July 12, 2020


"So all health starts in the gut. So there's trillions of bacteria. That's what I find quite amazing as a nurse, there's trillions of bacteria that live down there that help your body to be the best it can be."

Listen, Watch or Read this recent Facebook Live on looking after your gut health (use timestamps below for guide).

Session timestamps and transcript:

[00.00.00]

Good morning ladies, it's Cherie here from Spice Fitness or Strong Beyond 50. 50 is our free group that you can get into if you want to know more about training your body and having a healthy body, how to make healthy meals and all that sort of stuff. Just talking a little bit about gut health this morning because gut health is essential to our overall health.

So if you don't have good gut health then you know you're going to be treating your body with all sorts of chemicals, not all sorts of chemicals, all sorts of drugs and stuff to help you but they probably won't do any good because if our gut health is not stable and not sound from the start then nothing's going to help. So if you don't read or study up on gut health now might be the time to do it. I'm not an expert in gut health but I love studying, I love reading about my body, I love working out how my body can be the best it can be.

So gut health is something I brought a whole program on a while back but I've also learned beyond that. There's a program called The Gut Solution which I think is superb. It stems from a girl's journey with her own problems with gut health and she goes around the world and talks to the experts in gut health.

It's a really good program called The Gut Solution. Hi there. And so I bought the program.

Now just to let you guys know, I know it at least in Australia, this particular program on menopause, etc, they let it out for 24 hours. So if you didn't want to buy the whole program, in another five days and 23 hours, The Gut Solution, so make sure you write that down, I'll say it again at the end, The Gut Solution are putting out one of their things that are excellent. They go to experts around the world, hi Trudy, and talk to experts around the world about our gut.

Now our gut is an amazing place. I'll talk about The Gut Solution again at the end because you may be able to around the world download it too for 24 hours for free and it's really cool stuff. It's stuff that you may never have heard anywhere else and you certainly won't hear it from your GP because they don't usually deal much with gut health.

So all health starts in the gut. So there's trillions of bacteria. That's what I find quite amazing as a nurse, there's trillions of bacteria that live down there that help your body to be the best it can be.

Some of the bacteria are not good, but hopefully there's more of the good bacteria that live down there. So that's your flora. I like to call it flora and fauna.

So we're looking after our flora when we look after our gut health. So they live in your bowel, in your intestines, and most of them are those good bacteria to keep healthy. So the gut is where the immune system lives.

[00.02.25] - Good Gut Health Good Immune System

So if we have a good gut health, our immune system is pretty good. I'm assuming my gut health is okay because I don't get coughs or colds or I don't get sick. Even if I've had a stressful time, my body keeps going and it has for year after year after year.

So I'm assuming that my gut health is pretty good. The immune system lives there. We control the serotonin from there as well that controls our mood, our energy levels, and it also helps us to absorb the right nutrients from our food.

And so it also interacts with our genetic markers. So if you've got a genetic propensity for, say, cancer, then looking after our gut microbe is going to be one of the best things you can do. I don't like to say it too much.

I don't want to speak into being, but my mom had breast cancer and her mom had breast cancer. I do not believe I'm going to have breast cancer because I believe that I've changed the directory that that cancer was maybe going to go. And I'm looking after myself in a way that they probably didn't know because gut health has become a big thing just in the last few years.

So my mom and her grandma or her mom wouldn't have known so much about gut health actually. They probably wouldn't have known a thing about it. So human health starts right here in the gut.

So if the body is sick, we need to look at the roots. So like a plant, a plant digs its roots down into good soil. If it digs its roots down into good soil, it's going to bring good things up and make beautiful leaves and beautiful fruit on the tree.

Hi, Lorraine. But if our roots in our body, which is our gut, which is down in our bowel, if that's not working well, we have nothing with which to work with. And even if we take vitamins and minerals and probiotics and things like that, if our gut health is not already reasonably sound, they won't work.

It won't absorb to the degree that they would have had our gut health been good. So as a tree, as a plant, the roots go down, so we need to as well. So we do know we have about two kilograms of microbiome in our bodies, two kilos of all these little things that work around in our bowel to keep our body healthy and well.

So things like bloating, constipation, and stuff like that, there can be a red alert, can be an alarm, a little alert to say that there's some gut problems going on there. I know that my husband, up until six months ago, his body didn't exhibit anything. But through a lot of stress with work and other things, he started to experience bloating.

[00.05.14] - Gut Health and Stress

You can hear when he has certain foods, you can hear it gurgling, and he can stay awake for hours without gurgling. And a whole pile of stuff has started to go on. So you've got it now.

