How to Heal Your Gut w/ Hannah Aylward

What's up guys, welcome back to the podcast. If you want to have glowing skin, easier periods, and less bloating after your meals, this is going to be an episode for you. Today I'm joined by certified holistic health coach Hannah Ilward, and we're going to talk all about repairing your gut and how to get rid of those digestive issues for good. We talk about the key signs of burnout and what to do when they arise, the actual impact that chronic stress is having on our gut I also ask her about adrenal fatigue and if that is actually a real thing and what's happening there and how to heal it, how to get off of the stress hormone roller coaster. Hannah gives her best tips for nervous system regulation because that is a huge part of our overall health and well-being. We talk about how working a job that you hate or being in a misaligned relationship can actually affect your gut health. I ask Hannah if probiotics actually work and which ones are truly worth it, and she gives us her brand recommendation. We also talk about why elimination diets are probably not the answer to your food intolerances, and that just removing food groups from your diet if you have an intolerance is not really a root cause solution or a long-term solution for those issues. And then I get Hannah's hot takes on some current health trends like celery juice, cold plunging, saunas, and so much more. If you are a health and wellness girly, you are going to love this episode, so let's dig in. Welcome to the Makeshift Happen podcast. I'm your host, Samantha Daly, entrepreneur, life coach, and your no BS bestie, here to bring you all things mindset, manifestation, and personal development. This podcast is designed to help you expand your mind and uplevel your life. So turn the volume up and roll the windows down if you're coming along for the ride. Let's go make shit happen.

Happen.

Welcome to the show, Hannah. I'm so excited that you're here. I am really looking forward to chat all things gut health because gut health has been a huge part of my own wellness journey. It's something that when I was in my early 20s, like, had no awareness of, but then obviously ran into like some issues, bloating, pain after I would eat anything. And no matter what I would do, I couldn't fix it. I tried to remove gluten, remove dairy, do elimination diets. Like, I did all these things and I just couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. And then I started to have like skin issues and acne was showing up after I, you know, had pretty much had good skin for my entire life. But then I got off of birth control and like everything changed. And it was all these like hormone stuff and gut health stuff. I found out that I had leaky gut. And so it was like a big— it was a big thing. So I think we can never have enough education and information and tips and support when it comes to gut health, because it is so integral in terms of our overall health since it affects so many areas. So yeah, I'm really excited to have you here and talk about like your side of things and get some more tips for the girlies who need support.

Welcome to the show. Yes, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to dive in.

Yeah, okay, so the first thing that I kind of wanted to bring to the table was this idea of like stress and ambition. Obviously you're an entrepreneur as well, but I think I've heard you mention that you have a stellium in Capricorn. Is that correct?

Yeah. Oh yes.

Okay. So I heard you mention that, and a lot of the listeners will be somewhat familiar with astrology, but I mean, if you have a stellium in Capricorn, I would imagine that you have likely always kind of been like a hard worker, someone who's ambitious. And also, like I said, you're an entrepreneur. So I'm just curious, like, how you balance your knowledge of wellness practices and like the importance of slowing down and limiting stress with that kind of like natural drive and ambition to achieve and make impact?

Oh my gosh, what a beautiful question. It's been a journey. It's like a— it's a forever journey, you know. So we really can't overlook the connection between stress and gut health, hormone health— I mean, overall health, truly. But yes, as a Capricorn, it's I can go, I can really go, I can really push through. I feel so grateful that this work that I do helping women overcome these chronic digestive issues, it feels very aligned for me and very fulfilling. Like, it's so fulfilling to, to see people go through these transformations after years of struggling in pain. I mean, it really doesn't get old. So that's wonderful. It allows me to, to work hard but also really like feel, yeah, feel, feel fulfilled at the end of the day. It's not like I'm working towards like this random goal. It feels like so, so much of who I am. But it's really easy for me to just kind of like run myself into the ground, if I'm being quite honest, you know? And as an entrepreneur, I mean, you're wearing like a million hats, you're juggling a million things at once, you're playing many roles. You're like head of sales, head of marketing, head of content, head of, head of this, head of that, you know? And sometimes taking care of yourself can feel like a lot of work too, you know? So it is a balance for sure. And I've gotten a lot better at it over the years, I think, after really burning out. So I would say 2022, our business grew so much. It was such fast growth that I was really just trying to like keep up. And it was, I mean, an amazing problem to have as an entrepreneur, right? Like no one, so I'm not complaining. And then at the same time, like I was burning out really hard, you know? So I had to kind of take a look at things and try to structure things a little differently, see where I could step away from the business a little bit to kind of get some of my time back and, and reinforce some of these boundaries. Like my boundaries, I feel like the boundary work is so, so deeply like part of my, my learning in this life. Like my boundaries, they're really quick to go. So really taking a look at like, how can I get some of my time back? And since I do understand what can happen when the body gets so stressed and kind of so burnt out, it's like I have that education so I can lean on some of that and I can kind of feel when it's about to happen, right? So I'm like, oh, I'm kind of hitting that point again. I'll like go out for a walk and I'm like, I'll say to myself, oh, Hannah, how are we here again? We're here again at this point of like borderline burnout, you know, we're, we're feeling tired. We're feeling— the thing that really comes up for me when I can really start to tell something's wrong is like my motivation goes down, my determination goes down, and the like the juice of the work, the like the magic of the work, the excitement for the work starts to to fade. And I feel like I'm just kind of like knocking, trying to like knock things off the to-do list. And that's when I'm like, oh no, no, something's, something's wrong here. Because I love my work so much, you know, and I feel very like aligned in this work. So when I feel like I start to lose the passion for it, that's when I'm like, something needs to be scaled back. I need to create more space. I need to say no to more things. I need to make sure I'm not skipping any meals. I need to, you know, take a few days off probably and like get into nature and really come back to why I'm even doing any of this, you know. So much to say about, about all this, and I'm sure so many people can relate to that. It's like you get into this work, and usually entrepreneurship, you're starting this because like you love it, you feel so passionate, you feel so excited about it, and then it's really easy to just burn yourself out, and then that kind of like lust for it can almost fade away.

That's so real. Like, I relate so much to everything that you just said. I feel like I have a similar pattern. I actually was just talking to my business coach the other day, and she was like, I think it would be a really good idea for you to implement 2 weeks of vacation, like whatever you want to do with those weeks, but like every quarter or something. And like it's built into your contracts and your clients know about it. And it's just like every quarter you need to take 2 weeks where you're not getting on calls, you're not at like promoting, selling, like, and you just really need to like reset. And I was like, that actually sounds so nice. So maybe that's like on the horizon, but I'm curious, like for you and obviously the work that you do and the knowledge that you have, like whether it's in your own personal experience or just what you know can happen, like how much does burnout actually affect the gut? Cuz a lot of people are burnt out and will be also relating, whether they're entrepreneurs or not, to that feeling of like the drive isn't really there, the motivation isn't there. Like, I feel like that's my main symptom of when I'm teetering on burnout, is like I kind of stop giving a fuck about things that like I normally would be like, yes, like let's go do it. So there's a lot of people experiencing that for sure. How much does that actually affect our gut and overall health? And is adrenal fatigue real? Because I have heard people be like, that's not actually a real thing. However, you can support your adrenals. I don't know, I just want to get your take on that.

