Speaker 1: Good everyone, it's Sam here. We've all heard the expression
Speaker 1: trust your gut, but what does that mean when our
Speaker 1: gut's trying to tell us something but we can't understand
Speaker 1: what it is. Well, today we're going to find out.
Speaker 1: So if you've been experiencing any kind of bloating or
Speaker 1: gut health issues, we're going to get into it today
Speaker 1: with an absolute expert in that area, so make sure
Speaker 1: you stick around for that. But before we do that,
Speaker 1: I just want to tell you a little story about
Speaker 1: why I love my wife so much, because a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago it was Mother's Day and I forgot to
Speaker 1: tell you this story. So I'm going back a few
Speaker 1: weeks now. But I totally stuffed up Mother's Day and
Speaker 1: I asked, there is what she wanted for Mother's Day
Speaker 1: lunch and she said Greek food. I said, sure, let's
Speaker 1: do that. So on the Tuesday before Mother's Day, I
Speaker 1: googled best Greek restaurants that were around where we live.
Speaker 1: But one of them was sort of got four point
Speaker 1: four stars on the Google ratings and was quite so
Speaker 1: I rang up and I said, hi, I just wanted
Speaker 1: to book in for six people one high chair for
Speaker 1: Mother's Day lunch, and the lady said, oh, let me
Speaker 1: just check, and I assumed she was checking to see
Speaker 1: if they had a table free, because Mother's Day lunch
Speaker 1: and assuming can be really busy. Anyway, she went away,
Speaker 1: spoke to someone, came back said, yep, absolutely, we can
Speaker 1: do that. We'll see at one o'clock on Mother's Day.
Speaker 1: And we have to take two cars whenever we go
Speaker 1: out as a family because there's now six of us,
Speaker 1: so hopefully got on Mother's Day. We piled into the car,
Speaker 1: we got all dressed up in our Sunday best and
Speaker 1: we went off for Mother's Day lunch. And I pulled
Speaker 1: up first, and my heart just absolutely sunk because when
Speaker 1: I pulled up, what I thought was a nice Greek
Speaker 1: restaurant was actually a TAKEAWAYSI Laki shop. I was like no,
Speaker 1: And literally, as I was about to call Snares and
Speaker 1: try and come up with a plan B, she rocked
Speaker 1: up with the car load, and so I sort of
Speaker 1: ran down to the camera. I've stuffed up. I thought
Speaker 1: it was a thought it was a restaurant, and it's
Speaker 1: not a restaurant, you know. They just literally they had
Speaker 1: one little table on the footpath that they'd probably put
Speaker 1: out there just for us, and the rest was like
Speaker 1: a takeaway silvlaki day. And I was like, oh god,
Speaker 1: how embarrassing. And it was on at main streets. Everyone
Speaker 1: could see you sitting out the front and my beautiful wife,
Speaker 1: and this is why I love He was like, nah,
Speaker 1: this would be fun. Couldn't care less. So the six
Speaker 1: of us, all dressed up girls with their pretty little
Speaker 1: dressed in airing, sat there and you know, this guy's like, oh,
Speaker 1: how good's this got? This family of six coming in.
Speaker 1: We don't even really do dine in, but he, you know,
Speaker 1: put on a put on a big sort of spread
Speaker 1: for us, for these meats and cheeses and pitters and sozeki.
Speaker 1: It was, and it was lovely. It was very nicely
Speaker 1: cooked food, but it was definitely not a restaurant. And
Speaker 1: I quickly realized the reason they were going away to
Speaker 1: see if they could do that was they've never done
Speaker 1: a dining customer in their entire existence. I just love
Speaker 1: Snairs because she's so down to earth, doesn't give a
Speaker 1: crap about any of that stuff, and wasn't offended, didn't
Speaker 1: think it mattered. There was more that we were just
Speaker 1: sitting there together and there's a little story I wanted
Speaker 1: to tell you all because I was incredibly embarrassed, but
Speaker 1: she was just a legend about it. Anyway, It's now
Speaker 1: time to meet the incredible gut health expert Rachel Larson,
Speaker 1: and then I'm going to give you some very simple
Speaker 1: tips that we can absolutely all do to help you
Speaker 1: sleep better. That's next on the wood Life. Were joined
Speaker 1: in the studio with the absolutely lovely, holistic gut health expert,
Speaker 1: nutritionists and natural path Rachel Larson. Welcome to the wood Life.
