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Healthy Gut, Healthy You

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Shelly Sethi, D.O.

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Your gut plays a critical role in your overall health. Dr. Shelly Sethi sees many women struggling with decreased energy, autoimmune disorders, weight-loss issues, digestive issues and hormonal imbalances. Their relationships are suffering because of their medical concerns and they’re worried about the quality and longevity of their life and ability to enjoy family in the years to come. They don’t need a bandage solution; they need help finding the root cause of the symptoms and creating a long-term plan of action. Sethi explains some of the common concerns she regularly hears and explains how to strengthen your gut with integrative solutions.

How do you know if your gut is healthy? What are signs that you should see a doctor for digestion issues?

Digestive issues can present with many different symptoms. Some easily recognizable symptoms might be gas, bloating or acid reflux. Less recognizable symptoms as related to the gut might include acne, eczema, difficulty with focus, low energy and difficulty losing weight. Ultimately, you are only as healthy as your gut is. If your gut is not healthy, you can end up with nutritional deficiencies, which can lead to your body not having the building blocks it needs to make proteins that help you heal or hormones that drive your metabolism or the support you need for a healthy immune system and well-functioning brain. It’s essential that your gut microbiome is healthy, and testing can provide insight into why symptoms or digestive issues are occurring in the first place.

What are some helpful food guidelines and diet trends for rebalancing the gut? Which trends might actually be harmful?

The truth is that there are going to be different eating patterns that are right for different people. It’s really hard to say there’s one size that fits all. That being said, I typically recommend as a general rule of thumb that the anti-inflammatory diet is great for most people as a starting point. The anti-inflammatory diet or the Mediterranean diet have the most evidence for longevity and tend to be plant-focused or plant-forward diets. Women often ask about the ketogenic diet. This diet has been shown to improve some inflammatory gut problems and can help with rebalancing the microbiome. However, it may not be the right choice for everyone, as it can also affect hormonal balance.

What are some preventative steps women can take to strengthen their guts?

Eat a large variety of vegetables and fruits to increase the diversity of your microbiome, which are the bacteria and other species that live in our guts to help us with day-to-day functions. Eat probiotic and prebiotic foods, which include fermented foods, yogurt, pickled vegetables and fiber. Decrease your stress, especially prior to eating. If you are stressed, your digestion is affected, and no matter how good your diet is, your absorption of all that healthy food will be affected. Taking five minutes to practice a mindful meditation, prayer or breathing practice, such as the “4-7-8 breath,” prior to eating will help the digestive juices flow and decrease inflammation. Follow time-restricted feeding, which means eating during a set number of hours during the day. Consider intermittent fasting. Don’t eat after the sun goes down or before the sun comes up. And, finally, get good sleep.

How do you advise your patients to apply integrative solutions at home to maintain gut health?

You can’t supplement your way out of a poor diet. Choosing healthy foods is foundational. There may be times, however, when food and nutrition are not enough. Lifestyle modifications are essential, as described in my book, Built to Thrive, including reducing toxins in your environment, increasing natural movement, optimizing sleep, strengthening relationships and transforming mindset about what is possible for well-being. When specific natural solutions are necessary, many ingredients can be found in the pantry and fridge and created quickly and simply. Remedies include sage cough syrup, bath salts with magnesium and essential oils for sleep, fennel-ginger tea for indigestion, and marshmallow tea and bone broth to soothe the gut. We instruct women to use natural ingredients, which prevents microbiome disruption that many over-the-counter synthetic products can cause.

Dr. Shelly Sethi is a board-certified family physician who provides integrative and functional medicine to people who are looking for clarity and real solutions to their chronic health issues and to people who want to optimize their body and brain to live to their full potential.

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