The Gut is Looking Better

I have been working on healing my gut, well, for a long time.  I learned from Barbara O’Neill that the solution they give for a colonoscopy can wreak havoc on the gut microbiome.  From the looks of my gut microbiome, it sure didn’t help.  In June I virtually had no microbiome, as you can see in the image below.  The good news is that my efforts are paying off, and most of my gut bacteria are back in the  normal range, with about 3 to get back in range.  That was encouraging.

Other sections of the test indicate a bit of inflammation in the intestine and some other indications of bugs, but both Dr. Sarah and Dr. Cochran assured me that it is quite normal for us to have fluctuations of things going on depending on what our body is dealing with.  Even so, we are going to shift some things that I am doing and monitor the inflammation in the intestine for now.  I need to get all inflammation in my body under control for the sake of healing.

While I am taking supplements to help with my digestive track, I have been adding some other things.  In November I went to see Barbara O’Neill speak and got the idea of taking slippery elm bark in the form of a drink a few times a day.  That has been a noticeable help.  Something else I have heard of but learned more about from Barbara is that it’s not ideal for our digestion to drink any liquid with meals.  That’s been “a hard one to digest!”  (see what I did there?) So, we need hydrochloric acid (HCI) in our stomach to properly break down food.  When that doesn’t happen, it causes issues as food gets pushed through the rest of the process. Drinking 30 minutes before and 2 hours after a meal can dilute the HCI and there we have digestive issues.  Just these two nuggets of information have felt like a game changer by adding them to what I am already doing with supplements and diet. 

So, a war is won by many smaller battles being won.  I feel like I am making great progress in this battle, and this motivates me to stay strong and keep going with all the things relating to healing my gut/digestive system.