why you gotta luvva your guts!
While I love the laid back days of summer (hello Boulder, hello Pritchard Park, hello sleeping in!), I always look forward to getting back into my fall routine. Why? Because I love connecting with busy women like YOU -- I absolutely love what I do. Getting to work with amazing women is such a gift, and I look forward to leaping into my practice once all the summer fun is done. This summer I started my newest educational journey, which is to go deep into the study of functional medicine/nutrition. What is that, you ask? It's the restoration of proper physiological functioning of the body using food-based nutrition. And it's profound. In the coming months, I'll be bringing you juicy nuggets so that you, too, will understand the power and simplicity of food to live a healthier, happier life!
But for today, I can safely say that all healing professionals agree that we've gotta "give it up to the gut!" Not a very sexy topic, but it's the most important factor when it comes to restoring your health.
"All disease begins in the gut." --Hippocrates
Hippocrates said this more than 2,000 years ago, but we're only now coming to understand just 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 (to name a few).
Our gut is home to approximately 100,000,000,000,000 (100 trillion) microorganisms.One trillion bananas laid end-to-end would stretch from the earth to the sun and back, with miles to spare. Line 'em up like that 100 times and you start to get at least a vague idea of how much 100 trillion is.
You can think of these bacteria as the knights that keep your beautiful, internal kingdom happy. They stand on the wall and make sure that the villagers stay happy and healthy and at peace. When there aren't enough knights standing protecting the kingdom, quite the ruckus can occur! Your knights are, of course, the good bacteria, and the ruckus is disease and illness.
Within our gut lining (layers) there is a connection to our nervous system, and therefore our brains.
This is known as the enteric nervous system. It is this system that controls our gut behavior independently of the brain, though amazingly, 70-80% of our brain chemicals are made in the gut, and a whopping 90%+ of our "feel good" chemicals come from the gut as well. Studies show that in a large percentage of patients dealing with stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic fatigue, these chemicals are not being produced at optimal levels -- the problems start in the gut.
Studies into autism, ADD, and ADHD in children show that a large percentage of these children also have problems with their digestive system, and parents are now advised to improve diet in order to improve the mental and emotional wellbeing of our children.
So how does your gut get out of balance?
Your gut can get out of balance very quickly. A round or two of antibiotics and prescription drugs can turn your balance upside down, as can refined and highly processed foods, over time. When this happens, you may see the signs:
leaky gut (this is for another email!)
digestive problems
auto-immune illnesses
inflammation
mood issues
hormone imbalance
extra weight
brain fog
immune system breakdown (incl. flus and colds)
skin problems such as eczema, rosacea, acne
allergies
asthma
more
You can balance your body by removing what I call the "Toxic 5," adding in healing foods and supplements, and making a few lifestyle shifts can reverse this process and make HUGE changes in your digestion, moods, weight, and cravings -- quite quickly!
Here's a few steps to begin to strengthen and heal the oh-so-important gut:
Remove foods that feed those pesky buggers and cause inflammation (some of which are sugar, alcohol, dairy, gluten)
Eat fermented food regularly
Take a high-quality probiotic
Include prebiotic foods that provide good bacteria: onions, garlic, jicama, dandelion greens, and artichokes
The steps above are a good start, but it may take more detective work to get to the root cause of what ails you, and begin deeper healing. If you'd like to explore that, give me a call. There's no reason why you shouldn't be feeling like your best self at ANY age.
In love, health, and kimchi!
Stephanie