Speaker 2: I am so excited to be here, Sam, thanks for
Speaker 2: having me.
Speaker 1: So let's start with bloating. How do we get bloated?
Speaker 1: What is it?
Speaker 2: Yep?
Speaker 1: And then most importantly, how do we avoid it?
Speaker 2: I guess So that is a huge question to answer.
Speaker 1: So there's our forty five minutes right there. One question.
Speaker 1: I'm done. I've asked one.
Speaker 2: Question, but nothing. Yeah, we've used up all the time.
Speaker 2: I'm going to try and put it in a way
Speaker 2: where it feels, I guess easier to imagine or visualize.
Speaker 2: And I'm just going to use an iceberg as a
Speaker 2: I guess something for people to picture. Sure, So think
Speaker 2: about bloating being the very top symptom, the very I
Speaker 2: guess the last thing or the first thing people see.
Speaker 1: That's what you see out of the watery, Yeah, the belt.
Speaker 2: And maybe you know, third of the way down the
Speaker 2: iceberg it hits the water, and at that point you
Speaker 2: might get a diagnosis like celiac disease, climatory bow disease,
Speaker 2: or ce BOW which is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. You
Speaker 2: might get a diagnosis. At that point you think, Okay,
Speaker 2: well that's what's causing my bloating. But if you actually
Speaker 2: look underneath the water, you've got two thirds of the
Speaker 2: iceberg left, You've got all of these actual causes of bloating.
Speaker 2: And that's where we look at things like stressed out
Speaker 2: nervous system. We can look at different dietary choices, genetics,
Speaker 2: different issues with motility, medications potentially having different adhesions, and
Speaker 2: things from surgery. There is a huge list of things
Speaker 2: that can cause the I guess bloating, but can cause
Speaker 2: the issues that we then identify which is causing bloating.
Speaker 2: If that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Sure, So glad you mentioned such a variety because foods
Speaker 1: where I mean, maybe it's just the space I live in,
Speaker 1: but when I speak to people and they're frustrated and
Speaker 1: they're bloating. It's almost always in their mind at least,
Speaker 1: and it's because of certain foods that are meeting in
Speaker 1: my body not reacting well to certain foods. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I think bringing up all those other reasons is really
Speaker 1: important for people to get their head.
Speaker 2: And food is obviously it's a space that I work
Speaker 2: in a lot as well, But I think it's important
Speaker 2: to discern, I guess, the difference between what's causing their
Speaker 2: bloating and what's triggering their bloating. You know, cause being
Speaker 2: if we take that out, the bloating's gone for good forever,
Speaker 2: like that is the answer to that. Whereas food being
Speaker 2: a trigger is that there is an issue in the
Speaker 2: body that when it's in the presence of a certain
Speaker 2: food or food groups or multiple foods, that then triggers
Speaker 2: a sequence of events that causes bloating. So I want
Speaker 2: to challenge people's thinking about food if it is a
Speaker 2: cause or if it's a trigger, and for the majority
Speaker 2: of people it's going to be a trigger. There's a
Speaker 2: few issues that people would have, such a celiac disease,
Speaker 2: where yes, in fact, you know, gluten is something that
Speaker 2: you're going to be pulling out forever. But for the
Speaker 2: rest of us that have bloating, I challenge that it's
Speaker 2: actually food being a trigger and that the real cause
Speaker 2: is something else that they haven't quite explored yet.
Speaker 1: It's a really interesting way to position it, isn't it,
Speaker 1: Because from my experience, which is limited in this very
Speaker 1: specific space, but a lot of people jump to gluten
Speaker 1: free as the sole solution I have been looking for,
Speaker 1: or the soul it's going to fix everything, that it's
Speaker 1: going to fix everything.
Speaker 2: And I think there's different aspects to gluten or maybe
Speaker 2: we could broaden this I guess conversation to wheat and
Speaker 2: those type of products, because you know, gluten is found
Speaker 2: in wheat, but it's also found in different forms in
Speaker 2: rye and different types of other grains, and so I
Speaker 2: think we vilify gluten, but perhaps it's another quality to
Speaker 2: those type of grains that are causing issues as well.
