Gut Health

All disease begins in the gut – Hippocrates.

Your digestive system is more important for your overall health than you probably realise. It’s so much more than whether you do your number two’s regularly: digestive health impacts on your immune system, inflammation, hormone balance, mood, energy, skin, brain health and more!

Naturopaths and other holistic health practitioners have long been banging on about the importance of ‘healing the gut’ for a wide range of digestive disorders and overall wellbeing. In the last few decades, research into the importance of a healthy digestive bacteria balance (our ‘microbiome’) and digestive lining have been booming.

Put simply, the digestive system is a hollow tube ranging from mouth to anus, and is actually a continuation of our skin (just in a different format). You can imagine it like you’re a donut! And think about this: everything inside your digestive tract is actually outside of your body. Along this tube the surface of the skin changes, e.g. in the stomach there is a thick coating of mucous which helps to protect against the strong acids that are created there, and in the intestines the surface changes, developing a lot of finger like folds and protrusions called villi. Villi are designed to increase the surface area for both absorption of nutrients and room for immune cells. Almost like in a factory chain, other glands and organs will come into play, depositing enzymes and acids at various points that help us break down our food more effectively.

The bugs that live in your gut

If I told you that your body contains 10 times more bacteria than human cells, would you be reaching for the soap? Well you don’t have to worry because the majority of these bugs are working to keep you healthy. They are actually so interconnected with us, that we are now considered to be a ‘super-organism’ (1) (2).

The majority of the bacteria exist in your digestive tract, and there they work to detoxify harmful chemicals, process nutrients (and in some cases they actually create nutrients!), control the unfriendly bacteria that live there (yes there are usually always some bad guys present, about 15%, but the state of your good bugs determines whether the baddies cause a problem), control the immune system, produce energy for the rest of the body and much, much more.

The Goodies

There are over 400 known types of bacteria within our digestive tract. In some people there are more, and in others who may be eating a processed diet or have had damage to their gut flora, the diversity of these bacteria are significantly reduced. Interestingly, the bacteria in our gut are different throughout the different stages of our life.

Our friendly bacteria can be damaged by certain medications and lifestyle habits. Antibiotics are one of the most well known causes of damage to our friendly bacteria, and recently it has been discovered that some of our good bacteria may never recover after a course of antibiotics* (3).

Antibiotics, while often over used can sometimes be necessary and in some cases are life savers. Limiting their use and ensuring that if taken they are used correctly can help to prevent the development of antibiotic resistance. Consider your options before taking antibiotics, and if you do have to take antibiotics then see a practitioner who can guide you on how best to mop up at the damage.

Feeding the Good Guys

Whereas Probiotics are the organisms, Prebiotics are their food.  The use of prebiotics is often neglected, but it’s an important part of recolonising your gut. You can get various isolated prebiotics in supplement form, or you can consume a variety of foods which contain these compounds, particularly those high in soluble fibre.

Fermented foods are another key tool in keeping your digestive system happy. The act of fermentation allows beneficial bacteria that naturally live on the food to grow, and it also makes a whole host of nutrients within the food more bioavailable (meaning we can get more out of it). You can buy fermented food, or grow it yourself.

You should aim to have a variety of fermented foods~ and prebiotic foods consistently.

Regularly chow down on these to keep your good bugs thriving*:

• Almonds
• Apricots
• Asparagus
• Avocado
• Banana (especially green)
• Beetroot
• Garlic
• Jerusalem artichokes
• Kefir~
• Kimchi~
• Kombucha~
• Lentils
• Plantain
• Pumpkin
• Sauerkraut~
• Sweet Potato
• Witlof and Wombok
• Yoghurt (free from added sugar and chemicals)~
• Zucchini

* If you have Fructose Malabsorption, some of these foods may cause digestive discomfort. Seek advice from your health practitioner if you are unsure.

The Baddies

There are a huge range of unfriendly pathogens that if allowed to get out of control can cause all sorts of havoc in your digestive system.  Some can even cause trouble with your mood. Chronic infections can result in a wide variety of symptoms that are often unexplained such as aches and pains, fatigue, brain fog, unexplained inflammation and recurrent infections –fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are just a couple of conditions that can have a chronic infection as an underlying driver (4) (5).

There are a huge range of organisms that lie dormant in our digestion: many, many forms of bacteria, viruses, protozoa (e.g. malaria and giardia), fungi, yeasts and parasites can exist in our gut.  Some of them can be deadly killers, and others may not be lethal but can result in a variety of nasty symptoms.  Our immune system, digestive juices and the presence of our good bugs are what keep it all in check.

The Gut and Your Immune System

“The immune system present in the gut makes more immunological decisions in a day than the rest of the immune system does in a lifetime”.  (6)

If your immune system isn’t behaving itself properly, you might want to consider that your digestive system is the culprit.

Your digestive system has a special mucosal lining over the surface of your intestines, and the health of your gut flora (the complex, extremely important colony of bacteria within your digestive system, also known as the microbiome) has a huge amount of immune decisions to make on a daily basis – it has to deal with bacteria, viruses and food, and decide each time whether it is a friend or foe. It is via this mechanism that your gut health can contribute towards skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis as well as autoimmune conditions such as SLE (Lupus), Rheumatoid arthritis, Graves disease and more.

The gut reports to the immune system

There is a special type of cell within the digestive system called a dendritic cell.  This cell is responsible for determining whether our immune system should be on high alert or not.  Occasionally this cell will extend a little feeler (almost like a tentacle) and take a handful of whatever is in your digestive system to examine, to then report back to the rest of the immune system whether everything is okay or not.  This can explain why your diet can have an effect on allergic conditions such as hayfever and eczema, as well as autoimmune conditions (7).

Immune cells in the gut

There are also a lot of other players involved in the gut, such as the immune cells Immunoglobulin A (sIgA) and certain T lymphocytes.  sIgA helps to protect the epithelial layer from being inhabited by bacteria and viruses.  This helpful immunoglobin is actually produced by lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) which are actually created by Bifidobacteria (a good bacteria that exists mostly in the colon).  Unfortunately, Bifidobacteria are easily damaged, especially by antibiotics.

Enzymes do more than digest food

When you think about digestive enzymes, you’ll probably be thinking that they’re there to break down your food so it’s primed for absorbing.  They also have another important role to play, and that’s in breaking down substances that might be harmful to your immune system.  Due to poor eating habits, the secretion of enzymes is compromised in a large proportion of people.  Implementing habits such as chewing each mouthful more and taking time to enjoy and concentrate on your meal are helpful for stimulating the cephalic phase of digestion – where your brain tells the rest of the digestive system to get ready for food, and consequently more enzymes and acids are produced.

The Gut and Your Mood

The state of our intestinal lining and the balance of bacteria within our digestive system have a major role to play in the production of our neurotransmitters: chemical transmitters that tell our brain whether we should be feeling such ways as happy, sad, agitated, or calm.

When the balance of our gut bacteria (collectively referred to as the microbiome) is affected, this can affect your mood.  Studies have found that the microbiome can have a major impact on stress levels and anxiety (8).  In fact, by treating imbalances in our microbiota, it is possible to support a wide range of mental health disorders (9), (10), (11), (12), (13).

The second brain

The nerves in your digestive system are constantly speaking to your central nervous system.  If your gut is irritated for some reason – say you’ve eaten something that you’re intolerant to (like gluten, for example), you’ve generally got a bad diet, there’s an imbalance in your microbiome (that’s your collective gut bacteria, remember) or you’ve got an infection – this can create an inflammatory reaction and will certainly make you irritated as well.

We know that depression is both associated with, and worsened by inflammation.  This inflammation in the brain can be driven by inflammation in the gut, which can be caused by intestinal permeability (leaky gut) and bacterial imbalances (dysbiosis).  Treating leaky gut can help reduce the severity of depression (10), (14), (15), (16), (17).

Neurotransmitters in our gut

Serotonin is produced in large amounts in our digestive system.  In people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) there is too much serotonin in their digestive system.  This is why antidepressants known as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) can improve the symptoms of IBS: these act by reducing the amount of serotonin taken into cells in the rest of our body which allows more to get into the brain.  However in some instances anti-depressants can affect the gut negatively, because if you weren’t making enough serotonin in the gut in the first place, you can end up with even lower levels in the digestive tract and so it can become irritated, affectively you’ll get a depressed gut (18), (19).

