Digestion Woes? We Have Relief.

a Healthy Digestive Tract Means a Healthier You! As the leaves on our beautiful maple trees start to darken and we embrace the new season of pumpkin spice lattes, cozy sweaters and leaf-filled streets, the beginning of Fall is upon us; A season of transformation, warming foods, back to school and shorter days! I always find September a great time to gently detoxify the summer months away and step two feet into a healthy routine filled with vitamin-rich root vegetables, warming bone broths, and collagen apple spiced ciders, a combination of gut healing superfoods for your optimal health! 1) Immunity: 80% of our immune system resides in our digestive tract! Optimal digestive health is key to keeping those common colds and nasty flu bugs away during the fall and winter months. Back to school always seems to bring in viruses and unwanted illness’s the first few months, so ensuring that you and your kids have good digestive health is a great preventative measure! I always like to recommend everyone in the family to take a probiotic daily to keep up our good bacteria and help boost our immune system during those fall months. Organika currently carries probiotic supplements: Active Acidophilus and Super Active Multi-Dophilus. Both promote healthy gut flora. 2) Mental Health: Have you heard of the gut-brain connection? Well, it is true, your gut health plays a huge role in your moods, sleep, and even brain function! 70-80% of our serotonin is created in our digestive tract which is our “happy hormone”. If we have a sluggish gastrointestinal tract or suffer from a leaky gut, you can experience anxiety and depression – widespread in the darker months. When we have healthy gut flora, we experience happier moods, better sleep and find we are more alert and can concentrate more. 3) Nutrient Absorption: One of the most important jobs of the digestive tract is nutrient absorption! It is through our intestinal walls we receive the nutrients from all the healthy foods we eat, vitamins and minerals included. If our digestive tract is compromised and unhealthy, we won’t be getting those essential nutrients for optimal health and can potentially lead to imbalances, deficiencies and even illness. Our digestive tract houses good healthy bacteria to fight off viruses, harmful bacteria and inflammation. The food choices we ingest, supplements we consume all play a huge role in the health of our digestive tract. To put it just, if you have an unhealthy digestive tract, you won’t be getting the benefits of a healthy diet. When we think of a healthy digestive tract, there are few essentials I like to ensure I incorporate daily. To start, I always make sure I eat a diet rich in both soluble/insoluble fibre, whole and organic foods, probiotic-rich foods as well as probiotics themselves daily. I also like to ensure that I use collagen and bone broth daily – both digestive health superfoods rich in amino acids known to heal and protect the intestinal wall, decrease inflammation and improve our overall health. If you suffer from gastrointestinal disturbances, gelatin is an excellent digestive superfood to help soothe, heal and support the health of your digestive tract. Try Organika's Bovine Gelatin! A combination of these healthy tips above can contribute to the health of your digestive tract and overall health. Learn more about what probiotics are and how consuming them benefits our digestive tract in our blog, The Dirt on Healthy Bacteria: Why Probiotics are Nature's Antibiotics. -RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS- Active Acidophilus Super Active Multi-Dophilus Bovine Gelatin Probiotic that forms part of a natural, healthy gut flora. A comprehensive blend of probiotics that promote healthy microbial balance and supports the function of the digestive tract. Organika’s® Bovine Gelatin Powder is non-GMO, gluten free, dairy free, keto/paleo friendly, and sourced from grass-fed cows. – Chelan Wilkins, RHN – National Education Trainer

You have literally trillions of bacteria living in your gut, but you know what? When it comes to the gut microbiome, more is more. Bacteria are essential to your gut health, period. They help break up and digest food, maintain overall gut health and support the immune system, too. The more good bacteria hanging out in your intestines, the less room there is for harmful bacteria that can cause discomfort. What are probiotics and why are they important? That’s where probiotics come in: they’re food or supplements that contain the types of bacteria you want on your team! Some of the most common ones are called Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, but there are many different species and strains of probiotics, with different effects on human health. Some of the more well-researched benefits of taking probiotics include: Improving mild gut disorder