Did you guys see the e-mail yesterday? The digestive system has waaaaaayyy more to do with your overall health and well-being than what goes in your mouth and out the other end. Here it is, for your digestive pleasure: It’s hard to find a topic that is more awkward and socially unacceptable to talk about than what comes out of our butts. See, that is what people thing digestion is - you put something in your mouth, and hopefully sometime later it comes out of your butt. Only under much pain and duress do we willingly give up the details around our own personal experience with this phenomenon. One, I hope that someday this is not the case, because a LOT of people struggle in this area. Two, thinking about digestion just in terms of what goes in and comes out is a huge underrepresentation of what the gastrointestinal system does for us. In fact, if it cared, the GI tract would be insulted that we give it such little cred. Luckily, it doesn’t care, and does its thing for us twenty four / seven. It turns out that the digestive tract does way, way more than act as the route through which nutrition is extracted and waste excreted. The following list is not complete by any stretch of the imagination, but covers 4 big roles your gut participates in. Defense: Your gut keeps bad bugs at bay in a major way. Starting with the stomach, which sports the extremely low pH of 1-2. This acidic environment kills of most of the harmful pathogens you may eat or inadvertently swallow. Further downstream, your gut bugs also help kill off bad guys. The gut bugs also help flag pathogens for the immune system to target and kill. Did I mention that 2/3 of your immune system actually lives in specialized tissue in your gut? Immune Health: Yup, the vast majority of the immune system lives in the gut. Being in such close proximity to this system and the beneficial gut bugs, the health and integrity of the gastrointestinal system is crucial in immune balance. Great digestive health equals a balanced immune system...one that is up-to-par with eliminating bad guys, viruses and any other unsavory characters that may make you sick; but also an immune system that does not get trigger happy and begin to make antibody against YOU and your own tissues. In other words, a healthy GI system is protection against autoimmune disease. Hormonal Balance: Your gut creates, metabolizes, recycles and excretes an enormous variety of hormones, neurotransmitters and chemical messengers. Often, those with hormonal imbalance have hidden or overt issues in the digestive tract. Clean up this system, and your hormones will follow. Detoxification: The large intestine - aka the colon - is one of the 5 major organs of detoxification in the body, along with the skin, kidneys, lungs and liver. If you are constipated, your detoxification capacity is constipated, too. According to traditional Chinese Medicine, the spring time (now) is a great time to support the organs of detoxification. The Second Brain: From your esophagus to rectum, there is an enormous amount of nerves...it totals the amount of that found in the spinal cord. This, collectively, is known as the enteric nervous system (ENS) or the Second Brain. The second brain operates independently of the brain and spinal cord, though it can be influenced by them and communicates with them regularly. It regulates instant-to-instant variables of digestion: secretion of digestive factors, movement through the system, hunger and satiation signals, etc. The lion’s share - about 80-90% - of feel good hormones and neurotransmitters like serotonin are produced and received not by our big brain but by our humble digestive tract. Chronic stress can begin to compromise the ENS through imbalance of the autonomic nervous system (the “fight or flight” and “rest and digest” branches of the nervous system) and is a huge reason why tummy troubles crop up or worsen with stress. In this way, you can see that the digestive tract truly is the Central Station of the body, interacting with all other systems and cells of the body, every day, every second. I would argue that the gastrointestinal system is the seat of health. Even Hippocrates, ancient philosopher and physician (the so-called “Father of Medicine”) emphatically stated that all disease begins in the gut. This begs the question, “What can I do to improve my gut health?!?” Despite the complexity of the gastrointestinal tract, there are concrete action steps that you can take to restore, rebalance and reset your digestive system: 1. Eat foods that are appropriate for you, and avoid or minimize the ones that aren’t 2. Keep your gut flora Happy 3. Ensure that you have great ability to break down your food with enzymes, acid and bile 4. Keep the lining of your GI tract in good integrity 5. Make sure there’s not a pathogenic infection brewing 6. Sleep We are in the midst of a gorgeous spring. I myself have donated several trash bags full of clothes and stuff while spring-cleaning the house and closets. The gut, every now and then, can use a spring-clean too. As such, in the spirit of great gustatory health and sparkling-clean closets, we are offering Dr. Jillian’s Fix Your Digestion Gut Restoration Program for 50% off, for 72 hours ONLY. Use the code MEFYD at checkout to receive this half-off discounted price. This program is built on the science and protocols that she uses at the clinic -- approaches that have helped thousands of her clients relieve digestive distress and get closer to optimal health. It takes you through, step-by-step, a four week long gut restoration program, including nutrition and a supplement schedule, questionnaires, trouble shooting and how to determine what your core gut issues are. Grab it here. And don’t forget to use the code MEFYD for 50% off. bit.ly/1omfmwG
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 12:05:01 +0000
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