Episode 50
Gut Health 101: Why Your Microbiome Matters More Than You Think
Today's episode focuses on the critical importance of gut health and its profound connection to overall well-being, including immune function, digestion, and even mental health. Savannah shares her personal journey of healing from chronic health issues, emphasizing that a balanced gut microbiome is essential for nurturing a healthy body and mind. She discusses various aspects of gut health, such as the gut-brain axis, the impact of stress on digestive function, and practical steps listeners can take to improve their gut health, including dietary changes and stress management techniques. Savannah also highlights her experiences with pregnancy and how gut health played a role in her journey. With insights and actionable advice, this episode aims to empower listeners to take charge of their health through a better understanding of their gut.
Takeaways:
- Gut health significantly influences overall physical health, mental well-being, and emotional stability.
- Stress management is crucial because chronic stress negatively impacts gut function and microbiome balance.
- A diverse diet rich in prebiotics and probiotics is essential for gut health improvement.
- Understanding the gut-brain connection can help address issues like anxiety and depression.
- Regular exercise and quality sleep are vital components of maintaining a healthy gut.
- Seeking professional help and proper diagnosis can guide effective treatment for gut-related issues.
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Transcript
Foreign.
Savannah:Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Casting Seeds.
Savannah:I'm Savannah, your holistic health practitioner and host, and you are listening to the only holistic health podcast that uses God's singular truth to give you individualized discernment.
Savannah:Today's podcast episode has, well, I should say a surprise at the very beginning that I'm going to tell you.
Savannah:And then also we are going getting into the importance of gut health and also what that means with the gut health body connection, because this was a huge aspect of what helped heal my body this past year and my husband's body to prepare him for future job opportunities that are coming up for him and also to prepare me for what has accidentally, joyfully happened, which was us getting pregnant.
Savannah:And now today, we are seven and a half weeks into our pregnancy.
Savannah:And that was another big reason why we had to take a break over Christmas and New Year's, because we had big things happen with our pregnancy, including we lost a lot of blood actually on my birthday on December 29th.
Savannah:So we had to have an emergency OB appointment.
Savannah:And that went beautifully.
Savannah:And I'm super thankful for the people that we have on Facebook and Instagram that are followers and friends and just church community that were able to reach out and pray for us and pray over our baby because that was quite scary.
Savannah:And as you guys know, we had four miscarriages in the past.
Savannah:And I always had an inkling that gut health had a lot to do with it.
Savannah:And when I discovered that I had chronic candida, which was an overgrowth of yeast in my gut, that changed everything.
Savannah:And I will explain why here today.
Savannah:And I want you guys to be able to break down your own gut patterns and to be able to assess your own family so that you can be your own healthc care advocates in that way of understanding your own gut health.
Savannah:Okay, so we're going to break that down today.
Savannah:So first we're going to go over the importance of gut health.
Savannah:Then we're going to get into the gut brain axis and I'll kind of explain that in a moment.
Savannah:After that, we're going to get into immune system and inflammation and what that means and what it looks like, digestion and nutrient absorption, because that's really important.
Savannah:Skin health and gut health access, like the gut to skin variables are so connected and people don't talk about that very often.
Savannah:Next we're going to go into hormonal balances, how it affects your hormones or doesn't affect your hormones, chronic disease prevention, and then of course, steps to improve your gut health and basically at the end, a call to action, like what you can do, simple steps to first analyze and then assess and process and how to go from there.
Savannah:So I'm going to go over a lot today, and I've been wanting to do an episode like this more in depth for a long time.
Savannah:And you guys have been asking for this for quite some time.
Savannah:We also have a ton of.
Savannah:I think I have five interviews lined up.
Savannah:And I'm also going on another podcast next week, which will be really fun, and we'll be sharing that as well.
Savannah:And.
Savannah:Yeah.
Savannah:So let's jump into the importance of gut health.
Savannah:So first, we want to define gut health.
Savannah:What is it and what is a healthy gut and what does it look like?
Savannah:So a healthy gut is having a healthy understanding of what your microbiome is.
Savannah:It's a community of trillions of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes.
Savannah:So you have to have a healthy gut microbiome by balancing the bacteria, the fungi, and the microbes, which microbes also include parasites.
Savannah:I know that there's a huge.
Savannah:There is a huge trend, as Jeremiah likes to say, of parasite cleanses and people wanting to remove all of the fungi from their gut, all of the bacteria from their gut, all.
Savannah:Well, I guess not bacteria now, but I feel like B, removing bacteria was a thing.
Savannah:Fifteen years ago, everyone was super into just like deleting all their bacteria.
Savannah:Now they're realizing that's bad.
Savannah:And I think that swing is now happening for parasites.
Savannah:People don't realize that they are good, healthy parasites.
Savannah:And if you're alive, you have parasites in you.
Savannah:Of course there are bad ones.
Savannah:Same thing with bad bacteria and bad yeast.
Savannah:But there are good ones as well that help balance out your gut.
Savannah:So then going from there, understanding that the gut is actually called the second brain is huge.
Savannah:And it's because the entric nervous system is a part of your gut.
Savannah:And what that does is, is it helps realign and reassess how all of your hormones are used and distributed throughout your entire body.
