In This eBook You’ll Learn
- What modern science is uncovering about the tie between your gut health and overall wellness
- The features of your modern life that are directly contributing to an unhealthy gut
- The basics of how your digestive system should be working
- How to know if you have leaky gut, IBS, GERD, or some other common gut imbalance.
- The impact of antibiotics on the essential healthy balance of gut flora
- How to maintain and restore a healthy gut
- The first steps to take in fixing your gut
- How to maximize your digestive capacity using supplemental acid and enzymes
- How to restore your stomach acid production
- How your diet affects your gut health
- The common foods that could be harming your digestive health
- Why too many vegetables might be making your gut symptoms worse
- Myths and truths about dietary fiber
- The not-quite-Paleo superfood that could heal your gut
- How stress wreaks havoc on your gut – and what to do about it
- Natural alternatives to antibiotic use
How Rebuilding a Healthy Gut Can Give You a Healthier Life.
Digestive problems have reached epidemic levels in the U.S. (and elsewhere). Consider the following:
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) affects between 10 and 15 percent of the population
- IBS is the second leading cause of missed workdays, behind only the common cold
- 60 percent of adults in the U.S. experience symptoms of GERD
- Nexium, an acid suppressing drug prescribed for GERD, generates more sales revenue than any other drug except Lipitor (a statin)
We now know that the health of the gut is critical to overall health, and that an unhealthy gut doesn’t just cause digestive distress—it contributes to everything from obesity and diabetes to autoimmune disease to skin disorders.
In fact, it’s safe to say that you’re only as healthy as your gut.
Healthy Gut Flora is Critical to Overall Health
Research over the past two decades has revealed that our gut flora plays a key role in maintaining gut function and integrity, and that imbalanced gut flora can contribute to a wide range of diseases including diabetes, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, autism spectrum disorder, depression, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Unfortunately, several features of the modern lifestyle directly contribute to unhealthy gut flora:
- Antibiotics and other medications like birth control and NSAIDs
- Diets high in refined carbohydrates, sugar and processed foods
- Diets low in fermentable fibers
- Dietary toxins like wheat and industrial seed oils that cause leaky gut
- Chronic stress
- Chronic infections
Your Gut is Your First Line of Defense
Have you ever considered the fact that the contents of the gut are technically outside the body? The gut is a hollow tube that passes from the mouth to the anus. Anything that goes in the mouth and isn’t digested will pass right out the other end. This is, in fact, one of the most important functions of the gut: to prevent foreign substances from entering the body.
When the intestinal barrier becomes permeable (i.e. “leaky gut syndrome”), large protein molecules escape into the bloodstream. Since these proteins don’t belong outside of the gut, the body mounts an immune response and attacks them. Studies show that these attacks play a role in the development of autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto’s and type 1 diabetes, among others.
Fighting Modern Illness Means Rebuilding Your Gut
While leaky gut and bad gut flora may manifest as digestive trouble, in many people they do not. Instead they show up as problems as diverse as heart failure, depression, brain fog, eczema/psoriasis and other skin conditions, metabolic problems like obesity and diabetes, allergies, asthma, and other autoimmune diseases.
To adequately address these conditions, you must rebuild healthy gut flora and restore the integrity of your intestinal barrier.
