Good Gut Feeling: Digestive Health

by Justine Glenton

An Ashtanga & Zen Yoga Teacher

Keeping a healthy gut is vital to our quality of well-being and yoga is a perfect practice to maintain and assist this area in our body. The relationship between stress and the stomach is a complicated one, but most people notice some change in their bowel habits when they are under stress. Practicing yoga, meditation, prayer, or any other form of stress reduction can greatly benefit the gut.

by Matthew Powell

A Body Aware Specialist

From the moment food is swallowed it begins a 25-30 foot journey of breakdown, release, absorption, addition, and removal. The processing of this food uses a staggering 9 times the amount of nerves than are present in the brain AND spinal cord. For this reason, scientists dub this Enteric Nervous System (ENS) the body’s “Second Brain”.

by Lucy Miller

A Fitness and Nutrition Expert

Good gut feeling? Get good abs!

Don’t you just love it when you have that good inner gut feeling? You feel good inside, confident and ready to take on any challenge that comes your way – but what if your outer gut feeling doesn’t look as good? What if you have a stubborn layer of fat around your belly button that no amount of crunches can shift? The good news is, you can shift it – you just need the right diet, lifestyle and exercise!

by Maureen Cromey

An Acupuncturist and Chinese Medicine Expert

Let’s look at our good gut feeling through the eyes of Chinese Medicine. Gut problems are awful. They can be painful, embarrassing, cause terrible bloating, ruin your confidence and worse. Severe problems cause great deterioration in health and can be life threatening.  When the digestive system is upset we are unable to absorb vital nutrients and become weak and vulnerable to further imbalances and illnesses.

by Dr. Sarah Brewer

A Nutritionist and Doctor

When your bowels work properly, it is easy to take them for granted. When they play up, however, bowel function – or lack of it – has a major impact on your quality of life, not to mention your holiday.

by Steve Halsall

A Celebrity Personal Trainer

The whole subject of a healthy gut is one of opinion and counter opinion. It is a complex subject that whole departments in hospitals are designated to. Huge amounts of money is spent on research and even more on remedies and tablets to try and quell the feeling of heartburn and gut ache. My understanding is that the two are very separate conditions. Heartburn and indigestion, which 40 percent of Americans suffer from, often occurs after eating when the acid secreted from the gut to break down food travels back up the lower throat which gives the feeling of heartburn.