HEALING YOURSELF – ARE YOU CONFUSED WHERE TO START?

The bacteria in our gut are a hot topic at present and this post will hopefully help you to understand why!

It’s quite ironic for me to be writing about this topic as I can remember being fresh out of my pharmacy degree (and thinking I knew everything) and on a mission to improve by skin (namely eczema and pimples). At a loss with pharmaceuticals I travelled three hours to see a naturopath who endeavoured to tell me in order to fix my skin I should work on healing my gut.

I remember thinking “Oh my god, I’ve wasted another few hundred dollars on this quack.” But burnt out and desperate I took her advice and ended up with a very expensive cocktail of potions. After six months with no improvements I threw them all out.

I now know that her intention with healing my gut was 100% accurate but her suggested execution was all wrong. No pill, potion or combination of both will magically fix you. It might mask your symptom or marginally improve your current situation or in my case it might do jack all but eventually you will end up right back at square one or worse off!

So before I tell you how I healed my gut and fixed my skin without pills, creams or any magic bullets let’s see what this gut business is all about.

Hippocrates over 2000 years ago said, “All disease begins in the gut – “

So this got me thinking, was he a quack too or is there more to this gut thing?

Did you know?

• The gut contains over 100,000,000,000,000 (one hundred trillion) microorganisms? And together those microbes have 100 times more genes than the human genome. Therefore, we are actually more microbe than human. Pretty crazy huh? So common sense would say that these microorganisms are somewhat important and have a pretty big job.

• The gut acts as a gatekeeper. What does this mean? Well like a “good” gatekeeper it is designed to keep certain things from getting through the gate.

• We need healthy and diverse microbiota so they can; break down harmful components that we ingest, synthesise vitamins and aid absorption of minerals like iron, calcium and magnesium. Gut microbes determine how we process and what we get from the food we eat. So ultimately it pays to keep them healthy.

• The gut is home to 70% of our immune tissue, so simply if our gut is sick we get sick!

• The microbes in our gut are responsible for hormone conversion and production. So you want your little guys to be functioning well!

So what can go wrong with this enormously important ecosystem within us?

• Well when the gatekeeper gets sloppy, he starts letting the riffraff in. The riffraff is in the form of large protein molecules and the process of this sloppiness is otherwise referred to as increased intestinal barrier permeability or “Leaky Gut”. Since the large proteins were never meant to get in the body sees them as foreign invaders and mounts an immune response to attack them. Studies show that these immune responses to foreign protein molecules is at the heart of all autoimmune diseases, like Hashimoto thyroiditis and Celiac disease.

• When your immune system is so busy attacking these foreign invaders it has nothing left to fend off actual harmful viruses, bacteria and parasites and therefore you get sick more often. You also become prone to food allergies and end up in a state of chronic inflammation.

• But that’s not all, if we can remember Hippocrates wise words, that all disease begins in the gut, intestinal permeability may also present as skin conditions like eczema, acne, anxiety and depression, fatigue, joint pain, allergies, abdominal pain, gas and bloating, poor immune function and difficulty concentrating.

And guess what makes the Gatekeeper sloppy? Societies most commonly exposed to commodities and stress, yep it’s that word again!

• A diet high in refined flours, sugars and vegetable oils
• Alcohol
• Medications like antibiotics, NSAIDS, proton pump inhibitors
• Environmental toxins like BPA
• Chronic stress

Although I did not knowingly set out to improve my skin this way, the progressive steps I were making were in fact healing my gut and overall systemic inflammation and in turn my skin. So here it is – I am the quack telling you, you need to fix your gut if you want clear, glowing skin. No pills, no creams, no extra costs!

Here is where to start

1/ MANAGE STRESS. The most important thing that everyone talks about and no one does. Chronic stress can lead to bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine (these little guys should be predominantly in the large intestine), inflammation and intestinal permeability.

