You always hear me say how important it is to have a healthy gut, but let's face it -most of you just want to get rid of your gut symptoms! But hear me out today why I talk about healing your gut is even more important than helping you feel better today.
Here is the link to the study I talked about!
Follow me on Instagram, and send me a DM to let me know what you resonated with in this episode. Ready to begin your gut rehab journey? Watch my program video and let's map out what that looks like for you.
Talk soon!
K
Find Katie:
Schedule a Free Clarity Call with Katie!
Website - www.nourishthrivewellness.com
Instagram - @the_healthygut_dietitian
Facebook
You always hear me say how important it is to have a healthy gut, but let's face it -most of you just want to get rid of your gut symptoms! But hear me out today why I talk about healing your gut is even more important than helping you feel better today.
Here is the link to the study I talked about!
Follow me on Instagram, and send me a DM to let me know what you resonated with in this episode. Ready to begin your gut rehab journey? Watch my program video and let's map out what that looks like for you.
Talk soon!
K
Find Katie:
Schedule a Free Clarity Call with Katie!
Website - www.nourishthrivewellness.com
Instagram - @the_healthygut_dietitian
Facebook
Symptoms are really your body's way of trying to help itself and repair any damage and protect itself. And whenever you are experiencing these symptoms, that is a clue and an indication to you, like. Hey, my body is having to do something to try and fight something off or protect itself in some way. It's your body's way of telling you that something's off and that some action needs to be taken, and care needs to be given. Hey, everyone. Welcome to The Nourished and Thriving Show. I'm your host, Katie Lovitt. I'm a registered dietitian on a mission to help you increase your impact and legacy on the world while healing your gut and reducing your IBS symptoms. I'm so grateful to have you here. Each week I'll inspire you to live vibrantly and provide valuable resources and information that empowers you to take bold action towards your health goals. Before we dive in, make sure you follow or subscribe to my show wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode. Ready? Let's go! Welcome back guys. You hear me say all the time, how important it is to have a healthy. The gut and a healthy microbiome. Hey guys. Welcome back. You hear me talk every week here and. Instagram and in my emails about how important it is to have a good microbiome, good gut health. That healthy gut healthy microbiome is foundational to overall good health. And you know that yes, I, 100% care about how you feel today. But I also really, really care about how you feel 30 years from now. And I honestly think that's more important than how you feel today. Because what you're doing today and the actions that you're taking today are actually setting you up for how you're going to feel and how you're going to be in your future. I want you to have a high quality of life in your second half of life. Just like you have, hopefully in your first. The second half of your life being healthy and independent in all of that. It's just something that honestly, most Americans. Most Americans don't have, especially as they get older into the, you know, second half of the second half of their lives. The last 25% of their lives. Most Americans are just really not their best selves at that point in their lives. And it's so important and it doesn't have to be that way. If you've seen like the Netflix documentary about the blue zones or study the blue zones, you see people living to a hundred and beyond. And still being an active part of their community, their family living independently, gardening, all of that. And that's possible for us to. And more than just you and your health. I really want our future generations to also have a high quality of life. Trauma stress, our microbiomes, all of that can be inherited and passed down to future generations. Just the same as lifestyles and food, knowledge and choices. You know, both physically those things can be passed down to future generations. And also just subconsciously through our environment, how our kids' brains are developing based on our actions, behaviors perspectives on the world, as well as actual. Literal teaching how to cook and how the meal plan and how to care for our bodies. All of those things impact the future generation and we have the opportunity to make a huge impact here. Yes. Today on your life, like we've talked about with. Reducing those gut symptoms and helping you feel better. But also in your future life and also on the lives of future generations. So today I just wanted to go through what are the actual benefits of having a healthy microbiome? Of course. Yes. Like having pure actual gut symptoms, such as bloating, reflux, constipation, diarrhea, all of that. That's of course important. But a lot of the time is women, especially. We just power through. And downplay those symptoms until our health, all of a sudden comes to a screeching halt and we're forced to deal with the issue because we have no other choice at that point. So yes, while the symptoms and getting rid of them can be very motivating for some, sometimes it still isn't enough motivation for us to prioritize our health the way that we truly need to, if we're not in that position where we're just forced to do something about it and take action. Action. Does that make sense? So there's a really cool study that is going to be really the center of our conversation today. It came out in 2021. So a couple years old now actually. In nature metabolism, I'm going to send the link to the study. I'm going to put it in the show notes. So go take a look at that. If you want to geek out on all the science. But it looked at the gut microbiome and multiple other health and survival outcomes data for 9,000 individuals. So that's a pretty legit sample size. Like it's not like it's a 20 person study or anything like that. 9,000 individuals. Is there looking at the microbiomes of these people and other health markers, survival outcomes, all of that, that we're going to go to here in a minute. So I'm going to just basically read a summary from NIH because I felt like they did a really great job of summing it up. And I age has the national institutes of health. So it says the healthier participants, blood tests with more, the healthier