Gut Health

Our gut or in other words, our digestive tract are the most underrated organ which is the cornerstone of health. The gut is really an ecosystem which comprises viruses, bacteria and fungi. These microorganisms actually govern very important functions in the body such as immunity, hormonal function, digestion and even our mood.
90% of our cells belong to the microbes, and only 10% of the cells are human which makes us more of a super microorganism than a superhuman. 75% of our immune system lies in the gut which explains why our gut health is important for a resilient immune system.

Any imbalance or inflammation in the body starts in the gut, therefore to work on one’s gut is to work on he root cause of a medical issue.
A balanced gut is characterised by a symbiotic relationship between the good and bad microbes in the gut, 85% of good microbes and 15% of bad microbes. When there is imbalance and increase in bad microbes it causes a state of dysbiosis in the body and starts a cascade of symptoms and medical presentations of this imbalance.
So A healthy you starts with a happy and balanced gut

The gut, lungs and the skin are the largest detoxifying organs of the body, any presentation from hives or rash or acne on the skin to asthma, allergies, bronchitis or tightness of chest in the lungs to constipation, flatulence, acidity, compromised motility are signs that these detox systems need some more love, care and attention.
With an imbalanced gut health one can often encounter problems such as but not limited to, allergies, intolerances, autoimmunity and candida and SIBO and GERD and leaky gut. Our goal is to help client’s breakdown the symptoms, diagnose,

analyse, eliminate and manage complex symptoms by focusing on gut healing.
I believe in offering a long term solution to a problem rather than working on a quick fix to heal only symptomatology. Why only treat a medical condition on the surface when you can treat it from its origin and achieve a long term solution or even reverse a condition? That’s why improving gut health is key to treat, manage and control medical conditions.
A balanced and healthy gut is an inner reflection of one’s overall health status.

Functional Nutrition uses an approach which is based on a 5 R’s protocol which includes: Remove, Replace, Re-inoculate, Repair and Rebalance.

Remove: Removing food triggers in one’s daily dietary intake.
The immune system and the digestive system are closely connected, the food that enters our digestive tract which starts from the mouth to the anus, is under the surveillance of the immune system, when the immune system isn’t happy with certain proteins that come from gluten or dairy it wages an immune response to alert the body that it doesn’t like the food it sees.The only way to calm this over  activated immune system is to remove or eliminate the food from the system

Replace: Replacing food with nutrients that do not trigger the system.
Replacing the food choices with ones that do not wage an inflammatory response and are in sync with what the immune system sees as friendly food is the objective of the Replace step.

Re-inoculate: Reintroducing good bacteria to get the right balance.
Once the terrain of the gut is ready for healing as the counter-productive attacks of the immune system

have been controlled, the first step of healing the gut starts with balancing the gut back with the good microbes, essentially an imbalance only starts when the good microbes are lesser than the bad microbes. This is managed by adding foods such as probiotics which are beneficial strains of bacteria and feeding microbes the nourishment they need to thrive.

Repair: Repairing the gut lining.
It is amazing to learn that the gut has only one cell layered thick lining made up of enterocytes. When there is intestinal permeability or leakiness of the gut, it leads to autoimmune conditions. To maintain and repair and rebuild the integrity of the gut lining is essential in order to prevent inflammation is an integral step of sealing the deal of gut healing.

Rebalance: Reintroducing eliminated food in a controlled manner.
Rebalancing the gut with adding the foods that have been eliminated in small quantities to see if the immune system is better equipped to deal with them after the love and nourishment the gut has just received and design a final framework of the food that should continue in one’s daily dietary intake. This step also involves including some lifestyle changes to help manage stress and improve sleep, mental health and overall health status.