I could write a whole blog, god a whole book, on the ways stress wreaks absolutely havoc on health. Dealing with it, is the hardest thing to get people to do. And there are multiple steps. One of the biggest bang for your buck is meditation. Stay with me, I can feel you raising your eyebrows.

Like most things that are uncomfortable it takes practice before it feels normal. But once you start feeling the benefits it makes you want to keep going, kind of like exercise and yoga . I listen to Melissa Ambrosini’s guided meditations on my iPhone. I usually do this at the beach. It is 12 minutes of listening to calming noises and her voice. It heavily focusses on breathing, shutting out all the external thoughts, and just listing to her positiveness. The benefits of meditation are plentiful from improving productivity and focus, improving sleep, reducing blood pressure, reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression and more.

2/ REMOVE FOODS THAT WREAK HAVOC IN YOUR GUT. The big three – refined sugar, grains and vegetables oils. As I have mentioned before, trust me that you are eating them you just don’t know about it. They are in every packaged food, in every restaurant or eatery and in particular in your “healthy” breakfast muesli. You will need to be willing to make a lifestyle shift to a more whole foods primal way of living if you want to get serious about removing these.

3/ EAT MORE FERMENTED FOODS. These are the superior and cheapest probiotics. Fermented foods are hard to find in our area so you will probably have to make them yourself. Which is actually really fun and rewarding. This includes and is not limited to – kefir, sauerkraut, kombucha and beet kvass to name a few. Kefir is by far the easiest and simplest (watch video here).

4/ EAT MICROBIOTA ACCESSIBLE CARBOHYDRATES: This feeds your gut bacteria. Its one thing to introduce them but we also need to make sure they stay. Eg. potato, boiled and cooled white rice.

5/ CONSUME BONE BROTH. It is rich in glycine and gelatin both of which are helpful at restoring the integrity of the gut barrier. I consume at least half to one cup a day. To start brewing your own, here is a recipe I created.

6/ REMOVE THE TOXINS ON YOUR SKIN. If you are anything like me I was cleansing, toning, moisturising, priming, one coat of foundation second coat of powder and wait where is the bronzer, ok, finally ready to leave the house. Jesus how exhausting. Not to mention the amount of rubbish I was putting onto and into my body. And that was just my face. I have to admit that the removal of these things was harder than I expected – I had many ugly days and days where I felt very naked. Luckily I have an extraordinary partner to tell me how beautiful I am everyday so this definitely helped. The removal of all these products feels now more like freedom. I have more time to get on with my day, I actually feel more like myself and see my beauty from a different eye and ultimately my skin has dramatically improved. Probably because it can finally breath. And my bank account is better off.

A beautiful brand of skin care I have discovered is Annmarie Gianni Skin Care from the states that ship to Australia. Check their product range out if you are looking to convert to more natural ingredients.

7/ TAKE A HIGH QUALITY FERMENTED COD LIVER OIL. Fermented cod liver oil contains vitamins A, D and K2 in addition to EPA and DHA, and is important for cell growth and reducing overall inflammation. I like the Rosita brand.

So there you have it – no contraceptive pill, no antibiotics, no expensive creams, no laser surgery. Just all nat-ur-al! Things aren’t perfect but I’m confident I am fixing things from the inside out and for good.

Love Chantel

8 MOST IMPORTANT HEALTH LESSONS LEARNT SO FAR

I am here to share with you the most significant health related lessons I’ve discovered so far. I say so far as I am only 26 so in some ways I guess the significance is yet to be determined but in other ways I feel really lucky that I have found out these lessons so early on. Hence why I want to share with you all. So what exactly have I learnt after being at university for 4 years, working with health professionals and being introduced to a world of fitness and nutrition? Well quite a lot – I started out with 10 points however by the time I had written the first three I realised that this was going to be a BIG one. So I settled for eight.

