5 STEPS TO

YOUR GUT

a m a n d a a u s t i n , r d n , c l t | h o l i s t i c d i e t i t i a n /n u t r i t i o n i s t

5 Steps to Healing Your Gut © Copyright 2015 Amanda Austin All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form or by any means (including electronic, photocopying, or recording) without the author’s written permission. www.getwellified.com The legal stuff... Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes only. You should always consult with your physician before making any changes that can affect your medical treatment plan (including changes in your fitness regimen, diet, supplement use, and others). This information is not to be used to diagnose or treat any condition. Amanda Austin is not liable for how you use the information provided. Any statements or claims about the possible health benefits provided by any foods or supplements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease... yada, yada, yada. Pssssttt… In the interest of full disclosure, this document contains some affiliate links. It doesn’t cost you anything extra to purchase through these links, but I will receive a small commission. The commission I receive allows me to continue offering my expertise and ramblings to you for free (plus my silkies would like a new chicken coop, so there’s that…). I would also never want you to lose your trust in me, so I only recommend products or services that I believe kick ass. If you purchase through my links, thanks so much! I appreciate the support! <3 Amanda

Why heal your gut? Your gut is largely your portal to health or your portal to disease. Your gut is home to tons of microbes (which have more roles in your body than you’re probably even aware of), it’s where roughly 80% of your immune system is located, it’s where many of your mood-related neurotransmitters originate from, it’s where you digest and assimilate nutrients that support your entire body, and much more. Whichever way you slice it, your gut is important. If your gut’s not in good health? Expect to feel it (in one way or another). The following sections detail the 5 steps that I’ve recommended to my clients on their paths to healing. There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to health, so tailor this info to fit your individual needs.

Hidden food sensitivities cause inflammation that wreaks havoc on your body. When you’re in a never-ending inflammatory state, the last thing your body is worried about is healing… it’s just trying to survive whatever it sees as a threat. In order to heal, your first step needs to include identifying and eliminating the foods and chemicals that your body is trying to fight off. Sensitivities can develop to just about any food (even ‘healthy’ ones) and symptoms may not occur immediately after eating a trigger food (some symptoms may take 3 or 4 days to show up). Symptoms are also dose-dependent, which means that they'll only show up when you exceed whatever your threshold is for that particular food. Sensitivities don’t necessarily stop at foods, however; you can develop sensitivities to ingredients found in things like supplements, medications, or even personal care items or household products. Symptoms of food sensitivities can include things like digestive issues, headaches/migraines, low energy levels, irritability, mood swings, weight issues, brain fog, forgetfulness, aches and pains, blood sugar imbalances, hormonal imbalances, or any number of other symptoms. Inflammation is intimately involved in most ongoing health issues, so lessoning the inflammatory load by removing foods and chemicals that cause inflammation can help with any number of health issues and symptoms. Blood testing (with the Mediator Release Test, specifically) is the quickest and most effective method of identifying food and chemical sensitivities (coupled with a customized elimination diet and reducing/eliminating environmental triggers). Visit www.getwellified.com/services/leap for more info on food sensitivities and blood testing. If you can’t get food sensitivity testing done right away, start with switching to eating whole, organic foods (avoid eating at restaurants or eating pre-packaged foods as much as possible; sugar and alcohol should definitely be avoided/eliminated while you’re in the process of healing your gut). If you eat meat and animal products, look for products from pasture-raised animals that are free of antibiotics and exogenous hormones.

STEP 1: Identify and remove foods that cause inflammation

Some of the foods that people are often sensitive to include grains (especially grains containing gluten), dairy, eggs, and nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, etc.), but this isn’t the case for everyone. Many people that I’ve worked with did fine on these foods, but had reactions to other ‘health foods’, such as coconut oil or broccoli. Everyone’s different, which is why food sensitivity testing is highly recommended.

