I’ll get immediately to the “5 Surprising Steps” – Remove, Reseed, Restore, Release, and Reseal
Step 1) Remove
Remove these most harmful items from your diet and lifestyle:
- Remove wheat and other grains
- Remove commercial cows milk
- Remove Sugar
- Remove hydrogenated oils (soybean, canola, corn, vegetable..)
- Remove GMO foods
- Remove toxic chemicals, such aspartame, fluoride…etc
Step 2) Reseed:
- Give your body micro exposures of healthy bacteria, fungi and yeast.
- How? A soil based probiotic is a good start. Other suggestions include, getting outside, eating medicinal mushrooms such as shiitake and eating blue-green algae such as spirulina
- One of my favorite probiotics is P3-OM (Link to my blog post here)
Step 3) Restore:
- Restore by eating natural and organic fruits, vegetables, meat, and nuts – a diverse diet should leave to a diverse microbiome and a diverse microbiome is highly correlated to one’s health.
- Eat bone broth. The collagen and gelatin are critical gut-healing components that help repair and protect the gut from any future damage.
- Raw, cultured dairy. This includes kefir, raw cheese and yogurt, which contain substantial amount of Vitamin 12. But be careful as there is a major difference between store bought commercial cheese and yogurt and organic cultured dairy and fermented goat milk dairy, which boasts healthy fats and beneficial bacteria.
- Fermented vegetables. Such as Sauerkraut. Also kits like these from Body Ecology, help you ferment your own.
- Fermented beverages. E.g. Apple cider vinegar, kvass, and kombucha
- Coconut products. Cooking with coconut oil is highly preferred. For Kombucha or Kefir, Coconut water derived kefir is probably best as it doesn’t contain any lactose which can be difficult for many to digest – all that casein you know!
- Wild caught salmon (not farm raised) as it is high in omega-3s and which can reduce inflammation in the gut. Supposedly sock-eye salmon is the cleanest (but would still like to research this)
- Prebiotics. For SAT test fans, a good way to describe probiotics would be: Prebiotics are to probiotics as soil is to seeds. In other words probiotics will be useless without the appropriate environment. Just like you couldn’t grow sprout seeds without good soil, prebiotics provide the base for which probiotics can grow.
- Many fruits and vegetables contain an appropriate amount of probiotics. Especially foods such as, bananas, artichokes, apples, asparagus, avocados, and Brussel sprouts.
Step 4) RELEASE
This step may be the most difficult. Release stress as it is significantly detrimental to your gut and overall well-being. Dr Axe’s suggestions include:
- Massage, reflexology, doing something active that you like, taking a hike, run, swim.
- Have a warm glass of chamomile tea
- Read something uplifting (instead of zoning out of TV).
- Use essential oils for lavender, vetiver, roman chamomile, vanilla, orange, and ylang-ylang. Rub on body or use a defuser.
- Magnesium supplement especially at night – I personally a huge fan of
- Listen to music
- Go “forest bathing” – a short walk in the woods, taking deep breaths, consciously bringing the smell of the forest into your lungs and body with each breath.
- Not Mentioned by Dr. Axe- but I would definitely add – float tanks, meditation, and acupuncture to this list.
Step 5: RESEAL
- Constant maintenance: Avoid unnecessary medication, especially antibiotic, and NSAIDs !
- Use supplementation wisely: Probiotics – Dr. Axe is a huge proponent of prebiotics – Bulletproof’s prebiotic is a great choice..
- Digestive enzymes- look for full spectrum enzymes which would include protease, amylase, lipase, lactase – See my post of Massymes
- L-glutamine: helps thickens cell walls. The highest quality, most bio available is called l-alaynl-glutamine. [My notes: too much glutamine may be detrimental (link to mercola article) to the brain.
- Licorice: an adaptogen herb that aid the adrenals glands as well as other benefits.
- Collagen protein: can take as a supplement or found in a high concentration in bone broth. A protein that helps rebuild the intestinal walls, not to mention, provide the building blocks for healthy skin and nails.
- Frankincense: Studies have show that frankincense can help protect the tight junction in the intestines. Both the essential oil and the boswellia powder are acceptable. (An Essential Oil that includes both boswellia and Frankincense – here)
- Other supplements: Colostrum powder, slippery elm root, aloe vera juice, [link to dangers of too much aloe Vera] chamomile, MSM.
OTHER:
- Recommended tests: Organic acid test (OAT) to help determine any vitamin or mineral deficiencies.
- An IgG and IgE for any food sensitivities or allergies
- A stool test to understand balance of bad and good microbes in your gut. Viome still seems to be the best, but keep a look out for better competitors coming out soon.
- Reduce stress; work less; take time off, meditate…etc
Dr. Axe is also big on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and uses the 5 elements of TCM to determine 5 gut types: 1) candida gut, 2) stressed gut, 3) immune gut, 4) gastric gut, and 5) toxic gut.
Dr Axe’s website has a detailed questionnaire to determine your gut type.
He also includes a detailed list of homemade cleaning and hygiene products, and food recipes.
Other Other:
Don’t drink sparkling water or any type of liquid during your meals. It’s better to drink a little bit of still water before you eat and throughout the rest of the day.