How gut health impacts COVID-19 severity

GUT health 101

Research on COVID-19 and the gut is showing some important ways we can protect our health.

This includes that the state of your gut impacts your immunity, how severely you get the virus, your recovery, and whether you get long-covid or not.

Some key gut basics

• At least 100 trillion microorganisms make up the gut microbiome. This includes bacteria, viruses, archaea, protozoa and fungi

• Importantly, 70-80% of our immunity resides in our gut and half of our antibodies are made in our gut lining

• Gut balance helps regulate this immune response, with a lack of microbial diversity leading to a poor immune response and a lack of resilience

• A diverse and plentiful microbiome is directly associated with good general health, and is also vital for brain health and mood, metabolism and energy, cell nutrition, hormone health and much more

• Less than half of our DNA is human, with the rest being microbial

• All disease begins in the gut, just like Hippocrates said

In short, the healthier your gut, the healthier your immune system.

YOUR GUT & COVID-19

There are several key ways your gut impacts now your body deals with COVID-19

1. Your level of dysbiosis, or imbalance in your microorganisms including overgrowths or infections

2. How much intestinal permeability, or leaky gut you have where the tight junctions or your gut lining (your border control) are loose allowing inappropriate access into your blood stream

3. Your level of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), the biproducts of bacterial fermentation of fibre that provide vital food for your gut lining cells

This dysfunction gives the virus access to your circulatory system and internal organs.

This happens via your ACE2 receptors – a protein that allows the virus to infect your cells and replicate – of which we have a large store in our small intestine.

It’s postulated that

• Poor gut health may lead to increased expression of these ACE2 receptors

• On the other hand, higher microbial diversity can lead to significantly lower levels of ACE2 receptors, meaning the virus is less likely to bind to them and take hold

• Also, it’s thought that good levels of microbes and therefore SCFAs may down-gut regulate gut ACE2 receptors

Research shows that COVID-19 patients

• Have an imbalanced gut microbiome

• Severity is often marked by the health of the gut microbiota

• Are depleted of beneficial bacteria

• Have more harmful bacteria, some of which relate directly to respiratory symptoms

• Display intestinal permeability

• Have low levels of SCFAs

Of note, Faecalobacterium – a biosensor of our health – lowers during a COVID-19 infection. These levels correlate with the severity of someone’s infection. Also, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus bacterium play vital roles in supporting our immune response, and are lowered during an infection.

I have also found that clients can experience reflux or other digestive issues like food sitting heavily in their stomach and burping post infection. Often they need short-term stomach acid and/or digestive enzyme supplementation.

long-haul covid-19

In terms of long-haul COVID, research has found that sufferer’s gut microbiome is different, featuring

1. A more severe loss of microbial diversity

2. Lower levels of SCFAs

3. Greater intestinal permeability

summary

The message? Support a healthy gut and microbiome to prevent, fight and recover from a COVID-19 infection. Check out my other blogs and vlogs to find out how to do this.

Remember, it’s all about the terrain, or in other words, how ready your body is to fight off any disease you come in contact with. The state of your gut plays a key role in this.