If you find your digestion’s feeling bit off, maybe with bloating, nausea or aches and pains, you could do a lot worse than to make sure you have plenty of spices and herbs for gut health to hand in your kitchen cupboards.

There are literally hundreds of herbs and spices to help with day to day tricky gut situations.

Some herbs will support your body in producing bile – a digestive substance produced by the gallbladder which helps you digest fatty foods.

Also, many of these herbs and spices will soothe the gut wall and ensure your gut is functioning correctly to get any pesky excess gas out of your system.

However they do their job, you can be assured that the following herbs and spices will support healthy digestion, allowing the gut to function as it’s supposed to.

And apart from all that they taste amazing too!

If you’d like to learn more about incorporating herbs and spice into your diet, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

Here are four of my favourites –

Fennel

The seeds are often served in Asia alongside or after your food to promote healthy digestion.  An easier way is to drink fennel tea, or buy a fresh fennel bulb from the supermarket – it makes an awesome soup!

The seeds and the plant have been scientifically proven to be –

• Antibacterial
• Anti-fungal
• Anti inflammatory

So, it may well help you get rid of any bacteria which is causing gassiness, or help with an upset stomach.

Ginger

A very well known remedy for all types of nausea, including morning sickness and travel sickness.

It’s very versatile so you can either buy the fresh bulbs and then grate or chop it into hot water to make tea, or in stir-fry or curries.

Alternatively buy it as a tea or use dried ginger in cooking.

So there you go, four essential herbs and spices to have in your cupboard to support your digestion day to day – enjoy them as teas or in cooking!

In recent years the phrases ‘gut cleansing’ and ‘detox’ have become very popular indeed. There are lots of products and methods being bandied around which claim their product, method or diet will ‘detoxify’ you.  Both terms are a bit misleading, suggesting you need to do something particularly special, or spend lots of money on expensive products in order to get results.

These phrases are misleading because our body is constantly detoxifying on its own. For example, the main function of your liver is to filter and remove toxins from your body. There are lots of processes involved using a variety of complex biological systems. These eventually end up showing toxins the door.

Other ways your body is constantly detoxing include –

• Your skin pushing out bacteria through sweat
• Kidneys filtering blood and producing urine
• Lungs expelling carbon dioxide
• Intestines extracting nutrients from food and excreting waste.

Your liver is very busy, clearing toxic xenobiotics from pharmaceutical drugs, food additives and environmental pollutants. These are metabolised by detoxification enzymes into less harmful compounds.

So, in a nutshell you’re already gut cleansing and detoxing without thinking about it!  It’s really just a question of how effectively you’re doing it.

How to support gut cleansing & detox

Although detoxification happens naturally, that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to support it in doing its job. Your body’s own detoxing mechanisms don’t work properly without the right fuel. The right fuel being the nutrients contained in whole, natural foods.

So while it’s not accurate to suggest that certain types of food/juices/supplements/superfoods will cleanse your gut and detoxify you directly, a healthy diet is definitely necessary to provide your system with the enzymes to detoxify your body adequately.

In addition, factors like –

• Chronic, ongoing stress
• Poor sleep
• Lack of physical activity
• A diet high in processed foods

Can cause your body’s detoxification systems to underperform and not remove all those toxins efficiently.

However, a ‘detox diet’ can provide a great focus to get your body back on track, and help it to efficiently do what it’s supposed to.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, and also your sleep, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

In a nutshell, what you’ll need to do to help your body detox more efficiently, is to minimise the things it doesn’t need, whilst maximising what it does need.

Help your body detox like this –

If you tend to drink fizzy and sugary drinks, swapping them for plain filtered water, herbal teas and green tea will ensure you stay well hydrated whilst at the same time reducing your toxic load.

Cut out all highly processed and pre-packaged foods such as ready meals, convenience foods and snacks from your diet.

Whilst you’re decreasing your intake of processed and sugary foods, ensure you increase you intake of whole raw foods, cook from scratch and include healthy protein foods.

It’s just a case of providing your body with the building blocks it needs to do its own, inbuilt, cleansing process naturally.

Although you may not have heard of it before, having a ‘leaky gut’ is very common and is associated with loads of symptoms and conditions all around your body. Not only the symptoms you may be experiencing with your gut, but also if you’re having difficulty losing weight or have allergies, for example.

Fixing a leaky gut (yes, it can be done) can alleviate a lot of symptoms, some trivial, some a bit more serious.

So what is ‘leaky gut’ exactly?

Your intestines are lined with a single layer of cells that are linked together by tight junctions. When you have leaky gut these tight junctions aren’t working as they should.

The gaps between the cells lining your gut determine what can pass through into your bloodstream from your digestive system. They need to be tight enough to ensure that no nasties pass through, but have enough room between them to allow the things we do want to pass through – vital nutrients for example.

When you have leaky gut, certain particles that shouldn’t be able to enter your bloodstream start to leak through. 

Much of your immune system is also located throughout your gut, and this may also be affected. The result being possible inflammation and autoimmune reactions.

What might cause a ‘leaky gut?’

