Healthy Gut Practices + 5 Mistakes to Avoid
HEALTHY GUT PRACTICES
- Wise Food Choices - food is medicine so making food choices that support health is key. Please follow the meal plan recommended by your practitioner and expect that to change as your symptoms and circumstances change. Food is a tool. Keep reading & make the effort to put food in it’s “right place” as fuel and find other ways to entertain, comfort and reward yourself.
- MEAL SPACING - one of the BEST tools and a secret weapon for gut issues. Ideal is 4-5 hours between meals so your food can digest and move through. (The MMC wave only starts when you are fasting and takes hours to complete). Note: if you have blood sugar balancing issues (symptoms of hypoglycemia, adrenal issues, getting “hangry”) you may need to address that first and slowly stretch the space between your meals from 3 hours to 4 hours and so on. Having appropriate protein and healthy fat at breakfast and lunch will help aid this process.
- Relax, then Eat - in order to bring a sense of calm to your meal/snack and stimulate a parasympathetic state. Utilize vagal tone exercises to “trick the body” to relax.
- INCREASE VAGAL TONE - this should be a part of your daily routine and doesn’t need to take long. Review the Vagal Tone handout and consider singing/chanting in the shower, 5 min of morning meditation, & humming 30 seconds before each meal.
- Practice BELLY BREATHING - take a deep breath in and stick your stomach out, let out your breath and pull your belly in (with your belly button pulled tightly toward your spine). Repeat as a form of “intestinal massage”. Start with just a few and then work up to utilizing this all day long. Supports peristalsis and overall gut motility.
- Poop daily - minimum is 1x/day and goal is 2-3x/day with ease. Gut motility issues (food moving slowly through the digestive system) is a major risk for creating the issues to begin with and can foster regrowth. Ask your practitioner about what to do if you get constipated.
MISTAKES TO AVOID
- Expecting a “quick fix”- it isn’t realistic & will just set you up to be frustrated. It took time to get to this stage of gut issues & it will take time to undo them. Although supplementation is key to reducing symptoms, the lifestyle changes are where the long term success lies so please make the much-needed changes & allow yourself plenty of grace in the process.
- Expecting to only use “one antimicrobial or antibiotic round” - some of these conditions have a relapse rate of 50-85%, and some are particularly stubborn to address. These are also living organisms so we often have to switch antimicrobial agents so they don’t build up a self-defense mechanism.
- Expecting a “smooth ride” - making a shift with an overgrowth of fungus, yeast, bacteria, doesn’t always mean they “go quietly into the night”. For example, many bacteria release an endotoxin which is part of why you were feeling crummy to begin with and then when they die, even more endotoxins are released. This is an important time to not be constipated as most will be eliminated through your poop. We advise that if you are taking supplementation and “it is too easy” (as in, you don’t notice anything) then we likely need to add a “Biofilm Buster” to break down what the microorganisms use to hide from your body’s natural defenses or from our supplementation efforts. Likewise, if “it is too hard” (as in, you feel like you are living in the bathroom and absolutely miserable) then we need to slow down the process or give you a “binder” as you are likely making shifts faster than your body can handle or detox. It is normal to have some good and bad days and shifts in bowels, but it should be manageable.
- Not considering all gut health issues or underlying causes - up to ⅔ of people will have a yeast AND a bacterial overgrowth. Addressing the root cause is essential to long term success.
- Self-medicating, experimenting - gut health is complex, just when to use a probiotic is a very involved process so please work in partnership with your practitioner.
