Nutrition Therapy
Gut Brain Axis
Let’s talk about the biochemical signaling that takes place between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system
We Are What We Eat
At Tampa Bay Holistic Wellness, the infrastructure of your nutrition plan will revolve around you and your unique metabolism. Whether your health goal is to treat fatigue, weakness, chronic health problems, allergies, rebuilding after strenuous endurance or strength training, weight loss or gain, digestive complications or to mitigate the aging process: your nutrition plan will be customized to meet your body’s distinct needs. Everyone is physiologically different and a one-size-fits all approach simply doesn't work.
When you begin forging down the road of healing you must address your body and your unique metabolism. When this is done correctly you will experience sustained lasting energy, improved digestive function, improved mental clarity, the attainment of proper body weight and improved physical appearance. These are simply the recognizable results. The long lasting benefit is a disease free and energy efficient life. No matter how severe or minimal our health issues, we all have to eat. Food is the foundation of our health. Discovering our body’s unique metabolic & nutritional needs is the basis of a healthy immune system.
Let’s take it a step further. Your brain health is directly connected to your gut health. Do you have troubling concentrating? Are you experiencing uncontrollable and unexplainable mood swings? Most of us also have unhealthy guts due to the standard western American diet that is low in fiber and micronutrients. The gut microbiota influences the synthesis and secretion of neurotransmitters, which effects our neuroendocrine pathway. The gut-brain axis (GBA) consists of bidirectional communication between the central nervous system (brain) and the enteric nervous system (neurons that scale the mucosal epithelium of our entire GI Tract), linking emotional and cognitive centers of the brain with peripheral intestinal functions. Recent advances in research is proving the importance of gut microbiota in influencing our brains.
The Body IS Food, Water, Air and Light Energy
From food, water, air and light energy our body must derive 50+ essential factors to function in a healthy way. These essential factors our bodies cannot acquire from anywhere else. These include 21 minerals, 13 vitamins, 9 essential amino acids, and 2 essential fatty acids that are absolutely necessary for mind body functionality. Internal processing of food can remove these essential nutrients from our food and may also change nutrients into toxic substances. Both deficiencies of essential nutrients and toxicity in processed foods have been globally noted and documented.
The main cause of illness is malnutrition. You don’t need to look like you are starving to suffer from malnutrition. A deficiency of essential substances, nutrient imbalances and internal pollution (i.e. pollutants, heavy metals, drugs, metabolic waste products, toxins produced by yeast and toxins made in our body) almost always result in serious chronic illness, auto-immune disease and allergies.
All Disease Begins In The Gut
Hippocrates said this more than 2,000 years ago, but only now are we coming to understand just how right he was. Research over the past three decades has revealed that gut health is critical to overall health and that an unhealthy gut contributes to a wide range of diseases; including reduced brain development and unnecessary weight gain.
The human gut contains 10 times more bacteria than all the human cells in the entire body, with over 400 known diverse bacterial species. In fact, you could say that we’re more bacterial than we are human. Think about that one for a minute.
We’ve only recently begun to understand the extent of the gut flora’s role in human health and disease. Among other things, the gut flora promotes normal gastrointestinal function, provides protection from infection, regulates metabolism and comprises more than 75% of our immune system. An unregulated gut flora has been linked to diseases ranging from autism and depression to autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto’s, inflammatory bowel disease and type 1 diabetes.
Unfortunately, several features of the modern lifestyle directly contribute to unhealthy gut flora:
Antibiotics and other medications like birth control and NSAIDs
Diets high in refined carbohydrates, sugar and processed foods
Diets low in fermentable fibers
Dietary toxins that cause leaky gut
Chronic stress
Chronic infections
Alcohol Intake
Leaky gut and bad gut flora are common, because of the modern lifestyle and diet. If you have a leaky gut, you probably have bad gut flora and vice versa. And when your gut flora and gut barrier are impaired, you will be inflamed. Period.
This systemic inflammatory response then leads to the development of autoimmunity. And while leaky gut and bad gut flora may manifest as digestive trouble, in many people it does not. Instead it shows up as problems as diverse as heart failure, depression, brain fog, eczema/psoriasis and other skin conditions, metabolic problems like obesity and diabetes, allergies, asthma and other autoimmune diseases.
To adequately address these conditions, you must rebuild healthy gut flora and restore the integrity of your intestinal barrier. This is especially true if you have any kind of autoimmune disease or food allergies, whether you experience digestive issues or not.
13-Week Nutrition Therapy Program with MNT Test
$3,000 - paid in full cost
$3,850 - with 50% required up front and the remaining balance due after 30 days
This program is designed for anyone who needs a kick-start or has food intolerances. TBHW will work with you over a period of 3-Months to achieve your health related goals. This is the prefect program for anyone that needs guidance and assistance with realizing their wellness needs. Regardless of whether the goal is weight-loss, weight-gain, or pathological, partnering with a Food Scientist over a period of time can be both helpful & beneficial. A customized nutrition education program is designed upon receipt of patient's blood work.
This program includes:
Spectra Cell Laboratory Micro Nutrient Testing
Customized Micro Nutrient Program
Customized Macro Nutrient Program
Customized Meal Plans
Online Tracking Using Clinician Grade Software
In Person Bi-Weekly Evaluation and Weigh-In
How To Restore A Healthy Gut
The most obvious first step in maintaining a healthy gut is to avoid all of the things I’ve listed that directly contribute to unhealthy gut flora and that damage the intestinal barrier. But of course that’s not always possible, especially in the case of chronic stress and infections. Nor did we have any control over whether we were breast-fed as babies, were delivered through vaginal child birth, whether our fathers & mothers had healthy guts when they conceived us or whether our mothers had healthy guts when they gave birth to us.
If you’ve been exposed to some of these factors, there are still steps you can take to restore your gut flora and live a healthy life:
EAT A WHOLE FOOD DIET AND REMOVE PROCESSED FOODS
Avoid all Genetically Modified Food AND eat ORGANIC when possible
Remove all food toxins from your diet
Eat plenty of fermentable fibers (starches like sweet potato, yam, yucca, etc.)
Eat fermented foods like kefir, yogurt, sauerkraut, kim chi, etc., and/or take a high-quality, multi-species probiotic
Treat any intestinal pathogens (such as parasites) that may be present
Take steps to manage your stress
EXERCISE REGULARLY
26-Week Nutrition Therapy Program with MNT Test
$5,500 - paid in full cost
$6,350 - with 50% required up front and the remaining balance due after 30 days
This program is designed for anyone who will need to work with TBHW over an extended period of time. TBHW will work with you over a period of 6-Months to achieve health related goals. This is the prefect program for anyone that has chronic illness, diagnosed obesity, hyperlipidemia, and/or type-2 diabetes. Partnering with a Food Scientist over a period of time can be both helpful & beneficial. A customized nutrition education program is designed upon receipt of patient's blood work.
This program includes:
Spectra Cell Laboratory Micro Nutrient Testing
Customized Micro Nutrient Program
Customized Macro Nutrient Program
Customized Meal Plans
Online Tracking Using Clinician Grade Software
In Person Bi-Weekly Evaluation and Weigh-In
