How I Healed My Gut After 10 Years of Struggle

I have been trying to heal my gut for 10 freakin' years now! I tried ALL the diets, restricted all the things. Went to five different doctors. Conventional doctors. Integrative/Functional Medicine doctors. You name I tried it. And yes before you say it--I did try all the probiotics, fermented foods and yes I even tried carnivore. I was desperate.

Nothing worked. 

Until I stumbled across Dr. Hawrelak, a leading gut researcher and took his course. That, combined with Dr. DiNezza's excellent content on youtube changed the game for me! I went from pain, gas and bloat with just about everything I ate--to no pain in two weeks. I was honestly so shocked I thought it was a gimmick that would pass and so I didn't share about it with anyone until a month or so later.

That's when I made that fateful impromptu reel on Instagram. I just had to share I was bursting. How on earth had I not heard this before? And I guess I wasn't the only one because it went viral! 

Don't worry--I'm not going to gatekeep at all. I want to shout it from the root tops so everyone can hear and try this out because before this I had gotten so discouraged I didn't even want to eat anymore. 

So what did they say?

To heal your gut you need to focus on three things:

1. Mobility. You need everything moving super quickly through your gut or else it ferments and causes all the painful bloat. So step one is the unglamorous step of getting out of constipation--which most of us are. If you're not poopin' 1-3 times a day you're constipated. Yep. 
   The quick way you do this is through chia seed pudding, drinking extra coffee, taking a little magnesium citrate (though maybe not long term so you don't through off your other minerals). 
   The long term fix is to increase your fiber. That's what I did, more on that below.
2. Heal Your Gut Lining. I knew NOTHING about this. When your gut lining is permeable (leaking all over the place) it essentially causes chemical spills into your body. Undigested particles, toxins, and bacteria can get into your blood stream and your immune system sits right outside your gut lining so it can increase autoimmune responses and food intolerances (which is definitely what I had). Another sign of leaky gut is neurological issue: random pain, fatigue, brain fog etc. 
   To seal up that leaky gut they suggested take high quality grass-fed and finished collagen or colostrum (I took the collagen) because our gut is made of the stuff! On top of that you can take three herbs: licorice root (swap for dandelion root for kiddos or if you have blood pressure issues), marshmallow root and slippery elm. (I have another blog on how I make these into gummies but you can also just cold soak them overnight and make a tea). These are super soothing and help increase the thick mucosal lining of the gut.
3. Feed the Good Guys. Prebiotics is the name of the game. I started immediately taking Inulin fiber powder (1/2 tsp a day, working up to 1 Tb a day, tastes amazing actually, I just eat it off the spoon, my kids love it too), because they said it was the fiber that not only get things moving but also feeds all the good bacteria in your gut!
   Now not everyone might be able to tolerate, Inulin fiber right off the bat, especially if your gut is extra sensitive so there are other more gentle options (Dr. DiNezza has a whole youtube video of different options). But if you can tolerate Inulin, its gold!
   Then you also want to increase your prebiotic foods: garlic, onions, asparagus etc (you can google prebiotic foods and get a whole list). These foods feed the gut and help promote the good guys!
   It's okay if you can't do this right away. The first two steps will helped me to be able to bring these back in!

This is what I did that took me from constant gut pain to pain free, eating happily again in just two weeks! I just had to share because it was so effective and quick!