Have you ever dived into one of the many gut healing diets out there, I’m talking head first, blazing a trail, only to scratch your head a few weeks later wondering why it didn’t work for you?
Or have you found a diet that works for many of your gut struggles, but there’s still lingering symptoms that never seem to clear up?
Or maybe you’re in the middle of a flare up right now.
It’s raging, but you’re so overwhelmed you don’t know where to start. It might feel right now like the world is caving in, but actually this is the best place to be– with all your options laying at your feet.
You just need some help getting clear on what those options are, and most importantly, where to start first.
If any of these scenario’s sound like you, dear one, you’re going to love this episode.
We’re talking about:
Hands down, your first go-to step when a flare-up is coming on
Why your seeing undigested food in the toilet
Your best bet to bring your bacterial imbalance, back into balance
The gentle detoxifier that helps you release toxins and bacterial build up in the body (no cleanse necessary)
And so much more!
After this episode, you’ll have the tips you need to finally take confident steps on your gut healing journey. That nasty flare-up is going down.
Episode at a Glance:
[05:59] The most important part of any gut healing diet that’s missing
[09:58] Hands down, your first go-to step when a flare-up is coming on
[15:22] Why your seeing undigested food in the toilet
[19:37] Herbal teas that help your worst digestive symptoms (bloating, gas, abdominal pain, anxiety, restlessness, irritability, insomnia…)
[22:56] Your best bet to bring your bacterial imbalance, back into balance
[26:55] Are you sure you can’t eat eggs? Try these two things before you ditch this nutrient packed gut healer
[30:10] The gentle detoxifier that helps you release toxins and bacterial build up in the body (no cleanse necessary)
[35:56] The repair the flare tip you never saw coming (but you’re going to make a priority after you hear this)
[42:03] Repair the flare “do it like a mom” tips for success
[45:39] The best way to take yourIBD healing journey to the next level.
Have you ever dived into one of the many gut healing diets out there, I’m talking head first, blazing a trail, only to scratch your head a few weeks later wondering why it didn’t work for you?
Or have you found a diet that works for many of your gut struggles, but there’s still lingering symptoms that never seem to clear up?
Or maybe you’re in the middle of a flare up right now. It’s raging, but you’re so overwhelmed you don’t know where to start. It might feel right now like the world is caving in, but actually this is the best place to be– with all your options laying at your feet. You just need some help getting clear on what those options are, and most importantly, where to start first.
If any of these scenario’s sound like you, dear one, you’re going to love this episode. If you can relate, this one’s for you.
[Music]
INTRO: You are listening to The Cheeky Podcast for Moms with IBD, a safe space for moms with Crohn’s and colitis, connect, explore powerful tools for healing and transform our lives to thrive in motherhood and in life. I’m your host, Karyn Haley, IBD health coach, integrative wellness enthusiast, and mom to three outstanding kids. After having Crohn’s disease for 30 years and working as a health advocate exclusively with IBD clients for the last 10 years, I know it’s time to bring the types of candid conversations I have with my clients out into the open. It’s our time to go on an IBD healing journey and do it like only a mom can. Let’s do this.
[music]
[01:54] Hello my love, how are you feeling today? Is it another day in IBD paradise or are there some things you’re still working on? Let’s just take a deep breath together and set an intention that you will leave today’s episode with at least one nugget of wisdom you can take with you on your IBD healing journey. Now, just let it go. Whatever you need to hear today to help you through, it’s in your heart, it’s out there in the ethers, ready to take shape.
Today we’re talking about the #1 reason you haven’t busted that flare up and what to do instead.
We have to start this episode with a truth bomb. One that’s gonna give you an Amen, sister friend kind of feeling. And it goes like this: Even though you’ve most likely not heard from your doctor that the food you eat, along with the state of your mental and overall physical health will impact your IBD, you already know this to be true.
You know it in your heart. Am I right?
You probably wouldn’t be listening to this podcast if you didn’t have the urge to seek out something more… some other way to heal besides reaching for a pill or an infusion.
And even if you do take medications or infusions, you know that you’ll need less medicine or be able to come off your medication sooner if you make healthy choices when it comes to your gut.
