I came across a neat flash animation video of digestion that can help you teach kids the basics about how their bodies utilize the foods they eat. Teaching kids early about how the body works, especially when it comes to digestion, can help them make better choices when it comes to food. When children realize that healthy foods help build strong bodies, they get the start they need for a healthy life. Check it out, and this week, teach a child about digestion.

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I talk about probiotics a lot. I even have a PBS show on the topic—The Road to Perfect Health. I call your gut bacteria the Gut Protection System, or GPS. The word probiotics means, “for life.” Probiotics are defined as beneficial bacteria (sometimes yeast) that benefit the person taking them in some way. Many people relate probiotics to yogurt, because some yogurts contain probiotics. (Many don’t—if the probiotics aren’t added back in after pasteurization, there won’t be any probiotics in the yogurt due to high heat required during pasteurization. Plus, check the sugar levels in yogurt—yikes!)

Awareness of probiotics is increasing. In 2007, about 58 percent of people surveyed were aware probiotics might be good for the digestive system. In 2011 that percentage increased to 81 percent. People are starting to get it.

What about prebiotics? Prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients that promote the growth of beneficial microorganisms (like probiotics) in the gut. They are essentially food for the beneficial gut bacteria—the fuel for the Gut Protection System, if you will. Prebiotics are often soluble fibers, like FOS (fructo-oligosaccharides) and acacia fiber.

If you think about it, soluble fibers escape digestion, arriving in the colon (large intestine) largely intact. Then, beneficial bacteria use the soluble fibers like food. A fermentation process occurs, yielding beneficial compounds like the short-chain fatty acid, butyrate, which fuels intestinal lining cells, and lactic acid, which lowers the colon pH to a healthy level.

Prebiotics and probiotics go hand-in-hand. When these two are found together, they are often called a “synbiotic,” highlighting their beneficial relationship. Studies show that the prebiotic FOS is particularly helpful in increasing levels of beneficial gut bacteria, while inhibiting an increase in harmful bacteria.

If you’re taking a prebiotic, be sure to take it with a probiotic to get the added benefit and to ensure you’re giving the “food” to the right kind of bacteria—the good kind.

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Recent findings by Harvard researchers in the Women’s Health Study (which involved more than 17,000 female health professionals) indicate that women whose work is highly stressful are at a 40 percent increased risk of developing heart disease compared to their less-stressed colleagues. The study also showed that women who worry about job loss are more likely to have high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol levels and be obese.

More studies back this up. A large study in Denmark found a higher risk for heart disease among women aged 51 and older who were under greater work pressure. Another study in Beijing found that women with job strain had increased thickness of the carotid artery—a sign of cardiovascular disease.

The effects of stress, and especially chronic stress, are far-reaching. The body is designed to respond to stress by increasing blood pressure, speeding heart rate, quickening breathing, and slowing digestion. Did you know that stress even alters the microbial balance in the digestive tract? Chronic stress has these same effects, but over a longer time period. The result? Chronic disease.

There are some aspects about work-related stress that cannot be changed. We all know that. How we handle the stress is another story. Stress-reducing therapies such as relaxation techniques, meditation, or yoga can be helpful. Regular exercise is another stress reducer, and is also good for the heart. Reducing stress outside of work can also help lessen the stress load.

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We hear about toxins all around us—in the air, in the water, in the food, in our homes—but what about toxicity that comes from within? Think about your digestion. When you eat a big cheeseburger and fries with a milkshake, or a number of other foods found in the Standard American Diet (SAD), digestion slows. Tick. Tock. You may not actually pass that food out of your system for days.

What happens during all that time? Well, the bun breaks down into sugar almost immediately, causing a blood sugar spike followed by an energy crash. The protein portion from the wheat found in bread may not break down completely, possibly triggering a reaction in your gut known as gluten sensitivity, which you may or may not feel. The fries also break down into sugar, and fat—a lot of fat. Also released from the fries is acrylamide, a compound thought to be carcinogenic, formed when starches are fried at high heat. If you don’t produce enough of the digestive enzyme lactase, the milk sugar lactose in the milkshake will not break down, resulting in gas and bloating when bacteria ferment the lactose in your gut. Now for the meat, which breaks down slowly and possibly incompletely depending on your system. Meat cooked at high temperatures contains the cancer-causing heterocyclic amines. Further, when meat is broken down by gut bacteria, more toxic compounds are formed.