I just said to him last night, I didn't think too much. I sort of thought about it. But stress can also change how our gut microbe are working.

So stress can have a big impact on it. So the microbiome is often referred to as the second brain. So depression, anxiety, and stuff can actually stem from there as well.

So that's a really interesting thing because he also, my husband, has never been depressed before. But I've started to see signs of that as well and what he's told me. And so now after I re-looked at all my videos last night, I'm thinking, yes, I need to get his gut looked at.

And that can be coming starting from a simple poo specimen. Now, you've got to look around. And not all people will do a microbiome stool specimen.

But if you find somewhere, a good naturopath or a good pharmacy that deal with things like that, you can actually get your microbiomes looked at. And I think that'd be so cool. Like, what have I got what I don't have?

What do I need to build up a bit more to keep my body the strongest and healthiest it can be? So stress can cause so many problems because there's changes in the endocrine system. So the adrenal glands are overloaded.

Cortisol is lying around our body. It was never meant to lie around our body. Cortisol was only meant to be for that fight or flight response.

So back in the tribe peasants' days, you've got a bunch of cortisol coming on. So you've got the manpower to be able to run and get away. Then it was meant to go again.

But often, through stress, we hold on to cortisol and not a good thing to be. Tap water. So they talked a lot about tap water in these videos.

So the fluoride and the hormones and the antibiotics that are in tap water. Yes. So when you think about it, you think, well, how can that be hormones and things in tap water?

But you think, well, we get the runoff from land. And if somebody's been on a farm where the water comes off their land and down into this water reservoir where we take out our drinking water from, there can be all sorts of stuff in there. There can be hormones and antibiotics from where they have them on their farm to give to their animals.

So be aware that your tap water also may not be doing that good for your gut health. So they talked in these videos about a filter. They have a filter on.

[00.07.48] - Gut Health and Drugs Chemicals

So just to filter out those antibiotics and hormones that are lying around in the water. They did a thing in our town not long ago to see how many drugs were in the water. Quite incredible.

But then we talked about that at work the other night, because I'm a nurse, and we talk about how many times we take the last bit of our pain relief syringe off and we squirt it down the sink. So that would all filter out into water. Hopefully not water you're drinking, but that would all filter out in the water as well.

Ibuprofen. Ibuprofen is a common thing that we take for anti-inflammatory stuff. So if we've got a sore knee or sore shoulder or something, we'll take an ibuprofen.

But that can be a cause of leaky gut syndrome as well, where your bowel actually is not working. That would be a whole subject on its own. So it's easy to work out a species of microbiome from antibiotic usage.

So antibiotics. So we overuse them these days. If you have a virus, a cold virus, and you go along to your doctor and they want to prescribe you an antibody, you don't need that for a virus.

It's only if that virus turns into a bacteria. So say you had a cough and a cold, and you start to get green stuff coming out of your nose and coughing up, then you might want to go on to some antibiotics. Because antibiotics are good.

They serve a purpose. But not all the time. Our body builds up a resistance to it.

So if our microbiome is depleted in some way, we can recolonize it with the right foods. They talked a lot about... So this is something for you ladies, and I'll pop it in after I get off here because it's something that I looked up.

They talked... A lot of the experts around the world in gut health talked about glyphosate. And it's a concern because it's found in so many foods that we buy.

So packaged foods, you're obviously not going to find this in food you take straight from your garden. But in foods you buy from the shop that are in a packet, glyphosate is a concern because it's like a Roundup. So you find that in Roundup.

So Roundup you use to kill your weeds. So this particular thing is found in herbicides that are sprayed all over our crops on someone's farm. And when we buy these crops from the shops and we eat them, we're eating part of this glyphosate is still in there.

So it actually kills off part of the inside of us as well. So if you're taking that down into your gut, it's not good for your gut flora. Not good at all.

So have a look at that. It's spelled G-L-Y-P-H-O-S-A-T-E. So I'll pop that at the end anyway.

So if you're eating GMO foods, so genetically modified foods, they also use that in there as well. You're eating that all the time when you eat those. So yeah, it's just a really interesting thing when you go further into gut health.

So preservatives in food, you look at the preservatives that are often in our foods, they're often antifungal. And so they also kill off things as well. They're not good for our microbiomes.

And so what we eat will either benefit or harm our health. So many foods have this glyphosate, I find it hard to say it. So we kill off our microbiome every day, just a tiny bit of what we take away.

And so who would want to do that if you can help it? So what do we do? Well, we can start by looking at those foods that cause us grief.