FROM 6-MP TO SCD
That’s how it happened for me. I was moving along on 6-MP (it’s an immuosuppressive), and after 20 years of gut struggles that tore me apart, I was finally eating a diet that was controlling my symptoms and I finally said to myself, I don’t think I need this medication anymore. And you might be just at the start of a similar journey. You might have heard about this diet or that diet… And you may have heard that outside the world of Crohn’s and colitis, healthy people eat kale and sprouts and quinoa… berries and raw veggies.
And so many of us go for it. We think that if we just follow the foods listed as legal on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, or the Macrobiotic diet, or Paleo, or Whole 30, or if we eat 10 fruits and veggies a day, our abdominal pain will disappear, our diarrhea and bloody stools will clear up and we’ll begin to heal.
And listen, I know all of these kinds of options aren’t easy. The shear willpower it takes to stay on diets like these is beyond intense. When we put in extraordinary effort and we embrace eating extreme diets, we want the payoff to be worth it.
WHERE’S THE PAYOFF?
We’re working our butts off. We deserve the payoff to be worth it.
But the problem is, these diets don’t take into account the most important part of healing—the repair phase. And I’m not talking about the long-term repair we do over time as we begin to heal our gut. I’m taking about the pre-repair work that needs to take place before ANY healing can begin.
Over the years in my coaching practice, I kept seeing clients who came to me saying, “I tried Paleo or I tried the SCD and it didn’t work. I tried supplements, herbal remedies, elixirs, but they didn’t work.”
This really got me thinking. These kinds of gut supporting remedies should work. How come, in many cases, they aren’t.
What I found 99.9% of time is that instead of spending quality time in the repair phase—this almost pre-digestive healing phase, most people jumped right into their new healing regime. And especially when mamas with Crohn’s or colitis jumped right into an eating plan or a healing regime without proper time spent in repairing the flare first, they just weren’t successful in creating long-lasting healing—the kind that sustains remission.
THE PROBLEM WITH JUMPING OFF THE LEDGE
It’s like starting to exercise without warming up—it puts you at greater risk for injury. Your whole digestive system works in much the same way. We’ve been exercising our digestive system without warming it up for so long. Now, we have to set up a strong foundation before we can move on to lasting healing.
That, what I affectionately like to call the “repair the flare” foundational step is about setting your digestive system up with the proper tools to address the irritation in the digestive track, the inflammation that’s raging throughout the body. Starting to wake up the intestinal villi that have been lying flat and dormant for so long.
Once we take the necessary steps to ignite our body’s innate repair system, there’s no stopping us. But failing to at least light the pilot light in our digestive system, ends up in half results, repeated stops and starts, and this feeling that full remission is just not possible for you.
7 REPAIR THE FLARE TIPS TO HELP YOUR IBD
Let’s end this problem today—these failed attempts and starts and stops, half attempts– Because today, I’m sharing with you 7 repair the flare tips to ensure that when your IBD is raging, you know exactly what to do first, as soon as possible if you can, because the sooner you set these tips in motion when a flare starts, the better you’ll feel and the quicker you’ll start to calm your symptoms down and find remission.
We’ll start by going over the 7 tips. Then with all this information in hand, I’ll tell you how you can get started on them and do it like a mom, with no overwhelm or confusion involved.
Let’s get started.
TIP #1 GRANDMA WAS RIGHT!
[09:58] So tip #1, the best advice I’ll ever give you, is to get started with a high quality bone broth or meat stock right away—like the moment you realize this is a flare. It’s coming on, I know somethings not quite right. Just like with a cold how it’s best if we can get it with the first sniffle, bone broth works much the same way. The sooner you get on it the better.
Now maybe your mom or your grandmother, or great-grandmother made homemade stock before. Growing up Italian, my grandmother always had homemade chicken soup on hand. And it was delish. Little did I know it was also so healing for the gut at the time. Homemade stock, made with chicken or beef bones is full of nutrient rich collagen and gelatin. These two compounds are mother nature’s miracles for our digestive health.
If you don’t do any other tips you hear today, this is the one to do. The results can be huge. The gelatin (and yes, if you’re thinking jello gelatin, you’re on the right track—only less processed and less sugars and dyes—pure gelatin) in the meat stock comes from the skin, the bone marrow, and the tendons of the animal. The gelatin we get from our homemade stock sets the mucosal lining of the gut up for healing success by repairing the lining of the digestive system. Goodbye leaky gut, hello strong intestinal barrier that can now absorb and digest the nutrients we eat. We’re not going to get gut healing results from a chicken breast or a filet mignon. We need the gelatin rich joints and bones of the animal.
