Mind Body Spirit Podcast Ep3 How Gut Health Impacts Your...

Discover how healing and nourishing your gut health can improve your mental health and increase your energy levels. There is a strong link between the gut and the brain. If one is not functioning at its best it can impact the other.

Transcript

Welcome to the MindBodySpirit podcast. I am your host, Kim Shepherd, Combining science and intuition to support your mind, Body, Soul, Wellness journey. Today's podcast is about our gut health and how that impacts our mental health. So for many of us on this wellness or mindful journey, We've probably gotten to a point where we've felt the emotions of anxiety or depression. Perhaps we've felt some diagnoses come through, Whether we have ASD, OCD, Any other letters that are letting us know that our mind is overworked. So quite often when our mind becomes imbalanced and we embark on this wellness journey, We start to make a deeper connection with our physical body as well. And our gut health really comes into play when it comes to supporting our mental wellbeing because there's a very strong connection between the gut and the brain. So thinking about when you feel blah in your stomach. So you might just feel bloated after you've eaten a meal, Or you might feel nauseous or have a bit of heartburn. Your energy levels may drop down, But you physically feel that way, But then your mind is also impacted by that as well. So sometimes you might notice after you're eating food that you might have some brain fog, You might even have a headache. You might start to develop some sinus responses as well. So you might start to get a bit of a sniffly nose. So it's really important to look after your to look after our gut health in order to support our mental health. And this really helps to amplify the healing process on our mindful meditation journey as well. So there's lots of different gut issues and clinically as a naturopath, I see a ridiculous amount of people suffering through day-to-day life. And it's not through a lack of their own efforts. It might be that they have seen every specialist under the sun. They've had surgeries to investigate what's going on with their gut. They've done all of these blood tests and they've not actually gotten any answers or any improvement in their wellbeing. I've even got patients who it can be that they've been experiencing vomiting and diarrhea for two years. They've had to stop working. They've lost their quality of life. They can't leave the house and they may have just been told, Oh, You've got IBS. As a naturopath, It's not good enough just being told that you have IBS and that you just have to deal with it because the universal law is that there cannot be a problem without the solution existing at the same time. So as a naturopath, I ask a lot of questions about your gut to see how it's functioning. And if we even just take a moment to appreciate how important our gut health is, It's that not only when we're eating food, When we eat food, We're not necessarily absorbing it. Your gut's got to be functioning really well to be able to break food down, Piece it together and then absorb it. And if any of those parts of your digestive system are not functioning well, Then you're lacking the nutrition, Even when you are trying your best in eating healthy. If your gut is really unwell and you might find that you've got cravings for sugar or you binge eat, It could be that you've got an imbalance of bacteria within your gut, Or you might have parasites that are craving these substances and actually depleting your body further of nutrition as well. So quite often what I like to do is to do a bit of testing so that way we can actually see what's happening within the gut because there are so many different things you can do to support your gut, But it can be really hard to pinpoint it without actually doing a test. So for instance, Understanding how your gut works. There are so many things about the gut, But if I at least try and just give you a bit of a snapshot and an insight into why you want your gut functioning well. So within your gastrointestinal tract, You've got this healthy mucus coating and this mucus coating is a part of your immune system. So with your gut health, 70% of your immune system resides within your gut. So if your gut's not working well, Then your immune system is potentially compromised as well. But if this healthy mucus coating is not functioning and performing and as thick as it should be, Then it's going to weaken your immune system. But this healthy mucus coating is also a food source or an energy source for the good bacteria within your gut as well. And I don't like to look at bacteria as a bad thing because without bacteria, We would not exist. We're just trillions of difference, The type of cells and bacteria all coexisting to create this miracle that we are in this beautiful divine vessel of being a human. So I want you to just check in with your gut and take a moment to really feel into how is it functioning. We want our bowels to be moving every day, Somewhere between one to three times a day. And if you look up just on Google Bristol stool chart, So B-R-I-S-T-O-L, It's going to give you seven different types of bowel movements to let you know what is healthy. So you want to aim for a type three or a type four. Type four is kind of like that magic bowel motion. If it's too loose or if it's too firm, It's letting us know that we need to provide some healing for the gut. So you want to be going every day. You don't want to have an excessive amount of wind and you don't want to have smelly wind. You don't want heartburn or reflux. You don't want any pains within your abdomen. You want to feel energized after eating. You want to have an appetite in the morning. And you want to feel like when you go to the bathroom, You completely evacuate everything. You don't want the sudden urgency when you're going. All of these symptoms are signs that there's an imbalance within the gut. But other signs that show there's an imbalance within the gut is not just within the mind where we experience anxiety and brain fog and fatigue, But you might also have these symptoms then presenting within your skin. So quite often, Eczema starts within the gut. We heal the gut, The eczema clears up. Other times it might be that we need to calm the nervous system down. So the nervous system within a busy life becomes what naturopaths refer to as wired. So we can be wired and tired where we're just really, Really busy. We're really stressed. We're really tired, But the nervous system doesn't wind down well enough to then be able to get a good quality sleep. So we want our nervous system to be functioning really well. We want to get a really good quality sleep as well, Which is why I absolutely love this app. Insight Timer is my favorite app, And it's a great way to be able to support yourself to drift off more peacefully at nighttime. So for many of you, You've probably been on this app for a long time. And if you're new to this beautiful app, Find your favorite relaxing sounds, Guided meditations, Whatever you're drawn to, And listen to them as you drift off to sleep. As you drift off to sleep, If your mind is in a more peaceful, Relaxed state, You're going to start to have a better quality sleep because your nervous system isn't so wired. So if you're struggling with your mental health, I highly encourage you to check out your gut health and to be mindful of the symptoms that your body is trying to express and to communicate to you every day. Every symptom is a way that your body is trying to get your attention and say, Hey, This does not feel right. I don't want to be eating this, For instance. Many people have reactions to food, But aren't aware that their body is reacting to food. And even when it comes to the top foods that I clinically see people reacting to, Dairy is usually number one, Gluten is number two, And soy is number three. So they're the most common things I see that people react to. And many of them do get gut symptoms. So it might be that it triggers a bit of diarrhea or a bit of constipation for them. It might trigger eczema, Anxiety, Stomach pains. There's lots of different symptoms that can present. But even as you're going about your day and learning to listen to your body, As you make those small changes, You'll start to notice that your mind is feeling better because if you're eating foods that your body enjoys and you're helping to heal those signs that your gut is presenting with, Your mind is going to start to feel better as well. You're going to start to have more energy. You're going to start to feel less stressed and you'll start to feel more grateful for your life and for your body and for everything that it is doing for you. So if you do need any support, Please reach out. My purpose here is to support people with their healing and to align them not only with their path of healing, But their purpose as well. Because for all of us, We all have a purpose and we all need to go through our own unique healing, Whatever it is that we need to embark on to be able to support us on our journey. So I love you all dearly. I hope that you are all grateful. I hope that your gut is feeling good. And if not, I hope you start to learn your body's unique language to support your gut health and your mental health. Until next time. Bye for now.

Reviews

Hello beautiful 🌹🎈🌹🎈🌹Thank you so much for the wonderful and insightful talk ⭐️🌞it gives me more space to find healing 🗺️much love 🕉️Namaste

Wonderful and inspiring words as I am Suffering from these problems. Thank you!

Thank you ! This confirms my issue with holding stress in my gut and not “ extracting “ for weeks at a time !