Mind, Mood, & The Microbiome:
A Healthy Gut at Work (& Why It Matters)

By Gloria Treister, HHP

“All disease starts in the gut.”
Hippocrates made this profound statement more than 2,000 years ago, and we are just now beginning to understand how right he was.

Research over the past two decades has revealed that gut health is critical to overall health and that an unhealthy gut contributes to a wide range of diseases, including diabetes, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, autism spectrum disorder, depression, and chronic fatigue syndrome. In fact, many researchers believe that supporting intestinal health and restoring the integrity of the gut barrier will be one of the most important goals of medicine in the 21st century¹.

What is good for employees is also good for the employer

Health is the foundation of happiness and productivity. Without a healthy mind and body, you can’t work at peak capacity². Keeping employees happy and healthy has become critical for employers, and it’s not always easy. Creating a healthy and happy workplace helps employers attract and retain the best and brightest workers, theoretically leading to better job satisfaction.

Embedding wellness into the workplace culture is essential. For instance, providing opportunities to strengthen the microbiome during the workday can produce a variety of positive results.

Healthier employees are more productive, have less absenteeism, are more present, bring more energy to their work, and contribute to a positive workplace culture. A healthier workforce results in lower healthcare costs, workers’ compensation, and disability costs, potentially leading to higher profits.

Healthier people tend to be happier, and there is compelling evidence that happy employees are more productive. Recent studies show that happier employees can increase productivity by up to 18% and profitability by 23%³. For those in sales roles, this happiness can translate into up to a 37% increase in sales⁴. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), investing in employee health not only improves overall workplace well-being but also lowers healthcare costs and reduces insurance claims⁵. Healthier employees tend to have fewer risk factors, which means they cost less to insure and have lower out-of-pocket healthcare expenses⁶. This underscores the importance of fostering a healthy, supportive work environment.

What is the Microbiome?

A community of trillions of microorganisms living in and on the human body symbiotically, the microbiome consists of around 1,000 different species of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microscopic living things, also known as microbes. They are a part of us, and we are their host. While bacteria are often viewed as disease-causing, these microbes protect us from opportunistic organisms that may harm us. Promoting a healthy microbiome is a critical factor in getting and staying well.

An imbalance of unhealthy versus healthy microbes, or a lack of diversity of these microbes in the intestines, for instance, can contribute to weight gain, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, serious digestive problems, depression, anxiety, skin conditions, and other chronic health challenges. Many of the health problems associated with poor gut health are the most costly to treat. They tend to increase sick days, presenteeism, and lost productivity. Yet, these conditions are widely known to be preventable. By ensuring that the microbiome stays balanced and diverse, people can avoid many costly, chronic illnesses, pain, unnecessary drugs, and surgeries⁷.

Why now?

Established in 2007, The Human Microbiome Project, an extension of the well-known Human Genome Project, is a research initiative to map the human microbiome. It has produced some very compelling results about how the gut impacts disease. It is where more than 70% of our immune system resides, and it is where we manufacture neurotransmitters that impact our brain chemistry and therefore our mind, mood, memory, stress, and sleep⁸.

Studies from the past decade alone suggest that the gut microbiome is as complex and influential as our genes when it comes to health and happiness⁹.

What does mind and mood have to do with it?

The gut, aka our “second brain,” is where a number of neurotransmitters are produced. These chemical messengers, such as serotonin, dopamine, and GABA, play a key role in mood and regulate countless functions and processes in your body via the gut-brain connection. Antidepressant drugs are designed to increase levels of these compounds but have their drawbacks. Through healthy lifestyle choices, we can better affect our mood and eliminate the need for potentially harmful, side effect-producing, costly pharmaceutical interventions. Antidepressant drugs can cause a wide range of unpleasant side effects that contribute to more sick days, low energy, weight gain, and dependence¹⁰.

A microbiome imbalance is also thought to increase the pain response, which can increase absenteeism, decrease productivity, and negatively affect sleep. Lack of sleep can then disrupt the microbiome and create more dis-ease¹¹.

Stress management and the microbiome

Managing, or better yet reducing, chronic stress in the workplace can have a positive effect. In the absence of stress, a healthy microbiota produces short-chain fatty acids that exert anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor effects¹². During stress, an altered gut microbial population affects the regulation of neurotransmitters mediated by the microbiome and gut barrier function¹³. By reducing stress in the workplace, employees will experience fewer psychological and physiological conditions that affect performance, thus creating a more productive and profitable environment.

When people save money by avoiding illness and therefore paying less for health insurance premiums, it can relieve stress. High-deductible plans can leave many American adults with unpaid medical bills. Cancer survivors, for instance, have higher-than-average rates of medical financial hardship. People treating other chronic illnesses can also wind up with the burden of paying for their care. Psychological stress, like intense worry over unpaid bills, can result in behavioral issues and delaying needed care because of cost, resulting in lost performance. Financial stresses have been linked to migraines, cardiovascular disease, stroke, absences from work, and insomnia¹⁴.

