Week 6 Transformations
Gut Health
In Functional/Integrative/Natural/Holistic Medicines, we say, “the gut is the root of all health”. When the gut is not functioning properly, it will be very difficult to fix anything else. It will also be difficult to acquire all the nutrients possible from food and supplements. There are many reasons the gut gets imbalanced. We will discuss two of the major ones.
1) Food sensitivities: A person may have food sensitivities that cause a constant low level of inflammation or irritation. These sensitivities can also cause weakness in the lining of the intestines and cause a problem called leaky gut. With leaky gut, the immune system is stimulated by the irritating foods. Because the lining of the intestines is weakened and may have gaps between the tiny cells, these immune components leak out of the gaps and then settle in weak parts of the body. I have seen gut issues cause anything from headaches to fatigue to joint pain. Leaky gut is best healed by identifying the cause, discontinuing it, and then using nourishing foods and herbs to heal the gut. You can see a practitioner and have a complex food allergy panel performed, or you can simply do an elimination diet.
If you suspect a food sensitivity, eliminate that food completely for 6 weeks. On the day you wish to try it again, eat a little bit of the food a few times in one day. Wait 4 days and watch carefully for symptoms. Food sensitivity symptoms can appear up to 4 days after eating an irritating food. If no symptoms occur, you are likely not sensitive to that food. Try the next one. The most common food sensitivities arise from gluten, dairy, eggs, peanuts, shellfish, corn, soy, and unfortunately, coffee. Be sure you eliminate the food 100%. Food sensitivities are like the flu. It only takes one droplet to trigger a full body response.
If you do have a sensitivity, you will probably begin to feel much better and have relief of symptoms once it has been eliminated for a couple of weeks. We do 6 weeks because it takes 4 weeks for your immune system to stop responding to the foods and two more weeks for the gut to heal. Herbs to use for gut healing are slippery elm bark, marshmallow, chamomile, calendula, and licorice root. They can be taken as powders mixed in water or as tea. Avoid capsules for gut healing. We want the herbs to touch as much surface area as possible. You are not required to test the food again. Many people feel so much better that they decide never to have that food again.
Did you notice any trends when you did your food diary? Take a look back at the emotions you noted and what you had eaten. Any correlations? There are even apps for smart phones to track possible allergen foods if you are not up for an elimination diet.
2) Dysbiosis: Dysbiosis means an imbalance between the beneficial “good” and pathogenic “bad” bacteria in the gut. This is one of the most common issues I see when there are gastrointestinal symptoms. Ideally, the beneficial bacteria should outnumber the pathogenic at a ratio of about 85:15. It is thought that we have over 500 species of bacteria in our guts that work to help to ward off pathogens, strengthen the immune system, and help break down food. The most common beneficial bacteria are lactobacilli and bifidobacteria.
Beneficial bacteria support the mucosal lining of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, which helps to maintain the GI barrier function (and avoid leaky gut). They support immune health by helping the body make more of the infection fighting immune cells. Good bacteria can prevent over-colonization of the gut with pathogenic organisms and may decrease the risk of some GI diseases. They have been found to ward off yeast infections, allergies, and might even reduce stress, depression, and anxiety, and are particularly helpful with irritable bowel disease.
So, should you take a probiotic or not? I generally only recommend supplementing with probiotics when there is a GI issue. I have seen improvement with probiotic use in my practice with many conditions, including diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating, vaginal yeast infections, and rashes. I always recommend probiotics during and after antibiotic use. During bouts of diarrhea, you should take a probiotic after each episode. Also try probiotics during times of stress, allergy seasons, and infections.
The follow-up question to, “should I take a probiotic”, is “how do I take a probiotic”. The minimum dose for a probiotic capsule is 5 billion colony forming units (CFUs). Probiotics should be taken with a meal. In the past, we got our good bacteria from the soil our food was grown in. Taking with meals, mimics this. During antibiotic regimens, take the probiotic between doses. After a short time, the antibiotic enters the blood stream leaving the gut open for the probiotics to re-colonize. You should also stay on probiotics for a few weeks after taking the antibiotic. Probiotics have been shown to be safe even at very high doses. Be sure to always buy a high quality probiotic from a reputable source. Companies who make effective probiotics spend a great deal of money and energy into the timing, temperature, and shipping, and insist on proper storage by retailers.