That gelatin in the broth also helps balance our stomach acid and digestive enzymes so we have less bloat, less gas, less acid reflux… talk about setting yourself up for repair the flare success!
The collagen in our homemade stock helps us lower inflammation levels, not just in our gut but throughout our whole body. So it’s working on IBD joint inflammation. It also works at lowering pain levels and easing muscle aches. And like gelatin, collagen helps improve leaky gut.
Winner, winner chicken dinner!
With stock and broth, I would try to get in as many cups a day as you can. 1 at a minimum to 5 cups a day, depending on the severity of your flare. Start with just a ½ a cup and ease into more each day. And I know there are some really great local restaurants and shops that sell homemade stock. I have a client in Argentina who gets her stock right around the corner from her house. I’ve had great homemade stock from Springbone Kitchen in NYC. So I know there are some high quality options you can buy. For the most part though, I prefer homemade where you control the ingredients and you know all about the cook time. Don’t be fooled by your regular grocery store “bone broth” options that come in a box or a can. They don’t have the gelatin we need for gut healing.
TIP #2: SAY GOODBYE TO KALE SALAD
[14:44] Let’s talk about tip #2: Skip health food.
Most people believe that “we are what we eat” but IBDer’s are not what they eat. We are what our body can digest and absorb. And in a flare, digesting and absorbing your food is tricky. Do you go to the bathroom and see undigested food in the toilet? This is a sign you’re not digesting and absorbing your food properly.
It’s time to back it up with everything you eat. I want you to eat nutrient packed vitamin and mineral rich fruits and veggies. But your body just can’t tolerate and assimilate these foods in their natural state right now. That doesn’t mean you can’t have strawberries, blueberries, carrots, green beans, spinach, and kale.
You can, you just can’t prepare them the way most people eat them.
Put those fibrous foods in a form YOU can digest.
Blend your fruit in a smoothie. Make a blueberry compote to drizzle on your favorite foods. If compote sounds like a fancy food, it’s not. It’s actually so ridiculously easy to make. Making your berries and other fruit in this way is all the gut healing nutrients without the trouble of the food not being able to make its way through your digestive system. Now, when it comes to fruit, I’m not saying eat fruit all day long because too much fruit is definitely a case of getting too much of a good thing. But a couple servings of berries in a digestible form every day, that is the way to repair the flare.
Veggies can be puréed too. My favorite way to get all my vegetables in when I’m in a flare is by putting them in a soup. I make a soup that I call my 15-vegetable soup. It’s basically the meat stock we just talked about with every vegetable I can find in my house mixed in. When the soup is cooked, I pop it in a blender and voilà, super healthy, delicious, nutrient packed soup that’s also repairing my gut at the same time.
When you’re in a flare, eat healthy, don’t go for the nutrition less mac & cheese and potatoes. Keep it healthy, but just eat it in a form that your body can use to help you heal.
Real quick before we leave tip number two behind, I want to mention episode 24 of the podcast. Back in episode 24, I talked all about the power of using soup to heal your gut. When you’re in a flare, there’s just nothing better. Go back and listen to that episode and you’ll get some great tips for how you can use nutrient dense, healing soup to begin the digestive repair process and bust that flare.
TIP #3: YOU AND THE QUEEN HAVE A LOT IN COMMON
[18:43] Moving along to tip #3: Start sipping tea, herbal tea that is.
Tea, hot or cold, and I should say the right high-quality tea, is amazingly beneficial for your digestive health. Herbal teas, which are not actually teas at all but more like dried fruits, dried flowers, and dried herbs, are a wonderful jumpstart to your healing the flare process.
There are so many herbal teas that are wonderful digestive helpers for things like bloating, gas, abdominal pain after eating, nausea, anxiety and restlessness… there are even herbal blends that work on multiple gut challenges at the same time. But when you’re in flare mode and everything seems to bother you, I prefer single herb teas. Peppermint for heartburn, bloating, gas as well as just being great as a digestive system relaxer after a meal. Ginger tea for when nausea strikes. Chamomile tea to help you relax before bedtime. Sticking to single herb blends in the beginning will help you know which teas work best for you and which ones are best for you to stay away from.