symptoms Relieving gas and bloating Promoting balance in the gut microbiome Aiding the growth of beneficial bacteria after using antibiotics What are prebiotics and what do they do? Yes, you read right: there are prebiotics too. And what a difference does one letter make! Prebiotics are types of fibre that our body isn't able to digest. Instead, they serve as fuel for probiotic bacteria. They boast health benefits such as balancing blood sugar levels and aiding in the absorption of bone-strengthening minerals. Chicory root, garlic, leafy greens, legumes and bananas are all great dietary sources of prebiotics. Probiotics + prebiotics = ? Have you done the mental math yet? If so, you may have noticed that it’s a great idea to take probiotics and prebiotics together! Supplements that combine both are known as synbiotics. Combined, probiotics and prebiotics encourage the growth and survival of the probiotic bacteria you’re taking in. This maximizes the health benefits you would receive from taking probiotics or prebiotics alone. Other than the gut health benefits provided by probiotics discussed earlier, taking a synbiotic supplement can help with: Immunity: a balanced gut microbiome is an important element in ensuring your immunity is in working order, helping condition the immune system to different types of bacteria. Synbiotics seem to also help reduce intestinal and overall inflammation, according to a few animal studies. Heart health: Synbiotics may have an effect on how our body metabolizes fats, with potential benefits in controlling cholesterol levels. Making sure to include probiotic and prebiotic foods in your diet is a great way to keep your gut microbiome happy and balanced. If you need a helping hand (or millions of tiny ones!), consider a synbiotic supplement, like Organika’s Probiotic + Prebiotic powder, for an easy daily boost to your gut health! For a probiotic that can help you out with bacteria-caused infections, check out our new Probiotic + Cranberry!

Gut health is an absolutely essential component of total body health. We cannot have regulated moods, well-functioning brains, resilient immune systems, balanced hormones or optimal fertility without a healthy gut. So how do we ensure gut health? STEP 1: REMOVE The first step to a healthy gut is to remove anything that is irritating the gut, impairing digestive function, or causing inflammation. Those factors all make it harder for the body to break down the food we eat and absorb nutrients. If this impairment is severe, and/or ongoing, it can result in malabsorption, nutrient deficiencies, dysbiosis and all sorts of digestive symptoms like gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, indigestion, etc. Some things are universally irritating to human digestive tracts, such as: Alcohol; caffeine (especially coffee); NSAIDs (ibuprofen, naproxen); additives and preservatives found in processed foods. Most people should ideally be consuming these things only occasionally and in moderation. However, if you are experiencing significant issues with your gut, you may benefit from cutting these things out entirely for a period of time. Individuals may also be irritated, inflamed or impaired by other things. This is largely dependent on an individual’s particular sensitivities and digestive capacity. People with weakened or damaged digestive systems commonly react to, or have trouble digesting gluten-containing foods, dairy, refined sugars, legumes and even some gluten-free grains. As with the universally irritating things, most people would benefit from consuming these foods only in moderation. Some people may benefit from avoiding them entirely, while they are healing their gut. Any type of gut infection (bacterial, parasitic, fungal) can also cause significant damage to the digestive tract and digestive function. Infections must be addressed and treated first, prior to healing the gut. STEP 2: REPLACE Once the substances causing irritating and inflammation have been eliminated, the next step is to provide the digestive system with anything it is missing that is necessary for digestion and general health. Difficulty digesting animal protein and legumes may be an indication of low stomach acid. Bitter foods, bitter herbs and/or a betaine HCl supplement can support the body’s production of stomach acid. A generally weakened or inflamed digestive system may have trouble digesting most foods, especially those that are high in fibre like vegetables and legumes or grains, and so may benefit from some digestive assistance via a digestive enzyme supplement. Both of these support methods can be really helpful, but are insufficient to correct the problem on their own, and shouldn’t be taken long term. It’s important to make sure they are just one component of a gut healing treatment plan! Individuals who have been experiencing chronic digestive issues may also have