Digestion, The Most Underutilized Free Medication on the Market.
Digestion, The Most Underutilized Free Medication on the Market.
When I began my healing journey my body, my mind, and my soul were all detached from not only each other and their processes but from the world around me. I felt depressed, numb, and emotionally charged at the same time. I also felt I was living the “healthiest” at the time I had ever been. I had the lowest body fat percentage at that time than I had ever achieved, I was eating the “healthiest” (most disciplined) I had ever been eating. The truth is, I was stressed...chronically, in all areas of my life and my body. It was years of emotional trauma from childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood that boiled within me. Because it had nowhere to go, it stored within my cellular makeup and within my organs. Over time, I had trained my body to operate in that stress, so naturally my body started prioritizing. Certain things like my hormonal regulation were “eliminated” in order to focus on more important processes such as digestion and neurological activation. Ironically, this type of “chronic stress” caused neurological stress, digestive stress, hormonal stress, it kept leaching into other areas of my body until I finally took inventory of how I was choosing to live my life.
I went to the doctor over and over and over again. All of my medical doctors told me I was healthy but I knew there were some underlying concerns that just weren’t being met. For myself, I continued to advocate. Eventually, when I found a Naturopath that supported me with testing and a nutritional therapist to support me in breaking down systems within my body, I was able to begin to heal from within.
Where did I start? My food, digestion, hydration, and balancing my sugar handling throughout my day. My “road-map” was tailored to my ultimate goals.
Balanced digestion is one of the most undervalued functions in our body, digestion can seriously affect many underlying systems within the body. Not to mention it’s one of the most simple to rebalance and to aid within your own healing journey. Whether you're experiencing an autoimmune disease or perhaps a hormonal imbalance due to life and other circumstances, digestion is always a great place to start. Let’s dive into why digestion is the most undervalued medicine on the market.
Endocrine Health
As I began my own health journey of healing within, I started dialing in on the environmental stressors as well as emotional stressors that were occurring around me. I encourage ALL of my clients to do so, our designed “road-map” is tailored to their ultimate goals and their ultimate destination of journey.
Why?
Because as someone who was experiencing PCOS symptoms, my hair was falling out, my sleep was a complete wreck (2 hours max). I experienced hormonal acne, very intense mood swings (one might consider depression). Not to mention, stomach and gut challenges all day everyday.
When we’re speaking about our endocrine balance and endocrine health the major question I generally ask is, “What does stress look like for you”?
● It could look like eating or consuming food and water on the go in a sympathetic stressed state versus eating food in a parasympathetic (calm nervous-system state) so our brain can fire all the necessary neuro pathways to the rest of the body informing us when to digest, how to digest, and what to digest.
● It could look like short shallow breathing versus long deep breaths while we’re actively in the middle of a stressful challenge at home or at work.
● It could also look like working out a little too hard and too much while undernourished so our body is operating from a caloric deficit, which can be great for some athletes or create completely adverse side effects within the body.
● It could look like consuming water, skincare hair and makeup products that are plagued with endocrine disruptors.
There're many versions of how this may play out in our daily lives and they can even have a domino effect which may cause chronic stress. Chronic stress might show up as an autoimmune dis-ease or perhaps something worse. So, how did I start my journey? I became highly present with how I ate.
Studies suggest that there’s actually a gut-brain connection within our nervous system that triggers key hormone release within the body (Harvard Medical School, 2019). This component of our nervous system involves the enteric nervous system which is a component of the autonomic nervous system (Harvard Medical School, 2019). What does this all mean?
The sympathetic nervous system is designed for our survival. It’s our fight, flight, or freeze response. In small doses, its main component is to help us survive. If we’re living in sympathetic, like too much of anything it can cause the body to shut down, because it feels “unsafe”.