Speaker 2: Like you can certainly have Celiac disease, which we can
Speaker 2: get tested for and can be I guess, an easy
Speaker 2: explanation for their symptoms. But for some people it's non
Speaker 2: celiac gluten sensitivity. For other people it could actually be
Speaker 2: a fermentable part of those grains like rye or wheat
Speaker 2: that's causing other issues. So it's not maybe necessarily the gluten,
Speaker 2: but it's other properties that are in those grains that
Speaker 2: are causing issues, and you know, along the line will
Speaker 2: be causing bloating for them. So yeah, it's a quick
Speaker 2: one that people can pull out because I think there's
Speaker 2: so much conversation about it, and there's you know, if
Speaker 2: you go to this soop market, you can buy all
Speaker 2: these things at a gluten free so it's an easy
Speaker 2: swap to make. But I don't think it's the whole picture.
Speaker 2: For some people.
Speaker 1: It makes a lot of sense to me, so we're
Speaker 1: not necessarily going to be able to allow our listeners
Speaker 1: to self diagnose at the end of our thirty minute chat.
Speaker 1: That's sort of what I'm gleaning from this. What is
Speaker 1: the process then that you go down when you're seeing
Speaker 1: your clients to work through all of those potential symptoms
Speaker 1: to find out what the deepest cause is.
Speaker 2: So sure look can be really quite in depth, and
Speaker 2: you know, I think that's it. It is important to
Speaker 2: understand that because it adjusts expectations about you know, what
Speaker 2: to expect from healing your bloats. It can be a long,
Speaker 2: long journey for some people. But I start off with
Speaker 2: really needing to understand someone's history. What was your history
Speaker 2: as a child? Did you have a lactose intolerance? Then?
Speaker 2: Have you had food poisoning, gastri how many doses of antibiotics?
Speaker 2: All these I guess assaults, all these incidences that are
Speaker 2: happening in their gut. But not only that. Are you
Speaker 2: a stressed person? Are you know, are you anxious you
Speaker 2: Have you gone through something really traumatic? Or is there
Speaker 2: a point in your life where you've never been well
Speaker 2: since and what happened around that point or leading up
Speaker 2: to that. So there's a huge history I need to
Speaker 2: gather from people, and that I guess through my experience,
Speaker 2: I can start to narrow down it sounds like a
Speaker 2: digestive ends I missue or you know, it sounds like
Speaker 2: a nervous system dysfunction issue. But ultimately I also need
Speaker 2: to do testing to understand this, and testing is it's
Speaker 2: not all testing is the same. And I think for
Speaker 2: a lot of people that experience bloating, testing is one
Speaker 2: of these points of annoyance because for a lot of them,
Speaker 2: all the tests have come back normal where they're told
Speaker 2: everything looks good. I guess this is just who you are.
Speaker 1: That happened to my little girl. She's very frustrated by it,
Speaker 1: but she knows there's something going on with the tummy,
Speaker 1: certain foods or certain things that are happening to me,
Speaker 1: and we have really only headed down the food paths.
Speaker 1: Get her to come and set you but for sure, okay,
Speaker 1: I mean that sincerely. It's really frustrating her, and she's
Speaker 1: also at that age where she feels like she's difficult.
Speaker 1: We're going at the dinner and I know we'll eat
Speaker 1: those foods or we'll order those foods in group with
Speaker 1: my friends, and I don't want to do that. And
Speaker 1: you know, like weird things like watermelon triggers her, like weird,
Speaker 1: we like things that you think would be just a healthy,
Speaker 1: good option. So little foods that sort of out of
Speaker 1: nowhere triggered her.
Speaker 2: And I totally understand that a gutt issue can often
Speaker 2: come from a nervous system but then cause nervous system
Speaker 2: issues because food is such an integral part of how
Speaker 2: we socialize and interact with people, and it's joy for us.
Speaker 2: But not only that, it's literally how we sustain our life.
Speaker 2: So every day, three to five times a day, you
Speaker 2: are looking at what you're about to consume with complete fear,
Speaker 2: thinking what's this going to do to me?
Speaker 1: Typically? How long does it take to work with a client?
Speaker 1: I mean how long do you start to see some change?
Speaker 1: How long? Because it's not a clickif thing and now
Speaker 1: you're fine and you can go back to eating any
Speaker 1: of these foods? About it triggered you before? Is it? No?
