7 Tips to Heal Your Digestion Naturally
KATRINA LOVE SENN
Did you know that the health of your digestive system is crucial to your overall health and wellbeing?
One reason for this is that around 80% of your immune system is located in your gut. If digestive disorders are left unaddressed, they can manifest into chronic health conditions.
Just a few days before my 20th birthday, stressed, tired and overweight, my body burnt out and completely broke down. I decided not to take experimental medication, as suggested by my Doctors and instead was intuitively guided to go on my own healing journey. I worked with a naturopath who helped me to understand that my body, along with my digestion had become totally out of balance.
In our modern day world, almost everyone suffers from compromised gut flora. When your digestive system is off, you might suffer from some type of digestive disorder such as irritable bowel syndrome, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, heartburn, reflux or gas.
Here are 7 healing tips to help you bring yourself back to balance naturally…
Healing Tip #1. Reset With A Detox
Doing a detox is a great way to reset your entire digestive system. When you detox, you eat lightly and let your body focus on healing you from within.
One of my favorite ways to detox is with extra herbs, such as Dandelion or Milk Thistle. In addition to this, eat nourishing soups, soup broths, salads and freshly squeezed juices.
Include aloe vera juice in your detox as it has amazing detoxifying properties. When taken internally it can powerfully help to detoxify the body and soothe internal inflammation of the digestive lining.
It’s important to know that your body is naturally detoxifying toxicity from your body all the time, but doing a short detox gives your body the chance to release excess toxicity that has been absorbed from processed foods, heavy metals, environmental toxins and emotional toxicity.
IBS, eczema, exhaustion, low energy, apathy, asthma and food allergies, may be symptoms of excess toxicity.
Healing Tip #2. Focus On Eating Real Foods
Eat a diet focused on real, whole foods (aim for 80% real foods). Real foods are foods that are recognized by your body and can be broken down easily and naturally. These foods come from nature and are made by nature.
At the same time, avoid fake foods. This includes branded, processed and fast foods, as these kinds of foods are made in a laboratory and sold with huge marketing budgets.
Fake foods are extremely toxic to your digestive system as they are high in refined salt, sugar and oils. Your body does not recognize fake foods and cannot digest them properly.
Healing Tip #3. Reduce Chronic Stress
Chronic stress has the ability to interfere with your digestive system and your digestive process. Consider taking a supplement of therapeutic strength Magnesium, Vitamin B and Zinc.
To reduce stress, know that your body likes regular, predictable patterns during your day. Aim to be in bed by 10 pm (or earlier!) each night, and eat at regular times. If this feels overwhelming from where you are today, take baby steps towards your goal each week.
There are many ways to reduce stress and you just have to find a way that works for you. Try guided meditation, deep breathing, gentle yoga, walking, sleeping regularly, dancing, playing music, or just consciously taking time each day to relax.
Healing Tip #4 Eat Fermented Foods
Eating fermented foods is one of nature’s great healing secrets. The greater the variety of fermented and cultured foods you can include in your diet, the better. Each type of fermented foods have the power to inoculate your gut with a variety of different healthy microorganisms. Eating fermented foods will start to regenerate your gut flora naturally.
Fermented foods are high in ‘good bacteria.’ You only need to eat a small amount of fermented vegetables or cultured foods per day. Try eating sauerkraut, kefir yoghurt, fermented vegetables, kimchi, kefir coconut drink or kombucha (a fizzy drink).
If you have a severe gut disorder, slowly work your way up to consuming broth with small amounts of fermented foods. Give your gut time for your internal environment to change and for your digestive system to become stronger and healthier.
Healing Tip #5. Reduce Intestinal Inflammation
When you are having digestive disorders you need to reduce inflammation. The amino acid, L-Glutamine can help your digestive system to heal. Glutamine is one of the most important nutrients that you can give to your body as it supports the repair and regeneration of the intestinal lining in your body.
Dietary sources of L-glutamine include beef, chicken, fish, eggs, milk, dairy products, cabbage, beets, beans, spinach, and parsley. Small amounts of L-glutamine are also found in vegetable juices.
Probiotics are easily available as dietary supplements, which can be found in your local health food shop. Make sure you take a therapeutic dose. This would be approximately 3-20 billion live culture to ensure that you get effective results and change the health of your gut.
Healing Tip #6. Listen To Your Body
Your body is unique and different, so what's right for others, may not be right for you.
Learn how to listen to your body so that you can eat interpret the language it speaks and give it what it needs so that you can experience create vibrant health.
Let go of dieting dogma and popular food trends. Instead, learn how to love and befriend your own body, so that you understand the language your body speaks, and can know what it wants, as well as what isn’t!
Healing Tip #7. Work With A Healing Guide
Over time, you want to become the expert on your own body because, no-one knows your body better than you!
However, when you first start on your healing journey you might find it extremely helpful to work with someone who can help and guide you on your healing path.
Working with someone who has achieved the results you want to achieve can help you navigate the confusing amount of information that is available on health, mitigating procrastination and overwhelm.
A healer (or other health professional) will be able to help you shortcut the process of healing, so that you can gain optimum results quickly and effectively.
You Can Heal Yourself From Within. Take the time to listen to your body and use these 7 healing tips to naturally rebalance your body and heal your digestive system.
If you haven’t already, join our free global challenge at www.GetOffTheGluten.com to receive daily recipes & health tips, access to our private group for support and inspiration, plus before and after testing to track your progress in key areas of your life such as weight, sleep, bloating, skin-conditions, mental health and more!
Katrina Love Senn is a retreat leader, healer, and author of two books, 'Losing Weight is a Healing Journey' and 'Heal Emotional Eating For Good'. She set up Ubud Weight Loss in Bali to teach her signature 21 Day Weight Loss Retreat' program in Ubud, Bali. Her work is based upon her own weight loss healing journey where she lost over 60 pounds naturally. She also healed a number of chronic health ailments, including asthma, eczema and adrenal exhaustion.