A Holistic Guide to Transforming Your Gut Health
Do you struggle with uncomfortable bloating? Brain fog? Constipation or Diarrhea? Maybe both? Do you get fatigued after meals? Have you been told you have IBS? This is just a few of the signs that your gut isn’t functioning optimally. The gut, the common abbreviation for our digestive system includes our stomach, small intestines, and large intestines. The gut also includes an intricate network of nerves, giving it the nickname “the second brain”. It is responsible for breaking down everything we consume into bioavailable nutrients and minerals for us to use for energy. It also makes about 90% of our serotonin, a very important neurotransmitter that has positive impacts on our mood and sleep. For these reasons and many others, it is important for us to start taking a closer look at our gut health.
There is a wide range of gut dysfunction from imbalance in healthy gut flora, inability to digest certain nutrients, inflammation, SIBO, pathogens, and leaky gut. Although, some of these are more severe than others and may require more intervention, there are a few steps we can take to begin improving our gut health.
Stress is one of the number one things that can negatively impact the gut. Our bodies are designed to be able to handle short moments of stress. In our current culture, the majority of people are under chronic, continuous stress. Chronic stress increases our sympathetic nervous system response, also known as our “fight or flight” response which takes blood away from our digestive system in order to respond to stress. The gut also has more nerve connections than any other organ in the body, so when our nervous system is under stress, our gut is naturally under stress causing us to make less seratonin. Chronic stress also causes inflammation in the digestive system. Without getting our stress response under control, it makes it much harder for our gut to heal. Chiropractic care can plan a huge role in helping your stress response.
2. FOCUS ON FOOD QUALITY
Focusing on minimally processed whole foods is so important when it comes to gut health. Holistic health care practitioners are now guiding their patients in not only decreasing processed foods, but focusing on organic fruits and vegetables, grass fed meats, pastured eggs/poultry, and wild cough fish. By doing this, we can significantly decrease our exposure to glyphosate (Roundup) and other herbicides/pesticides. These chemicals cause havoc to our sensitive gut linings. So when it comes to food and gut health, focus on fresh fruits, veggies, and quality meats whenever possible!
3. ADDING DIGESTIVE SUPPORT
Improving our ability to digest our food and break it down into the nutrients and energy we need can also greatly improve our gut health. Adding in a digestive bitter (I love BitterX by Quicksilver) or a digestive enzyme 15 minutes before eating meals can improve digestion and decrease gas and bloating. It’s always important to dig deeper into the root cause, but this is always a good way to improve gut health in a gentle holistic way. Before adding in any supplements, its always best to talk to your holistic care provider first.
4. SLOW DOWN
Our parasympathetic nervous system is nicknamed “Rest and Digest” for a reason. We want our bodies to kick into a rested and relaxed state while we eat so that the body can focus on breaking down our food. As mentioned above, sympathetic nervous system activation pulls blood away from the gut! Slowing down also means chewing your food! A great rule is to could to 30 each time you take a bite and chew. The more work we do in our mouth, the more the enzymes in our mouth can work and the less our digestive systems have to do to break down nutrients.
5. EXERCISE
Movement is another important part of improving gut health. When we exercise, we are breathing deeply which stimulates motility or movement in the intestines. Exercise also improves our stress response, bringing us into a more rested state post movement. Movement itself stimulates the Gl tract to contract and move toxins out. All movement can be beneficial to our gut health, but cardiovascular exercise such as hiking, walking, or running have been shown to have the best improvement.
6. NOURISH THE INTESTINES
Often times, the reason we are experiencing gut health issues is because there is inflammation, leaky gut, or imbalance in our microbiome. An easy and gentle way to improve these issues is through adding in daily bone broth and fermented foods. These foods have healing properties that have been shown to improve the lining of the intestines and rebuild healthy bacteria.
Gut health is one of the foundational pieces of our overall health and wellbeing. So many chronic illnesses, nutritional deficiencies, and even mood related issues start in the gut! If you believe something more complex is going on, seek out a holistic health care practitioner such as a Naturopathic Doctor, Functional Medicine Practitioner, or Chiropractor who can help guide you in a more personalized approach with gut and food allergy testing.
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