Savannah:How food, where food is taken, why it's taken to certain cells.
Savannah:Your gut controls all of that with your microbiome.
Savannah:So if you have a poor microbiome, it will command improper things to that nervous system, and then it commands your brain in the wrong way.
Savannah:I actually like to say that your gut is your first brain and your brain is your second brain.
Savannah:Because if your gut is not feeding nutritionally and correctly to your brain, your brain and hormones and nervous system and muscles and fascia tissue and everything that you do Even the way that you breathe is not going to work properly.
Savannah:So, yes, the gut is called the second brain, but in my opinion, it's the first brain.
Savannah:And why gut health has become so popular to focus on holistic wellness is because holistic health kind of has these health trends, right, where, sorry, I get out of breath, literally from being pregnant.
Savannah:But I also, when I get hyped, I feel like I can't breathe.
Savannah:But what happens in holistic health trends is people start to get really, really excited about one thing and they forget that holistic wellness is whole mind, body, spirit and emotional health.
Savannah:Wellness, right?
Savannah:So if I'm going to a doctor, like, I saw three doctors today, not one of them, because none of them holistic doctors sat down and really questioned, like, oh, Savannah, like, do you have any high stress going on in your life?
Savannah:Have you had any true complications that have made things a little bit more difficult or put more stress on the baby or made you more tired?
Savannah:How has your diet been?
Savannah:They don't connect everything.
Savannah:They don't ask me, like, how do you have a belief?
Savannah:Do you feel like you have community around you?
Savannah:Like, these types of things are really important.
Savannah:Especially imagine if I was a single mother going into these appointments and I had no one to back me up at home.
Savannah:I was working fully.
Savannah:I'm not able to rest as much in my first trimester.
Savannah:I literally don't know how I'd be functioning if I didn't have Jeremiah around to help me.
Savannah:He's literally doing everything.
Savannah:That's why he's not on this episode today.
Savannah:I'm letting him rest because he's been having to cook and clean and do the laundry and do everything for both of us and the house and the dogs and his future baby.
Savannah:Because I've been out, I haven't been able to do diddly squiddly for three weeks at least, but especially the last two.
Savannah:So with that being said, stress management and emotional and other physical health ailments can affect your gut health.
Savannah:And even today, when I was answering a question on the toxin free living group that I help and answer free questions on, a woman actually answered and or asked a question.
Savannah:And I loved that she was honest, saying, like, I have chronic tmj.
Savannah:My job is really stressful.
Savannah:I can never relax.
Savannah:And she actually spoke about how stressed out she was.
Savannah:And then afterwards said that she had chronic gut problems.
Savannah:And so I sent her the Holmes Ray test scale test stress scale.
Savannah:And I told her that until she takes this test and if it shows that her test Scale is actually a lot lower in her stress, then I would love to address those gut problems with her.
Savannah:But until she addresses the stress, it's not likely that her gut problems are going to go away.
Savannah:Because the first system that shuts down when you are stress stressed is your gut.
Savannah:And I just want to make that clear.
Savannah:If you have any type of chronic stress, whether it's a physical stress, an emotional stress, or an ailment in any way, shape or form, or even a spiritual stress, your gut is the first thing that shuts down.
Savannah:And why?
Savannah:Because it takes a lot of energy and a lot of mental fortitude.
Savannah:Without you even thinking about it, your body has to break down all those nutrients and send them to all the right places.
Savannah:So if you are chronically stressed and you are not sitting and eating properly, relaxing and having that communal aspect with your food and truly resting in those moments, you will not be able to give your body the time and space to have proper nutrient placement basically in your body.
Savannah:So with that, I want to say that your gut biome is connected to everything in your body.
Savannah:And normally when people come and ask me about, like, psoriasis and basically anything in their body, the first thing I ask them is, have you gotten a Dutch test to check your gut or a Dutch test to check your urine, your ph balance in your body?
Savannah:And most people have no idea what I'm talking about.
Savannah:So let's get into the gut brain access and we can start breaking that down together.
Savannah:So the first point I want to make is kind of going back into the last thing that we just mentioned, how the gut brain communicates together via the vagus nerve and the neurotransmitters.
Savannah:So if you have been in holistic health at all, you know that the vagus nerve is the most important nerve for turning on your parasympathetic nervous system.
Savannah:Your parasympathetic nervous system basically calms down your fight or flight response.
Savannah:So when you go get a massage, it's kind of the best way to explain it.
Savannah:Or take calming herbs or just breathe outside and, I don't know, do some grounding work.
Savannah:I guess if you like to do that, you like to walk barefoot outside, uh, if you go and do those things, if you do anything that calms you and relaxes you, like, I don't getting in the word and praying and having that meditation with the Lord, your parasympathetic nervous system should be turning on at that point, right?
Savannah:When your parasympathetic nervous system turns on, I'm gonna Let's see.
Savannah:I think I have a list here of all the organs that it works with.
Savannah:And they're vital organs.
Savannah:They're.
Savannah:No jokes.
Savannah:It is the.
Savannah:Let's see.
Savannah:There's the limerical gland, which I don't even know what that is.
Savannah:It has to do with your brain, your eyes, your Salvatore, your Salvador.
