To maintain good health, you must first take care of your intestines. Here are 6 tips for your intestines to survive the winter.

In this cold winter, is your intestine still strong? What good habits can help us have a healthy intestine?

01. Healthy diet

First of all, good eating habits are necessary to protect the intestines. "Food is the first necessity of the people". Eat three meals a day on time, eat until you are 70% to 80% full, and don't feel hungry or bloated, so that the intestines can be in good condition every day. **In addition to ensuring a regular diet and rest schedule, establishing a reasonable diet structure is also the top priority for maintaining intestinal health. **So, how can we achieve a balanced and nutritious daily diet?

Fresh and varied food is a prerequisite, and sufficient carbohydrates can provide the energy needed by the body. At the same time, vegetables and fruits rich in dietary fiber can not only provide the body with nutrients such as water, vitamins, and electrolytes, but the presence of dietary fiber can also enhance gastrointestinal motility and promote intestinal peristalsis, improve abdominal distension, relieve indigestion, moisturize the intestines and promote bowel movements, and effectively maintain a relatively stable state in the intestinal cavity. A reasonable diet structure can provide the intestine with high-quality supplements to the greatest extent. Of course, nutritional supplements also pay attention to the balance of supply and demand. Letting the intestines "work normally and rest regularly" is the correct way to treat it. Overeating and excessive supplements will cause obesity and increase the burden on the gastrointestinal tract, leading to uncomfortable symptoms such as indigestion and abdominal distension.

02. Replenish water

As winter approaches, the weather turns cold, the outdoor humidity drops sharply, and the indoor air conditioner and heater are running, and people's living environment gradually becomes dry. If you don't drink enough water for a long time and stay in a dry environment, the human body will lack water for a long time, which will not only cause dry skin but also cause dry stools and difficulty in defecation. Therefore, proper water supplementation in winter can prevent or relieve constipation symptoms and keep the intestines unobstructed.

03. Exercise properly

A lifestyle that avoids lazy behavior is also beneficial to maintaining intestinal health. Outside of meals, we should remember not to sit for long periods of time and do appropriate exercise after meals every day. This helps promote blood circulation in the body, helps excrete feces in the intestines, and prevents harmful substances from staying in the body for a long time. Sometimes the outdoor temperature is too cold, you can choose some indoor sports that suit you as appropriate, and ensure regular and appropriate exercise every day. This is also a good way to maintain intestinal health.

04. Use medication with caution

Strengthening food hygiene and not abusing antibiotics, proton pump inhibitors and other drugs are also key measures to maintain the balance of intestinal flora and protect the intestine. So, how to maintain the balance of intestinal flora?

First, be careful to prevent "diseases from the mouth". Do not eat stale, unclean food and water to prevent harmful bacteria from entering the gastrointestinal tract through food.

Second, do not abuse antibiotics. The human intestine is a large environment filled with thousands of bacteria. When in a stable state, various bacteria can abide by the principle of "peaceful coexistence and non-aggression" under the leadership of beneficial bacteria. If antibiotics are abused for a long time, the balance of bacteria in this large environment will be broken, causing intestinal flora disorder, the immune barrier established by microorganisms in the intestinal cavity will be damaged, and many intestinal diseases may ensue. If diarrhea symptoms occur, causing a large loss of beneficial intestinal bacteria and an imbalance in the intestinal environment, it is necessary to appropriately supplement probiotics to help stop diarrhea.

05. Windproof and warm

Another major factor that contributes to the high incidence of intestinal diseases in winter is the drop in temperature. The temperature drops rapidly after winter, and the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors is large. The sudden changes in temperature due to the change of seasons cause the body's blood vessels to contract, the histidine content in the blood to increase, and the acid secretion in the stomach to increase, which can easily cause a series of gastrointestinal discomfort symptoms such as acid reflux, belching, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and even lead to complications such as gastrointestinal bleeding in patients with peptic ulcers. Therefore, keeping warm and avoiding cold wind in winter are important and indispensable measures to protect gastrointestinal health.

06. Balanced mentality

The gastrointestinal tract is a very "emotional" organ, also known as the "second brain of the human body". It can easily sense changes in human emotions such as joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness. With the arrival of winter, especially at the end of the year, the social pace is fast, work pressure is high, and life is not going well. The small and big trivia accumulated over the year seem particularly complicated at this time, causing many people to feel nervous, anxious, or excited, irritable, and irritable. Negative and depressed emotions will reduce gastrointestinal motility, leading to a loss of appetite, and a series of chain reactions such as early satiety, hiccups, bloating, and constipation.

At the same time, psychological factors can easily lead to functional gastrointestinal diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome, causing people to experience symptoms such as repeated abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, and constipation. Excessively high emotions can also easily cause gastrointestinal hypermotility response, increase gastric acid secretion, frequent gastroesophageal reflux symptoms, and abdominal pain, diarrhea and other discomforts. This is easily overlooked in daily life. In the long run, the quality of life is affected and the body's intestinal health is difficult to maintain. Therefore, keeping a good mood and ensuring emotional stability are also important measures to "maintain stability" of the intestine.

In summary, I hope everyone can develop good habits, pay attention to every detail in daily life, develop a healthy intestine, and have a healthy body. However, if a person has obvious gastrointestinal discomfort symptoms, and it recurs from time to time and does not get relieved for a long time, he should go to the hospital in time and get corresponding help from a gastroenterologist.

Source: Healthy China