Book Extract: The Healed State by Christianne Wolff

Here's an extract from a new book The Healed State by Christianne Wolff, which is a guide to well-being. The whole book is about healing mind, body, soul, relationships and the environment. This section is on forces that heal.

Another reason why nature is just so good for us is because we share the same microbiome!

Microbiome is the home of a community of microorganisms which are fungi, bacteria and viruses and live in many environments around us including water, soil and the air. These microbes also live within us mainly within our skin, vagina and gastrointestinal tract. Our body is home to trillions of these microbial cells.

We ingest about a million microbes in every gram of food and what we eat directly impacts whether our gut microbiome thrives, survives or dies. 

Your microbiome within your gut controls the storage of fat and helps with breaking down toxins and absorbing nutrients. They also replenish the gut lining, skin and replace damage and dying cells.

They also fight the bad bacteria.

Junk food, alcohol, high fatty foods, sugar, antibiotics, stress, lack of sleep and illness all detrimentally affect the health of our microbiome.

Interestingly some of your good bacteria are affected by poor sleep because they have their own time for working, some when you are asleep and some when you are awake, and run on a regular clockwork. So people who do shift work, people with insomnia or people who travel a lot and get jet lag could be affected with the health of their  microbiome.

To help replace good bacteria and improve your micro biome you can take pro-biotics in tablet form- these are particularly useful after taking antibiotics which can kill both your good and bad bacteria. 

You can also consume pro-biotic foods which can help improve digestion, reduce depression, improve skin and promote heart health. These foods contain live bacteria that stay live when we eat them.

Good forms of pro-biotic foods are...

• Kefir
• Kombucha
• Sauerkraut
• Live yogurt
• Tempeh
• Kimchi
• Miso
• Pickles

Equally foods high in fibre (most plant based foods ), particularly foods high in polyphenol compounds, help to boost the health, diversity and vitality of your microbiome. 

Polyphenols and high fibre are food for your good bacteria, this is known as pre-biotic foods and the more varied your diet is in these foods the more varied the good bacteria, because different good bacteria like different polyphenols foods. The more varied your good bacteria, the healthier your gut.

The best foods for polyphenols are 

• Raw cacao powder
• Pomegranate
• Berries
• Flaxseed
• Almonds
• Olives
• Beans
• Spinach
• Red onion
• Herbs

So a very simple way of ensuring you feed your good bacteria daily, is having plants ( vegetables, fruit, herbs, beans, nuts ) and one food high in Polyphenol food at each sitting. 

Microbiome also lives within your home and with in your pets, going to other peoples houses and being around plants and pets gives your body a good variety to chose from.

The more diverse your microbiome the better the balance - we get this balance through a varied diet and being around different plants, people and pets.

Having a diverse microbiome also helps with your immunity, blood sugar levels and appetite.

Exercise can also improve your gut microbiome and exercising outside, even better!

The microbiome in soil is also closely related to the microbiome in your gut, and even just getting green fingers, allowing your hands to submerge into the soil has been proven to be healing for the body.

The Human Microbiome project is a huge study funded by the National Institute of Health from 2007 to 2016 and was instrumental in making a connection between the soil microbiome and the gut microbiome. The HMP discovered that  the soil and the gut contains a similar amount of active microorganisms. The health of our gut is not only about the fibre we eat but the soil those plants that contain the fibre were grown in.

Amazingly still there is also a connection between the human and ocean microbiome sharing 73% microbes. Half of the earths oxygen is produced by the microbiome of the ocean.

Christianne Wolff is an award-winning author with a passion for healing and mentoring. With over 30 years of experience, she has guided individuals worldwide through her healing retreats and online memberships.

You can find more about The Healed State here: http://thebodyrescueplan.com/healedstatebook/

Disclaimer: This is for information purposes only, it is not advice. Always seek a qualified medical professional if you are unwell.