specific nutrient deficiencies; some of the most common ones are vitamin D, iron, vitamin B12, and magnesium. It’s always important to get these things checked, and corrected if necessary. STEP 3: REINOCULATE If you’ve been on the internet in the past decade, you’ve probably at least heard of the gut flora. The gut flora are the trillions of bacteria that live in our large intestines and help us to digest food, absorb nutrients, metabolize toxins and hormones, maintain a strong immune system, and build many of our neurotransmitters. Without a healthy gut flora, we aren’t healthy, period. Antibiotics, stress and improper digestive function can damage that community of good bacteria. So the next step in ensuring a healthy gut is to make sure the right bacteria are making the large intestine their home. There are three main things to consider when it comes to the gut flora. Probiotic foods These are foods that naturally contain healthy, good bacteria and can be used to repopulate or rebalance the gut flora. Probiotic foods include: kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, anything else fermented. They are great to consume regularly in your diet, to keep your gut flora happy and healthy. Probiotic supplements While probiotic foods are a great source of good bacteria, probiotic supplements provide much higher doses of good bacteria. This is often necessary to help folks whose gut flora have been damaged. Choose a good quality probiotic supplement that has multiple different strains, and be sure to take it daily with food, for the duration of your gut-healing plan, as directed by your clinician. Prebiotic foods and supplements And lastly, it’s vital to ensure that you are providing all those good bacteria with the nutrients they need to stay alive in your gut. Prebiotics are a category of fibre that human digestive systems can’t break down, but that our gut flora can use as fuel. Ensuring you have a good amount of prebiotic foods in your diet is necessary to maintain your gut health, and supplementing with a prebiotic fibre can be useful when trying to correct dysbiosis and repair the gut. STEP 4: REPAIR We’ve now removed all the irritants, replaced all the missing nutrients, and repopulated the community of good bacteria. The next step in gut healing is to repair any damage that may be present in the gut tissue itself. In some individuals who have been experiencing inflammation, indigestion and dysbiosis for long periods of time, physical damage to the intestinal walls may have occurred. This can weaken the integrity of the intestinal barrier and allow for food particles (and hormones, toxins and other molecules) that shouldn’t be able to leave the intestines and enter into the body to do so. (This is often what’s happening in individuals who are experiencing “leaky gut”.) In addition to allowing inappropriate molecules into the body, the damaged intestinal membranes can also further exacerbate digestion issues. That is because those membranes produce a large number of our digestive enzymes. Collagen and L-glutamine are two of the key molecules used by the body in repair of a damaged intestinal lining. Soothing herbs like marshmallow root and aloe vera can help to alleviate some of the irritation. Vitamins A, C, E, Selenium and Zinc are also often used to support the repair of a damaged intestinal lining, as these are some of the most vital nutrients necessary for tissue healing. STEP 5: REBALANCE The last, but arguably most important component of a healthy gut is a healthy brain. The gut and the brain are intimately connected. When your brain is chronically overworked, stressed, anxious or fatigued, your digestive capacity diminishes. When an individual lives in any of those states ongoing, it essentially dials the activity of the digestive system way down. As a result, people often end up putting food into a digestive system that’s not ready to receive food. This causes indigestion, gas, bloating, dysbiosis and intestinal damage. Fatigue is another major factor to gut health. Sleep is when your body does the majority of healing and repair. Getting inadequate sleep is going to seriously reduce your body’s capacity to heal and maintain a healthy gut. Living in a perpetually fatigued state also drastically increases your stress levels. There is no tissue, organ or system in our body that can operate independently from the rest of the body, the digestive system included. So optimizing brain function and enabling your brain to keep your body in balance is a key component of gut health. The three most important factors to a healthy brain are: minimizing stress and optimizing stress coping mechanisms, exercising regularly, and getting adequate, good quality sleep. If you can get those three things solid and use them as the foundation to your gut-healing plan, your gut will be functioning optimally in no time.