How often do you find yourself getting sick?
Does the winter months have you picking up every type of respiratory illness and common cold under the sun?
Or maybe you rarely get sick often but when you do, you have a hard time shaking it off?
The answer to a stronger more robust immune system may just lie in your gut!
It makes sense since 70-80% of our immune systems are said to reside in the gut.
So how does our gut relate to our immune system?
There are 3 main players that I would like to key point, when it comes to our gut and our immune system:
1) Having Low Secretory IGA-
Immunoglobulin A (IGA) is the primary immunoglobulin in our intestinal mucosa making it our first line of defense when it comes to fighting off unwanted pathogens that cause illness in both our gut and respiratory tract. When this marker is low, our gut immune system is suppressed making us more susceptible to picking up colds/flus and/or having a slow time recovering from illness. We also may be more susceptible to food sensitivities too.
2) Having an imbalance in good/bad gut bacteria known as Bacterial Dysbiosis-
We all have a mix of good and bad bacteria in our guts, the problem occurs when the balance becomes overridden with overgrowths of bad bacteria that are now crowding out the good guys. If you have a history of frequent or long-term low dose antibiotic use, this is likely the case. This may call for improving the gut environment by feeding the good gut bugs with the prebiotics they need to grow and flourish.
3) An inability to absorb nutrients from food due to low stomach acid-
Having low stomach acid puts you at higher risk of nutrient deficiencies even if you are eating a healthy diet. As your gut does not have enough stomach acid and digestive enzymes present to break down and digest the nutrients from your food properly, important nutrients cannot be absorbed and utilised by the body. This can cause other digestive symptoms including bloating and indigestion.
The question is now, how do we find out if we have these issues? And what can we do about them?
As most of my current clients know, my key focus area when it comes to my nutrition services is gut health. This is an area I am very passionate about and understandably so as this is such a fascinating area of health with research in this field that keeps growing, while we now know that the gut relates to virtually every area of our health to some way or another.
I do run a lot of stool testing that can give us a good overview of what is going on in your gut including if any of the above are present and need to be addressed.
If you would like to find out more or are just sick of the winter sicknesses that keep pulling you back from getting out and doing what you want to do, I invite you to book a discovery call with the below link.
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Find Out More
Sick of the winter illnesses that keeps pulling you back from getting out and doing what you want to do?
I invite you to jump on a call where we can get to know each other better and you can find out more about how I can help you feeling your best again.
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Winter Warmer Offer
Rainy and winter days are designed for slower, self-care indulgent treatment days. Take advantage of 2hrs of bliss with our winter special- hot stone massage, sauna & red-light therapy. Available at Seaford Meadows location Only!
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Well, I better be off!
Until next time.
Here's to good health and happiness
Sarah Horgan x
Clinical Nutritionist, Massage, Facials