It was within my own family that I was initially introduced to digestive issues. Someone had asked me about symptoms of irritable bowels and symptoms of potential IBS and how to deal with them naturally.
Then I started seeing how big of an issue digestive issues such as leaky gut and IBS really are with other people around me.
When I had helped this particular family member with their IBS symptoms and worked with them on a long term basis, other people started asking me what they could be doing for their own lives in order to manage their symptoms and not be turning to prescription medications all the time.
Digestive issues are mainly a chronic issue that one has to deal with. By chronic I mean that there have been long term symptoms and trying to manage issues related to those symptoms for at least 3 months. Because it is a chronic issue, there are certain habits that have led people down the road of having these digestive issues such as late night binge eating or eating too many processed foods, just to name a few.
Because habits get you to where you are now with any IBS or leaky gut, new habits have to replace the old ones to create lasting results which is the purpose of this article.
Dealing with an individual holistically means that it is not just one herb or a set of herbs that are prescribed to fix an issue, it is a both/and circumstance.
Diet
There are many times of diets out there and also many people out there trying to tell you which diet is best for so and so disorder you are having. Every body is different at handling different types of foods. Some people thrive on Paleo while others thrive on a plant based diet.
Whichever diet is right for you, it is important to know that typically your gut does better with organic, non processed, fruits, veggies that has a balance in it.
I had a friend who was married to someone that only eats vegan meals while she only eats well with a Paleo style diet.
Who is right? You get to try it out.
By now many of us are aware that processed, fast food is probably not fresh and your gut will not like it causing more inflammation in your gut lining and more irritation. Maybe instead of eating take out every night, you can find a slow cooker recipe and try one out for the week, or create a meal plan to know exactly the ingredients you need to purchase at the store.
A plan is needed for switching out foods that are causing inflammation in your gut lining, the goal is to drastically reduce them, for some women it means that you cut them out completely out of your life, but this depends on how severe your symptoms are and how committed you truly are to making long lasting change for the sake of your health.
Grab a FREE printout of a sample anti inflammatory diet plan here.
Fasting
Intermittent fasting is slowly gaining popularity in the West, mainly for its weight loss benefits but it also has tremendous benefits for your gut as well. Your stomach is an organ that should ideally completely contract and rest before expanding again. Intermittent fasting simply means eating in a rhythm that activates your cells to perform two main tasks and that is to rest and digest.
The digest part is self explanatory in a way that is when your stomach is digesting things but the rest part is when it gets really interesting and ties back to digestive issues.
When your stomach rests it does what is called “autophagy” which happens when glucose is not circulating in your blood.
“Autophagy is your body’s cellular recycling system. It allows a cell to disassemble its junk parts and repurpose the salvageable bits and pieces into new, usable cell parts. A cell can discard the parts it doesn’t need.” (1)
While your body is in this rest state when you are fasting, it can recover, clean house and heal.
Tying is back to helping your digestive issues, if your stomach is processing things all the time, simply put, it will get overworked and not be able to heal. Fasting from snacks also is a habit to try and cultivate since it gives your digestive lining a much needed break in between meals as well.
The time for fasting is very personal I have noticed while working with women.
This depends largely on your body type.
My husband is a type who can fast for 18 hrs and once a week have one meal a day and be ok. On the other hand I am the type of person that does well with fasting 16 hours 4 times a week and only 14 on some other days. That is why it is really not set in stone about the time but more about allowing time for your stomach to rest where there is no caloric intake.
Do not hesitate to reach out if you feel like you need some further help in this area.
Probiotics + Prebiotics
Recently someone had reached out to me on Instagram and asked me for the best brand of a probiotic I thought they should be buying because the amount of companies that sell probiotics are numberless.
“The global probiotics dietary supplements market size was valued at USD 18.04 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.1% from 2023 to 2030.”(2)
That seems to be the easy answer sometimes right? Just take the probiotic since we cannot get it regularly with foods we consume. Which I do get, it is the same mentality of getting a drug for a symptom because there is an underlying cause you prefer to not deal with.
No judgement here really, but without changing eating patterns change itself is not possible.