A vicious cycle

When your gut is upset, you feel upset.  But stress can affect your digestive system just as much as it affects your mood.  It can impair the secretion of digestive acids, slow down the motility of the gut, allows the unfriendly bacteria to grow, reduces your friendly bacteria and exacerbates intestinal permeability (leaky gut) (20), (14).  This is a recipe for an unhappy digestive system, and as you know this can then go on to send more messages to your brain: so you can see how the cycle continues.

People with gut problems are more likely to experience anxiety and depression.  Some studies have found a high proportion of anxiety in those with gut conditions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome(IBS), Crohn’s disease and coeliac disease (21), (22), (23).

Look after your gut and it will look after you

The body has an amazing ability to heal, if given the right means to do so. If you eat a predominately plant based diet that is free from processed food, get your microbiome happy by feeding the good bugs with prebiotics and occasionally adding in some good bugs with fermented foods and probiotics, you’ll be on the right track to start healing your gut.

Works Cited

The post The Importance of Gut Health appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

A few years ago I was interviewed by Carly Taber for Casa de Karma. It was a very well received podcast at the time but the website is no longer live, so I am going to share some of my content from there over the next few weeks. Here is a video version of the podcast episode where I was interviewed all about gut health.

The post Gut Health Explained – an interview appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

Guts and Girl Bits Episode #51

In this episode I interview Women’s Health Physiotherapist Brooke Blair (previously Hile) about her health journey. We discuss how naturopathy and women’s health physiotherapy can work alongside each other. We chat about period pain, bladder health, prolapses, rectoceles, constipation and of course, poo.

This episode was recorded in early 2020 when the COVID-19 outbreak had just begun in Australia.

Listen to the audio:

Get in touch with Brooke

https://www.herhealthphysiotherapy.com.au/ 0423471651 Instagram

 

 

Guts and Girl Bits is now on teachable where you can find a collection of e-courses on womens health, children’s health and more.

http://gutsandgirlbits.teachable.com

Subscribe and listen to the other podcasts here:

iPhone   Stitcher   Youtube   Soundcloud  Spotify 

Transcript

Alison Mitchell 0:00

Hi everyone, you’re listening to Guts and Girl Bits, I’m Alison Mitchell a practicing naturopath, and I hope to share with you all sorts of information about women’s health and digestive health to educate and empower you to make informed choices about your own health. Please remember that all information is general and does not replace consulting with a health care practitioner. Hi everyone welcome to Guts and Girl Bits. Today, I’m joined again with the lovely physiotherapist, Brooke, no longer Brooke Hile… We have a newly married woman- Brooke Blair! Welcome.

Brooke Blair 0:40 Thank you.

Alison Mitchell 0:42 It’s so exciting. You had a little surprise wedding didn’t you?.

Brooke Blair 0:47 It was a bit stressful, having everything happening with Coronavirus around the time of it but it worked out perfectly and it was beautiful, and everyone was surprised, which we didn’t think they would be.

Alison Mitchell 1:00 I was certainly surprised when I found out

Brooke Blair 1:05 Noone was expecting it, which was good.

Alison Mitchell 1:07 Yeah. And so for everyone listening, we’re kind of in that stage at the moment of that level one lockdown but Brooke was able to sneak her wedding her surprise wedding in just before all of these massive isolation started so it was literally like two days before.

Brooke Blair 1:25 Two days before they stopped all weddings unless it was just the five people there so we’ve managed to have 60 I think 55 to 60 of our closest family and friends and it was perfect. It was very good timing. Couldn’t we couldn’t. If we hadn’t had it a day later, it wouldn’t have happened.

Alison Mitchell 1:45 so exciting and today we’re going to be talking about your personal history and how you’ve gotten into your realm of work and how you and I have come to work together as well so yourself as a women’s health physio and myself as a naturopath and talking about some of the areas that these two types of modalities really mesh nicely together. So, if you haven’t had a listen before, Brooke and I have done some really interesting podcasts on how your body changes during pregnancy, and about hypertonicity, which is like when your pelvic floor is really overactive and causes vulval and vaginal pain, and also we talked about mastitis and how physiotherapy can be helpful for that. So have a listen to some of those if you want to as well. And yeah, let’s get started let’s talk about your history.

Brooke Blair 2:45 Yeah, it’s a very long one. So I’ve got lots of notes here about where everything started, but I feel like. So I did get into women’s health physio therapy in my third year of uni and everyone says to me they say why, why women’s health like that’s such a bizarre area of physio to get into. And if you have asked me in my second year of uni, I was definitely going to be a sports physio had never considered the realm of women’s health, that was just something really bizarre and weird to me and pregnant women were terrifying because what if you lay them the wrong way or something like that so that was not in my realm, at all. But then in our third year of uni we started covering women’s health, and we were lucky enough to be taught by the wonderful Taryn Hallam who is amazing in the women’s health physio world and all women’s health world in general. And so that’s what really started my love of women’s health. And then I think it kind of made sense when I then started to look back at my history as to why it sparked my interest. So when I was younger I think I started getting my period when I might have been 13 or 14. And they were horrendously painful, and I would have one or two days of school each time I got my period, or I would just have to sit at the back of the classroom, sometimes I take a heat pack with me, definitely always armed with my Panadol my Nurofen Naprogesic when that was around as well, and I was trying everything and still was in a lot of pain, and even though my mom had gone through the same thing she would just say to me, it’s all right darling like it’ll be okay this is just your period and you’ll get better. And it obviously didn’t. So eventually we ended up going to see a gynecologist, and my options she basically said yeah sounds probably like you’ve got endo. Options are, we do a laparoscopy, which is the operation that you know about where they open you up and they check and see if you’ve got endo there and at that stage I think they were still burning it out rather than removing it. So it was that as an option, or the pill. So, as a 14 year old who was not sexually active, had never heard of any of these things before. My mum was a bit like I don’t really want her on the pill and I don’t really want her having an operation. So eventually we did come to the conclusion to go on the pill that seemed kind of like the lesser of two evils. At that point in time. And it didn’t really do anything other than giving me the ability to be able to stop my periods, a little bit so I’d still get my breakthrough bleeds when I got a period, it still sucked, and I hated it. So I think it would have been so I went on it when I was 14, and then stayed on it until uni, and in that time I was still having lots of issues, not only with my period but with my bowels. So, it would have been in year 10. So 2010 I might have been 15 Maybe 16 And I’ll never forget it. I was constipated for four weeks over Christmas, we were away on holidays and it was the most horrible most uncomfortable four weeks of my life and my mum just kept saying well you know have some bread maybe that’ll be good for you but I felt like I was up to my eyeballs in things inside of me. So I was in lots of pain before and after that I was bloated I was uncomfortable. So there was a lot going on in that side of things as well, so things just weren’t great with my bowels, things weren’t great with my hormones my periods. So eventually we got home from holidays and we went you know what this is just ridiculous I tried gluten free diet I tried dairy free diet. I was still getting abdominal pain, period pain, the whole shebang still constipated and then I’d get diarrhea for a little bit. So that was really fun. So we thought, let’s maybe start to yeah so fun, so we thought let’s start to look into it a little bit more. And the first avenue that we went down was we went back to the naturopath. I mean, the gyneocologist sorry, you came in a bit later. We went back to the gynecologist who said right, let’s do the laparoscopy then and let’s just see. So, I had my laparoscopy just before I started at uni, where they did find they confirm that I had Endo, but also she said I had a very distended bowel at the same time. So she said that might be something worth looking into as well. So she’d removed my Endo, or however much she could remove of it. Put me straight back on the pill so nothing there really changed. And then from there, my periods, pretty much stayed exactly the same, we I skipped them so that I was only having three maybe four periods a year. And my gut and my bowels still were horrendous, so I then went to a gastroenterologist and did a colonoscopy endoscopy, which he came back and said well you’re not intolerant to anything but you’ve got irritable bowel syndrome. And at that point in time I went, Oh cool, like I’ve got a diagnosis it all, it all makes sense. Knowing what I know now I’m like, okay, that just tells me that I’ve got the symptoms, I’ve got it gives me nothing else but all right. Um, so from there I trialed a FODMAP diet, which really stressed me out because I felt like there was not a lot I was able to eat, and if I do eat something that I wasn’t meant to, I got stressed about it, which made me realize a lot of my gut problems were made worse by stress. So it made a lot of sense that in year 10 I was constipated for four weeks because that was around the time I had school certificate. Then, around HSC, I would get bowel issues because it was that time and everything was stressful. I’m starting uni, it was really bad because I was really stressed at uni. So then the FODMAP diet added that extra layer of stress of I know I shouldn’t be eating this but I have nothing else that I feel like I can eat right now, I’m stressed about it and it’s not going to do me any good. So then it kind of all just culminated and became this really vicious cycle that was quite horrible. And so I never really got to the bottom of that except for going, Okay, I know that stress really affects me so I’m going to try and avoid stress, which is not always easy to do, as I’m sure you’re aware, but I managed to sort of go okay if there’s a scenario that I’m putting in, I can try and not stress about it, and then hopefully my gut will be okay, but my gut also gave me a really good indication of when I was stressed so I knew that I needed to do a bit more self care and take care of myself a little bit more. Then to add on top of that I started getting thrush really chronically, which fantastic. So I probably would have been all through uni, I would have thrush, at least once every two to three months, sometimes I would trade it but it wouldn’t really be 100% So I just keep having these thrush flare ups wondering why my vagina just felt so horrible all the time. Around that time I’d also become sexually active so sex was quite painful and uncomfortable. Of course, having thrush and being irritated in the vagina didn’t help anything. So there was those things that were starting to happen at the same time as well, which then come the time that we were in our third year covering Women’s Health physio, and we started to talk about how all of these conditions can really be affecting one another, and that conditions of the uterus, of the vagina can affect the bowel and conditions of the bowel can affect the bladder. Thankfully I never had any bladder conditions. But just knowing that there was that really big Interplay it made me go well hang on I know I’ve got endo technically they didn’t find anything on my colonoscopy, so maybe I don’t actually have a true bowel issue, but maybe there’s something that’s happening that’s got to do with my endo that’s causing things to be a little bit flared up and so then I started really loving women’s health and that’s how I got into it and just the idea of pain with sex which I’d experienced and pregnancy, which I haven’t experienced yet will one day soon, maybe. But yeah, all of those different conditions but I think a lot of women get told, Oh, it’s just a period you’ll be fine or, you know, it’s fine. You’ll be okay just take some Panadol and everything will be okay, or yeah pain with sex is normal, get over it. A lot of those really resonated with me because I’ve been through a lot of them and I didn’t really feel like I had any answers as to why those things were affecting me. So that’s why I so much love women’s health and love being able to work with you because we can kind of cover things from both sides, both the anatomical side and the muscular side, as well as what’s happening at an internal cellular level and hormonal level, and being able to actually start to get to the bottom of things, which is really nice.

