When it comes to health and wellness, gut health is all the rage right now — and with good reason. Gut health has been linked to Alzheimer’s, ADHD and even longer lifespans.
While this may seem like yet another health fad, one gut health expert is urging people to get to grips with their gut health for the sake of their wellbeing and productivity.
HuffPost UK spoke with gut health expert Sophie Medlin, who is partnering with Bloo to learn more about how neglecting gut health can impact our productivity and what we’re getting wrong when it comes to workplace toilet habits.
How our gut health ties in with work
Medlin said: “Really, when we talk about gut health we’re talking about pooing.”
While your first thoughts when it comes to the workplace likely aren’t tied to pooing, a lot of people are far too shy to go to the toilet at work but, even before heading into the workplace, some of us are neglecting bowel health.
Medlin explained: “One of the things my patients experience is getting up, getting the tube, getting to work on time but not giving themselves enough time to spend some time going to the toilet.”
In other words, we spend our mornings rushing to get to the workplace without giving ourselves the time to fully complete a bowel movement.
Medlin advised: “Give yourself an extra 10 minutes for the toilet, make sure you sit in the right position. This means having your feet up on a stool, especially if you’re a woman as toilets aren’t made at the right height for women.”
Once we’re there, many of us are still too shy to go to the toilet, in something that’s known as being ‘poo-shy’. Guilty.
Of course, poo can be an uncomfortable topic to raise in the workplace, especially here in the UK where we’re all a little bit awkward. However, Medlin advises that being more open about gut health could be the answer to making pooing at work a little more comfortable.
The dietician advised: “Gut health is a big topic and if you feel comfortable talking to at least your female colleagues about gut health, by saying, for example, ‘I’m going on this gut health journey, it’s really interesting’, you can start to break down that poo taboo.”
If you’re squirming at even the thought of being that open, Medlin assures, “Remember that everybody poos, everybody poos at work, it’s completely normal.”