Why is gut health important?

There is a limited amount of space available along your stomach lining for bacteria to reside. You want to make sure the bacteria that does settle there is the right kind.

Your stomach also impacts the way your brain functions and vice versa. That is one of the reasons why it is so important to keep your mental health in check. When you feel anxious or experience stress, your brain can hinder involuntary actions in your body like digestion. Similarly, when your gut does not feel good, it sends signals to your brain that can affect your emotions and mood. In fact, most of the serotonin – a neurotransmitter that regulates sleep and emotions – is made in your gut, not your brain. How you feel and what goes on in your stomach is much more intertwined than scientists had previously realized. That is why you should make taking care of your gut a top priority on your health checklist.

Eat probiotic foods

Fermented foods contain a large number of good bacteria. Kimchi, miso, sauerkraut, coconut kefir, and microalgae are all great plant-based foods rich in probiotics. When selecting these types of foods, avoid pasteurized and vinegar-based varieties since it can kill good bacteria.

Eat regularly, but do not graze

Give your gut the chance to clear out waste including bad bacteria. Every one and a half to two hours your intestines contract to keep the waste in your stomach moving throughout the rest of your digestive system. When you eat, this process comes to a stop. That means snacking constantly can lead to overgrowth of bacteria and slow down digestion. You do not have to go to the extent of fasting, but you should give your body breaks between meals to prevent bloating and constipation.

Drink water

This tip is on pretty much every wellness blog and for a good reason. Your gut needs to be hydrated to keep waste and bad bacteria out of your system. You should drink about half your body weight in ounces of water a day. That means if you weigh 130 lbs, you should drink about 65 oz of water each day. Dehydration can cause the bad bacteria to outnumber the good bacteria and lead to inflammation.

Avoid stress

Easier said than done, right? While a stress-free life is what we all strive for, it can feel impossible to accomplish. Try to cope with your stress in productive ways like through meditation, yoga, therapy, and time outdoors. Letting stress take over cause your brain to slow down digestion, causing bad bacteria to thrive in your gut.

To learn more about which supplements and practices will improve your gut health, consult the professionals at Northshore Naturopathic Clinic. Our clinic is located at NorthVancouver, BC. If you have any queries, feel free to contact us.

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How Naturopathy Works

Naturopathic healing is based on a different principle. It recognizes the body’s ability to heal itself. The causes of the disease may not be only physical but also chemical, structural or emotional. As a result, Naturopaths seek to heal the individual in a holistic way, treating not just the disease but also attempting to find reasons behind the source, relying on the individual’s self-healing abilities instead.

The healer in Naturopathy is more than a doctor. The individual is a teacher as well, educating the need for the patient to look at poor lifestyle choices that lead to acidity, toxins nutritional deficiencies or musculoskeletal disturbances to name a few, and integrate necessary changes for a healthy future. Treatments take genetics, habits, attitudes and the environment into account. The focus is not just on a cure but also prevention and reducing the risk of future illnesses through nutritional or herbal supplements, improved diet, risk-free treatments and exercise. These practices free up the body’s inherent healing abilities, activating regeneration of healthy cells for a stronger, healthier future.

Types of Naturopathy Treatments

Naturopathy includes several kinds of treatments, each of which has its own benefits and carries little to no risk:

• Homeopathy
• Osteopathy
• Kinesiology
• Reflexology
• Massage Therapy
• Dietary Advice
• Herbal Medicine

It is recognized as an all-natural alternative medicinal process, involving cleansing the body of accumulated toxins to safely cure a wide range of ailments from digestive disorders to heart disease, obesity, mental disorder, stress, tension, joint pain and more.

Naturopathy Physicians

Naturopathy physicians in Canada are certified healthcare practitioners from accredited schools who treat patients suffering from both acute or chronic health conditions. Just like medical doctors, they are intensively trained in biomedical and diagnostic sciences. However, first consultations can take even an hour as the doctors attempt to learn deeper aspects about you to assess your mental, emotional and physical state of being to offer a holistic, customized cure.

Treatment plans include dietary changes, nutritional supplements, exercise and stress reduction therapies. The focus is on an individualized treatment plan that help facilitate the body’s natural healing abilities to restore and sustain optimal health.

Northshore Naturopathic Clinic: Discover the Body’s Healing Abilities

At Toronto’s Naturopathic Clinic, our doctors view each individual as an integral whole encouraging patients to collaborate in the healing process.

Our clinics create specialized formulas to treat health conditions through methods such as IV therapy to deliver nutrients directly into the bloodstream and intravenous infusions to generate quick results:

• Bioidentical Hormones Replacement Therapy (BHRT) to correct hormonal imbalances
• Weight loss programs for lasting results
• Chelation Therapy to remove a variety of harmful ions from the body to help patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes as well as high blood pressure
• Anti-ageing treatments to reverse cellular damage and more.

Call us to experience our personalized approach firsthand.

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