Genes – some people may be more likely to develop leaky gut because they are sensitive to certain environmental triggers, causing their bodies to mount autoimmune responses.

Diet – certain foods are more likely to cause allergic or inflammatory responses. The main offenders tend to be

• grains, particularly wheat
• added refined sugar
• genetically modified foods
• refined oils
• food additives, and
• processed dairy products.

Stress – chronic, unrelenting stress will take its toll on your body in many ways. Therefore learning techniques to manage it is vital.

Toxins – The worst offenders as far as your gut is concerned are chemicals in household products; for example cosmetics, hair dyes and washing powder, together with alcohol, prescription drugs such as antibiotics and NSAIDS, drinking unfiltered water and pesticides.

Toxins are everywhere and it’d be unrealistic to try and avoid them entirely, but switching to natural household products and cosmetic brands, filtering your water and opting for organic foods where possible will go a long way to reducing your toxic load.

Leaky Gut Symptoms: Dysbiosis –

This is where the good and bad bacteria which live in your gut get out of balance. The pathogenic bacteria and yeasts get too much of a stranglehold and start to cause damage to your gut, and throughout your body too. A large body of evidence now shows that gut microbiota are important in supporting the cells lining your gut, and preventing autoimmune reactions.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, and also your sleep, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

So, how do you know if this is affecting you?

Here are some of the main leaky gut symptoms –

Leaky gut symptoms and signs

• IBS
• Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis
• Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)

• Metabolic diseases such as fatty liver or Type II diabetes
• Autoimmune disease
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Propensity towards weight gain or obesity

At the current time it’s not known for sure if having a leaky gut causes these conditions, but its safe to say that leaky gut tends to occur concurrently with these other issues.

How to overcome leaky gut symptoms

There are basically four main steps I recommend in order to repair a leaky gut, these are –

• Establish what your trigger foods are, and remove them from your diet.
• Ascertain which diet and/or lifestyle factors have given rise to leaky gut – for example, ongoing stress or medications.
• Repair the gut lining with herbs and/or supplements.
• Rebalance the microflora with probiotics.

If you’re struggling to sleep, know you’re not alone. It’s a very common problem indeed. Strangely enough it’s an area which is very closely linked to our gut health. Not only does the health of our microbiome impact how well we sleep, or don’t sleep – but our sleep (or lack of it) definitely has a huge effect on our microbiome and overall gut health. Let’s look at how this happens, who is most affected and what we can do to support our insomnia and gut health.

How the microbiome affects insomnia

Numerous studies to date have demonstrated that the gut microbiome definitely seems to influence sleep quality.

Via the gut-brain-axis the microbiome determines sleep-related physiological functions in a few different ways, it seems –

• It can shift your circadian rhythm
• Affect the hormones that regulate sleep
• Alter your body’s sleep-wake cycle

An abundant and diverse gut microbiome correlates with more time spent asleep, and that sleep quality is improved. In other words, time spent actually sleeping when you’re in bed.

Serotonin – key if you’re struggling with insomnia

There is a strong link between the levels of serotonin we have circulating, our gut bacteria and how well we sleep. Serotonin regulates our sleep cycle, and our gut microbiome determines the levels of serotonin in our body. However the exact mechanism remains unclear. Serotonin has different functions in the brain and around the body, but studies involving mice given antibiotics to wipe out most of their gut flora, demonstrated that they had generally low serotonin levels and disrupted sleep cycles.

How does insomnia affect your gut?

Naturally, it also follows that a lack of sleep affects our gut in numerous ways. So if we don’t take measures to look after our gut health we could end up with a vicious cycle going on here.

How well you sleep, and how much sleep you get, certainly seems to affect the diversity of your gut microbes. This undoubtedly has a knock-on effect for your health generally.

The bacteria in your gut are dynamic and in a delicate balance. They respond to changes such as sleep deprivation and shift work. Changes such as these will cause some species to die-off, and some to proliferate. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when you keep waking up in the night it seems it gives rise to a proliferation of less-than-desireable species proliferating: Specifically those species which cause bloating.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, and also your sleep, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

Insomnia causes changes throughout the body

All these factors on their own may not sound too troubling, but your gut health certainly influences the rest of your health too. These changes in your microbiome may lead to –

• Tissue inflammation
• Decreased insulin sensitivity
• Leaky gut
• There is also a clear link between sleep disturbance and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), heartburn and acid indigestion.

Unfortunately it doesn’t take long for all these negative effects to start occurring either. As little as a couple of nights disturbed sleep can have this effect :-/ So if you’re someone who has insomnia, works shifts or is a new parent, for example it’s definitely worth supporting your gut.

Prebiotic-rich foods

• Leeks
• Onions
• Garlic
• Chicory

If you’re chronically sleep-deprived then supporting your digestion with probiotic and prebiotic supplements would probably be wise.

Usually when I tell clients their test results have shown gut parasites they’re mortified! But it’s not generally as bad as you first think. Read on to discover whether or not parasites may be behind your digestive symptoms, and what to do if you suspect they may be.

