The Gut Brain Connection

brain

Digestive health is so important for health!

Do you feel butterflies in the pit of their stomach when you are stressed or anxious?

This reaction shows there is a complex interaction between your gut and brain, with the gut being referred to as our “second brain”. The gut is full of nerves and neurotransmitter receptors from the enteric nervous system (part of the autonomic nervous system which performs unconscious function, like your heart beating) that is wired directly to the brain. The gut cells produce most of our serotonin, the “happy” neurotransmitter, so not only do we need to look at ingesting enough of the nutrients required for serotonin production, we need to ensure our gut health is in balance to be able to utilise it! Continue reading “The Gut Brain Connection”

How to Treat a Sick Gut – A Case Study

HOW HEALTHY IS YOUR GUT? Picture1

 Find out here at our FREE WORKSHOP

Wednesday 27th April – 6:30pm

How to treat a sick Gut – A Case Study

with Naturopath Sally Broadhurst

 

Discover how Natural Medicine can help improve your digestion and wellbeing.

Gut dysbiosis (a fancy word for imbalance) is becoming more and more commonplace in our fast paced world. Symptoms and the intensity of digestive imbalance can present differently in everyone depending on the level of damage and how long it’s been happening for.

Continue reading “How to Treat a Sick Gut — A Case Study”

Pathology Testing: How It Can Benefit Your Immune System

Sick of getting sick all the time?

 Boost your Immune system by testing and correcting your nutrient deficiencies.

Do you always get sick during the winter months or pick up whatever is going around the office / home? Have you ever wondered why you get sick more often and take longer to recover than those around you?

There are ways you can prevent this from happening this year. You could be deficient in the vital nutrients which your immune system relies upon to build immune fighting cells.

Did you know that Naturopaths can request blood tests for you to pick up deficiencies that could be leaving you open to a weaker immune system? Continue reading “Pathology Testing: How It Can Benefit Your Immune System”

How Digestion and the Gut Influences Your Mood

The gut and brain talk and sometimes it’s not pretty

For years Naturopaths have talked of the gut-brain connection.  How the health of the gut health will influence mood and mood will influence the gut.  With the increase in research into the interplay between humans and bugs – the human microbiome – comes some really exciting findings that back this traditional concept.  Though more research is required to get all health care professionals on board, it may not surprise you that many people have made this connection for themselves.  They work to set their gut and mind up to talk nicely to each other for happiness and best of health.

The balance of the bugs

It is said that our body has 10 times the number of bugs than human cells and 150 times as many genes – wow that’s a lot of bugs.  Now before you start scratching and head for the shower, know that when the bugs play nicely together they support our health in a wide range of ways.  It is only when the bugs are out of balance that things go array, including negatively impacting your mood.

Research has shown the link between the overgrowth of specific bugs and an increased prevalence of anxiety, an increased sensitivity to pain, memory dysfunction, autism, IBS – irritable bowel syndrome – and IBD – more serious inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.  This list melds both conditions of the mind and of the gut and supports the gut-brain link. Continue reading “How Digestion and the Gut Influences Your Mood”

Digestion and the Mind Body Connection

Mindful eating focuses on the increasingly important roles of mind and spirit and their contribution to our eating habits and choices. In regards to our digestion, it is becoming more essential to consider not just WHAT we are eating but HOW we are eating, and it’s impact on our digestive function. By looking at diet and digestion from this new perspective, we can begin to establish a brand new relationship with our mealtimes and the food we eat.

Digestion is the process of breaking down, absorbing and assimilating food and the nutrients it contains. What happens when your digestive function isn’t working as optimally as we need it to? You can experience a multitude of symptoms that can include cramping, bloating, abdominal fullness, reflux, indigestion, constipation or diarrhoea; or a combination of these. So how much of this has to do with what you are eating and how much has to do with how you are eating it? Digestion can be affected by many different factors including poor diet choices, medications and food intolerances to name a few; but two of the biggest and often overlooked contributors to digestive dysfunction are stress and speed. Continue reading “Digestion and the Mind Body Connection”

IBS – Irritable Bowel Syndrome – Help for Bloated Bellies

As a Naturopath, I’m not scared to talk about poo, bloated bellies, or farting. Sounds gross and like something you don’t want to talk about, but the fact is, 1 in 5 Australians will have IBS throughout their lives and need help fixing it.

