4 Facts You Didn’t Know About Maintaining Healthy Digestion

You’ve probably heard by now that the health of your gut is a major reflection of the health of your entire body and even your mind. The ancient healing science of Ayurveda has known this for thousands of years, and modern science is finally backing up this wisdom with evidence.
 
So rather than being dependent on prebiotic and probiotic supplements for the rest of our lives, it’s important to educate ourselves on ways to repair and restore our digestive health so that we can live and eat as nature intended.
 

Here are 4 lesser-known yet very beneficial facts about digestion:

1. There is a downside to probiotic dependency

Here’s a little secret – it’s not about flooding your body with prebiotic supplement after probiotic supplement for the rest of your life. None of us want to be dependent upon a pill – whether it’s pharmaceutical or natural. The real answers lie in having a self-sufficient system that detoxes and digests everything without a problem.
 
We were designed as humans to do this. It’s our birthright, and our natural state.
 
The thing is, most probiotics today are beneficial, but they also require regular consumption, and once you stop taking them, you’re back to square one.
 

We were designed as humans to do this. It’s our birthright, and our natural state.

 
Most probiotic supplements work while you’re taking them but when you stop, your tummy doesn’t know how to do the work on its own. It becomes dependent upon a supplement, and that’s not good.
 
Pro tip on probiotics . . .
All strains of probiotics are different, and it’s important to know which one to take. Pick a probiotic strain that’s known as a colonizing one, rather than a transient one. Colonizing probiotics will stick to your gut wall, helping you permanently develop good bugs.
 
But before you take a colonizing probiotic, your intestinal skin needs to be in tip-top shape, ready to receive and proliferate the good bugs given to it by the colonizing probiotic strain.
 

2. Do you really have to eliminate certain food groups?

Ayurvedic wisdom believes that compromising your digestion is the root of all ailments. Your intestinal health and ability to digest food healthfully (and whether or not you’re able to eat gluten, sugar, dairy, etc.), depends on your unique microbiology.
 
This is why some people can eat bread while others get bloated and sick. It’s the reason why some people get terrible heartburn and other issues while others never do. If you get to the root of the problem and repair your entire digestive tract, you may find that going gluten-free, dairy-free, etc. might not be necessary.
 
In essence, while many people have benefitted from cutting gluten, dairy, sugar, or other inflammatory foods from their diet, the first step in knowing what your body needs is repairing your digestive tract. This will give you insight into what types of food (if any) cause the issue, vs. whether the issue was more deeply rooted in your digestion itself.

3. Your intestinal skin plays a big role

The bacteria found in the lining of your digestive tract are dependent upon your intestinal skin. You may not know you have this intestinal skin, but now you do! And it’s bigger than you might have ever imagined. The fact is, the surface area of your intestinal tract is big enough to cover an entire tennis court. It’s huge! And there are trillions of bugs dependent upon the health of this surface.
 
The bugs that live here are responsible for the production of neurotransmitters, like the feel-good chemicals serotonin and dopamine. If these bugs are healthy, they make you feel happy. If they’re not, you’ll feel blue.
 
These ‘gut bugs’ also support the healthy functioning of most of the body’s systems – including immunity, cardiovascular health and even your DNA. They interpret information from your environment (ie. the food you eat, the air you breathe, the water you drink, the things you see and think) and bring that information to your genes.
 
In conclusion, you want your intestinal skin to be able to make more of the happy bugs in order to have a healthy, happy life.
 

4. Repairing your intestinal skin helps improve digestion

The repairing of your intestinal skin is the first step to setting yourself up for a long life of healthy digestion. Your intestinal skin has little villi, which bring toxins as well as nutrients across the intestinal wall and into your lymph system. When this transportation system breaks down, which happens as we get older, problems arise.
 
Therefore, if we want to age gracefully, we need to learn how to support and love our intestinal skin as well as the lymph on the outside of our intestinal tract. Remember – the lymphatic system is what’s responsible for getting rid of all those toxins that accumulate over a lifetime of exposure.
 
The lymphatic system also transports all the fats you need to the areas in your body that depend upon them for good health. If this system breaks down, all those toxic things go directly to your liver, which is not a good thing.
 
In fact, one of the best things you can do right now to begin the reparation process is to make yourself a big ol’ batch of Kitchari – the Ayurvedic porridge that’s infamously easy to digest. Kitchari is filled with a synergistic combination of Indian spices that actually repair your digestive tract while also helping you detox. The combination of all kitchari ingredients has an incredibly positive effect on your system, helping to repair the intestinal skin in the process.
 

The takeaway

When it comes to achieving healthy digestion, it’s not just about eliminating wheat or dairy from your diet – because if you can’t digest these things, chances are, the many environmental toxins that you can’t avoid are also not getting expelled in the proper way because your system has broken down.
 
Instead, these toxins are entering your digestive system but bypassing your liver where they should go to be expelled. They then go to your fat cells (including the ones in your brain), which is totally yucky and unhealthy. As you can see, everything is truly connected! Ayurvedic medicine has always known this to be true.
 
These four facts offer a few easy ways to start on your journey to better digestive health. Upgrade your digestion the Ayurvedic way, and gain control of your health on your own terms! Knowledge is power, and understanding the basic foundation of digestion and how to support it is a great way to empower yourself and your health.
 
This article and all included information is not intended as medical advice and does not treat or diagnose. Please consult your doctor for any health-related questions or concerns.
 

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