From waking up stiff in the morning, to muscle cramps, headaches, joint pain, arthritis, and gout, it seems like there is always more discomfort to be had as we age. Perhaps you think it’s inevitable, simply the cost of living life. Maybe you’re just asking too much of your body now that you’re older? You’re moving too much (or not enough) or not stretching enough.
Movement and stretching is important, of course.
The pain you may be experiencing and chalking up to age and activity may have a root cause you haven’t thought of: the health of your gut.
If you’re interested in health, even peripherally, you’ve very likely heard how important it is that you pay attention to what’s going on in your gut. After all, as the adage goes, “all disease begins in the gut” and modern science is finally catching up to ancient wisdom.
Your gut is THE source of everything pertaining to your health.
I mean, nutrition is obvious, right? Every process in the body requires nutrients! We get our nutrients from the foods we eat, but it’s not enough to simply eat them. We assume all is well once we pop it in our mouths and chew a couple of times, but that is only the beginning.
We must digest, absorb, convert, and get past the cell membrane! And you know what else? We need nutrients to perform the actions needed to get nutrients (I know, right?)!! No lettuce, no salad – there is no pantry in your left butt cheek where you can grab some extra B6 or selenium. If they aren’t available, you go deficient.
However, it doesn’t end there my friends, your gut lining is about one cell thick, and is what separates you from the outside world. What goes on in the gut is a little bit chaotic – I mean if you really think about it, from top to bottom, your gut is technically outside the body in a way (think about a tunnel, or the inside of a donut). So it makes sense that, on the other side of the gut wall, your immune soldiers are hanging out, keeping watch. Of course, we want things coming in from the gut. There is supposed to be some permeability of the gut lining so that properly broken-down nutrients can make their way in, but it is a very precise and controlled process, or should be.
What happens when we have enhanced intestinal permeability (aka “leaky gut”)? When you have leaky gut, particles that wouldn’t have fit through (e.g. larger food particles, debris from natural die-off of the bacteria in your gut) are showing up where your immune guards are. Their primary job being to protect you, they’re going to attack). Antibodies (what the immune system uses to identify and neutralize a foreign, or perceived as foreign, substance) attach to these particles, or antigens, as they make their way along, forming an immune complex. (BTW This is how we end up with food sensitivities to the foods we used to consume with no problems.)
You might be saying…
“Wouldn’t I be experiencing obvious digestive trouble like gas or diarrhea if my gut was out of whack?” or you could be wondering, “How does what is going on in my gut, translate into pain in my joints or headaches?”
Great questions! I’ll answer the first one: while your digestion almost certainly is affected if you have an imbalance in gut flora (the good bacteria in your gut) or compromised barrier function (meaning leaky gut) you may not realize it. It could be that it came on so gradually that it just feels normal to you because it is what you are used to. Bowel regularity and healthy formation is something I’ve seen many clients discount until we talk about how to read what is really going on (grab my free Ebook to relieve constipation here).
Now the answer to the second question – remember those immune complexes? Those are now in circulation and can become especially problematic in joint areas. If you think of a joint as an eddy in a stream where all the trash gets stuck and can’t rejoin the main waterway, that’s a pretty good analogy for what happens. Joints are areas of low circulation, and immune complexes are large molecules, making it more likely they will get trapped in the joints. So now we have inflammation in the joints causing pain – because of what is happening in the gut! Over time, if not addressed, more damage will be done to the joint tissue as it becomes an ever-increasing forward-feeding cycle (arthritis).
Solutions
The gut itself needs to be in balance and integrity. What we eat is of paramount importance. While working on healing the gut, it makes sense to remove the most commonly reactive foods. I most often recommend, in the case of pain, the removal of dairy, gluten, and nightshades (side note – I’ve seen people’s headaches disappear and their tingling fingers and toes go back to normal when they ditch gluten). Many people see a huge improvement just in the elimination of these three categories, but it can take 3 to 4 weeks and requires 100% cold turkey elimination (reducing the amount you consume won’t help). You may have to explore further elimination after a trial and continue to experiment. You are the only you, and no one else will have the same reactions and exact symptoms. (That’s why it can be so frustrating when you try t follow a protocol in a book and it doesn’t work – it just means you need to dig a little deeper and more personally – you may want specialized help at that point.)
All of this to say….
Too often it is presented to us that the body is broken, gone rogue, or dumb and that we have to intervene (often with drugs and surgery) to straighten it out. While sometimes drugs and surgery become the only option after years of prolonged damage, I think the notion that we need to step in and ‘correct’ the body is not only quite backwards, but short- sighted and arrogant. The body has a wisdom that we may never fully comprehend. We often look to medications first, and in the case of pain, we don’t often consider food as a source of pain unless it is pain located in the gut itself. Besides, not addressing the source of the problem and merely suppressing symptoms, ironically, even over the counter medications (like NSAIDs and analgesics) exacerbate the origin of the condition by contributing to enhanced intestinal permeability.
The interconnectedness in what you consume and how well your body handles that nutrition will dictate whether vital processes in your body go well or wonky. To me, it is so fascinating and seemingly endless, but I know it can feel a little overwhelming, so I want you to remember this: YOU are in the driver’s seat here and can have a real, palpable influence on the experience you get to have in your body as you age. Isn’t that nice to know?
So many of us are drowning in information but don’t know how to sort it all out - If you are looking for some clarity and direction, I am offering a free Functional Wellness Assessment and you can grab it here .
Meredith is a Functional Medicine Health Coach who uses a truly holistic and highly individualized approach to get you to a place of reclaimed health and vibrancy. She works with her clients to achieve complete and lasting health so that they are free to give their gifts fully to those they love and the world at large. Meredith knows that given the appropriate knowledge and inspiration each of us has the POWER to cultivate our own best health. Some things you will find in her toolkit are functional medicine principles, nutrition expertise, mindset, energy medicine, meditation & mindfulness, movement, and many more.
You can email her at Meredith@roottoleafwellness.com or find her at www.roottoleafwellness.com