[00:00:00] Vesna: Welcome to the Peak Revival Podcast. Today we're going to talk about how gut problems affect our energy our mental focus our productivity and our success. And why taking a probiotic may be a complete waste of time.
[00:00:14] Now I see a lot of busy women who, businesswomen, CEOs, who can handle a lot of stress. But when it comes to their gut symptoms, it creates stress. and causes a lot of concern and a lot of anxiety for them. So gut symptoms are quite common when I see women who are overstressed, exhausted, burnt out, and commonly a lot of this leads to what's called leaky gut.
[00:00:40] So a lot of our gut problems can be leaky gut. Now leaky gut is when the, The lining of the gut becomes compromised and we have 70 to 80 percent of our immune system just outside our gut. And so things pass through, which shouldn't get through because the lining should be quite strong and they get through and they trigger the immune system.
[00:01:03] And that then creates the immune system, creates inflammation that becomes whole body inflammation, including the brain. And so it also impacts our nutrient absorption. So a lot of our nutrition is absorbed in our gut. And if we have compromised gut function, then we are going to become deficient, even if we eat well, or perhaps even take supplements. So that's going to make us more tired and not have the Focus or the brain power or even create brain fog.
[00:01:32] It also affects our mental health. So we know, or you may have heard the connection between the gut and the brain by gut brain axis. And we produce a lot of happy hormones in our guts, such as serotonin. Serotonin is a feel good hormone and helps us to feel like everything's going to be okay, no matter what we have on our plate.
[00:01:51] And so. When our gut is compromised, we're not getting that level of production. And that's why gut health or poor gut health is linked to anxiety, depression and mood imbalances.
[00:02:03] So as I said, it does interact with our immune system. We have 70 to 80 percent of our immune system around our gut. So once it's triggered, it's linked with our gut health. Autoimmune conditions. It's linked with allergies. Also it lowers immune surveillance. So we're more prone to getting sick and so much more.
[00:02:21] And the other part that leaky gut effects is that. We are going to have compromised liver detoxification. So the gut works with the liver to break down and detoxify. And so when there's been a period of time, if you have had poor gut health or symptoms, gut symptoms, it will break down the liver detox pathways.
[00:02:40] And what that means is that we start to build up more toxicity in the body. So we can feel more tired, more irritable. We get aches and pains and it can cause weight gain and more cravings.
[00:02:52] as I said earlier, probiotics could be a waste of time because there are many different layers to repairing the gut that a probiotic just can't fix in those when it's more in the upper levels, which I'm going to talk about. So probiotics are helpful down the line, but they're not the first line of treatment.
[00:03:09] So how do you know if you need to repair your gut? So number one, I see this with women. Or people who have, uh, long term chronic stress, because it does break down the gut. If you've had a history of high alcohol, high caffeine in your diet, or even medication, Also processed foods, but the symptoms that you may experience and not everyone experiences symptoms, but most people do the symptoms such as bloating, where it feels like your belly's distended, like you're about five or six months pregnant.
[00:03:39] And it's so annoying. And by the end of the day, you can just go. feel like everything's really tight around your waist. You can get a lot of gas, a lot of flatulence. So whether it's reflux or heartburn or, you know, passing wind, you can have constipation or diarrhea. You can get abdominal pain. You can get discomfort in there because it feels so tight.
[00:03:59] And like I said, indigestion. So those are some of the symptoms or most of the symptoms of poor gut function. But again, you may not have those, but still have leaky gut.
[00:04:09] So I want to. I'm going to talk about the four steps that you need to repair the gut. Step one is not even going to sound like a gut repair protocol, but it's the most important first step, which is to reduce stress hormones, to reduce cortisol. Now, cortisol has an affinity for the gut and it breaks down the gut and creates leaky gut.
[00:04:29] So You may find yourself thinking, well, my lifestyle is pretty busy. I can't reduce stress. Now I talked about this in another episode called turn cortisol into your ally, and I talked about how we can do simple things in our day to day routine to reduce cortisol, even though our life is stressful. But a couple of things I want to add here for digestive health when it comes to cortisol is that mostly we're used to eating rather quickly.
[00:04:57] And. We are used to being distracted with our phones. Maybe we're in a meeting, maybe we're eating at our desk, but we're not really in a peaceful environment. So we want to prep the digestive system for food. And that means if cortisol is flooding the body, it's just not a good time to eat, right? Because we're just not going to get the digestive capacity.
[00:05:17] One of the The reason for cortisol is to divert its energy away from digestive function because your body thinks you're in mortal danger when stress hormones are released, right? And it doesn't deem digestion to be important in that moment, right? So you want to make sure that you're relaxed. So that means don't eat at your desk.
[00:05:38] Don't eat in a meeting. Don't be rushing. Like really give yourself time to slowly eat your meal and don't be on your phone. Don't be working. Don't be anything that's going to trigger any kind of stress. So your phone, you could get messages, you could get emails, you can get something on social media that triggers you.
[00:05:55] So be away from all of that. So you're eating in a peaceful, quiet, calm environment.
