4 Steps to Heal Your Gut and Why This Will Heal Your Body

Scientists are calling gut health one of the most significant health breakthroughs in history.  It’s  a quickly emerging field of study with staggering implications.  I’m going to show you 4 steps to heal your gut and why this will heal your body.

The pivotal moment in my own journey to wellness came when I began to evaluate how various foods made me feel.  I tried a new soy-based protein bar in conjunction with my fitness training.  The all-natural bars tasted great, but I would feel sick to my stomach every time I ate one.  Then I would feel anxious and in a bad mood.  No soy – no stomach pain and anxiety.

But here’s the thing – It took me months to figure it out.  The reason it took so long was because I had always felt that way after meals my entire life.  The soy was making me feel worse, but I had never experienced a baseline that didn’t include some discomfort after meals.

Eliminating soy eased me back to the way I felt previously, but that got me curious to start experimenting with other foods in my diet.  I wanted to see if I could improve further.

The next obvious breakthrough came after I stopped consuming the artificial sweetener, aspartame.  I used to think it was calorie-free and therefore something I could consume without limits.  I had no idea it was causing damage that contributed to a host of immediate problems including anxiety, poor mood, allergies, fat storage, hunger and lack of concentration.

I wanted to find out why soy and aspartame caused me such problems, so I began to research.  That led me to the fast-developing study of bacteria that reside mostly in the large intestines.  Scientists refer to this collection of bacteria as part of the ‘microbiome’.  Doctors and the media usually call it – the gut.

Scientists are calling gut health one of the most significant health breakthroughs in history. Click To Tweet

The Microbiome

The word is so new, my spell checker doesn’t even recognize it.  Here is the definition from the University of Utah:

Microbiome
Some use “microbiome” to mean all the microbes in a community. We and others use it to mean the full collection of genes of all the microbes in a community. The human microbiome (all of our microbes’ genes) can be considered a counterpart to the human genome (all of our genes). The genes in our microbiome outnumber the genes in our genome by about 100 to 1.

Put another way, the bacteria that make up the human microbiome have their own DNA, which vastly outnumbers our human DNA.

According to the NIH Human Microbiome Project, the population of these little guys is vast.

Within the human body, it is estimated that there are 10x as many microbial cells as human cells. Our microbial partners carry out a number of metabolic reactions that are not encoded in the human genome and are necessary for human health. Therefore when we talk about the “human genome” we should think of it as an amalgam of human genes and those of our microbes.

One could say they are not really our bacteria. We are their humans.

Turns out, the issues I linked to soy and aspartame were courtesy of the bacteria in my gut.

The bacteria of our microbiome have their own DNA, which vastly outnumbers our human DNA. Click To Tweet

The Gut

The association between gut bacteria and health has only been discovered in the last few years.  Weighing in at about 2kg, (approximately the same weight as your brain), scientists are calling these bacteria an ‘acquired organ’.  The implications to health are nothing short of earth shattering.

According to gutmicrobiotawatch.org, some functions of the gut include:

The gastrointestinal system is also equipped with its own nervous system. The way we think is influenced by our resident bacteria. According to Dr. David Perlmutter:

“The neurons in the gut are so innumerable that many scientists are now calling the totality of them ‘the second brain’”

There is good gut bacteria and bad gut bacteria.  You control their populations directly with diet and exposure to environmental toxins.  If you take care of the good guys, they take over and produce health.  If you kill the good guys, bad bacteria take over and produce a cascade of problems that lead to diseases.

There are so many neurons in the gut that many are now calling them ‘the second brain.' Click To Tweet

Signs of Gut Problems

Gut problems begin with inflammation.  Inflammation results in a condition called ‘leaky gut’.

Kris Gunnars of Authority Nutrition gives a great overview:

According to numerous studies, unwanted bacterial products called endotoxins can sometimes “leak” through and enter the bloodstream (2).

When this happens, our immune system recognizes these foreign molecules and mounts an attack against them, resulting in a chronic inflammatory response (3).