Savannah:Why can't I say this right now?
Savannah:Salivary glands, the ones that make spit.
Savannah:Why can't I say it?
Savannah:Salivary.
Savannah:Oh, my.
Savannah:I'm gonna pregnancy.
Savannah:Brain is gonna be fun.
Savannah:Your heart rate, which I feel like is very common for people to understand.
Savannah:Your lungs, your liver, gallbladder, stomach, spleen, pancreas, small and large, intestine, rectum, kidneys, bladder, your penis and scrotum.
Savannah:And if you're a woman, your ovaries and uterus.
Savannah:So it affects your.
Savannah:Basically any of the nerves in your eyes, the nerves that have to do with your digestive system.
Savannah:So your salivary glands start your digestive enzymes.
Savannah:Your.
Savannah:Which are two glands.
Savannah:And I'm looking at it.
Savannah:Your nerves that have to do with your heart, any type of respiratory, your blood, because it affects your kidneys and your liver and gallbladder.
Savannah:Again, digestive because of the stomach, spleen, pancreas, large and small, intestine, your rectum.
Savannah:So even the way that you use the restroom, it can affect.
Savannah:Affect that.
Savannah:That's why people who are chronically stressed will either get chronic diarrhea or constipation.
Savannah:It will affect your urinary incontinence and also your pelvic floor, especially with your breath.
Savannah:Because if you're hyperventilating like this and breathing out of your mouth all the time, it actually TR.
Savannah:Triggers your fight or flight response.
Savannah:Instead of your parasympathetic response, which is breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Savannah:Again, in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Savannah:And even me just doing that, I can feel my heart settling down, even though I get really excited about these, like, topics.
Savannah:So understanding that sitting, just even sitting to eat, let alone the position that you eat in, is actually really important.
Savannah:If you're standing while you're eating, it actually causes a 30% jump in your fight or flight response.
Savannah:Because your body cannot sit and relax to allow your digestive enzymes to eat properly.
Savannah:Also, how many times you chew is very important.
Savannah:Some people in certain cultures will even throw their own spit, like they will communally.
Savannah:I'm not saying I like this or agree with this, okay?
Savannah:Because thinking about it just made the me gag a little.
Savannah:But they will communally spit into the food that they are eating or cup so they can all have different types of digestive enzymes in it.
Savannah:And just thinking about it is making my mouth water, but not in a good way.
Savannah:Like I feel like I'm going to vomit anyway.
Savannah:The role of moving on from neurotransmitters, the role of gut bacteria in producing serotonin.
Savannah:So again, serotonin can only happen when you're in a relaxed state, not when you're in a chronic fight orf flight state.
Savannah:But about 990 of serotonin is made in the gut.
Savannah:So if you have chronic depression and depression issues, it will only get worse if you have poor gut bacteria and a poor gut microbiome.
Savannah:Okay.
Savannah:The connection between gut health and mental health issues like anxiety, depression and brain fog are also like, that's when people have any of those problems, I immediately go to what's your lifestyle like and what's your gut health like?
Savannah:And when I ask people like, do you eat a variety of fermented foods?
Savannah:They assume that like pickles are fermented, but pickles are pickled, they're not fermented.
Savannah:And that might be another.
Savannah:Maybe that will be the next topic of discussion going into and understanding the difference between fermentation and pickling, because those are very different.
Savannah:One is made with a vinegar base and it pickles.
Savannah:I don't know how to explain it.
Savannah:I mean.
Savannah:And the other one ferments with yeast and sugars.
Savannah:Kind of like Kombucha, which we've been making.
Savannah:And if you've been following along, you saw us create an accident, a mag at Kombucha, which was like, again, thinking about.
Savannah:It's making me gag a little.
Savannah:Any who.
Savannah:Also, the impact of stress on the gut function can cause things like IBS and leaky gut, but also just chronic inflammation in general.
Savannah:And chronic stress in general, like I said earlier, will completely shut down your gut system and microbiome because your gut has to stop working for your body to be able to process the extreme amounts of hormones that are now high cortisol levels and other things like that for fight or flight.
Savannah:So your body can't process both at the same time.
Savannah:So your body's going to say, you know what, let's flush this food out of the system.
Savannah:Or it will say, you know what, let's store this food.
Savannah:So, you know, the people who get really skinny when they're stressed or start to gain weight, this is, this is when that happens.
Savannah:It happens because your body's now in A survival mode.
Savannah:That's what fight or flight is that.
Savannah:That's what that response is.
Savannah:So it's a healthy response.
Savannah:But you can see how it becomes unhealthy if it happens significantly over time.
Savannah:So chronic diarrhea, chronic constipation, chronic bloating, anything that is longer than three weeks is considered chronic.
Savannah:I feel like I.
Savannah:I feel like I need to say it again.
Savannah:Longer than three weeks is considered chronic.
Savannah:So if you've been dealing with these things for a significant amount of time, and some people will come to me and be like, yeah, you know, I've had this for four years.
Savannah:And I'm like.
Savannah:And at one point, did you realize this isn't a normal thing for you because it became your regular neutral?
Savannah:Your neutral when it passed a month?