Yeah, absolutely. They're so connected. So I would say the majority of the women that we see, by the time we see them, like they're kind of at that burnout phase, right? And in that phase, it can also feel like the motivation goes down, the determination goes down, the like juice, the juice goes down. So it can feel harder to even do anything about it, right? Like even like take the supplements or like make sure you're adding in the more supportive habits because you don't have a lot of energy. So it's like kind of this, this like hamster wheel. You're like, I know I need to make a change, but honestly, like I don't really even care. I don't even care enough to like take the supplements or to like go to the yoga class or whatever. So it, it can be really tricky there. But when we kind of hit that burnout phase, usually what we're looking at like more clinically is like low cortisol. So cortisol being, you know, one of those stress hormones, um, many people are kind of familiar with it. When the body's in that stressed out state, that sympathetic nervous system dominant state, which so many of us are living in after, you know, just kind of trying to navigate all of the things, wear many hats, keep up with like modern day living, pay the bills, raise the kids, do the things. You know, it's, it's really so easy to, to kind of be in that state chronically. We're hyperconnected. We're always checking our phone. We're always checking our email, whatever it might be. There's not a lot of like downtime, free space, like the 2-week vacation that we all, all need. So it's like when we're in that state stress and we're in that, that stressed out state, cortisol's gonna go up and cortisol damages the gut lining. It's also when we're in that stressed out state, our digestive juices are going to decrease. Blood flow is going to go away from our GI organs, and our gut immunity is going to go down as well. So we see high stress directly connected with more gut issues. It's, it's almost inevitable that we'll kind of create this like leaky gut state, this dysbiotic state where we've got imbalances of our gut bacteria, low stomach acid state, because cortisol stress, it's going to decrease stomach acid production. So I like to talk a lot about how stress doesn't stay stress, right? Because a lot of our clients will go into their physicians, and their physicians will be like, oh, it's just 'cause you're stressed or it's just 'cause you're anxious, like your anxiety's causing your digestive issues. Everything looks normal, right? And while we can't overlook this like connection between stress and nervous system and gut health, it doesn't stay mental and emotional stress. It turns into these more physical issues like leaky gut, like low stomach acid, like dysbiosis, right? So in order to get someone feeling better, we've really gotta address both of these things. And that's what we do in, in our work. You know, it's not meditation, of course. Yes. Like 100% recommend. And also you can't meditate your way way out of like fungal overgrowth. You can't meditate your way out of like a parasitic infection. So we've got to take a really like holistic approach to repairing the gut. So going back to your original question, when we're kind of in that stressed out state for a really long time, right, we're running on cortisol, we're running on those stress hormones, it's only a matter of time before we kind of crash. And that's going to be that more like low cortisol state. And that's kind of the, what I call more burnout. Some people might call that adrenal fatigue, right? Adrenal fatigue technically isn't accurate, or your adrenals don't fatigue, but we get kind of a miscommunication in within in the HPA axis. So your brain has kind of been like pushing out stress hormones so, so frequently for so long that then it's like we don't really know what to do anymore is kind of what's happening. So with that, your adrenals aren't fatiguing, but you're kind of feeling like they are. You're feeling burnt out. And at that point, your cortisol levels actually are more on the low side. So that's what happened to me just last year, the year before was I, I could feel it happening. I was waking up with like some slight headaches. I was feeling like my motivation was going down and I was like, this is so weird. Like I usually can just really push on through. My Capricorn's like, let's go. And I ran some testing. We run functional lab work with all of our clients and I kind of like knew it intuitively, but I wanted to just kind of see. My cortisol levels were really like bottomed out. They were so low. I was just exhausted, right? I was like done and spent. And in that, you know, that phase is where the motivation goes down. Your immune system is like suppressed essentially. You don't have as much energy to like fight things off. Your lust for life is down, your concentration is down, you've got brain fog. So it's not where we wanna be really, you know? So it's essentially like burnout. Once we get to that point, the gut is going to be impacted as well because we've essentially been like running on stress hormones for a little while to even get ourselves to that state. So this is like a lot of the clients that we see.

And what are some of like the go-to things when you see a client or you're even trying to work on healing yourself when you're like, okay, cortisol's super low, I'm exhausted. I know that I'm kind of in this in a state of either adrenal fatigue, burnout, whatever we want to call it, what is like your first, like, okay, I know I need to do A, B, and C, like go-tos.

First thing is like, am I eating enough? It's so easy, especially when you're like working all day or you're running around, to just not eat enough food. That's something that comes up for me specifically. So it's easy for me to just like work through lunch or run around, you know. So you really cannot get yourself off the like stress hormone roller coaster without balancing your blood sugar, because when you balance When our blood sugar goes up really high, it's gonna crash really low. And if we don't have enough fuel, the body's gonna push out cortisol to raise our blood sugar levels because low blood sugar levels can be quite dangerous, right? So then we're gonna be running on those stress hormones. If anyone's experimented with intermittent fasting, you can feel like really good at the beginning because you're probably running on stress hormones, which feels really good. You've got a lot of clarity, you're focused, you're like, I feel good, I feel light. I'm like ready to go. And then eventually you usually crash, especially for, for women, right? Eventually they'll kind of crash from that. So we We need to make sure that we're maintaining, you know, as steady blood glucose levels as we can. And a big way to do that is A, make sure we're eating enough, and then B, make sure that we are, you know, balancing our meals properly. So do we have enough protein at each meal? Do we have some fiber at each meal? Do we have adequate fat at each meal? And then carbs as well, and kind of minimizing or avoiding like what we call naked carbs. So a carb that's just a carb, like a piece of toast with nothing on it, or a piece of toast with like jam or jelly or something like that, cuz it's really just carbohydrates. And I wanna be very clear, we need carbs, so there's, there's no reason to fear them. It's more so like, can we make sure that we're eating them properly? So instead of a piece of toast with jelly, could we have— we could have the piece of toast with jelly, but could we have it with Greek yogurt or 2 eggs or something like that to balance the plate a little bit? That's gonna have, it's gonna show us a very different like blood glucose response. And we wanna try to maintain as even as possible. So instead of like a roller coaster, which most people like this on, we wanna get like a gentle flowing wave is what we're looking for. It's natural for blood sugar to go up a little bit after you eat. That's pretty much always going to happen. That's fine. But we want to kind of minimize these high highs and low lows because once again, when you're at that low low, you're going to get more cravings. You're going to get more sugar cravings, carbohydrate cravings. Your body's like screaming for energy. And we know that these like sugary foods and candies and stuff aren't good for our overall health. They're going to— we'll just kind of continue that cycle, right, of the up and down, up and down. And then really to get off that like stress hormone roller coaster, balancing our blood sugar levels is key. So one of the first things I ask myself is like, get honest, Hannah. Like, are you eating 30 grams of protein at each meal? Are you eating enough? Did you skip lunch like 3 times this week? We gotta take that out. We have to make sure that we are helping your body feel safe, right? Because your body can't repair unless it has what it needs to repair and it feels safe enough to repair. So when you're kind of been running on those stress hormones over time and then you crash, like your body needs a lot of nourishment in this time. It's not the time for like Orange Theory or HIIT classes or anything like that, and it's not the time to like try to lose weight. It's not the time to like cut calories. It's not the time to skip meals or drink too much coffee. It's really like nourishment, nourishment, nourishment, slow everything down. So that's really one of the first things. The second thing is like, am I getting enough sleep? Like when am I going to bed? Like it's the basics, you know, am I sleeping 8 hours a night? Can I go to bed earlier? That's like a really big thing for me. And then the third thing would be, am I getting in enough minerals? So we always help clients with like repletion of minerals like sodium and potassium and magnesium, like macrominerals, meaning we need more of them than some of the other microminerals like boron or something like that. And our adrenals love sodium, they love potassium, they love magnesium. So can I make sure that I'm repleting with these things as well? We bring in things called like mineral cocktails with our clients where we add in vitamin C and sodium and potassium, and that can help just replete. 'Cause when you're stressed out, you just burn through minerals, you burn through everything. And then if you're burning through all of your nutrients, You don't have what you need to repair, essentially. So it's really like repletion.

