So you’ve done the three week test and the results show that you have a Leaky Gut. And you did the GABA test and you may have a Leaky Brain. Now what?
Here are the top 7 things you can do, best done with the help of a health practitioner:
1) Don’t eat grains or dairy. Stay 100% away from all grains and dairy for at least 6 months. The Leaky Gut and your symptoms will never heal if you keep irritating your gut with these foods. Once the Leaky Gut is healed, some people can get away with small amounts of these foods without flare-ups, but they are living dangerously.
2) Lower your microbial counts to normal. Most of the time there is chronic low grade infections or “dysbiosis” in the bladder, vagina, gut, or sinuses because of the immune system spending too much energy attacking your food instead of your bacteria and yeast colonies. Because these aren’t full blown infections that an MD would diagnose, you likely don’t need prescription antibiotics for this (ask your MD). But you may need more gentle herbal remedies with anti-microbial activities to help your immune system kill some of the microbial numbers off. Emulsified oregano oil is a good one to use. But be warned, as it kills off microbes, the microbes release toxins that can make you feel worse at first. So to avoid this, it’s best to do number 3 below first. Sometimes just fixing the liver and biliary system (gall bladder) is enough to correct the dysbiosis.
3) Fix your liver. Sometimes the reason the gluten and dairy became so irritating in the first place was because your gall bladder wasn’t releasing enough bile into the small intestine. Bile buffers the acid released by the stomach so it doesn’t burn the small intestine. Without enough bile, the resulting acid burns can open the door to food sensitivity and can lead to Leaky Gut. See my next newsletter on Cleansing for details on fixing the liver and bilary system. Bile also keeps the gut microbes in check, so fixing the liver can sometimes fix the dysbiosis automatically without needing to use the herbs in number 2 above.
4) Balance your autonomic nervous system. This consists of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The SNS is the fight/flight system. It diverts blood and energy away from the gut in favor of the arms and legs muscles. The PNS is the rest/digest system. It brings blood to the gut. Stress triggers the SNS, taking blood away from the gut. The SNS also releases adrenaline and cortisol from the adrenal glands. These in chronically high amounts can be damaging to the gut. You have to take control over the stress in your life or at least learn how to stay calm and relaxed in spite of stress if you are going to be successful at healing your gut. There are many ways to lower the effect stress has on your body, here are a few that have helped me the most:
F.A.S.T. from NET (http://www.firstaidstresstool.com/),
Centering Prayer (http://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/category/category/centering-prayer),
Ki development (http://www.kionline.org/uploads/1/4/8/8/14880468/jailkibook_fall06.pdf).
5) In many cases avoiding added sugars and sugar alternatives is required if there are issues with dysbiosis or blood sugar handling issues. Also, in some cases, avoiding animal flesh for a period of time is needed if the stomach digestion is weak. A plant based protein powder like from rice or peas may be necessary. See the cleansing article for more information about the product we use for this called Nutriclear. It has pea protein plus nutrients specific for healing leaky gut like L-glutamine and methylfolate.
6) If your stomach in not producing enough digestive juices to break down your food properly, this will irritate your lower gut. For this reason you may need to do the “Stomach Acid Balancing” described in the next article, “Cleansing.” It consists of taking a specific digestive aid temporarily to jump start your digestion back to normal.
7) Foods that are slimy tend to help heal the gut. Examples are okra and nopales cactus. Just don’t fry the okra. Nopales can be found at ethnic supermarkets, at least in Fresno. To speed up the healing you can eat 1-2 servings daily of these types of food.
And lastly, be patient. It is a long road but it is doable. Once you are feeling better (3-24 weeks) keep going for another 2-3 months before adding back in grains or dairy, or sugar or meat if you had to stop these. Usually once you feel good, the healing is only 80% completed. You need to allow time for 100% healing of the Leaky Gut before easing up on the diet otherwise you risk having a major flare-up and losing ground.
Once you have fixed the Leaky Gut, you may need to do the rest of the tips in the “Cleansing” article (to come) for good measure.
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