Gut Health

gut health

Digestion is the least founded part of the study of human physiology. While we walk around pretending that it’s straightforward and science has it all figured out, it remains the most enigmatic element of how our bodies operate. Unlike certain illnesses, where I can tell you that in a few decades, research will most likely make the discoveries it needs to make—discoveries of some of the information that’s in this book—gut health is another story. Its secret workings may never be uncovered by medical communities on this earth—no matter what theory or terminology they use to make it seem understood at an advanced level. Your gut is one of the key foundations of your health, because you can consume important healing foods as tools.

That makes caring for your digestive system the perfect place to start your journey of healing from the inside out. Your gut includes the stomach, small intestine, large intestine (which includes the colon), liver, and gallbladder. The gut is responsible for ensuring that you absorb the nutrients of the food you eat, properly expel waste and toxins, and maintain a strong immune system through assimilating immune-building compounds from certain foods. Yet not only is it critical for these everyday functions, your gut also holds a life force of its own. Food does not digest just from the physical process of food breakdown (a process scientific study hasn’t fully pieced together); there are also critical spiritual and metaphysical factors involved in digestion.

That’s why enlightened beings on the planet employ eating techniques such as slow and thorough chewing; mindful, present eating; prayer before, during, or after meals; and becoming one with your food. Imagine a river flowing inside your colon. Deep in the riverbed (the colon’s lining), thousands of different strains of bacteria and microorganisms are there to maintain a homeostatic balance so that the river water doesn’t become toxic (i.e., so the gut doesn’t become septic and poisonous). Just as a river has a spirit, the gut harbors much of the human spirit, too. That spirit is your essence of self, your will, and your intuition. Have you ever heard the term gut instinct? Or gut reaction or gut feeling? Then there’s “What does your gut tell you to do?” and

“What are you, gutless?” and “I felt gutted.” There’s “I just about busted a gut,” “I hate his guts,” “I ran my guts out,” and “You’ve really got guts.” How many gut-related idioms are out there? It’s because we understand on some level just what an integral role it plays in our lives, far beyond physicality. We understand that it’s part of the core foundation of who we are emotionally and intuitively.

Your gut is where some of your strength is. It has emotional pores, and because of this, certain emotions can have an effect on whether your digestive system functions in peace or turmoil. This is why certain stressful situations can worsen acid reflux or trigger stomach spasms. Poor gut health can keep someone busy with stomach and intestinal tract symptoms, not allowing them to be at peace enough to explore their intuitive abilities. People are kind of like apples. You can have a shiny, perfect-looking apple that has a rotten core.

That’s like when someone’s gut is spawning a lot of harmful bacteria, and maybe she or he has an immoral character, but you’d never guess from appearance. You can also have an apple with imperfections on the outside, yet on the inside it may have the most solid, healthy core you can find. Such a salt-of-the-earth, decent person may not have a happy resting face, or may not dress in vogue or seem like much fun on the surface, yet may possess a gut filled with good bacteria. People can have anywhere from 75 to 125 trillion microorganisms residing in the gut. This can comprise bacteria (good, neutral, and bad), microbes, mold, yeast, fungus (both beneficial and nonbeneficial), mycotoxins from different varieties of fungus and mold, worms, and viruses. If not properly dealt with, pathogens in the gut can alter and block your natural instincts and create a breeding ground for an unlimited variety of illnesses—unless you know how to take control.

UNDERSTANDING LEAKY GUT SYNDROME

One very confusing condition in medicine is leaky gut syndrome, also called intestinal permeability. The names themselves are perplexing; they’re terms that different medical communities use todescribe different conditions and theories. When it comes down to it, there are three sides to the leaky gut syndrome story. Let’s look at the first side: the conventional medical community’s understanding.

Most conventional doctors and surgeons use the term leaky gut for a critical intestinal disease that perforates the lining of the intestinal tract or stomach and causes severe blood infections, raging fevers, and/or sepsis. They have that right. True leaky gut is a very serious ailment that causes extreme pain and misery. True leaky gut could stem from ulcers embedded deep in the stomach lining. Or it could result from bacterial strains of E. coli developing pockets in the intestinal tract lining; or superbugs like C. difficile causing megacolon; or from hemorrhaging, abscesses, or diverticulosis.

The name leaky gut can be properly applied when one of these conditions breaks through the lining of the gastrointestinal tract and allows the pathogens and intestinal matter to leach into the bloodstream. Another way that true leaky gut can occur is when a colonoscopy goes wrong and punctures the colon. (People have come to me who had very long hospital stays due to this.)

There is an explanation for these mystery gut problems that aren’t actual leaky gut. I call it ammonia permeability...

To comprehend what it is, you must first learn a few things about how your body processes food. When you eat, the food quickly travels down to your stomach so it can be digested. (If you’re chewing slowly enough for saliva to mix with the food, digestion will begin its initial stage in the mouth.) For dense protein-based foods—e.g., animal meat, nuts and seeds, and legumes—digestion in the stomach largely occurs through the action of your stomach’s hydrochloric acid coupled with enzymes, which break the protein down into simpler forms that can then be further digested and assimilated by your intestines.

This is a relatively smooth process if your stomach contains normal levels of hydrochloric acid. If your hydrochloric acid levels have become low, however, your food won’t be sufficiently digested in your stomach. This is common when you’re eating under stress or pressure. When the proteins reach your lower intestine, they won’t be broken down enough for your cells to access their nutrients, and instead the food will just lie there and rot. This is called gut rot—putrefaction that creates ammonia gas and can result in symptoms of bloating, digestive discomfort, chronic dehydration, or oftentimes no symptoms at all. That’s just the start.

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