1. The “experts” are not always experts

I find this statement sad but true most of the time. We place a huge amount of trust and confidence in people practising a professional service be it a doctor, a pharmacist, personal trainer, dietician or naturopath. We usually go to these people with the confidence they have more knowledge than ourselves and wikipaedia and that they can fix us. But don’t be fooled; just because someone has a title and a profession it doesn’t give them the ability to know more about you than YOU. Trust what you feel and seek answers. But be educated and equipped to identify the good from the bad. Like any profession, a degree does not define the persons entire ability and expertise. There is a spectrum of poor, average and excellent in each field. If you are lucky enough to find excellence, expect results. Don’t settle for poor, no results misinformation. Remember why you went there in the first place. And for the “experts”, myself included, we are in a position of power. People come to us for advice or a service in an attempt to improve their current state. This takes courage. And we have a huge responsibility to deliver current and results based information and services. This is only achieved through continued education and a genuine interest in your field and an acknowledgment that every client and every situation is unique. What a gratifying, rewarding job we have!!!

2. Evidence and studies do not over power living results

Evidence and studies can be flawed. Companies who have a vested interest in the results can manipulate what information makes it into the headlines. Take for example this Ancel Key fellow that found some population groups who ate a diet high in saturated fat had more heart disease. However he forgot to include the other populations that actually ate saturated fat and had better overall health. Decades later and we are still demonising saturated fat based on some pretty flawed studies and so called evidence. Its the promotion and careful selection of evidence and studies presented to the general population by certain bureaucracies that has largely contributed to our overall poor health.

The best example I can think of is this guy….. Mark Sisson… Look at his body below.

If you don’t know this man look him up he has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Would you say this man is at risk of heart disease, diabetes, is suffering from arthritis or any other “old age” symptoms. Well what if I tell you he is 60, he is eating loads of saturated fat, loads of eggs (high in cholesterol), he doesn’t eat grains, vegetables oils or refined sugars. He enjoys sprinting on the beach, lifting some weights and paddle boarding and tight rope walking. Pain and medication free at 60- this is an absolute rarity!

The physical evidence of this man standing before me is enough for me to want to read his blog and listen to what he has to say about health. Does he look like he is at risk of dying of a heart attack?

The medical world is completely controlled and driven by studies, which of course I get, but maybe they need to consider the whole picture and revisit some of the evidence that now have new, better designed studies. Saturated fat does not lead to heart disease- this theory has been disproven. But what about the living results? The evidence that half of all heart attack patients actually have below normal cholesterol levels or that cholesterol is actually sent to repair damage in vessels walls but at times there is so much oxidation and inflammation presents (due to refined carbs and “heart healthy” vegetable oils) that it cant do its jobs and gets wrongly accused of clogging up the arteries. And that cholesterol is synthesised in the body as a natural process dependent on our intake, thats is, if you don’t eat enough our body produces more . Do you honestly think that our body would produce something that would kill us?
 

3. Education is never ending and ever changing

As I mentioned above there is a huge importance on committing to a continuous, life long journey of self education if you want to stay at the top of your field and healthy. There is so much information available and accessible on the internet. I think the secret is to find a few people you believe in and trust and follow their sites otherwise things can get really overwhelming and confusing.

The problem with nutrition and healthy eating is there is very little or no education given to you during school or university (pharmacy degree/medicine degree). So unless you have a reason to start educating yourself most people have NO idea what good nutrition is.

I felt quite betrayed when I realised that a lot of what I had been told, been taught had practised was not entirely true or wrong. I still do feel this.

Our current health crisis will not improve until bigger corporations are willing to admit that they got their nutritional advice wrong.
Thankfully people like you and me don’t need to wait for this – we can admit to ourselves when we are wrong and continue to educate ourselves and make our own changes to achieve overall health.