As all of these harmful toxins are released in the gut some of them get absorbed into the bloodstream. First stop? The liver. Metabolically, the liver works harder than any other organ in the body. That’s a good thing because it has a lot of toxins to process. In today’s world more toxins than ever are processed in the liver. Often, not all toxins can be detoxified, so some are stored in the liver, in fat cells, or are released back into the bloodstream. Those toxins that are able to be processed by the liver are sent with bile to the gallbladder and then released into the small intestine to be excreted with a bowel movement.

If your intestinal transit is slow, however, with food sitting in the intestines for long periods of time, these toxins can be reabsorbed back into the bloodstream to the liver once again (a process known as enterohepatic circulation). It’s a vicious cycle, and highlights the importance of regular bowel elimination. Do you experience 2-3 bowel movements daily? Or even one daily? You need to be eliminating either 2-3 times daily, or once daily in large quantity. This is the first step to reducing toxicity.

Consuming a high fiber diet (at least 35 grams daily) or taking a fiber supplement if you can’t get it all from food, supporting gut microbial balance with probiotics, lubricating the bowel with anti-inflammatory omega-3 oils and increasing food digestion with digestive enzymes can help to achieve digestive regularity. For some people who are very constipated, an herbal laxative formula can help jumpstart elimination.

Leonard Smith, M.D.
Dr. Leonard Smith is a prominent Board-Certified, general, gastrointestinal and vascular surgeon who had a successful private practice for 25 years. In addition to his active surgery practice, he also incorporated lifestyle, diet, supplementation, exercise, detoxification, and stress management into many of the therapies he would prescribe. Many of his patients with cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other serious illnesses did so well under his treatment regimes that he began to devote most of his career to foundational health care and preventive medicine.  

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We have survived another big holiday season! Unfortunately, we may find an unfriendly scale when we return the gym. For many the scale can reveal a five- or even 10-pound weight gain. January is a time for many people to restart a diet program, but most diet seekers don’t understand that calorie reduction alone is a recipe for failure—even damaging to the body. Calorie restriction alone can program the body to store more fat even quicker once normal food intake is resumed (possibly due to epigenomic reprogramming).

In order to be successful at achieving and maintaining an optimum body weight, there are many things to consider: exercise, good quality and quantity of sleep, regular elimination, and stress reduction. Equally important are meals that are higher in protein, fiber, and complex carbs; yet low in simple carbs, trans fats and other processed foods. The ideal diet would be about 80% planted based; rich in micronutrients including vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, trace minerals, beneficial pre- and probiotics, and plant and fruit phytochemicals (there are at least two thousand); while not exceeding more than about 500 to 700 calories per meal.

Here is a short list of helpful tips:

• Minimize eating after about 7 pm (ideally, don’t eat at all after then), so when you start a meal between 6 to 8 am, you are truly “breaking a (small) fast.” This is a major way to reset brain leptin receptors which will direct speeding up or slowing down of metabolism.

• Since we all love carbs (and will likely have trouble in this area), take nutrients and amino acids and special types of fiber that will slow absorption of carbs, maintain healthy serotonin levels, and help boost our energy.

• YOU MUST EXERCISE, even if it is just walking—ideally aerobic activity 4 to 5 times per week, resistance training 2 to 3 times per week, with some stretching and/or yoga. Research has shown there is more muscle loss (up to 50%) when using only calorie restriction to reduce weight. Active muscles suck up extra blood sugar, breakdown fat for fuel, and increase metabolism.

• SLEEP at least 7 hours per night. Sleeping less than 6 hours has been shown to increase weight, and begin calcification of your heart arteries.

• Regular ELIMINATION is also essential for lowering toxic burdens and inflammation, which will desensitize insulin receptors and, thus, increase blood sugar and insulin levels—promoting more fat storage. Regular elimination works best with high fiber, good hydration (about half your body weight (pounds) in ounces of water per day—if you weight 150 pounds, that’s 75 ounces of water), and exercise. If you need more help with elimination, supplement with magnesium and other mild laxatives, especially while losing weight so as to minimize reabsorption of toxins from fat breakdown.

