Want to know the secret on how to heal your gut naturally? You’re in the right place. Today I’m chatting about what can cause gut issues, and how to heal the gut naturally.
Many people are unaware of just how much an unhealthy gut can impact your overall health. While bloating is just one sign that your gut needs some love, other serious symptoms can manifest as well.
An unhealthy gut can lead to:
Eczema
IBS
Increased Inflammation
Acne
Hormone Imbalances
Digestive Pain/Issues
Nutrient Deficiencies
Chronic Fatigue
Yes! All those (and plenty more issues) can arise when your gut is either damaged, not in balance, or inflamed. So, how can it get that way to begin with?
Causes of a Damaged Gut
Antibiotic Use
Environmental Toxins
Chronic Stress
Food Sensitivities
Poor Diet
Underlying Infections
Certain Medications
If you notice that you are experiencing some of those unhealthy gut symptoms listed above, like always feeling tired, mood instability, skin issues, or digestive issues...IT’S TIME TO HEAL YOUR GUT!
Healing the gut is one of the first focus areas I prioritize for my health clients. When you heal your gut, many of the problems you’re facing may actually disappear without further care.
How to Heal the Gut Naturally
Learn to Manage Stress
This may be the most simple to say, but when it comes time to actually do it...well, that’s another story. We are constantly on the go, and hardly make time to breathe or quiet our mind for a quick second. I know, I’m guilty of this too sometimes!
But the thing is, you can’t heal your gut or your body when you are under significant stress.
If this is an area you struggle with, I highly advise you to make this a priority. It may require you to change your lifestyle behaviors and habits around a bit.
Do you normally have an overpacked schedule and have a hard time saying no to people? It may be time to practice setting up boundaries for yourself. Just because your day has free space available, doesn’t necessarily mean you are available.
Instead, schedule in some “you” time. Schedule some yoga sessions, meditation time, or time that you just get to take a little walk outside in the sunshine. While these are great, mindset work is another must to learning how to manage your stress. You may not always have the option to avoid stressful situations, but you can learn how to respond to stressful situations.
Kick the Toxins to the Curb
Environmental toxins can wreak havoc on your gut. They can cause inflammation, cause gut dysbiosis, and even leaky gut. When you eliminate these toxins from the equation, it can ease up some stress that it’s been putting on your gut, reducing your total toxin burden.
If you are struggling to lose weight, you can read my blog, Weight Loss Resistance and Toxins: The Dilution Effect, to see how toxin exposure could be the culprit.
Investigate What Imbalances are Occurring
Depending on what is actually going on in your gut, a unique protocol may be needed to truly heal your gut naturally. This is where the Functional Medicine approach shines.
Functional lab testing can give us an insight as to if you are struggling with:
Candida overgrowth
SIBO
Low stomach acid
Parasites
Infections
Other gut bacterial imbalances
My go-to gut testing is Genova’s GI Effects stool testing, but other tests can give us a full picture of what’s going on in your body. From there, we can develop a unique treatment plan that is customized to you, your lab results, lifestyle, genetics, and health history.
5R Gut Protocol
The 5R gut protocol may be what you need to follow to restore your gut naturally. This protocol is an in-depth plan over the course of multiple weeks that really revives your gut from ground zero.
The 5R gut protocol consists of:
Remove stressors
Replace digestive secretions
Repopulate
Repair
Rebalance
Naturally Support Gut Healing with Supplements
During this process of naturally healing your gut, you’ll want to supplement to help encourage your healing process. While supplements aren’t a forever thing, some supplements will be necessary to keep the bad bugs at bay and support the beneficial bugs in repopulating.
Plus some gut-healing supplements can help heal the actual lining of your gut so nutrients will be properly absorbed and utilized by your body. Remember to purchase high-quality supplements to be sure they are safe AND effective.
My favorite natural gut-healing supplements/herbs include:
Collagen peptides
Zinc
Magnesium
HCl
Herbal Bitters
N-Acetyl-L-Cystine
Continue to Care for Your Gut with Gut Loving Foods
While some healthy foods may need to be avoided for the time being while your gut heals (depending on sensitivity tests and symptoms), you can slowly start to reintroduce them back once your gut starts to heal.
But remember that processed foods, high alcohol intake, and excess sugar may have played a part in damaging your gut in the first place, so you’ll want to continue to avoid/ limit these moving forward.
Be aware of what you put into your body. We don’t want your gut to slowly get back to an unhealthy state again!
Instead, focus on chowing down on organic whole foods the majority of the time. If you want to reduce the stress of cooking meals every single night, I highly recommend meal prepping or freezing leftovers of big meals. This is how my family stays healthy even during those crazy weeks when life is busy!
Make it a priority to consume specific gut-loving food as well. These should include:
Kombucha
Bone Broth
Kimchi
Apple cider vinegar
Sauerkraut
Garlic
Onion
Extra Tips to Heal Your Gut
Remove gluten from your diet.
Have regular 1-3 bowel movements a day.
Chew your food! Each bite should be chewed to mush before swallowing.
Take bitters before meals.
Don’t eat right before bedtime.
Work with a Functional Medicine Provider to Heal Your Gut Naturally
If you want to finally heal your gut and those annoying and painful symptoms, apply to work with me. I’m Jessica Meyers and I’m an Integrative Health & Herbal Expert that offers comprehensive health and lifestyle evaluation, connects you to the latest functional lab testing, and offers a fully supported path to get you symptom-free!
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