it was like electroshock therapy…One night, about 10 years ago, I kept waking up just as I was about to fall asleep. This kept happening. I was annoyed, so I started to pay attention to what was going on. At this point, I had mostly healed my gut, but was still working on some leftover/occasional symptoms. On this night, I had no pain in my gut, but I could feel distention and a kind of trapped air feeling. By this time, I had already been practicing listening to my body’s symptoms, so I tuned in. I began to feel a weird sensation of distress coming from my gut each time I felt it, a little prick of anxiety would happen in my mind.
Gut signal, anxiety, gut signal, anxiety. It was like electroshock therapy.
Like the lab experimenter that I am, I got up and did a coffee enema. An hour later, I was back in bed. I felt calm. Happy as a clam. My gut felt fantastic. I feel asleep. No more feelings from gut to brain, no more anxiety. This was my way of checking in to see what happened if the trapped gas was relieved.
On this night, I got another indication that the gut can absolutely impact our moods and ability to sleep! I slept like a baby that night.
SIBO?
At this point in my recovery journey, I had been diagnosed with SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth). I had already dealt with candida and IBS years ago…I didn’t eat sugar, wheat or dairy. My diet was healthy and specifically focused on gut motility. What is up with that?
Long story short, while I had the symptoms of SIBO, it was not actually SIBO. I will tell the story of SIBO in another post. The main point I wanted to make in this post is that candida, IBS, gas/distention/bloating, constant cravings, hypoglycemia, fatigue, depression/mood issues — all of these symptoms can be tagged to just about any digestive diagnosis: candida, IBS, malabsorption, food allergies/sensitivities, parasites, constipation, even gallbladder issues, etc.
I had been diagnosed with all of these things…none of them felt much different than the rest. Each time I got a diagnosis, I did the protocol (all natural, diet) and then I’d get another diagnosis once that one was taken care of.
I Tried Everything
I tried every healthy diet and was super strict. All of them helped a little. For me personally, more than diet, finding out and balancing my mineral status was the most helpful of all when it came to healing my gut. Many of you have heard me talk about Anderson’s Concentrated Mineral Drops (also called Anderson’s Sea MD). This is a wide base of sea minerals and it’s one of my favorite mineral supplements. ConcenTrace is another respected brand.
If you look up symptoms of magnesium deficiency, zinc deficiency, copper imbalance, iodine and potassium deficiency, you can see a lot of the symptoms we find in digestive issues today. Minerals are the ambassadors of the cells…they let things in and out. They feed the adrenals (anyone with adrenal fatigue?) and help produce energy. They are at the heart of whether we have the right amount of stomach acid to digest our food.
For those of you who are energetically sensitive, they anchor your energy. Calm the nervous system. Aid in sleep.
I found out that I had magnesium, zinc, copper and potassium deficiency. When I focused on these, it was like getting a new lease on life.
How Does Mineral Deficiency Happen?
- You can be born with deficiencies (we get our mineral status from our mothers and actually, a baby’s health can be directly traced to the health of her grandmother…so the baseline is passed down further than we think).
- STRESS KILLS MINERALS!!! All those reports saying that 80% of doctors visits were due to stress are correct. The real health problem is STRESS!!!! This is where changing our thoughts really helps…affirmations/mirror work, tapping, energy work, meditation.
- Poor diet or lifestyle choices (e.g., cigarette smoking, etc.)
Bottom Line – If Nothing Else is Working, Check Your Minerals
If you have a chronic digestive issue or health condition that is not resolving despite dedication to a healthy diet and doing your best lifestyle-wise, you may want to look at your mineral status.
Learn more about checking your mineral status, and how to get tested
This article focuses on magnesium, but it’s helpful to many because an estimated 80% of people have magnesium deficiency and I like to think of magnesium as the “gateway mineral.” It’s kind of the gentle king that leads the rest of the minerals back where they belong. The link I provided in the article about testing is good for testing all minerals.
Some people start taking a mineral supplement before testing. I did. I just want to mention that if you decide to do this, make sure you are taking a wide base of sea minerals and not just one mineral at a time until you know your status.
Recipe for Mineral & Adrenal Support Energy Drink
This can be a great, easy at-home remedy to boost minerals.
If you experience adrenal fatigue, here’s a little energizer for your adrenals and to give you some minerals:
- In 8 oz. of water, add 1/4 teaspoon Himalayan salt or real sea salt (do NOT use table salt! I like Celtic Grey Sea Salt).
- Add in 2 – 4 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice.
- For adrenal fatigue, add either: 1 ounce organic unsulphured blackstrap molasses (like Plantation brand) or 1 tablespoon organic tart cherry juice concentrate (these are good sources of potassium) – each of these add additional minerals and potassium and are optional.
- Mix this up and consume one or two of these drinks per day.
This article started from a conversation we had on Facebook!
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