With the holiday season just around the corner, many of us are planning parties and get-togethers that will include a wide spread of food and drink. This time of year is festive for the spirit (if you remember to keep it balanced) but terribly hard on our stomachs and GI systems. An extra piece of pie, a few more bites of cheese, a nibble here, an extra drink there—our bodies don’t always know what to do with such a sudden and drastic switch in diet or the introduction of added stress to our days. For some, the holidays are a busy time where “getting sick is not an option” or “I’m just tired because I’m working so hard”. What if the fatigue and the oncoming illness are being triggered from within your gastrointestinal tract?

Gut Health and Mood Links

Recent research reveals the strong connection between our gastrointestinal system and our moods. While some believe that your mood affects your digestive system, scientists are revealing that it could actually be the other way around. The gut is a critical and extremely complex organ system and is not only where nutrients are absorbed but is also the starting point for a number of physical and mental disorders that affect millions of people yet remain under a doctor’s radar. Current studies are pointing to gastrointestinal upsets like maldigestion, bloating, gas, acid reflux, and irritable bowel syndrome as being connected to causing fatigue, mood swings, depression, arthritis, and even autism. Many scientists are finding strong grounds for argument in the upsets of the gut triggering the changes of mental or physical wellness.

Do you have a healthy gut?

While connections between mental and gut health are still being researched, the theory is one to consider and take seriously. Doctors are recommending that anyone who is experiencing gastrointestinal difficulties should assess how they are feeling mentally and physically and attempt to address their gut health. Aside from cleaning up your diet and taking out the ultra-processed foods, doctors encourage you to focus on eating more natural, nutritious foods such as raw vegetables and fruits. When we begin to focus on our food as providing nutrients, we place its importance much higher and improve our gastrointestinal system.

For some of us, the need to address the discomfort we are feeling in our gut is an immediate one. At times, an upset stomach or heartburn cannot be avoided and, once the symptoms begin, many people take over-the-counter medications to make themselves feel better. Take one pill before a meal to keep heartburn away, take another when you’ve finished eating to be sure you can sleep through the evening… after a few days of this, your body becomes dependent on these medicines and relief becomes impossible without them. Rather than reaching for PPIs (proton-pump inhibitors like Prilosec, Prevacid, Zegarid and Nexium) or a TUMS, choose herbs and other natural means to keep your GI system happy. In addition to making changes to your eating habits, there are several supplements you can introduce into your day that are essential to maintain or improve gut health.

How Can I Improve My GI Tract and Get a Healthy Gut?

Healthy Gut

Kroeger Herb Products has developed a formula from Mater Herbalist Hanna Kroeger that is designed to soothe a hot system. Healthy Gut is a blend of mints and other herbs to maintain a healthy digestive system, keep intestinal villi healthy, promote proper absorption of food, and support a natural detoxification process. The soothing blend of herbs in this product is useful for the woes of burning symptoms and is safe to take every day.

Digestive Enzymes are another good addition to your diet. Our bodies have only a finite supply of digestive enzymes and they diminish with age. Enzyme supplements can help replenish the gut’s dwindling stores and aid your digestive process.

Probiotics are another great, natural way to keep your stomach troubles in check by balancing the good and bad bacteria found in your digestive system. Probiotics are also safe to take daily and can be a wonderful addition to your daily herbal and vitamin regimen to keep the system moving and functioning in tip-top shape. To see a variety of probiotics, click here.

Seven Easy Steps to Improved Gut Health

Just because it’s the holiday season doesn’t mean it’s acceptable to forget about the happiness going on inside your body. Here are some tips from Whole Living Magazine to keep your gut health in check.

1. Eat Fresh: Having a cookie or two isn’t a problem, it’s daily junk food habits that do the damage. The majority of your diet should be natural and unrefined as processed foods get broken down into sugar more easily.

2. Keep Things Moving: You should have at least one bowel movement a day as a sign of a happy digestive system.

Whole grains are an important part of a healthy gut.

3. Feed the Flora: Fiber filled foods are like fertilizer for the good bacteria in your gut. Look for insoluble fiber which helps move waste out of the colon. Aim for 25 grams a day.

4. Don’t Rely on Colonics and Enemas: Advocates for these treatments say that the digestive tracts of people who eat a typical Western diet move waste slowly through their body and need colonics and enemas. Becoming dependent on these treatments could cause serious side-effects so fill your plate with cruciferous veggies instead.

5. Reboot Your Body: Standard gut wellness advice usually includes adding a probiotic to your daily regimen.

6. Slow Down: You are what you eat but you are also how you eat. Unless you are calm and in an unhurried state, the GI tract can’t optimally absorb nutrients and digest food. To avoid gas, bloating and indigestion make meals a time of relaxation and conversation or even try a cup of chamomile tea before eating to promote digestion.

7. Drink Up: If you’re well hydrated there is a greater chance that you will have a movement more easily. How many ounces you should drink a day depends on your diet and lifestyle; an easy way to know if you’re getting enough: your urine should be very light yellow.

You can always visit our website to learn more about issues of proper digestion and intestinal wellness. We have a variety of probiotics as well as Kroeger Herb’s Healthy Gut and, as always, we are happy to answer any questions you may have about the products we carry. To learn more about Healthy Gut, visit our website or see a previous blog here.

Further research on the GI system’s connection to our moods check Dr. Steven Lamm’s book No Guts, No Glory, Better Nutrition Magazine, and Whole Living Magazine.