Alison Mitchell 12:42 Oh my gosh, it’s, it’s such a connected thing everything’s all so connected, and all of those things working together. Oh my gosh what a journey.

Brooke Blair 12:57 Yeah, so it took some time it’s still ongoing as you know we’re currently working on lots of things at the moment. But I think that having been through all of that has made me very much, empathetic towards the women that come in who are having these conditions who they might have seen a practitioner who said, Oh yeah, that’s just normal, that’s just what happens in women. And they’ve been constantly told it’s normal, it’s okay, everything’s fine. It’s all in your head. And then when they can come in and sit down and I can go. I’ve been there and I know that there’s things we can do to treat it and no it’s not all in your head. It’s really quite a lovely process and quite a nice journey to be able to go through with women.

Alison Mitchell 13:39 I think a lot of the time when people feel heard, they feel acknowledged that they’re not crazy about it, that this is such a big relief for them in many ways. Oh, I’m not making this up so I know a lot of my patients say that and I know that some of yours do too. And like you were saying like sometimes other practitioners might say yeah that’s just part of having periods but sometimes it can be because things evolve and we know that certain things aren’t normal anymore, but our parents practitioners might have told them that their stuff was normal. Until then, our parents have told us here, that’s just normal, that’s what I had. That’s what my sister had that’s what your sisters had all of that sort of thing and so you just come to expect it and so it’s just breaking that cycle and, you know, takes one person to say, Hang on, we can actually do something about that. And that’s what I love about what we do as well as we’re with we’re popping that bubble we’re saying: You don’t have to have people sex and didn’t have painful periods, and you shouldn’t even notice your digestive system, they should just be like, La-La-La Everything feels wonderful. Yeah, absolutely. But it is a journey isn’t it.

Brooke Blair 14:54 absolutely is. I’m trying to think how many it’s probably been 11 or 12 years but I’ve been working through all of this stuff and we’re still going. And that’s being educated and knowing that there’s things that we can do to help. That’s, you know, other women don’t have that education and they haven’t been told that there’s things they can do so it’s gonna take a lot longer for those women.

Alison Mitchell 15:21 I definitely see that with naturopathy because it’s not as conventionally well known, it’s not as accepted, and what sort of avenues you can work on with with diet is not that well known, so I might have like someone that’s never really even realized they can work on them for something until you know they listen to a podcast or they read an article and they’re like, I wish I had known that earlier.

Brooke Blair 15:48 Absolutely. So I hope that this podcast goes out and people listen and go, oh hang on a second, I can go and get help, amazing.

Alison Mitchell 15:57 Yes. And, you know, I know that some of the things that you and I are working on together, it’s, it can be a little bit off putting when you hear that like it’s actually a bit of hard work that you have to do for a little while.

Brooke Blair 16:13 It is.

Alison Mitchell 16:13 *Nodding vigorously. But it’s worth it because it doesn’t last forever. And so, like, a month of hard work. Compared to years of pain and discomfort is so much better.

Brooke Blair 16:28 Yeah, it’s worth it, that’s for sure.

Alison Mitchell 16:32 So, I guess we could talk about how you and I came to me. Well I guess I should we say that because we might have actually spoken about this in some previous podcast but I’ll say it again anyway. I was pregnant with Lara with my second baby, and I had had a caesarean section with my first baby, and it was a bit of one of those situations where you’re not completely sure what happens, like I was very much adamant that I was going to have a natural birth but then all of a sudden, something like, like there was a non reassuring heartbeat, and my obstetrician had said to me previously I’m not sure about the shape of your pelvis, and I was very unsure what she meant by that. So she was basing that on like some internal examinations and I was like, like what does that even mean and so I was adamant. I was going to have a really great natural birth for my second baby. And so, I’m just, I’m very grateful that Ash is healthy and I recovered fine but I also had some really bad abdominal separation following him, and I had heard some great things about about you, about Brooke, about helping with abdominal separation or, because I had only heard that you know you just shouldn’t do sit ups. Okay. Bring it on, never get up out of bed. And so this was two and a half years that was two and a half years was no it was probably two years that I had had this abdominal separation for and it was. I mean, it was fairly severe, wasn’t it like five fingers. At that point is that moderate or severe or moderate,

Brooke Blair 18:32 moderate, I’m trying to think back to the integrity of your abdominal wall as well.

Alison Mitchell 18:37 thats a long way back for you to remember. anyway I thought I put on a bit of weight but now I just had like my abdominal muscles were just so weak, and then I had all this back pain because of that. So all of these sorts of things that started to fall into place like my back pain. The abdominal separation and then I also just wanted to make sure that everything was in tip top shape ready to have a natural birth. And I think it was like, probably our third appointment, where it was a natural person you’re like, oh, I should thinking about doing a community for women’s health, with one of the Chelsea from Mummy Movement. And I was like, Y’all be involved in that I love spreading awareness and then it just blossomed from there.

Brooke Blair 19:31 And I think I said let me tell you all about my horrible periods.

Alison Mitchell 19:34 I think there might have been a couple of people that, because you were like what did what do you treat with naturopathy and I was like, I do lots of children’s health. Lots of women’s health, and you were like “hmm.. hmmm… I might send some of my bed wetting children to you and period pain people and then yeah it just grew didn’t it.

Brooke Blair 20:02 It did, and now we have this very good communication and lots of clients that we share together which is amazing,

Alison Mitchell 20:07 and it just it just gets that next level of results really doesn’t it.

Brooke Blair 20:13 Absolutely, absolutely.

Alison Mitchell 20:15 And I think for me, I’ve always, I’ve always had that awareness, pure hypertonicity so pelvic floor problems can worsen Endo, because it creates this local inflammation that worsens pain, but I also didn’t have anyone that I could refer to, because you women’s physio is a few and far between.