Speaker 2: And I wish, like I wish I was a witch
Speaker 2: and could do that in my naturopathic space. Unfortunately, I'm
Speaker 2: just a human with these skills. Is to look at
Speaker 2: it holistically, and even you know, with my skills, we
Speaker 2: have to appreciate what's happened to the body and how
Speaker 2: long the body takes to heal. So I guess just
Speaker 2: to paint out a very rough time frame for people,
Speaker 2: I like to have quick wins with people within the
Speaker 2: first couple of weeks and months. I'm really putting in
Speaker 2: what I would describe as like symptimonally band aid reliefs.
Speaker 2: And I claim that, like you know, I don't think
Speaker 2: we should stop there, but they're so important to put
Speaker 2: it initially because these people need to have some sort
Speaker 2: of win in their body, and so that might involve
Speaker 2: certain supplements to support digestion. It might include maybe some
Speaker 2: sort of loaf fodmap diet, which brings me back to
Speaker 2: your comment on watermelon is a high fodmap food, so
Speaker 2: very prone to bloating for people. But taking out a
Speaker 2: lot of those trigger foods, I would say, look, let's
Speaker 2: do this for four to six eight weeks, and then
Speaker 2: as we start to address the underlying causes, we start
Speaker 2: to introduce those foods to your tolerance as quickly as
Speaker 2: we can. And I'm feeling like people reach this place
Speaker 2: of stability where they might be like seventy percent on
Speaker 2: their journey within about six months. And that means that, look,
Speaker 2: you still might not be able to eat without consciously
Speaker 2: thinking about food, but there are certainly there's a lot
Speaker 2: less anxiety, and there's a lot more options available to you.
Speaker 2: It's just we probably need longer for that remaining thirty
Speaker 2: percent to really take change. And that's certainly not for everybody.
Speaker 2: I've got patients that are a lot longer and a
Speaker 2: lot shorter, because what determines I guess how long that
Speaker 2: is is what's happened like, what is the root cause?
Speaker 1: I do think that term stability is interesting. So ultimately
Speaker 1: you're searching for what you coin gut stability, as in,
Speaker 1: you'll be able to reintroduce most foods, if not all foods,
Speaker 1: and you won't be back to square one, you won't
Speaker 1: have the same reaction.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like a lot of people when they're
Speaker 2: getting bloated, they're like, I'm gonna clean up my diet.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna eat more vegetarian, I'm gonna have a lot
Speaker 2: more veggies. And the kick in the gut, snow Pine
Speaker 2: intended is that these foods are high in a group
Speaker 2: of fibers called fod maps, and they are prime for
Speaker 2: menable products. Like so it feels like people are really
Speaker 2: confused because they're like, I'm eating healthier, Why am I
Speaker 2: feeling more bloated? So to get people eating back those
Speaker 2: foods is important because eating a healthy, fiber high fodmap
Speaker 2: diet wasn't the cause in the first place. It's just
Speaker 2: that's what the trigger is.
Speaker 1: So can we talk about that What is happening in
Speaker 1: the gut when we get bloated.
Speaker 2: It's a combination of things. So bloating is either you're
Speaker 2: full of gas or fluid. Now when I'm talking gut stuff,
Speaker 2: it's mostly gas. Fluid could be from inflammation, you know,
Speaker 2: in those type of things where I mean, if anyone's
Speaker 2: had a big weekend or eaten too much bad stuff,
Speaker 2: they're like, I feel inflamed and puffy and bloated. That's
Speaker 2: more like a fluid picture. But in the gut when
Speaker 2: we're talking about gas production, typically there's a lot of
Speaker 2: fermentation there, So fermentation being from a bacterial or fungal
Speaker 2: imbalance in the gut. And what they do is if
Speaker 2: they eat these healthy foods and through their natural metabolism,
Speaker 2: gas becomes, you know, created as a byproduct. But lay
Speaker 2: it on that we could have issues with enzyme reduction,
Speaker 2: so you might have a leaky gut, which is where
Speaker 2: a lot of our enzymes live that break down some
Speaker 2: of these foods, so you might have insufficient levels of
Speaker 2: those which then create a malabsorption of certain foods. You
Speaker 2: might also be constipated, and imagine having all of this
Speaker 2: junk stuck in you, basically corking you up and not
Speaker 2: letting anything through. Like you're going to feel pretty bloated
Speaker 2: to that you.
Speaker 1: Can sort of understand why people put up with it
Speaker 1: for a long time without actually doing anything about it.
Speaker 1: You know, no one really wants to talk about who.
Speaker 1: No one really wants to say that they're gassy. No,
Speaker 1: you know, like it's not a.