If you are not having a health concern, but want to be sure your level of beneficial bacteria is adequate, you can add fermented foods to your diet. This includes fermented dairy like yogurt and kefir, as well as natural pickles and sauerkraut. I have picked up some delicious sauerkrauts, such as those made in Indianapolis by Fermenti Artisan at our local health food co-op. They are quite delicious and can be added to salads, sandwiches, etc. You can also add more starchy fruits and vegetables to your diet, such as onions, asparagus, chicory, banana, and artichokes. These encourage the production of fructooligosaccharides (FOS), which appear to stimulate the production of beneficial bacteria in the gut.
Take a good hard look at your gut health. Does food enter your body, digest properly, and is then properly eliminated. If you suffer from any gastrointestinal symptoms, consider an elimination diet and/or probiotics as your first steps toward gastrointestinal wellness. If you symptoms do not resolve with these steps, it is time to visit a natural medicine expert to identify the cause and fix the issue for good. GI health is an area that I feel natural medicine far exceeds conventional medicine in our care and cure.
Check out this article and video on gut health and the brain:
Illness Timeline
Do you have a chronic illness, a symptom that has plagued you for many years, or a mental health issue? I highly recommend you do an illness timeline. Go back to what was going on when this first started. What were you doing? Did any major event occur at the same time? How were you feeling? Did someone hurt you? Really dig deep. Spend some time in a quiet space and try to get yourself back there. Write down everything you can remember. Then, go from there. When was the next major relapse? What were you doing and feeling then and so on. This may take days or weeks to put together depending on what you are dealing with.
For one of my patients, the issue was chronic vaginal infections. When she did her timeline, she realized that the symptoms started after she had sex for the 1st time in high school with a boy who never spoke to her again. She continued to have a mild level of symptoms intermittently after that, but then had a major relapse when her husband had an affair. After the divorce, the symptoms were still present.
I had her go back to the first episode and work on forgiveness to the boy for using her and to herself for choosing that boy for her first sexual experience, for giving in when she wasn’t ready, for allowing herself to feel guilty afterward, etc. She then moved to the marriage and worked on forgiveness to her ex-husband and herself again. She used tapping to tap out the anger, resentment, guilt, and shame she still felt. She did this along her timeline. She also worked on 1st and 2nd chakra clearing and balancing. After months of work, she was symptom-free, has not had a vaginal infection since, and is able to be trusting in a new relationship.
I have seen timeline work assist with eliminating chronic headaches, fibromyalgia, chronic diarrhea, constipation, and more. I recommend it to all of my patients who suffer from any symptom chronically, along with food changes, herbs, and supplements for support. If you have something that has lasted more than a year intermittently, this is something to strongly consider. Some of you have shared your stories, frustrations, and blocks with me personally. Would you consider sharing them with the group? You might feel vulnerable at first, but the support and ideas you receive will likely provide more insight to your transformation process. We can only learn from one another if we are open to sharing with each other.
Be Kind To You
How’s it going with being loving to you? Can you now stand in front of the mirror, look yourself in the eyes, and say “I love you”? If not, keep trying every day. I am reminding you of this now for a few reasons.
First, you may be working slowly with the course and are starting to guilt yourself, tell yourself you are a failure, etc. Stop that right now. You have access to the course forever and will be invited to re-join at each quarterly session. We will still keep the Facebook going between sessions so I can support you and you can support each other as you continue to do this work.
Second, because if negative talk is common for you, you probably have relapsed in to it even if you did better during our first couple of weeks. Remember, you are THE ONLY YOU! You are brilliant in your own, unique way and you are on this planet for a reason. The more you love yourself, the more open you will be to receiving love from others and the easier it will be for you to share your gifts with the world.
Third, because if you take only this one thing away from the course with you, I will feel like I have succeeded. The number one thing I hear when patients come to see me is negative self-talk. The more negative self-talk there is, the more difficult my job is going to be. Your body hears you. It is not separate from your thoughts and words. People who tell themselves they are fat every day have much more trouble losing weight and even more trouble keeping it off. People who believe they can’t do something usually can’t, despite their talents and level of expertise. People who say they are dumb often stay in jobs they hate or don’t get better positions in the jobs they are in. Get the point? Start telling your body what it loves to hear, what will make your cells come alive, what will bring you energy and help you reach your goals.