Do you like Element? The— what does it have in it? Magnesium, potassium. So I think it's just the 3 that you mentioned. It's, it's just that.

Element is great. I love it. It's, it's pretty high in sodium. I don't really have a problem with that, especially if anyone's feeling really burnt out. Like you need sodium. You'll probably feel a lot better with more sodium. It just doesn't have enough potassium or magnesium for me. So we'll recommend it for sure. But I want you to add in more potassium and I want you to add in more magnesium. You can supplement with magnesium later on in the day. You could take like a magnesium glycinate in the evening. As long as you're kind of getting more in, I'm cool with that. It's really hard to get enough potassium. So off the top of my head, I don't know how much it has, maybe like 200 milligrams or something. But I would want you to add either aloe vera juice to it or coconut water to it or something that has more potassium to make sure that you're repleting that as well. But yeah, nothing, nothing wrong with LMNT, um, in my opinion. And they taste great, which I love.

Because, okay, I was having like more frequent headaches and I think it has a lot to do with stress. I mean, I always sleep really well, 8 to 9 hours a night probably, but but I think it was like stress and skipping meals and, and that sort of thing. But I did notice that when I got consistent with like having Element every day, I like feel— I do feel better, which is crazy because I'm, I'm always the person where I'm like, I don't feel a difference with any supplement, never have. Like, I hope that it's doing what it's supposed to do, but like I've never taken something where I actually really felt that much of a difference. So anyway, I just wanted to confirm that. But I do have a magnesium supplement that I take at night and I should probably be more regular with, which is just good, good to know. And I, I didn't know that coconut water has potassium. Okay, so I have something I think you're really gonna love, and your business is gonna love it even more. Do you want to steal the strategy I've been using to seduce premium buyers and sell out my offers on Instagram Stories? Chances are you're already posting, you're already making sales, but if your Instagram Stories aren't working as hard as you are, you're leaving money on the table. Sold Out Stories is going to teach you exactly how to change that so that you can sell out any offer at any price point. And even high-caliber coaches miss this because selling on stories isn't about how much you post or how frequently you show up face to camera. It's about psychological sequencing. And the way you're posting right now might be giving the premium buyers in your audience the ick. Documenting your day and hoping it builds trust, posting look-at-me content and calling it authority, sharing client wins as soon as they drop in instead of strategically weaving them into a story selling sequence designed to drive demand and convert sales. We both know that you're not here to learn how to show up more. You're here because you know your content could be converting faster and more effectively. Sold Out Stories is gonna give you 5 high-converting story selling frameworks built specifically for premium buyer psychology. Inside, you'll get over 6 hours of deep dive video trainings, real IG story breakdowns, and live walkthroughs that show you exactly how to elevate your slides from authority building all the way to offer flow. In less than 10 slides. My clients have already been using these frameworks to pull 5-figure sales days while posting less. One client generated 14 premium leads from a single story sequence. Another sold out her event in under 6 hours with just 8 strategic story slides. No sales calls, no paid ads, just the right frameworks. You'll walk away knowing how to sequence for desire, transition into your offer seamlessly, and sell daily without ever feeling salesy. You already know your offer is incredible, so now it's just time for your stories to sell it like it is. Grab Sold Out Stories today and turn 10 slides or less into your highest converting content. Let's make your next story your most profitable one yet. Click the link in the show notes below and I'll see you inside.

Oh yeah, it's great. It's like a great natural source of potassium. So some people love it, some people kind of hate it, but yeah, if you like it, definitely, definitely get it in. You can mix it in with the element. There's other kind of electrolyte formulas that we'll recommend too. There's one called Pickleball Cocktail by Jigsaw Health. It's like loaded with potassium. So it's another option for people to just make sure that you're getting enough in. It's just like really hard, hard to get enough in. Just like magnesium, it's really hard to get enough in. You almost always have to supplement with it because you get it in like chocolate and leafy greens and things like that, but the amounts in the food today, it's just so low. And you're gonna burn through more magnesium if you're stressed. You're gonna burn through more magnesium if you drink coffee. So it's like pretty much everyone would benefit from supplementing from it. We love magnesium glycinate citrate specifically, just for like nervous system support. And, and it's well absorbed, so it's good to like up your stores. Citrate's great for anyone dealing with constipation. Those are kind of our, our two go-tos. Anyone is like, I'm confused about all of the different types of magnesium.

Yeah, totally, because they're not all created equal, and some of them are kind of like not even what you need. Or at least I've heard, you know, you want to get a really good quality magnesium supplement or else it's probably not doing what you're hoping that it's doing. You mentioned nervous system, and I know this is kind of like one of those things that you like to weave into your holistic practice. So let's talk a little bit about like nervous system regulation, because this is one of those things where it got super popular. Everyone is an expert now in regulating their nervous system, or at least talking about it. From someone who actually understands it, let's get your best tips for someone who maybe is in a constant state of like hypervigilance or the fight or flight, or you sort of just know intuitively that you are a higher stress individual, or you have anxiety, and you probably are in that sympathetic nervous system state a lot. What can we do to regulate?

