All Health Starts In Your Gut | Ep 163

Melissa Deally: 00:00:06

Imagine getting up every day full of energy is if you were in your 20s. Again, what would that be like? What would that be worth to you? What is your health worth to you? Think about it. Your health isn't everything. But without it, everything else is nothing. And yet too many of us are taking it for granted until something goes wrong. No one wakes up hoping to be diagnosed with a disease or chronic illness. And yet, we've never been taught how to be proactive in our health through our school system, or public health. As a registered health coach and integrative health practitioner, I believe it is time this information is made available to everyone. Combining new knowledge around your health and the ability to do my functional medicine lab tests in the comfort of your own home will allow you to optimize your health for today and all your tomorrow's don't wait for your wake up call welcome back to another episode of The don't wait for your wake up call podcast. I am Melissa Deally, your host and excited to start a new theme this month. This month we're talking about gut health. And before we dive into that, I would love to share a testimonial from a recent client. Christy gates in Ontario Canada who says Melissa was so great to work with extremely knowledgeable and always eager to assist and guide the way when needed. I always felt she made the time for me and any questions I had during my protocols, which included a liver detox, parasite cleanse and CBO Candida bacterial overgrowth protocol, she made it all so much easier to manage, I highly recommend working with Melissa on your health care journey. Thank you Krista for sending that in and perfectly timely with the fact that we are talking about gut health this month. And that was your major focus on your health journey. So I love to share that chronic disease doesn't have to be a life sentence. Unfortunately, it is running rampant these days. And it is caused by three main factors, your high toxic load, your low nutrient uptake, and high stress. And when I work with my clients, I address all three of these factors. And today as we start talking about gut health, and its importance to your overall health. I want to go back in time back to over 2000 years ago, when Hippocrates said that all disease starts in the gut. And I personally prefer to say that all health starts in the gut. And you may not know this, however, in your gut, or your microbiome, you How's 40,000 species of bacteria, 5 million species of fungi, and 300,000 species of parasites. This is six pounds of living species and over 100 trillion microbes all working together symbiotically for your health, breaking down your food and getting the nutrients out of the food and into your cells that need them so that you can have the energy you want to get through your day, and you can thrive in your life. So let's talk about why do we need to look after the health of our gut. First off, as I've just said, let's focus on digestive health. A healthy gut promotes efficient digestion, reducing the likelihood of digestive issues such as bloating, gas, and constipation. None of these are normal, or should be tolerated. They are all signs of your gut being out of balance and their symptoms, which is your body's way of letting you know that something is amiss, and that you should do something about it. And your digestive system. When is efficient, uses 30% of your energy every time you put food in your mouth. If it's inefficient, it can be using more energy than that or simply not breaking down your foods such that the nutrients aren't getting to your cells and therefore you don't have the energy that you want. So either way, you want healthy gut in order to have efficient digestion the Second reason you want to be looking after the health of your gut is to promote nutrient absorption. Because a well functioning gut can actually absorb those essential nutrients effectively, ensuring that your cells are getting the energy production and cellular function is happening well for your body, if your cells aren't getting the nutrients, then they can't function the way they're supposed to. And tied in with both of those is your energy level. And I see so many people that are struggling with their energy dragging their butt at the end of the day, you know, struggling to make it through the afternoon, etc, waking up exhausted? Well, a healthy gut helps optimize energy production by aiding in the breakdown and absorption of nutrients, leading to improved energy levels, and reduced fatigue. So you can see this connection here, right? If you want to have the energy and the vitality you want, it all starts in a healthy gut, and making sure your digestive function is working well. The other thing you may not know is that 70% of your immune system is housed in your gut. Therefore, a balanced and healthy gut helps protect against infections and supports the immune system and doing its job. Your gut brain axis connects the gut, and the brain, obviously, and this influences your mood and mental health. And you may not have figured that out. So a healthy gut microbiome is associated with improved mood, and reduced risk of anxiety and depression. In fact, 90% of all serotonin is made in the gut. So again, if your gut isn't functioning, well, it can't produce enough serotonin. You might be struggling with depression. And then you go to the doctor, and they put you on an SSRI, which can actually then further negatively impact the health of your gut. Why not start looking at the health of your gut as