participants, blood tests. And by that they're saying. The people who have more unique and diverse microbiomes. Showed lower levels of LDL cholesterol, which is the harmful type of cholesterol. And higher levels of vitamin D, which vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin. We know it helps with immunity. Bone health. A lot of that stuff and most people actually have, are low in vitamin D. And it also is associated with higher. More Bennett. So it had lower bad, lower, bad cholesterol, higher, good vitamin D as well as more helpful blood metabolites produced by these gut microbes. So. We, I think a lot of the time think of our good tummy bugs as we only know what they do. Right. It's like, oh yeah, they're there. And I need them to be good, but like what else? Well, they, yeah, they help break down fiber and that's their fuel, but they also are making vitamins for us. And one of these metabolites or byproducts of the gut microbes. Is called tryptofan derived in doll. Which has been shown to help reduce inflammation and extend lifespan in mouse studies. If you've studied aging for very long. You know, the inflammation is a huge driver of chronic disease and aging, so cancer auto-immunity all of that is really driven by inflammation. People's whose so reading again, people whose gut microbiomes had grown more unique with age, so more diversity in their microbiome. As they get older, we're also able to walk faster. And had better overall mobility than their peers who showed less GI microbes changes with age. Plus those with less divert diverse gut environments, use more medications and listen to this. We're in nearly twice as likely to die. During the study period. Holy cow. So. There's not a direct like relationship or observation between microbiome and lifespan or health span. But goodness sakes, 9,000 people, people with less diverse gut environments. We're on more medications and we're nearly twice as likely to die during the study period. That's pretty groundbreaking, right? Like who else is on a, like running board to go, like, figure out how to diversify their gut microbiome. Hopefully everyone listening. This is a really, really big. Cause I don't know of a single person that is like, yes, I want to be on more medications as I get older. That's like nobody's goal. Right? Everyone wants to avoid medications as much as possible. Let's talk about the walking speed part for a minute, because that may have just like glossed over for you. So let me go back and reread this. So people's whose gut microbiomes had grown more unique with age were able to walk faster and had better all. A better overall mobility than peers who showed less GI microbes changes with age. So loss of mobility is such an issue. Whenever people get older, if you've ever watched a grandparent or a parent or a loved one Hey age, you see that, you know, whenever they start losing that mobility. Thanks get pretty serious. It's pretty, pretty tough. You know, it decreases their independence. Increases their need of help. Increases chances of going into assisted living or nursing homes. Which according to the national center for assisted living in C a L of those currently residing in an assisted living community. 34% of them will move to skilled nursing facility due to deteriorating health. So they're needing more care. And 30% of those in the assisted living community will die. So that's you know, 64% of people in assisted living will either move to higher levels of care or pass away in assisted living. The mortality rate of individuals moving into skilled nursing facility. Of death within the first 12 months is as high as 50 to 60%. And it says the mortality rate is even higher in the first six months. So that was the rate for the first 12 months. So it's like, 50 to 60% of people moving into a skilled nursing facility will die within the first year of being there. And it's just because they're losing that independence, that mobility. All of that. Walking speed has also been studied and directly correlated with life expectancy. So it's, it's subtle, like it's really small changes and not necessarily something that you would be able to notice a lot at the time, but being able to walk quickly helps with coordination. It helps, you know, with muscle strength, all of that, like all of those factors go into how fast you can walk. So it's a really good indicator of how coordinated are you? How rapid is your brain functioning? How much strength and balance do you have in your muscles? So, It's really been directly correlated with life expectancy. How many times also do you hear about someone older losing their balance? You know, they were walking and they just got. You know, they lost their balance or they slipped and they weren't, weren't strong enough to catch themselves. They broke a bone, they fell and broke a hip that can be. Life altering life changing for, you know, a lot of people it's really, really important. So the fact that someone with a more diverse gut microbiome is more mobile and able to walk faster. Is huge. Huge you guys. I hope I have like impress the importance upon every single listener today. How important a diverse microbiome is not just in avoiding gut symptoms. It's like we don't want to just avoid pain. We want to move towards pleasure and having a good pleasurable. Life as we get older, depends on having good gut health. Are you seeing the connections here? So hopefully you're saying yes. If not, please here. Go back and relisten to the first half, maybe click on the link in the show notes and read the study for yourselves. And maybe you'll be, you know, Had Vince that this is something that is really worthy of your time and effort and attention. So, okay. If you are convinced and you're not pausing and going back and relisting to everything, I just said, reading all of the research for yourself. Let's let's talk about what do we do? Okay, Katie, you've beat this into my head that I really need to have a diverse, healthy, robust microbiome. Oh, I know I do. Well, I'm going to give you three things that you can start doing today right now. First of all, listen to your symptoms. I just saw a post from a functional oncologist who I really respect. He said just to quote, her symptoms are feedback for change, and this is so true, and this is something I say in a different way. A lot of the time, I think. I just quoted her because sometimes hearing things in a different way can be really, really powerful. I