Digestion: The Cornerstone of Good Health

And How Good Digestion Depends on the State of our Nervous System

You can access a recording of this post here

Gut health is one of the most important cornerstones to our overall health. A digestive system out of balance has a domino effect on our health on almost all levels. Digestive issues may express themselves through our skin or respiratory system. They can impact our mental-emotional wellbeing, hormonal metabolism, immune function and the expression of inflammation in the body. Inflammation in turn affects almost every health outcome. Inflammation is the main driver in most chronic and degenerative diseases including cardiovascular issues, insulin resistance, autoimmune diseases, mental health, and hormonal regulation. I don’t think there is an organ system that is not affected by what goes on in our gut.

So many of us in the modern world are suffering from digestive issues. Be it reflux, gas, bloating, pain, food sensitivities, irritable bowel, constipation. What is going on and what can we do about it?

Many gut symptoms are related to a disruption of the microbiome of our gut. This microbiome is the balance of bugs in our gut. It turns out we have co-evolved symbiotically with these microbes within us and rely on them in order to keep things functioning in the best possible way. Without the right balance of these symbiotic microorganisms, we suffer the fall out of many digestive issues. We will go into more detail on the various things that are affecting our microbiome in a future post. But for now, let’s start with the most basic and most obvious parameters affecting our digestion. The nervous system itself.

In order to get to the bottom of dealing with digestive issues, we need understand what our digestive system needs in order to work the way it’s supposed to work. And that brings me back to the nervous system. All roads lead to Rome they say. Well, most functions in the body lead back to the nervous system, specifically what’s called the autonomic nervous system. It’s that part of the nervous system that is responsible for many of the “automatic” functions in the body. Those things that the body regulates on its own, without any of our conscious input. The body keeps these basic functions in check, regulating our respiratory rate, heart rate, digestion and influencing almost every aspect of metabolic, nervous system and hormonal health. Day and night, Twenty four seven. These things go on without any conscious input from our thinking brain. And this is especially true for the gut.

Many of you have probably heard of the vagus nerve. This nerve is the king pin of the part of our nervous system that regulates digestion as well as other important automatic functions in our body. The vagus nerve, travels along the entire digestive tract, innervating every aspect of it.

The autonomic nervous system is deeply tied into our survival brain, and it seems to have served us quite well, as we are all still here. It is constantly monitoring our environment for cues of safety and danger - on a level completely removed from our thinking brain. When it senses any possible danger or threat, it mobilizes our defences in order to keep us alive. Depending on the intensity of the threat, it will choose among its various options of going into a fight, flight or freeze response. The way these states manifest can be quite subtle, such that we are not even aware that we have been triggered. Perhaps it’s feeling on edge, muscle tension, increased heart rate or blood pressure, anxiety, irritability, anger, restlessness or insomnia. Or maybe we become numb, shut down, want to escape from the world, feel hopeless or depressed, lose touch with our bodies and the here and now.

Unfortunately in our modern world, these triggers do not just arise now and then, for example - being chased by a lion. These triggers have become almost ubiquitous in our lives. There are so many subtle cues of perceived danger and threat that we encounter day in and day out, that for many people, keeps them in an almost constant state of overdrive or shut down. And in most situations, we have no way to process this trigger, or move it through or bodies, to come to some sort of resolution with it. For example, running away from the lion - either successfully or not. There was always a resolution. Now we just stay stuck in the pickle, and in most situations we, have no way to move beyond it - no way out. And that is the very nature of our modern world. Its propensity is to keep us in a state of unsafe. Because the parameters and paradigm upon which it is based is that of unsafe. One of the foundations of this is our paradigm of how we perceive the natural world around us. Do we perceive the natural living world as friend or foe?

We have co-evolved with the natural world for hundreds of thousands of years. The only way to survive within it was to befriend and be at one with it. To realize that we are part of it, dependent upon it and responsible to it for our survival. Within this context, according to our DNA, the baseline for human normalacy is the small band hunter gatherer tribe - not the modern world. And we co-evolved, not only within the context of the natural world, but within the context of a community of people upon which we depended for our survival.