Savannah:Basically you decided, like, this is going to be my new life.
Savannah:Why?
Savannah:Why did you decide that?
Savannah:And you know what?
Savannah:I'm not gonna blame anyone because I've had the same thing, because sometimes these things just happen slowly and you don't notice.
Savannah:But this is why you check in with your body.
Savannah:And we've had episodes in the past on how to do that and how to check in with your body.
Savannah:We also have body mapping episodes on how to check in with different body parts and allow your body to speak to you.
Savannah:And then you can understand, like, what your body's actually saying.
Savannah:So definitely watch those body mapping episodes.
Savannah:There's some of your guys's favorite episodes, which I really love because they're fun and they're kind of silly.
Savannah:And you get to hear Jeremiah and I analyze each other, which can be really embarrassing.
Savannah:Anyway, on to the immune system and inflammation.
Savannah:So the guts role is housing 70 to 80% of the immune system.
Savannah:Did you hear that?
Savannah:70 to 80%.
Savannah:People tend to think of their immune system being more in.
Savannah:What did I hear the other day?
Savannah:Oh, like in their blood, like their kidneys and liver and like, I don't know, it's interesting because, yes, those are part of your digestive system, but they're not, like, the whole aspect.
Savannah:And I feel like I hear, oh, they're thyroid.
Savannah:I also hear a lot of people say, like, oh, yeah, you know, like, my thyroid's doing really well.
Savannah:And I was like, well, that's great.
Savannah:But that's more of a housing of control for your hormones, not so much your immune system.
Savannah:How's your immune system going?
Savannah:So if you have a weakened immune system, which most chronic diseases, most of the issues that I have, which I've had been diagnosed with PCOS Hashimoto's and Celiac disease.
Savannah:Those all started because I destroyed my gut biome when I was younger.
Savannah:Not know.
Savannah:I mean, obviously I was a kid, so we didn't know.
Savannah:With additives, food dyes, sugars, and then on top of that, antibiotic after antibiotic, and then yeast overtook my body.
Savannah:So then I became nutrient deficient.
Savannah:And then what happened is my immune system stopped working properly and I would get bloating.
Savannah:I'd gain weight severely in one year and then drop weight severely the next year.
Savannah:My body was screaming at me and I didn't know how to read it or understand it properly.
Savannah:So obviously my body was screaming at me that I had an immune system inflammation and I didn't know what to do or where to go from there.
Savannah:And I promise you we'll get there.
Savannah:But how imbalances in the microbiome, which is called dysbiosis, contribute to gut inflammation is once your body, and I'll use Candida as the example, cannot process the nutrients properly.
Savannah:What it does is it either flushes or stores, which we talked about earlier.
Savannah:Uh, and what my body did is because it had such severe malabsorption of nutrients, it's like my body started basically eating itself from the inside out.
Savannah:It would ate away at my muscle and a lot of my organs because it wasn't getting the proper nutrients it needed.
Savannah:And then it stored more fat.
Savannah:So my body was in fight or flight and survival mode.
Savannah:And it didn't matter how much I relaxed or how many retreats I would go on or whatever.
Savannah:It didn't matter how healthy I ate.
Savannah:I had to kill what was thriving in my microbiome first.
Savannah:And that took years for me to figure out.
Savannah:So it's also good for you to recognize, like, am I in the diagnosis stage?
Savannah:Am I in the attack stage, where we're going to attack and kill this thing?
Savannah:Which means I have to have an extreme diet, a very limited diet, or am I in the healing stage and mending stage?
Savannah:Or the fourth stage is am I in, like, I'm a new healthy neutral.
Savannah:I can now eat things and I don't have to worry as much about my gut.
Savannah:A lot of people tend to get in the vicious cycle of the first two stages, which there's the diagnosis stage and then the extreme stage of like killing things.
Savannah:Diagnosis and then killing it.
Savannah:And then they never heal their gut to back to a healthy neutral, so they can never eat normally again.
Savannah:And that's the cycle I want to help you guys break out of, because that's what I was in for so long, for so long, and it was exhausting.
Savannah:Most autoimmune disorders, their link is to poor gut health.
Savannah:I could probably even say, like not even just most, but all of them have a huge link towards poor gut health.
Savannah:Because your immune system isn't going to work properly.
Savannah:Because remember, 70 to 80% of your immune system is in your gut.
Savannah:So if that is down to like working at a 20% rate, your autoimmune disorder probability is going to go up significantly, especially if it runs in your family.
Savannah:So some strategies to boost your immune gut health is like what I said earlier, get a diagnosis.
Savannah:After you get a diagnosis, follow the protocol properly, which means you're going to do the proper diet, you're going to take the right medicine, even if it's not all natural.
Savannah:You can try all natural at first, it may take longer.
Savannah:That's what happened to me.
Savannah:But if you end up having to do use more allopathic medicine, which is western medicine, that's okay.
Savannah:But guess what, it's all for a season and for a time.
Savannah:It shouldn't be something that you take forever.
Savannah:Same with the herbal medicine.
Savannah:And then after that, after that designated time, whether it's three months or a year, whatever, two years, then you have to go into the healing process.
Savannah:So you're still a little more strict on your diet, but things are going to start changing.