Good digestion is the key to good health –  a fact we’ve always innately known and this has become part of our vocabulary with old sayings such as “you are what you eat.”

If your belly isn’t happy – your body is sending you a signal that you may not be digesting and absorbing your nutrients properly. Healthy clean eating and super foods have become mainstream,, which is brilliant for health. But if you’re not digesting your food well, then you could be eating the worlds cleanest, healthiest diet, but you won’t optimize the nutrients from it, which are needed to keep your energized and prevent disease.  So if you think things may not be working so well in the belly department, it’s time to listen to your body and learn about what your tummy is telling you!

IBS Symptoms

  • Abdominal bloating and discomfort
  • Changeable bowel habits – alternating between constipation or diarrhoea.
  • Stool habits change – watery, loose, nuggety, thin ribbons.
  • Wind
  • Feeling of discomfort after eating & food sensitivities
  • Feeling of urgency – needing to go to the toilet often or feeling not fully evacuated when you empty your bowels.

Continue reading “IBS – Irritable Bowel Syndrome – Help for Bloated Bellies”

Immune boosting foods

Coming up to the winter season, it is important to strengthen your immune system to become resilient to external invasion from colds and flu’s. Your lifestyle may also be contributing to a weakened immune system, including the following:

  • Unbalanced diet
  • Poor environment
  • Poor sleep
  • Congested lymphatic system
  • Long-term stress and extreme psychological stress
  • Impaired intestinal micro-flora balance (digestive issues)
  • Long term strenuous physical exercise
  • Lack of exercise
  • Overuse of drugs, including alcohol and smoking

Your immune system in an amazingly complex system that has the ability to protect your body from external invaders. It is comprised of organs including the thymus, spleen and lymph nodes as well as tissues and cells (including white blood cells.) As a Naturopath, I educate my clients about the amazing foods and herbs that natures provides us with to boost our immunity and reduce our risk of getting sick. Also, if you do get sick, these tips will help you get better faster.

Helpful foods include:

Bioflavonoid  rich foods – cabbage, green peppers, parsley, carrots, broccoli, turnips, parsnips, horseradish, garlic, lemon juice, grapefruit, most fruits.

Avoid the following foods:

Refined sweet foods, salty foods, excess dairy, eggs or other mucous forming foods (Pitchford 2002, p. 69-70)

Immune Boosting Foods

Using food as medicine is a powerful way to support your immunity during winter.  When your immune system is functioning well it reduces the chances of developing a cold or infection as well as reducing the length and severity of time that it take you to recover.

As well as eating more of these foods it is important to remember that you give your body time to rest, this means that you have time out and reduce stress (as much as possible!) to rest and ensure that you enough sleep. And of course drink lots of room temperature/warm water. Gargle with warm salt water for sore throat.

Having easier to digest foods such as stews, casseroles and congees (or any meal where all the ingredients are cooked in the one pot) means there is less strain on the digestive system and the nutrients in the food are absorbed by the body more effectively. Plain steamed rice and boiled eggs are also useful.

Vitamin C containing foods Continue reading “Immune boosting foods”

Winter Immune Boosting Tips

It’s that time of year when everyone starts to get sick.  Kids average six to eight colds a year and adults between two and four.  Everyone has experienced the feeling of a tickle in their throat, a runny nose or the building up of mucus in their sinus cavities.  This is our bodies sending us signals to slow down and rest!  Now is the time to get plenty of sleep, eat nutritious foods and have plenty of fluids.  It is vital to our health to make smart lifestyle choices and listen to our bodies. The choices we make affect our own immune system, the immune system of our families, as well as our general health and wellbeing.

Here are some tips to help boost your immunity this autumn and prevent colds and flus:

 

Tea and water

  • Drink plenty of water however make sure to avoid cold (from fridge) drinks.
  • Black tea, white tea and green tea contain antioxidants and polyphenols which contain anti inflammatory properties.
  • Thyme tea helps sooth the throat and coughing as well as and relieving headaches. Thyme is an expectorant, which means it helps to shift the mucous build up in the chest.  Use fresh thyme sprigs for each cup of tea.
  • Hot water, lemon and manuka honey tea:  The anti-bacterial honey, the alkalising lemon and the warming hot water make this the perfect combination to nourish, hydrate and flush out the flu. Continue reading “Winter Immune Boosting Tips”