Gut Health Essentials
If you missed our online workshop last week, it is still available on our Facebook page. I encourage you to pop over and check it out for all of the details but here is a brief overview of gut health and some action steps to restoring your health!
The gut is one of the most powerful and complex systems in our bodies! Not only does it take food and turn it into human cells, but it makes up 70% of our immune systems, and plays a huge role in brain function and mental health. So its pretty important to take care of our guts!
Problems arise when we put things in our bodies that aren’t supposed to be there. Things like excess sugar, grains, and man-made toxins irritate and damage the gut lining causing it to wear out and makes it impossible for the gut to do its job of digesting food and keeping the garbage out of your blood stream. That’s called leaky gut. Essentially, the gut wall cannot keep out harmful substances and they LEAK into your blood stream. When this happens your immune system goes on high alert attacking and removing those harmful substances. But if the problem persists, more and more harmful substances leak in causing your immune system to stay on guard constantly. Eventually your immune system breaks and starts destroying anything in its path. That, in a nutshell, is autoimmune disease. A broken immune system caused by a leaking gut. Solution: REMOVE the causes of your gut issues and RESTORE your gut back to health.
REMOVE: Get rid of the things that caused the problem in the first place! This seems so obvious. If you have a nail in your tire, you can pump all the air into it that you want but unless you remove the nail, the air will seep right back out!
Sugar/ Grains: There are many things that cause damage to your gut but none so prevalent as excess sugar and grains. These two enemies of health cause chronic inflammation and irritation and slowly tear up your gut lining. If you or your child has gut/ digestive issues, remove all sugar and all grains right away.
Lactose: Humans are the only creatures to use the milk from other animals! Its kind of weird when you think about it but beyond that, humans aren’t designed to break down lactose which is why so many people cannot handle dairy at all. So do process it better than others, but if you’re looking to heal your gut, cut out lactose at least for a month to see how you improve.
Toxins: When you take in harmful chemicals, it’s like swallowing a rock. When you swallow a rock, your body will do a great job of getting rid of it but it still must pass through your digestive system. As the rock is moving through, it scrapes, bangs, and tears up the gut! The same damage occurs when you take in toxins! Outside chemicals do not belong on the inside. It doesn’t matter what the chemical is, it should not be there and will cause damage to your health. Common chemicals come from the plastics you use (especially for food storage and cooking), the water you drink (heavy metals, fluoride, chlorine), and the drugs you take. Medications can be lifesaving but when used long term they have terrible effects on your health. Drugs are not intended for health they are intended to get you out of a bind when you are very sick and are in crisis mode. They disrupt your body’s ability to function properly and many have terrible effects on the gut. Even simple NSAIDs like aspirin cause intestinal damage. So, to heal your gut, cut the toxins.
RESTORE: Once you have removed the causes of the continued damage to your gut, your body will being to heal and restore but there are things that you can do to help your body restore faster!
Eat well! Start eating the Advanced Plan right away. See the NGFC team for support on this. The AP will give your body the essentials it needs and none of the garbage. I recommend at least 30 days of strict AP to begin.
Try fasting! You have been digesting food since you were born. Your gut needs a break so that it can use that energy to heal. Intermittent fasting is a great option. Basically, you simply don’t eat for 12-18 in a day. The easiest way is to cut out breakfast. So you will go from supper to lunch (approx. 16 hours). But the most effective way is to cut out supper. So you will eat breakfast and lunch but wont eat again until the next morning! Give it a shot, its easier than you’d think.
Supplements: You cannot get all of your nutrients from a healthy diet anymore. Modern fields and crops are largely depleted of vital nutrients. So you must “supplement” your diet. The problem is that the supplement industry is wildly under regulated. You can put just about anything on the label and charge what ever you please. Marketing agencies have jumped on this industry causing millions of people to over pay for supplements that don’t contain what they say!
I am very proud of the MaxLiving supplements that we sell at NGFC. They are of the highest quality possible, always contain exactly what is on the label, and always come in the most bioavailable forms. These are the supplements that we take daily and so should you!
Max GI + Probiotic 50B: The combo of Max GI and Probiotic 50B is a powerful punch for gut health. With digestive enzymes, essential oils, prebiotics, and 10 different strains of essential probiotics these two supplements is a great place to start to get things moving and healing.
Bone Broth Protein + Collagen + Max Greens: These 3 make up the majority of my daily smoothie. The bone broth protein plus collagen give your gut everything it needs to repair the gut wall. The greens add the nutrients of nearly 40 different organic veggies including fiber, which is essential for gut health. Plus it all tastes great as a morning smoothie!
Daily Essentials: Just as the name implies, the daily essentials are the bare minimum that your body needs to function properly every day. Nearly everyone is deficient in these nutrients but especially magnesium. If you want proper gut function, magnesium should be at the top of your supplement list, but Mg only takes its full effect when combined with Vitamin D and B, which is why they all come together in the Daily Essentials packet.
For many, following this outline is just the beginning. Your gut issues may have been around for decades. It will take more to correct all of that damage, either way this is your starting point. But for most, this is all you need. REMOVE the causes and help your body RESTORE! The key is to make one good choice at a time!
If you live in the Colorado Springs, Monument, Palmer Lake area and are ready to begin your health journey, give us a call today!
In Health and Faith,
Dr. Marc
Northgate Family Chiropractic
12245 Voyager Pkwy, Ste 124
Colorado Springs, CO 80921
(719) 419-7955
