So what do we mean when we say trusting your gut is the key to becoming centered? Our patients who have successfully gone through the CORE program have learned to respond to their intestinal sensations in such a way that they no longer experience them as threats. The sensations have become friendly sources of information, helpful messages rather than something to fear. These people have broken out of the vicious circle of pain and distress, bloating, diarrhea, and constipation. They have learned to trust their gut, and they have changed their attitude, allowing their body/mind system to become more centered. These people are now more aware and observant of many aspects of life. Because they have changed their habits, their intestinal suffering is greatly diminished and often eliminated. You can do the same.
The Five Most Important Supplements to Support Centering
Centering may be unnecessarily difficult if our nutritional status is compromised. To ensure a strong and healthy metabolic core, we recommend supplementing your diet with the following:
1 Vitamin D (also called vitamin D3): This is a crucial hormone that turns on or off more than 2,000 key genes in our body. There are vitamin D receptors on every cell of our body, including throughout the brain and the intestines. Low levels of vitamin D in the blood stream are associated with increased risk of an incredible array of diseases as well as severity of multiple others including nonspecific musculoskeletal pain, muscular weakness, asthma, allergies and autoimmune disease. Get tested and take supplements as need. Aim for a blood level of 40–60 ng/ml.
2 A good multivitamin: For us, a good vitamin is absorbable, gentle, and made of high quality ingredients. Watch out for vitamin E as DL-alpha tocopherol. If you see this DL on the label, think “don't like.” Choose mixed tocopherols (and tocotrienols, if possible) that include alpha, beta, delta, and gamma forms.
3 Fish oil or krill oil: These supplements are rich in omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA). Low levels of omega-3 are associated with gut distress including pain and cramping. A fish or krill oil supplementation blocks excessive inflammation associated with the high levels of omega-6 fatty acids found in most modern diets. Our recommendation is 1,000 milligrams a day of EPA and DHA. Check the label and add these together to understand how many capsules a day to take. Here's a secret: refrigerate to prevent fish burps.
4 Magnesium in absorbable forms (citrate, glycinate, taurate, or malate): Take 400–800 milligrams a day to support over three hundred key chemical reactions in the body. These include reactions relevant to energy, mood, memory, sleep, and general oomph power. Magnesium oxide at a dose of 400 milligrams relieves constipation. This can be taken along with the more absorbable forms of magnesium. Caution: All magnesium forms can cause loose bowel movements. Start with a low dose, approximately 120–200 milligrams a day and slowly increase as tolerated.
5 Probiotics: These will be described in great detail later. Choose a product that provides at least 20 billion CFUs (colony-forming units) and multiple lactobacillus and bifidobacterial species. Take with cool, unchlorinated water at least thirty minutes away from warm food or drink.
PART II
Observe
Awareness, in and of itself, is transformative.
—Ken Wilber, American psychologist and philosopher
Centering prepares you to turn your attention and awareness to your body and your life. This section guides those observations so that you gain a new understanding of yourself, your gut, and your habits. By looking at yourself objectively, you can begin to see the interconnectedness of everything you do and how it affects your health. Observing your gut, your stresses, your diet, and your sleep gives you clues about the nature of the imbalances in your life that culminate as intestinal distress.
The idea that healing comes from finding a proper balance in your life is nothing new. Hippocrates, the ancient Greek known as the father of Western medicine, wrote that health depends on a balance between diet and other aspects of life, including interaction with the environment. By diet, he didn't mean a “weight-loss program.” The original meaning of diet included all aspects of life under human control—one's relationship with air and water, food and drink, motion and rest, sleep and wakefulness, and feelings and passions as well as one's elimination of bodily waste.
Our culture seems to have lost the sense for the importance of nutrition and lifestyle. However, these are central to the CORE program, which, like ancient Greek medicine, emphasizes observation for self-knowledge. From awareness, you can turn to self-healing in Part III, “Restore” and Part IV, “Ensure.”
Part II consists of these chapters:
2 Observe Your Gut
3 Observe Your Stresses
4 Observe Your Diet
5 Observe Your Sleep
6 Observe Your Life: Your Health and Wellness Autobiography
2
Observe Your Gut
You ever notice when your stomach begins a conversation with you, you're always in a silent place like the dentist's office … it even starts talking in complete sentences.
—George Carlin, comedian
When your gut starts talking, you need to listen before you react. The very act of paying attention to what your gut is saying helps to break the automatic neurohormonal feedback loop of gut distress. When a person with chronic gut issues is running on automatic, each intestinal gurgle or twinge sets off alarm bells in the brain. When the main brain is in alarm mode, stress hormones are sent to the gut, prompting all the symptoms you dread: cramps, pain, bloating, and diarrhea. Now your gut is not just talking to you, it is shouting—but you still don't understand. It's like a foreigner who is trying to tell you something important, but he doesn't speak your language. He tries speaking louder as if that will help you understand. It doesn't work to ignore him; he just gets more agitated because he truly has something important to tell you, but you don't know how to listen!
As a gut sufferer, you are in this very position. Your gut is trying to speak, but you can't understand what it's trying to say; the messages are garbled. But your gut keeps trying to be heard. Each cry is louder and more urgent than the last. Finally the messages become too obnoxious and painful to bear. You become frustrated and anxious and just want to stop all the belly aching. You look for pills and other remedies to silence the beast within you. You just want it to shut up and quit bothering you.
Learn the language of the gut.
However, you have learned by now that the belly aching never stops because your gut insists on being heard. Ignoring the pain doesn't make it go away. Instead, we want you to learn the language of the gut. Gut distress symptoms are like emails tagged “urgent” that your body sends to your conscious mind.
Bill Learns to Listen
Bill was a manufacturer's rep in his twenties who suffered from abdominal cramping, bloating, pain, and constipation for at least eight years. His symptoms made his work very difficult because he was on the road several days a week traveling over a five-state area. The long hours in his car, the quick stops for fast food, and the uncomfortable motel beds all made his intestinal discomfort worse.
Like many gut sufferers, Bill had run the gamut of doctors and clinics trying to find answers and relief for his distress. After taking all the tests and seeing all the specialists, Bill was told that he had IBS. The physicians tried to help, but ultimately they encouraged him to learn to live with it.
This advice backfired. Bill's frustration only made his symptoms worse. He'd cancel sales calls and break dates with his girlfriend. He just felt too lousy. Bill was at the end of his rope.