As my goal and mission is always to help other women heal and grow into their best, healthiest, happiest selves, I try my best to share everything I’ve learned and everything I’m going through in my own health journey (sorry, I used the word “journey,” you have full permission to roll your eyes here). It may be TMI so feel free to click out of this article (or anything you see on my Instagram) if this is not the content you signed up for. But if you are also struggling with years and years of gut issues or stomach problems without anything more than a meaningless diagnoses from your doctor (OK but why is my bowel syndrome irritable??) than I know it helped me to hear other women’s perspectives on what has worked for them, so I hope this might help you too. I have done the research: I’ve read the books, I’ve studied the digestive system from a Western medicine perspective and looked into Eastern modalities like Ayurvedic doshas and energy systems from TCM. I’ve also tried just about everything out there that has promised a healed gut or better symptoms, and I’m sharing the things that work for me. This will be a master list of everything that genuinely helps my gut symptoms/heal my gut, and I will continue to add to it as I find more (because health is not a destination; it’s a never-ending journey. UGH what is up with me and that word today…!? Sorry for the cheese.

Identifying the root cause

This may sound like an obvious one but this mindset shift transformed my gut health. For many years since I was a young teenager and first went to a doctor for help with gut-related symptoms, I looked at it like what would stop the symptoms. So doctors prescribed me medication or had me avoid certain foods because the one and only goal was to lessen my chronic constipation, extremely painful bloat, and recurring stomach aches. I’m not shitting on these methods (yes, it is important to lessen symptoms so you live your life!) but when I went to doctors who saw the end goal was to identify the root cause instead of patch up symptoms, my entire experience changed. Some doctors had diagnosed me with SIBO before, which felt like a relief to have a name to put with my symptoms, but it was extremely difficult to get rid of and I didn’t even think to look at why I had bacterial overgrowth in the first place, which meant it would continue coming back, even if I did the protocol and successfully eliminated it.

The gastroenterologist I recently went to agreed I had SIBO after looking at stool tests, but told me that wasn’t really helpful to know because it was just another symptom, not the cause. Anyone with gut issues (especially constipation) most likely has SIBO–in other words, constipation was causing SIBO, SIBO was not causing the constipation. While I’m still working to identify the exact root cause, this gastroenterologist believed it was more of a muscular issue with my pelvic floor, like my pelvic floor was trained to not be able to release properly (again, sorry for the TMI but you chose this). Bottom line: Having a diagnoses (AKA a name for a group of symptoms) like SIBO or IBS doesn’t really tell us much. The reason my body is reacting with certain symptoms could be very different than your reason, even if the symptoms are the same. Identify the root cause, and then build treatment around that.

Getting tests

You’ve probably heard that knowledge is power, and that’s true for your gut health too. As many health professionals will tell you: test, don’t guess. I’ve tried a variety of breath tests, stool tests, and a Sitz Marker study where you swallow a pillow with a series of minuscule trackers and come in 5 days later for an X-Ray so they can identify if there’s a certain part of the digestive tract that’s the problem. My results came back normal, which admittedly felt annoying to wait for hours in the waiting room at Cedars Sinai and pay an expensive co-pay to be told everything looked “fine,” but it served the purpose of further confirmation that the symptoms were not due to an issue in the colon, large intestine, etc.–it was probably related to the very end of the digestive tract, AKA the pelvic floor. A stool test is also gross, but it tells you so much about the bacteria in your gut, what nutrients your body is digesting, etc. so it’s so worth it IMO. There’s lots of great tests out there that can provide information that can further help you figure out what’s going on and exactly how to heal.