Our modern world alienates us, not only from trust in the natural world and natural processes, but also from other people and the community of life itself. It sets us up to see our lives as individual, or at best, part of a nuclear family, which in no way give us the context or structure in which we can grow and flourish in a way that feels safe. Our modern world has changed the “rules of the game” in a radical way that does not align with our evolutionary DNA. I am not saying that we need to go back to living in a small band hunter gatherer society. I am just wanting to point out, that our nervous systems evolved within a context very different from what we are now living. And this context within which we are living perpetuates a very fundamental experience of “unsafe” in our day to day lives and in our world.

I am not going to go into all the crazy aspects of our modern world that feed into the experience of unsafe. We know them well, and live them all too vividly. Instead, my hope is that we can begin to explore what our nervous systems need in order to feel safe. Because until out nervous systems feel safe, our autonomic nervous system, that regulates most physiological functions in our body, is keeping us in a state that is not conducive to good health.

If we look at those people living in the “Blue Zones” in the world - where the population consistently experiences robust health well into their 80s and 90s, we can see that the most fundamental of all practices that they engage in consistently across the board is that of creating safety in community. We are social beings. We are dependent on each other and we are dependent on the natural world. Until we make peace with this reality, it's a hard road to get to feeling safe in our bodies and in the world.

BACK TO OUR DIGESTIVE SYSTEMS…..

In order to function at its prime, our digestive system requires the nervous system to be in a receptive “rest and digest” mode of being. And that’s not happening much in today’s world. How often do we sit down to a lovingly prepared meal, in a relaxed environment to enjoy delicious food and good company with our friends or family? It’s just not happening much. And it’s what our digestive system thrives on. These social cues of gathering, and sharing around food, are wired deeply into our experience of safety. They allow the nervous system to feel secure, connected and at ease.

Our modern lifestyle of being in “overdrive” and in “fight/flight” mode, puts us in a state where our digestive capacity is turned “off” so to speak. When we are in overdrive, the energy in our body goes to our extremities in preparation to fight or flee and there is no energy left to fuel the digestive fire. This set up is perpetuated by our fast-paced, high-production oriented lifestyles. Eating while stressed out, eating alone, eating on the run, eating too quickly, relying on convenience foods, drinking instead of eating our meals, and consuming too much of our food cold all contribute to poor digestion.

Let’s get our rest and digest function back online shall we?

In order to do so, we need to put food back into a place of importance in our lives. Recognizing that food, and the way it is procured, prepared and enjoyed, is a sacred and fundamental act of being alive. That our health and wellbeing, not just physical but emotional and spiritual too, depends on living in right relationship with food and living world it comes from. It is one of the ways in which we are profoundly dependent on the living world. As much as we might think food comes from grocery store shelves, it does not. All food originates from this living world upon which we are dependent and this reality is not going to change anytime soon.

If we want good health and an experience of wellbeing in our lives, food cannot be relegated to some passing thought as we rush ahead into the next moment. Reaching endlessly for some future achievement, in a futile attempt to overcome the mantra of not-enoughness underlying our disembodied, disconnected and consumer-driven modern world.

So not only do we want to choose food with care, we also want to prepare food with care and in a way that will bring us enjoyment. And a great deal of that, relates to making our food taste good. Not the “taste good” of the modern food industry that manipulates our taste buds with chemicals and synthetic flavours at the expense of our health and wellbeing. But the kind of “taste good” that comes from quality food, prepared with love and care. Not to mention the kind of “taste good” that comes from sharing good food in good company.

TIPS FOR OPTIMAL DIGESTION

• Keep working away at creating a feeling of safety and connection in your nervous system and in your life in order to tap into this “rest and digest” function that underlies good gut health and optimal health and wellbeing in general.

• If possible, simplify your life so that you can make food preparation a priority and take time to prepare food that is healthy, beautiful and delicious. Explore the use of culinary herbs and spices, especially herbs and spices known to strengthen the “digestive fire”, not only to make your food taste good, but to support digestive function.

• Enjoy your food. Be grateful for your food. Eat together with others in good company whenever possible. Create structure and routine around mealtimes. Eat in a relaxed state. Take time to eat. Don’t eat on the run. Sit down to eat. Chew your food well.

• Favour WARM foods and beverages over cold as much as possible, especially if you have a weak digestive system. Limit beverages with meals. Favour warm beverages such as bone broth or teas made from relaxing, digestive herbs.

• Rest your digestive system at least 12 hrs nightly

Be sure to check our my posts on getting more culinary herbs and spices into you diet, you can access these two posts here and here.