So if you know that you eat a certain food, it could be wheat, it may not be wheat. I can eat wheat and it doesn't do a thing for me. But for some of you, it could be wheat.

For some of you, it could be dairy. Have a look at the top three foods. You don't need to change your whole diet all at once.

But to look at those foods that cause you a bit of concern, have them, then take them away from your diet and see when you take them away if you're still getting bloating and squirminess in your tummy. For some of you, you may get skin conditions as well. So just take away some foods that you think might be causing you concern.

I'm going to wrap up in five minutes. So hang on for five minutes if you can. Fresh foods are best.

So if you can do your own garden, that's the best. And don't spray them with herbicides. Put them under netting and keep them safe from all things so that you can have them organic.

If you can have organic, great. If you can't, form some sort of a co-op where you can get together with people that maybe grow what you don't grow and do a swap. Fermented foods can help to restore our gut bacteria back to normal as well.

[00.12.30] - Gut Health Foods and Fermented Foods

So fermented foods, sauerkraut, kombucha drinks, there's so much stuff. Google up fermented foods and they're not hard to make yourself, but you can buy them as well. The bought ones, obviously, are not as good because they need to last for a while in their jar or whatever.

If you can make them fresh yourself, that's ideal and they're not too hard to do. Organic is what I've just said. Intermittent fasting, I do that.

So I go on a 16 hour fast now. So my last meal's at like, if I had my last meal at eight o'clock at night, I won't eat the next day till 12 o'clock. So that gives my gut a chance to rest.

If you're going to eat meat, try and make it grass fed and hormone free.

If you're going to get fish, get wild caught fish. That's the best rather than farm because they feed them all sorts of stuff with farm fish. So fish like salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines, and fruits like blueberries, cherries, oranges, and nuts like almonds and walnuts, and olive oil is the best oil you can get.

Virgin olive oil, so good. So anti-inflammatory foods are all those ones that I just said, and also green leafy vegetables as well.

Every day with all my meals, just about, I'll have spinach leaves.

It's something we've decided to keep in our fridge at all times, and I eat them, and I feel great when I've had them. And Mediterranean diets have shown to be good as well. So that's my main diet.

So a Mediterranean diet are all those salads, those green leafy vegetables, as I just said there, salad kind of stuff. So Mediterranean diets have been great to cause a good microbiome changes. And those microbiome changes can also be linked to cognitive function and memory, immunity, and bone strength.

So there's a good lot of stuff that occurs when you eat the right diet.

So going back to that, so yes, I'm Sheree from Spice Strong. I do post stuff into our Spice Strong group, so Strong Beyond 50 group. I'll pop the link at the top, but that going back to this gut solution.

[00.14.42] - The Gut Solution

So all my information here, most of it has come from the gut solution, and it's a program you can buy. It wasn't that expensive, but I want to let you all know, and for you ladies that are seeing this down the track, they put out one of their programs for free for 24 hours every so many days. So in five days and 23 hours, they're going to put out the one that's called The Gut Solution to PMS, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, UTIs, and Menopause.

So great for some of you to be able to look at that. If it's not showing in your country, if you're not from Australia, you might better just buy The Gut Solution, because this girl that had problems with her health went around all over the world to speak to gut health specialists, and they talk all about what they know about gut health, and it's really empowering. And I think we can only change what we know.

So be empowered, be strong, learn new stuff, always be open to learning new stuff, because there's good stuff to see. So I'm going to say goodbye. I've got to train some elderly clients.

My lady's 88, and her husband's 84. And so I'm going to go train them now, get some weight training going on with them. So have a good day, but get onto it.

Learn more about gut health. It's so cool, and it does change how your body feels. My body feels energetic every day.

Oh, a bit tight when I first get up, but it feels good, and I don't get sick. So it's time. Well, it's probably been time a long time ago, but particularly with this COVID that's come through, I think we all need to look after ourselves.

We can't rely on doctors to help us. The public health system help us. You've got to look after yourself.

So get strong, get fit, get healthy, and stay that way, and I'll catch you back tomorrow. Have a great day, ladies. Bye.

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About the author 

Sheree King

Sheree, a Registered Nurse, Master Trainer, C.H.E.K. (Corrective High-Performance Exercise & Kinesiology) certified functional exercise specialist & PN (Precision Nutrition) certified nutrition specialist, is passionate about empowering women all over the world to become their best selves. She brings decades of experience and expertise in training women, and together with big dreams and a big vision has created a unique fitness programs to transform everyday lives to empowered success.

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