A Journey to Better Health & Feeling Better During the Spring Season

Written by Kristen Daschke, ND, LMT, RYT

It is commonly said in natural health that your health begins in your gut. The health of the digestive system, or the gut, plays a big role on the health of your entire body. We talk about this topic, as well as the other foundations to better health in my Launch Into Wellness virtual coaching platform.

If your digestive system is out of balance, it could be missing out on absorbing important nutrients that are essential for maintaining a healthy body. Also, if your digestive system is not flowing smoothly on a schedule with bowel movements, your body is likely holding onto toxins that can build up overtime.

If you tend to eat more acid-promoting foods, your body may be experiencing more mucous, which if this is out of control, one may experience conditions such as candida. 

Besides the elimination pathway of the digestive system, we have to also consider the elimination pathways of our skin, and through our lungs.

Our skin is responsible for eliminating one-fourth of the body’s detoxification each day. All of the products that you place on your skin are then detoxified by your liver and your kidneys. So, think about all of those ingredients in the products you're exposed to throughout the day or week: face wash, shampoo, soap, make up, household cleaning products, etc. What could those ingredients be doing to your body over-time?

Besides the liver and kidneys helping to filter out the junk or bodies come in contact with, we have another filtration system within our tissues called Lymph. You may have heard about Lymph nodes, which we have strategically located in certain areas of our body, including under the armpits, and in the groin area. Lymph is one more system that helps to clean out the toxic ingredients we are exposed to through what we put on our skin, and along with lymph, we have a natural mechanism in our body to sweat. Sweating is a natural way for the body to release toxins not otherwise able to be detoxed through other elimination pathways of the body. Let's talk about anti-perspirants for a minute -- you know, those deodorants that have synthetic chemicals in them to make your skin do the complete opposite of what your body has been designed to do to help keep you healthy. 

"But I stink" -- I hear that all of the time. 

To be bold and honest, there's an elimination issue that needs to be addressed, and that may be needing to go through a detox. I went through it, and I'm telling you from my experience, it is worth it. I did feel like I had an odor to me for a bit through the detoxing, but I simply used my essential oils to fix that. 

Now that we've covered the different elimination pathways of the body, the conclusion I want to draw here is to be more mindful of what you're using in and on your body, as well as breathing in. 

Yep, breathing... something that we all want to be sure we're able to do without discomfort, especially through the springs months with the flowers and trees blooming. Some of us have a greater reaction to some things over others, including animals, stings, plants, and foods. This topic takes me back to gut health and touching on probiotics. Our body needs a healthy balance of good and bad bacteria. If you were to have a doctor prescribe an antibiotic and you were to take it, it is important to know that this antibiotic would not only wipe out the bad bacteria that could be causing an infection or disease, but it would also wipe out the good bacteria that is in your gut working to keep your whole body in balance. 

Anti = against

Pro = for/in support of

Biotic = life