Digestive health

We need rest and digest. If we’re always in fight or flight, or freeze, right, we’re not digesting. So, and I argue that we not only have to digest our food, we have to digest the world around us. What a pleasure to sit down with Manon and have a heart to heart conversation about gut health and how I came to this focus in practice.

The microbiome is a large body of bacteria, and some fungi and viruses that helps humans with detoxification, protection and regulation of body systems such as hormone and energy distribution, the immune system, and the brain for thinking and behaviour. It also provides nutrients like folate, vitamin K, biotin, riboflavin (B2), cobalamin (B12), and possibly other B vitamins and produces and/or consume a wide range of chemical messengers including dopamine, norepinephrine/adrenaline, serotonin, …

Joint pain is marked with stiffness, aches, pain and reduced mobility. It can occur in one or more joints, be one side or both sides of the body. It can occur at any age in any gender in people all around the world. There are many types of joint pain and more than one type can occur in one person at a time.

Factors in Joint Pain

Lifestyle, dietary, genetic, metabolic, and gut health related factors all contribute to joint pain. This means there is plenty of natural opportunity to assist the r…

Processed foods are chemically engineered to deliver a dopamine high. It's true sugar itself is actually more addictive than cocaine. When one eats processed food, the brain responds with lower numbers of dopamine receptors to effectively counteract the increase in dopamine. This requires more dopamine to get the same "high" and also explains the depression often associated with food addiction.

Why is this important? Dopamine is made in your brain and acts as a hormone ( relays information to …

Many medications disrupt the natural flora and damage the gut lining. Those with antibacterial actions, such as antibiotics, certain cancer therapies, antihistamines, antipsychotics, antihypertensives, and antidepressants like SSRIs are particularly damaging. Sometimes changes are reversed when one stops taking the drug, but damage can persist for up to four years.

This article is for educational purposes only and is not intended for individual medical advice. it does not promote any changes…

The colon, or large intestine, is the distal part of your digestive tract where up to ninety five percent of your microbiome lives. The walls of the colon are typically smooth, pink and glistening with a protective mucus layer. There is a complex interplay between dietary, microbial, immunological and genetic factors that lead to either health or disease in the colon.

The microbes in the large intestine continue to digest what the small intestine could not: walls of plant cells, cellulose, h…

Part of the pumpkin family, Cucurbita pepo is native to the Americas since 1492. Explorers brought C. Pepo to Europe and garden breeders in Milan "discovered' the variety (Cucurbita moschata) around 1850. The name " zucchini" to be coined later in Tuscany.

No matter the name or the origin, the beloved summer squash is a plant of of great production and culinary treats. Summer squash small offshoot greens are a healthy part of a hypoglycemic diet considering the fibre and carbohydrate conten…

Parasites live off their host (you) and have the potential to cause damage such as inflammation and leaky gut. Parasites are passed around through contaminated food and water, day care centres, foreign travel, mosquitoes, pests, pets, and sexual interactions. If there are symptoms, they are usually diarrhea, mucus, blood in the stool, fever, irregular bowel movement, and stomach pain. Parasites can also cause joint pain, skin rashes, allergic reactions, a weakened immune system, and fatigue. Sy…

The gut truly extends in action far beyond digestion and heart health is no exception. There are six main ways the health of the gut affects the cardiovascular system. Gut microbiome (stool) analysis and laboratory analysis may help direct treatment in those currently with and at-risk of cardiovascular disease.

GUT-Heart connection

1. Gut permeability in presence of an overgrowth of gram negative bacteria increases circulation of inflammatory biochemicals.
2. Trimethylamine N-oxide (a product …

Early life microbiota influences immunity, gastrointestinal health, metabolism, neurodevelopment, and overall infant health.  The infant gut must rapidly accumulate ten times as many microbes as the whole body contains human cells.

GUT Health Matters!

Poorly developed gut microbiome in early life increases susceptibility to the development of food allergy, asthma and autism, celiac disease, and more. There is an increased risk of obesity in 84% of children exposed to prenatal antibiotics in…