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Ever since Mary and I decided to write The 28-Day Immunity Plan we have learned so much more about how important our gut health is to our general health and wellbeing.
I have changed my own diet in a few simple ways such as only eating live yogurt as a matter of course, consciously eating more vegetables, and making sure our weekly menu includes a selection of dishes that include a good serving of vegetables in some form or another every day with either lunch or dinner. And I have felt significantly healthier as a result.
Looking after our gut is vitally important as, if we have a healthy gut, the rest of our system of digestion and elimination benefits. We are fortunate that in the UK the NHS is now proactive in offering bowel cancer testing to try and track any abnormalities early, before anything serious takes hold. Accordingly, we should welcome any invitation to undergo a bowel cancer screening test whenever we are asked. It could save our life.
I know we all get a bit embarrassed when we talk about certain bits of our body but every part of our anatomy plays a vital role. Admittedly, some are more critical than others, but our kidneys, liver, bladder and bowel are absolutely vital to our general health. In order for these organs to be protected, we must take responsibility for eating and drinking healthily and exercising regularly – yes, physical activity helps our bowel to work efficiently as Mary will explain later. It is even more important as we age when issues can unfortunately arise more frequently and very unexpectedly.
If you are called back after doing your bowel screening test, don’t be alarmed. The percentage of tests that prove to be negative is very high but for the small minority that prove positive, action can be taken immediately and lives can often be saved as a result. I was invited to have a colonoscopy a while back, where a camera is inserted into one’s bowel and the inside of your entire bowel is carefully viewed. Now, I’m not pretending this is a pleasant procedure because it isn’t. But it doesn’t hurt and it was worth putting up with the embarrassment for the benefit of my own welfare. For me, in fact, the worst bit was the preparation beforehand when I had to drink lots of special fluid over a designated period of time in order to completely clear out my waste elimination system so the camera had a clean passage to view! Thankfully, I was given the all-clear but it did make me focus even more on eating a high-fibre, super healthy diet!
The overriding advice for a healthy gut and elimination system has to be:
- Eat healthy foods high in fibre, including lots of vegetables
- Drink plenty of fluids and stay hydrated
- Avoid too much alcohol
- Lose excess weight
- Exercise regularly
If you can do this, you are well on your way to looking after this crucial part of your body.
A while back I recorded some short videos where I talk about Embarrassing Medical Issues which can affect us at any age but particularly as we grow older. I describe some of the help and advice I have been given for a variety of issues including UTIs, haemorrhoids and bowel screening.
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DON'T PANIC! Most people with these symptoms do not have bowel cancer. Other health problems can cause similar symptoms. For example blood in the poo when associated with pain or soreness is more often caused by piles (haemorrhoids), a change in bowel habit or abdominal pain is usually caused by something you've eaten, and a change in bowel habit to going less often, with harder poo, is not usually caused by any serious condition – it may be worth trying laxatives before seeing a GP.