Pelvic floor physical therapy

If there’s one topic I could go on a tangent about RN, it’s pelvic floor physical therapy and why every woman of the world should be going. The pelvic floor is the most common place most women store tension and stress, so for many women, the pelvic floor is extremely tight, while for others, it may not be strong enough or too loose, due to childbirth, etc. I always thought about it like the pelvic floor only impacted the vagina and surrounding muscles, but the pelvic floor is an extremely large area that affects the vagina, yes, but also bowel movements and the bladder. I’ve always had extremely tight hip flexors (like they hurt after even going on walks and there are very few ab exercises I can do that don’t immediately turn the hip flexors on), but I never thought that could be related to my gut symptoms. My physical therapist did a lot of internal work (again, TMI warning, but did you know that muscles in the vagina are directly connected to muscles that release/contract for bowel movements?), but mostly did external work around hips, inner thighs, glute muscles, etc. I also did a lot of work at home with a foam roller and stretching (I do it before bed every night and after workouts when I can), which made a huge difference in training my pelvic floor to relax.

Acupuncture

This one I just recently started so I will have to report back when I have more data for you, but the science behind acupuncture for digestive health (as well as a lot of other purposes!) is powerful AF. Acupuncture helps by balancing the gut-brain axis and the nervous system to reduce stress, which in turn improves digestive function. Also, my acupuncturist felt a lot of stagnant energy in my digestive tract (no derrrr), and acupuncture helps stimulate and bring blood flow/energy to parts of the body that need it. To me, this makes a lot of sense: I very much have a slow, stagnant digestion, and stimulating pressure points connected to this area can bring a more powerful flow (or agni, as they call it in Ayurveda). Will share the experience and if I notice any differences after a few more sessions!

Hormonal Health

Reason 1 million why having a holistic practitioner on your team–whether it’s a functional doctor or holistic health coach like moi–is crucial. The gut is intrinsically related to hormonal health. If your gastroenterologist or doctor is not asking about your periods or testing your hormones, they’re missing huge parts of the puzzle. For my experience, I actually was waiting to get off of birth control until I “healed my gut.” I went on birth control at age 16 for awful periods, and have (in recent years) pinpointed that those bad periods are actually most likely because of my gut issues because regular bowel movements is one of the most important ways the body gets rid of excess estrogen. If you’re not going regularly, you likely have estrogen dominance or a hormonal imbalance. So I thought I would figure out my gut to give my body a chance to get rid of estrogen so I don’t have bad periods coming off of birth control. This is totally fine plan, one that I worked out with a doctor a couple of years ago. But since then, I’ve learned that the gut and hormones are more related than getting rid of excess estrogen. The body is so smart, and the reproductive cycle (AKA four different hormonal phases) governs every function in the whole body. In the end, my intuition told me that my gut couldn’t totally heal until I went off birth control, so I decided to stop waiting and look at it a different way. For more information on the gut and your hormones, read WomanCode, and I will report back on symptom differences/findings once I’m off the Pill for long enough.

Celery Juice

OK this one was more of an accidental finding and I can’t explain why, but drinking celery juice on an empty stomach is truly doing the lord’s work for me. I’ve been juicing two stalks of celery with half of a whole lemon (peel, seeds, everything), and I feel tremendously different than days that I don’t juice. I more consistently go to the bathroom, and feel less bloating/pain throughout the day. Maybe it’s because celery juice is high in magnesium (which can help move things along) or maybe it’s an instant and deep hydration that really gets things going right away? Either way, it’s made a huge help. For extra assistance with constipation, you can also try adding some aloe vera juice which acts as binding to push waste through the digestive tract.

Supplements

Like any good wellness nerd, I have a huge arsenal of supplements I take on a regular basis, for a variety of reasons. I look at every vitamin or supplement I take as benefiting the entire body, but the ones I specifically take for gut health has been magnesium citrate at night and probiotics/prebiotics in the morning (exact ones I take are linked). I swear by Arrae Bloat pills after eating a meal that might bother me (I can finally eat pasta again without feeling bad pain!), and the latest addition is an Intestinal Formula from Dr. Schulze’s that has really changed the game for me–it’s not known as the Best Bowel Cleaner on the Planet for nothing. It has super powerful plant ingredients like aloe leaf, garlic, cayenne pepper, grape root, ginger, etc. and I only need to take one at night to be able to go every morning. I believe it’s also working to heal gut lining too, so its a long-term solution instead of just a short one.