Even good diets can produce nutrient deficiencies, which adds extra stress to your body and can prevent it from healing. Certain nutrient deficiencies are pretty common in the U.S., such as vitamin D deficiency and magnesium deficiency. Vitamin D can be made by your body when your skin is exposed to the sun. If you’re like most people, you probably spend a majority of your time indoors, which drastically reduces the amount of vitamin D you’re able to get on a day-to-day basis. (Some of the best food sources of vitamin D include fatty fish, egg yolks, pasture-raised beef liver, and milk fat from pasture-raised whole milk… but the amount of vitamin D you absorb through food pales in comparison to the amount you can make from the sun). There are also other factors that can drastically reduce the amount of vitamin D that you’re able to get from the sun… SKIN TONE - Darker skin tones produce less vitamin D in the presence of the sun (the skin pigment, melanin, blocks the sun’s UVB rays… the darker the skin tone, the more melanin that’s present); those with dark skin may require 3-6 times more sun exposure to produce the same amount of vitamin D as someone who has very fair skin. LOCATION & TIME - During the winter, at least 2/3 of the U.S. is positioned at a latitude where vitamin D production from the sun is nearly impossible (and this is even if you were so determined that you laid out in a bikini in the middle of the snow - one researcher actually tried this). The closer you are to the equator, the better your chances are of producing vitamin D during the wintery months. For the rest of us, supplementation is usually needed in the winter. During warmer months, vitamin D is best produced from mid-day sun. SUNSCREEN - Sunscreens with an SPF of 30 effectively block UVB rays, reducing vitamin D production by 95%. To make vitamin D without getting sunburned, get some sun exposure on bare skin, then lather up with sunscreen for the remainder of your time outside. (Tip: opt for a mineral-based sunscreen that’s free of “fragrance” - many popular sunscreens use synthetic chemicals that can disrupt hormonal balance, increase

STEP 2: Replace any nutrients that you’re lacking

cancer risk, and have other negative effects on health. A couple mineral-based options include: Raw Elements, ThinkBaby, and Badger. If you’re an avid DIY-er, you can also make your own! Check out DIY Sunscreen by Scratch Mommy.) WINDOWS - Windows block UVB rays pretty effectively, so vitamin D production via sun through glass is pretty much non-existent. What most people don’t know is that UVA rays do penetrate through glass, but UVA rays can actually DECREASE vitamin D levels. In hunter-gatherer days, the UVA’s ability to reduce vitamin D was a good thing - it’s the body’s fail-safe method for avoiding overproduction of vitamin D through UVB exposure. This really isn’t working in our favor nowadays, though. SOAP - Contrary to popular belief, when vitamin D is produced from the sun, the vitamin D isn’t immediately corralled into the bloodstream and ready to use; it sits on top of the skin and slowly gets absorbed (some sources say it takes between 24 to 48 hours for vitamin D to be absorbed!). If you lather up in the shower right after being outside, much of that vitamin D from the day is likely going right down the drain. CHOLERSTEROL LEVELS - This goes against what a lot of folks have been led to believe, but cholesterol has a lot of GOOD functions in the body. Cholesterol is actually a precursor to Vitamin D (it needs to be present in order for vitamin D to be manufactured). If you’re on medications that end up lowering cholesterol levels (such as statins or proton pump inhibitors), the amount of vitamin D you can make is also limited. Aside from vitamin D, magnesium is another nutrient that many folks are low in (it’s estimated that roughly 80% of people in the United States are deficient in magnesium!). Magnesium levels in food have been declining over the years - plants themselves do not actually produce magnesium, they take it up from the soil. When plants are harvested, it leaves less and less magnesium for the next generations of plants (unless the farmer actually makes the extra effort to add magnesium back into the soil… conventional farmers typically don’t). Certain chemicals used on conventional crops can also impact how much magnesium is taken up by the plants. There are also other things that can get in the way of how much magnesium you actually absorb through food. For instance, those with low stomach acid or those with digestive issues have an impaired ability to absorb magnesium through food.