Speaker 2: Nice sexy stuff.
Speaker 1: No it's not. It's definitely not sexy. Out of curiosity,
Speaker 1: what percentage of people that come and see you a female?
Speaker 2: I'd probably say ninety percent of my patients are women.
Speaker 2: I've been and seen enough guys that I know have
Speaker 2: gut issues, but they describe it as I just don't
Speaker 2: feel right. You know, they don't use the word blow.
Speaker 2: They say I don't feel right, or maybe I just
Speaker 2: need to oh too many beers, you know, that kind
Speaker 2: of thing, Like they'll play it off for something else.
Speaker 1: Or they're scared that the diagnosis means that they're going
Speaker 1: to cut down on those fears, and they're not necessarily
Speaker 1: prepared to head down that path.
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 1: So, how much of a factory is alcohol?
Speaker 2: Look, there's very little redeeming qualities to alcohol when it
Speaker 2: comes to gut health.
Speaker 1: I probably very little redeeming quality is full stop. We're
Speaker 1: learning show quickly apart from fun, but exactly, Yeah, once
Speaker 1: the fund's finished. There's not a whole lot of good
Speaker 1: that happens yet.
Speaker 2: And like you know, I certainly like I drink a
Speaker 2: bit of alcohol. I still drink coffee. Like I feel
Speaker 2: like I'm such a realist where I'm like, we're not
Speaker 2: here to be perfect on this planet. But in terms
Speaker 2: of what it can do to the gut, it's highly inflammatory.
Speaker 2: It's certainly depending on the type of alcohol you have.
Speaker 2: It can also contain different things that the body ferments.
Speaker 2: It causes leaky gut, It really changes your stomach, so
Speaker 2: people can often experience reflux and those type of things.
Speaker 2: There's not a lot of good stuff happening when it
Speaker 2: comes to alcohol. But that doesn't mean that your forever
Speaker 2: looks like an alcohol free life. I think it just
Speaker 2: we need to be really conscious and you know, personally
Speaker 2: responsible about maybe the types of alcohol we have, how
Speaker 2: much we have and when we have it. In now
Speaker 2: healing journey, yeah.
Speaker 1: I love that. I mean, you've got to have a
Speaker 1: realistic approach to these things. So it's just going to
Speaker 1: scare people off and they're never going to take positive steps.
Speaker 1: Bloating can't be a new thing. Why do you think
Speaker 1: it is that we're only just here or we're hearing
Speaker 1: that it's so much.
Speaker 2: I think it's probably a combination of things. I certainly
Speaker 2: feel like the environment that we're living in as humans,
Speaker 2: it's probably not as conducive to health as it was
Speaker 2: years and years ago, in that there's more stress. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's such a weird I mean, is there. I mean
Speaker 2: I feel like I feel like we're talking about it
Speaker 2: a bit more so. Perhaps there always has been, but
Speaker 2: that gets acknowledged. So I feel like there's more stress.
Speaker 2: There's a faster paced environment, which maybe is feeding that stress.
Speaker 1: Perhaps. I think they're definitely I don't think that's a
Speaker 1: rash all medications.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, having like things like nexium that
Speaker 2: are really easily liches, a proton pump inhibitor for people
Speaker 2: that have refluxes, like given out like candy, which again,
Speaker 2: what are we actually like, what are we doing? You know,
Speaker 2: is that actually treating it or is it masking something? Potentially?
Speaker 2: Food quality so obviously like in Australia, we've got wonderful
Speaker 2: fruit and vegetables here, but there's all the other stuff
Speaker 2: that we're potentially having access to as well, like the
Speaker 2: package stuff, the fast food those type of things are
Speaker 2: the different medications, not nexium for example, but how quickly
Speaker 2: are we prescribing antibiotics, even things like the oral contraceptive pill.
