Ep. 2 | 6 Mistakes When Healing Your Gut
Ep. 2 | 6 Mistakes When Healing Your Gut
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Welcome back to What the Gut. Today we are going to be talking about six common mistakes that people make when healing their gut. A lot of you are on a gut health journey. Maybe you even think that you need to heal your gut in some form or fashion, but are not really sure where to start. Some of you know that I have been on my own gut health journey, and some of these mistakes are some that I've experienced myself and had to learn the hard way. Keep reading because some of these mistakes might be some that you're experiencing as well.
#1: Overlooking Stress Management
Let's start with stress. It is not just the emotional roller coaster, but this significantly impacts your gut health. If you are not paying attention to your stress levels, if you are not focusing on stress reduction techniques, or if you are going through a lot of stress and not managing it as appropriately as you know that you should have…over time, that chronic stress can really be detrimental to your health. Whenever your body is under chronic stress, your body takes all of your blood flow, and shunts more of it to your essential, vital organs that you need to survive like your lungs, your brain, and your heart, and you have less blood flow that goes to your gut.
Chronic stress can even flare up irritable bowel symptoms. It can trigger digestive pain, gas, bloating, nausea and make loss of appetite occur. So reducing stress is a huge thing that can really help your gut microbiome more than you know.
Some different ways to de-stress– for me personally, are going on a walk or journaling, or just sitting in the quiet, maybe even reading a book. Getting adequate sleep at night. Which all of those things can be so extremely hard to get a hold of if we were all busy moms, right? But that just means that we have to work even harder to be healthy. And whenever I talk about stress, I am really talking about more than just stress at work. I'm talking about mental, emotional, physical, any kind of stress that you can possibly have in your life. Managing that more appropriately is going to show up in your gut. Just trust your gut because it always knows.
#2: The Overuse of Antibiotics
Excessive use of antibiotics can really disrupt the delicate balance of the gut bacteria that is in our gut microbiome. This basically causes a ripple effect on your overall gut health.
Frequent use of antibiotics, and even antibiotic use early on as a baby, can really trigger gut issues at some point in your life. I think that it is important to note that antibiotics- while they do treat bacterial infections and are lifesaving at times- they also can get overused and frequently abused because they don't just wipe out the bad bacteria, but they wipe out all of the good bacteria as well.
So it's really important that if you do take an antibiotic that you replace all of that good bacteria that has been wiped out, with more good bacteria. I think that this is a misconception and a lot of people are not familiar with this or told, and I think that it's really important.
#3: Ignoring Food Sensitivities
Food sensitivities play a significant role in how we feel and our gut health. Ignoring, or either not identifying them, can really perpetuate gut issues. Continuously consuming these trigger foods can really worsen the problems with our gut lining.
Now, I think it's really important to distinguish food sensitivities from food allergies, or food intolerances. A lot of people don't know the difference. Food sensitivities really refer to a more delayed, and usually subtle, reaction that your body has to certain foods. This response can range from digestive issues like bloating or stomach pain to different skin conditions, and even changes in mood or energy levels.
But on the other hand, food allergies trigger an immediate immune system response that can result in severe symptoms like hives, difficulty breathing, or anaphylaxis. A true food allergy is an IgE allergy. Basically your body will come in contact with an allergen and cause a release of histamine. This is a true allergy.
However, if you've heard my story before, I was not able to eat a lot of different foods. Well, I did not have a true allergy to these foods. I had a true sensitivity though. And whenever our gut is in such disarray, and it is just angry at everything, then absolutely anything is going to upset it. It's going to be sensitive to everything. This is what was going on with me, and it got to where no matter what I ate, my stomach was hurting. However, nothing that I ate actually made me ever go into anaphylactic shock. So there is a difference there.
Just a little caveat- If you do have gut issues or discomfort with a lot of different foods you eat and you think that this might be you- going to take a food sensitivity test is not the best use of your time. All that that is going to show you is what your stomach is mad at at that moment. I say this because that was me, and that was one of the first steps that I took into really trying to figure out the root cause of my gut issues. I found a food sensitivity test online (I'm not going to name any names), but it was a well-known company. I got my results back, and the list of all of the foods I was sensitive to were ranged on a number scale. I eliminated those foods for so many months and saw no difference. So, all that that test shows is what your stomach is mad at at the time that you take the test. If you really truly have an underlying gut issue, then taking a food sensitivity test is honestly a complete waste of your time in my opinion.
But if you're anything like me, sometimes you do have to learn things the hard way. Maybe you've already done a food sensitivity test and you've got a book full of all the things that you can't eat. You are not alone because like I'm telling you right now, I definitely took a food sensitivity test thinking that it would give me answers, but I did not know any difference at the time.
#4: Relying Solely on Probiotics
Probiotics- while they are beneficial- relying exclusively on them without addressing the true root cause of your gut issues will not offer a comprehensive solution. You're ultimately just putting a bandaid on everything. While probiotics do put good bacteria back into your gut, they're not going to heal the root cause of the issue, or build back up the gut lining if it has been damaged. Probiotics alone are not my first choice.
#5: Inadequate Fiber Intake
Fiber intake is crucial for digestion and gut health. Not consuming enough fiber rich foods really affects the diversity of the gut bacteria. Fiber can contribute to different kinds of imbalances with blood sugars and different digestive symptoms, even leading to high cholesterol and hormonal imbalances.
It is really important that adults eat about 25 to 35 grams of fiber per day from food. Most of the adults in the U.S. actually consume about half of that.
The best way to increase your fiber intake is to eat fresh whole fruits and vegetables with every single meal or snack. Just a tip that I like to use: Instead of drinking juices, maybe switch to smoothies, so that way that you can blend up a whole banana, for example, and you're getting more fiber in that snack.
#6: Skipping Professional Guidance
Attempting to heal your gut without seeking guidance from a professional, a holistic provider, a health coach, or even somebody who has had these experiences themselves, really can lead to misinformation or ineffective approaches that can really hinder your progress.
Functional medicine addresses the whole person, not just this isolated set of symptoms. Whenever you do work with a provider or a health coach that is specialized in functional medicine and gut health, you will come to see that they really spend more time with you and really take a deeper look into what's been going on throughout your whole life to actually lead up to the issue that's at hand.
It's really important to work with somebody that does know what they're talking about, that does know the right approach to take, that's not going to waste your time, your money, and also someone who's going to point you in the right direction of which path you need to be on. What supplements are best for your body type. And someone who really can give you a personalized approach.
Every single person's situation is different. While we might have some of the same symptoms, or even the same root cause, there are so many other circumstances that play a part in healing that are so different with everybody. So it's super important to just have somebody who will be patient with you and take the time to give you a personalized approach…and somebody who's educated in that department as well.
I challenge you to just take a moment and soak up each of these six common mistakes that people make whenever they are trying to heal their gut, and try to avoid them. If you are on a gut health journey yourself and you have found yourself just trying to do this all on your own and you don't know where to go, I would be more than happy to help you.
Remember that every single person's journey is different, but giving all of these areas specific attention really will make a world of difference in how you feel overall.
Take care of yourself, don't drink too much coffee, and drink lots of water.
XO,
Allison
Connect with Allison:
Instagram: @allison_and_wellness
Facebook: allisonandwellness
Website: www.allisonandwellness.com
