The Most Boring Yet Important Post If You Are Interested In Health And Performance
THE MOST BORING YET IMPORTANT POST IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN HEALTH AND PERFORMANCE….(In My Opinion)
Over the YEARS I have been Labelled the ‘Gut Guy’
Maybe its because I REVERSED my own auto-immune disease called Ulcerative Colitis and have been Symptom and Medication FREE for over 7 Years now….(Apparently IMPOSSIBLE by conventional medicine standards)
Or maybe its because Marta and I have helped 100’s of people all over the world do the same..
Frankly it doesn’t really matter to YOU right now but what i guess DOES matter to you is how you LOOK, FEEL AND PERFORM?
Am I right? (If i am READ ON>>>)
So my intention for this post is to tie in what the GUT has to do with how you FEEL, LOOK and PERFORM on a daily basis.
Lets Start: (This will NOT be a biochemistry lesson)
We have worked with professional athletes, general populations and all the labels in-between.
The Gut is over 22 feet long and runs from your mouth to your anus.
It house 75% of your total IMMUNE system in or around it.
It has its OWN nervous system (Enteric Nervous System) that actually has MORE nerve cells than your spinal column.
Over 400 different species )that we know of) of bacteria are in the gut and balance is CRITICAL.
It actually is home to more NEURO -transmitters like serotonin and dopamine than the brain….
Why do i bother to even mention this, glad you asked!
Truth is this. The digestive system is the entry point of the body. It is where we break down our foods to the smallest possible parts and absorb what we require and hopefully excrete what isn’t needed.
Based on the health of the gut (If you suffer with bloating, pain, constipation, diarrhoea etc listen up!) you will affect EVERY system of the human body.
If you have issues breaking down food (Low enzymes) you will ‘stress’ the gut which will start to affect the immune system. This in turn affects your stress response in the body….
(So if you are interested in HIGH energy AND performance this is already keeping you under achieving)
If you have unidentified Inflammation or infections then these again will be affecting your immune system AND nervous system in the GUT.
This is where is see people with ‘head issues’ like depression and anxiety.
There is a nerve in the gut that runs straight back to the brain called the Vagus Nerve. When your gut is ‘out of whack’ it will be firing ‘hypersensitive’ signals that through of a variety of things in the brain.
(EVERY CLIENT we have every worked with that has depression or anxiety HAD issues going on in the gut.)
I could go on and on but that would be EVEN more boring.
So hear this.
We get people come to us with Thyroid, hormone, diseases of various levels of severity etc and we NEVER work with the ‘THING’ they come to us with.
We DEEPLY understand that the human body is a bunch of COMMUNICATING systems that affect each other.
(Sorry conventional medicine but this is really where you drop the ball….)
We always build from the ground up.
So what steps can YOU take to improve performance, energy and body composition TODAY.
- Work out what is going on in your gut. Do you get bloated after meals? Do you get pain, discomfort, do you suffer with constipation, gas bloating etc?
(Raising awareness is the MOST important step.)
Ensure FULL digestion of FOOD.
From there we can start to look for triggers like types of food, chemicals, stress, hydration etc.
- Get Tested: I only have this step as a go to when someone ticks the following boxes:
– Been to a less developed country (Egypt, SE Asia, India, South America etc) AND got SICK.
– Constant symptoms of bloating, diarrhoea, reflux etc
(Testing quality is imperative: Example I had a 12 year old boy come to us and he had pain EVERY DAY for 2 years. All tests from hospital and “the best IBS specialist in the UK” came back negative.
I test him and find 3 infections. Quality matters.)
- Understand the digestive system works in the PARA-sympatheitic nervous system. Simply this is a REST based system.
So if you have high stressed jobs, lives and little time for rest you will be STARVING your gut of blood flow as you will be spending MORE time in your Sympathetic nervous system.
(Thats WHY people who have gut issues often have skin issue too)
Note: WORD on REFLUX: Reflux in 99% of ALL cases we work with is NOT high stomach acid. It is a NERVOUS SYSTEM issue that is preventing the flap of skin (esophageal stricture) working correctly)
If YOU just concentrated on the ABOVE I GUARANTEE you will get leaner, stronger, perform BETTER AND have more energy.
As I’m sure you can appreciate I can literally write a WHOLE book on this but ill stop here for now.
If you have ANY questions re the above or something you feel you would like me to explain in MORE detail then comment and let me know.
My number 1 value in life is GIVING VALUE.
Like I said, the gut isn’t sexy compared to 4x BW deadlift or ripped ABS BUT
Make the gut work OPTIMALLY and i guarantee you can work out LESS and get better results. (As I have seen with our clients over and over)
Cliff Wilde
