Digestive Rescue: Part 3 of 3
I hope that I have helped you become aware of how important it is to focus on the foods that provide your body with the right levels of nutrients, to help reduce the symptoms that may relate to your IBD.
You have learned that it is necessary to feed the beneficial bacteria in order for them to provide benefits, such as creating B vitamins for our energy systems or creating short chain fatty acids, which are important for colon health.
Hormones are also essential for both men and women such as progesterone, testosterone and oestrogen and it’s not difficult for them to become imbalanced through your lifestyle choices, your nutrition or the medications you take for example.
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As soon as imbalances in your nutrition, gut bacteria, hormones and lifestyle have been established, it is important to put in place a plan of action that focuses on incorporating personalised solutions for your optimal gut health and more importantly for your IBD to be moved towards remission.
Initially our main focus will be on looking at what is needed to truly nourish your gut, what nutrient deficiencies you need to address and what you need to add that will help you to repair and heal.
We will put into place a programme that is easy to maintain, fits in with your life and ultimately helps you to manage your condition and symptoms, achieving the optimal gut health possible.
As you have discovered, what you eat is not just nutrition for yourself, for your muscles, or your systems, it also feeds the trillions of bacteria in your gut.
We have discussed that you have a combination of beneficial and harmful bacteria living within your guts. It is important that you keep this in balance. What you eat can quickly change the type, number and health of your gut bacteria. Therefore, understanding what foods are nourishing for your specific conditions or symptoms is essential for helping the gut to work optimally.
A healthy gut will have a diverse range of gut bacteria in it and each type of bacteria will prefer different nutrient-rich foods. Therefore, trying to enjoy a wide range of nutritious foods is key to helping your different gut bacteria stay healthy and happy.
Everybody is different, with a unique range and number of bacteria. Some symptoms or conditions may require specific gut bacteria boosting and others may need specific harmful types reducing. Therefore, you will benefit from a personalised nutrition plan, taking into consideration the results from your tests. A nutrition plan that is specific to your unique combination of bacteria.
We also want to make sure that we include a variety of plant-based foods such as fruit and vegetables, trying to aim for as many as 7 to 10 a day.
It also helps to eat more fibre rich prebiotic foods such as vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts/seeds and wholegrains to feed your healthy bacteria. When you suffer from an IBD or IBS it is important that we work closely together to make sure the fibre rich foods are suitable and supportive.
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It is a good idea to enjoy probiotic foods, such as fermented vegetables (sauerkraut) and natural yoghurt as this may help increase the number and variety of healthy bacteria you already have. Other probiotic foods and beverages include kefir, cottage cheese, fresh sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, apple cider vinegar, and miso.
Finally, try to include polyphenol rich foods in your diet such as berries (blueberries, blackberries, strawberries etc.), broccoli, red cabbage, onions, tomatoes, tea and olive oil. Polyphenol foods are anti-inflammatory in nature helping to reduce potential inflammation in your intestines. They also help to control the balance of gut bacteria by stimulating the growth of our beneficial bacteria and inhibiting the growth of harmful bacteria.
As part of your gut healing programme we will discuss the nutrition that will work best for your current symptoms, identify nutrient deficiencies and start to repair any damage to the gut.
These are just a few ideas to help you nourish and support your gut health through nutrition. It is clear that for optimal gut health and management of your IBD you will need to eat the right foods. Foods that help to reduce inflammation as well as foods that boost the health and number of your beneficial bacteria.
Highly nutritious foods such as polyphenols, prebiotic and probiotic foods will boost beneficial bacteria whereas processed and refined foods will encourage the growth of harmful bacteria.
This is why we spend a lot of time creating a personalised, balanced, nutritious and highly varied diet that will help keep your gut healthy and happy.
We will create an IBD plan for optimising your gut health and make sure that it is made up of all the foods that you love. We will look at the right foods that can easily be fitted into your current diet and lifestyle.
Foods that help with your IBD symptoms and ones that can be easily switched with what you currently eat or that you can incorporate into your favourite meals.
Our goal is to help reduce your IBD symptoms as well as help with the long term management, so that you can enjoy a normal and full life.
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Another useful technique to learn is to become more mindful of the way you eat. Eating the right foods to nourish your gut and calm IBD symptoms is important, but if you cannot digest and absorb all of these nutrients then progress will be slowed.