Brooke Blair 20:38 Yeah, it’s a growing field which is amazing. There’s actually a lot more of us than what most people know about and it’s funny going to courses and you meet and you go oh hang on, you work in the mountains, I’m like not that far away from you. And then there’s about six people who work in the mountains and you oh wow okay there’s a lot of you in the mountains im just down here. There’s actually a lot of women’s health physios, it’s just that, a lot of us work in musculoskeletal physio practices so it’s not necessarily a world that people know so much about. Whereas if you are either a sole practitioner like I currently am, who has a business name that sounds like women’s health, or who specifically says Women’s Health physio as the main point of call. That tends to be how people are finding us a little bit easier, but there is actually a lot more now, which is amazing.

Alison Mitchell 21:32 That’s so good.

Brooke Blair 21:33 Yeah, yeah.

Alison Mitchell 21:36 first before you I only knew of one, and then you showed me a few more and then all of a sudden you do start to see it when, when you’re looking around for referrals for people. Oh, it’s a lot more.

Brooke Blair 21:49 Yeah, which is nice because there’s so many women who have so many concerns and just like a naturopath I’m sure everyone does things slightly differently in women’s health physio, everyone does things slightly differently. So, what works for one person might not work for the other and a different type of treatment might be what that person needs that maybe this other person couldn’t give you. So it’s always nice that there’s lots of people out there lots of different opinions and ways of doing things and ways of looking at the body that helps women to be able to get their best results which is nice.

Alison Mitchell 22:24 Yeah, that’s lovely. So I guess we could, you know, move on from that to talk a bit more about how much Naturopathy and physio work well together. So I think the probably the one of the things we could start with our favorite thing to refer for which is period pain.

Brooke Blair 22:41 Yes, personal experience of course we’re going to refer for that.

Alison Mitchell 22:48 So you and I both have a strong history of period pain. And so mine has settled down a lot with a little bit of time and using herbal medicine and possibly even having kids as well that might have something to do with it too but we’ve both got that passion for it and also that level of empathy for our patients that have it too. But there’s a really strong correlation between like having the stuff going on internally, like you said before at a cellular level hormonalIy as well as having the physical, the muscular component to. So, working on one side of those without addressing the other is going to be not as complete as could be. And this is actually applies to everything else that we’ll be talking about. So, you can’t do as good a job without doing both sides of it.

Brooke Blair 23:43 Exactly, you just get that extra bit better so that you get that extra little bit so you can get to 100% Rather than just sitting in being happy at 90%. If you know both working together, then you can get such better results and it’s amazing to see.

Alison Mitchell 23:58 Exactly. So, in terms of how I as a naturopath go about addressing period pain. I’m looking at, like there’s a few different aspects of what causes period pain and so when I’m working, I’m looking at people from a more energetic constitutional level as well when it comes to pescribing herbs which I mean might sound a little bit strange, but I do find that it gets the best results so you’re looking at like a person is hotter or colder. And so if you’ve got a lot of cold. For instance, like, there would be stagnation and dark red blood and clots, and they feel better for applying heat and so we use herbs that are going to be warming and stimulating. And then if they’re very hot person to then there’s usually that bright red blood, and they feel better for having a cold bath or a cold shower or buying an ice pack, and like there’s various other things that you look at in like the tongue, their skin and their hair, or like, assessing where they are at a constitutional level, but using herbs that are specific to that, as well as thinking about what are their hormones doing and what is their immune system doing because with things like endo with endometriosis, it’s very immune driven condition, so you need to think about what’s causing your immune system to go shonky in the first place, like is it a bit of a bug that’s hiding around, or is it something that you’re eating that your body is reacting to, and then it’s also things like is there a nutritional deficiency, that’s causing your body to be more immune driven, or is it an deficiency that’s causing you to become tighter and more crampy. So those are some of the areas that I look at with period pain.

Brooke Blair 25:48 Okay, I sort of way that as women tell physios we, that’s why I love working with you because you can work with things that are causing some of the pain. And then I can treat some of the byproducts of that pain, so a lot of women, particularly with endo sometimes with polycystic ovaries or just women who do have incredibly painful periods. I’m more so looking at the musculoskeletal system and the neural system to work out what’s happening more so at a pelvic floor level, but more recently we’ve sort of been looking all the way up basically to your neck and all the way down to your toes to work out if there’s something that may have set off some of the pain. So, for girls who have endo/ polycystic ovaries, some of them will be coming in not just because they get pain with their periods, but because they’re now starting to experience sexual pain, or they’re getting difficulty using tampons or different things like that that they starting to notice that isn’t normal. They shouldn’t be having where previously they were able to use tampons just fine. Or they’ve had sex pain free, but something has triggered this pain to start up. And so we’re starting to look at why is that happening, is it because they’ve had these pain because of that inflammation that you were talking about, for such a long time that the body has just started to go into a protective cramping type state trying to protect all of the organs and protect everything vaginally and saying no I don’t want anything inserted here because it could cause me pain. In some women, I see they could have had an injury so they may have had completely fine periods, they may have always had endo but not had any symptoms of Endo, but their periods were fine, and then all of a sudden they’ve had an incident where they’ve fallen and they’ve hit their tailbone, or their hip or they’ve whacked their knee, and all of a sudden they’ve started to get painful periods crampy sensations the pain with sex. Sometimes even leakage, and those sorts of things are very different for them and so yes we know there’s probably going to be findings in a pelvic floor level but also elsewhere throughout their body we might need to see what’s happened at their knee, we might need to see why their tailbone is sore and work out that perspective rather than just going straight to treat vaginally.

Alison Mitchell 28:08 Exactly because the body is a unit. And one thing is going to be like causing another area to shift and your body will always try and compensate, and just keep compensating compensating until it’s current anymore and then it’s like, ouch!

Brooke Blair 28:23 what’s happening here. Yeah, so it’s nice to be able to see and unravel all of those sides of things I had a lady in the other day, and I think she was in her 50s and she was having period troubles, and no one had ever brought up the idea that potentially there could be something hormonally or systemically like Endo, or something like that, but she has had painful periods and vaginal pain for the last 40 odd years. And so I sat down and I took her history with her for an hour, and we took it all the way back to as a child, she’d had eczema vaginally, and she had, I think she had constipation and gut issues as a child, and then all of a sudden she got her periods and they were really painful and then she woke up one day with vulvodynia and that’s never gone away. And even just sitting with her and going back through her whole history and her going wow no one’s ever sat with me and gone all the way back to my childhood to work out that actually, these things have been happening since I was very young, before I got my periods. So she’s another person, I’m going to get to come and see you to work out what’s happening at a gut level because she was close. Yep. Yep, exactly. Yeah, it’s lovely to be able to work on those sides of things and work out where the pain is coming from rather than going yeah cool you’ve got Period Pain what next. Yeah.

Alison Mitchell 29:49 Oh my goodness, I can’t believe that it was going on for that long, but this is this is often what happens in this realm of vaginal pain period pain but also digestive pain is because you don’t, you don’t get people asking you about these things and, often, if it’s something vulnerable, you to be too nervous to bring it up. So like what situation and will you be and so going to the doctor directly about that where that will get asked. Apart from an appointment, like a women’s physio or a naturopathic appointment or potentially even the gyno but often they’re very focused on a specific issue in conventional appointments, and so it doesn’t get brought up unless you specifically do so it is important to talk about these things. And I know that I mean, I probably ask the weirdest questions when I do my naturopathic screening I’m like, do you like talk about poo a lot people say I’ve never had a conversation about my poo as in depth.

Brooke Blair 30:49 Likewise, love a poo chat.

Alison Mitchell 30:53 And, Yeah. And do you give any vulval pain, any vaginal pain if you get pain during intercourse like all of those sorts of things that people like, what, why are you asking me that

Brooke Blair 31:04 some women say, yeah, no one’s asked me that before and, but actually yes I do have these issues and it’s until you raise that conversation, they’re not going to be forthright with it and say, Actually my vagina hurts all the time. That’s just not something that a lot of people feel comfortable saying yes, and there is such a stigma around it. We just love popping. So, I think that’s just such an important area that people need to know that you don’t have to put up with

Alison Mitchell 31:36 sex should not hurt

Brooke Blair 31:38 No exactly and if somebody tells you it’s all in your head it’s not and you need to see somebody else.

