Is Your Gut Trying to Tell You Something?

Subtle signs of poor gut health you might be ignoring

Your gut is talking to you...are you listening?

Have you heard that if you ignore the check engine light of your car, that it might lead to some pretty big issues, or may even cause your car to break down on you? Well the same goes for your health. If you ignore the symptoms that your body is giving you, eventually you are going to develop disease and your body is going to break down on you. Our body is designed to work together and function at such great capacity that we could live to be over 100 years old! That's better than a car! But we have to pay attention to what it is telling us and stop trying to suppress those distress signals. It can be a new way of looking at your life because many of us grew up thinking if we are in pain - we just take a pill to make the pain go away. If we have heartburn - we just take a pill to make it go away. If we are nauseated - we must need another pill. These are all ways that our body is speaking to us and telling us something is wrong or needs attention. If you are hungry - you eat, right? Well the same goes for some of these other symptoms. We just might need someone to help us figure out what some of those symptoms mean. That's where I come in!

As a Functional Gut Health Nurse, I am happy to help connect the dots for you so you understand what your body or your "gut" is telling you and you know what to do about it!

There are many gut health symptoms that people experience on a regular basis and they think are "normal", when in reality they are just "common" but not normal. Let's talk about some of those common pesky gut health distress signals.

First of all, you should be having at least one if not two to three regular, formed, brown bowel movements a day. If you are not, that is called constipation. And although constipation may be "normal" for you, that is not how a healthy, normal gut functions. Our bodies are being fed multiple times per day and packaging up nicely what it no longer needs to excrete it. It also packages up toxins, and broken down hormones to get rid of them in our stool. If you are not going every day, your intestines could be reabsorbing some of that matter and redistributing them into the bloodstream. Now, there are several reasons why you may be experiencing this which is why it is helpful to work with someone and help them point out some of your unique root causes to this. This could be as simple as you are dehydrated or not eating enough fiber, or more complicated as you have hypothyroidism. But at the end of the day, this is a SYMPTOM of something else going on.

Secondly, is if you are having chronic diarrhea, or loose stools, on a regular basis. This is common but not normal for optimal gut health. Our bodies need to absorb nutrients from the foods that we eat and if they are passing right through you, then you are more than likely nutrient deficient - which can indeed cause further symptoms. Common causes of chronic diarrhea include food sensitivities, underlying infections, stress, and a lack of good gut bacteria.

What you eat could be causing some of your symptoms to worsen.

Acid reflux, or heartburn, is another common digestive symptom that many people face. This occurs when the esophageal sphincter (or little valve between the lower end of the esophagus and the stomach) does not close all the way and allows stomach acid to push back up into the esophagus. Again, there can be multiple reasons that people experience this and why it would be a good idea to work with someone to address your unique root causes. Common things to ask first would be what is your diet like? If you are consuming fried foods and alcohol, this could very well be exacerbating the problem. If you are consuming a large meal right before bed, this can cause reflux once you lie down. However, something else to consider would be low stomach acid. This sounds counter-intuitive, however low stomach acid (with a multitide of it's own causes) can actually cause indigestion, along with other symptoms such as belching, bloating, and feeling like your food is sitting in your stomach for long periods of time after eating. Stomach acid is necessary to fight off pathogens that enter our digestive tract, and also for helping us to absorb the nutrients we need from our foods. This is not something I would want to suppress if I was experiencing it, as it will only further increase problems - kinda like that check engine light.

These are some of the most common digestive complaints, but there are many more that are associated with poor gut health such as food allergies or sensitivities, nausea after eating, itching around the rectum, excessive gas, bloating, belching, undigested food in the stool, acne (yep - that's related to your gut!), brain fog, hormone imbalances, migraines, anxiety, depression, autimmune disorders, and so much more. Our gut plays a vital role in overall health and we have the opportunity to thrive if we learn to listen to what it is telling us.

If you learn nothing else from this, I hope you learn that your symptoms are your body's way of talking to you and we have to listen up! If ignored for long enough, our body will break down on us. If you are looking for someone to guide you through your digestive concerns, I offer a free discovery call and work 1:1 with clients to heal their gut and optimize their health naturally.