say this a lot, you know, to you guys, to have with, I try and use analogies and stories in ways that it makes more sense to you guys, but symptoms are not just there because your body hates you or is rebelling against you. Symptoms are really your body's way of trying to help itself and repair any damage and protect itself. And whenever you are experiencing these symptoms, that is a clue and an indication to you, like. Hey, my body is having to do something to try and fight something off or protect itself in some way. It's your body's way of telling you that something's off and that some action needs to be taken, taken, and care needs to be given. So if you're experiencing digestive symptoms or other symptoms throughout your body, Listen to them and take action now. It's not something that most of the time will fix itself. The symptoms may come and go or change some over the top over time. But the actual underlying problem. Been hiding. Those symptoms is still going to need to be addressed. Number two, the second thing you can do. Is manager stress. I know people say this without actually telling you how to do it, but there's actually quite a lot of research and information and helpful tips and resources out there for you now. To do this, if you look we really live in a time where a lot of people wear busy-ness and stretch like stress, stress, stress, like a badge of honor especially women, you know, I do think that this is changing and I love seeing the energy behind a lot of people saying, no, like we're not doing this anymore. We're stopping. Like, we're changing. The dynamic and we're changing the narrative on this. Like, stress is good. Things. So it's great, but we're not there yet. Women tend to put our health and our needs on the back burner and really, almost martyr ourselves for the sake of caring for others, but it has to stop. It just has to stop. You can care deeply for others and help meet their needs while also meeting their own meeting your own. That's not selfish and it doesn't have to be either, or it can be both. And. Let me tell you if you're a mama going back to generational health, your kids need to see you taking care of your own health, because if they don't see that, if they see you putting your health and your needs on the back burner repeatedly, and your health declining, what kind of mother are they going to be? Or what kind of father are they going to be? They're going to recreate what they see and what they experienced. And I don't think that any of us would wish or hope that our children. Ever disregard their own health or don't take care of themselves in the future. So, what can you do to help maintain your stress and manage your stress and prioritize your health? And I get it. We're busy, you know, we've got a lot of demands on us, but there are things you can do to take back a little bit of this priority on yourself. First, I'm going to just give you a few, just a few ideas to get you started. There's so many more. Set and maintain healthy boundaries. Spend time in nature, set your priorities and stick with them, you know, decide what is a priority and what is not, and make no without explanation, a common word in your vocabulary. And I should have said make no without explanation or apology, a common word in your vocabulary. If it doesn't align with your priorities, it's a no, you know, simple as that. Breathe deeply laugh, belly laugh, live fully. All of this is so good for our bodies. Live in joy every day. Create peace in and around yourself. And that is serving your family so well, too. The third thing is feature good. Tummy bugs. You can not take a probiotic every day and continue living the way you were living and hope for the best. You're good. Tell me about eggs, thrive on the same good things that you thrive on. So lots of colorful plant foods, aim to eat at least 30 different plant foods every single week. Chew your food really well, lower your stress. Like we just talked about, get good quality sleep. Get vitamin D the sunshine vitamin and your good time you bags will help. Help with that too. Take a look at what's in your personal care products, what's in your cleaning products, what's in your cookware. How good is your water quality? Like take a look at everything that is around your physical body. And also examine your thoughts and your emotions. These can have a huge impact on our physical health as fall. If you have these negative thought loops. Personal trauma that you haven't healed and worked through that you're allowing to stay in your life. This has a physical effect on you actually. And maybe that will be another good episode. In the future actually movement and exercise, move your body every day. If you really are like, that sounds great. I have no idea how to do any of this. I don't know how they're prioritize the staff. Or maybe I feel like I'm doing all of these things and I'm still struggling. Got rehab is for you. It is so much more than just focused on reducing your gut symptoms because as you. can see today, it's all intertwined together. Got rehab is really, yes, it is focused on getting you feeling better soon. Reducing your gut symptoms. That's why most people hire me. But it's also really focused on setting your body up to live as brightly and vibrantly as possible. If that's something you're interested in, there's a link in the show notes to go book a free call with me. Get set up on my calendar. I can hear more about what's going on with you. I can. Share more about how I work, my approach, all of that. If we're a great fit. So go click that link. Send me a message on Instagram. If you have any questions or need more information. And I hope you guys all go out, pour your hearts out into others, preserve and maintain your own health so that you can show up as your very best self we'll talk soon. Thank you so much for listening to the entire episode. I hope you are feeling inspired and empowered to take bold action towards your health goals. If you enjoy what you heard, don't forget to follow my show so you never miss a new episode. And it would mean the world to me, if you left me a review, so others know what to expect from my show. Last, get in touch. Let me know what bold action you're taking. Let me know how you're inspired. Follow me on Instagram@the_healthygut_dietitian. I've put a link in my show notes for you, so you can simply click and follow. Come say hi, I respond to all my messages and I can't wait to get in touch.