Homeopathy For Digestion and Gut Health

Digestion and gut health are hot topics at the moment. As a holistic nutritionist and homeopath, utilising homeopathy for digestion and optimal gut health combined with nutritional support can be a powerful combination. Fixing gut issues is more layered than most people realise. The homeopathic approach is about getting to the root cause of dis-ease, and encouraging the body’s self-healing towards full resolution. Supported by an individualised diet focused on real food, you can prevent gut issues, as well as address them naturally and holistically.

The gut is an ecosystem that needs delicate care, and balance to be at its best. Like many things in our modern world, people expect a quick fix, and probiotics are often considered the go-to for gut health. In reality, fixing gut issues is more layered than most people realise.

The gut microbiome gets damaged quite early on and by the time you start to get obvious digestive issues happening, you’ve already gone downstream quite a bit from the original cause. I like to use the analogy of soil when describing the gut microbiome. Imagine if you got a blow torch and killed everything on your lawn. You wouldn’t just throw some fertiliser on it and expect it to come back. You have to build up the soil. It’s the same when you damage your gut microbiome. You have to build the diversity in that microbiome first.

Keep reading to learn more about homeopathy for digestion and how it can work in tandem with holistic nutrition.

Homeopathy for digestion is about building strong foundations from the inside out.

Many clients will come in with low energy – always tired or fatigued. That early decline is often ignored and dismissed and not always tied to gut health. Rebuilding starts from that deepest layer – helping the body to heal itself from the inside to the outside rather than saying – ‘take this probiotic’, or ‘take this anti-parasitic’. With gut repair, it’s about giving it time, rather than throwing huge money at the problem. We always say to our clients, remember your gut is always wet, it’s always dark and it’s always working. So it takes time to heal. Homeopathy is an energetic medicine that can work with you to support this process and we’ll go into more specific detail about how that works later in this article.

What and how to eat for a healthy digestion

Alongside homeopathy for digestion, there are other things you can do to build up your internal soil – a healthy, diverse microbiome and well functioning digestive system.

Include fibre-rich foods

For the average person, fibre is most often lacking in the diet but you don’t have to consume large amounts of fibre, just include it consistently. All leafy greens and any coloured vegetable are full of fibre. A simple apple is also a great example of a fibre-rich food. There have been scientific studies on the benefits of apples for gut health, so the old saying ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ is absolutely correct. Yet how many people would eat a real apple nowadays?

Enjoy a variety of fruits and vegetables

The wider variety of colours of fresh fruit, and vegetables you can eat, the healthier and happier your gut will be. So eat the rainbow! Different aspects of your microbiome need different foods and different chemicals, so try and rotate things.

This doesn’t need to be an over the top change to have an impact. Introducing different fruits and vegetables alongside your staples is going to begin to help nourish that variety of gut bacteria. Perhaps you will introduce beetroot this week, sweet potato the next, and so on.

Cook from scratch

Nowadays, fast food is sexy and convenient, and cooking is something we often don’t want to do. On top of that, we live in a society.that is consuming inflammatory foods all the time. Even when we do cook, it’s often from boxes and bottles, with cooking consisting of just pouring those together in a pot.

Most foods that are manufactured have additives which help prolong shelf life but can be inflammatory for the gut. So cooking from scratch can make a big difference. Unfortunately today, it’s a lost art. Thankfully you can take so much power back just by learning how to cook.

Introduce bitter foods

Digestive bitters are very good for the gut, but are something we often don’t have a palate for. In modern society we’ve been conditioned to not like bitter foods, but eating them can initiate digestive responses like stimulating bile and digestive juices. Natural compounds found in many bitter foods such as polyphenols, alkaloids, and terpenoids have also been studied for their anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and antioxidant properties. .Where you can, incorporate bitter foods such as grapefruit, dandelion, arugula, endives, broccoli, or any other foods that are bitter on the tongue.

Eat mindfully

Digestion starts in your mouth. If you’re not chewing properly you’re not relaxed while you’re eating, which will impact your digestion. Likewise if you’re not breathing well. Before you eat, you should sit up and relax by taking a couple of deep breaths from your diaphragm. This calms your nervous system and helps you receive the food. Nowadays, we often throw food down on the go, and we’re eating while thinking about other things. 

Your digestion is part of your parasympathetic nervous system, so you want to be in that rest and digest state. Diaphragmatic breathing positively impacts the intestinal tract from a physiological perspective, but also the nervous system. Deep breathing is also a great way to get your bowels moving.

Eat at regular times

In times gone by, people had more routine in their lives than they do today, and the gut thrives on this regularity. Nowadays, people are eating around the clock, eating late and getting into bed. This impacts sleep and stress levels. So then you’re downstream again as your body experiences imbalance which can often turn into dysbiosis, or food sensitivities.

What else to consider

Stress

There’s a big connection between stress hormones and gut health. When someone’s gut health is out, their mental health and behaviour often change. Often when I see someone damaging their microbiome through their lifestyle, I see their behaviour change and their life spiral.

The gut-brain link is quite well documented, and it can travel both ways, where your gut health impacts your mental health but your microbiome can also be impacted by chronic levels of stress hormones.

Fermented foods

As with probiotics, many people are overdoing fermented foods and it’s like throwing gasoline on the fire when you have poor gut health. Some people are sensitive to fermented foods, and in many cases a little bit goes a long way. So moderation in all things as grandma would have said.

Supplements

Supplements are a synthetic, compounded product. It may say ‘Vitamin C’ on the bottle, but nobody has squeezed oranges! Often supplements also contain fillers, binders, preservatives and stabilisers, because the product needs a shelf life. Where possible, it is often better to eat the whole food rather than take a supplement.

I’m not saying don’t use supplements, but be mindful that supplements are potent, especially for an inflamed gut. If you eat a whole orange, your body has to massage it down so it keeps the muscle working, which keeps the digestive system flowing. With the whole food you aren’t just getting the Vitamin C, but the fibre, minerals and enzymes.If you’ve got a deficit, you could also consider fruits and vegetables that have been dehydrated and compressed down.Into tablet form, which gives the body the choice to excrete it, or metabolise it.

How homeopathy for digestion works

Through consultation, we can utilise homeopathy for digestion and overall support for the body on all levels alongside nutrition, aiming to restore gut function and overall health and vitality. The homeopathic approach is stimulating self healing. It’s the body repairing itself with the support of the homeopathics acting as the stimulus.

Through homeopathic consultation we also look at lifestyle changes that are appropriate to your constitution, and consider the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects that may be part of your gut symptoms.

This de-arrangement did not come in isolation, so it’s all about creating an environment.that’s conducive to healing. We may find an emotional issue that we need to work on, food addictions, cravings, stress or nervous system issues, or unresolved shock or trauma.

Natural support can promote long term resolution

The more you can support your body naturally to prevent and overcome digestive issues and address the root causes, the better your digestive system and entire system is going to be long term. Moving your body, breathing properly, managing your stress and sleep, developing a routine, eating well and regularly are the basics that make a world of difference. If we are digesting and metabolising properly and have clean lymphatics, clean blood and clean organs then we have the makings of a healthy life.

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