Healing your gut – the mind and brain

Gut and Biofilm Protocol:  The rebuild – brain and mind side. 

Gut issues are extremely common.  Many people have an unhealthy balance of bacteria in their gut.  This can cause gut symptoms, immune dysfunction, brain fog and many other issues.  This protocol is a mouth to bottom approach, working through the various issues that tend to happen.   There are no antibacterials or anti fungals in this protocol, it is designed to rebalance gut flora by creating the right environment for a healthy flora to thrive. 

For lasting gut health, it is important to look at the effect of the mind on the gut.  Chronic stress is a major driver of gut dysfunction.  We also do have to remember that effects run the other way too.  A dysbiotic inflamed and leaky gut causes inflammation and changed function in the brain too.  Anxiety and depression are just two of the mental health conditions that have links to the health of the gut. 

The following section explains the effects of stress on the gut.  You don’t have to read it, but for those who need to know why, and for those who need a reason why they need to do something, here it is. 

The Why and How of it all:

Stress – the bane of modern life, is also very destructive on the gut.  The first thought people tend to have is that they have stress in their lives that they can’t do much about at the moment, so they feel like they can’t do anything to help themselves.  Whilst we can’t alter what is happening around us, where we do have control is how that stress affects us.  There are various ways to manage stress, and it is very helpful to incorporate several different methods into your daily life. 

The part of our nervous system that controls all the automatic functions of the body (digestion, heartbeat speed, breathing, sweating, goosebumps, blood vessel size etc) is called the autonomic nervous system.  

There are two parts to the autonomic nervous system.  The parasympathetic system is the part that does the ‘rest and digest’ functions.  Your body will be relaxed, able to repair, have good blood supply to the gut and digest food properly.  The good blood supply to the gut gets the right amount of oxygen to the lining of the gut to keep it in good repair, and is also very important for supplying oxygen to the beneficial bacteria in the gut.

 When we are chronically stressed, the sympathetic nervous system is over dominant.  This is the part of our nervous system designed to get us away from danger.  It’s the ‘Fight, fright, flight, freeze’ responses.  Blood supply gets diverted from our digestive organs, and to the heart, lungs and muscles so that we can run away from trouble as fast as we can.  When we are in a sympathetic nervous system dominant state our brains are hyper alert, looking for threat, anxious and afraid.  It’s an underlying state of ‘where’s the tiger, there is a tiger somewhere, it might get me, where is it, there’s a tiger, I can’t find the tiger, I have to know where it is, where’s the tiger’ on a fairly constant basis.   This system served us well when we were hunter gatherers and living in less civilised times.  We would have short periods of intense stress, then go back to our normal relaxed state.   Modern life has made these stress responses into more of a constant lower level activation, and so leading to loss of balance in the nervous system, with too much time spent in a stress state.  Our brains cannot tell the difference between a real threat and one created by our thoughts.  Many people experience chronic emotional stress, work stress, financial stress, relationship stress etc, and this keeps them in a sympathetic dominant state.  Much of the content we access on social media on our phones is also high in conflict, perceived danger, suspense, the doom, gloom and danger of 24hr world and national news, true crime reports and re-enactments etc.  Our brains perceive this as if it was happening to us, and this again provokes a stress response.   Pretty quickly we are in a sympathetic dominant state for all our waking hours.  

The impact of being in a sympathetic dominant state (SDS) is huge.  We produce the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline to exert many of the effects of our stress response.  These are not meant to be constantly released in our bodies.  Excess cortisol is associated with increased inflammation in our bodies, increased abdominal fat, increased release of glucose into the blood, changed immune responses, suppression of the digestive system, suppression of the reproductive system, poor sleep, increased risk of heart disease and high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. 

The reason the sympathetic nervous system dominant state is so problematic in the gut is that the diversion of blood away from the digestive system leads to a drop in oxygen supply to the lining of the intestines.  The Lining of the gut struggles to maintain the proper barrier between the contents of the gut (food particles, bacteria, yeasts, fungi, viruses) and the blood supply flowing from the gut to the liver.  Food fragments, bacterial fragments and toxins then get into the blood stream and this leads to body-wide low level inflammation.  Chronic low level inflammation is a driver of many chronic physical and mental health conditions.  In addition the gut doesn’t repair properly and the gut flora is undersupplied with oxygen, leading to loss of beneficial gut flora, and increased levels of detrimental, dysbiotic flora.  The delicate balance of the gut microbiome is disrupted, again leading to gut issues, inflammation and ill-health. 

What to do about it:

Retrain the brain. 

A major principle in  neuroscience is that Neurons(nerve cells) that fire together wire together.  This means that  the more often we think of a certain situation, opinion of our selves, awful event, humiliation, stressful situation etc, the more wired into our brain that thought becomes and the more likely we are to go down that track, and cause the subsequent activation of our stress response and release of stress hormones, with their effect on our guts. 