the starting point, because we know that all disease starts in the gut, as Hippocrates said. And it's incredible that it's taken this many years for the science to come back and back that and sometimes they stop and think, Hmm, how did he actually know that way back then, over 2000 years ago, and that kind of blows my mind. However, it's so true. And if our gut isn't healthy, it leads to all of these different potential health issues. One of them is causing anxiety or depression, which again, there's so many people struggling with that today. Are you looking at health of your gut as one of the solutions on your healing journey. And if not, you might want to start looking into that. A healthy gut is important for inflammation control as well. Chronic inflammation is linked to various diseases, some people say it's the root cause of all disease. I don't buy into that I want to know what is causing the inflammation that is causing that disease. However, healthy gut helps regulate inflammation levels, reducing the risk of inflammatory conditions. And when we reduce the risk of inflammatory conditions. We're also reducing the risk of diseases that were genetically predisposed to. And that's signs of epigenetics. And that science is that it's only five to 10% of all diseases that are dictate your health outcomes. Genetically. We used to hear a lot of, if your mother had breast cancer, you're going to have breast cancer, if your father had heart disease, you're going to have heart disease. And we know that that isn't true anymore. It's only five to 10% of diseases where that might hold true. The other 90 to 95% of that equation is actually the lifestyle that you live. So you might have some genes that predispose you to breast cancer, or heart disease or something else. But the other 90 to 95% is determined by your lifestyle factors. And when you live a healthy life, you have good nutrition, you keep your toxic low, you sleep well, your stress is balanced, you're exercising Well, et cetera, et cetera, have a great mindset. You can keep your inflammation levels at a balanced level. And when you keep your inflammation levels at a balanced level, then they don't trigger the switch to turn on the disease that you're predisposed. As to So that's why inflammation control is so important. You might be predisposed to something, but that disease never has to turn on inside your body. Another benefit of focusing on your gut health is weight management. Because gut health plays a role in metabolism and weight regulation and imbalance gut microbiome supports healthy weight and reduces the risk of obesity. And then there's skin health. And this is something that when I work with clients, they often don't realize this connection between our gut health and our skin health, there is actually a gut skin axis. And it connects the two and a healthy gut microbiome can improve skin health, reducing the risk of conditions like acne, and eczema. And so yes, if you have eczema or acne or other skin conditions, you do want to look at the health of your gut, because very often, it is triggered by an imbalance in the gut. Our gut impacts our brain function, I've already mentioned that gut brain access. And a balanced gut supports cognitive performance, memory and concentration. The inflammation I talked about earlier is a factor here too, because the foods that we eat are also impacting our cognitive performance. And of course, the foods that we eat are being broken down by our gut. So when we're eating a highly inflammatory diet, or foods like dairy, that are inflammatory sugar gluten, this can contribute to brain fog, due to that gut brain axis. So what is the health of your brain? Have you thought about that? In relation to the health of your gut, and vice versa. And lastly, overall longevity. I don't know if you're like me, but I intend to live to be a centenarian. And so I prioritize me my health in order that I can do that. And supporting gut health is associated with longevity and overall quality of life. A healthy gut microbiome promotes vitality and resilience as we age. So hopefully, those 10 reasons that you want to be focusing on your gut health have started you thinking. Now I want to talk about what causes an unhealthy gut in the first place. It'd be wonderful if we lived in a world where our guts were always healthy, however, we don't. And so I just want to go through these causes of an unhealthy gut, in case they relate to you so that you might have an AHA and think, okay, maybe I need to focus on my gut health because of these reasons. So the first one is a diet high in processed foods, refined sugars, artificial additives, and low in fiber, can disrupt the balance of gut bacteria and lead to inflammation. The second one impacts everyone. And it's chronic stress. prolonged periods of stress can negatively impact the gut by altering altering gut motility, increasing inflammation, and compromising the intestinal barrier function and also killing off our healthy microbes. And we live in a stressed out world we look around, we see everyone else is stressed out. And so we can be in chronic stress without even really realizing it. Because we've just lived that way we've got so used to living that way. And we don't realize the negative impact that has on our health down the line. And it can be damaging the health of your gut, which of course we don't want because all health starts in your gut. Now this next one is a biggie number three antibiotics and medications, overuse or misuse of antibiotics can disrupt the balance of gut bacteria leading to dysbiosis. Other