What are parasites exactly?

A parasite is an organism that attaches itself to a host and benefits from living there. It will sustain itself by living off the host, sometimes at their expense. However this isn’t as bad as it sounds. Some parasites live on your skin (don’t worry they’re so tiny you won’t know they’re there!) They eat dead skin cells, so in this respect are actually quite helpful. Others, however, live off the food you eat so are not really so helpful.

Sometimes parasites can cause severe disease in humans – malaria for example, is caused by a parasite.

Other examples are –

• Giardia lamblia
• Entamoeba histolytica
• Threadworms
• Tapeworms
• Hookworms

Are gut parasites causing your symptoms?

Parasitic infections can happen to anyone. This is regardless of their health status, and happens if they come into contact with infected food or water.

If your gut test results come back showing you have parasites, your immediate reaction is going to be to get rid as soon as possible!

But there’s really no need to panic, as the likelihood is they may have been living with you for a long time, and may or may not be playing a part in your digestive symptoms.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

Gut parasites and Your Gut Environment

Like other pathogenic bacterial species, whether or not parasites are causing you harm is highly dependent on your overall gut environment.

There are a few species however that are always going to be highly problematic – that’s why it’s always advisable to seek advice from your GP if you experience suspicious symptoms, for instance after travel.

It is estimated that around 80% of us have parasites living in our guts, and these are generally acquired through consuming contaminated food or drink. However if you have ‘dysbiosis’, in other words, imbalanced gut flora, leaky gut syndrome, or compromised immunity you may be more susceptible.

As much as dysbiosis may be caused by parasites, it may be that you had dysbiosis first, which has paved the way for the parasites to flourish. This is why it’s always important to look at the overall health of the gut environment, and take a closer look at what’s going on.

Testing for gut parasites

The only way to tell for sure whether or not parasites may be behind your symptoms is to test. Two species that often crop up when we test are

• Blastocystis hominis
• Dientamoeba fragilis

These tend to show up as part of a larger dysbiotic picture. Therefore supporting digestive, and overall health, is key.

Supporting gut health and minimising gut parasites

Sometimes a targeted herbal approach is required to restore balance to the gut, using antimicrobial supplements such as

• Oregano
• Berberine
• Grapefruit seed extract

However, I wouldn’t recommend going straight in with these without testing first, and without guidance from an experienced practitioner. These antimicrobials are potent and may eventually end up negatively impacting your beneficial bacterial colonies.

Supporting the overall health of your gut is key to restoring balance, and consuming the following foods will help you achieve that –

Garlic and onions,  These both contain sulphur compounds which have anti-parasitic properties.

Ginger has antibacterial and antiparasitic effects.

• Probiotic-rich foods such as kefir, natural yogurt and sauerkraut help maintain a healthy balance in the gut.

• Apple cider vinegar is superb for digestion (however be careful of your teeth).

So, in summary having a parasitic infection is highly likely to be part of a bigger picture of digestive health imbalance, requiring an overall approach to restoring digestive, and general health.

You’re doing everything ‘right’ diet-wise and you’ve been told everything ‘looks normal’ …. but you’re not feeling great, you’ve got horrible debilitating symptoms and you just KNOW everything is a long way from ‘normal’.  If you’re experiencing this kind of situation, the only way to sort things out once and for all is to get to the root cause of your issues.  What’s the best way to find the root cause?  Usually through private lab tests.  Here follow four really important reasons to use lab tests to test your gut, in order to get the best result possible for yourself.

1. Lab tests for yeast infections

If you think you have a yeast infection, then stool and/or organic acid tests are the only reliable way to know for sure.

• Looking at your tongue
• Spitting into a glass of water and watching what your saliva does
• Taking online questionnaires

All of these are non-diagnostic for yeast overgrowth in the gut.

Health care providers can diagnose oral thrush by looking in the mouth, but oral thrush does not necesarily equal Candida in the gut.

Questionnaires can be helpful for organising your symptoms and your thoughts, and pointing you in a particular direction for further exploration, but they are not diagnostic. Although they can hint the something might be wrong in that particular region.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

3. Lab tests for ‘leaky gut’

If you’re getting non-gut symptoms, some of these can be traced back to having ‘leaky gut’ or intestinal permeability.

Symptoms throughout your body may have their root cause in your gut. These conditions include the following –

• Autoimmune reactions and diseases
• Food allergies or sensitivities
• Asthma
• Skin disorders like eczema and psoriasis or acne
• Arthritis and other body aches or pains
• Fatigue
• Changes in mood, weight and appetite

There are several tests we can run to check the health of your gut and to ascertain whether or not the condition of your gut is impacting, or even causing, further symptoms throughout your body.  Comprehensive gut testing is highly effective for this.

So, the bottom line is, if you’re getting any of these symptoms lab tests are a really good place to start.

In addition, there are more really compelling reasons to give it a go, including –

• It takes the guesswork away
• You’ll get much quicker and effective results
• It’s a very good motivator – when you can see what you’re dealing with, actually written in black and white, it’s really very motivating.