Probiotic foods are very easy to make yourself and include in your diet everyday for lasting results in your gut lining. It can be as easy as cutting up some cabbage, putting in some salt, topping it off with water and letting it ferment for 3-4 days.
My husband loved the flavored kombucha recipes, while I love eating sauerkraut everyday. Some people love miso soup while others like kimchi or kefir. Again this mainly depends on your own preferences and which you can realistically have in your life as a daily habit.
You might have heard about probiotics before and know their importance in gut health but prebiotics are equally important.
“Prebiotics are essential to a healthy microbiome. In simple terms, they’re nutrients that get broken down by gut bacteria.” (3)
Prebiotics are founds mostly in plant based foods which provide a living terrain for the good bacteria in your gut. The combination of probiotics and prebiotics are essential for a good microbiome.
The goal is to really eat a prebiotic with every meal and a probiotic once a day.
Which prebiotics are you able to eat the next week?
- Lentils
- Legumes
- Chickpeas
- Apples
- Dandelion greens
- Grapefruit
- Green bananas
- Jerusalem artichoke
- Burdock
- Seaweed
- Berries
- Cashews
Some of these foods may sounds very foreign to you, this is a long process. A woman I know started to incorporate cashews into her snacks instead of chips while working on building up her fasting time and eventually cutting out snack times. When she was able to cut out the snack times, the desert became the prebiotic such as an apple or berries.
Bone Broth
Growing up I lived on consistent homemade bone broth made by my mother. I was lucky to have the environment that I did growing up because from a very early age, I was instilled the knowledge of real food and eating seasonally.
If you grew up in the West, then maybe you would say the opposite.
How growing up on fast food was the norm because it was convenient and boxed cereal was a daily breakfast because it was fast and easy to make.
In the book, Pandora’s Lunchbox by Melanie Warner, the author explores the topic of processed foods and how in some generations it is something that they grow up.
Specifically speaking of boxed cereal the author states “most Americans on any given day will eat some type of breakfast cereal, a habit that helps fuel $10 billion annual US business” (4)
The eating habits you developed growing up are an important factor when fixing your gut lining simply because adding in foods and bone broth can mean easy win or a struggle you need to get past.
For me, it was easy to incorporate bone broth, again simply because I was exposed to it as a child and it was the norm. For my husband, he never even heard of bone broth when I started talking about it.
Why bone broth?
Because it is highly nutritious and anti inflammatory.
You do not have to cook your own bone broth, as my mother did, but simply incorporate collagen powder as a supplementation. Daily use of bone broth can help boost the production of gastric juices as well as assist in repairing the gut lining. (5) (6)
Some women that I talk to are really happy to get starting making their own bone broth, they have the time and the resources to make fresh bone broth and it works in their lifestyle. Other women prefer to use collagen powder because it is easier to drink it every day with tea. The issue I hear most about the colleges powders is that they are expensive and they do not know which ones are good quality. This one, is the one I found to be top quality but quality means it is not cheap.
For women with more long term chronic digestive issues, sometimes it is easier to start off on buying the powder first and get into a habit of drinking a cup a day and then later batch make the bone broth from scratch.
Whichever camp you are in, bone broth daily helps tremendously.
Final thoughts
A woman reached out to me and asked me about a quick herb she can take to help with stomach issues she was having. I started asking her about how she eats and what she eats and when she stops eating instead.
Things that you do add up over time.
We have things we do everyday that is either contributing to our wellness of taking away from it.
Some people never want to make the shift in their lifestyle and would rather deal with the diseases and side effects of medications as a result of it. This is not surprising as I saw a statistic the other day about how only 1 out of 9 people actually implement the changes they need to improve their health after a heart attack.
But it is not without hope that I am writing this as I see many women succeed if they are committed to changes.
Motivation comes and goes but commitment gets you through.
This is where maybe you might benefit from working with someone that will give you the accountability and support you need or train your own mind to keep coming back to your big “why” of why you want to get healthier.
There are many that get off meds and reverse the habits that hold them down.
You can also.
Hope this helped you on the journey.
God bless you and yours
Krystina