medications like non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs, like Advil, Tylenol, Tylenol, et cetera. And then proton pump inhibitors can also affect gut health. Again, they're killing off our good bacteria and causing an imbalance in the gut. And in fact, one dose of antibiotics not one treatment, one dose can wipe out the balance in your gut. So it's really important that if you are using an antibiotic, you also want to be using a probiotic so that you can be putting the goodness back into your gut. Now you don't use them at the same time. If you do, they will cancel out each other out. So you want to use them at least one hour apart, ideally two to three hours apart. And obviously your ability to do that is going to depend on how many doses of the antibiotic you need to take during the day. We came From a place where antibiotics were developed as a life saving remedy to a place where they're being prescribed over and over again, such that they're so widely used now that they're actually in our water supply. So even though you might not be on an antibiotic, you might be getting the remnants of antibiotics through your tap water and into your body negatively impacting the health of your gut. So probiotics can be great to use on an ongoing basis to protect your gut health. However, if you have a yeast overgrowth, then a probiotic might feed that. And that would be a time when you wouldn't want to be using a probiotic every single day. So if you have symptoms of a yeast infection, or you know, your gut is not operating at its best, you'd want to lab test first to find out exactly what's going on. Before you decide that you need to just start using a probiotic. And I can offer those lab tests. And they're super helpful because they give us so much information as to what's going on inside your gut. And then we know what to do and what steps to take. So back to a Another common cause of an imbalanced gut is number four is lack of sleep in adequate sleep or poor sleep quality can actually disrupt the gut microbiota, and increase inflammation contributing to gut health issues. Again, like stress, poor sleep kills off our good gut microbes, and that just creates an imbalance. Another reason is excessive alcohol consumption. Alcohol can irritate the entire gastrointestinal tract, disrupt the gut microbiota, and increase intestinal permeability, leading to inflammation and gut dysfunction. And by intestinal permeability, I mean, leaky gut. And by that, I mean, the lining of your gut wall is basically this very long tube all the way from your mouth to your anus. And what's inside that tube is mostly supposed to stay in that tube, except for the nutrients that are extracted by all of your gut microbes, and then sent out to your cells that need them. However, we can get cracks in that tube, and holes, which allow things to get out into our bloodstream that should never be in our bloodstream, like microbes, like parasites, like antibiotics, et cetera, et cetera. And we don't want that to happen. And yet, excessive alcohol consumption can be one of the reasons that we can get a leaky gut infections, bacterial, viral, or parasite infections can also disrupt the health of our gut and lead to conditions like gastroenteritis and SIBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. And again, we can lab test and see if you have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, so that we then know exactly what treatment plan to follow. And these lab tests that I'm talking about, get mailed to your home. It's literally a first morning urine sample, it's really easy to do, you ship it back to the lab, and we get so much information about what's going on inside your gut. That is really helpful to you in understanding the next next steps to be taking. systemic inflammation often associated with conditions like obesity, autoimmune diseases, and inflammatory bowel diseases can negatively in fact, impact our gut health as well. And then there's environmental factors. exposure to environmental toxins, pollutants and certain chemicals can disrupt the gut microbiota and impair gut function. Remember, at the very beginning of this podcast, I said three of the causes of chronic illness are low nutrient uptake, and toxicity and stress. And all of those are on this list because they are all negatively impacting the health of our gut. And all disease starts in the gut or all health starts in the gut. Lack of physical activity. sedentary lifestyles can also contribute to imbalances in gut bacteria and increase the risk of gun related disorders. And then lastly, and this list is by no means a complete list. However, it's you know, 10 key factors. Genetic factors can also predispose individuals to certain gut related conditions such as IBS or IBD, inflammatory bowel disease. So we've gone through reasons you want to look after your gut, we've gone through the 10 major factors that negatively impact your gut. Let's now talk about 10 signs of an unhappy gut so that you can get an idea of whether your gut isn't is unhappy or not. So, these are digestive issues. Persistent digestive issues such as bloating, gas, diarrhea, constipation or abdominal abdominal pain can indicate an imbalance in the gut microbiome. And as I said earlier, those are all symptoms that your body is trying to bring to your awareness that something is out of balance, and it's time to look into what you can do about it. Food intolerances, developing new food intolerances or experiencing experiencing increased sensitivity to certain foods may suggest gut health issues. The more out of balance