Your Gut Microbiome is KEY to Your Health

Gut Microbiome Restorative Diet & Habits

Some trillions of microbes: bacteria, viruses, yeast/fungus… and others reside in your gut. The question is: Do they represent a healthy balance or are they impacting your health? This is so important, I’m giving all of it to you right here.

Very likely:

• If you have health issues you’d like gone or corrected, your gut microbiome is incorrect.
• If you have bowel movement issues, your gut microbiome is imbalanced.
• If you experience gas and/or bloating, your gut microbiome is incorrect.
• Past or current antibiotics, pain medications, SSRIs and other mood medications, many other medications… and your gut microbiome is off.

But that’s not all…

• If you have hormone imbalances, your gut microbiome is off.
• Constantly getting sick? Your gut microbiome pairs with your immune system so both are off.
• Constant allergies? Whether seasonal or food allergies, when your gut microbiome goes off you lose gut integrity—you gain many allergies.
• Low energy? Your gut microbiome produces many of the nutrients you need to produce energy. These aren’t made or absorbed when the microbiome is off.
• “Brain Fog”? Unhealthy microbes can produce alcohol among other things to make you feel tipsy.
• Depression, anxiety, mood swings? Your gut microbiome 1. provides nutrients,
  2. your immune system works with your gut to detect and eliminate unwanted microbes and other toxic substances. In doing so, your immune system produces compounds that make you feel tired, anxious, your joints can ache… and… if you have “leaky gut” then you have “leaky brain”: inflammation.
• So many more…

Chase symptoms? Let’s not!!

In my professional opinion, it makes no sense to chase symptoms of low thyroid, estrogen dominance, hot flashes, fatigue, moods, joint aches, constipation… without also correcting the gut microbiome.

Did you know? Your gut has its own nervous system called the Enteric Nervous System (ENS). It is capable of acting independently of other sections of your nervous system—your “second brain”. This ENS can:

• speak directly to the various microbiome residents in your lungs, mouth, bladder, lymph, brain… to coordinate
• speak directly to your brain and other organs to influence their activity including happiness, intimacy, peacefulness, attention,  cravings (especially chocolate), anxiety… depending on your balance of “good” and pathogenic, or “unhelpful”

If your gut is unhappy, YOU are unhappy!

Heal and Seal your Gut

That is why, regardless of which key nervous system and organ situation we’re rebalancing and supporting, as determined by Nutrition Response Testing and a detailed health history interview, we must also take steps to restore health to your digestive tract.

Minimally, this means adjusting your diet to feed the microbes you want and starve those working against you. That’s where a complete Food & Mood log come in. Too many starchy, refined, foods (especially convenience foods—even those labelled “healthy”

By the way, one of the most common habits to look at is “grazing” or eating small meals, snacks, throughout the day. While appropriate in certain health situations where we are trying to balance blood sugar and diabetes/prediabetes, among others, “grazing” prevents your small intestine from cleaning itself. A muscular “migrating motor complex” that moves eaten food along and cleans is stopped by snacking and nibbling.

For many, correcting these biochemical situations means my complete gut reset:

1. Test your transit time: how long does it take for food you eat to make it through your stomach, small intestine, colon, and out? Too fast? Poor nutrient absorption. Too slow? Toxic substances build up in you. Even with daily bowel movements, transit time can be too fast or slow. When we know this, we can address it. I’ve a very simple test that does not involve anything radioactive or harmful.
2. Weed: too many bad guys and not enough good? It’s OK to have some “bad guys”—keeps the immune system honest. But no more than 15%. For many, getting rid of an overpopulation of “bad guys” means a directed clearing program. It also means not feeding/encouraging them. And, if you have a history of salmonella, C. diff, E. coli, viral infections, recurring parasites (or large infestations)… it may mean specific remedies. We can do this
3. Feed: Depending on your unique situation and goals, this may mean anything from continuing your nourishing and anti-inflammatory eating habits to Prebiotics: a group of nutrients that support healthy gut microbiota, encourage them to survive, and in doing so provide a health benefit.
4. Seed: Simply taking probiotics doesn’t work. You cannot reinoculate the gut if all the “parking spots” are filled with “bad guys”.
   Probiotics: the beneficial gut microbiota themselves. Eating yogurt provides one strain only. Just like dogs and cats, they are all each species yet there are thousands of different breeds (a.k.a. strains in the microbe world).
5. Maintain: Now that you’ve removed unwanted or overgrown bacteria, yeast, etc., and likely feel much better, don’t you want to keep it? We continue a directed diet while adding back foods in a specific plan with targeted systems support as needed and determined by Nutrition Response Testing.

Kickstart your gut health today. Call 907-222-1824 or email marie@synergynutrition.info

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