This is like such a big topic, and it really— it is getting very trendy right now. I think it's good though, because people are actually starting to take it seriously. We will see in clients, the ones that can regulate more progress quicker. We see that direct connection. So it is really important, and we're just so quick to jump into like supplements and food and things like that, which of course play a role. I mean, we use all of those things with clients, but you have to kind of think of it as think of like a stress bucket, and if there's holes in the bottom of the bucket, you can put in all the B vitamins and vitamin C and sodium that you want. But if there's just holes in the bottom of the bucket because there's tons of stressors, like you're gonna be on that repletion hamster wheel forever. And that's where a lot of people are if they're even repleting, you know? So your nervous system plays honestly a role in everything, including digestion. So it's such a big topic. I would say tips to regulate, like, oh my gosh, there's so much that goes into it. I would first ask yourself, Are you someone that resonates with kind of like the running on stress hormones picture? It's hard to relax. You can't meditate. It's too difficult. You're always checking your phone. You're always checking your email. Any downtime feels kind of like jarring or maybe even scary. Not having something on your to-do list might feel like empty and weird, and you're less comfortable with that. You have a hard time relaxing. You're, you have like cold hands and feet. You have digestive issues. You resonate with like the Type A perfectionist kind of profile. And the reason I can speak to all of this is because I know it so well. So, you know, no one's, no one's perfect really. But really just getting honest and asking yourself, like, is that me? Do I have a hard time relaxing? Do I literally ever relax? Do I ever have time in my life where I'm not like doing 8 things at once? Because that will have to, will have to change. It, it becomes almost part of our identity. So you can throw all of the like ice baths or breathwork or whatever that you want at it, but if you really truly never shift almost like your identity of that, of being that person that's always go, go, go, that has to do it perfectly, that is always on, it's just like once again, that bucket with holes at the bottom. So this is where things like therapy and digging into these like deep-rooted beliefs, belief systems that we carry, and childhood trauma and all of that can like really start to change things. Because for me personally, I witnessed— both of my parents are entrepreneurs— and I witnessed my mom literally always being quote unquote too busy to even sit down at the dinner table with us. And she was busy, she was raising kids and she was running a business and all of that. But as a little girl, I was like, okay, so if I'm always busy, then I'm good enough, right? Like, Mommy will love me, essentially, which is all I ever wanted as a little girl. So I know that sounds kind intense, but it stems, like we create these personalities and beliefs as children, you know? So then I grew up and I'm thinking the worst thing I can be is lazy. I'm thinking I've gotta always be busy. I've gotta go, go, go. And then you pair that with my Capricorn and like, I'm doomed, you know? So it's like, I really have to be mindful here. I can do all the meditation breathwork that I want, but until I go, hey Hannah, it's actually okay to rest. Where did we pick up these beliefs? Nothing's really going to change, you know? So there's like really beautiful, deep, deep work that can be done here. And then, you know, and just getting honest with yourself. Like anyone that's listening to this, if you're like, this kind of sounds like me, like that awareness is step one, you know? And it doesn't mean you have to shame yourself or there's anything wrong or anything. It's just like asking yourself, is, do I want to live the rest of my life feeling this way? Is this who I wanna be? Is this how I want to move through life? That's kind of how I started to change things. I was like, I don't wanna feel like I'm hitting burnout all the time. And I wanna, I wanna be a mom and I wanna, I wanna raise kids and I don't want them to witness me in this way. And I don't wanna snap at them because I'm freaking exhausted, you know? So really taking a look at like this deep, deep stuff. And then on top of that, you know, just to help with regulation, these practices like breathwork, like meditation, like getting out into nature. I mean, it's been shown to literally decrease stress levels almost immediately within like 10 to 15 minutes. I mean, it's amazing, you know, and so many of us just sit inside and we're on Instagram, we're listening to music while we're cooking dinner, while the TV's on, while this, you know, it's like so much stimulation overload. That wasn't life just a few years ago. When I was growing up, like I didn't even have a cell phone and I'm young, you know, like this is, this is new. This is new stuff. This like constant, constant stimulation. So taking a look at that too. And then of course, yeah, adding in these practices, like making sure you have— do you have 10 minutes in your day that's just for you? Even just 10 minutes. A lot of people don't. Do you know what brings you joy? Like, do you know what genuinely authentically makes you happy? Or are you just living this life that you're just kind of like running through, knocking things off the to-do list, doing what you think you should be doing without really feeling like, oh no, these things are like what make me who I am. I love these things. Whether it's like painting or walking or singing or whatever. I don't, I don't care what it is, but sometimes I'll ask clients, what brings you joy? What makes you happy? And they're like, I don't know, I don't think I've asked myself that in a really long time, you know. And I'm like, well, we've got to start there. We can throw L-glutamine and probiotics at the situation, sure, but if you're living a life that's like out of your own authenticity and you're kind of running this script that you think you should be running, like, there's a disconnect here, you know. So this conversation goes very deep.

It's like my favorite conversation Yeah, it's far and wide, but I think those are good core things to kind of start with, really unpacking your beliefs and doing some of that deeper like healing and mindset work. And then looking at, you know, am I in alignment in my life? And asking yourself what brings you joy, getting in nature. Those are all really great suggestions to start with. I want to just expand a little bit on this piece of alignment and kind of get your perspective on how much you feel like living out of alignment alignment in your work or in a relationship that maybe just isn't really it for you, or you're out of alignment with your purpose. Like, how much does living out of alignment truly impact our overall well-being? Because there's a lot of people that they know that they're not in alignment, but there's probably fear, there's doubt, there's uncertainty. What would I do instead? I don't know. This is easiest, this is comfortable, this is giving me connection. I'm getting some sort of validation from this job or from this relationship. So it is hard to to just move on. But I think it's important that people understand that health issues and well-being isn't just exactly as you're saying, the supplements or the food. Like, there is more of like an energetic and spiritual level to all of it, which I think you understand really well and you weave that into your practice. So yeah, how much do you think living out of alignment impacts our overall well-being? Hey, don't forget that every month we are picking a Listener of the Month to win $50 in cash just for showing love to the show. All you have to do is leave an epic review of the podcast on Apple Podcasts, screenshot the review before you hit submit, and DM that screenshot to us on Instagram @makeshifthappenpodcast. And that's it. I want to thank you for being such a loyal listener and show my appreciation by putting a little extra cash in your pocket. I know it's super easy not to do it, but every single rating and review seriously helps the show rank higher and reach new people, so we appreciate them more than you know. We'll announce the next winner at the end of the month and slide into your DMs if it's you. So keep an eye out and good luck. Love you guys and thanks for supporting Makeshift Happen.