Once you have built a repair the flare foundation, it’s OK to move onto herbal tea combinations. One of my favorites is a tea called throat coat. Some people think it’s just for sore throats, but it’s full of digestive healing compounds like slippery elm, and licorice root, and marshmallow root. Some people do really well with throat coat in early stages, but I don’t think it’s worth risking it. Keep the throat coat tea for after you’ve set a foundation for your digestive healing and are now in full on healing mode.
Warm foods and liquids work for me year-round, but everyone is different. When it comes to tea, let the season be your guide. If the weather is warm, go for it with iced herbal tea. During the cooler months there’s nothing like a warm mug of hot tea to soothe everything that ails you.
TIP #4: FERMENT IT, BABY!
[21:20] It’s time for tip #4 to help you repair that flare: homemade fermented 24-hour yogurt
I’m not talking about the yogurt you buy at the grocery store. This is the yogurt that’s been made at home with ingredients you know and trust and it takes 24 hours to ferment.
Now this is a tip that’s going to need a little disclaimer, because I don’t recommend yogurt for everyone, whether that yogurt is dairy or non-dairy.
Especially when our Crohn’s or colitis is in a flare, one of the main factors is gut dysbiosis. We have an imbalance of the bacteria in our microbiome. This imbalance leads to bloating, gas, abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, arthritis, headaches, sensitivities to foods, brain fog, poor concentration, irritability, moodiness, memory challenges, skin rashes… gut imbalance is a very powerful factor in keeping our IBD humming—and not in a good way. Crohn’s and colitis thrives on a disrupted bacterial system.
One of the ways to bring in this bacterial imbalance back into balance is with yogurt.Homemade, 24-hour fermented yogurt is full of probiotics that have the power to bring balance to our digestive system. I’ve seen people’s whole lives turn around on a couple cups of yogurt a day. Some people thrive on it.
But when the bacterial imbalance is so severe, the addition of yogurt can be challenging to say the least. Whether that yogurt contains dairy or is dairy free—like coconut milk yogurt for example. I love recommending yogurt as an option to help really repair that gut lining initially, but I want to let you know that there is a caveat here. When you’re adding in yogurt, please do not add in heaps and heaps all at once. If that gut dysbiosis in your body is strong, it will set off a chain reaction call the herxhiemer reaction, or you may have heard it called die off. This is the release of all of the bacteria and toxins that are stored up in your body over time. Die off can make you feel worse than your flareup. Have you ever experienced this before? You tried to introduce yogurt and it made you feel worse. This is likely because of this die off reaction.
Bottom line here is that homemade 24-hour fermented yogurt can be great, but go very, very slow. I have had clients that need to start with a half a teaspoon a day, or even just dipping their tongue into the yogurt at first. For some people yogurt works fantastic, and for others, it’s just more of a headache than it’s worth. Give it a try and see how it works for you.
I’ve got three more tips to share on this episode and then I’m gonna tell you how you can get four more of my repair the flare tips to check out after the episode.
TIP #5: GOT CHICKENS?
[25:30] Tip # 5 is: Eggs, and mainly the yolk or the yellow part of the egg.
This is another tip with a caveat. Like yogurt, eggs are fantastic during the repair the flare stage, but eggs are not for everyone.
Egg yolks are a powerhouse of a healer.
They are probably the easiest food to digest on the planet and the amount of digestive healing nutrients found in an egg yolk is insane. Yolks are full of protein so you’re getting large amounts of health building amino acids and vitamins with every egg yolk. B vitamins like B1, B2, B6, B12—B is an essential vitamin for digestive healing. Egg yolks are also high in vitamin A and D as well as biotin. Eggs are full of fatty acids, choline, zinc, and magnesium.
Eggs offer a powerhouse of healing potential, and they set the gut up for further healing and remission down the line. But as we know, some people are sensitive to eggs. If this is you I want to mention two things that are specifically for you with an egg sensitivity, not an egg allergy.
The first thing is that many people who are sensitive to eggs are actually sensitive to the egg white, not the yolk. The part of the egg I’m talking about in your repair the flare phase is the egg yolk. This is where the nutrients that you need are found. So it might be worth trying just the egg yolk to see how you do. The other thing I want to mention, and I’ve seen this happen over and over with several of my clients who are sensitive to chicken eggs. They are not sensitive to other eggs like duck eggs for example. So again, even if you’re sensitive to chicken eggs it can be worth trying eggs from a different animal to see how you react.
