Having a healthy gut is vital for your vitality. I’m passionate about this topic because it’s our foundation for overall wellbeing. What goes on there not only affects physical wellness but also our mental health, our mood, our energy level, our immune system, our metabolism and more.
When we refer to gut health, we actually mean the function & balance of everything that goes on in the digestive system – the entire pathway from food going in at the top to food waste coming out at the bottom.
And talking of bottoms, a first step is to get interested in what’s coming out of yours! Thankfully, it’s more acceptable to talk about sh#* these days. Decades ago, Gillian McKeith helped to normalise the inspection of ‘stools’ in the ‘You are what you eat’ series and today there’s even a mainstream programme with the ‘s’ word in the title!
But it shouldn’t be a surprise that if your poo is difficult/ painful to pass, is an unusual colour or consistency or stinks to high heaven, something is not right. And of course there are plenty of other ways that the gut will let you know that it’s not happy…
If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, it’s highly likely that it’s time to improve your gut health:
- Unexplained weight loss
- Food intolerances
- Stomach upsets – including uncomfortable bloating/ excessive gas
- Fatigue
- Auto-immune conditions
- Sugar cravings
- Allergies
At this point, it’s important to discuss Irritable Bowel Syndrome or IBS.
This disorder is a group of symptoms that occur together, including repeated pain in the abdomen and changes in your bowel movements, which may be diarrhoea, constipation, or both. With IBS, you have these symptoms without any visible signs of damage or disease in your digestive tract.
There is lots of conjecture about the causes of IBS. Many in the medical profession hang onto their theories about bacteria, food intolerances, unexplained viruses etc (none of which really makes sense in the light of the emboldened text above – we’d expect to see physical changes internally, like inflammation etc). But, thankfully, even doctors are now admitting that the cause is likely to be more emotional than physical.
If you’re reading this, suffering from IBS, get in touch. Hypnotherapy is known to help relieve symptoms and very often cure it completely. After just a few sessions (normally 3-5 x hour sessions depending on the severity & the individual’s needs) you could be free of this terrible and too common disorder. Imagine that.
Since the symptoms can seem similar, it’s worth pointing out that they are different. Whilst you might experience some diarrhoea, constipation, excess wind & discomfort if your gut is unhealthy, it is markedly different from the constant, excessive manifestation of theses symptoms, which after medical investigation show no obvious cause.
I watched my Dad suffer with IBS for years. He took a stream of potions & pills to ‘keep him regular’ (as he called it) but nothing really worked and it was awful to see him suffering the continual worry about ‘having an accident’ and the panic that set in if he was far from a loo. It’s one of my biggest regrets – not understanding IBS better years ago. Perhaps I would have discovered hypnotherapy much earlier and been able to help him live a more enjoyable, less limited life…
Let’s put IBS aside for now and get back to general gut health, which all of us can do something about & has clear links to nutrition & lifestyle.
It’s pretty obvious that food plays a big part in this story.
If your diet contains more sugar, alcohol, processed food & ‘bad fats’ than wholefoods & vegetables you’re asking for trouble!
A simple way to think about this is: “If you look after your gut, your gut will look after you” & that means feeding the gut the right things.
But what are the best foods and why?
Answering this question, really needs an explanation of the gut microbiome. This is a brilliant, easy to read article about the bustling community of trillions of microbes (bacteria, funghi etc) that is referred to as the ‘microbiome’. We also have microbes hanging out in our mouths & skin and on our eyes, lungs & reproductive systems. I know, right… Wow! And Yuk! all at the same time.
These weird looking things (see below) do amazing work for our bodies and they need to be looked after. Giving them too much toxic crap to deal with, isn’t a smart move – even environmental toxins can have a detrimental affect, let alone the actual food you ingest.
If you want to find out more about foods that can help/ harm, and discover all the ways that you can improve the health of your digestive system without lifting a fork, I invite you to join me and my colleague, Amanda Blackley, for an informal webinar on Tuesday 18th April at 12.30 GMT/ 13.30 CET.
We’ll be sharing our own personal journeys – how we woke up to the facts & took control of our gut health. I’ll reveal the 2 key reasons why gut health must come first and you can find out what Amanda is a big fan of Tim Spector. We’ll share insight, experience, top tips and free gifts.
Click here for more details and for the link to register your FREE place today.
Join us live on Zoom and get all your questions answered. And if you can’t join live, but are still interested in learning more, leave me a message below. Or contact me directly.
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