I believe it impacts overall well-being in a huge way. I don't know if I could state like clinical papers that, you know, show that, but for me and in the work that we do, I think it impacts things drastically. And Dr. Gabor Maté kind of speaks about this. Um, I don't know if you're familiar with him and he has the book When the Body Says No, and it's essentially talking about like stress and lack of emotional expression and, and lack of alignment, essentially like creating these diseases, specifically like autoimmune conditions. So when you kind of boil it down, it's like if you are waking up and you're going to work this job, or you're in this relationship that doesn't feel right, or you're not expressing yourself, you don't know what makes you happy day, day in and day out, like that's going to cause stress. Anytime that stress is caused, especially if it's like chronic day to day, like you're going to the job, you're like, I hate this job, I can't wait to get out of this. You're spending your entire day stressed. I mean, and then that is going to suppress immunity, that's going to damage your gut health, that's going to contribute to hormonal imbalances, it's going to contribute to things like leaky gut, right? So there was a really cool paper too that kind of showed like being in a relationship that feels off, where your boundaries are crossed, where it was like a bit more like toxic, actually could contribute to increased intestinal permeability or leaky gut. They say like leaky boundaries Leaky gut, right? So when we kind of boil it down and look at like, how is this actually impacting our health? If you're in that stressed out state all the time, if you're not feeling joy, if you're not feeling connection, if you're not feeling fulfillment, that's going to essentially suppress immunity, damage your gut health, and then contribute to, to deeper issues, you know? So I think it plays a huge, huge role. 'Cause when we, like a lot of the work that we do, it, it's very clinical. We're running lab work, we're like addressing dysbiosis, fungal overgrowth, growth, parasitic infections, all of that good stuff. Like, we love the labs, I love the data, you know, we can get into all of that. But I always try to dig into with clients, like, how did you get here, right? Because we can clean up the dysbiosis, we can clear the SIBO, we can do all of that that's causing the chronic bloating, that's causing the food sensitivities, the reactions, the acne, whatever it might be. But how did you get here? What caused you to get to this place where you have the dysbiosis or you have a low stomach acid? And typically, you know, it can mean many different things, medications, antibiotic use, birth control use. It can be food poisoning, but a lot of the time it's just like chronic wear on the system over time, right? Chronic stress, undereating, overexercising, feeling like life is too much, burning out, you know, year after year after year, kind of burning the candle at both ends. So we've gotta kind of dig deeper into why did you get here so we can make sure that you get better and, and can stay better. Like there's gonna have to be some shifts in how you show up in the world. And I think it was Harvard that did a really interesting interesting study that showed like what creates happiness, like what actually leads to happiness. And the two most important things were like relationships or connection and purpose. So if you don't have those things in your life, like that's going to cause issues, you know, and it will wear on your health over time.

You mentioned over-exercising, and that was one of the things that I wanted to hit on. And you also kind of highlighted it a little bit earlier when you said not the time to be doing Orangetheory or Barry's Bootcamp or like any of these like high-intensity interval training type things. And that was definitely part of my my own story and journey when I was moving through body image stuff and I was really trying to lose weight that I had gained in college from drinking too much and partying and, you know, eating all the things. I was like, okay, I'm just gonna like work out really hard. And I definitely think that like those years were one of the major contributors to me then realizing, oh, I have leaky gut. One, because I was binge drinking through college, you know, as you do— not that it's okay— and eating shit food, you know, that was probably so bad for my gut. And then pairing that with going to the gym and doing 45 minutes of cardio, and then the, you know, bikini body, like Kayla Itzines, like HIIT workouts, like every fucking day. Like, and then you wonder, you wake up at 25 and you wonder, why does every single meal I eat make my belly hurt? Oh, I don't know, maybe it was all of that plus the decade of birth control and all the other things. So the exercise piece is interesting because I think a lot of people don't realize how much— because I think as women we feel this pressure of like, you know, you need to do like a really sweaty workout or needs to be really intense or else it doesn't count or it's not really doing anything. Because there's this societal obsession with, you know, being lean and weight loss, and it feels like that's the way that we're going to get there. But I think there's a lot of women that are probably running themselves into the ground a little bit with the over-exercising or the super super intense exercises if their nervous system is not in a space where they can actually handle that or support it. So can you speak to that a little bit from your expertise? This is just me throwing in my two cents as a person that's like been through it, but obviously you know more technically about like what is actually— what the issue is.

Yeah, absolutely. This was a big part of my story too. I mean, I kind of ended up with all of these chronic digestive issues, bloating. I couldn't eat an apple without looking 6 months pregnant. I was like, what's going on? Ate super healthy, I exercise. Everyone was like, you're young, you're healthy, like you eat healthier than everyone, you know? And I'm like, what's going on?

All the— you're eating all the raw foods and you're eating salad every day and you're like, why do I feel bloated? And it's like, well, cuz you have leaky gut and all that stuff hurts when you have leaky gut. And you think like, oh, salads, I should be eating salads. Probably not.

Yeah, totally. Cooked food is definitely going to land better. Yeah, I mean, huge part of my story, for me it was really like years of chronic stress, childhood trauma. I used to run like 6 miles a day. If I look like this, I'm enough, right? So it was just like pounding my body into the ground, trying to get my body to look a certain way. The irony was that once I just like eased up and just nourished myself, my body kind of like fell into place. It's like I don't even have to think about it anymore, which is interesting. It's like hilarious because if you would have told me that when I was 16, there's like literally no way I would have believed you. I'm like, I need to run 6 miles every day and all of that, which then kind of created this like weird restricting-binging cycle. I mean, I was on every diet in the book, like you name it, I've tried it. So that was a big part of my story too— over, over-exercising, under- eating. And that's also why I can kind of like see it in clients, you know. But yeah, it's, it's— you've got to think of like where your body is at now. If you are feeling like your stress levels are pretty low, you're eating enough, you're nourishing yourself well, you're getting enough sleep, like you can probably tolerate an Orangetheory class here and there, you know. But the female body is like, it's really sensitive to feeling like lack of safety. We have to feel safe enough to ovulate. When we ovulate is when we produce progesterone. That's like one of these feel-good juicy hormones that we have. When we're not producing that, we're gonna end up more estrogen dominant. That's gonna create PMS, breast tenderness, like clotty periods, cramping, et cetera. So all of these things are like so deeply connected. The body at the end of the day, like it wants to feel safe, whether you wanna have children or not. Your body wants to go, do we have enough of what we need in order to reproduce essentially? So anything that's going to throw the body off create too much stress is going to kind of interfere with that. Exercise in and of itself, it is a stressor. It's a, it's a helpful stressor. Not all stressors are bad. It's a helpful stressor until it's not, right? Just like everything else. So we wanna be mindful of that. Most of the women that we see, they're, they're dealing with these deeper gut issues. They're dealing with inflammation. They're, they are burnt out. So these intense forms of exercise are just not what they need right now. That doesn't mean that they'll never be able to like go on a run, a long run again, but things like Pilates, yoga, strength training where, where it's not HIIT, right, but it's slower, you can build muscle mass. Like, that's so beneficial for our health. We just want to like take it all down a notch, you know. These types of exercise, walking, are going to be more beneficial. So any like long-form cardio, intense HIIT classes, things like that, these types of workouts, they're going to increase stress hormones. So once again, think of that stress bucket. It's like, okay, cool, today I skipped breakfast and then I did a HIIT workout and then I drank 2 cups coffee and then I didn't— I only slept for 6 hours last night and then I hate my job. I It's like, it's only a matter of time, you know, before something goes wrong. And then you add different medications to that, or you have to take an antibiotic, or you're on birth control, or whatever it is. You know, it's like our bodies are so miraculous and they're working with us. We just tend to throw a lot of stuff at them. And then you add in like exposure to chemicals, like literally all around us. You know, there's only so much that the body can take, but it can take so much and it can repair and it wants to feel good. So it's just kind of remembering like these symptoms are trying to communicate with me. If I'm feeling like I'm reacting to all of these foods, like maybe I need to take a look at this. Maybe the HIIT workouts aren't doing me as many favors as I, as I think, you know. But essentially when we're running on those stress hormones, those intense exercise classes or whatever, in increasing levels of cortisol, it's actually going to create like muscle wasting in some places, which is the opposite of what we want, right? Because to have like a nice robust metabolism and be able to tolerate more carbohydrate carbohydrates, eat more food in general. We want good muscle mass. So it's like, I think we've just been inundated with this messaging of eat less, exercise more. Here are like the diets in Us Weekly or whatever. I mean, that was so much of like me as a little girl, you know, I'm like, okay, I'll, I'll eat 12 almonds cuz Jennifer Aniston eats 12 almonds, you know, and I wanna look like Jennifer Aniston. So we've been inundated with that messaging. And once you learn how the body works, like am I My mind was blown. I was like, everything that I've been taught is actually like, it's wrecking my body. And over time, the chronic dieting, it's going to wear on my thyroid. It's gonna wear on my adrenal. It's gonna slow my metabolism. So then it's gonna be harder to lose weight. It's gonna be harder to feel good. You know, my hair, I'm gonna lose hair. It's like the opposite of what you want. So it really all comes back to like, yeah, stress. And then it's like, if you're doing these intense workouts over time, that's going to lead to increased intestinal permeability. It's going to lead to things like gut dysbiosis. You know, slow, slower regeneration of the intestinal lining. Like we know how essentially directly it influences our gut health and then our hormonal health. Cuz if you're not ovulating, you're not producing progesterone and then you're gonna lean more estrogen dominant and that can cause so many different issues. So it's really amazing. It's, it's kind of like an unlearning I think that has to take place and it can feel a little scary for people at first cuz you're like, wait, I need to eat more and exercise less. Like that sounds terrifying. That's not what I've ever done, you know. But you— when you start to really learn how the body works and what your body needs, like, you start to realize, whoa, I've been putting my body under so much for so long.