Speaker 2: They've got different links with different gut conditions. And that's
Speaker 2: not to be anti medication, like you know, there's a
Speaker 2: place for everything. It's just questioning when and why things
Speaker 2: are used. There's lots of different reasons. There's also things
Speaker 2: which is a completely other topic, like mold illness, so
Speaker 2: the quality of our houses and things like that, you know,
Speaker 2: flood affected areas, those type of things, they can really
Speaker 2: affect someone's health and their gut as well. So there's
Speaker 2: a mood of issues that are maybe increasing, which is
Speaker 2: potentially increasing our bloating. I would also say our gut
Speaker 2: health is in some ways going downhill because we live
Speaker 2: in a society where we're eating the same foods. Like
Speaker 2: how often do you go to the supermarket and you
Speaker 2: pick the same eight vegetables and that's all you eat,
Speaker 2: and you've got like your meal plans and you just
Speaker 2: kind of stick to those where we're not having variety anymore,
Speaker 2: which is a huge disservice to our gut. But also
Speaker 2: how we are super clean you know, society where we're
Speaker 2: constantly you know, spray and wiping things, and that also
Speaker 2: is a detriment to our gut health because you know,
Speaker 2: those who's getting picking up bacteria from different places, from pets,
Speaker 2: from dogs, from other people having not a super sterile environment,
Speaker 2: that's important as well. So there's like it's a massive,
Speaker 2: massive conversation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so many factors in terms like microbiome, you know,
Speaker 1: like that. Even even in the life of twenty eight
Speaker 1: my own line program, I don't think we really answered
Speaker 1: questions on that throughout twenty eight ers in the first
Speaker 1: few years and then and it's coming from them, they're
Speaker 1: becoming more educated, more interested. I do feel like we're
Speaker 1: waking up to it's not just about what you see
Speaker 1: on the surface, you know, like a healthy gut is
Speaker 1: not a six pack. A healthy gud is what's actually
Speaker 1: on the inside and working its way out.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And the gut health presents itself in ways other
Speaker 2: than bloating as well. If you've got issues with chronic
Speaker 2: iron or B twelve deficiencies, if you've got any autoimmune condition,
Speaker 2: skin issues, all of those things have connections to the gut.
Speaker 2: And it is because I always think of the gut
Speaker 2: as like the trunk of the tree, and then there's
Speaker 2: the branches that come off that, which are the different
Speaker 2: systems and is of their body, but they all have
Speaker 2: a connection back to the gut because the gut has
Speaker 2: so many functions, and you cannot live without your gut.
Speaker 2: I mean, you can't live without any part of your body,
Speaker 2: but you can't live without eating food, which is ultimately
Speaker 2: a gut based process, and that's kind of what fuels
Speaker 2: everything else that happens in your system.
Speaker 1: But almost, you know, we always just think it's all
Speaker 1: about our bones and our muscles and our heart, which
Speaker 1: of course it is, and I'm not saying that three
Speaker 1: of them and that I have those very important, but
Speaker 1: the guts almost in parallel with us having this awakening
Speaker 1: about our brain, like our mental health, I guess the
Speaker 1: last thing. And this is hard because I understand the
Speaker 1: process that you going to go through. But for our
Speaker 1: listeners that are sitting there wondering if they have gut
Speaker 1: health issues, are there simple tests that you can do yourself,
Speaker 1: Like what I don't want to head down this path,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to diagnosing your pooh.
Speaker 2: Asking how someone's pool is just as you know, I
Speaker 2: don't bettery. It's like asking someone how they are housy day.
Speaker 1: So I look at my kids pooh yep.
Speaker 2: Now got to look at your own.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, I know, but like it's weird as a
Speaker 1: dad if they're a bit off.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: It's almost a subconscious thing that I do now automatically.
Speaker 1: But I don't do that on my own.
Speaker 2: You know, that's your homework.
Speaker 1: There you go, what do we want to be seeing?
Speaker 1: What do we not want to be seeing? And what
Speaker 1: what means what cool?
Speaker 2: So for poo, I really just encourage people to google
Speaker 2: the Bristol stool chart Bristol stool Chat. It's b R
Speaker 2: I S t O L Bristol and it's a really
Speaker 2: good you know seven type as the spectrumcha. That's just
Speaker 2: I guess one easy way to be like, where do
Speaker 2: I sit on this scale?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 2: Number three four is where you want to be healthy
Speaker 2: in the middle, and number one is too constipated where
Speaker 2: you've got those rabbit pellets and those type of things,
Speaker 2: and number seven would be no formation basically liquidy. So
Speaker 2: I think from a formation perspective, the Bristol stool Chat's
Speaker 2: a great place to look.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic.
Speaker 2: Other qualities that you can look for is you do
Speaker 2: want it to be like a dark brown. You want
Speaker 2: it to look like Cadbury chocolate, you know that type.
Speaker 1: Of thing, the colors they're sponsored by.