This diet-induced inflammation may trigger insulin resistance (driving type 2 diabetes), leptin resistance (causing obesity), fatty liver disease, and has been strongly linked to many of the world’s most serious diseases (4, 5, 6).

At the end of the day, inflammation caused by bacterial endotoxins may be the “missing link” between an unhealthy diet, obesity and all the chronic metabolic diseases that are killing us by the millions.

Dr. Sara Gottfried says gut dysfunction is the #1 problem that most of her patients don’t know they have.  Why?

Because gut dysfunction doesn’t always correlate with gut symptoms. About 30 percent of people with leaky gut don’t have digestive distress, like gas or bloating or constipation. For them, leaky gut shows up as brain fog, anxiety or depression, fatigue, attention deficit, or sugar cravings.

In fact, leaky gut is strongly linked to a long list of diseases and conditions:

• acid reflux
• anxiety
• asthma
• autism
• autoimmune disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, lupus, psoriasis, or celiac disease
• bad breath and body odor
• bladder and urinary-tract infections
• brain fog
• breast pathologies
• cancer
• candida overgrowth
• chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia
• colitis
• constipation
• depression
• diabetes
• diarrhea
• digestive issues such as gas, bloating, diarrhea or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• diverticulitis
• ear and respiratory infections in children
• emphysema
• eye, ear, nose and throat diseases
• fibroids – uterine and breast
• food allergies or food intolerances
• gastritis
• heart disease
• hormonal imbalances such as PMS or PCOS
• liver and gallbladder problems
• migraine headaches
• mood and mind issues such as depression, anxiety, ADD or ADHD
• multiple sclerosis
• obesity
• seasonal allergies or asthma
• sinus problems
• skin issues such as acne, rosacea, or eczema
• spastic colon
• stomach bloating
• sugar cravings
• vaginal yeast infections

Gut problems begin with inflammation. Inflammation results in a condition called 'leaky gut'. Click To Tweet

What harms good gut bacteria?

A man set out on a journey to drive his car though the mountains.  Every few miles, he would stop and load a rock into his car.

It was no big deal at first, but as the day went on, he noticed the car had more difficulty going up hills.  Eventually the car could no longer move and he stopped.  But still, he loaded more rocks into the car.

Suddenly the sagging suspension system gave way and the car crashed down to the ground.  On impact, a rock tore a hole in the gas tank and the car EXPLODED!

When put in these terms, we naturally view the explosion as an end result of poor choices over time.

Major diseases are so often the result of many rocks; many avoidable toxins – over time.

This is where we start to connect a the dots so pay close attention to what comes next.  The following have been shown to harm good gut bacteria.  These are like rocks in our car.

• ingested alcohol
• antibiotics from pharmaceutical prescriptions and most animal meat meat (see my Wellness Repair Food Facts to understand what meat is safe) – Antibiotics destroy ALL of the beneficial bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract.  This is the number one culprit in the overgrowth of harmful pathogens in the gastrointestinal tract.  According to the Functional Medicine University web site, “Antibiotics should be considered a hospitalization level medicine, when bacteria have entered the blood, bone, or organ.”
• artificial sweeteners
• cancer treatments – Radiation and chemotherapy are devastating to your inner bacterial environment.
• chemicals and preservatives in food – Food labelled USDA organic does not contain chemicals or preservatives.
• environmental toxins like formaldehyde from a new carpet and mercury in fish – see the list of fish that contain mercury
• chlorine in tap water
• GMOs – Food labelled USDA organic does not contain GMOs.
• inflammatory foods like hydrogenated vegetable oils and non grass fed beef
• pesticides on food – Food labelled USDA organic does not have pesticide residue.
• pain medication (Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDS) like ibuprofen, Aleve, Aspirin, Celebrex, Naprosyn, Lodine, Mobic, Nalfon, Daypro, Ansaid, Cambia, Cataflam, Voltaren and COX-2 Inhibitors.
• smoking
• stress

Have you ever wondered why obesity was so much less prevalent in our great grandparents generation?  It’s because they were not exposed to as many harmful food and environmental toxins.

My Food Facts are optimized for food that will help promote gut healing.

