Familiar with Hippocrates quote: “All disease begins in the gut ?”
If you have any of the following issues there’s a good chance you have a disrupted gut.
- Food allergies or sensitivities
- Autoimmune disorders
- Poor digestion, bloating, gas, or nutrient malabsorption
- Irritable bowel syndrome, or inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis
- Thyroid issues such as hypothyroidism, particularly Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
- Mood disorders, including anxiety and depression
- Chronic pain in joints and muscles including arthritis and headaches
- Skin problems, including eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, and acne
A Healthy Gut is Key to A Healthy You
Arguably, in Western and allopathic medicine, much of prescriptive drug treatment is directly for, or can be linked back to, digestive issues
Poor digestive health wreaks havoc on our entire body, leading to allergies, acne, autoimmune disease, arthritis, chronic fatigue disorders, weight issues and dementia. A properly working gut is essential to our overall health and wellbeing.
A living and breathing factory. There are 500 species and three pounds of bacteria in our gut; helping to digest our food, produce vitamins, regulate hormones and excrete toxins. Too many bad bugs like parasites, yeasts or bad bacteria, or not enough of the good ones like lactobacillus or bifidobacterium and things can get ‘out of balance’ with serious impact on health and wellbeing.
So, how do we restore our gut health ?
We are all unique and strategies to improve gut health need to honor that and will be different for all. You’ll find plenty of advice around taking digestive enzymes with meals, taking gut-healing nutrients, eating an “anti-inflammatory” diet, removing sugary, processed foods, exercising regularly and reducing stress. Fundamentally though, if things are out of balance we need to address what’s putting them out of balance in the first place don’t we ?
So what’s the one simple thing you could choose to evolve to better digestion, deeper sleep and more energy ?
This one simple thing …
Good health lies in healthy ‘circadian habits’ (Circ = nearly, dian = 24 hrs). Every single cell and organ in our bodies has their own circadian clock where they work ‘optimally’. So syncing your sleep-wake cycle in tune with the circadian clock is most probably the one ‘simple’ thing you could do to optimise your health, digestion, vitality and longevity.
Simple ?
Prior to the industrial revolution people ate their main meal at midday. They’d come in from the fields during the hottest time of the day, enjoy a long, leisurely meal, followed by a short rest before returning back to the fields to complete the days work. After work, supper would likely be leftovers made into a stew or soup ; a “supplement” tying them over until the next day. They’d be no late-night snacking, staying up to do work-assignments, watching netflix, scrolling social media so ‘circadian habits’ would be inherent.
If you’re thinking developing ‘circadian habits’, finding and restoring balance, health and wellbeing in body, mind and spirit is not that simple for you. It’s something I coach in ‘Surviving to Thriving’ details here . I’m also running a FREE workshop on Rest and Restorative sleep this month if you’d like to find out more.
Racheleyoga 