This is a passionate topic for me and one I want YOU to know and understand.
Your gut is the powerhouse
to your overall health.
Improve gut health and change your life.
If you suffer from digestive symptoms like bloating, heartburn, gas or constipation, it’s a clear indication of an imbalance going on. But, the part I want you to also understand is you might not have ANY digestive symptoms at all, and you might suffer from depression, anxiety, brain fog, fatigue, sleep disorders, joint pain, rheumatoid arthritis, type 2 diabetes, eczema, psoriasis, migraines and auto-immune disease.
If this sounds like you, it’s worth exploring what’s going on inside the gut.
Two great books on this subject are: Healthy Gut, Healthy You by Dr. Michael Ruscio and Dr. David Perlmutter’s book Brain Maker
Why is your gut so important to your overall health?
- Research tells us that 70-80% of your immune system is in your gut. A healthy immune system=less infections, colds and viruses.
- Gut microbiome dictates everything from weight to brain health. The bacteria inside your gut have a lot to do with many aspects of your health. This includes your metabolism, weight, digestion, immune system, heart health, and mental health.
- 95% of serotonin is produced in your gut. Think gut health=brain health and happiness.
- Your gut health affects nutrient absorption. You need vitamins and minerals to fuel your entire body and if your gut is impaired, you’re not absorbing well.
- A healthy gut prevents inflammation throughout your body. Studies have shown that inflammation over time can lead to chronic diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes and even cancer.
What are the connections to gut and other parts of the body?
In his book Health Gut, Healthy You, Dr. Michael Ruscio breaks it down very well by category. These summaries are taken directly from his book as follows:
- Gut-Digestive: Changing your diet can reduce symptoms of IBS by reducing bacterial overgrowth.
- Gut-Brain: There have been studies done showing that improving gut health can improve mental health.
- Gut-Metabolism: “Bad” bugs have been correlated to being overweight.
- Gut-Thyroid: Treatments of bacterial overgrowth and limiting inflammatory foods can improve hypothyroidism and thyroid autoimmunity like Hashimoto’s.
- Gut-Sleep: Inflammation in the intestines has been shown to cause insomnia.
- Gut-Skin: Skin conditions like pimples, rashes and inflammation have been shown to improve after removing inflammatory foods and reducing unwanted bacterial overgrowth.
- Gut-Hormone: Gut bacteria play an important role in the breakdown of hormones. This is especially important for women because of imbalances in estrogen.
When your gut bacteria is out of balance due to bacterial infections and parasites, or you’re ingesting foods that don’t agree with you (this is different for everyone), this leads to a breakdown of the gut wall integrity or “leaky gut” …picture cheese cloth with a tear in it. When this happens your immune systems starts attacking “foreign invaders” that leak into the blood where they don’t belong. This process can cause a whole host of issues as you can see in this great graphic below from Dr. Axe.
Through testing and nutritional changes, it IS possible to reverse and repair the damage that’s been done.
Steps you can do right now to take care of your gut.
- Food Matters: Eat whole foods and organic when possible.
- Remove Known Inflammatory Foods: Gluten, dairy and sugar are the three biggest culprits.
- Eat a Diverse Diet: Add a new veggie each week and rotate the healthy foods you already like.
- Increase Prebiotics: Think fiber, fruit, veggies, leafy greens and non-gluten grains like quinoa and brown rice.
- Increase Probiotics: Supplement or eat fermented foods like, organic Sauerkraut, Kimchi and Kefir (if candida is present, fermented foods should be avoided).
- Reduce Stress: Regulating your nervous system through stress reduction techniques such as mindfulness and mediation can help relax the enteric nervous system of the gut.
- Move Your Body: Studies have found that regular exercise increases diversity in your microbiome AND reverses gut imbalances related to obesity.
If you change your diet and you’re still not feeling well after a few weeks, consider taking a deeper dive with a health practitioner.
This is where I can help you using the 5 R’s of Gut Healing.
- REMOVE: Test, don’t guess. Work with me to uncover your specific triggers through testing. We’ll identify and remove any underlying infections or specific trigger foods. These things are getting in the way of your body’s ability to heal, absorb nutrients and digest.
- REPLACE: Add nutrients that are required for digestion to take place. This includes improving stomach acid and digestive enzymes.
- REINOCULATE: Once the underlying infections and triggers have been addressed, now it’s time to improve the health of bacteria in the gut. Restore beneficial bacteria to re-establish a healthy balance of flora in the gut.
- REPAIR: Rebuild the integrity of the gut and supply key nutrients that might have been depleted with an imbalanced gut microbiome and leaky gut. Provide nutrients to heal the gut wall or lining. Support the immune functioning of the gut.
- REBALANCE: Pay attention to lifestyle choices. Sleep, exercise, and stress can all affect the GI tract. Balancing those activities is important to an optimal digestive tract.
Contact me for a free discovery call if you need my help.
I can partner with you to uncover the root cause of your imbalances and guide you on your path back to health.
It takes a village to help people find out
how and where to get well.
Please share with your family, friends and network if you agree!
