The Digestive System Can Be a Game Changer For Chronic Illness and Mental Health

Digestive Health is Foundational To Overall Health

Your digestion affects every aspect of your body, it is the gateway for nutrition to enter your body. Have you ever stopped to think how pivotal your digestion is to the entire body? If your digestion isn’t able to work effectively it can be really taxing on your system as it’s so important to a fully optimized body. 

The journey of digestion and feeding your body essential nutrients starts right at your mouth. The food going into your body is of course an important consideration. Not everyone benefits from the same diet so the first consideration is what your body seems to thrive on and what causes it (major or minor) distress.  If you are unsure what foods or diet your body seems to thrive on or struggles with, this is an investigation that some naturopaths really excel at. Individualized optimal diet is a major consideration when practicing holistic medicine.

Until you have it yourself, many don’t realize digestive issues can majorly disrupt your life. Many people feel stuck with mysterious, inconvenient, uncomfortable, and sometimes even downright painful digestive issues, while others may not realize that some of their pain and discomfort is related to their gut.  There are many people out there that are unaware they have digestive issues that are impacting their mental health.

Digestive Issues Have So Many Connections

Have you ever heard about the gut-brain axis? Did you know that the bacteria that naturally exists in the gastrointestinal tract can impact your mental health? It’s not the first thing that most people think of when they think of mental health but this is a place in medicine that is starting to receive more attention and research. 

Researchers are looking into inflammation in the gut and why and how it causes disruption in our health. It seems when there is a disruption in the normal bacteria in our gut, our immune system can sometimes react, causing inflammation which can affect your health throughout your body, including your mental health. Did you know that there are just as many microbes  in our body as living cells? It’s pretty amazing considering many used to think we need to purge our system of any bacteria, considering every type of bacteria dirty and bad rather than understanding that many form an integral part of being  a healthy human! 

Chronic Disease & The Gut

Many chronic health conditions have inflammatory involvement and mental health challenges which can be a good reason  to start to work on your gut health. Chronic health conditions can often benefit from gut health improvement even if digestive issues might not be the primary reason you are seeking treatment.  This is an area that is still being researched and there are other processes within the gut brain connection that are still being discovered. Nonetheless, many healthcare practitioners, especially if they practice holistically, have been seeing the system-wide benefits of treating the gut even before the science catches up.

How To Work With Me

If this information resonates with you and you’d like to work with me  to get your gut health back on track contact me here to apply to be a patient at my clinic.