Alison Mitchell 31:44 Yeah, exactly what some other areas that we love to trade together so I love working with urinary conditions. So, chronic UTI’s, and a bladder pain as well so when people are constantly getting symptoms that are not not related to an actual infection which is one of those things. It’s just like so much mind boggling for so many people but they just came back negative and why am I still getting the pain, what’s actually causing that.

Brooke Blair 32:21 Yeah so that’s definitely something that we work together on which is lovely. I see that quite a lot, a lot of women come in and they say, because if oftentimes if they’re getting symptoms like that like UTI is a lot of them are leaking as well. So they might come into the session because their GP referred them for incontinence, but then when you sit down and chat to them will actually I’ve got pain when I pass urine and I go to the toilet and I empty my bladder but even though I know I’m empty it still feels like I need to go or I never get the sensation that I’m completely empty, or things like that pain with bladder feeling all of those symptoms that you shouldn’t be aware of that. A lot of women do actually notice can be coming from something anatomically, so I treat a lot of women who they sometimes have overactive pelvic floors like we just spoke about. And it’s because of that over activity that all the nerves in that area are quite overstimulated causing bladder pain sensations. Also not allowing the bladder to fill completely or empty completely. So I go through about 20 Questions about when you sit on the toilet does your flow start straight away does it stop start does it go off in a funny direction do you feel empty, all of those sorts of questions because if that’s what your body has always been doing, you don’t know if that’s wrong or right, you don’t know if there’s an issue there.

Alison Mitchell 33:44 You’d just think it’s a funny Quirk.

Brooke Blair 33:46 Yeah, exactly, exactly. And so I’ve had women who say Oh yeah no every time I sit down I have to wait 10 seconds before my urine starts to come out and I have to really think about it, that’s not what should be happening. And so, if then they have issues with what’s happening around their urethra where the urine comes out and around their pelvic floor they might not be able to completely bladder empty, which will put them at risk of having UTI over and over again because they’re not allowing that urine to exit their body. But also, if they are constantly having an irritated bladder, whether that’s from infection or not, and they’re leaking, then they’re definitely going to be getting more at risk of having irritation infection, things like that so it’s definitely something to try and work out, why is that happening.

Alison Mitchell 34:34 And the way that I would be working with these people is using mostly herbs that work on improving the mucous membrane health of the vagina and the urethra and all of that so nutrients that work on that sorry and then herbes that work on reducing spasm of the fine, finer muscles in there and then soothing bladder herbs so we’ve got one of my favorite of all time is Crataeva because it’s just this nice most beautiful bladder tonic, but it’s so soothing. And so that’s like my staple with chronic bladder conditions of all forms, really loving Kava relaxing the muscles down there too. And that’s also really useful in treating UTI as too. And then probably leads us on to the next topic which is prolapse.

Brooke Blair 35:23 Yes, I love prolapse, I don’t love it when it happens to women, but I love trading. So I think there’s a big misconception about prolapse, in that it only happens to older women. And it means that everything is falling out of you and it’s the worst thing in the world and all you can do for a surgery. So when I have women coming in who’ve been told that they have a prolapse or who think that they have a prolapse, it’s all doom and gloom and it’s the worst thing that could possibly happen to them, and prolapse isn’t something like that, most women. I think the stat is that 75% of women will experience some level of prolapse across their lifetime. And what we’re coming to realize is that prolapse, to some extent might actually just be normal because we are upright mammals, and our pelvis and our pelvic organs are at the very base of us, and they don’t have bony support underneath them, they only have muscular support. So over time there is going to be some degree of movement that happens purely because of gravity and because of how we move around. All other animals are basically on all fours, so they’ve got the whole abdominal wall but all of their organs or the pelvis that their organs are supported by, But we don’t have that support structure. So, most women that I assess there will be some degree of prolapse that I go okay, I’m not really going to call this prolapse because it’s just the natural movement that’s happening in your body, and everyone will have some normal amount of movement, some women move not at all and some women are quite mobile in their tissues, and they are going to be the women that are more at risk of prolapse, whether it means that things have dropped internally one centimeter three centimeter five centimeters. It’s one of those things that it’s quite scary for women, to hear the term prolapse and to get the symptoms of prolapse, which are things like heaviness or vaginal discomfort or feeling like you’ve got a dislodged tampon internally but you don’t have a tampon in. I also have lots of women who start to experience sexual pain if they have a uterine prolapses. So that’s one of the really lovely things to be able to treat, is being able to work on either pelvic floor strengthening or using pessaries which are pelvic floor support devices to help support the organs, and to get rid of those symptoms and change how women are functioning so that they can feel symptom free and comfortable.

Alison Mitchell 37:49 Definitely I feel like there’s, there’s various levels of it and sometimes people are not sure whether what they’re feeling is normal or not. It’s good to also just get it assessed to like to give you that peace of mind for someone like yourself to say, actually, where you’re at right now is fairly normal for your stage of life or for everything else that’s going on. Yeah. And then, how can we work on it naturopathically Well I actually really liked working alongside acupuncture too but I look at this from structural integrity of this muscle cells themselves. So things like nutrients that help with connective tissue strength collagen strength, and then using herbes they’re have lifting actions, and reducing inflammation and then also some hormonal support too so, working on a that oestrogen level in a very gentle way. And then using herbs that help with improving digestive function because we want to be reducing any sort of pressure from their digestive system that might also be affecting it too. Which I guess is another segue into digestive digestive stuff so one of the main things that I would probably be sending people to you for in regards to digestive stuff is constipation so when I feel like there is just a poor nerve signal going on or people are deciding, they’re just not getting that urge to go to the toilet because they’ve been constipated for such a long time. So do you want to talk a bit about that.

Brooke Blair 39:27 Yeah, I love treating poo conditions, could talk about poo all day long. So when women come into me for any sort of bowel conditions more often than not it is constipation related, but oftentimes I also do treat fecal incontinence which no one really loves to talk about but it’s actually really, really common and can be caused by constipation. So, in terms of treating something like fecal incontinence, which I’ll talk about first and then talk about constipation because that’s quite commonly related. So people experiencing fecal incontinence, I think the studies, wanting for one in four men and one in five women will experience fecal incontinence in their lifetime. Oftentimes, it can be post childbirth. After third or fourth degree tears, or after nerve injuries. It can come on with things like back conditions and back pain as well. And so a lot of it comes from the muscles at the back passage not functioning optimally, meaning that people aren’t able to hold on to this tool for as long as possible and can become fecal incontinence. A lot of the time, the women that I say for this, it’s because their bowel motion isn’t where it should be. So whether it’s too soft, so it’s like your type five six or seven on a Bristol stool chart, it’s just far too soft and the body’s not made to hold on to a bowel motion like that. So working with you and giving women techniques of how to bulk up their bowel motion can be quite helpful. Then from the constipation side of things. If they come in with fecal incontinence, we need to make sure there’s no constipation there, otherwise we need to treat that first and not worried about the fecal incontinence, because what people don’t realize is, in your rectum, if you’ve got a really big firm hard bowel motion sitting there, your body’s not going to be able to push that out without extra assistance. And so what the body does is it sends this mucus layer to try and help to lubricate the rectal walls to help pass about motion. And if your body doesn’t feel like it can pass it, you just won’t feel that there’s all this mucus there and it will leak out of the rectum, like it’s a fecal incontinence, where it’s really just your body tried to help you to pass this bowel motion. So we need to try and work out. Is it true fecal incontinence or is it that there’s an underlying constipation there. Then in terms of constipation a couple of the things that I see quite commonly is women feeling like I know that I have the sensation that I need to go to the bathroom, but I just don’t feel like I can empty myself, or I feel like something gets stuck. And so from that regard, if we talk about what their bowel motion type is like, sometimes it’s a perfect bowel motion and we’re going okay we don’t need to change your bowel motion type at all, we need to change either the sensation of you going to the toilet, or what’s happening. Anatomically, so really frequently I see rectal prolapses so we call them Rectoceles, not where the bowel is dropping out at the back passage but where the bowel creates a pocket more towards the vagina, and it allows bowel motion to get caught in there, so that women pass a bowel motion but then they just feel like something’s getting stuck, and they can’t quite get it out, and they’re always gassy and uncomfortable, and they might need to go to the bathroom six or seven times in a day but they still just never feel empty. So that’s something that I really love treating because doing a good poo is actually life changing. And if you sit down on the toilet, you do a great poo and you feel empty it’s a wonderful sensation. So that can definitely be something that I work with, but then also making sure that women know what the sensation of bowel emptying should feel like. And when they should emptying, empty their bowels. So working a little bit more with their nervous system to change that up. But yeah, sometimes it’s anatomical work sometimes women don’t actually relax their pelvic floor to empty their bowels they tighten it, instead, which makes it far more difficult to empty their bowels and it’s not that there’s an issue with the bowel motion, it’s just that they’re not relaxing and we can change that also.