4. Food is the most powerful and inexpensive medicine

I never thought to look at my food and consider that it could be causing my rash, my pimples, my moodiness, my cellulite, my diarrhoea, my tiredness. I spent hundreds of dollars trying to address these things not even knowing the influence food can have on our bodies. Thank god I found out or I could be seriously broke and still fat and ugly (kidding I wasn’t so bad). I am not alone with this story.

The theme behind, “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away,” may need to be given more weight and maybe a revamp, maybe we could consider “a cup of bone broth, keeps the doctor away.”

The point is, I like many didn’t even consider the fact that the food I was eating could cause or contribute to so many health issues. People today still look to medicine and supplements before addressing nutrition problems.

Why is this? Lack of education? People like an easy option? People have been mislead? A combination of all of these factors I think. I feel the role of the dietician or nutritionist is going to be BIG in the not to distant future as people are beginning to seek more answers as frustrations build with the lack of result in current treatments.

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine; instead he will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, nutrition and the cause and prevention of disease.”

Hmmm, wouldn’t that be a nice prescription.

5. The sun is not the devil we make it out to be

I don’t know about you but there is something unique about feeling the suns rays shine through you that is energising and soothing for one’s soul (most of my blogs are written when I’m outside feeling energised from nature). A morning walk along the beach with fresh ocean breeze and sunshine is definitely a big part of what people are missing in their quest for health and happiness.

The campaigning of slip, slop, slap in Australia along with the busy nature of our society has meant our time spent in the sun is almost non existent. And much to our healths detriment. We are now a nation that is experiencing vitamin D deficiencies, which in itself is a precursor for a host of medical conditions and higher rates of cancers.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not promoting you lie out in the sun for hours until you look like a prune or a tomato as I’m sure you would all agree that this doesn’t look or feel healthy.  

But yes I am promoting some healthy sun exposure. And by healthy I mean choose the times of the day that are less intense, like early morning or late afternoons and a duration that doesn’t expose yourself to visible UV damage.

6. Sacrifice is hard but worth it

In this context when I am referring to sacrifice, I’m not referring to sacrificing your bread or pasta (although I acknowledge that this is hard and job well done for doing this) I’m talking about making sacrifices for a healthier more enjoyable life.

For some this may mean leaving an unfulfilled relationship or a meaningless job and for others it could be up and leaving all that is familiar for greener pastures. Whatever the situation, when the driving force for the decision centres around following your heart, your health is bound to be thankful.

Too often people stay in unhealthy environments out of fear of what well come of their decision. I’m confident that if this is you, making the sacrifice to leave what is familiar and comfortable for something that “just feels right” will be worth it.

7. Stress will kill you

If you think this is a exaggerated title then think again. Because chronic stress can lead to adrenal fatigue and this is not a fun place to be in and unless you can turn it around this can kill you.

Life itself is such a beautiful gift. Living it seems to be the problem. We all have responsibilities in our lives be it work, money, relationships, family. These responsibilities will influence us negatively or positively. For some it might be the daily worry of not having enough money to pay the phone bill and for others it may be facing up to work everyday doing something that you hate. I get that there are so many different situations that challenge and pressure people everyday. So you need to have some coping mechanisms to deal with stress:

Recognise what is causing it, then make the steps to eliminate it day by day.

Take time out to do something that you enjoy or that relaxes you. Be kind to yourself there is so much pressure out there, so you deserve a 40 minute massage/walk/coffee break.

Be nice to people especially your loved ones (you might find they will be nicer back to you)
Be grateful for what you have, there are always situations worse than yours.
Don’t take everything so seriously…
So unless you plan on escaping to a beautiful tropical island where work and traffic are not a part of the vocabulary, I suggest you get a coping strategy in place for managing your stress. This is so important for your health.
Last but not least…

8. Love conquers all… oh and is good for our health

What does love have to do with health you ask?
Love is hard to find.. Love makes you do things you didn’t believe you could. Love reveals the real you. And love fills your heart so big you want to be the best you, you can be.
So don’t give up on it, its out there and worth waiting for.

With love
Your Chantel