Your Health Begins In Your Gut

It’s all in your gut

“At the heart of every order and disorder is inflammation” - Dr. David Perlmutter

You wake up, get out of bed, have a healthy bowel movement within that hour, and get going with your day. That’s how most of your days should begin. However, I hear the following all too often: you wake up, bloated from the night before, have been gassy most of the night, haven’t pooped in days, and feel the urge to go but can’t. Or you woke up, stomach in pain, and experienced diarrhea. Or, you woke up, and just didn’t feel the need to go that day.

On top of that, you’re exhausted, in pain, your brain feels foggy, you’re depressed or anxious, and you reach for that jolt of caffeine to get going. You rely on sugar, carbs and caffeine to make it through the day. This cycle repeats most days, worsening your gut health, and in turn, your chronic symptoms.

The gut contains friendly bacteria that help us digest, produce vitamins, and keep unfriendly bacteria at bay. Bowel movements happen at least once daily to ensure waste and toxins are removed from the body through the stool. A healthy gut contains more “good” bacteria than “bad”, which leads to health benefits, including reducing inflammation, and in turn, your fibromyalgia symptoms of chronic pain, fatigue, stiffness, insomnia and so forth.

5 key roles of the gut:

  1. Digestion (of food)

  2. Absorption (of nutrients)

  3. Immunity (immune barrier to outside world)

  4. Symbiosis (relationship with favourable bacteria)

  5. Detox (elimination of waste and toxins from the body)

Fresh air is needed!

fun facts about the gut:

70% of your immune system lives in the gut.

90% of serotonin (the brain’s happy chemical) is created in the gut.

50% of dopamine (the reward chemical) is created in the gut.

If your gut isn’t healthy, this may contribute to anxiety and depression symptoms. Your gut is considered your “second brain”, and it’s connected to your brain through the vagus nerve by the gut-brain axis, communicating with each other through neurotransmitters. Pretty cool eh? 

If you live with fibromyalgia like I do, poor gut health has been linked to one of the many root causes of your symptoms of chronic pain, fatigue, stiffness and insomnia. Your gut health needs to be addressed in order to help reduce your fibromyalgia symptoms. Poor gut health doesn’t just stop at fibromyalgia, take a look at some other ailments / symptoms that are linked to poor gut health:

Potential signs of poor gut health:

  1. Poor skin / acne / eczema

  2. Depression

  3. Anxiety

  4. Chronic stress

  5. Diarrhea

  6. Constipation

  7. Bloating

  8. Frequent gas

  9. Poor immunity (sick often)

  10. Chronic pain

  11. Chronic fatigue

  12. Food intolerances / allergies

what could be affecting your gut health? Let’s take a look:

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  1. Antibiotics

  2. Gluten

  3. Stress

  4. Toxins in bath, beauty and cleaning products

  5. Processed foods

  6. GMO (genetically modified) foods

  7. Sleep deprivation

  8. EMF exposure

  9. Too many raw veg

  10. Alcohol

  11. Unfiltered tap water

  12. Seed oils

  13. Sugar

  14. Low quality conventional dairy

  15. Pesticides on produce

  16. Caffeine

what can help heal the gut?

  1. The sun, yes, the SUN!

  2. Nutrient dense foods (good quality meat, eggs, butter)

  3. Daily exercise

  4. Quality sleep

  5. Probiotics (a supplement or fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi)

  6. Omega 3 (cod liver oil or wild caught fatty fish like salmon)

  7. Bone broth

  8. Deep breathing / stress relieving techniques

What can you do today to start improving your gut health?

Don’t try to do everything at once. Choose three changes, perfect those, then add a few more. Here’s what I do in the morning to support my own gut health: sip on one cup of bone broth, take a few of my supplements, ground my feet in the grass (during the summer), sit in the sun, and poop. After that, I make a nutrient dense brunch of meat, eggs, and fruit after my fasting overnight. Simple changes, adding up over time, lead to amazing results.

Gut health is one key pillar we work on together in the 1:1 8 week Feeling good with Fibro program. Healing the gut will help reduce your chronic symptoms of pain, fatigue, stiffness, insomnia and more. Trust me, I am living proof!

If you’re looking to get started on your health journey, I have 2 spots open in my program for March, so fill out the application if you’re interested!

Cheers to feeling good!

xo,

Alexis, The Nutritionist Mama

*Disclaimer - this is my own personal experience and not medical advice. 

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