Alison Mitchell And I think that with the rectocele, the way that I treat that is very similar to the prolapse stuff, but also yeah like getting all, there’s so many things that can be going wrong with digestive health, and natural remedies, it’s one of my main things that I treat your digestive health, for women’s health and digestive health, so it’s very very satisfying things to treat.

Brooke Blair 44:20 Yeah absolutely people, I have women who all of a sudden they can relax their, their pelvic floor muscles and all of a sudden they do this amazing pool and I say when that happens, I want you to message me because it’s going to be the best day of your life, and they go oh my gosh I didn’t realize that I could do like that and feel this good and it’s, it’s wonderful when you get a lot of neurotransmitter release when you’re actually doing a nice big poo.

Alison Mitchell 44:40 So if you haven’t been able to do for a long time, then you’re not going to get those neurotransmitters, but then it works the other way is if you’ve got constant, diarrhea, you kind of be running low on those. So having that perfect balance makes you happy lately.

Brooke Blair 45:05 Good poos are good.

Alison Mitchell 45:10 Did you want to talk about anything else.

Brooke Blair No, I think we’ve covered off a lot of it.

Alison Mitchell 1:54 My kids are going insane so I should probably wrap up now. like there’s, so many ways that we can work well together. I just so happy to be able to share this information to people and whether they do decide to see both of us or even do some of it, I just want people to know what is available to them. So I’m just so grateful that you and other women’s physios are around and thank you so much for sharing all of your amazing information today already

Brooke Blair 45:54 thank you and thank you for helping me to work on my body. At some point we’ll have to talk about everything that’s amazing that’s happening in my body at the moment which will be wonderful. Alison Mitchell So we’ve got a little bit of a teaser there and then we can follow that up later once we’ve we’ve got you towards the end of your health journey too. perfect. Alright, well thank you everyone so much for listening. Bye! Brooke Blair Bye

Alison Mitchell 46:40 Thank you so much for listening. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s episode. Please join me over at the Guts and Girl Bit’s Instagram page and share any other words of wisdom that you would like to contribute as well. Guts and Girl bits now has a collection of eight courses that you can view online. The primary course available at the moment is Natural menopause support, which provides information on supporting yourself through the latest symptoms of menopause and easing through this transitional life. You can find the collection of E courses at gutsandgirlbits.teachable.com And they will also find a course of understanding underactive thyroid and coming up soon will be a courses called cyclical woman. Navigating the teenage years, children’s health, nourishing the mother, and more. If you’ve enjoyed today, please leave a review and share this episode to help spread the word. Thank you.  

The post Brooke’s journey with endometriosis plus how women’s physiotherapy works with naturopathy appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

This interview was recorded a few months ago, and you can hear my boy making very cute little chirps in the background (I was nursing him on my lap while I was being interviewed).

In this podcast you will learn:

• Why gut health is so important
• The connection between gut health and acne/skin
• Why & how gut health and anxiety (and depression) can be linked
• Common symptoms of poor gut health
• The difference between IBS and leaky gut (intestinal permeability) syndrome
• What your tongue and nails can tell you about your gut health
• How you can eat and breakdown food, but not absorb it so well (and what to do about it)
• What a healthy gut diet plan looks like (which might be different to what you think!
• What to do when you feel certain foods upset your gut
• The difference between prebiotics and probiotics and why you need both and where to find them
• Whether it’s necessary to buy probiotics
• What to look for in a probiotic if you’re going to buy them
• Gut health supplements demystified 
• How to restore healthy gut flora if it’s out of whack
• Why and how colonic irrigation can destroy your gut forever
• Naturopath’s top tips for good gut health

So far I’ve had great feedback on this, so have a listen and tell me what you think in the comment box below!

You can find the original post here.

The post Gut Health Explained – Podcast appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

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It is estimated that one-fifth of the population believe that they have a food intolerance. If you’re reading this article, you’re probably one of them. If you can’t quite put you finger on what food isn’t agreeing with you, then it’s time to get clued up.

In this article you can read about the difference between food intolerances and food allergies, plus 5 common causes that you can investigate, and practical tips to help manage your allergy or intolerance.

Want to learn more? You can read the full article here: http://casadekarma.com.au/the-ultimate-guide-to-food-allergies-intolerances/

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Health & Wellbeing Podcast #3

If you have been following me for a while you probably know that I love to talk about digestive health and the importance of gut health for overall wellbeing. I was very excited to have the opportunity to talk about all things digestion (and of course poo) with my fellow naturopath, the beautiful Hayley Stockbridge.

Hayley practices at Manly on Sydney’s Northern Beaches and in Stanmore in Sydney’s Inner West. Her major focus is always educating her patients to live healthier and happier lives. She treats women, men and children of all ages and a wide variety of health issues such as weight loss, digestive problems, anxiety/stress, fertility, hormone imbalances, food intolerances and headaches.

You can also connect with Hayley on Facebook and Instagram.

We answered a few digestion questions in this podcast which was lots of fun, I would love for people to keep submitting questions for future podcasts. You can submit them in the comments section below, on my facebook page or via the contact form.

Want to subscribe to get podcasts automatically? You can do that here: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/health-wellbeing-podcast/id1006574743

Podcast Breakdown

3:57 What is a normal bowel movement?

6:50 Question 1: I’ve had GORD ever since I can remember, I’m on Nexium and I take metamucil. I still get the occasional bit of reflux but mostly it’s controlled with the medication. I don’t want to stay on it because I don’t want to rely of a medication. I also get diarrhoea every week or so that’s watery, explosive and smelly and really urgent and uncomfortable, and I’m frequently bloated. Is any of this connected and what do you suggest I do about it?

9:05 Diet for reflux, food intolerances.

9:40 The importance of easing of PPI medications slowly.

11:00 Reflux often due to a structural/mechanical issue, but this doesn’t mean you’re doomed.

12:50 Testing and avenues to look at for assessing causes of reflux, most common food triggers of reflux.

14:15 Question 2: I feel bloated and grumpy whenever I eat bread, but my GP said I’m not celiac so I can eat as much wheat as I want. I don’t get it though, why am I getting these feelings if I’m ok with bread?

15:00 Non celiac gluten intolerance including fructose mal-absorption

18:34 The general overconsumption of wheat and gluten containing foods and the issues with processing of wheat

22:40 It’s advisable to rule out celiac disease, as knowing this will determine how much gluten you can tolerate.

24:00 Sourdough may be an option for people sensitive to wheat as the fermentation breaks down some of the gluten and gliadin

25:45 Gluten free products are not always better for you

26:45 Experiment to find out what foods work best for you

27:55 Question 3: Help for constipation please! I have been taking movicol for about 5 yrs now. I go to the toilet once a day, but if i don’t take movicol I go once a week. I don’t like relying on it, but I don’t know what else I can do. Hayley and I discuss some common approaches to supporting constipation and diet for good bowel movements.

30:29 Papaya vs Pawpaw

33:00 Probiotics

34:40 Apple cider vinegar benefits

36:00 Dandelion coffee/tea

37:00 Manual work for constipation

37:25 The importance of exercise for healthy bowel movements

38:57 Toilet time – make time each morning to train your bowels to go at that time, and don’t suppress the urge to go when you need to.

39:50 Our yoga efforts.

41:00 Question 4: My 4 year old daughter frequently complains of stomach pains, I’m always at the doctors with her trying to find out what it is but they can’t find anything. It can be really upsetting for her, and sometimes she’s doubled up and crying with the pain. We eat well, but she always has a runny nose and this stomach pain is very concerning. She started preschool last year and seems to get sick all the time, I’m worried about how she’ll go at school with this stomach pain. She used to go to the toilet every 3-4 days, and even though this is considered normal the doctors gave her parachoc to try and help in case this is causing the pain, now she does go to the toilet easily (although it’s very lose) . Is there anything else I can do for her?

