This post on gut health is by Lauren Callahan, our guest in episode 331. Lauren is an endurance athlete having completed 50 and 100 mile ultra marathons and Iron Man triathlons.
“Everything’s normal.”
Have you ever heard these words from your doctor, with part of you feeling relieved, and part of you thinking silently, “Everything’s not normal.”
You are a woman in midlife who has begun to wonder if you just need to get on some kind of medication and accept the fact that you’ll just feel tired and crabby all the time, cry for seemingly no reason, always have a difficult time falling asleep, and carry around belly fat and its related bloating and awful bathroom trips forever.
If this is you, I want to share with you one of the most important questions I ever asked myself.
As an athlete and woman in midlife, after years of trying and failing to run a marathon, and struggling with my mood, sleep, energy, and performance–I began to get curious as I learned more and more about the gut and its impact on our overall health. Specifically, I heard that healing the gut could tremendously help athletes with energy, recovery, injury, and inflammation issues.
It sounded like good marketing, honestly.
But the question I kept coming back to was this:
Is it possible that I am eating a lot of healthy things, but my gut isn’t healthy enough to receive it and use it?
As in, I may as well just be eating a bag of Cheetos instead of that broccoli if my gut isn’t working properly.
It turned out to be the best question I ever could have asked myself.
As it turned out, my gut was incredibly unhealthy. I knew this because I tested it, and this is now the first thing I do for all my clients, because it really is possible to take the guesswork out when it comes to healing your gut. I spent the next six months working to heal my gut.
And then it happened. Not only did I run my first marathon. But I also ran my first 50 mile ultra. And then I completed my first IronMan. And then I did another 50 mile ultra. And then another IronMan. And then a 100k ultra–all within one year.
Did healing my gut open amazing doors when it came to performance and energy and recovery? Absolutely.
But if that was the end of the story, I would still be working as a therapist.
The truth is, the most surprising thing I learned about my gut health was that my serotonin was really low. Unbeknownst to me prior, serotonin is not only a neurotransmitter hugely related to our mood–it is also a gut metabolite. In fact, 90% of it is produced in your gut. If your serotonin is low, like mine was, then you will not only have trouble–on a very physiological level–feeling happy, but you will also
- Have trouble falling asleep (because your body’s natural melatonin is derived from your serotonin)
- Have trouble digesting food normally (because serotonin is largely responsible for initiating digestion)
- Have problems with producing energy (because the breakdown in your normal digestive process makes it difficult to receive and process the energy-giving nutrients from the healthy food you eat)
- Have problems with your immunity (because your digestive system houses 70% of your immunity, and the prior breakdown will lead to issues with that process).
And guess what–taking an SSRI antidepressant doesn’t help with any of this. It may help with your mood–although statistically, they only work for about 66% of the population of people that take them–but that SSRI will move the production of your serotonin from your gut to your brain, leaving your gut to fend for itself when it comes to the other important serotonin-related processes housed within your gut, such as digestion, energy, and immunity.
As I healed my gut, I could see my serotonin levels improving on paper–but more importantly, I could feel the difference, as I felt happier and relaxed, slept like a baby, had more energy, stopped getting sick, and got rid of the awful bloat and digestive inflammation. The change impacted me so deeply, that I moved into the holistic wellness space. It became difficult to sit in my therapist chair and not ask my clients–can we take a look at your gut? I so wanted to help people on a deeper level, so that they did not have to needlessly suffer anymore.
And serotonin is just one gut metabolite. With my own clients, I test 11.
You can maybe see now why scientists are calling the gut your second brain. It’s related to everything. Its impact on your overall health, emotional wellbeing, immunity, energy, sleep, digestion, mental clarity, and performance are pervasive.
So what can you do to improve your gut health? It’s important to remember first that everyone’s gut is unique, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach, which is why testing it is crucial. And certainly, nutrition is of primary importance, which is why introducing more balanced, nutrient-dense, whole foods into your diet can help fortify your gut, build a diverse population of beneficial bacteria, and keep your gut running smoothly. But sometimes a person’s gut needs a little extra nurturing to help it heal from the numerous irritants introduced to them by modern living. And there are surprisingly many things that are important for a healthy gut that go beyond nutrition. Click here to see if a gut health reset–an initial gut healing experience–may be right for you. And click here to learn five things you can do to heal your gut that have nothing to do with nutrition.
If you are a woman in midlife who has been told “everything’s normal”–you don’t have to suffer. Healing your gut can be one of the most liberating, pervasively healing, and empowering acts you ever do for yourself. Treat yourself with the love and nurturing you deserve, and take the necessary steps to check out what healing your gut can do for you.
Lauren Callahan is owner of Goddess Health and author of the book “Powerful, Not Tired”. Gut health expert, Reiki master, Ultrarunner and IronMan athlete, Lauren offers a counterintuitive method for women in midlife to boost their energy and mood, achieve peak health and performance, recover effectively, and eliminate bloat, belly fat, inflammation, and chronic illness and injuries for good, all through the power of gut health, Reiki, and the “Goddess First” principle, achieve profound health and healing without medications, or complicated diets or training.
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