our gut is, the more food intolerances we are going to have. So as we clean up the health of our gut, we can also lower the number of food intolerances that we have. Chronic Fatigue is another factor here, feeling constantly tired or experiencing low energy levels, despite adequate sleep, and rest can be a poor sign of gut health. Remember, that healthy gut uses 30% of your energy to break down your food. That's a lot of energy 30% Every time you put something in your mouth, but an unhealthy gut is going to use even more energy and then now your energy is going like maybe it's 40% or 50% of your energy is going to breaking down the food that you're eating, and you don't have as much energy left for living your life the way you want to live your life. Mood swings, anxiety and depression irritability or difficulty concentrating may also be linked to gut health issues because of that gut brain axis. And it's certainly a starting point that you can look at and address the health of your gut, using plant based products in a really healthy way. And notice the improvements and then if you need more support, then you could look at other options as well. skin issues as I've said, like acne and eczema rosacea are indicative of gut imbalances. And something else that you want to consider if you have these symptoms, start thinking about what's going on inside my gut. unexplained weight loss or weight gain, despite no significant changes in diet or exercise habits may also signal gut health issues. frequent infections, colds or illnesses may indicate a compromised immune system, which of course is linked to poor gut health because 70% of your immune system is housed in your gut. So are you getting sick often, and if so, let's take a look at the health of your gut. Autoimmune diseases are also very often triggered by leaky gut. These are diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or Hashimotos. And they can be exacerbated by gut imbalances. And as we heal the gut, we can also reduce the symptoms of these autoimmune diseases. As I've mentioned several times chronic inflammation, inflammation, not inflammation, chronic inflammation, if you're struggling with joint pain, muscle aches or any other inflammatory condition, that can be a sign of an imbalanced gut. And when I take people through my guided detox program, we're bringing inflammation and low low in the body down as we start the healing process of the gut. And people are always commenting. When we bring that inflammation level down, their joint pain goes away, their muscle aches go away. And this is why we're bringing the inflammation level down and we're starting to heal with that. And it literally can be as simple as that you don't have to suffer through and using Tylenol and Advil to mask the pain is simply causing more havoc on the health of your gut, than if you were to instead address the health of your gut and allow it to heal. And then your muscle pains and your joint aches go away. And then sleep disturbances if you have difficulty falling asleep staying asleep or you're just experiencing poor sleep quality in general. This may also be attributed to disruptions with gut brain access and gut health problems. It may not be the only reason I've talked a lot about sleep. And there are many reasons for sleep issues aside from the gut, however, Again, we got is one place that you can look, aside from looking at blue light, and your, how late you're eating in the day, the timing of going to bed, your bedtime routine, the comfort of your room, et cetera, et cetera. And if you want to learn more about sleep, you can certainly go all the way back to my early podcasts. I believe it was podcast number five, and number seven, where I talked in detail about sleep. So I also want to talk about and acids, because they are the second most frequently purchased over the counter medicine, after the pain relievers, Tylenol and Advil that I literally just mentioned, and how damaging they can be on the health of our gut. So if we are struggling with heartburn, and acid reflux, we are often told that that's because we have too much stomach acid in our stomach, and therefore we need to take an ant acid to block our production of stomach acid. Now, that kind of makes logical sense. Except that here's the thing. When we are in our stress state, our digestive system is shut down. Because our body is doing everything it can to produce more cortisol and more adrenaline in order for you to be able to run and get to safety, or fight and get to safety. And what's supposed to happen then is once you get to safety, that your system naturally drops down into your rest and digest system, your parasympathetic nervous system. And of course, that system when you're in that state is when your digestive system is turned on. However, because most of us are living in chronic stress, our digestive system is not turned on when we eat. If our digestive system is not turned on, it isn't producing saliva in our mouth, and salivary enzymes in order to support the digestive process. It is not producing stomach acid to help break down our food, or any of the digestive enzymes in the rest of our entire digestive tract. And so what happens, we're putting food into our mouths, and our body isn't able to digest it properly, which again, is not good in the long run. And I'm explaining that to you. Because I want to show you that you do not have too much stomach acid. What happens to make us believe that because we're getting this acid reflux, we're getting acid up into our esophagus is that at the bottom of our esophagus, there is a flap