Also, fluoride can bind with magnesium and make the magnesium unavailable to perform its necessary functions (depending on where you live, your water may have fluoride added to it; fluoride is also widely used in dental products and even in certain medications). Additionally, if you get a lot of calcium through your diet or through supplements, this can limit how much magnesium your body can absorb. As a side note, many people get more calcium than they actually need. When you have all this calcium in your system without some of the other nutrients needed for bone mineralization (such as vitamin K2), calcium can actually get deposited in other tissues and cause damage. This damage can lead to things like heart attacks. There are also many things that can increase your need for magnesium, such as high stress levels and on-going exposure to environmental toxins. Magnesium is needed to ease muscle tension (among other things), so if you’re constantly bombarded with stressors (that tend to cause tension/tightness), magnesium comes in high demand. Your body also requires magnesium for it’s detoxification processes, so if you’ve had a lot of exposure to toxins (like pesticides, food additives, synthetic chemicals in personal care products, and others), your need for magnesium is that much greater. Aside from vitamin D and magnesium, there are many other nutrients that you could be low in, such as vitamin B12, zinc, CoQ10, glutathione, omega-3s, or any number of other nutrients. The only way to know for sure which nutrients you’re low in is to get your micronutrient levels checked. The best test to accomplish this is SpectraCell’s micronutrient panel, as it looks at your intracellular levels of nutrients. Intracellular testing is ideal because it tells you what your body is actually using; typical serum tests just look at what’s floating around in your blood, but the mere presence of nutrients in your blood does not necessarily mean that they’re getting utilized like they should be (certain nutrients, such as magnesium, will be pulled from other areas of your body to keep serum/blood levels pretty consistent, so you could be low in magnesium, but this won’t be reflected in serum tests). Depending on your particular needs, you may need to add digestive enzymes, hydrochloric acid, or bile acids to the mix if you’re not absorbing nutrients as well as you should be (not everyone will need these products).

The microbes that hang out in your gut have more influence over you than you probably realize… it’s been found that these little guys are actually capable of turning on and off different genes (which influences how healthy you are) and they can play a role in your mood, your weight, your immune health, and much more. As you can tell, it’s a pretty good idea to keep your good gut microbes happy. How do you do that? You give them good quality, whole, organic foods (sugar and other highly processed foods tend to feed the bad bugs). You avoid artificial sweeteners and other synthetic chemicals whenever possible. You avoid conventionally raised animal products (which often contain antibiotics that can reduce the number of good bacteria your gut and give bad microbes the opportunity to take over); opt for pasture-raised, antibiotic-free, and hormone-free animal products instead. You include fermented foods in your diet (which contain colonies of good bacteria). Examples of fermented foods include: Unsweetened, organic yogurt from raw cow’s milk or goat’s milk (with “active

cultures”) Kefir, which is a beverage typically made from milk that has ‘kefir grains’ added

to it (the kefir grains are actually colonies of bacteria and yeast); you can substitute coconut milk in place of regular milk, if desired

Sauerkraut Pickled foods You include plenty of prebiotic food sources, which are foods that the good bacteria will grow and thrive on – these basically include a variety of fruits and veggies. You avoid unnecessary medications whenever possible (if you’ve been on long-term medications for certain health problems, you’d be better off figuring out why

STEP 3: Repopulate the good bacteria in your gut

you have these health issues in the first place and attack them at the source instead of covering up your symptoms with meds). If you have to take antibiotics for an illness, make sure you also take probiotics to help repopulate the good bacteria that are wiped out (Saccharomyces Boulardii is typically a good choice when you have to take antibiotics). You reduce other stressors in your life (stress negatively affects your microbiome) - more on stress in step 5. If your health has been through the ringer for a while, it’s also not a bad idea to start taking some probiotic supplements to get the ball rolling. For best results, look for supplements that contain a variety of strains, such as VSL #3, Garden of Life Primal Defense Ultra, Prescipt-Assist Broad Spectrum Probiotic & Prebiotic Complex, Just Potent Probiotic 35 Billion CFUs, and others. Just like anything else, not everyone will benefit from the same probiotics, so there’s a bit of trial and error in figuring out what’s best for you. If you have certain medical conditions, there also may be certain strains of probiotics that are more beneficial for your particular health issues.

Providing the nutrients needed for your gut to heal itself is essential. Some foods and supplements that may be particularly helpful for the gut include: L-glutamine - l-glutamine can get depleted (especially during times of stress)…

and this depletion can lead to gut permeability (i.e. leaky gut) Zinc carnosine - zinc carnosine has been shown to help re-establish the

mucosal layer of the gut DGL - deglycyrrhizinized licorice can be used for many different health issues,

including gut issues, hormonal issues, respiratory issues, fatigue, and others Bone broth - homemade bone broths contain tons of beneficial components

that are healing to the gut, including minerals, amino acids, gelatin, and others Aloe vera - when ingested, aloe vera can aid in the absorption of nutrients and

help heal your gut lining (ideally, aloe vera should come from a freshly harvested aloe plant... definitely DON’T ingest the aloe vera gel from the drugstore that you use for sunburns - there are usually other chemicals added to that!)

