Gut Cleansing or Flushing - a dirty job but someone's gotta do it

One of the many things that the experts agree on, to become more healthy, is to sort out your gut. I've recently learned that even serotonin (the happy hormone) is produced in, wait for it...... your gut!! Who knew? Apparently some is produced in the brain but the vast majority is in the gut. Reduced serotonin is to blame for many depressive people. Because most people are eating processed foods, some genetically modified, with wheat and gluten and all the other nasties like pesticides, hormones, colourants and additives, most guts are compromised.

A compromised gut means that the beneficial mucous coating that lines the intestines has worn away and the walls of the intestines are allowing toxic substances (which were on their way to be excreted from your body) to instead, be leaked into your body to roam around and cause havoc! Some people are affected more than others. In order to resolve this issue, we need to change our diets and start to do all the healthy things our mothers told us to do, like drink water, eat lots of fresh fruit and veg etc. But we cannot just start this one day and expect all to be well...... no, we have to start with a clean slate gut.

How do we get a fresh clean gut? I'm glad you asked. We need to flush it out, removing all remaining rubbish in our intestines that have built up over some time. Warning - this is not going to be pleasant especially if you've been eating badly like me. There are many ways to do this, there are master cleanses that you can do for days on end, there is the more palatable prune juice and then there is my personal favourite - the salt water flush. Remember prune juice and the salt water flush MUST be done first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Then don't plan to go out for a few hours.

The salt cleanse doesn't taste great, I'll be honest. The salt solution is pretty much a saline solution which is similar to the saline already in your body and therefore the salt and water are not absorbed by the body, it is literally used as a flush to go straight through. While surging forth (excuse the pun) the salt water takes all the cr*p with it and you get a very watery diarrhoea. It starts within an hour of taking the solution and is over within about 2 hours thereafter. You will probably go to the bathroom around 6-8 times. If you have no reaction, then you need to use more salt and if there is too much of a reaction, use less salt. Here is the recipe, I really do urge you to try this:

1 litre of lukewarm water
2 tsp of sea salt (Please note!! NOT IODISED SALT)

Mix together and drink as quickly as possible (all of it within 10 minutes). Then ensure you have a good book and an extra toilet roll and you're ready to go (literally!)

It's best not to do this flush too often as you don't want to dehydrate yourself or lose valuable minerals, but it would be beneficial once or twice a week until your bowel is good and clean and fresh. Did you know that poop is not supposed to smell? Yes! Apparently foul smelling waste matter is the result of food remaining in the gut for too long and rotting - eeeewwww. So until you get to this heavenly plane of fresh-smelling faeces, your bowel requires attention. For a fun read that I just couldn't resist writing after seeing a sign from a swimming pool, click here.

I will endeavour to write more about gut health as our health really is "all about the gut" and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise that toxins floating around our bodies (free radicals) are not good for anybody. My body (being a Leo) is already screaming and picketing outside with a sign telling me to make changes, but yours may be a little shy, keeping it quiet but later allowing the problem to develop into cancer or a plethora of other silent beginning diseases that remain undetected for many people until it's too late.

Start slowly, but start.

Check out this great website that I found to help you on your merry gut-healing way 4 steps to heal leaky gut and autoimmune disease