I love when people come to me and I ask them my series of questions and then I get to the questions about their digestive health and they say my digestion is fine!
Wow I think how is that possible you have all these chronic health problems. Once we dig a bit deeper we get to the nitty gritty and discover signs and symptoms that are definitely related to the state of your digestion.
So what are some signs and symptoms?
Poor bowel movements – less than once per day. That’s right contrary to what people tell you, you should be having a bowel movement every day. In fact some people can go up to 2 or 3 times a day. Having poo stay to long in your body causes fermentation in your colon and increases your chances of pathogenic infection and also increases your risk of colon cancer.
Undigested food in your poo – I know this is gross but stopping for a minute after you have had a poo and have a good look at it. Undigested food can mean you are not breaking down the foods you are eating or it could be as simple as you are not chewing the food enough. I know lots of people who don’t chew at all they just put the food in and swallow.
The smell (ooh the smell) – Poo shouldn’t have a really bad smell. If it does it could means you have a food sensitivity, a malabsorption problem or even it’s been in there too long. So if you can clear the house there is definitely a problem.
Mood swings and foggy memory not what you expect right? Well if your gut is inflamed that has a flow on effect to your brain. The microbes in our gut produces up to 90% of our serotonin (the feel good hormone) and it regulates our mood and emotional and psychological wellbeing.
Anxiety, depression, insomnia and anger – If our gut is not sending the right hormone messages to the brain all of these things will be affected. I am sure we all have had the side effects of anxiety; upset gut, feeling nauseas, loose bowels.
Being sick over and over again. You pick up every cold and flu from the office and you just get over one and get another one. Again your immune system is also located in your gut and if it’s not working properly you will definitely get sick.
So as you can see there are many ways that digestion can affect how your body works. Do you have great digestion?
If you think things are not working as well as they could be give me a call and let’s see if we can get you on the right track.