Even the way you chew your food and the speed at which you eat can make a significant difference. Paying attention to chewing is essential, it’s how you start to break down your food and it is what our teeth were designed for. Research says we should aim to chew every mouthful 30 times, this small act of eating consciously will help us digest our food more efficiently. Slow down and enjoy the time you spend eating or drinking.
It is also useful for us to measure how effective you are at digesting your food properly. For example, we test your stomach acid levels with a simple in-clinic technique. Results from your comprehensive stool analysis will give us information on your digestive enzyme levels and potential food intolerances. These things will all impact how you digest and absorb your food.
This knowledge is extremely useful and will help us when creating your personal plan.
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Once this has been determined, looking at the integrity of your gut is next. For example, from various imbalances, illnesses or inflammation increased intestinal permeability (leaky gut) can result. This is effectively damage to the intestinal lining where larger particles and bacteria are then able to pass through the lining and into the blood system. This would then cause an autoimmune response creating more inflammation and irritation.
In order to repair gut integrity it is important to determine the underlying factors causing the damage, which is something we look at together. You may need to change your habits, take specific supplements such as glutamine to help repair and fuel cells of the gut. You may need to increase specific nutrients essential for gut repair such as zinc or quercetin. You may also need to increase probiotics to help replenish your gut bacteria levels should they be imbalanced.
Ultimately, by working together, we will create a solution that has a positive impact on reducing your symptoms and putting your IBD into remission for the long term.
Once you have been to see your Doctor about your suspected IBD, you may then be referred to a specialist, this is typically an endocrinologist who may perform an endoscopy to confirm diagnosis.
At this point you may be put on medication to help with your IBD. This is then an opportunity for you to complement your treatment plan by working with a Nutritional Therapist to help manage your condition and discover the root cause of your condition.
Any damage to the gut can be repaired through the use of specific nutrition and supplementation as well as looking at lifestyle changes.
Working alongside your GP or endocrinologist, we can look for the root causes of your symptoms and build a programme to help repair and heal the gut. This will optimise your recovery.
This will be done through personalised functional testing such as the use of a comprehensive stool analysis, the interpretation of the test and then following the results a personalised nutritional plan can be created that takes into consideration potential food intolerances and nutrient deficiencies.
With your IBD team in place which includes your GP, endocrinologist and Nutritional Therapist, you will have the best chances of keeping your IBD in remission.
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There is often no single cause for damage to the gut, but often the main culprits are imbalances, gastrointestinal disease, chronic stress, environmental contaminants, overuse of alcohol, pathogenic bacterial presence, poor food choices and extended use of medications. Everybody is different and everyone will experience different symptoms originating from different contributors.
This is why I work closely with my clients to look at these main culprits, and create a long-term management programme.
If you have a stressful lifestyle then it is important to discuss suitable options and create a plan to manage your stress using techniques such as meditation, relaxation, exercise, breathing practice, prioritising problems as well as eating better. All these ideas will help to reduce your stress levels.
If you have gut dysbiosis then it is important to identify the imbalances and work to rebalance gut bacteria or remove pathogens using specific natural antimicrobials.
If you have a high level of toxic exposure, your immune system and therefore your ability to heal may be challenged. Toxic exposure will reduce your ability to absorb and store nutrients. Becoming aware of the potential chemicals / toxins that surround you and then managing to reduce this level will benefit our health, but especially our gut and liver function.
Education is key to understanding what is happening to your body and helping you move towards optimal health.
Working together we will create a programme specific to you that will boost the health of your gut and create a healthy happy environment.
By working our way through the contributing factors that we have discussed, we can create a personalised programme that takes into consideration your lifestyle and health history.
I can create a comprehensive plan that will incorporate all of these factors. I aim to help you identify triggers, imbalances and deficiencies and then incorporate these into a plan that will help you to nourish, heal and repair your gut both in the short term, but more importantly for the long term too. Helping you to manage your condition or symptoms on a long term basis is the number one goal.
Once we’ve worked out the root cause of your IBD we can then start to repair and heal your gut.
It is important that this is easily achievable and maintained on an ongoing basis in order to keep your gut healthy and happy.
We will create a nutritional programme that takes into consideration your likes and dislikes, the time you have available as well as the nutrients that you need.
By using my programme I aim to give you back a normal lifestyle, one where you no longer worry about where the toilet is, one with less pain and dramatically reduced symptoms so you can spend time on more important things.