Gut Restoration

Everything Starts in THE GUT!

Your gut microbiota supports a healthy immune system, metabolizes and synthesizes vitamins, supports healthy serotonin levels, protects our bodies from inflammation, plus tons of other stuff beyond helping us simply digest our food.

Did you know that the organisms living in our gut (collectively called the microbiota or microbiome) out number us 10 to 1? Crazy right? So, it is vitally important that our gut be healthy and our microbiome be balanced in the correct way.  When our gut microbiome isn’t happy, our body isn’t happy, nothing works properly and symptoms will occur and persist.  

Some common symptoms of an unbalanced gut microbiome: bloating, digestive issues, IBS, food sensitivities, itching skin, rashes, skin conditions, inflammation, headaches, chronic congestion, histamine issues, allergies, autoimmune issues, sugar cravings, anxiety, and depression.

There are many ways the gut can get out of balance. When the microbes in the gut are not properly balanced it can lead to dysbiosis. This imbalance can be caused by poor dietary habits, too many ultra-processed foods, high sugar intake, low fiber intake, antibiotics, birth control pills, medications, or stress, just to list a few of the many possible culprits.

When things are really out of balance, dysbiosis we can lead to what is called “Leaky Gut”.  This is way more common than you may think and is often at the root of many common symptoms happening to people today. Not familiar with leaky gut?

Watch this short video to learn more:

Restore your Gut health today!

We offer a multi-modality approach to restoring a healthy gut microbiome, which looks different for every person as everyone’s microbiome is totally uniquely. There is literally not a single other person on the planet with a microbiome exactly like yours. Let’s get it stronger and happy!

To restore a healthy gut we may look at food sensitives, lack of diversity in the diet, histamine issues, FODMAP issues, lack of fiber, and diversity in the microbiome as well as offer supplemental support to get you through to the other side where a healthy microbiome waits. We want you to be able to diversify your diet and enjoy food again… without the unwanted symptoms. Finding balance is key and we are all about adding foods in and not restricting or taking more of them out.

As we work with your specific gut issues and/or diet we can get people started with a great 3 step gut restoration program that can help to jump start your gut, get your microbiota back in shape and functioning properly for optimum health. This supplemental part of restoring the gut is typically done over a 3 to 4 month period. There may be a few other things we need to add like herbal formulas, fiber, etc., but this is the general program for supplements.

Of course we combo the supplements with adding in dietary diversity to help feed your microbes and strengthen the gut. However, this can sometimes be a slow process for some people if they have been severely restricting their foods for a while. Every food you eat is food for a different microbe. So in many cases, populations of specific microbes can be extremely low since the food some of them eat has been scarce. This means there may not be enough of the microbes needed to break down a specific food and the populations will need to be slowly increased in order to add that food back into the diet. But, it absolutely can be done! Food diversity is fundamental for a healthy microbiome but often some gut support is needed before introducing new foods into the diet, thus the supplements for some extra support during this process.

This restoration program can be done in combination with either the AAT or Acupuncture treatments.

Curious about where you and your gut stand with plant diversity? Download a printable plant tracker and find out where you and your microbiome stand in terms of dietary diversity. If your diversity is low, have some fun with food and make your gut stronger! The more diverse the diet, the healthy and stronger the gut microbiome will be!

Track your plants each week to see how many plants you are actually eating. Try to hit a minimum of 30 plants per week. If you are not at 30, strive to add a few more the following week until you get there. If you are at 30 already, try to get to 35, then 40, then more… each week try to add more plants. Make it fun and explore new foods! Go crazy!

(Obviously if you are currently having gut symptoms or on a heavily restricted diet, be very cautious about adding too many new foods into your diet, go extremely slow. But doing a plant tracker can give you a good baseline of where you are at the moment and show you were you need to be in the future.)

Some of the other services Striving for Health has to offer.