Antibiotics, pain meds, pesticides and stress are just a few toxins that harm gut bacteria. Click To Tweet

What makes BAD gut bacteria thrive?

• sugar – it’s food for bad bacteria
• harming good gut bacteria through poor diet and environmental toxins
• lack of dietary fiber

Sugar, environmental toxins and lack of dietary fiber make bad bacteria thrive. Click To Tweet

How to help the good guys!

• Eat more fiber, primarily in the form of fruits and vegetables.
• Eat pro-biotics, which are new, good bacteria.
• Eat pre-biotics – high fiber food to help the good bacteria multiply.

Promote a healthy gut with dietary fiber, pro-biotics and pre-biotics. Click To Tweet

Pre-biotics

This isn’t a typo.  Pre-biotics are foods with fiber strong enough to make it all the way through the stomach and small intestines to the large intestines.  Good gut bacteria feed on this fiber and multiply.

Here are the top foods containing prebiotic fiber and the amount you would need to eat per day to get the recommended amount:

• Raw chicory root (64.6%) – 1/3 oz
• Raw Jerusalem artichoke (31.5%) – 3/4 oz (NOTE: Jerusalem artichoke is NOT the green globe artichoke you see at the store. It’s a totally different plant.)
• Raw dandelion greens (24.3%) – 1 oz
• Raw garlic (17.5%) – 1.2 oz
• Raw leek (11.7%) – 1.8 oz
• Raw onion (8.6%) – 2.5 oz
• Raw Asparagus (5%) – 1/4 lb
• Cooked onion (5%) – 1/4 lb, or 4 oz
• Raw banana (1%) – 1.3 lb (Bananas are not an ideal source if the purpose is to get prebiotic fiber because of the sugar that comes with them.  Think of bananas as part of your prebiotic strategy.)

There are a few kinds of pre-biotic fiber, but the most prevalent is called inulin.  Inulin content is altered by cooking, but only loses about 10-20% of the inulin content.

Most healthy people need to start small increase prebiotics slowly to avoid discomfort.  Also, prebiotcis are not for everyone.  They will make symptoms worse for those with SIBO, IBS and FODMAPs.

Good gut bacteria feed on pre-biotic fiber. It's food that helps them multiply. Click To Tweet

Pro Biotics

According to Chris Gunnars of Authority Nutrition:

There are actually dozens of different probiotic bacteria that have been shown to have health benefits.

The most common groups include Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. Then there are many different species within each group, and each species has many strains.

Interestingly, different probiotics seem to work for different health conditions. Therefore, choosing the right type (or types) of probiotic is essential.

Many probiotic supplements combine different species together in the same supplement. These are known as broad-spectrum probiotics, or multi-probiotics.

• sauerkraut – has a probiotic count higher than bottles of supplement capsules. refrigerated and organic from Whole Foods.  I have with every dinner almost.
• yogurt – preferably made from raw dairy (difficult to find) and without sugar or artificial sweeteners
• kimchi
• kefir
• vinegar – acetate stops the immune system from overreacting. Australian scientists are looking at vinegar as a way to heal asthma.
• Kambuka

Fermented foods like sauerkraut have a probiotic count higher than bottles of supplement capsules. Click To Tweet

Why you need both Pre and Pro

Pro-biotics are somewhat helpful, but only a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the gut bacteria population in the trillions.  You need to seed your gut with good bacteria via pro-biotics, but then you also need to feed the little guys or they won’t survive and colonize.  The real benefit is in creating a gut environment where good gut bacteria can take over.

Pro-biotics seed. Pre-biotics feed. Click To Tweet

The 4 steps to heal your gut

Most functional medicine doctors use the Four R’s.  This list is from Dr. Aviva Romm.  I selected her list because she also offers revised instructions for children.

1. Remove : Take out what ails you. Start with an Elimination Diet for 2 weeks. Remove all of the triggers that irritate your gut including foods, medications (of course check with your doctor on this), and ideally, stress, too!  If you have been diagnosed with Candida (yeast) in the past, or have a lot of gas, bloating, and either loose stools or constipation, you might want to do this phase in conjunction with a functional medicine doctor who can provide comprehensive stool testing to see if this is still a problem and who can work with you on supplements (or sometimes medications), to eliminate the yeast overgrowth.