Yeah. And I think it's like the psychological stress too, of even if you are trying to be healthy, like really worrying and nitpicking about needing everything to be a health food or all the healthiest ingredients, like that's also a form of the stress, as is like the over-exercising It's like you think that you're doing something good, but it's kind of like having the opposite effect. And I so resonated with what you said about when you just like chilled the fuck out for a while, it kind of like resolved itself. And that was so my situation. Like, I stopped my gym membership, I just did yoga for 7 months. I like started meditating, doing affirmations, like, and I was like, oh my God, I like dropped all the weight that I had been trying to like burpee my way into for the past 2 years, and it like was not budging. Judging, uh, because the more stress that you have, the more that you actually hold on to fat. Like, you store it because you're in the fight or flight. Your body is like, we are in danger. And add in the fact that you might be undereating, it's like, okay, well, we don't know when the next source of protein is coming or when the next really nourishing meal is, so let's hang on to all of the nutrients that we have. Let's store it. Let's save it just in case. So it is really having a super opposite effect to, like, what people think. And I think it's really important to talk about, especially for women. So probiotics, and I want to do something at the end, end with you where I'm just going to like shout out some like wellness trends and you're just going to be like yay or nay, or like a quick like opinion on them. I wanted to give probiotics their own little like spotlight because obviously you work a lot with gut health and that's like a huge conversation. So I'd love to know your take because I've heard that a lot of probiotics and food products that claim to have pre or probiotics, maybe not so much the pre because because it's like fiber. But foods that kind of claim to have probiotics in them, like, a lot of it is bullshit. These refrigerated probiotics, I heard— I've heard is like completely BS, because if they need to be refrigerated and stored at that temperature, how are they ever going to survive the temperature of your body? Like, they're never going to actually make it to the digestive tract, or a lot of them getting killed off in the stomach acid. Like, do they actually work? Are there any brands that you swear by? What is your holistic professional opinion probiotics?

So we tend to like spore-based probiotics because they've been shown to essentially make it through the stomach acid and then also start to support gut proliferation. So the building of these like different bacterial communities, they work a little different than like a just a lactobacillus or something like that. So those would be things like Just Thrive probiotic or like Megaspore. Those are ones that we use often, but I will say we also kind of customize it to the individual. So we run labs lab work, see what's going on within the individual's gut, like within our client's guts, and we'll target certain probiotics to their needs as well. So I do think it's— if you're just like, okay, I want to try to take something to support my gut health, maybe a spore-based probiotic could be beneficial for you. That would be like my number one general recommendation, I would say. And then there's so much benefit to like working with someone and understanding like what you actually need, right? Because sometimes I'll see people that have histamine issues, so some, some of these probiotics can make them feel a ton worse. Sometimes if you have SIBO, they'll make you feel a lot worse. Sometimes if you have a fungal overgrowth, they'll make you feel a lot worse. So it does get a bit like nuanced, I would say. And then more general probiotics are transient, so they don't actually take up space in the GI tract, right? Like in the gut microbiome, they kind of— you take them, they help while they're in there, and then essentially you poop them out. So it's really essential to pair them with prebiotics, and you can do that just through the foods that you're eating. So we're really big on prebiotics, I would say even more than probiotics, prebiotics because that's what actually helps to feed these populations of the gut bacteria within your gut microbiome. So foods like artichokes or, um, jicama, or these foods that are really rich in like prebiotics, um, different fruits and vegetables. Like you can get fiber supplement if that's helpful for you. Like we love working with partially hydrolyzed guar gum. It's like sun fiber. It's super easy. It's like not that expensive. I put it in my morning coffee. You can just like blend it in, but making sure that you're getting in enough prebiotics to actually support the growth of these good gut bacteria. So there is some interesting research that shows, like, we'll see immune modulating effects and stuff when someone's actively taking a probiotic. It's just like, what happens when they stop taking it? We've got to make sure that we're feeding those microbes in order to get them to stick around. And the biggest way to do that is bringing in prebiotics and then increasing your plant diversity and adding things in like polyphenols. So I feel like I'm always talking about polyphenols. I just like love them so much. But think of these foods that are really rich and, and deeply colored. So someone on my team, one of the RDs on my team says like foods that stain. So like raspberries, if you crush them, they'll like leave a mark on your cutting board. Beets, like turmeric, these foods that are really richly colored, they're loaded with polyphenols and you wanna make sure that you're getting in enough of those too because your gut microbes kind of eat them up and then help produce short-chain fatty acids. And short-chain fatty acids help to minimize inflammation. One short-chain fatty acid, butyrate, helps to seal up the gut lining. It's like the biggest fuel source for our large intestinal gut lining. So you can add in a supplement or you can kind of get these benefits through food as well, you know? So you wanna make sure that you're getting in enough prebiotics and polyphenols to really like support the growth of these good gut bacteria. Probiotics can be hit or miss for some people. They can be really beneficial for some people. Yeah, overall I'd say spore-based for like the general recommendation and then working with someone. So if you have a histamine issue, there's certain histamine, like, degrading probiotic strains, and there's ones that will make you feel a little worse if you have a histamine issue. So the, um, customization can be really helpful for some people. But overall, like, if you're getting in your prebiotics, that should be really helpful.

When you say histamine issue, do you mean like allergies?

