Why are we starting with the gut…

and what do we mean by that?

As a result of talking to functional medical practitioners like Dr. Tamsin Lewis in the UK, Dr. Christine Rosche in the US, we’ve realised that its important to adopt a lot of those functional medical principles, which is that health starts in the gut.

You might also treat the local site, but first of all, you look at what’s going on in the gut. What’s going on with the diversity of bacteria you may or may not have, and the types and prevalence of bacteria that you may or may not have.

A little bit more about the gut first. When we talk about the gut, we’re referring to an area of the stomach. It contains a rich amount of bacteria. In fact, we have about a 100 trillion bacterial cells in the body, which makes us more microbial than it actually does human. If you were to take all those cells and weigh them, it comes to about three pounds, so it’s as heavy as a human brain. It’s really quite extraordinary. We also have our highest prevalence, between 50 and 90% of all our serotonin levels, are also in the gut, which goes some way to explaining why food might make us feel good, and why emotional eating can be such an issue. Maybe eating really does create hormones that make us feel good.

One of the reasons to start with the gut is because it’s now known that a lack of bacteria in the gut can cause things like autoimmune conditions, eczema, and other conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. It can affect depression. It can affect heart disease and cancer, it’s believed. We’re starting to discover much more about the gut. It’s a real area of growing science.

If you don’t know much about the gut, I’d urge you to listen to these two podcasts. One is with Dr. Tamsin Lewis and the other is with Dr. Christine Rosche. If you’ve got questions, this is a vast topic, and I appreciate you might have, please send them to [email protected].

What’s your Health IQ?

If you’re reading this, you’re are probably in a reasonably senior position, running your own business or have a busy life running the home and juggling other responsibilities. Either way, you’re busy. The convergent pressures of work and family life have probably meant that the time you did have to spend on health and fitness has disappeared. Why not talk to us and see how we can help.

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Leanne Spencer is an entrepreneur, coach, TEDx Speaker, author of Remove the Guesswork, and founder of Bodyshot Performance Limited. Bodyshot is a health and fitness consultancy that helps busy professionals get more energy by removing the guesswork around their health, fitness and nutrition. Visit www.bodyshotperformance.com or email [email protected] to register your interest in our services and connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.


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