Those who suffer with digestive imbalance are more likely to suffer from autoimmune disorders, occasional moodiness, or more significant emotional challenges. This is in part because the majority of hormones are made in the gut. So if your gut isn’t happy, it’s going to be hard to feel well. Can you relate to the gut health/mood connection? Especially after the last two years? I can!

 

 

We all have heard things like the myths below, and often times these things become factual information in our mind, even though they aren't based on actual facts. They are simply NOT true.

 

 

Just because something is “common” in today’s society doesn’t mean it’s “normal”, or the way our bodies were designed and intended to thrive.

 

 

Um yeah, not cool. You need to be going 1-2 times a day at least. Fun fact: the average American is walking around with 10 pounds of impacted, old poop in their colon. Yikes.

 

 

Nope. You weren’t designed to have allergies, day-to-day inflammation, blocked lymph nodes, poor detox pathways or an immune system that is continually feeling “off”. The truth of it all is that the gut plays a huge role in all of these things and more.

 

 

This is also a myth. Try apple cider vinegar or Lemon Vitality in your water and see what happens. This is also where the oral microbiome matters greatly. Try swishing some probiotics in your mouth every evening and spit out. Also the Thieves mouthwash is incredible for creating a strong oral microbiome.

 

So what we can see in the examples above is that there are many things we hear in culture that simply are not true, but we as the caretakers of our bodies and families must dig deeper.

 

The “gut” by the way is not just the stomach. It actually begins with your mouth and ends all the way down at your colon. You may never have thought of your mouth as a part of your gut, but the oral microbiome is actually where the magic starts and where digestive enzymes begin to form!

 

 

Probiotics (beneficial bacteria) produce and regulate a number of neurotransmitters and hormones that impact our sleep, immune response & overall health.

Gut microbes also have their own daily rhythms that influence our circadian rhythms, affecting our metabolism and how we sleep. In one study, mice fed a typical Western high-seed-oil, high-sugar diet that depleted beneficial bacteria showed circadian rhythm disruptions that led to a host of other problems, like weight gain.

 

Our gut does not make good bacteria on its own. We have to manually replenish it with a combination of food like kimchi or fermented foods AND probiotic supplements. Thankfully Young Living has two amazing options: Life 9 for adults and MightyPro for kids.

 

Did you know - Stress and high emotions are the #1 way to strip your gut of beneficial bacteria? Think about the world we live in today: our emotional response is either an opportunity to thrive or to become physically sick through the state of our gut and our emotional health.

 

The pancreas produces some of these digestive enzymes, while others are produced in the stomach, and still others are secreted by the salivary glands and glands in the small intestines. Raw foods naturally contain their own enzymes that make their own digestion easier, sadly, the more refined the foods we eat, the more digestive enzymes our body must produce on its own to absorb nutrients properly.

 

Unfortunately, as we age, the gut becomes less efficient and we naturally begin to produce fewer digestive enzymes. This results in more difficulty for our bodies to completely break down the proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in the foods we eat.

 

As you can imagine this process can lead to a myriad of digestive health problems ranging from excessive gas and bloating, to food allergies and food intolerances, and eventually chronic disease.

 

Enzymes are present in all living animal and plant cells. They are actually the primary motivators of all natural biochemical processes. Simply put, life cannot exist without enzymes because they are essential components of every chemical reaction in the body. Enzymes are the only substance that can digest food and make it small enough to pass through the gastrointestinal mucosa and into the bloodstream.

 

For all these reasons, it is imperative that we use digestive enzymes with our meals. This helps alleviate a lot of stress from both our digestive and immune systems. Food enzymes act like solvents that naturally break foods down into the components that allow them to be absorbed and used by the body. They work throughout the GI tract.

 

Young Living has several different options for enzymes, so if you're interested in learning about which one is right for you, CLICK HERE!