5 Little Things GI Docs Do Each Day for Better Gut Health

If you want to feel more energized, poop better, and ward off long-term problems, take their advice.

There’s no point in denying it: Gut health, in all its bloating, farting, and pooping glory, can be awkward to discuss in detail, whether we’re talking about with close friends or even medical pros. Many folks just don’t feel comfortable asking questions or calling attention to potential issues, making it easy to miss out on important intel that can help things move along that much more smoothly.

Yep, the state of your stomach is a legitimate aspect of your overall well-being. Your gut can influence everything from your metabolism to your immune system to your heart health to your mood, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine—four of many, many, many reasons not to neglect it.

To save you from having to ask any of the potentially uncomfy questions yourself, SELF spoke with five GI doctors about how they keep their digestive systems happy. Here are their biggest tips.

1. Eat breakfast—and make it a protein-rich one.

We hear over and over again that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but Lisa Ganjhu, DO, a gastroenterologist at NYU Langone Health, really stresses that. “I like to think of our body as like a car. You want to start the day with a full tank of gas,” Dr. Ganjhu tells SELF.

Not only does breakfast serve as a wakeup call for your gut, but eating it just overall sets you up for a better day. Usually Dr. Ganjhu will shoot for something protein-packed, like a chia pudding, a Greek yogurt parfait, or—her go-to—a whole-wheat or spinach wrap filled with cheese, veggies, and eggs, plus a mug of green tea. Since protein boosts satiety, you won’t be “constantly thinking about lunch,” she explains. If you skimp on that all-important macro in the morning, you may find yourself overeating later in the day, potentially hurting your energy levels as well as making you feel “more fatigued and a little lethargic.” Taking in enough protein early, though, can help stabilize your blood sugar levels and avoid an untimely crash—while possibly boosting your concentration for those important work tasks to come later too.

2. Introduce some variety to your diet.

If you’re one of those people who likes to eat the same thing over and over again, Michael Schopis, MD, a gastroenterologist at the specialty care practice Manhattan Gastroenterology, has some (gentle) advice: Try to switch it up a bit. Varying what you have for meals and snacks (especially fruits, veggies, and whole grains) helps make sure you’re hitting your daily recommended fiber goal—think, roughly 20 to 30 grams a day—which guards against constipation and just helps your digestive system run more smoothly, Dr. Schopis tells SELF.

But there’s another benefit too: Getting out of a food rut means you’re more likely to get all the different micronutrients your body needs to function at its best, he says. Take your regular Romaine salad. Maybe you bulk it up with some spinach one day—that’ll give you a good amount of iron, manganese, zinc, and magnesium—but add shredded carrots, which are rich in vitamin A, the next. Vitamins and minerals like these play a pivotal role in the makeup and overall health of your gut microbiome. One study found that regardless of what type of diet they followed, people who ate more than 30 different types of plants per week had more diverse gut microbiomes than those who ate 10 or fewer types per week. That’s important since increasing the diversity of flora in your gut has been shown to protect against a host of health conditions, Dr. Schopis says—think type 2 diabetes or even colorectal cancer.

3. And don’t forget about your liquids either.

Yep, eating enough fiber is a tried-and-true strategy for preventing constipation, but staying hydrated is equally as crucial, according to Savanna Thor, DO, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and the director of the GI fellowship program. If you don’t drink enough water, your stool can dry out, causing discomfort and making it harder to poop, she says. To avoid that, Dr. Thor tries to take a few large refillable bottles of water to the office each day. “If I can see my water bottles and if they’re still full, I know I need to drink more,” she explains. That said, there’s no need to panic if you don’t quite manage that eight-glasses guideline you’ve probably heard: That benchmark isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, “just a good general metric,” Dr. Thor says.

4. Try to squeeze in at least 15 to 20 minutes of cardio.

Hop on your exercise bike or lace up your running sneakers, because “getting your heart rate up and your blood flow going” can do a lot for your digestive health, Shazia Siddique, MD, MSHP, an assistant professor of gastroenterology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, tells SELF. It can “help with reducing bloating and constipation so that you also have more regular bowel habits.” Not only does cardio increase blood flow to the gut, which amps up digestive activity, she says, but it also physically strengthens those muscles and might even enhance the bacterial diversity in your gut microbiome —which, like we mentioned before, brings a bunch of health benefits.

If you have trouble setting aside a dedicated block of time for exercise, you can always work it into your daily routine in brief bursts. For example, Dr. Siddique sometimes takes virtual calls while riding her Peloton or jogs up and down a few flights of stairs in her office building between meetings. These frequent movement breaks can also benefit your gut, since sedentary spells can mess with your digestion.

5. Resist the urge to pop NSAIDs like candy.

To be clear, NSAIDs—a popular class of painkillers that includes medicine-cabinet staples like aspirin and ibuprofen—are an important tool in the medical arsenal. They can “relieve symptoms of fever, pain and swelling and can help treat muscle aches, back pain, toothaches, and menstrual cramps,” Tom Ullman, MD, the chief of the gastroenterology division at Montefiore Einstein and professor of gastroenterology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, tells SELF.

However, overuse NSAIDs, and they can be a major risk factor for peptic ulcer disease, since they can “directly irritate the stomach’s lining, therefore creating conditions for ulcers to form more easily,” Dr. Ullman says. In severe cases, these ulcers can result in life-threatening complications, like bleeding and perforation. In fact, Dr. Ullman first became aware of the dangers during his GI fellowship, when he had to wake up in the middle of the night to attend to patients who were bleeding out. (In addition to peptic ulcer disease and other serious conditions, overusing NSAIDs can also cause more mild—but still annoying—side effects, like heartburn, bloating, stomach pain, diarrhea, and constipation.)

That said, the risks are realistically pretty low for people who only use NSAIDs every now and then and take no more than the recommended dose, so there’s no need to skip the Aleve next time you have bad period cramps. Just be mindful of the risks, and make sure you don’t go overboard, Dr. Ullman says.