• Check for food sensitivities. Food sensitivities alone can cause you to hold 20 or more extra pounds! Generally, stay away from grains like wheat, rice and corn, and switch to seed-type grains like quinoa, amaranth, millet and buckwheat.

• Take 10 to 20 minutes per day to sit still and watch your breath and thoughts. Direct thoughts to more positive aspects of life and have an attitude of gratitude. It will literally balance your autonomic nervous system, and help digestion, elimination and sleep.

The above program could not only get you an ideal body weight, but also reawaken the hidden athlete in you, from your childhood and teenage years.

Leonard Smith, M.D.
Dr. Leonard Smith is a prominent Board-Certified, general, gastrointestinal and vascular surgeon who had a successful private practice for 25 years. In addition to his active surgery practice, he also incorporated lifestyle, diet, supplementation, exercise, detoxification, and stress management into many of the therapies he would prescribe. Many of his patients with cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other serious illnesses did so well under his treatment regimes that he began to devote most of his career to foundational health care and preventive medicine.

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Exciting news! If you live in the greater Tampa Bay area, be sure watch me LIVE on WEDU-TV tonight from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. for my NEW PBS special, The Road to Perfect Health.

A lot of folks don’t realize that a healthy body begins with a healthy gut. That’s because your digestive tract is where more than 80 percent of your body’s natural defenses are found, and it’s where trillions of bacteria live in a delicate balance to help you absorb nutrients, defend against toxins, and fight off illness and disease—not to mention help with bowel regularity!

But what may surprise you is that even things you wouldn’t normally associate with digestive health—everything from anxiety, joint aches and food sensitivities to fibromyalgia and even high cholesterol—they all start in the gut. That’s how important it is to keep your digestive system running smoothly.

Join me to learn the secret to balancing your gut and healing your body, beginning with the power of probiotics. Those are the beneficial bacteria in your intestines that help with healthy digestion and immune function, and they are the key to a strong GPS, or what I like to call your Gut Protection System. From there, I’ll give you the keys to rebuilding your health from the inside out and finally living the life you’ve always wanted. See you there!

If you don’t live in the Tampa Bay Area, The Road to Perfect Health is also airing nationwide right now through mid-December. Visit PBS for air times and station in your area.

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Great news, folks! My long-time friend and colleague Dr. Leonard Smith will soon be joining our online community with regular guest blog posts about important topics like gut health, nutrition, colon hydrotherapy, natural detoxification and more. And who better to give us advice about keeping our bodies and our digestive systems in good shape?

Dr. Smith has spent his career helping people live healthier through things like good digestion and diet, and he is a true mentor and an inspiration to me. He spent many years as a gastrointestinal surgeon before beginning his own successful private practice, and his knowledge of natural healing therapies is both impressive and inspiring. I have had the privilege of working side by side with Dr. Smith while writing several of my books, and I’m so excited he’ll soon be joining us here on brendawatson.com. Welcome, Dr. Smith!

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Doing what I do, I have a lot of folks come to me with problems like heartburn, constipation, gas and bloating—things that make you think right off the bat, “That’s a digestive issue.” But what about problems like fatigue or weight gain? Even allergies, joint pain or skin problems? What a lot of people don’t realize is that all of these things are connected, and they all come back to your gut.

I have a new book coming out called The Road to Perfect Health, and in it I talk about the vast numbers of bacteria in your body, especially in your digestive tract (which is where roughly 80 percent of your natural defenses are found). And when a healthy digestive balance is upset because of things like poor diet, stress or other factors, the result can be not only poor digestion, but a total breakdown in health.

If you’ve been having persistent health problems that you and your doctor just can’t seem to figure out no matter what you try, it may be time to look at what’s going on in your gut. And to do that, there are two absolutely essential tests that I recommend starting with. One is called a comprehensive stool analysis (CDSA or CSAP) and it’s really pretty remarkable. It evaluates your poop (now don’t cringe, this is important!) and looks at things like how you are digesting your food, as well as your levels of good and bad bacteria, whether pathogenic organisms such as C. difficile are present, what your yeast levels are, and if there are parasites in the gut.