46:00 Infant massage for stomach pain

47:15 Our favourite digestion herbs

The post Digestion Podcast appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

Enhance Your Health with Probiotics

Top Up Your Good Bugs

Your diet and lifestyle play a major role in the balance of bacteria (or bugs) in your body. Amazingly, you are actually a ‘superorganism’ made up of hundreds of microbes living together in and on your body. Your immune system’s job is to monitor the many kinds of bacteria to ensure that healthy bugs are in larger numbers than troublemakers, such as viruses and yeasts. The best way to balance the good with the bad is to ensure you maintain adequate levels of beneficial bacteria in your digestive tract, and maintain a lifestyle that keeps the bad guys in check. No matter where the unhealthy bacteria live, you can influence your immune system’s fight by starting with good flora in the gut.  If you experience any of the common symptoms below, you may need a top up with good bugs (also known as probiotics):

• Bloating and/or flatulence
• Constipation or diarrhoea
• Frequent colds and the flu
• Eczema or allergies

Bug Basics

The most effective way to replenish beneficial bacteria in the gut is by taking  probiotics. There are many different types of probiotic bugs, and in many ways they are just like us.  We employ them because of their occupation. Different strains do different jobs in the body, so it is important to choose the right strain for the right condition. For example, specific strains have been scientifically proven to help with health problems including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and eczema.  Make an appointment to discuss your health requirement, and for help in selecting the probiotic strain that is the most appropriate for you.

Some of the most effective therapeutic strains include:

• Lactobacillus acidophilus (NCFM): General balance

This strain is a great everyday probiotic to maintain bacterial balance, and has been extensively tested and proven to restore levels of healthy bacteria in the colon.  It is particularly effective after a course of antibiotics and/or  following a gut infection. This strain is antimicrobial in nature and inhibits the growth of unfriendly bacteria.

• Bifidobacterium lactis (Bi-07): Dysbiosis

When there are more bad bugs than good bugs in the gut, it is called dysbiosis. This is the reason we experience many of the symptoms mentioned earlier. Bi-07 has been proven to address dysbiosis, improving overall health. It has also been shown to reduce gastrointestinal disturbances, especially after antibiotic use.

• Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG): Eczema and allergies

This probiotic strain has been studied in over 350 clinical trials, and has the ability to enhance immune system function, specifically reducing the occurrence and symptoms of allergies, eczema and other atopic conditions. LGG may also help to decrease the risk of digestive upsets such as diarrhoea in both adults and children. It can also shorten the time that you experience diarrhoea if you are struck by a nasty gastro bug.  This is one of the best ‘all-rounder’ probiotic strains for general digestive health.

• Lactobacillus plantarum 299v: Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Inflammation

The 299v strain is a specialised strain of Lactobacillus used specifically for gut issues. This probiotic has been proven to assist and manage the symptoms of medically-diagnosed IBS and other inflammatory bowel disorders. It has been clinically shown to improve the key IBS related problems of bloating, flatulence, pain, inflammation, constipation and diarrhoea.

Lifestyle Tips to Boost Your Good Bugs

To keep your ‘superorganism’ balanced, you need to include and avoid certain factors in your diet and lifestyle. Here are some easy everyday ideas that maintain your good and bad bugs in harmony:

• Reduce alcohol: Reduce your weekly consumption as excess drinking kills off large proportions of the good bugs.
• Manage stress: Stress can lead to an imbalance of bacteria. If stress is an issue for you, make an appointment to discuss lifestyle methods and supplements to support your response to stress.
• Exercise: Moving your body a little each day assists immune function and keeps your bowel moving too.
• Basic nutrition: Drink plenty of water, a minimum of eight glasses per day, and avoid excessive caffeine, sugar and salt intake to keep your good bugs flourishing.

Maximise Your Health with Probiotics

Maintaining bacterial balance is one of the key elements of optimal health and vitality. Remember, your immune system doesn’t just control colds. It also regulates your ‘superorganism’ on a daily basis. Together with healthy diet and lifestyle choices, a daily probiotic is one of the best ways to keep your good and bad bugs in check and bring your body back into balance. Whether you have eczema, allergies or IBS, specific probiotics can enhance the success of your treatment.

The post Enhance Your Health with Probiotics appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

Nutritious, delicious, thirst quenching, sweet and satisfying.

Fruit, in moderate amounts, is good for you. But what fruit is best for you? In this article I detail the nutrient content of fruits, and also list their health properties.

A lot of the health properties I mention are based in Chinese medicine principles. An example of this is when a food is described as ‘cooling’, ‘drying’, or ‘warming’.

Ernestina Burchmore is a acupuncturist who has been in practice for 10 years. She has kindly explained the effects of these properties in foods for us.

Warmer/hot foods tend to cause dryness. Cool/cold foods tend to moisten, promote urination and reduce fever and dryness. Damp is created when the digestive system is weak and cannot fully process food, thereby creating an excess amount of mucus that comes out in the skin, stools or through the lungs or sinuses. E.g. Coconut can give rise to eczema-like rash, oranges can make you sneeze and wheeze.

This is just a rough guide. Other food properties include the roles of the 5 Flavours – sweet, sour, pungent, bitter and salty. But I won’t discuss this here.

Ernestina Burchmore is a qualified Acupuncturist and experienced Chinese Herbalist. She graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney in 2001 with a B.A, in Health Science (Acupuncture) / B,A. International Studies (China Studies). Ernestina has been practicing at Health Dimensions in Bella Vista and WIndsor for 10 years. Her general practice focuses on pain management, stress management, fertility solutions, women’s health, pregnancy, gastrointestinal disorders and respiratory disorders.

Ernestina believes that treating the whole person and getting to the root problem that is causing the symptoms is the key to really solving the problems you come in to have treated.

From a botanical perspective, fruits are technically the flowering part that derives from a plant’s ovaries and are any vegetable which contains seeds. Therefore fruits also include beans, corn, tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum, eggplant, and pumpkin (to name a few). This article only covers those which are commonly classified as fruit, and only the most popular varieties.

General tips about fruit:

It is always important to ensure your fruit is properly ripened (via tree or vine). If a fruit is not adequately ripened it doesn’t have as many benefits, and may even have some harmful properties (particularly so with citrus). When unripe fruit is purchased, it should be allowed to ripen at room temperature before eating. An exception is the intentional use of certain unripe fruit for its medicinal effect.

Another potential issue with is the excessive use of pesticides on the most popular types of fruit. These pesticides can often negate any health benefits.

Fruits are easily digested, and are alkalizing, cleansing and cooling. If you are overly stressed or have a lot of ‘mental heat’, then fruits are for you. The alkaline natures of fruits also help to get your bowels moving.

If you have a lot of sweet fruit every day, it is possible to develop too much ‘damp’ (according to Chinese medicine principles) and therefore it is beneficial to have occasional periods where you don’t have fruit. Too much fruit will also mean too much sugar, which is not helpful for weight loss or keeping blood sugar levels stable.

The sugar in fruit is fructose, and this takes longer to affect your blood sugars than standard sugar such as sucrose or glucose. Fructose needs to be converted to glucose by the liver. Fructose is also 1½ times sweeter than sucrose. Therefore if you’re craving something sweet, not only will having a piece of fruit instead of a chocolate bar provide you with more vitamins and minerals, it will also have a better affect on your blood sugar levels.

It is best to avoid having too much juice, and rather have the benefits of fruit by eating them whole.