(Wellness Repair has a free step-by-step elimination diet called A simple elimination diet to help you identify food sensitivities.)

2. Replace: Add in digestive support. This includes digestive enzymes, and if you have a lot of nausea with meals or when you take supplements, you might also need some additional stomach acid in the form of  a supplement called Betaine HCl, or  try 1 Tbs. of apple cider vinegar in water with your meals.

3. Reinoculate:  Add in a good quality probiotic to restore your gut flora. You want it to have a minimum of 5 billion CFUs in each dose, and a good range of Lactobacillusand Bifidobacter species. Fermented foods such as miso, sauerkraut, kombucha, and kimchee can also be helpful.

4. Repair: The following supplements can be taken for up to 6 months to help to heal the intestinal lining:

• Tumeric, aloe vera, marshmallow root, and DGL licorice (aloe and licorice are not for internal use during pregnancy; these are fine for children) are some of the most effective herbs for healing the gut lining. They are best taken in capsule or extract form, though tumeric can also be added to foods. DGL licorice is available as chewable lozenges and thus may be the simplest one to give to kids.
• Zinc: 5-10 mg/day for children 4-7 years, 10-20 mg/day for children to age 12, 25-40 mg/day for older children and adults
• An antioxidant supplement containing vitamins A and carotenoids, C, E, and selenium. These are often found in a multivitamin. Pregnant women should get these from their prenatal vitamin only.
• Fish oil.
• L-Glutamine Powder: 5-10 gm of powder twice daily for one month. (Much less for kids but talk with your child’s doctor before using and don’t supplement in pregnancy).

And of course, don’t forget the pre-biotics.

The great news is, you can see benefits with noticeable health benefits fairly quickly.  For me, a lower inflammatory, high fiber, nutrient dense, heavy pre-biotic and pro-biotic diet resulted in the following health benefits:

• No more spring pollen allergies.  None at all.  I wrote a previous post where I mentioned being cured of allergies.  Then I changed the word “cured” to “alleviated” because I learned it’s illegal in the US to say anything other than a pharmesudical drug can cure anything. Regardless, I changed my diet and my allergies went away.
• vastly reduced anxiety
• fat loss down to my ideal weight
• improved mood and feeling of wellbeing
• greater concentration and focus

If you’re ready to get started, begin with my free step-by-step elimination diet: A simple elimination diet to help you identify food sensitivities.

The Wellness Repair Diet is also free and optimized for gut health.  It will shortcut the learning curve for you tremendously.

If you found this information helpful and would like more, just click the button below to subscribe to my email list.

Thanks for reading!

Jeff

Additional Resources

This interview by Abel James of Dr. David Perlmutter is the best concise explanation I have found to date.  It’s also available as a podcast in iTunes.

Dr. Perlmutter and Dr. Dale Bredesen of the Buck Institute.

Authority Nutrition article called Probiotics 101: Everything You Need to Know (Literally)

Energy Times article called A Gut Feeling by Lisa James

Dr. Robynne Chutkan does an excellent job of explaining the microbiome.

The Canadian Digestive health Foundation has this simplified description of probiotics. It would be suitable for children:

Dr. Amy Myers – The Autoimmune Solution Pillar I: Heal Your Gut

Dr. Amy Myers – A Healthy Gut Means a Healthy Brain

Dr. Amy Myers – This is Your Gut on Gluten

Dr. Tom posted a 2014 study by Andrew W. Campbell

Neurosurgeon, Dr. Natasha Campbell- McBride – Food is the Best Medicine

Maybe you can help me with this.  I saw some who claimed Hippocrates said “All disease begins in the gut.”  The MIT website has a collection called The Works of Hippocrates that has been translated into English. I searched them all and was not able to locate anything like this quote.  If you can locate a credible source for this quote, I would love to add it to the article.

Dr. Bryan Walsh – 18 Ways Gut Dysbiosis (Bad Bacteria) Ruins Health