Cleansing Your “Second Brain”

Naturopaths, herbalists, and other holistic healers have always understood the importance of cleansing and nourishing the body – especially the colon. However, in the last ten to fifteen years, science has been coming to appreciate and understand how important this is.

We now understand that 90% of the serotonin made in the body is made in the gut. The gut supports seventy percent of the immune system. Fifty percent of dopamine is made in the gut. This is where the nutrients from the food we eat are sifted out and taken into the body.

There are approximately 20 feet of small intestines and 5 feet of large intestines. In the colon, there are about 100 trillion organisms which are helping to keep your body in balance and healthy. This microbiome is also the backbone of the immune system. It is constantly mounting an inflammatory response to fend off invaders – viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi, environmental pollutants, chemicals, etc. 

Lynn Wagner, M.D., who runs an integrative medicine practice at BayCare Clinic in DePere, Wisconsin, says: 

“What people don’t realize is that the gut in a sense is outside of the body. The digestive tract is a hollow lumen, or cavity, running through the body, and its walls separate it from the organs, muscles, and fluids of the body. It functions like a waiting room for anything coming in from the outside -- a place to vet new arrivals and keep intruders from moving to inner rooms. It constantly works to protect our internal environment from what’s coming in . . . There are more immune system cells in the microbiome than there are in the rest of the entire body.”

Unfortunately, a processed diet, stress, antibiotics, infections, and food sensitivities can all alter the microbiome. When the microbiome is not balanced, chronic inflammation can set in. This has been linked to a host of diseases such as auto-immune diseases, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer, arterial dysfunction, arthritis, and many others. 

For several years, scientists have been referring to the gut as the second brain. They considered our brain the computer that ran everything in our body, but in a conference I attended this past weekend, they are now starting to believe that the computer resides in the gut and our brain is merely the monitor which is reflecting what is going on in the gut. The 10th cranial nerve (the vagus nerve) runs from the brainstem to the colon. Communication between the gut and the brain goes both ways. Scientists believe that about 90% of the communication is from the gut to the brain and about 10% is brain to gut. Regardless of which is which, I hope you are starting to see how important our digestive system is to the health of the rest of the body.

As of 2019, it’s estimated that approximately 5.8 million Americans have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The distribution of bacteria within the gut has now been linked to multiple neurodegenerative diseases, including dementia. All of these conditions share a common symptom – inflammation in the brain. According to Lawrence Hoberman, MD, a gastroenterologist in San Antonio, “Individuals with Alzheimer’s have a lower number and less diverse species of bacteria in their gut. This microbial imbalance – known as dysbiosis – is thought to trigger the immune system, causing an inflammatory response that breaks down the intestinal lining (a process some GI experts call “leaky gut”). This releases inflammatory proteins that travel to the brain, resulting in neurologic inflammation and the production of amyloid and tau proteins.”

If this is the case – and I have no doubt that it is – going back to a healthy diet of fresh fruits and vegetables will go a long way toward helping us to live a longer, healthier life. Not only are they full of fiber, which acts like a brush for cleaning out the intestinal tract, but they are also full of pre- and probiotics. Prebiotics are the food that encourages the proliferation of healthy gut bacteria by causing fermentation in the gut, which feeds the probiotics. Probiotics are the live microorganisms that add to the microflora. 

“Our Western diet, which consists of high levels of fat and added sugar, triggers intestinal inflammation and a leaky gut, which can alter cognitive function,” says Hoberman. “But studies have shown that by changing the diet, intestinal dysbiosis can resolve and cognitive function can improve.” Along with making at least 50% of our diet live, fresh food – we need to do all that we can to avoid processed foods, fast foods, and refined sugars. Then, if we add in exercise and lots of fresh air, we will be increasing blood flow to all the cells in the body, including the brain and strengthening muscles, which will only atrophy if not used. Like Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

Research has shown that when we change our diet and focus on our health, the microbiome will shift and show improvement within seven days! It is quick to forgive and begin to improve as soon as we are willing to do our part. Stress levels also play a major role in how balanced our gut bacteria is. According to Carley Smith, NTP, creator of the Fairy Gutmother blog, who specializes in working with clients who have gut issues.