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March is the celebration month for many health related causes.

 March is host to Save Your Vision Month, which is all about protecting one’s vision. Many Americans spend far too much time staring at computer monitors in their daily life. March is about raising awareness for this daily eyestrain. This website offers many great tips in order to improve your working conditions for your eyesight. Outside of these tips, herbs are also a terrific way to reduce the strain on your eyes. We offer a special formula from Kroeger Herb that Hanna Kroeger created to nourish the eyes. Eye Formula is comprised of several different herbs, all of which help promote healthy vision. In addition to Eye Formula we offer Kroeger Herb’s Bilberry Complete Concentrate, which also helps promote healthy eyesight.

Aside from saving your vision, March is also National Nutrition Month. Nutrition is the most important factor in protecting one’s health. This month try and take some time to improve your eating habits; a healthy and balanced diet is important for anyone. However, we offer several herbal combinations that can assist problems that may be the result of poor nutrition. One great product we offer is Healthy Gut. This product helps address issues that may arise from leaky gut and other digestion issues. Another product we offer is Digestive Enzymes, which helps promote a healthy digestive system.

 March is also host to National Sleep Awareness Week, which runs from the 7^th to the 13^th. There are many different ways to get a better night’s sleep.  However, if you find yourself relying on sleep medication we offer two products that are a great and all natural alternative. Our SLP tea is a natural combination of herbs and flowers with sleep inducing properties. One other product we offer is a Complete Concentrate of Kava Kava as well as a Kava Kava tincture. This herb has been used for centuries as a natural muscle relaxer. Read more about the complete concentrate capsule or tincture to learn which is right for you.  

 This month also offers some other terrific events, and you can see them all here.

Check out our specials page here!

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Find out how to live your life without a leaky gut with Healthy Gut!

You might have heard about a new product that Kroeger Herb is introducing.  The moment is here and Kroeger is pleased to announce Healthy Gut to the world at Expo West in Anaheim, CA today.  Healthy Gut is an original Hanna Kroeger formula previously known as Tumee, which we are re-introducing to the world.  With an increase of health problems related to unhealthy digestive systems today, Kroeger Herb Products knows this product can do great things for many people.

The combination of chamomile, spearmint, gentian, wintergreen, slippery elm, marjoram and meadowsweet in this product does wonders to maintain a properly working digestive system.  Many times the system will fail to function properly due to years of consuming over-the-counter medicine and processed foods.  These toxins can eventually damage the intestinal wall and allow undigested foods and toxins to leak into the bloodstream which may cause severe health issues including auto-immune conditions.

It is important to maintain a healthy system so it can digest and absorb all proteins and nutrients properly.  With the increase of issues such as celiac and fibromyalgia which have been associated with improper protein digestion this product is available at no better time so people will realize how important it is to keep their digestive system functioning as it should.

Click here to see more information on HealthyGut

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Spearmint is used in Healthy Gut for cooling, soothing and keeping the digestive sysytem healthy and addresses leaky gut.

Did you know that you have space inside your body that is not “inside” your body? That’s right, your entire digestive tract is a sealed “pipe” running right through the middle of you. As strange as this idea may sound, this process is a very important feature of the human body and essential to proper digestion. Everything you eat and drink is broken down in this system, scrutinized by your immune system and then filtered through your liver and kidneys before it is allowed “inside.” This process is designed to screen out viruses, bacteria, parasites and numerous other components of food that the body cannot use or sees as harmful, as well as pulling out nutrients for the body to use.

So what happens if your “pipe” has holes in it? There’s a medical term for this issue called “leaky gut syndrome.” The most common cause in western society is overuse of anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen. These drugs are also called NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and they effect the production of something in your body called prostaglandins. Prostaglandins are chemicals that are responsible for inflammation, but also happen to regulate the process of repairing many tissues. When the body doesn’t have enough of these chemicals, the lining of the intestines has tissues that are not always repaired properly. This lining consists of a layer of tightly packed cells called “villi.” They are very robust, but never the less are constantly dying due to the harsh environment caused by digestion. Under normal circumstances the tiny holes they create as they die are filled in and repaired almost instantly by the surrounding live villi. However, things such as NSAIDs, some other over the counter drugs and some medical conditions can cause this process to be impaired. This contributes to a more permeable intestinal lining, creating the opportunity for foreign organisms and rogue proteins to escape your digestive tract.

It’s needless to say you don’t want any creepy crawlies getting out of there, but why care about the proteins? Undigested proteins floating around in your body can be bad news. Your body will recognize them as an invader and launch an immune response to attack them. The problem with this is that once the attack has started, your body may not be able to distinguish between your own tissue and its original target. This can be a contributing factor in many auto-immune disorders.

So what to do about all this? First, try to limit your anti-inflammatory use. An ibuprofen here and there is fine, but for those of you who take a “vitamin-I” every day, you may want to reconsider. To repair your digestive system, nutritive teas of calendula, plantain, licorice, gentian and angelica can be wonderful. L-Glutamine, an amino acid, is known to have many gut-healing properties. We here at Kroeger make a fantastic Licorice Root Tincture, our STM (Stomach) tea can be soothing and we’re about to reintroduce Healthy Gut, a Hanna Kroeger original formula! Our FML and FRD teas, while used for other things, also contain ingredients that can be beneficial for stomach health.

Be cautious of what you put in your body, and choose products that will address leaky gut and help to soothe and calm the symptoms! Healthy Gut can do just that!

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