Allergies can be, can be one of the symptoms. Yeah. So some people will have kind of histamine overload. We see this a lot. So the common symptoms of that are like bloating, when your bloating gets worse around ovulation because histamine and estrogen kind of play off of one another. So estrogen kind of surges right around ovulation. So if you notice an increase in your symptoms around ovulation, that can kind of clue us in sometimes. That's why tracking your cycle can be so helpful, because it just like gives us more data to work with. Sinus issues, so like postnasal drip or like runny nose or anything like that. Headaches, migraines, PMS, hives, itching of the skin— those are kind of some common, uh, histamine overload symptoms, I would say. Heart palpitations, anxiety— these are the, the most common things that we see in clients. It's very largely connected to a deeper gut issue. So, you know, when we, when we kind of widen the lens, the biggest thing to understand is we come in contact with histamine all the time. It's in spinach, it's in lemon. Like, the body knows how to break it down. We come into an issue when we can't break it down quickly enough. So we have to ask, are we lacking something that we need to actually break it down, the enzyme, or are we producing too much where the body can't kind of clear it quickly enough? So when we've got certain bacterial overgrowths in the gut, they're histamine producers. So someone can run into these like other histamine intolerance or overload symptoms if they've got like a deeper gut issue. And it can feel confusing because you're just reacting to all sorts of foods. And then it can feel really confusing too, because fermented foods— sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha— these good-for-your-gut foods make you feel awful. Maybe you break out into a rash after you eat them. Maybe they make your bloating worse. So those are some things to look out for. Bone broth, collagen— like, if you're someone that reacts to those things and you're like, these are good for my gut, I don't know what's going on, like, it might be a, might be a deeper histamine issue. So if you are someone where you feel like, okay, I've taken out gluten, I've taken out dairy, I'm like eating I'm going out to Whole Foods, I'm doing a lot of this stuff. Something is still wrong. I'm reacting to these foods. Like, what's going on? I still look 6 months pregnant with bloating. That's when you kind of know, like, go work with a functional practitioner, reach out to us, someone that can run proper lab work, understand what's going on in your gut and how to kind of walk you, walk you through that. Because it can feel, yeah, overwhelming and confusing when you're like, I'm eating all these healthy foods. What's going on?

You mentioned gluten and dairy. And before we get into our, like, wellness trends, just like yay or nay to finish up, I wanted to touch on this because I know you've talked about like randomly removing food groups is probably not like a strategy in terms of like healing yourself. And I definitely tried that and then I was still like, what the fuck? Like I didn't notice any difference. And I did a full-on like 6-week like elimination diet thing. And when I integrated everything back in, I was like, no reactions, I'm fine, which was great. But then I was still left just like with a big question mark, like, okay, then like what? Is the problem, you know. So obviously it's super trendy to not eat gluten or dairy now, whether or not you have an intolerance. Like, I think a lot of people are more conscious of these because I would imagine that it's just because of the inflammatory effects. So what's your perspective on people reducing or eliminating gluten and dairy if they don't have a true intolerance? Is it, is it disrupting the gut? Is it just because it's inflammatory? If you have acne or skin issues, Is it like definitely don't wanna be doing that? Like what is your opinion?

So I would say in general gluten, we don't see it benefiting a lot of people. Some people can kind of tolerate it better than others. There is some research to show that it can kind of contribute to this like increased intestinal permeability state. Your gut lining is self-repairing. It's repairing all the time. With that being said, if you have like an intolerance to it, meaning your immune system is kind of mounting a bigger response to it, you're more sensitive to it, or if you are dealing with these other underlying gut issues, like you're probably gonna benefit from taking it out because we wanna expedite healing however we can. You know, I am very mindful of putting clients on restrictive diets. It's like really not what we do. We try to focus on making sure they're getting in enough of the good stuff because it's really easy to get very restrictive. And then before you know it, you're eating like 10 foods. Your relationship to food is totally messed up. You're scared to eat all these foods. I didn't eat gluten or dairy for like legitimately 10 years. So I understand now. I'm like, wow, I was really missing out. Like, cheese is really good. So it's, um, you know, I was— my gut was a mess during that time. I couldn't tolerate dairy during that time. It was causing, um, increased symptoms in me. After I repaired my gut, after I cleaned up the gut dysbiosis, I addressed my low stomach acid, I supported my gut lining, I can now tolerate it fine, right? I can, I can have a few pieces of cheese here and there. It's totally fine. I'll eat Greek yogurt, whatever. So with dairy specifically, we see very often if your gut is kind of like out of whack, you won't tolerate Very well, that makes sense. You pull it out, you maybe feel a little bit better, right? But nothing really went away. It's just like, oh, like that kind of helped, but I'm still not feeling great. We have countless clients, like client stories of they couldn't eat it when they came into us. It would cause diarrhea, cause bloating, headaches, whatever, acne. By the time they leave my program, they can eat it. They're like, oh my gosh, I went for ice cream with my mom. I can't even believe I'm able to do that. So usually like an intolerance specifically is usually when you eat a food and you have a digestive system reaction to it. So bloating,— constipation, diarrhea, whatever. It's slightly different than a sensitivity, like very different than an allergic reaction. But when we're looking at an intolerance, it's usually like you can't break the food down very well. So why, right? Can we enhance your digestion? Can we clean up your gut so you can then tolerate this food better? And that's what we see a lot with food sensitivities too. It's like pulling these foods out is not going to heal the gut itself. Could it kind of help like tone down inflammation temporarily? For sure. But if you have gut dysbiosis or SIBO or leaky gut or something like that, like it's not going we're not gonna really heal that. So then what, what can very commonly happen is you start actually reacting to more foods. You've taken these foods out, your gut is not used to tolerating these foods anymore, and then you start reacting to more and more foods because we're not actually addressing the issue deep down. So it's just like this slippery slope that people get, can get into. And sometimes we'll see clients and they're like, I'm eating 10 foods, you know, I can't, these are my safe foods. They still tick me off sometimes. Like if that's you, there's a deeper gut issue. It's not the food. So there's, it's a big conversation. I think pulling gluten and dairy out of your diet is not going to heal your gut. An elimination diet is not going to heal your gut. Can it help to just kind of weed out like processed foods, ultra-processed foods? For sure. Can it help you like start eating more whole foods? Can it minimize inflammation a little bit? Yeah, absolutely. But if you've got these deeper underlying gut imbalances, like it's not, we've gotta take a look at all this other stuff that's going on to get you feeling a lot better. And I'm just so mindful of like, I want the goal with our clients is to get them to be able to eat as many foods as possible with as little pain as possible. I don't want anyone to feel like they can't go out date night and like have a piece of bread with olive oil if they really want to, you know. It's just like, that's my goal for everyone. So, um, I don't want people to fear these foods. It's very often not the food itself, it's the gut environment in which the food is entering.

I think that's so important. We should highlight, underscore, asterisk that for everybody because there's a lot of people that have intolerances, and what I'm hearing you say is just removing the food that you're intolerant to is not the long-term solution or strategy. And so it's like, oh, okay, I'm not eating it anymore, so it's not bothering me. But like, that was not— like, the dairy wasn't the cause. There's another cause that's happening that also needs to be addressed if you don't want to have future intolerances or never be able to eat that food again.