“I really believe that stress is almost more important than food when it comes to impacting your gut health. I see it firsthand with clients and the research that I’ve been able to help with. I see it reflected in the microbiome. I’ll see people who have a really healthy diet but high-stress levels, and then clients with OK diets and moderate to mild stress. When I send in a sample to sequence the microbiome, more times than not, the high-stress/good-diet group’s guts are not well-diversified. They have very few species of anti-inflammatory bacteria and there’s an increase in pathogenic bacteria like E. coli. Stress absolutely wreaks havoc on the gut.”

So, to promote good gut health, we need to have a healthy, clean diet, exercise, and learn how to reduce our stress levels. There are many ways to help us accomplish this. Exercise helps to release endorphins, which will reduce our stress levels. Yoga and meditation can help our body to relax and to release toxins. Going out into nature and grounding ourselves can go a long way toward reducing our stress levels. Analyzing our life and recognizing what is causing our stress can sometimes help us to change our environment enough to bring us more peace and less negativity.

We also need to learn how to cleanse the colon to keep it functioning on a regular basis. Any time our bowels are not moving on a daily basis, we have toxic garbage building up on the inside. Most of us go to great lengths to make sure we keep the outside of our body fresh and clean through bathing, brushing our teeth, washing our hair, applying deodorants and fragrances to our skin, but what are we doing to help keep the inside clean? Our body temperature is somewhere around 98.6 degrees on a 24-hour daily basis. If you left fresh fish or a chicken lying on the counter in your home at 98.6 degrees for two or three days – what do you think that would look like and smell like? Carnivores (animals such as dogs) have a short, straight colon so that the meat they eat has a very short journey through their body to avoid rotting or decomposition of flesh while inside the animal. Humans, on the other hand, have a very long, twisting, convoluted colon, which makes for a much longer journey. It is designed this way to allow for the slow absorption of sugars and other water-borne nutrients from fruit. Also, the stomach acid of a carnivore is at least ten times stronger than a human and can be a hundred times stronger, so cleansing the colon on a regular basis is a necessary component for helping to keep the body clean on the inside.

There are many ways to cleanse the colon:

• Fasting

  • Paul Bragg said, “The ‘secret’ of the glow of ageless health lies in maintaining internal cleanliness and regeneration. This requires eating natural, organically grown live foods, combined with other healthy practices such as fasting, drinking distilled water, exercising, and deep breathing.” It takes a lot of energy for the body to break down and digest all of the food we put into it on a daily basis. Any inorganic materials that cannot be fully digested accumulate and build up in the colon. When autopsies have been performed on people to determine the cause of death, fifty pounds or more of fecal matter have been found still in the body. This toxic waste is polluting and slowing down every system in the body. When you fast, your body is able to do some house cleaning. It will loosen up the waste and gather it up to be discarded. Many herbalists and naturopaths recommend fasting three days per month on either fresh juices or water. Paul Bragg recommends fasting one day out of every seven and then, three days per month, just drinking water and refraining from any food.

• Herbal Cleanses

  • There are many formulas on the market that will help to cleanse and strengthen the bowel.

• Colonics/Enemas

  • This is not something I would recommend on a regular basis because it does not allow your body to do the job it was intended to do. However, if someone is sick and needs to remove the toxins quickly – this can be an effective way of doing it.

• Diet

  • When we incorporate lots of fresh, live fruits and vegetables into our diet, we introduce several elements which will help to keep the bowel moving on a daily basis. These foods are full of fiber, vitamins, minerals, digestive enzymes, pre- and probiotics – all of the elements that our digestive system was designed for. If we are going to eat 2 to 3 meals per day, then if our bowel was working correctly, we should have bowel movements 2 to 3 times per day - in with the new, out with the old.

• Water

  • Water makes up about 70% of the human body, so unless you are eating a lot of fresh fruit, which is full of water, you need to be drinking plenty of water to keep from becoming dehydrated. The kidneys, bladder, skin, and lungs all depend heavily on water to rid themselves of bodily poisons and excretions on a regular basis.

In Genesis 6:3, it says that a man’s days shall be 120 years. How many people have you known in your life who have lived past a hundred years? If we want to live a long, healthy life, we are going to have to go back to the types of foods and lifestyles that God intended. This includes eating the foods which God created and incorporating some type of cleansing into our lives so that our body has a chance to rejuvenate.