The REAL Root Cause of Gut Issues (and What to Do About It)
When it comes to healing gut issues, we have to get to the roots. In this post, we’ll go through one of the real roots of gut issues that I commonly see, and some helpful practices that I use with my clients so you can begin to truly support the terrain of the body instead of chasing root causes!
THE REAL ROOT CAUSE OF GUT ISSUES (AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT)
When it comes to healing gut issues, we have to get to the roots.
Oftentimes the things we think of as the “roots” (bacterial imbalance, candida, SIBO, low stomach acid, etc.) are really just branches, and we haven’t actually touched on the root causes of dysfunction and imbalance in the body.
Instead of trying to simply fix the “one thing”, we have to keep working backward to get to the ACTUAL root.
In this short video, we’ll go through one of the real roots of gut issues that I commonly see, and some helpful practices that I use with my clients so you can begin to truly support the terrain of the body instead of chasing root causes!
Check out the video to learn more about the REAL root cause of gut issues. And if you want to learn more about healing gut issues, autoimmunity, and the pillars of autoimmune health to start bringing this all together, I invite you to check out my Live Well with Autoimmune Disease Online Program. This program gives you specific tools and the building blocks to support your body both physiologically and emotionally. The Live Well with Autoimmune Disease Online Program is completely self-paced with 12 modules of supportive information that take you through the pillars of autoimmune health essential to whole-body healing so that you can know with certainty that you're doing everything you can on a daily basis to support your body and your health in a way that feels good for you! You can learn more about The Live Well Online Program here.
Feel free to let me know in the comments if the practices in this video are helpful, and if you’d like to learn more simple techniques that help create big shifts in healing and gut health!
If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, breathwork, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.
Breathwork to Support Digestion
Are you someone that eats really quickly or is always eating on the go? Maybe you eat when you’re stressed or you often end up eating between meetings or at your computer?
Breathwork is an amazing healing tool for getting ready to eat and putting our body in a place where it's able to digest. One of my favorite ways to use breathwork to support digestion is to use “four, seven, eight” breathing for digestion. This video will take you through a breathing exercise so you can try this practice for yourself!
BREATHWORK TO SUPPORT DIGESTION
Are you someone that eats really quickly or is always eating on the go? Maybe you eat when you’re stressed or you often end up eating between meetings or at your computer?
This can be true for me too! So many of us tend to eat when we’re not in a place where our body is ready to actually digest. This can lead to a lot of downstream issues like heartburn or indigestion, bloating or constipation. And then this can have a carry over effect that creates even more downstream issues that come from impaired digestion. It could lead to nutrient deficiencies. It could be bacteria imbalances in our gut or autoimmunity. There are so many things that can be influenced by the health of our gut and our digestive system.
Breathwork is an amazing healing tool for getting ready to eat and putting our body in a place where it's able to digest food. Even slowing down and looking at the food in front of us can start this process of digestion. One of my favorite digestive support practices is 4-7-8 breathing. The video below will take you through this process so you can try this practice for yourself!
PREFER TO LISTEN? TUNE INTO THE LIVE WELL PODCAST BELOW (AND DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE SO YOU'LL NEVER MISS OUT!)
Click here to listen in iTunes
Click here to listen in Stitcher
If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, breathwork, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.
The Dangers of Proton Pump Inhibitors
Have you or someone you know taken acid-blocking drugs, particularly Proton Pump Inhibitors? If you are, you’re certainly not alone. In this post, I discuss the dangers of PPIs and everything you need to know about these acid-reducing drugs including the effects they can have on our bodies.
THE DANGERS OF PROTON PUMP INHIBITORS
Have you or someone you know taken acid-blocking drugs, particularly Proton Pump Inhibitors? If you are, you’re certainly not alone. Americans spent $13 billion of acid-reducing drugs in 2006 to give you an idea of the magnitude of use. In this post, I’ll discuss some of the dangers of PPIs and everything you need to know about these acid-reducing drugs including the effects they can have on our bodies.
What are Proton Pump Inhibitors?
Proton Pump Inhibitors - or PPIs - are a class of acid-reducing drugs. They’re medications like Prilosec, Prevacid, and Nexium to name a few, and they are designed to turn off acid production in the gut. They’re often used for stomach and small intestine ulcers, for severe GERD, esophageal reflux, and sometimes to protect people from getting ulcers that can develop as the result of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory use. They're also available over the counter to treat heartburn. PPIs are approved by the FDA for a 14-day course of treatment, however many people end up taking these well past the indicated timeline. I took proton pump inhibitor drugs when I was dealing with acid reflux and heartburn and ended up taking them for around a year without any follow-up, and oftentimes my clients come to me in similar situations.
Things to consider when taking PPIs
These antacids might seem really harmless because they're available over the counter and anyone can just walk into a store and buy them, but they can have a number of side-effects and really serious downstream consequences when used long-term that we really need to be aware of when we're thinking functionally.
The first issue is that they don't get to the root of the problem. PPIs are band-aids used to mask symptoms of heartburn. Typically heartburn is a signal that there is digestive impairment that's causing acidic stomach contents to leak up into the esophagus. So in order to treat the problem, you need to support overall digestion, not just mask the symptoms. When I started learning about this, my mind was blown! Instead of just saying, we need to turn off the acid, we want to think, why is the food not being broken down in the gut in the first place? And how can we support top to bottom digestion?