What can an employer do?

There are many options when it comes to worksite wellness. The reviews on the effectiveness, and therefore the value, of conventional corporate wellness programs are mixed, and the question remains: how are we going to be able to keep people well so they can enjoy a happy life and success in the workplace?

Providing education and healthy choices that positively affect the microbiome can be impactful. Ways to accomplish this include:

• Offer healthy, organic food choices at work and eliminate pro-inflammatory foods¹⁵.
• Organize farmers’ markets on a regular basis.
• Bring in onsite services that help reduce stress, including yoga, meditation, massage, and reiki.
• Provide opportunities for exercise.
• Provide wellness education.
• Provide smoking cessation support.
• Bring natural health coaches and doctors onsite for easy access to care.
• Avoid the overuse of antibiotics.
• Encourage outdoor activities.
• Encourage socialization.
• Get involved in a community garden and get your hands dirty.
• Discourage overuse of hand sanitizers¹⁶.
• Avoid junk food and soda; provide healthy vending.
• Limit exposure to heavy metals and other toxins.
• Avoid unnecessary chemicals; use eco-friendly, non-toxic supplies¹⁷.

By implementing some of the ideas above, people will know their company is forward-thinking and supports them, and they will be encouraged to maintain a healthy microbiome, which in turn will improve their health and vitality. When people feel good, their productivity improves, leading to a healthier bottom line.

Because of all of the benefits a healthy microbiome can bring to people, it is worth considering including in the corporate wellness strategies of the future. A root cause approach to wellness that honors biochemical individuality will help engage our workforces to be healthier through a better understanding of what’s in it for them.

References:

1. Kresser, Chris. Gut Health ebook. Retrieved from Chris Kresser
2. Preston, Camille. Promoting Employee Happiness Benefits Everyone. Forbes Magazine, December 13, 2017.
3. (2024). 11 Shocking Employee Happiness Statistics For 2024. Retrieved from SnackNation
4. Ferreira, Stacey. The Happiness Value of Work-Life Balance. Inc Magazine, February 16, 2018.
5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Worker Productivity Measures | Workplace Health Promotion. Retrieved from CDC
6. (2024). 120 Employee Wellness Statistics For 2024. Retrieved from Wellable
7. Yen L, Schultz A, Schnueringer E, Edington DW. Financial costs due to excess health risks among active employees of a utility company. J Occup Environ Med. 2006;48(9): 896-905.
8. Goetzel, RZ, Anderson DR, Whitmer RW, Ozminkowski RJ, Dunn RL, and Wasserman J. The relationship between modifiable health risks and health care expenditures: an analysis of the multi-employer HERO health risk and cost database. J Occup Environ Med. 1998;40(10): 843-854.
9. Chambers, E.S., Preston, T., Frost, G., & Morrison, D.J. (2018). Role of Gut Microbiota-Generated Short-Chain Fatty Acids in Metabolic and Cardiovascular Health. Current Nutrition Reports, 7(4), 198-206. Retrieved from NIH
10. Househam, A.M., Peterson, C.T., Mills, P.J., & Chopra, D. (2017). The Effects of Stress and Meditation on the Immune System, Human Microbiota, and Epigenetics. Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, 31(4), 10-25.
11. Rapaport, L. (2019). Cancer survivors face stress from steep medical bills. Reuters Health News. Retrieved from Reuters
12. Treister, G.B. (2023). Wellness 101: Simple Steps to Good Health. Page 65.
13. Maldarelli, C. (2017). Is hand sanitizer bad for my microbiome? Don’t lose your good bacteria just because someone sneezed. Popular Science. Retrieved from Popular Science
14. Treister, G.B. (2023). Wellness 101: Simple Steps to Good Health. Pages 202-203.
15. Ferreira, S. (2018). The Happiness Value of Work-Life Balance. Inc Magazine, February 16, 2018.
16. Yen, L., Schultz, A., Schnueringer, E., & Edington, D.W. (2006). Financial costs due to excess health risks among active employees of a utility company. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 48(9), 896-905.
17. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Worker Productivity Measures | Workplace Health Promotion. Retrieved from CDC

About the Author:

Gloria Treister, HHP

A relentlessly passionate wellness advocate who distills complex concepts into simple lessons, Gloria Treister, HHP is an award-winning, experienced, wellness entrepreneur, Author, Activist, and Founder of Wellness Evolution. She makes the healthy choice the easy choice for you and your loved ones so you can live healthy longer.

A Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner (HHP), EMCC Certified Executive and Business Coach, Advanced Physical Fitness Specialist with over 35 years of experience, among other health and wellness certifications, Gloria’s Functional Medicine, Holistic, root cause approach to getting and staying well empowers her audiences to achieve better health with simplicity and fun.

She is the Author of “Wellness 101: Simple Steps to Good Health” which has earned amazing reviews from the top names in wellness for its unique, fun and easy approach to helping people learn how to take better care of themselves and those they love. Check it out at https://amzn.to/3MBkTjh