Today, I want to share a little more in depth about the single most important tool you can use on your digestive health journey.
You’ve maybe already tried a lot of tools to help you on your digestive or allergy journey.
You might think I’m going to tell you that supplements are the go-to tool. Or lab tests. Or elimination diets.
But the single most valuable tool to help you get a handle on your symptoms—and to help you understand what is going on in your body—is a Food-Symptom Diary.
A Food-Symptom Diary is the single most important tool on your gut-healing journey.
It’s not sexy. It’s not snazzy. Especially because when you use it, I ask you to take a look at your poop!
But truly, if you can learn how to properly use a food diary, you’ll find some answers. It helps you learn:
what foods your body is reacting to.
where seemingly disconnected symptoms are actually coming from.
what you can do in your daily life to reduce symptoms and feel better.
I use a food diary with every single client that walks through my door.
OK, but how do you use it?
I made a video for you this week, explaining what to do with it. You really don’t want to miss it.
If you’ve been frustrated with trying to figure out how food is triggering your symptoms and you’re looking for some help, I invite you to schedule a free 30-minute Assessment Session with me. In this focused session, we’ll discuss where you’re at, and what I think would be your next best steps. If I can’t help you, I’ll be sure to give you a referral to someone who can.
I want to speak to you this week about something very near to my heart: healing trauma and how this can affect our physical bodies, especially our digestion.
Many people have had at least one traumatic experience, and sadly, sometimes many. Loss of a loved one, especially to sudden or accidental death. Sexual, physical, or emotional abuse. Poverty. Witnessing violence in war or even here at home.
As I grow my practice, I’m finding that a lot of my clients with digestive challenges also have a background of trauma. How are they connected?
In essence, it’s about how your body is wired to respond to stress. Sometimes, when events you witness or experience are overwhelming, your nervous system can turn on an unremitting pattern of constant vigilance.
I’ve written and spoken before about how we need to be in a place of “rest and digest” for ideal digestion to occur.
But if you’re constantly on the lookout for the next threat, you may rarely or never reach that true place of relaxation and peace that allows your body to feel safe and heal.
If you are someone who has experienced trauma, in this week’s video I share what I’m doing to heal my childhood trauma as a strategy for healing my digestive challenges, and I hope that you might learn about some options that could help you, too.
More and more, I’m finding that this is an essential part of the healing process, even though it can be challenging and needs to be addressed with great care.
Check out the video, and let me know if this helped you.
If you’ve been wishing to find a practitioner who can help you learn what you’re body is telling you it needs, I invite you to schedule a free 30-minute Assessment Session with me. In this focused session, we’ll discuss where you’re at, and what I think would be your next best steps. If I can’t help you, I’ll be sure to give you a referral to someone who can.
Patient stories are your stories of being a patient. Hopefully, you’ve had a good experience in your various doctors’ offices, but it’s highly likely not.
Instead, if you’re a woman with a complex or mystery illness, like an autoimmune condition, Lyme disease, a strange gut illness, or confusing allergies and food sensitivities, it’s likely you have a long list of frustrating patient stories.
Being dismissed.
Having your very physical symptoms written off as stress, or related to your menstrual cycle.
Having to fight and advocate to get the care you need and deserve.
I have my own collection of stories, and I’ve heard a lot of others as a practitioner. Some of these patient stories make me want to scream and cry. Like my celiac client, who was extremely clear with hospital staff that she was celiac, only to find that the kitchen was sending food with wheat flour as a thickener.
I recently read a book that helped me see how our experiences are not isolated incidents, but are baked into the very way conventional medicine is designed and operates. It’s called Doing Harm, by Maya Dusenberry.
She sadly exposes the systematic ways in which women are not treated equally in medicine. This truly is a women’s rights issue that needs to be addressed. Women need equal attention in medical research, chronic disease research, medical education, and more. If you’re curious about these issues, I highly recommend the book.
This week, I made a video for you sharing some of my “greatest hits” of patient stories, and sharing my top 5 tips for being an empowered advocate to get the medical care you deserve. You can check it out here.
Colon hydrotherapy can be an essential tool to help you overcome your digestive health troubles.
To help you understand this, here something a little personal: I never realized quite how important regular, daily detox was until I started struggling with constipation…
If you have the same, you understand that bloated, foggy, crabby feeling that I get when I haven’t had my daily poop.
Until I studied functional nutrition, I didn’t understand how essential this process is. The primary ways that toxins move out of your body include pooping, along with hydration to promote urination and kidney-excretion, and exercise to promote breathing and sweating.
And regular release of toxins is essential for good health.
However, those of us with chronic health challenges often have impaired detox function and need some additional support.
This week, I’m sharing an interview with Arcata, CA colon hydrotherapist Ashton Wiesner, who owns the Vital Flow Cleansing Center, about colon hydrotherapy, and how it can support your detox process.
You might think that colon hydrotherapy isn’t for you, or you may feel a little squeamish about it…I hope that our interview helps clear away some of your worries about it, satisfies your curiosity about what it’s like to get a session, and helps you understand how it can help you with your healing process.
Can I help you? If you are struggling with digestive or food sensitivity issues and you’re confused and aren’t sure how to move forward, I invite you to schedule a free, 30-minute assessment session with me. I’ll help you clarify your next steps, and let you know if I think I can help you. You can schedule that here.
Many people use acid-blocking medication to address symptoms of heartburn, acid reflux, and stomach burning. But so often, these symptoms are actually caused by too little stomach acid. Surprising, right?!
Indicators that you may need to increase your stomach acid include:
Constipation (stomach acid helps keep your intestines moving)
Low Vitamin B12 or Iron (stomach acid is necessary for your body to absorb B12 and Iron)
Gut dysbiosis or infections (stomach acid helps make your gut environment unfriendly to infections
This week, I made a video for you, explaining how to increase your stomach acid to reduce symptoms and improve your digestive health.