[00:06:00] Step number two is to remove the trigger foods. Now, one of the biggest trigger foods for the gut is gluten. Gluten is found in, in wheat products, so bread, uh, pastas, pastries, condiments. There's so many areas that gluten is found and gluten is an irritant to the gut. And particularly because we have. GMO gluten, which is, you know, bathed in pesticides, which kill the microbiome, and the gluten itself is an irritant to the gut wall and is linked to leaky gut.
[00:06:31] And that means it's going to create more inflammation in there, more irritation, more breakdown, and prevent the repair of the gut.
[00:06:38] So, gluten can trigger inflammation in the body, and so you might only have gluten once or twice a week, right? But gluten takes, uh, causes inflammation for about three to four days, right, once you've had a gluten exposure. So if you're only having it twice a week, that will keep you inflamed for the whole week.
[00:06:56] So definitely cut that one out. The other one is processed foods and sugary foods, right? They're not offering us any nutrition. They're just inflammatory foods, which are going to create more inflammation and disruption inside of our gut and prevent healing. Alcohol and caffeine, unfortunately, also irritate the gut and prevent healing of the gut lining.
[00:07:15] So if you've had a history of high dose of caffeine, if you've been relying on your coffee and maybe a wine at the end of the night to relax, you definitely need to look at. How to reduce and then remove. If you find that making these changes to your diet overwhelming, particularly gluten and maybe caffeine or alcohol, try and just start with one.
[00:07:37] So start with the gluten, remove the gluten, you know, maybe do that for a couple of weeks before you start to reduce and remove the others. Because the most important thing is that you take the steps. It's not that you do a hundred percent overnight. Okay. It's about really kind of bringing in these changes slowly.
[00:07:54] So it's not so overwhelming. So you can stick to it and get the results. So start with gluten for a week or two, then start to minimize caffeine and minimize alcohol until you can remove them.
[00:08:03] Step number three is to rebalance the pH inside of the gut. So when there's gut disturbances, quite often the main symptom is bloating and wind, right? And so what that means is that You're not breaking down and digesting your food. So the food is sitting too long in the gut. It's fermenting It's producing gases and that gas is either coming up or it's coming down.
[00:08:23] But the bloating in itself you may not have that coming up or down but the bloating itself and the Fermentation means that it's creating an environment inside your gut Which is allowing gut bugs to breed and then when we get too many gut bugs It disrupts the microbiome and we get too much More problems from there.
[00:08:41] So having a really balanced pH inside of the gut is really, really important to one, digest your nutrients to reduce, fermentation and three, make sure that there's no overgrowth of bad bacteria in the gut.
[00:08:55] Okay, now we can get into supplements in step number four. So just a rehash, step number one was reducing cortisol, really a crucial step in repairing the gut. So I've had women who have come through my programs who have just done this step their gut bloating has reduced significantly that they've even taken photos of it.
[00:09:14] So I don't want you to think that this is not a big part of the process. It really, really is. Step two was to remove the trigger foods. Start with the gluten, then removing the processed foods or the sugar, and then look at caffeine and alcohol. Step number three was to rebalance your pH. So you want to make sure, so here you can use digestive enzymes, right?
[00:09:34] Digestive enzymes help to replace some of the enzymes that you may be lacking. And helping to bolster up that pH and make it sure that it's, you know, breaking things down and everything's correct in there until your body is accustomed to rebalancing your pH on its own. And step number four is bringing in supplements to heal the digestive lining, right?
[00:09:54] So it's important that we remove all the factors that are breaking down the lining before we come in with the nutrients, which help to heal it. Okay. You can do all of those together, but really in that order. So the supplements that you're looking at are glutamine. Okay. Glutamine, our cells in our gut lining are dependent on glutamine to, to replenish.
[00:10:14] And so glutamine, you're looking at three to five grams daily will help to restore the gut lining, remove the leaky gut or repair the leaky gut. So you have a full functioning, healthy gut function and nothing's triggering the immune system and therefore you have more energy. You have no bloating. You feel like you've got mental focus and clarity.
[00:10:33] Your moods are more stable. Now I've seen women whose moods and almost personality has changed by doing a gut repair protocol because they found themselves before feeling very kind of highs and lows with their mood. They're all over the place. Whereas after they've done the gut repair, they feel much more emotionally balanced and more stable and more like they can handle whatever comes their way.
[00:10:59] So that's the power of a gut repair. So the next step from there is yes, you can add probiotics. At this point, it is a good idea to add probiotics. You can even look at repairing the liver detox pathways. Because as I said, after a period of time when there's been a breakdown in the gut function, it will impact our liver detox pathways, right?
[00:11:18] Because it's just so much fermentation and gases and disruption in there. That is being handed over to the liver to take over and then the liver eventually becomes overburdened and then the detox pathway start to break down. So that can be a next step to look at in order to get a really, you know, really healthy system, good vitality, really good productivity and feel like you're kind of at the top of your game.
[00:11:43] So I hope that was helpful. Now in the comments below, I would love for you to tell me Do you feel like you need support with your gut health? And what have you tried already? Even if it's a supplement or whatever, let me know what you've tried in the comments below.
