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Recently I posted on nurturing wellness with pure essential oils for the respiratory system. Today I want to focus on another body system that is equally important to wellness but very often overlooked: the digestive system.
The digestive system is where vitality and immunity begin
Even today as the world wakes up to the benefits of raw foods, organic foods and friendly-bacteria foods, sick people are still more likely to go to a doctor than think about changing their eating habits first. To be fair, your doctor might not talk too deeply about diet either before the medicine comes out.
But when you think about it, this doesn't make much sense: our food is our body fuel. So, clearly how well it is received and processed will affect directly how much energy is available for life functions.
Also, effective digestion involves about a hundred trillion bacteria living in the gut, so it follows that our general immune protection against pathogens (the bad disease-carrying bacteria) depends on a healthy balance here, first and foremost.
It's no big surprise then to find some specialists already saying that most disease originates in the digestive system and the most effective course of healing comes from focusing on restoring a healthy balance therein.
Knowing how your gut works is the first step to good health
In a healthy belly the entire intestinal tract is lined with 'good' bacteria. Microbial abundance is a crucial factor. While they are aiding the digestive breakdown, enhancing vitamin and nutrient absorption, creating hormones and generally being all round good guys, they are also literally squeezing the pathogens out of the picture, blocking any passage into the body through the stomach by filling up all the wall space.
Which is why if anything happens to diminish these benevolent wee guests, our health is immediately threatened.
Beyond this the body has its own first line of defense in place. Gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) behind the gut's natural mucosal lining. Here up to 70% of the body's immune system is concentrated in 'Peyer's patches' of immune cells (T-cells etc) that will hone in on the bad guys and take them out before they can invade the body.
Which is why we lose energy to the immune system when our stomach has to fight infections.
Pure essential oils and probiotics work hand in hand for healthy digestion
With all this information in place it becomes clear that we need to be more considerate of our belly guests if we want to remain strong and fit. Hence the rise of prebiotic and probiotic whole foods that we are encouraged to eat to keep them healthy and abundant.
We are also told to steer away from too much sugar (present in almost all processed foods) because this is what helps to tip the balance the other way so that the bad bacteria gets to be healthy and abundant.
And when the bad guys are winning, wouldn't it be a good idea to find a way to knock them on the head without wiping out all our tiny allies too (as with antibiotics)?
This is where natural health medicine with pure essential oils has an important role to play. The good belly oils that follow all have natural anti-bacterial properties that are not harmful to natural healthy flora, plus, as you will see, a number of added benefits for digestive health.
So it turns out that not only can we eat to help flourish our flora, but also we can undertake some routine maintenance to keep the bad boys at bay.
How to stay healthy from the inside out with pure essential oils
For general maintenance and stomach cleansing :
Add 1-2 drops of Kanuka and/or Peppermint and a tablespoon of White Argyle Clay powder to a detox smoothie, once or twice a week (with berries and bananas).
For stomach ache, poor digestion and general tonic effect:
Make a 'belly blend' with equal parts Peppermint, Oregano and Kanuka essential oils (in a dark glass bottle with dropper-top and seal):
Use 1 drop 'belly blend' to 1ml of olive oil and massage direct to the stomach.
To aid digestion:
1-2 drops 'belly blend' in water at meal times, or in salad dressing or olive oil over food.
To guard against traveler's tummy:
Add 1 drop 'belly blend' to a charcoal capsule. Take up to 2 capsules with each meal.
To aid recovery from traveler's tummy:
Increase above dose to 3 drops per capsule, 6-8 times a day.
Tailor-made for digestion, peppermint does it all. It freshens breath, whitens teeth, helps to ease indigestion, and soothes the digestive tract… even cleans the blood. It has antibacterial, calming and anti-gas properties, to name a few, and it tastes great too.
Little known Kanuka is right up there with probiotics for digestive benefit. It boosts gut-related immune functions, and aids detox and nutrient absorption, and comes with calming, tonic effect.
Known as a natural antibiotic, cleansing Oregano is the ultimate gut guardian. Effective against the kind of bacteria that lurks in bad food, it is also proven against virus and parasites. Plus it is calming on gas and cramping.
This is an amazingly effective detox material that works really well with essential oils. Known best for facial cleansing, it is also effective on the gut drawing out impurities and adding nutrition to digestive process. It is easy to use, and has numerous deep cleansing and balancing benefits.
Equally important to remember for health on the inside… eat slowly, avoid stress, drink plenty of water, and get some good exercise every day.
Medicinal-grade essential oils must be 100% pure. At Absolute Essential we use certified organic or wild grown (sustainable) plants to produce our oils and all extraction processes are strictly controlled to produce the best quality oil with a maximum purity and therapeutic value. See more at Absolute Essential