Slippery elm - slippery elm can help coat and soothe your gut (it also contains

antioxidants) Marshmallow root - marshmallow root can help soothe the gut (it also has anti-

inflammatory properties) There are also supplements that contain a combination of several of the items listed above, such as Glutagenics (contains l-glutamine, DGL, and aloe) and Pure Encapsulations DGL Plus (contains DGL, aloe, slippery elm, and marshmallow root), among others. **Before taking any new supplements, check with your doctor to make sure your supplements won’t interfere with your medications or medical treatment plan.**

STEP 4: Repair your gut tissue

As mentioned before, stress can play a big role in your healing process. In terms of stress’s impact on health, it can increase your likelihood of developing new food and chemical sensitivities, it can cause imbalances in the good and bad bacteria in your gut, it can create a greater need for certain nutrients (potentially leading to nutrient deficiencies), and it can put you at an increased risk of developing any number of chronic health issues (it’s estimated that stress is involved with over 95% of chronic health issues!). In fact, If you go through steps 1 through 4 on this guide and you don’t address the stress in your life, it’s likely that many of your health issues will return (or you’ll develop a whole new host of health issues to contend with). I don’t want that for you, so make sure you get your stress under control! Determining the sources of your stress and finding ways to restore peace and balance are absolutely imperative, not only for your health, but for your overall happiness and quality of life. Some stressors may be completely obvious (like stressing over bills or rushing to meet a deadline), but there are also plenty of stressors that are not-so-obvious. I believe so strongly in tackling the stressors in your life that I actually wrote a book on the topic - Stress Detox: Ditch the stress, reclaim your life. In the book, I uncover what stress does to your body, the many different types of stressors that are wiggling their way into your life, and ways to work past these stressors. The methods listed are extremely actionable, so you’ll know exactly what you can do to move forward. It’s also written in an easy-to-understand, conversational tone (so you won’t need a freaking science degree just to understand what I’m saying).

STEP 5: Bring balance to your life

I hope you found this guide helpful! If you’d like to receive more individualized guidance and support, I’d love to help! Feel free to reach out to me on my website: www.getwellified.com and we’ll kick your health issues in the teeth, together. Cheers to your health, Amanda

About Me

Hey, I’m Amanda Austin. I'm kind of a rebel. I'm a dietitian, but not your everyday dietitian. I don't work in a hospital (no, thank you), I have a love of butter (and bacon… mmmmm, bacon), I work with people online and over the phone (sometimes without pants on - shhhh, don't tell), and I've been known to have a bit of a potty mouth (damn skippy). I don't really believe in diets (unless you have food sensitivities - that's different) and I loathe calorie counting... I also believe wholeheartedly in getting to the root of illness instead of just chasing symptoms. I definitely don't just blindly follow the herd. Just so you know I'm legit… I have a Bachelor's degree in dietetics from Michigan State University (go

Spartans!) I completed my dietetic internship at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI (which

is how I discovered that hospitals weren't for me) I passed the Registration Examination for Dietitians in January 2009 I worked at a community nutrition program for 4 years (which is how I discovered

I needed to be my own boss) I did some consulting work for a weight loss company (which is when I really

discovered my distaste for just handing out diets and meal plans) I started my private practice in January 2013 (and haven't looked back since) I became a Certified LEAP Therapist in the summer of 2013 (which sparked my

love of integrative and functional medicine)

I've spent a lot of time reading studies and books and talking with some of my amazing colleagues, so I'm pretty up-to-date with my knowledge and rec's

I’m also really good at reading between the lines and getting to the truth of the

matter When I'm not helping clients kick their health issues in the teeth, I can be found… Tending to my flock of silkies (which are basically the

lap-cats of the chicken world) Experimenting in the kitchen Watching the Bachelor/Bachelorette (don't judge!) Sipping some wine from local wineries Enjoying the company of some pretty amazing people Dressing my cats up in cute little outfits (they don't

mind it that much) Pondering the mysteries of the universe Helping my husband with whatever wacky scheme

he's up to (and when I say help, what I really mean to say is I stand in the corner shaking my head in amazement with my glass of wine… #truth)

Making lists with bullet points (lots and lots of bullet points)

If you’d like to continue this fun-fest (and finally get a handle on your health and life), check me out on my website: www.getwellified.com. xo, Amanda