The parasympathetic nervous system is designed to support us in resting and calming down so we can heal, reset, and ultimately digest what has just occurred (within our minds, our body’s, and our souls)..do you see the theme? When we’re digesting in an emotionally stressful state our nervous system tells our brain and therefore our gut not to “rest and digest” because at that moment the environment is not safe to do so. Over time consuming food in a sympathetic state can seriously affect our body and the processes that it requires like mineral absorption and blood sugar regulation. In some cases this might lead to insulin resistance and autoimmune disorders such as diabetes. Brain fog might increase and sleep might be restless because of hormonal imbalance. Ultimately, digestion is a key player in this equation and it’s vastly important to maintain parasympathetic mode as we eat our food presently.
Immune health
What’s really interesting about the body is that it’s highly capable of healing itself but what’s fascinating is there’s always indications for us that might require further attention because they’re inflammatory for a period of time. Using myself as an example when I was taking a serious look at healing from within, I found foods that became intolerances that I was entirely unaware of. For me, when I began, gluten and dairy caused a histamine reaction. I felt congested, unable to sleep, intense abdominal cramps, and migraines that lasted all day. I felt hives break out frequently on my back and my eyes were itchy, red, and watery. Intolerances such as this were key foundational indications that I personally required a “clean-up” so-to-speak within my digestion.
Some symptoms of a histamine reaction look like “migraines, diarrhea, flushed and red skin, hives, eczema or itchy and flaky skin, congestion, flem build up in the back of the throat, watery eyes” (Groce, 2023). One can experience a histamine reaction but not be entirely allergic (like for me) it could be a period of time while you’re healing your gut, digestion, maybe your hormone balance, or even perhaps rebalancing your nervous system from adrenal dysfunction. All of these factors affect the immune system and it’s mostly ALL related to digestion.
Balanced digestion is one of the more paramount variables with health immune function because ultimately if there’s a challenge with say gut health or higher level of stress our immune system is already functioning at a disadvantage. As mentioned before, over time this could lead to autoimmune dis-ease if a health challenge goes unnoticed. Even if an autoimmune dis-ease is present, there are still plenty of ways to heal from within.
Cardiovascular Health
Multiple variables affect great cardiovascular health. Aside from a great diet, great digestion is key in supporting the absorption of proteins for amino acid breakdown. Amino acids like taurine and carnitine are important for heart function and therefore overall cardiovascular health in
general (Nutritional Therapy Organization, 2020). The importance of great stomach acid function is not only to disinfect our food but proper pH is required for B vitamins and calcium absorption for our bones (Nutritional Therapy Organization, 2020). As for proper liver and gallbladder function, healthy and balanced nutrition allows the proper absorption of healthy fats and fat-soluble vitamins that are ESSENTIAL in supporting our overall inflammatory response as well as healing time within the body (Nutritional Therapy Organization, 2020). Last but not least, blood sugar balance/handling is greatly affected by digestion. So if blood sugar handling is imbalanced it’s triggered by a stress response from our nervous system. If this is happening for prolonged periods of time, this could lead to insulin resistance within the body (Nutritional Therapy Organization, 2020).
Detoxification
When we’re talking about detox I already know what you’re thinking, “DETOX TEA”. The thing is, certain “teas”are highly beneficial with the proper herbal properties to support a natural detoxification within the body, mind, and soul. Cultures around the world have been tailoring their “seasons of life” to the seasons of nature around them for centuries (Davidson, 2020). Ancient ayurvedic medicine for example promotes regular “detoxing” within the “whole body system” including the mind, the body, and the spirit (Davidson, 2020).
So when we’re speaking about “cleansing” we’re discussing the natural processes
through the gut-brain reaction with our environment and food (Harvard Medical School, 2019)..
That’s what I love to promote the gut-brain dynamic and I personally work through this concept with my clients very
closely. Like within Ayurvedic medicine, the doshas define different road maps; I take that information with a nutritional therapy perspective and support people based on their own divine specificity. There’s also an astronomical amount of teas, drinks, smoothies, that can be harsh on the body and the natural detox process that occurs systematically. If the body isn’t set up to detox properly, forcing it to do so can only create more dysfunction.
At the end of the day regardless of some of the challenges you might be experiencing from within. There’s always options. If you’re interested in working with me, I’d love to support you in your healing journey back to reclaiming your health.