure: Acute cold water exposure has been found to stimulate the vagus nerve.₅ Try splashing cold water on your face, or taking a cold shower. The vagal nerve is key in helping you relax your nervous system. Shifting our nervous system into a relaxed state helps our bodies digest optimally.
16. Make your own fermented foods. Beet kvass, fermented sauerkraut, pickles, and carrots are just a few probiotic foods that are not expensive to make.  Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that help increase the balance of bacteria in the gut. Probiotic foods also contain lots of natural digestive enzymes.
17. Open up the windows of your home often to bring in fresh air. The EPA found that indoor air can be anywhere from 2 to 5 times as polluted as outdoor air.
18. Chew your food to an applesauce consistency. Eating in a non-stressed state and thoroughly chewing your food helps significantly with the digestion and absorption of nutrients from food.
19. Limit screen time. Excessive screen time can cause poor sleep and poor stress management.₆
20. Drink a variety of herbal teas. Herbal teas are very boosting of health and are known to be anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antimicrobial, antibacterial, antifungal, wound-healing, and even anti-cancer.₇ Some of my favorite teas are Traditional Medicinals Organic Throat Coat, Organic Nettle Leaf, Organic Herbal Cold Care, and Organic Dandelion Leaf and Root. Teas are such an easy way to work some extra powerful nutrients into your day.

These simple yet powerful strategies can create the foundation of a healthy lifestyle that nurtures your gut and makes your immune system more resilient. By prioritizing these habits, you can be proactive in moving towards long-term sustained health and wellness. Don’t forget that the road to a healthier you doesn’t have to be complicated and expensive. Sometimes it’s the small, consistent changes that bring the most remarkable impact on your well-being.

Resources

1. Belkaid, Y., & Hand, T. W. (2014). Role of the microbiota in immunity and inflammation. Cell, 157(1), 121–141.
2. Mead M. N. (2008). Benefits of sunlight: a bright spot for human health. Environmental health perspectives, 116(4), A160–A167.
3. Clauss, M., Gérard, P., Mosca, A., & Leclerc, M. (2021). Interplay Between Exercise and Gut Microbiome in the Context of Human Health and Performance. Frontiers in nutrition, 8, 637010.
4. Sinatra, S. T., Sinatra, D. S., Sinatra, S. W., & Chevalier, G. (2023). Grounding – The universal anti-inflammatory remedy. Biomedical journal, 46(1), 11–16.
5. Yuan, P. Q., Taché, Y., Miampamba, M., & Yang, H. (2001). Acute cold exposure induces vagally mediated Fos expression in gastric myenteric neurons in conscious rats. American journal of physiology. Gastrointestinal and liver physiology, 281(2), G560–G568.
6. Lissak G. (2018). Adverse physiological and psychological effects of screen time on children and adolescents: Literature review and case study. Environmental research, 164, 149–157.
7. Isbill, J., Kandiah, J., & Kružliaková, N. (2020). Opportunities for Health Promotion: Highlighting Herbs and Spices to Improve Immune Support and Well-being. Integrative medicine (Encinitas, Calif.), 19(5), 30–42.