Exactly. Yeah, I always say like food sensitivities, I kind of lump like intolerances, sensitivities in the same bucket really, because they kind of mean the same thing to people. They are result of a deeper gut issue. They are, they are the result of an imbalance in the gut environment. So we're so quick to pull the food, but we have to look at like, once we swallow the food, where's it going? What's going on all in there? What's going on in the gut microbiome? Are we breaking down the food efficiently? Like, we have adequate digestive juices? Are we producing enough bile, pancreatic enzymes, stomach acid? What's going on in the small intestine? Like, there's so much more to it that would then influence how your body responds to the food. So yes, we're like, I'm always speaking out about super restrictive diets I think it's so just like popular in this functional space. It's like elimination diet, just pull it all, you know? And I'm like, it's not working. It's not working for people. And then it creates more stress. It creates more stress because then people are really scared to eat a lot of foods and then they're living in that hypervigilant state, which was me. I was terrified to go out and eat with friends. So I just don't want that for anyone.

Yeah, it kind of loops back to exactly what we were talking about before of the, you know, hypervigilance of, of being healthy enough and not wanting to feel bad after a meal, and that's also contributing to you feeling bad after the meal anyway. So it's like this whole weird, you know, thing. I want to finish up with, um, I'm just going to call out some like wellness trends, and you can give a yay or nay. I feel like because you are a practitioner, you're probably going to want to give some like context than rather just be like no or like yes. But like, I kind of want it to be like, so everybody just take it with a grain of salt. Like, it's lighthearted. It's not— we're not trying to be like a scientist with this. Like I just want her honest personal opinion.

Okay.

This isn't recommendations to do or not do these things for everybody in the world. It's just like you, Hannah, yay or nay. Green smoothies.

Yay.

Cold plunges. Yay. Red light therapy.

Yay.

Coffee first thing in the morning before food.

Nay.

Tongue scraping.

Yay. Celery juice.

Nay. Apple cider vinegar shots before meals. Yay. Sauna.

Yay.

Kombucha.

Yay, nay, right in the middle.

Like it depends what brand.

It depends so many things. I can— it's so hard for me to not add like so much context and nuance. So I know, I know.

Well, we can, we can, we can go back to some. Okay, last one. Collagen powder, is it, is it bullshit?

I would say yay. I would say yay to that. It's— it can be like a great way to get an extra protein for people. It can help the gut lining, you know. It's easy. It's like an easy add-in. So I would say yay for most.

I'm curious about your opinion on the celery juice. You said nay, and that's like— I, I think it's less popular now, but there was like an era where that was like the fucking thing, like Medical Medium, like every Everything was like popping up. Everyone was doing celery juice. I'm just curious, like, why you personally have said nay?

We do not practice like the medical medium, so we— I just don't agree with like a lot of those teachings. To each their own, truly. Like, I'm not here to convince anyone of anything. It's just like not what we see working, or it doesn't really make much sense to me, if I'm being completely honest. So there's that. Celery juice specifically, like, I would say nay because I think it's just been, been like almost marketed as this like cure-all. Listen, y'all, nothing is a cure-all. Like, never. Apple cider vinegar, collagen, things I said yay to, like, they're not cure-alls. Is. So there's that. I just don't love the way that it was like, celery juice is literally going to heal every single ailment in my body. I'm like, no, it's not. I don't think it would get rid of SIBO. It could actually really flare some people with SIBO, 'cause like the different like fibers in it, which are mostly gone after juicing, but still it's like some people won't tolerate very well. I think it could help some people because I do believe, I'd have to like, um, fact check this, but I do believe it can have some good sodium and potassium in there. So if you are swapping your like more running coffee that's like dehydrating and like irritating with celery juice, like yeah, you'll probably feel a bit better. You're like adding in fresh veggies first thing as opposed to like a Frappuccino. Like yeah, of course, you know, I just don't think it's going to, um, there's really like, we have no like research behind it, like scientific data. But I will also like add to that, we don't have data for some things that I, I believe in as well. Like it takes a lot of money to fund these studies and stuff like that. So big, big caveat like, you know, it's, it's all a balance.

But there's not a lot of like really strong data around a lot of holistic practices because they're not pharmaceuticals, so there's no money in it. There's no reason to really study it. Like, who's going to pay for it? So that's another whole other caveat, is not to say there's not studies because, you know, it's just a total hogwash, like, fake thing. It's like there's not studies because no one's making money out of studying it.

Totally. Like, you have to have tons of money and access to like these studies and, and clinical trials, like massive amounts, you know. So I don't like when anything is touted as a cure-all. That's like the biggest reason why I'm against it. Do I think it's going to harm people's health? No, not really. Do I think it's going to cure your gut issues? No, I don't.

Well, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Nay to the celery juice. And stop drinking your coffee first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. We already know it's horrible. You talked about it before, just in terms of like blood sugar regulation and all of that, and making sure that there's protein. Like, I know so many people listen listening to this are probably an empty stomach coffee drinker. Knock it off. No bueno.

If you're gonna do it, like, have it with a little snack. Put collagen in it, put coconut milk in it with some fat, like, whatever. I would rather you do that. Like, get something in there if you're gonna have it. And you're like, really, you really can eat anything? Or have like half of a bar or something. Like, eat a little something. You don't need to sit down to a full pancake breakfast, but have a little something.

All right, well, thanks for coming on, Hannah. Thanks for all of your wisdom. Let everybody know where they can follow you. And if there's someone that wants to potentially work with you or start to lean into some of your like resources and tools for healing, where is the best place for them to go?

Thank you so much for having me, it was fun. I loved the yay or nay, um, it's so fun. Yeah, so you can find us at HannahAylward.com, that's, that's my website. We've got like services listed there, a blog, and all that good stuff. And then I'm super active on Instagram too, so it's just Hannah Aylward HHC. I do weekly Q&As with my community, I do I do like free live trainings all the time. Don't be a stranger. Like, feel free to pop into my DMs, say hi. I'm always in there. You can book a call with me if you want to chat about your case history, symptoms, all that stuff. I've got a team of functional registered dietitians, and that's how we really help people overcome their chronic digestive issues. So we'd love to help you if it, if it's resonating with you, if you're like kind of looking for that support. And then we have a free quiz for you as well. So I developed this like root cause assessment quiz. You can answer some questions and then it'll kind of generate a response for you. Giving you some insight into what might be at the root of all of these symptoms that you're having. And I have like videos and education and all of that accompanying your results. So definitely make sure you, you fill that out too. You'll learn a lot. I have like recommendations and all that good stuff. I'm big on education if you can't tell. It's very hard for me to give a one-line answer. So, so yeah, that would be a great resource for anyone who's like struggling with gut issues too.

Amazing. Okay, we'll link the quiz in the show notes as well as Hannah's socials so you can Give her a follow. If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot, share it to your Instagram, tag us. Or if you know someone in your life that you think would benefit from hearing this conversation, absolutely copy the link, send it to them in a message, let them know you were thinking of them and support their gut health. You know, you gotta look out for the, the girlies. So thank you so much, Hannah, and thank you guys for listening. We will talk to you all next week.

Bye.