Speaker 2: Actually, but yeah, the color means something. So if it's
Speaker 2: really green, it might have been that the transit time
Speaker 2: was too quick and you know all the broccoli and
Speaker 2: the spinaches come through really quickly. If it's If it's black,
Speaker 2: it can be that there's internal bleeding or you're taking
Speaker 2: an iron supplement. If it's like orange or yellow, it
Speaker 2: could be an issue to do with like bile and
Speaker 2: your liver. And if it's things like floating, that can
Speaker 2: also be a fat melal absort, like your Pooh tells
Speaker 2: you so much. Which is why I'm saying to people
Speaker 2: like color form, smell like, go go go, like I
Speaker 2: want to know red flags. I should say to people
Speaker 2: if you do see blood in your stool, you got
Speaker 2: to get it checked out. It could be something just
Speaker 2: like a little tear, but it could be something serious
Speaker 2: and you don't want to play it in case it is.
Speaker 2: Mucus can be a sign of inflammation. Undigested food particles
Speaker 2: mean that there's probably some sort of digestive enzyme or
Speaker 2: acid issue. So there is just a few things that
Speaker 2: the pool can tell you. So if you're not looking
Speaker 2: at your.
Speaker 1: Pooh, you got to what else outside of the PA
Speaker 1: word should we be looking at.
Speaker 2: If you eat food and you get any symptom around it.
Speaker 2: So if you feel a sense of indigestion it makes
Speaker 2: you feel too full or sluggish and slow, or if
Speaker 2: you get uncomfortable, if you can't you know, wear jeans
Speaker 2: by the end of the day, or if you're feeling
Speaker 2: a bit tender in parts. That's all gut like a
Speaker 2: help from overeating.
Speaker 1: It's from it's from. Yeah, it was a normal portion,
Speaker 1: but that particular food triggered this particular response.
Speaker 2: If you're eating a standard diet of what you would
Speaker 2: consider normal food of a normal quantity, and if you're
Speaker 2: getting any digestive symptom, that's a problem. Like you really
Speaker 2: you shouldn't feel your digestive system as you like, kind
Speaker 2: of like you shouldn't feel your heart, you know, it
Speaker 2: should just kind of moves. You should obviously be paying
Speaker 2: attention to your gut in terms of hunger. You know
Speaker 2: cues like you know, all fullness cues, but you shouldn't
Speaker 2: having to be experiencing any pain or discomfort or even
Speaker 2: outside of food, if you're waking up feeling bloated, or
Speaker 2: if you're feeling nauseous for no reason, like they're all
Speaker 2: kind of I mean, they can be other causes for that,
Speaker 2: but they can also be digestive based as well. Don't
Speaker 2: feel like it is this all right, well this is
Speaker 2: now my forever. There are many holistic ways that we
Speaker 2: can manage this that are sustainable.
Speaker 1: It's a lovely thing to tell people in case they
Speaker 1: are really worried about it, because it it does have
Speaker 1: a bit of a doom and gloom reputation. This impacts
Speaker 1: far more people than perhaps we realize, and so often
Speaker 1: those people don't know what path they go down or
Speaker 1: where to turn. I just thought, with the rising awareness
Speaker 1: around gut health, which is a really good thing, if
Speaker 1: we could have a bit of a chat and you
Speaker 1: could just help people to understand themselves a bit more,
Speaker 1: and then if it was something that they were being
Speaker 1: impacted by, where to turn. And you've absolutely done that,
Speaker 1: So thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 2: I know pleasure to be here, and I'm all about
Speaker 2: giving people just that little slither of hope that they
Speaker 2: can overcome their bloat and they gut health end they
Speaker 2: can live a healthy, happy life.
Speaker 1: I'll also put that Bristol stool chart Bristol stool Chat
Speaker 1: in the inner link in the show notes, so that
Speaker 1: if you are looking to do a bit of self diagnosis,
Speaker 1: you can do that. We're going to go from bloating
Speaker 1: to stretching, because I am going to help you with
Speaker 1: some stretches that are can give you a better night sleep.
Speaker 1: So we've spoken on the wood Life many a time
Speaker 1: about how much sleep we need to get, and you know,
Speaker 1: I've spoken about wanting to get that seven hours eight
Speaker 1: hours if you can, but with four kids, I'm shooting
Speaker 1: for seven. But it's not just quantity of sleep, it's
Speaker 1: also quality of sleep. So it just made me think
Speaker 1: about giving you all some really simple, practical stretches that
Speaker 1: I believe will help with your quality of sleep. I
Speaker 1: also believe it will help with the way you wake
Speaker 1: up the next day. It's sort of twofold. You definitely
Speaker 1: sleep better, but then in turn, you wake up and
Speaker 1: you're already moving better, feeling better by the way that
Speaker 1: you wake up. So I like to do these four.