Savannah:And then after that you can start testing, you know, can I have a piece of cake?
Savannah:No, I can't.
Savannah:That destroyed my gut.
Savannah:I gotta revert there.
Savannah:Oh, can I, can I have an apple?
Savannah:Oh my gosh.
Savannah:I did so well, you know what I mean?
Savannah:So play with it and don't be discouraged.
Savannah:And yes, the longer you've had your chronic issues for, you may have to be healing and attacking and doing all those things a little bit longer, but it's going to be worth it for the, in the long run.
Savannah:Digestion and nutrition, absorption I mentioned earlier, but I just want to get the point across that the importance of gut bacteria is breaking down food and absorbing nutrients.
Savannah:So if you don't have a plethora of different types of healthy bacterias in your gut, then that means when you eat different types of foods from different types of cultures, your body will literally not have the bacteria cultures, the diverse cultures, to break down the different ethnic foods.
Savannah:Does that make sense?
Savannah:I feel like when I heard that I was like, oh yeah, bacterias have cultures, humans have cultures.
Savannah:This makes sense.
Savannah:Like if I want to eat more Asian food, I Should probably eat more kimchi and more fermented foods from Asian cultures to help break down literally the Asian cultures.
Savannah:In my gut, signs of poor digestion obviously can, like, include bloating and constipation and nutrient deficiencies as well.
Savannah:So, like, if you have vitamin D deficiencies, vitamin A, whenever you get those random deficiencies, they're not random.
Savannah:They're there for a reason.
Savannah:And the role of prebiotics and probiotics are about improving digestion.
Savannah:People take a ton of probiotics, but they don't support their gut health with prebiotics, and that is eating fermented foods.
Savannah:Fermented foods are your prebiotics.
Savannah:You cannot go on in life without eating fermented foods and getting your kids into it earlier, just like we've talked about with organ meats or other things that don't seem familiar.
Savannah:And culturally, for thousands of years, we as humans have been eating fermented foods and organ meats and different types of fruits and veggies and things like that.
Savannah:Kids have been so limited to exposure of different foods and where it comes from.
Savannah:And the earlier you do it to yourself and your children, the more you expose them to this, the more you are going to heal their gut, even if they were born without a healthy gut.
Savannah:And that's the biggest thing that Jeremiah and I are trying to do to give our baby the best fighting chance.
Savannah:The first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Savannah:It's not recommended to expose your baby to tons of different pre and probiotics.
Savannah:I mean, prebiotics are okay, but still not great.
Savannah:We want to start introducing that more in the 13th week of pregnancy and start introducing different types of gut bacterias that are healthy for the baby and won't overstimulate the baby.
Savannah:But doing that years prior and building up to being pregnant, you won't have to worry as much, which is what we did this past year and a half.
Savannah:Your skin also tells you a lot about your gut health.
Savannah:And man, when people come to me with psoriasis questions, even Jeremiah, he used to have severe psoriasis, especially on his face and head.
Savannah:And since we've been healing his gut, he barely has any eczema or psoriasis.
Savannah:But a good way to tell if you have a gut imbalance is skin issues like acne, eczema, rosacea, and psoriasis.
Savannah:Those are like the top ones.
Savannah:The role of gut health in reintroducing oxidative stress and improving skin clarity is also really important.
Savannah:So oxidative stress, the difference between oxidative stress and regular chronic stress is oxidative.
Savannah:Stress is something that you just experience throughout the day.
Savannah:Like it's a small thing, it happened, but then your body's able to come down from it.
Savannah:So because stress can be healthy, it gets your blood pumping, it gets your body going.
Savannah:When you work out, you put your body into an oxidative stress state.
Savannah:You help pump your blood and your lymphatic system, but it can't stay there forever.
Savannah:It has to come back down.
Savannah:Right?
Savannah:So when you're able to pump that lymphatic system in a healthy way, it actually helps improve your skin clarity and helps with things like eczema, acne and rosacea.
Savannah:And even was the last one, whatever, I can't remember whatever that last one is.
Savannah:Psoriasis.
Savannah:That's what it was.
Savannah:Also foods to eat that are great to make your skin healthy and give you good balanced microbiome.
Savannah:Honestly, again, it's getting that good prebiotic and probiotic type food in, but ultimately also getting good and easy digestible proteins are amazing for skin and hair health.
Savannah:So because people think of collagen, which is a great one, even a, a grass fed gelatin, bone broths, those types of things are amazing for skin, but basically a high amount of vitamin A, D and K are awesome.
Savannah:And also people with premature grays have really low vitamin K in their diet.
Savannah:And people who start balding earlier, they need to get their hormones checked and their vitamin K levels checked.
Savannah:So moving on to chronic diseases and somewhat of a prevention because obviously some things are, can be passed on genetically, but still it has been proven with the.
Savannah:What is that study?
Savannah:The cat study.
Savannah:Oh, this is gonna bother me.
Savannah:It was Pottinger's cats.
Savannah:That's what it was.
Savannah: here's this study done in the: Savannah:And when, I mean horrible chemicals, I mean synthetic toxins and chemicals that we're exposed to every day and that are added in our food and hormone disruptors, all those things this study was just done on, I think six generations for sure.
