How does gut health relate to the health of the rest of your body, mind, and soul?
Two thousand four hundred fifty years ago, Hippocrates said, “It all begins in the gut.” I think he was smarter than even he knew. Has the human condition changed at all since then?
The onset of digestive and gastrointestinal issues often begins in times of grief, abuse, or other major negative life events. As Dr. Samuel Gee says, “What the patient takes beyond his ability to digest does him harm.” I found that quote after years of encapsulating what I do by saying, “I help people better digest their food and the world around them.”
I’m going to show you why the health of your digestive tract is critical to your enjoyment of life. The state of the gut is the root of many chronic health issues. Even your mood can be a reflection of or reaction to what is going on in your gut.
The promise of my book is to help you appreciate that your mood and overall health could be determined by your gastrointestinal health. It could be that treating symptoms doesn’t get to the heart of the matter. It is time to stop putting on Band-Aids and take a long look under the hood. Society spends billions treating chronic disease in North America, and still people are not well.
According to the American Association of Anxiety and Depression:
Seventy percent of people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are not receiving treatment.
- Of the 30 percent who do seek treatment, 50–90 percent suffer from anxiety or depression.
- Forty million adults between 18 and 54 years of age seek help for anxiety. That’s almost 20 percent of the population.
What if one of those people is you?
That’s the real picture.
Let’s get real.
As Victor E. Frankl once said, “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
It’s up to you to decide if you are ready to change yourself.
Are you?
I’m talking about small incremental changes as well as bigger commitments to better your health.
It’s about evolution, not revolution.
Change can be difficult.
Most people don’t like change.
But what if you don’t like where you are either?
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
Healing is a step-by-step process, like peeling the layers of an onion. In order to heal, you have to go one layer at a time. It might even make you cry! It involves addressing the physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual levels.
There is a lot packed into this read. You may choose to read it in sections. You may even choose to read it a number of times. That’s because at different phases in your journey, you are naturally ready to learn and work on different areas. Peeling the onion takes time and effort.
My goal is to help you recognize patterns, remove obstacles, and stimulate your body’s natural mechanisms to repair damage and rebuild health.
To learn more about how you can better digest your food and the world around you, Beyond Digestion is available on Amazon.
Dr. Laura M. Brown, ND is a registered naturopathic doctor with a functional medicine approach. She is a certified HeartMath ® Practitioner and a level 2 Certified Gluten Free Practitioner. She holds the designation of ADAPT Trained Practitioner from Kresser Institute, the only functional medicine and ancestral health training company. Titled Miss Teen Ontario at age16, preparation for the fitness competition introduced Laura to the way food affects both body and brain. Many health challenges along the way separated her from achieving passions. Laura left university to run a business and raise a family. Feeling misaligned in the technology industry, finally she found courage to go back to school. Family support, diligence and God’s grace helped her finish an undergrad degree and a post grad degree in naturopathic medicine. Today she is a doctor, author, mother, step mother and grandmother who gardens, hikes, swims and entertains on 20 beautiful acres in the heart of Ontario, Canada. Learn more about her practice at southendguelph.ca.
