Healing Your Gut part I

Is the gut really the key to your health or chronic illness? Perhaps not, I will explain.

Ever since the term ‘microbiome’ was coined in 2001 we have been slowly learning more about the ways that the balance of our intestinal flora, our microscopic bacteria and yeasts play a role in our digestion, immune system and even our thoughts. Its often the place that is analysed first when you are trying to get to the root of your digestive issues with specialists.

One of the ways the ways it is tackled from a functional medicine perspective is via stool analysis, and trying to see what harmful bugs and bacteria you may be harbouring along with how broad a spectrum of beneficial bacteria and yeasts you are carrying. I certainly spent many a sleepless night worrying about the state of my internal intestinal garden whilst in pain. I discovered unwelcome guests such as blastocysts hominis, various parasites, candida overgrowths and more.

I also spent a huge amount of money on probiotics as well as a myriad of other expensive ways trying to alter my microbiome, believing it was key to my body’s inflammation, my immune system, my allergic reactions, my sanity - indeed I felt it was the holy grail of healing.

Not so. Now sorting out the balance of your intestinal flora can help, but it is only a sticking plaster which quite frankly does not hold IF you are carrying unprocessed trauma. At the root of my digestive issues was just that. When I removed this, indeed overnight, my digestion and my internal flora rebalanced.

Now this may seem a hard pill to swallow, but there are studies that show that stress has an immediate impact on the strains within your microbiome, stress alone affects them and which strains can proliferate there. And so it stands to reason that when that stress is removed it will have an immediate beneficial impact as well.

Getting to the mind-body element that was causing my digestive issues was one thing, but also removing the trauma that was inhibiting my immune system from functioning was also key. When your immune system functions properly it takes care of all the unwanted guests that your system is harbouring. The idea is to ‘strengthen the host, not attack the guest’ -

I spent a lot of money on various supplements and medications to try to kill off the various stealth viruses and bacteria that these expensive stool and blood tests had shown I was carrying. But all of it was pointless because the metaphorical door of my immune system was wide open allowing anyone in to the party. Removing the buried trauma allowed me to close that door and kick out all those who were not invited for good, with no medications needed. Never underestimate the power of a well functioning immune system.

If however, you are not carrying unresolved trauma at the root of your gut issues but your issues (such as your eczema or obesity for instance) are caused by having a very poor but well established array of microbes, then addressing this and changing your microbiome will be extremely beneficial. Eczema in children for instance is often caused just by this poor balance often due to C-section births or antibiotics early in life. I explain how to do this in my video on Kefir.