Savannah:Four, but six generations of cats where by the fourth generation of just a lack of certain vitamins and minerals.
Savannah:Okay, just a lack of them, they were able to show that they could make their.
Savannah:Some cats, same sex attracted.
Savannah:They could make cats infertile and then they could make cats have horrible immune autoimmune issues.
Savannah:And then also they can create gene genetic issues as well.
Savannah:Where now the cats were like Permanently ruined in certain ways and caused like down syndrome in cats.
Savannah:They did the same thing to rats as well.
Savannah:And they proved that you could also.
Savannah:Okay, no, it was eight generations because then once they got to the worst one, obviously the cats that could still reproduce, they were able to get out 90% of the genetic mutations by another four generations.
Savannah:So you can fix your great great grandparents issues that they gave you just by fixing your gut biome and then you can heal the next generation for your children.
Savannah:So don't, don't look in the mirror and think like, I'm a lost cause, I'm cancer prone and blah, blah.
Savannah:If you eat and live a very healthy lifestyle, you can actually give your child like an 80% more fighting chance than you had and even give yourself a better chance.
Savannah:So Ponderous Cats is a really great study.
Savannah:It's a short one.
Savannah:A lot of people hated it because they felt like they were torturing animals.
Savannah:But you know, I'm a Christian, so not that I'd ever want to torture animals like that or experiment on them.
Savannah:I don't think I could handle it.
Savannah:But I mean, animals are better to be tested on than humans and I'll just leave it like that.
Savannah:That's kind of a hard one.
Savannah:Actually now I'm thinking about it morally, I don't know, but whatever it happened.
Savannah:So I'm going to use the data.
Savannah:That sounded kind of rough anyway.
Savannah:Chronic diseases like, obviously like diabetes, which both diabetes 1 and 2, obesity, heart disease and cancer can all be linked to poor gut microbiome.
Savannah:The role of a fiber rich diet and a diverse fiber rich diet, along with a diverse fermented rich diet reduces up to 90% of a disease health risk.
Savannah:That's insane.
Savannah:How to repair the gut lining to prevent leaky gut and systematic inflammation.
Savannah:We already talked about stress.
Savannah:Lower your stress levels to have a healthy time to sit down and eat.
Savannah:Uh, three, be intentional around food and what you eat.
Savannah:Um, the interview that I did with Chef oh James, the owner of Pluck, he goes in depth about how important food is and how to make it nourishing for your body.
Savannah:So I 10 out of 10 recommend listening to that interview.
Savannah:I could have talked to him for 10 years and I can't wait to do another interview with him again this year.
Savannah:Um, oh, and how to repair the gut lining.
Savannah:I would say obviously the fermented, fermented rich foods and then probiotics.
Savannah:But then also, you know, I'm not against.
Savannah:Sorry, I dropped my phone.
Savannah:I'm not against raw foods either.
Savannah:If Your body is able to handle it and is ready for it.
Savannah:A lot of people on here are probably listening going, what about raw dairy and raw kefir?
Savannah:You know, yeah, at the right time.
Savannah:But for like Candida, when I had that, if I drank raw dairy and added in all of that because dairy ferments in your gut.
Savannah:If I, when I added that in, it felt so good at first.
Savannah:It felt like a liquid coolant and it was the only type of dairy because I can't do pasteurized dairy.
Savannah:It was the only type of dairy that my body could handle.
Savannah:But I would get so bloated and feel so sick afterwards.
Savannah:And it was because my body wasn't ready for that microbiome yet.
Savannah:It was too diverse and too rich in cultures, especially the dairy cultures.
Savannah:I just wasn't ready cuz I hadn't killed off the overgrowth of the yeast.
Savannah:So once you get a diagnosis, then do the killing off period.
Savannah:And don't mix dairy and sugar and all those things in during the kill off period.
Savannah:Let your body totally reset and then after it's blank, then gently and slowly add those things back in.
Savannah:Like for me, I can't wait to drink some raw milk after my 12th week of pregnancy.
Savannah:Right.
Savannah:So which some people in here maybe be like, what?
Savannah:That's crazy.
Savannah:No, we're all for that here.
Savannah:So those, that's how you repair the gut lining.
Savannah:You do things in proper due time and diligence.
Savannah:You don't just do it all at once and shock your system.
Savannah:So those are some steps to improve your gut health.
Savannah:But I just want to go over it again.
Savannah:In general, I want you to have a diverse whole food rainbow diet.
Savannah:Like eating all the colors of the rainbow every day would be an amazing goal.
Savannah:Buying local and growing your own food, amazing.
Savannah:So optimal.
Savannah:But if I had to be like, pick one, eat seasonally with foods and vegetables and always buy your meat from a local, organic, non vaccinated farmer.
Savannah:Foods to prioritize are fermented foods, prebiotic rich foods and polyphenols.
Savannah:And if you're sitting here going savannah, what in the pickles are polyphenols?
Savannah:Well, I'm telling you they're not pickles, but they.
Savannah:I don't know if that made my, that made me laugh.
Savannah:I think I'm kind of funny.
Savannah:Polyphenols are a category of compounds that are naturally found in foods.