The CDSA will also show you whether you have Leaky Gut Syndrome or inflammation in your digestive system, and it will show you how well your gut immunity is working, along with important gut health markers such as pH, blood, short-chain fatty acids and even how well your pancreas is functioning. These are all extremely important aspects of gut health that together can help you get to the bottom of what is going on in the rest of your body. Again, I can’t stress enough how connected your overall health is to what’s going on in your gut!

The other test is a gluten sensitivity test. Why gluten sensitivity? Because wheat gluten is a major (if not the worst) food irritant to the digestive system, and it is in a huge number of products on the market today—not just bread. Seriously folks, more than 40 percent of Americans are gluten sensitive and most don’t even know it, and 2 million of those have a serious autoimmune disorder called celiac disease, which causes the body to try to attack gluten in the system. And because even a lot of GI doctors don’t understand the difference between gluten sensitivity and celiac disease, most will either label you as having celiac or nothing, which can be extremely frustrating when you don’t feel well and are trying to figure out what’s wrong (read more about this here).The bottom line is that people are having all these problems which could lead to bigger problems later on, and the reality is those problems can be helped.

Both of these tests are non-invasive and can be done right at home (visit www.labtestingdirect.com and www.enterolab.com for more information). Then, all you have to do is send the tests to the lab for analysis (prepaid envelopes are provided) and hopefully take the first step toward getting your health back on track. If they seem expensive, think about it this way: how much money do you spend each week or each month on frivolous things you really don’t need? Isn’t your health a hundred times more important than a $4 latte every morning? And even if your insurance doesn’t cover the cost right away, you may be eligible for reimbursement, so I beg you—make this investment in your health. It’s worth it to get to the root of your problems and start enjoying the vibrant health and energy you deserve!!

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Do you know what heartburn, constipation, weight gain, high cholesterol and fatigue have in common? What about things like allergies, arthritis and even chronic disease? Well, you might be surprised to hear it, but ALL of these things are related…and guess why? Because they ALL start in the gut. Want to know more?

Join me on October 13^th at Sunflower Farmers Market in Scottsdale for a free digestive health lecture. I’m going to be talking about the link between a properly functioning digestive system and a healthy body, including how our increasingly toxic world is taking a serious toll on the natural defenses found in our gut. We’ll also talk about the natural supplements that are essential for helping you look and feel your best every day, so mark your calendar!

WHEN: Wednesday, October 13^th  7:00-9:00 p.m.

WHERE: Sunflower Farmers Market, 4402 N. Miller Rd., Scottsdale, AZ 85251

RSVP: 480-941-6001

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“Renew You” Challenge – Be a part of my Weekly Challenge to help set you off in the right direction for bringing health to your week. So this week I wanted to challenge the way you eat. 

Heartburn, indigestion, gas and bloating. At one time or another you’ve probably experienced a bout of post-meal discomfort that had you thinking, “What on earth did I eat that just isn’t sitting right??” Well, guess what? You were on the right track.

Most of the time things like heartburn and upset stomach can be prevented just by being choosy about what we put on our plate, since a lot of foods have natural components that can help our digestive system do its job. That’s right—Mother Nature knew what she was doing, folks!

Yogurt and cottage cheese, for example, contain probiotics that help keep your digestive system in balance and promote regularity, and so do fermented foods like kefir, sauerkraut, miso and tempeh.

Raw fruits and veggies contain powerful enzymes that work to break down all kinds of foods like carbohydrates, fats, sugars, and dairy foods, and they also help your body absorb nutrients. Papaya and pineapple, for example, contain an enzyme called papain that is especially helpful for digesting protein in the diet.

And—no surprise here—fiber is also important for healthy digestion. A good blend of soluble and insoluble fiber from fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts helps keep food moving through your intestines and promotes regular, healthy bowel movements.

So this week I want you to really pay attention to your meals and try to choose foods that benefit your digestive system rather than those that work against it. Steer clear of high-fat, sugary and processed foods, and load up on easy-to-stomach foods like fresh produce, whole grains, and probiotic-rich yogurt and fermented foods—your belly will thank you!

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