Got it? Let’s all make a vow right now. No more negative self-talk! Stop right now. Put your hand over your heart and say this out loud, “(Your first name), I love you, I love every cell in this body, I love everything about you, and I promise from this point forward to nurture you with only kind words”. Also, are you having fun??? Tell us how.
If this triggers you emotionally…you want to cry, scream, run away, vomit, hide, hurt someone, hurt yourself, never say these words again, or you are totally unable to say them, then self-love is now the only assignment you have. The rest can wait. Go back to forgiveness. Write down a long list of everything you have ever done wrong, things that you are disappointed in yourself about, things that make you sad, angry, resentful, etc. Then, slowly a few at a time, begin forgiving yourself. If you have things that you cannot forgive, try tapping on them. Tap through the points and say, “I will never forgive you for this, you are a terrible person for what you did, you are a complete failure, this hurt will never go away, and so on”. I find tapping on the negative statements, even things like, “I hate you for this”, to be very powerful. I can usually breathe more easily and forgive more freely when I have tapped out the underlying emotional feelings (what my mind is perceiving to be true). I promise, if you really get this stuff out, your life will be transformed forever!
The 6th Chakra/Brow Chakra
The 6th or Brow Chakra is about, “your right to see within”. It is located in the forehead between the brows at the 3rd eye. It is associated with self-awareness, intuition, perception, understanding, memory, intellect, trust, psychism, fearlessness, and decisiveness. If you have imbalance in your brow chakra, you may experience feeling isolation, fear, fear of success, confusion, chaotic thoughts, mental cloudiness, selfish thoughts, or being egotistical. Physical imbalances could include, headaches, eye strain, blurred vision, sleep difficulties, nightmares, deafness or trouble hearing, or sinus problems. The 6th chakra is associated with the color indigo.
Brow Chakra Affirmations:
Write these down, hang them where you can see them, say the ones that resonate for you several times a day all week, meditate on them. Do whatever works. You want to look for the statements that make you feel something mentally or physically good or bad. Read them out loud. Are there any you can’t actually say easily? Those are the ones for you. Do any of them make you feel great when you say them? Say those, too.
I am guided.
I am connected.
I am successful.
I am clear.
I am insightful.
I am inspired.
I am intuition.
I am aware.
I understand.
I listen to my inner voice.
I am seeing and thinking clearly.
I am connected to spirit/God/divine/universe.
I am balanced and strong.
Brow Chakra Yoga Position: Child’s Pose (my favorite!)
Do this pose at least once daily if you are physically able. Try to hold it as long as possible or do a few in a row.
Herbs for the Brow Chakra:
Spearmint (Mentha spicata)
Parts used: leaves and flowers
Preparation: infusion
Indications: headaches, nausea, indigestion, gas, diarrhea, sore throats
Spiritual uses: to promote healing, love, and mental powers
Contraindications: may exacerbate heartburn and reflux
Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)
Parts used: leaves and flowers
Preparation: infusion, dried herbs in dream pillow
Indications: anxiety, insomnia, dream recall, indigestion, PMS, cramping
Spiritual uses: for strength, psychic powers, protection, and healing
Contraindications: pregnancy
Other ways to balance the 6th chakra:
Wear indigo.
Star gaze.
Play memory games.
Keep a dream journal.
Read mythology or fairy tales.
Write your own short story or tale.
Look for new details in everyone you know.
Tell someone you love them and fully explain why.
Affirm others in your life.
Create a recipe, prepare the food, and present if beautifully.
Do a YouTube meditation for balancing the brow chakra (there are many out there).
That’s it for our 6th week. Only one more week to go!
Here are the highlights from this week.
1) Check in with your gut health. Try an elimination diet and/or probiotics, if needed.
2) Consider an illness timeline if you have any chronic symptoms.
3) Be kind and loving to you!!!!!
4) Use daily affirmations, child’s pose stand, and the other ideas to get your brow chakra in perfect balance.
Let me know your questions and concerns. Happy digesting (food and all this information)!