What do anxiety, allergies and acne have in common?

When someone comes into Indigo with any of these issues, we always end up talking about gut health. We'll ask in-depth questions from “top to bottom" of their whole digestive tract like:

• do you experience reflux?

• Itchiness or turn red after a glass of wine?

• Any pain or uncomfortable bloat after meals?

• How about gas or chronic constipation?

Yup, we want to know *everything* about your poop habits, there's no such thing as TMI here!

Often, we find that what is “common” for a client when it comes to gut health is not actually optimal. We want to see you going number two at least once daily, with rare or minimal bloat, no floaty poop or food in your stool, no frequent surprise gas or racing to the bathroom.

The thing is, gut health isn’t just about digestion. It ends up affecting your mood, your hormones, your immune response, your skin, and a whole lot more.

Here are our top 3 tips for better digestion:

• Welcome to the chew chew train: If you don’t chew well, then enzymes in your body have to do it for you, which makes way more work for your gut.

• Take 5: take 5 deep breaths when you sit down to a meal. Eating in "fight or flight” in between meetings or while you scroll is not good for digestion. We want our parasympathetic nervous system, aka “rest and digest”, activated so we can break down & absorb those nutrients. 

• Be bitter: Try adding in bitter foods into your meals, which help stimulate digestive enzymes. Our top 5 bitter foods are all coming into season in spring: arugula, dill, dandelion greens, broccoli rabe & radicchio.

And if you need customized support, we’ve got you! We're now offering GI-MAP testing to help you target digestion, so your anxiety, allergies, and acne or other skin conditions will benefit. We are seeing amazing results with our clients already.