Speaker 1: I like to do knee to chest where I simply
Speaker 1: lie on the floor. I tend to do them on
Speaker 1: the floor next to my bed, either on a mat
Speaker 1: or just on the rug or whatever it is, rather
Speaker 1: than on the mattress. The mattress is nice, but you
Speaker 1: tend to sink into them, perhaps a bit too much.
Speaker 1: So I bring my knee right up to my chest
Speaker 1: and I just pull it in as close to my
Speaker 1: chest as I can. I hold it for sort of
Speaker 1: three to five seconds, gently rock it from side to
Speaker 1: side a little bit, and I get a bit of
Speaker 1: lateral movement there if I just pull it across to
Speaker 1: my opposite shoulder and then outside my shoulder, and I'll
Speaker 1: do that the same on both legs, you know, three
Speaker 1: or four times, so that's knee to chest. Then still
Speaker 1: in the lying on my back position, I'll do a
Speaker 1: spinal twist, and again you can do both knees at
Speaker 1: once as long as your shoulder blades stay on the floor.
Speaker 1: So I'll open my chest up by putting my arms
Speaker 1: right out by my side, and I'll let my knees
Speaker 1: gently roll to the floor on one side and on
Speaker 1: the other, on one and on the other, trying to
Speaker 1: keep my shoulders in contact with the floor. Then I
Speaker 1: do a nice relaxing one where I put my feet
Speaker 1: against the wall and I get my bum in as
Speaker 1: close to the wall as I can and I just
Speaker 1: let it's a great HEMI stretch, but it's also just
Speaker 1: nice to get all the blood flow coming back to
Speaker 1: your heart, coming back to your head, and it's a
Speaker 1: really nice way to sort of just do some gentle
Speaker 1: breathing exercise. Us you close my eyes, breathe in through
Speaker 1: my nose, breathe that through my mouth, and I'll stay
Speaker 1: in that position for about sixty seconds. This is a
Speaker 1: stretch that I love doing at the end of a
Speaker 1: really hard running or cardio workout because all of the
Speaker 1: blood rushes to your extremities. If you just rock your
Speaker 1: legs from side to side while lying on your back
Speaker 1: and let all that blood flow come back up the body,
Speaker 1: it just feels really, really nice. And then the last
Speaker 1: one that I've just been adding is I've found my
Speaker 1: hips are getting really tight. And then I think, when
Speaker 1: I sleep, going into my spoon position with sneeze or
Speaker 1: whatever it is, I must tuck my hips under and
Speaker 1: I find if I open the map I sleep better.
Speaker 1: I sleep in a straighter sort of line. So this
Speaker 1: one I do on the bed, but I'll put my
Speaker 1: feet on the end of the bed and I'll just
Speaker 1: let my hips sink right down. And if I want
Speaker 1: to increase the intensity of the stretch, I will lift
Speaker 1: my arms up above my head, but I lift those
Speaker 1: fingers up. I sink into the stretch while I breathe.
Speaker 1: Breathings really important. You should exhale as you go deep
Speaker 1: into the street. And I'll hold that for thirty seconds
Speaker 1: on each side. And I just thought I want to
Speaker 1: just share this with you, not for everyone, but if
Speaker 1: you're finding that you're waking up a bit stiff, you're
Speaker 1: waking up a bit sore, you're looking for little one
Speaker 1: percent of ways to improve the quality of your sleep.
Speaker 1: I couldn't recommend doing these four stretches more highly. Give
Speaker 1: those four stretches a try. I'd love to hear your
Speaker 1: feedback and any other tips that you've got with me
Speaker 1: that you'd like to share about improving the quality of sleep,
Speaker 1: anything that you've been any little hacks that you've been given,
Speaker 1: or little things that you worked out for yourself. I'd
Speaker 1: love for you to share with me and I can
Speaker 1: share them with the rest of our wood Life listeners.
Speaker 1: I love hearing from you guys. There's a link in
Speaker 1: the show notes where you can do that. Have a
Speaker 1: wonderful week, he's to do. A good week's sleep.