If you know you tolerate eggs and maybe even thrive on them, you definitely want them to be a part of your repair the flare phase. Free range organic eggs, the ones you can find from a farmer you trust are best. And having your own chickens who graze on grubs, even better! And when it comes to the gut healing health benefits of eggs, the more raw you eat the egg, the better.
If you’re very trusting of your egg source, you can blend the raw egg into a smoothie, make a gut friendly homemade ice cream with raw eggs, add them to homemade mayo. The way I love to have them and the way I recommend my clients have them is to stir them into a steaming bowl or cup of your bone broth. This cooks the egg a little bit, especially for those of us who are squeamish, like me, about raw eggs. Once the egg is stirred into your broth, you won’t even know it’s there. Like an egg drop soup, it will just add a richness to the taste and flavor of your bone broth. And of course, it’s adding a mega layer of repair the flare healing.
TIP #6: A SALTY DETOX
[30:10] How are you doing mama? Are you ready to bring these tips home. Let’s move on to our second last repair the flare tip. Tip #6 is all about detoxifying our body naturally. Getting rid of the toxins that build up and keep our flare in an active state. And I’m not a fan of most detoxes where do you fast or participate in a cleanse. Most of these are really irritating to the digestive system. But what I do love is a way to gently detox bacteria and toxins we’ve built up in our body with Epsom salt baths.
Throughout all of these tips we’ve been working our way through the systems of the body. Immune function, inflammation, bacterial balance… to repair the flare and set us up for long lasting remission, we must also focus on our detoxification pathways.
Epsom salt, or magnesium sulfide, those large salt looking crystals that are sold in pharmacy’s, grocery stores, and online have a myriad of health benefits from boosting our magnesium levels (something many of us are deficient in) and reducing stress, but when it comes to the repair the flare phase of your intestinal healing, I love Epsom salt for its ability to flush away toxins and reduce pain and inflammation.
I mentioned that Epsom salt is part magnesium and part sulfate. The sulfates in the Epsom salt help the body to release toxins through a process called reverse osmosis. Have you ever heard of water filtered with a reverse osmosis process to purify it? This is the same type of process. The Epsom salt literally pulls the toxins out of your body.
In the world of Crohn’s and colitis, the toxin releasing effect may help us release bacterial overgrowth and ease bloating, while the anti-inflammatory effect can ease abdominal pain, also joint pain, help to reduce painful hemorrhoids, and even lower our C-reactive protein levels. One study even found a link between low magnesium levels and high c-reactive protein levels (one of the inflammation markers our doctors are always checking in our bloodwork). So this study showed that Epsom salt can help to increase magnesium levels in our body, which in turn has the power to lower our CRP.
Like with everything I recommend, always start small with Epsom salt. Too much can led to dehydration and diarrhea. We definitely don’t want that so small amounts is best. ¼ cup in a full bath is a good starting place. If you can work your way up to 1-2 cups per bath and soak for about 20 minutes, you’ll get all the detox benefits you need.
Epsom salt is also great as a foot soak. We release toxins though our feet too so try it as a foot bath as well.
We’ve made it to our last tip of the day. Tip #7. Remember, there’s 4 more tips coming your way after the show. If you want the rest of my Repair the Flare tips, all you have to do is go to karynhaley.com/actionplan. That’s karynhaley.com/actionplan
All the tips we talked about today, plus 4 other important repair the flare tips are talked about in more detail in My IBD Action Plan. If you want more helpful IBD tips, you’ll get them there.
TIP #7: THE BEST MEDICINE ISN’T MEDICINE AT ALL
[35:35] So what’s tip #7? Tip #7 is a mental health tip. We know the food we eat (or don’t eat is important). Finding ways to reduce our inflammation, boost our immune system, balance our bacterial load, and flush our toxins… all important. But if we don’t take care of our mental well-being, we don’t stand a chance at achieving remission.
There’s never a more important time to take care of yourself than when you’re in a flare. It’s time to let go of everything you can. Get support from your family, your friends, your neighbors, your partner… leave the dishes, the vacuuming, the laundry…
There’s many mental health wellness tips I could impart you with today—selfcare and prayer, meditation, talking to a girlfriend.. these are all important, but the one I want to drive home for our top repair the flare mental health tip is to find space in your life to smile and laugh, even in your darkest moments.