that opens so that food can go into the stomach cavity, and then it closes up nice and tight once the food has passed through. However, stress causes a weakening of that flap. And over time, what happens is it doesn't close up properly after the food passes through. And so there's a gap. And then what happens is that the stomach acid that you do have, because there's still a little bit left in your stomach, even when you're not in your rest and digest state can escape up into your esophagus and you get heartburn or acid reflux, and then you think I have too much stomach acid I have to take an acid to block it and you go to the store and you buy some The reality is though you do not have too much stomach acid, your esophagus, the full the lower esophageal sphincter is not functioning properly because you have too much stress. And when we have too much stress, what is the body not doing? It is not producing stomach acid, it is not producing your enzymes to break down your food. So even though that and acid might help you in the short term, in the long term, it is causing further struggles with your digestive health, because you are continually stopping your body from producing the stomach acid that it needs in order to break down the food that you're still eating. And over the long term that is not a good outcome. If you read the bottle at the end as a bottle and the information on it, it says do not take this for more than two weeks at a time. And yet I have people that will tell me I've been using it for two years. And then we get them off it and we start healing their gut and they don't need it anymore and they feel so much better. And so I just want to bring that to your attention because it is an over the counter medication. You can just walk in and buy it and people do and have no idea how That is negatively impacting the long term health of your gut. And what is your gut, all health starts in your gut. So you don't want to be negatively impacting the long term health of it. So if you are struggling with gut issues, what can you do? Well, as I've mentioned earlier, you can run lab tests that get mailed to your home, that will show you whether you have a yeast or bacterial overgrowth, whether you have H, pylori, or parasite. And they'll actually show you more than just that one of the ones that urine sample one that I mentioned earlier, it shows the health of your mitochondria function, it shows your neurotransmitter function because of that gut brain axis. So we know that your neurotransmitters are being produced properly and at the right levels. It shows the health of your detox pathways, and it shows your vitamin levels so we can see if the you are absorbing enough vitamins from the foods that you are eating. So this is a very helpful lab. And once we have all of this information, I create a wellness plan to guide you through healing your gut, and it's completely personalized to you and what we see in that lab. And we heal your gut using plants and herbs, rather than antibiotics, antibiotics that further damage your gut. And Mother Nature has literally given us everything that we need in order to be able to heal. And so that's why I love to work with our natural plants and herbs in order to start the healing process. And going back to Hippocrates, he said something else. He said, Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. And that's exactly why I prefer to use the plant based products whenever possible. So I want to invite you, if you're interested in gut health, if you know someone who's struggling with the health of their God, or if you're struggling with the health of your gut, to consider this podcast, all of the different reasons that I've provided as to why we need to look after the health of our gut, what can disrupt the health of our gut. And know that there are steps that you can take through at home functional medicine lab testing, that you don't get through your medical doctor, because these labs show the root cause, and they help us then truly help you heal your gut. And coming back the rest of this month I continue talking about gut health. And I have some great interviews coming up. Next week I have Greg the hydrogen man talking about the healing powers of hydrogen, water and gas on our gut and overall health. And the following week, I have a great interview with Anne Metcalf talking about the impact of poor nutrition on children in her classroom and tips for parents. And in the last week of the month, I have a discussion with Michelle drew in regards to the importance of keeping the pH level of your body in the optimal range. So thank you as always for listening. Please share this episode with somebody that you know that needs to hear it. I know many, many people are struggling with their gut health and don't know what to do. And I thank you for listening for sharing for showing up here every week to pay attention to your health because your health is your greatest asset. And thank you for prioritizing it. Thank you for investing this time with me on the don't wait for your wake up call Podcast. I'm so glad you joined in. If you can take two minutes to share this episode with someone you think can benefit and have a positive impact on their life. That would be wonderful. Please leave a review by going to your favorite podcast listening app. And let me know what you enjoy or would like to hear more of it will support me in my effort to bring the possibility of natural healing to a wider audience and help disrupt the sick care system we have today and make human health a global priority. Health is your true wealth.