Savannah:Like it's mostly plant foods like fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices.
Savannah:I think a lot of teas have them, but dark chocolate and wine are really known for having them.
Savannah:They basically act as an antioxidant, meaning that they can neutralize harmful free radicals in your body that can damage your cells.
Savannah:But then if.
Savannah:If you don't eat them, they cause a higher amount of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
Savannah:So polyphenols basically help your immune system, which is a part of your gut.
Savannah:But polyphenols are also thought to reduce a ton of inflammation as well.
Savannah:And they tend to help Overall, up to 60% with any type of chronic illness or disease, which is kind of cool.
Savannah:But more than 8,000 types of polyphenols have been identified.
Savannah:And they can be categorized in so many different things.
Savannah:But there are four main groups.
Savannah:There's flavonoids, phenolic acids, polyphen, polyphenolic, am.
Savannah:Amids.
Savannah:Amids, and then other polyphenols.
Savannah:It's just like there's another other category.
Savannah:But anywho, eating those types of foods can really help.
Savannah:I don't know why I can't.
Savannah:No, I do know why.
Savannah:I'm pregnant.
Savannah:And guess what?
Savannah:That's going to be my excuse for everything from now on until August.
Savannah:You guys, this is gonna.
Savannah:This is what you're gonna have to deal with.
Savannah:Anywho, avoid processed foods like sugar, obviously artificial sweeteners, just things that cause inflammation, like inflammatory oils.
Savannah:And make your food at home.
Savannah:That's the best thing I could say.
Savannah:Your stress management is also huge, like we talked about before.
Savannah:And there are also a lot of techniques on how to support your gut health.
Savannah:Even just prayer before you eat and being intentional and breathing and understanding where your food comes from and being thankful changes the whole way that you look at food as medicine.
Savannah:But the role of regular exercise and quality sleep is also huge for your gut health.
Savannah:Quality sleep.
Savannah:Oh, man, having good sleep.
Savannah:We people don't understand that.
Savannah:That's when your kidneys and your liver and your gallbladder really get to activate at that time and get to be the.
Savannah:The.
Savannah:The get rid of part of your digestive system.
Savannah:You should be taking at least two good, healthy poop today.
Savannah:I would love if every time after you ate a meal, you took a good poop, which means it's not too soft and not too watery.
Savannah:And we have a whole episode on body mapping just on poop and urine.
Savannah:So go and listen to those because that will be important for you understanding your gut health.
Savannah:Oh, also, when to consider professional help.
Savannah:This is kind of a good question, such as like testing for your gut imbalances or working with a nutritionist or A holistic health practitioner like me is when is always, if you've never tested for it, go get it tested.
Savannah:If you can get it covered by insurance with a gut GI specialist, then please, please do.
Savannah:Because I'm gonna tell you right now, Dutch, testing is really expensive.
Savannah:Like, I give all of my clients all testing at cost.
Savannah:And even for me, if I were to get it for just myself, and this would be the same price for everyone.
Savannah:The cheapest test for gut testing is 200, and then the most expensive one is 400.
Savannah:And if you wanted to combine all of the testing together and just be like, I want to know everything.
Savannah:It's like a 600 test.
Savannah:So just know it's not a cheap thing.
Savannah:And it's because it actually tells you everything about your body.
Savannah:And I swear they do that on purpose, which is really annoying.
Savannah:But remember, blood work is only a flash of what your body looked like right then there and then where gut testing can tell you how you've been for years now and then years to come and how long it could take you to heal.
Savannah:So there's a reason why it's expensive.
Savannah:But if you can get it covered by insurance, do it.
Savannah:So the call to action, what I'm going to have you do is one, I want you with anything that you do in your life, 100%, I want you to pray about it first.
Savannah:I want you to run to the Lord and ask him, like, fervently and say, like, lord, I.
Savannah:You know, I.
Savannah:I've known.
Savannah:I've had these problems for a while.
Savannah:I want to serve you.
Savannah:And Paul did this.
Savannah:Paul literally said, God, I've had these gut problems and I'm in pain and I've been drinking wine and for it, and it's not getting better.
Savannah:And God told him straight up, we're not gonna heal this.
Savannah:Sorry, it's not gonna happen.
Savannah:I'm gonna give you discernment right now.
Savannah:So I know it sounds kind of crazy sometimes thinking about that, like, whoa, God can actually talk to us about our health.
Savannah:But I've had.
Savannah:I have my own personal stories where God has actually spoken to me directly about health, things in my life, things that I ignored that I should have responded to.
Savannah:And God was so sweet to be sweet and persistent and speak to me directly.
Savannah:And there are times where God clearly spoke to me and I was in awe and I listened and obeyed.
Savannah:And he was right.
Savannah:I mean, all the times.
Savannah:So it may sound a little crazy, but I couldn't believe it at first as well.
Savannah:And God really Does answer those prayers, whether it's a yes or a no or a weight.
Savannah:So discernment on that.
Savannah:And the next thing is, is getting a diagnosis.
Savannah:So get your diagnosis.
Savannah:Once you get a diagnosis, then you can talk to someone like me or keep talking to an allopathic doctor, and you can figure out, how do I want to handle this?
