Your gut health is linked to your overall health. This makes sense because every cell in your body needs vital nutrients to survive and thrive. Your gut’s ability to digest and absorb this critical nutrient is essential to your health and well-being.
Constipation, diarrhoea, bloating, gas, abdominal pain, fatigue, skin irritations, vomiting, and sugar cravings are all signs that your gut isn't functioning as it should.
If you’re having gut trouble, but your doctor can’t find the problem using a scope, scan, or other tests, you may be told there is nothing wrong with you and given little or no advice on how to feel better.
Unfortunately, our conventional medical system isn’t set up to deal with gut-related issues.
If you go to your doctor with digestive issues, you’ll most likely receive a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease, Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD), or Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). You’ll be put on a medication for your specific gut disorder that will mask the symptoms rather than treating the root cause.
What is the root cause of your gut issues?
The root cause of many gut issues is a lack of essential nutrients and building blocks for optimal gut health.
This is good news for all of us because we can make simple diet and lifestyle changes to reduce gut symptoms, increase our energy levels, and reclaim our vitality.
Not surprisingly, most medical doctors know diddly squat about nutrition as they receive little to no training in nutrition in medical school. This is even true of gastrointestinal doctors, which is mind-boggling, given the exclusive role of the gut in absorbing all of the nutrients from our food.
There is more to treating your gut issue than conventional medicine.
Granter, there are exceptions, as some doctors have a profound desire to heal, so they self-learn nutrition.
However, a lot of nutrition advice generally needs more critical thinking, leading many people astray, especially regarding gut health.
Gut issues are becoming far more prevalent in our modern society due to the following:
1. Modern food production methods mean our food is becoming less and less nutritious—even if you eat whole foods. In times gone by, foods were rich in natural enzymes and healthy bacteria, but in the modern world of packaged foods, they are often killed by heat processing and refining long before they reach your dinner plate.
2. Ancestral ways of eating have been abandoned. Humans are adapted to survive and thrive in a particular environment. A mismatch occurs when that environment changes faster than the organism can adapt. This mismatch—between our genes and our diet and lifestyle—is the driving factor behind the modern epidemic of chronic disease. Our genes haven’t changed much. What has changed is our food supply.
3. Chemicals in food alter gut health, whether listed on the label or not. It is also challenging to resist and avoid processed foods, alcohol, and sugar because they are everywhere, and these foods deplete nutrients and antioxidants.
4. Prescription medications have side effects that can rob you of these critical gut-healing nutrients. For example, medications like proton pump inhibitors or PPIS (i.e., omeprazole) prevent vitamin C from being absorbed.
5. Chronic stress affects the physiological function of the gut and has also been shown to cause changes in the composition of the microbiota.
In our modern world, it's hard to avoid these five things, but there is a lot we can do to minimise our exposure, clean up our diet, increase nutrient availability and heal the gut.
While this scary reality might make you think it is impossible to have a healthy gut, you might be in for a surprise. The gut cells reproduce every five days, so if you make improvements in your diet and feed your gut healing nutrients through diet and supplements, most often, you can and will feel better quickly.
I’ve experienced this myself and seen this happen many times with my health coaching clients.
In 2014, I plan to create a “fix your gut health coaching program” for people in midlife who want to stay in shape, have more energy, manage chronic health conditions, and unlock vitality beyond 40.
If you’re struggling with gut issues and want to work with me one-on-one, book a no-obligations health coaching discovery call to learn more about how health coaching can help.