Apple

• Cooling nature (Reduces heat, especially summer heat)
• Helps to produce fluid for the body, making it good for lung health. It can help protect the lungs from cigarette smoking (not that anyone should be doing that anyway)
• Stimulates digestion
• Green apples cleanse the liver and gallbladder and help to soften gallstones.
• Contains malic acid and tartaric acid which can help to inhibit the growth of bad bacteria and reduce fermentation.
• Contains pectin, which removes cholesterol and helps bind up and remove toxic metals, and also promotes good bacteria in the digestive tract
• Contains calcium-d-glucarate, which is good for healthy hormones
• Helpful for people with low blood sugar levels
• Grate an apple and apply directly or wrap in muslin and put on your eyes for 20 minutes to help with eye strain, pink eye or sunburn

Apricot

• Moistens the lungs
• Fresh apricots are good for dry throats, thirst and asthma
• When buying the dried type, buy the organic or uncoloured variety as dried apricots often have added sulfur compounds to make them brighter and this can worsen allergies and asthma particularly in children
• Good source of vitamin A and carotene.
• Dried apricots are a good source of iron, cobalt, and copper making them good for anemia

Avocado

• Cooling nature
• Helps to build the blood and increase ‘yin’ energy
• Harmonizes the liver
• Good source of lecithin which is important for brain health and helps with fat digestion
• The fat content is very easily digestible, and is mainly in the form of mono-unsaturated oils
• Rich in copper, vitamin E, protein and potassium
• Great for nursing mothers

Banana

• Cooling nature
• Helpful for dry conditions (e.g. dry coughs) as it produces mucous
• Avoid if you’re very mucousy
• Before they are fully ripened, bananas having a drying property. If you have diarrhea, colitis or hemorrhoids then unripe bananas are helpful.
• For hemorrhoids, steam the whole unripe banana until very soft and eat one organic banana (with skin if you can manage it) twice a day on an empty stomach.
• Bananas are helpful to treat drug addiction due to their cold nature and high sugar content.
• Due to their high potassium content, bananas are good for high blood pressure.
• They have high sugar content (17-19%)

Blueberry

• Cooling nature
• Blood, eye and liver tonic
• Good for countering urinary tract infections
• Good source of vitamin C, manganese and vitamin A

Cherry

Cranberry

Date

Feijoa

• Rich source of fibre, vitamin C, Iodine and Folate. (Iodine is not included in table due to the lack of data of iodine content in other fruits).
• Has blood pressure regulating properties.
• The nutrient content makes this a great fruit for pregnancy.

Goji

• Considered a ‘super food’ because of the high levels of antioxidants they contain.
• High in vitamin A and taurine
• Helpful for diabetic retinopathy,
• Thought to have anti-aging properties
• Strengthens the kidneys
• Helpful for liver health, especially when eye symptoms are associated with liver weakness such as dry and tired eyes and blurry vision (in Chinese medicine, it is thought that the liver sends nutrients and energy to the eyes). Goji and chrysanthemum tea is good for this.
• Can help to reduce cholesterol
• Helps to reduce blood sugar levels
• Eaten long term, Goji berries can support the immune system. However if you currently have an infection it’s best to avoid them.
• Contains germanium, a mineral shown to have anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties (not included in table due to the lack of data of germanium content in other fruits).

Grape

• Increase qi energy
• Good for the liver – grape juice is helpful for hepatitis and jaundice
• Diuretic – reduces edema and helpful for painful urination
• Help to reduce menopausal heat symptoms
• Grapes are a good snack for children
• Darker grapes are good for blood building
• Good source of vitamins A, B-complex and C.

Grapefruit

• Cooling nature
• Helpful for poor digestion, such as burping and poor appetite (especially during pregnancy)
• Good for hangovers
• The peel has many beneficial properties for digestive health and mucous in the lungs, and is rich in vitamin c. You can make a tea from the peel (fresh or dry) by simmering it for 20 minutes. Apply a compress of this tea to frostbite (at room temperature) to restore circulation.
• Citrus seed extract is primarily made from grapefruit and has many health benefits. It is a potent antibiotic.

Guava

• Has astringent and laxative properties
• Tonifies the lymphatic and skeletal system
• Good source of vitamin c and potassium

Jackfruit

• Cooling, nutritious and tonifying.
• Can counteract the influence of alcohol
• The ripe fruit has laxative properties
• Dried seeds contain B-complex vitamins, calcium, iron and sulfur

Kiwi

• Cold in nature, clearing heat
• Promote the production of fluids making them helpful for dry mouth and throat
• Can help the passage of kidney stones
• They are very nutrient dense. They have twice the vitamin C of oranges, and are also rich in magnesium. They are higher in potassium than bananas and oranges.
• Low in calories (45 calories per fruit)

Lemon and Lime

• Cooling nature
• Very helpful for people who have eaten a high fat/protein diet
• Helps to destroy putrefactive bacteria in the intestines and mouth
• Antiseptic, anti-microbial and reduces mucous
• Good for coughs
• Good for fevers
• Supports liver health and bile production
• Supports weight loss
• Alkalizing: their alkaline content is five times greater than their acidic content.
• Only contains 1% sugar
• Good source of vitamin C, and is also high in potassium, and vitamin B1.
• Apply the juice externally to relieve insect bites and to soften corns
• Limes generally have fewer chemicals used on them than lemons
• Avoid if you have excessive stomach acid or stomach ulcers

Lychee

• Good for the spleen, pancreas, stomach and liver meridians
• Promote body fluids and ease thirst
• Contain vitamin B and C, folic acid, citric acid, malic acid and arginine

Mango

• Cooling
• Good source of vitamin A and C and potassium
• High in calories
• Related to poison ivy, and contains the same toxic chemical – urushiol. In some people this can cause itching and skin eruptions.

Orange

• Cooling nature
• Regenerates body fluid
• Helps to cool and moisten the body
• The inner white lining, placed directing on the eyelids, helps to dissolve eye cysts.
• Good source of vitamin C, potassium and also contain some calcium
• The inner white lining also helps with iron absorption and has anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties.

Papaya

• Warming nature
• Tonifies the stomach and acts as a digestive aid
• Ripe papayas moisten the lungs and alleviate coughing
• Under ripe papaya and its seeds are rich in the digestive enzyme papain, which helps digest protein, break down deposits on the teeth, resolve mucus, and has a strong vermicidal action capable of destroying most intestinal worms including tapeworm.
• Also contains carpaine, a compound providing anti-tumor activity
• Excellent source of vitamins A, C and E, and are also rich in calcium, iron, potassium, and phosphorus.
• Papaya is often referred to as pawpaw in Australia, however they are actually different fruit. Papaya (Carica papaya) is the longer green/yellow-orange fruit with pinky/orangey flesh (when ripe). It has multiple small black seeds. Paw Paw (Asimina triloba) is indigenous to North America, it has large seeds (approx 1 inch in diameter) shaped like lima beans, is a rounder fruit and has yellow flesh.

Passion fruit

• Good source of vitamins A and C
• High in fibre
• Contains anti-oxidants and sterols, making it helpful for lowering cholesterol and promoting heart health
• Helpful for people with asthma and allergies due to its anti-histamine properties
• Extracts of the whole plant are excellent for calming the nervous system

Peach

• Cooling nature
• Builds body fluids
• Moistens the lungs and intestines
• Useful for dry cough
• Helps to reduce excessive perspiration due do it’s astringent properties
• Peach leaf tea can destroy worms

Pear

• Cooling nature
• Good for lung health, and helps to reduce heat in the lungs
• Don’t eat if you have loose, watery stools
• Don’t have excessive amounts of pears during pregnancy

Persimmon

• Cooling nature
• Clears lung heat
• Builds body fluids, removes phlegm
• Unripe persimmon has an astringent taste from the tannic acid, which eventually goes when the fruit ripens
• Partially ripe persimmons are helpful for diarrhea, dysentery and hypertension

Pineapple

• Removes summer heat
• Contains the enzyme bromelain which increases digestive ability and destroys worms. Bromelain also has anti-inflammatory properties, making it good for joints.
• Thirst quenching, diuretic
• Treats sunstroke, indigestion, diarrhea, lack of appetite and fluid retention
• Under ripe pineapple is very acidic and can damage teeth

Plum

• Good for liver health and diabetes
• Stewed prunes are a good remedy for constipation
• Plums also treat cirrhosis of the liver and liver conditions generally (the purple variety)
• Umeboshi salt plums (very sour and salty) are very good for digestion and liver health. They are highly alkalizing.

Pomegranate

• Good for bladder disturbances
• Destroys worms in the digestive system
• Strengthen gums
• Soothes ulcers of the mouth and throat

Raspberry

• Good for liver and kidney health
• Cleanses the blood
• Good for menstrual cycle regulation
• Raspberry leaf is widely used for childbirth preparation as it strengthens the uterus and reduces excessive menstrual flow

Strawberry

• Cooling nature
• Improves appetite
• Moistens the lungs and generates body fluids
• Eat before meals to treat poor digestion accompanied by abdominal pain and swelling
• Relieves painful urination
• Good source of silicon and vitamin C, making it very useful for arterial and connective tissue repair
• Allergic reactions to strawberries are often caused by berries that are not vine-ripened

Watermelon

• Very cooling
• Removes heat, especially summer heat
• Has diuretic properties
• Helpful for thirst, urinary difficulty, edema, depression, kidney and urinary tract inflammation

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