Savannah:Is it so urgent that I have to take hardcore medicine now?
Savannah:Can I do things more naturally?
Savannah:Make the decision of how you want to treat it next is actually following through with the treatments, which is the hardest part.
Savannah:A lot of people tend to fall off the bandwagon or get exhausted and tired, and they peter out, and then they refeed a horrible gut biome, and they have to start all over again.
Savannah:The gut is one of those things that you can't train it improperly.
Savannah:When it's out of whack, you have to be strict for the time that you're healing it.
Savannah:And then when you're reintroducing healthy things again after you've cleared, it's like.
Savannah:It's like getting rid of cancer.
Savannah:You're not gonna.
Savannah:You're not gonna.
Savannah:Okay.
Savannah:If someone had lung cancer, you.
Savannah:If they.
Savannah:If you saw them smoking outside, you'd be like, you're crazy.
Savannah:You're literally, like, taking medicine right now, and you're on chemo to heal the lung cancer.
Savannah:Why are you smoking outside and feeding the lung cancer more or eating sugar and feeding it more?
Savannah:And then people are like, I don't know.
Savannah:I'm just addicted.
Savannah:And you feel so sorry for them.
Savannah:People do that all the time with their gut, and they act like it's so whatever, and it's not.
Savannah:It's equally as horrible for you.
Savannah:I'm not gonna say if more, but it could be.
Savannah:I don't know.
Savannah:So that's what I'm saying.
Savannah:That's how stupid you look if you feed your gut the wrong things while you're trying to kill it off.
Savannah:And then the same thing when you're trying to heal it again.
Savannah:If you just throw sugar in there, you're now gonna throw the whole thing off.
Savannah:So be really strict.
Savannah:That's all I have to say.
Savannah:And then the last thing is, slowly enjoy feeling good, because that's what kept me going.
Savannah:Knowing that God called me to help heal my gut, because I knew that I wanted to be a mother and a wife, a healthy one at that.
Savannah:I wanted to look healthy and look sexy and attractive for my husband.
Savannah:So that also helped.
Savannah:That was a good motivator.
Savannah:But ultimately, I wanted to be a steward of God and I knew that I wouldn't be able to do what I'm called to do as a holistic health practitioner if I was sick and looked sick and didn't practice what I preached.
Savannah:So I knew that things had to change.
Savannah:And I'm really thankful that things did change and that God helped us through that process of figuring out what was causing our miscarriages and what was causing my chronic health issues for over 15 years.
Savannah:Which is crazy cuz it all had to do with the gut and for us, for me it was Candida.
Savannah:It doesn't mean it's going to be the same thing for you, but getting checked at least once in your life is so important.
Savannah:So important.
Savannah:So I want to leave this in your hands and just understand that the importance of gut health isn't just having clear skin or feeling good and being able to eat a pizza and be happy and not have to worry about every little thing you eat.
Savannah:Having a good health and gut microbiome is how the Lord created us and we're made in his image.
Savannah:And obviously God calls some of us to have chronic stomach issues like Paul.
Savannah:So just know that if you are one of those people and it's something that God has called you to, then obviously this isn't for you.
Savannah:But I want you guys to know that ultimately at the end of the day, you do have free will and control and freedom to be able to live a healthy lifestyle.
Savannah:So I'm here for you if you have any questions.
Savannah:You can always message me or reach out to me if you ever want to do any testing through me because your insurance doesn't cover stuff and you know that it would be cheaper with me than great.
Savannah:Or if you just wanted to book an appointment with me to see if things would be cheaper, then great.
Savannah:Like I said, all testing through me is at cost and I don't charge extra for it.
Savannah:You just charge for the appointment with me.
Savannah:But please keep praying for our baby.
Savannah:Our baby Scaglioti that's due in August.
Savannah:And just be praying for Jeremiah for job things and because that's also going to be new news that's coming out soon.
Savannah:And please be praying for our future guests that are going to be on our show because there are some really awesome stories that we're going to be talking about and they're going to be so encouraging for you guys.
Savannah:So I love you guys.
Savannah:May the Lord richly bless you and keep you and I'm just so thankful for all of you who listen literally all around the world.
Savannah:Have a happy New Year everyone and thank you so much for letting us have our two week break when we had our emergencies with our babies.
Savannah:Next time we will or baby sorry next time we will let you know in advance and not just keep you in the dark.
Savannah:All right, Love you guys and keep Casting Seeds we hope you enjoyed learning how to cultivate God's creation from a Biblical perspective.
Savannah:Holistic health is to prioritize whole person wellness through Christ like and comment on what topics we're casting seeds or casting pearls.
Savannah:If you found this information provided useful, subscribe to our podcast for future updates.
Savannah:Leave a review to help us improve and share this episode.
Savannah:We would like to remind you before we leave that perfect health cannot be attained in this world.
Savannah:Only spirit spiritual salvation through sanctification and repentance to God and turning away from sin will give you a perfect body in the kingdom come.
Savannah:Nourish yourself in the Word, in prayer and in Biblical fellowship daily.
Savannah:Thank you for joining us today and a special thank you to our listeners for making this podcast possible.
Savannah:Always praying.
Savannah:Keep casting seeds.
