08/05/2024
What’s two thing everyone is missing when it comes to gut health?
I hear a lot of people out there talking about gut health. They talk about probiotics. They talk about prebiotics. They talk about gut healing. They blame the gut microbiome for everything. Don’t get me wrong, these things have their place. But by far the two most important aspect of healing the gut is REDUCING STRESS and STRENGTHEING DIGESTION.
If you are stressed – your digestion shuts down. You produce less hydrochloric acid, less digestive enzymes, less of every tier of digestion that breaks your food down and most importantly, controls the microbial population. The Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners call this Spleen Deficiency. It’s when you are up in your head, over thinking, worrying and not in your body. And importantly, energy is not going to your digestion. Time and time again I see stress wreak havoc on people’s digestion. When we deal with the stress, the digestion improves, their bowels normalize, their reflux stops.
So how do we deal with stress? Well apart from the obvious – down time, time in nature, meditation, coloring in (yes coloring in has been found to be a close second to meditation), I use herbal medicines to calm the adrenals, calm the nervous system and help the body relax. This always works brilliantly and peoples wellbeing improves immensely.
The other big mistake I see practitioners making is forgetting to strengthen digestion. Within the Naturopathic and herbal world, we have an abundance of herbal medicines and nutrients that work to improve digestion. And these make a really big difference. By strengthening each tier of digestion, you improve things out of sight. We use herbs to stimulate hydrochloric acid in the stomach, some herbs for stimulating bile production, some herbs for improving the amount of bile produced, some herbs for healing the lining of the gastrointestinal tract.
You see the digestive system is like dominos – each one impacts the next level. So, by working on each tier, you get great improvement. The most important outcomes from this are more bowel motions which means better detoxification of the body. It also means, very importantly, getting control of any abnormal microbes or pathogens growing in the gut. These are the most important tips I can give you to get your digestion back on track.
As a Naturopath I tailor make herbal medicines to suit each person. That is the advantage of seeing a practitioner – you are getting a personalized prescription. So I can choose herbs to suit your body and your situation.
If you would like book a consultation, please get in touch. 😃
lucynaturopath@yahoo.com.au