There’s a reason why we all know the saying laughter is the best medicine. It’s because it is. I could go all into the endorphin release laughing creates, I could talk to you about the positive physiological changes laughter creates, I could mention the research studies that show how laughter boosts our immune system, lowers stress hormones, and decreases pain… but I’m not going to do that because I’d rather show you what laughter can do… with a joke.
This is one of my mom (who passed away earlier this year), this was one of her favorites. It’s a courtroom joke. A supposedly real conversation between an attorney and a witness. It’s the kind of joke you could hear 100 times and it would be funny every time you hear it. Here goes–
ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing? WITNESS: No.. ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor? WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar. ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless? WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.
Ba dum bum… could that be a real courtroom conversation? Somehow I doubt it, but it’s funny. It always cracked my mom up and I can’t help but laugh when I hear it. Watching you tube videos, funny movies, tickling your kiddos—or even just watching kids playing together is funny.
Laughter is the best medicine.
Laughter, tip #7.
LET’S DO A QUICK RECAP
[39:49] Let’s do a quick recap of our repair the flare tips.
Tip #1- Homemade bone broth, remember to get the healing collagen and gelatin benefits, homemade is the way to go.
Tip #2- Skip the health food, eat food in a way that’s easy to digest and absorb. Purred, blended, in a soup… make all your food easy for you to use its nutrients to heal.
Tip #3-Herbal tea, hot or cold… peppermint, ginger, chamomile… they all have gut healing benefits.
Tip #4- Homemade fermented 24-hour yogurt- just can’t be beat for its bacterial balancing benefits
Tip #5- Eggs- full of vitamins and minerals, high quality eggs are a must, especially the yoke and as raw as you tolerate—in a hot broth is ideal.
Tip #6- Epsom salt in a bath, in a foot soak, even to soak your bum when hemorrhoids are bothering you, Epsom salt gently detoxifies and reduces inflammation in your body.
Tip #7- Laughter, the best medicine. Laugh often, laugh with your kids, laugh with your friends, find something to laugh at every day.
So how can you use these tips without getting overwhelmed or stressed?
Well, first of all you’ll want to get started well before the flare gets out of control. These tips work best when you feel a flare coming on. Remember, the quicker you get started the better. If all of these are new for you, there’s no need for overwhelm and trying to do all 7. Pick anywhere from 2 or 4 to get you started. You don’t need all of them, just some key tips will get you started. And pick the low hanging fruit and run with those first. Do you already have a whole chicken in your freezer at home? Start with the bone broth. Is Epsom salt in your bathroom cabinet? Go for it with an Epsom salt bath tonight. Get started with what you can and the rest will fall into place when you are ready.
IT’S TIME TO “DO IT LIKE A MOM”
And when your mama, everything is easier when you can get the kids involved. Make eggs for breakfast for everyone in the morning. If you’ve got olders—let them make the eggs! Plan an activity or a movie where the whole family will sit around and laugh. Trying to find a way to eat nutrient dense fruits and veggies in a way you can tolerate them? Smoothies for all! Yes, you can put veggies into your smoothie—spinach and kale blend great and they don’t change the flavor of the smoothie.
Are you ready to add a couple of these tips into your life? You can do it. And I’m by your side if you need help. DM me on Facebook and we’ll chat about how these tips can fit into your life. @TheIBDHealthCoach
OK mom friend, remember, you can get 4 more repair the flare tips and my IBD Action Plan by going to karynhaley.com/actionplan
So there you have it. 7 of my best tips when it’s time for serious gut repair healing. Stop diving in with the diet, the supplements, or whatever else, before you set the stage for gut healing. You’ll be so happy that you took this time to ensure your IBD remission success.
Until we meet again, I’m wishing you a cheeky and healthy IBD healing journey. Chat soon!
Thank you so much for joining me today and for listening to today’s episode. When it comes to IBD, I know there’s a lot of resources out there, and I’m truly honored that you chose the Cheeky Podcast to get your IBD information today. If you found this information helpful, please give us a rating and review. It helps other moms find the podcast and see what we’re doing over here to help IBD moms everywhere. And if you feel called feel a call to do it, share this podcast with an IBD mom who you know could really use an uplifting message today, ’cause that’s what we’re all about over here at the Cheeky Podcast.