• Many people get repetitive or intrusive thoughts, or find themselves running imaginary worst case scenarios on a daily basis.  Telling yourself not to think that way or resisting those thoughts is counter productive.   If you try not to think about green cats wearing red hats, that image or thought is in your head straight away.  Instead, recognise that that thought has happened and think of or do something else.  Be kind to your brain, it has gone down a familiar path of thought which just needs a nudge to change it into a more helpful/ less stressful thought or action.  There are a variety of different techniques:
• Distraction.  Stay in the present moment, count leaves on a tree, number of red cars, make up phrases/ names from the letters on a numberplate, count backwards from 100, tap the beat of a song or piece of music
• Appreciation.  Think of the 5 best things that have happened/ been achieved today – even if it is a seemingly small thing
• Box breathing.  So called because there are 4 parts of it, like the sides of a square.  First side= breath in for the count of 4.  Second side= hold your breath for a count of 4.  Third side=breath out for a count of 4.   Forth side = hold for a count of 4.  Then repeat the process.  Over time people find this easier to do for longer.  Try for a couple of minutes. 
• Heartspeak is a very useful therapy, unwinding trauma and distress without having to re-tell the story of it.
• Cognitive behavioural therapy, emotional freedom technique, Psych-K, eye movement desensitisation therapy are all useful therapies to assist. 
• Recognise that your thinking has gone into a habitual stress/ conflict/ worry mode, notice that that has happened and do something to change the direction of your thoughts.  It is important to keep this noticing free from blame, as blame and shame are unhelpful.  Kindly noticing is a more helpful approach. 
• Avoid doom scrolling through social media and news sites.  So much of it is conflict based or designed to make you feel inadequate.  Most is also based on short term gratification and a short term reward/ dopamine boost.  In the long term this is unhelpful for us and our brains.

Vagal tone  – for balancing up the nervous system into a more repair and regenerative state.   There are many different vagal tone exercises and techniques online.   Select ones that work for you and your life.  Aim to include some of these practices daily. 

• Yoga is excellent, meditation, chanting, singing etc. 
• 30 mins of classical music (Mozart is the one studied) before bed helps.
• Reducing the light level in the bedroom at night is also very helpful.  Blackout curtains are highly recommended.
•  Turning your wifi off at night – a timer switch is useful there, and having your phone on airplane mode when you sleep. 
• Polyvagal therapy is very useful for many people.  There is a good article here with a pdf for some exercises that help regulate vagal tone.  https://positivepsychology.com/polyvagal-theory/
• Anchor breathing, Alternate nostril breathing or square breathing – all listed under the ’10 poly vagal exercises to use in therapy’ section of the link above. 
• Exercise helps improve vagal tone. 
• Singing
• Meditation
• Mindfulness
• For those very deeply into a permanently stressed state, a vagal tone device may be very helpful.  Nurosym is expensive but has good research.  There are other cheaper devices available. 

Sleep

We cannot overstate the importance of good sleep.  Many people are sleep deprived and do not get 7-8 hours good quality sleep.  Health issues are much more common for those who get less than 5 hours sleep a night.  We use sleep to do a not of renewing, repairing and household tasks for the body.  This includes the cell equivalent of taking out the rubbish.  We need sleep time to do this clean up and reset. 

• Finish eating at least 2 hours before bed..  Eating then going to sleep means that we are actively digesting for a major part of our sleep time, instead of doing the repair work. 
• Going for a walk after eating can also be useful. 
• Exercise helps sleep quality.  Move your body in a way that is fun for you.  Walk more if you can. 
• Sleep in a dark room – no night lights, screens on etc.   Sleep quality is better in the dark.  Blackout curtains and blinds are very useful for those living in well-lit areas.
• Avoid using screens in bed
• Use a grounding sheet.
• Set an alarm for the time that you want to start the going to bed process, and stick to it. 
• Turn your wifi and cell phone off at night if you can.  I put my modem on a timer plug so I don’t have to think about it. 
• Listen to 30 mins of classical music before bed.  Mozart’s music has been particularly studied for this.  30 mins of Mozart for children with epilepsy increased parasympathetic tone (that’s the rest, digest and repair mode) and lead to a drop in nighttime fits. 
• A cool bedroom leads to better sleep.
• Avoid staying in bed for hours once awake, even if you feel tired.  For most people, staying in bed 9 hours plus is unhelpful and increases sleep dysfunction. 
• Magnesium supplementation can really help sleep.  Aim for a chelated form of magnesium such as magnesium glycinate/ bisglycinate, thionate, malate etc.  Avoid the carbonate, sulphate and oxide forms of any minerals as these are the cheapest and least absorbable minerals. 
• Improving gut health also helps sleep. 

Eating

This section is not about what you eat, it is about how and when you eat, which is also very important.

• Eat in a relaxed way instead of on the run.  Your body digests and uses food differently and more healthily if you eat more mindfully, take a little time and are in a relaxed situation when you eat. 
• Chew food really well, it is far easier to digest and you are less likely to overeat.
• Eat with joy.  If you eat a burger, chips and chocolate cake in one meal for instance, then enjoy every mouthful!  Feel the bliss of the crunch, chew and taste.  Go to awe with your chocolate cake.  The pleasure and enjoyment is very good for us.  Eating the same meal feeling guilty and blaming yourself, or worrying about the impact on your weight is just going to make you anxious and stressed, which will affect gut and brain health in a negative way.  If you eat with enjoyment, your body can use the food better, and you are also much more able to make intelligent food decisions for the rest of the day/ week.  For instance, after a fast food meal,  having a salad with lots of different plant ingredients and a healthy olive oil based dressing for your next meal to provide some beneficial phytonutrients.
• Consider a gentle walk after eating to help food move through the digestive system.  These are sometimes known as fart walks. 

Remember that having fun, laughing and doing what brings joy to you is also very important for your health and well being.   Live life to the full, laugh, do daft things, treat yourself, let off steam, only be really sensible 80-90% of the time regarding food.