Gut health is SUCH a hot topic in the holistic healing community, and for VERY good reason. Your gut influences your immune system function, your mental health, your aches & pains, your healing processes, and SO much more.
So let's talk about maximizing your gut health with 3 easy steps you can try RIGHT NOW to make positive changes in your whole healing journey.
Read on to the end because I'm even slipping in a BONUS 4th suggestion that really can't be left out when working on healing the gut!
Background first:
If the lining and cells of your gut are not functioning optimally for whatever reason, your healing WILL be limited. Damage to the gut can be caused by a number of factors, which we'll be addressing in the 3 Steps below. But in essence, be kind to your gut! Otherwise you could be headed for “leaky gut" which is increased intestinal permeability. Basically, it means germs, toxins, etc are able to "leak" through what SHOULD be a protective barrier - your gut lining - and this can really cause health issues. It also means you won't be absorbing food and nutrition properly, which also means you won't be optimizing your chances of healing anything. You MUST heal the gut lining to further heal any other part of you.
Keep in mind, I'm NOT coming atcha as a medical professional to treat, diagnose, cure, or make claims about you or anything in your treatment plan. You should ALWAYS collaborate with a trusted medical provider when making any changes to your healing plan.
Also, beyond all of these suggestions, gut testing may be appropriate too, to figure out what exactly may be going on inside. Work with your doc on what’s right for you.
3 Easy Ways to Make Big Changes to Your Gut Health
Get the toxins OUT to the best of your ability. This is a completely necessary step in healing the lining of the gut. Toxins in your environment can be found in household products, personal care products, cleaning products, outdoor products, foods, and more. It may feel overwhelming to consider avoiding all toxins, but please please remember that BABY STEPS make a difference over time. Any little steps you can take to doing better about toxin exposure will add up!
For more info about toxins lurking all around us, check out my free workshop, Toxins Lurking in Your Cupboards, found in the Guides section of Lyme-y & Crunchy.
Heal the gut (lining/tissue/organ) from the inside. Foods and supplements can help with this: aloe, L-glutamate, bone broth/collagen, ferments, pineapple, digestive enzymes...these are all easy to access, gut-healing ingestibles. Also equally as important is to keep inflammatory, gut-irritating foods OUT of your diet while healing. You may be able to reintroduce them at some point, but if foods are synthetic at all (any white flour/sugar included, packaged foods, etc) then they are not helping to heal your gut and aren't recommended to consumer at all. Stick to whole, natural, preferably organic and non-GMO foods to maximize healing, and consider adding in gut healing foods and supplements listed above too.
Build up max health within your gut through pre and probiotics. Prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients that promote the growth of beneficial microorganisms in the gut. Think smoothies, roughage, nutrient dense foods as excellent sources of prebiotics. Really, many fruits and veggies are top notch choices here!
Probiotics you can easily get OTC. Look for at least 1 billion colony forming units (CFUs). I also recommend one that includes plenty of Bifido strains, personally, because that actually may be linked to preventing illnesses and can have anti-inflammatory effects. Sacchromycese boulardii (non pathogenic yeast) is another good choice in addition to a more traditional probiotic. This probiotic works well with our own gut flora (naturally occurring and helpful "good" bacteria already in the gut), has anti-inflammatory properties, and prevents "toxic takeovers" by outside toxins and "bad" bacteria in the gut.
BONUS!!! Don’t forget - stress and sleep are KEY to healing too! This goes for gut healing as well. Expect to heal while not getting quality sleep and always being stressed out just isn't realistic and asking too much of your body.
If you are looking for ways to tackle stress and/or sleep naturally, I've got you! I talk about this in the Lyme-y & Crunchy holistic healing group and you're invited to join us there!
So what do you think? What will be YOUR next steps towards healing your gut?
Know that I'm cheering you on! You can do this! I celebrate you and your healing wins!
If you'd like to go even deeper into your own gut health, or ANY aspect of your healing journey, get into Holistic Health Coaching with me for customized gut health strategy, AND stay tuned for a section on gut health coming with my Signature Program designed around Lyme Healing Strategy and Action Planning!
You can stay up-to-date on the roll out of that and any other future programs by joining my holistic healing group, Lyme-y & Crunchy. There's already a bunch of FREE healing workshops in there, as well as multiple Live videos a week, interviews with other healing professionals, plus additional content that you won't want to miss! We would LOVE to have you join us there!
0 Comments