[45:39] One last thing, if you’re still with me, and if you are, you’re definitely my kind of gal. We have to get to know each other better. If you’re tired of living on the hamster wheel of IBD with all the ups and downs between flares and remission, if you’re struggling to get control of your abdominal pain, gas, bloating, diarrhea and other troubling IBD symptoms, go to my website. It’s karynhaley.com, and my mom had to be just a little bit different, she spelled my name with the Y. So it’s K-A-R-Y-N H-A-L-E-Y.com and schedule your very own free 30-minute IBD root cause trouble-shooting session with me where we discuss the challenges you’ve been having, we set goals to help you move forward, and we talk about how we can work together to help you get your life back. It’s a power packed 30 minutes. You don’t have to live in IBD status quo. There’s so much that can be done to transform your life so you can thrive in motherhood and thrive with IBD. I’ve seen my clients walk this path and it gives me so much joy to take that journey with them.
My entire coaching practice is run online, so you never have to leave your house and you never have to get out of your jammy or yoga pants for us to work together. You know I’m wearing them to. If you’re ready to take your first amazing step towards healing, I’m ready to chat with you. Schedule your free 30-minute IBD root cause trouble shooting sesh today at karynhaley.com. Click on the work with me tab and I’ll see you soon. It’s important to note that the information in this podcast and in this episode is for general information purposes only and not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The statements made in the Cheeky Podcast for moms with IBD, either by me or my guests, is not intended to diagnose, treat, to cure, or prevent any disease. Before implementing any new treatment protocols, do yourself a favor and consult your physician first.
Thank you so much for listening, for being here, for saving this space for us to spend some time together. Until we chat again, I’m wishing you a cheeky and healthy IBD journey.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This podcast, video, and blog post is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Leave a Comment:
6 comments
Nel says
August 24, 2021
Thank you Karyn for all your precious informations,it helps so much understanding our disease and navigating a flare
Great information! I’ve stressed out about this diet so much because I never felt it was doable since I have UC and IBS (pretty sure sibo) and I can’t tolerate much of the foods. I currently can’t do all the nut flours which SCD is famous for with all the almond flour as you mentioned. I also have trouble with fodmap foods and dairy making the diet even more challenging. Karyn, I want to know how you healed your sibo, as I’m pretty sure I’m dealing with this? I also found out I have candida overgrowth from doing an oat test. I think the diet will be more doable for me once I can eat more foods!
Hi Talia, I’m sorry to hear you are dealing with this. I know from personal experience that it can be so overwhelming. I also hear in what you are saying that you want to use food to help your symptoms, but right now that’s really challenging because you react to so many foods. When I had SIBO, I had very similar symptoms- everything I ate (even if it was supposedly healthy) didn’t work. If you know about conditions like candida and SIBO and also are familiar with fodmaps and SCD, I’m sure you’ve heard of SIBO testing. That’s probably the best place to start. Knowing what your root causes are, can really help you pinpoint what direction to go in. For me, calming my SIBO down was a 4 factor approach. I did a course of (1) rifaxamin followed by (2) herbals, (3) diet was a huge piece, and then (4) reducing stress. SIBO is so tricky and loves to peek out again and again so it’s a constant balancing act for me. Sending you healing vibes. I hope you get to your culprit(s) soon. Never give up hope. Your beliefs and strength that you will get better will keep you going during this tough time. Much love 💜
Hi- yes, I’ve been really struggling. I did the sibo breath test and it came back positive. My naturopath put me on an herbal protocol which flared my UC. So I stopped the herbals and now still feel terrible trying to get my system back on track. I may have to try Rifaxamin. I’m at my wits end. What diet did you follow while treating sibo? Were you able to find your root cause? Thank you for your kind words ❤
That can be very common Talia. The herbals are just too much to start when you have a really sensitive gut. I like to start with diet first before moving to herbals. Once the belly begins to settle down, herbals can then be effective. I was already on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet when I got SIBO so I was able to stay on that with some small modifications. Another diet I really like for SIBO is the Bi-phasic diet from Dr. Nirala Jacobi. Have you heard about that one? Healing SIBO is never easy and it’s never about doing just done thing. Most people go through a series of diet changes, herbals, probiotics, and some do rifaxamin as well. Testing every so often is also important to see how your protocol is going. My SIBO was caused from back to back gut challenges– food poisoning and then a nasty flu. There was so much gut dysbiosis after those experiences. Everyone is different though. Please keep at it and don’t give up. You can get a handle on it! Mindset and reducing stress are HUGE as well 💜