There is also an increased risk of infection when taking PPIs. The FDA has issued a series of reports cautioning against the prolonged use of PPIs, citing increased risk of infection, bone fractures, nutrient deficiencies and life-threatening infections (clostridium difficile) but they are still over prescribed and widely used long-term. Stomach acid secretions act as a defense mechanism against enteric bacteria and so less acid during PPI use allows for colonization of opportunistic microbes. That means you could end up with an overgrowth of microbes that might lead to more dysbiosis.
Chronic PPI use also leads to malabsorption of key minerals in the body, namely a loss of calcium and magnesium. A loss of these minerals has been shown to lead to bone fractures and cardiac abnormalities among other downstream issues. I also see this in terms of not being able to absorb things like iron, B12 or different vitamins. A lot of times, having low stomach acid or just impaired digestion is correlated with low iron or nutrient deficiencies overall. And we know that nutrient deficiencies are a big driver of autoimmune issues or any health issues because our immune system needs those nutrients and those building blocks to do what it needs to do.
Listen in below to learn more about the dangers of taking PPIs. And if you're on a PPI for any reason, know that that's okay. I've taken them too. When you know more about them, you can begin to understand how they might be affecting your body, and then you can take steps to get to the roots of what's going on.
PREFER TO LISTEN? TUNE INTO THE LIVE WELL PODCAST BELOW (AND DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE SO YOU'LL NEVER MISS OUT!)
Click here to listen in iTunes
Click here to listen in Stitcher
If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.
Easy Batch Cooking and the Basic 8 with Kelsey Cohrt
I’m so excited to have Kelsey Cohrt joining me on this episode of the podcast where we will be discussing how to effectively meal prep. Kelsey is the creator of Northwest Health Coaching which helps teach busy people how to get healthier food into their belly and incorporate healthy eating habits so they start feeling good. We talk about how you can feed yourself, and of course, prepare meals in a straightforward manner. Kelsey also shares her own food experience, the challenges, and her wins while on this journey.
I’m so excited to have Kelsey Cohrt joining me on this episode of the podcast where we will be discussing how to effectively meal prep. Kelsey is the creator of Northwest Health Coaching. Through her 1:1 health coaching program, her Gut Health Group, creating specialized weekly meal plans for clients, along with her Batch Cooking Framework Course coming out on May 6th, Kelsey’s goals have always been to help teach busy people how to get healthier food into their belly and incorporate healthy eating habits so they start feeling good.
We talk about how you can feed yourself, and of course, prepare meals in a straightforward manner. Kelsey also shares her own food experience, the challenges, and her wins while on this journey.
This is such a very important topic to discuss especially now when we are all asked to stay at home. Many of us may feel like we have more time to prepare our meals, but it may not always be that way. Why not use this time to build new healthy habits, right? Tune into this episode for easy-to-follow tips, and get to know Kelsey and her business.
LISTEN BELOW (AND DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE SO YOU'LL NEVER MISS OUT!)
Click here to listen in iTunes
Click here to listen in Stitcher
SHOW NOTES:
0:00 Intro
2:55 - Get to know Kelsey Cohrt
How The Healing Effects of Food taught her a new way of looking at food
Real food + healthy habits + gut support = body will feel way better
9:03 - Challenges that most people have when it comes to prepping meals
Limited time
Struggle with keeping something fresh all week
Dislike eating the same meal over and over
13:23 - Main components of the Basic 8:
1 batch of grains
1 batch of veggies
Greens
Protein
Ready-to-eat fruit
Sauce or dressings
Toppings
Mid-week meal
19:24 - What meal prep looks like for Kelsey IRL
29:53 - The advantage of doing the Basic 8
Save time
Save money
Getting real food in your body
32:37 - On getting stuck and feeling overwhelmed
34:00 - Resources
37:40 - Where to find Kelsey
Kelsey’s website: Northwesthealthcoaching.com
How to get a free grocery shopping checklist
38:47 - Final thoughts and comments
If you loved this episode, I'd be honored for you to give me a rating on iTunes. This helps me to get content out to others who are interested in getting control of their health through diet, lifestyle shifts and personal empowerment.
If we haven't met before, I'm Christina Tidwell and I'm so excited that you're here! I am a RN & Functional Nutrition Practitioner that helps those with autoimmune disease, hormone imbalance and gut issues heal without overwhelm so you can feel better in your body in a way that honors your unique needs and feels sustainable for the rest of your life.
If you suffer from:
Fatigue and energy crashes
Brain fog
Poor digestion
Painful periods and PMS
Symptoms of autoimmunity
Stress and overwhelm
...and aren't getting the support you need, I’m here to help guide you! My job is to clear the overwhelm, help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and co-create a sustainable path forward to help you reach your goals and feel better in your amazing body. When we work together you can’t fail.
In my health & nutrition coaching programs I support you in the quest to get back into balance by listening to your story, understanding your needs, getting to the roots of imbalance in the body and co-creating a sustainable path to healing together. These sessions weave together functional nutrition and science, lived experience, mindset shifts, and intuitive guidance for a unique and full-spectrum approach to nutrition counseling and holistic health.
I always offer free 20-minute discovery sessions to get clear on your major health concerns and identify what’s standing in your way. Click the button below to set up your free consultation and we can create a plan of action specifically for you.