We’ve spoken a lot on our stomach and small intestine, and the issues we face there.

Now we’re going to our lower intestine, our colon, where a colony of some hundred trillion bacteria live. And they have more to do with our overall health, calmness of mind, nerve function, ability to sleep, ability to burn fat and build muscle, and even our hormones than you might think.

Aging is a natural process. 

Over time, as the stem cells we're born with become used up, our body is less and less able to regenerate itself.

But then there is premature aging, where this process happens years or decades before it should. And while this is definitely not natural, unfortunately, it’s becoming more and more common.

In this article we're going to cover exactly what is happening to our cells, what is doing this, how this affects aging and what we can do to prevent it.

There is something that accelerates aging by destroying our cells so that our stem cells are needed to produce new cells more often than they should, thus accelerating our biological aging process and making us “old” before our time.

It’s a word you’ve probably heard, but never gotten a real explanation for: Free Radicals.

In the last article in this series we covered what SIBO is, how it comes about, what feeds it, and how it creates cravings for sugar and other junk foods.

But there is another aspect to SIBO which has more destructive and far-reaching effects.

There is something called Leaky Gut, where there are actual microscopic perforations in the intestinal lining that is meant to protect our internal organs from the harmful bacteria, parasites and toxins coming in through our digestive tract.

And it's behind a significant number of physical conditions common today, even premature aging.

The digestive tract is arguably the most important pathway in the body for overall health, weight loss, muscle-building, hormones, energy, and immune system function.

Now we’re going to dive more into one aspect of it affecting a majority of the people in the US right now whether they know it or not: SIBO or Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth.

This is something that causes intense sugar cravings, makes losing body fat and keeping it off a nightmare, raises cortisol, makes gaining muscle harder, causes hormonal imbalances and energy crashes, affects our mood, and makes it harder to get good, deep sleep.

The ability to fully digest and absorb protein determines our body's ability to maximize muscle gains and fat loss.

It also affects our energy levels, hormones, inflammatory response, and overall health.

Even more, when protein digestion goes, along with it goes the ability to protect ourselves from harmful microorganisms.

Everything hinges on protein.

So, understanding exactly how digestion works and how to keep or get it working properly is very important.

This is Week One where we’ll be starting off with the protocol while at the same time learning more about how the gut functions and what is preventing it from functioning properly so we have a full understanding of what’s happening and why.

This is probably the most important protocol we have released.

Our gut is the chief entrance to our body. And its ability to break down foods into nutrients our cells need to function, to balance our hormones, to provide key neurotransmitters for our brain and nervous system, and to prevent harmful toxins and microorganisms from making it into our bloodstream, is more important than any other aspect of our body to ensure our overall health, ability and longevity.

There is an idea that if we have GERD, heartburn or Acid Reflux this means we have too much stomach acid. 

Due to this, many people take stomach acid neutralizers or acid blockers, known as PPIs, to make their stomach less acidic and calm it down.

However, these only give a temporary solution, and in the long term actually make the problem worse.

This is because it’s not high levels of stomach acid that cause acid reflux and GERD, but the exact opposite — too little stomach acid.

This is another example of only addressing the symptom instead of the cause, allowing the cause to continue on, slowly worsening over time.

We’re going to be addressing digestion, acid reflux, harmful micro-organisms, leaky gut and our colon bacteria (microbiome).

While this is key to longevity, hormonal balance, mood, stress levels, energy levels, mental ability, fat loss, muscle building and overall health, and you will feel much better by the end of it… it’s not for the faint of heart.

I want to be upfront about this. We will be killing off harmful bacteria, some you have had for years or even decades. Yes, they cause considerable damage over time, but when we kill them off you will also feel this.

You will go through reactions. Even if your gut is not in too poor condition.

Welcome to the Gut Health Guide & 30-Day Challenge!

Addressing gut health goes far beyond heartburn, acid reflux or digestive trouble. An unhealthy gut leads to a majority of the physical conditions we see in society today.

In this guide we give a complete protocol you will be on for the next 30 days, or possibly longer, while covering every aspect of our gut health, what is causing trouble, what that affects down the road, and how to handle it.

Knowing what you are addressing, why you are doing what you are doing, and what is happening within your body at different stages is KEY.

It gets you results and puts you in control of your health for the long term.

Our gut is one of the most important aspects of our health.

If our gut is generally healthy, so are we. If our gut is not healthy, then neither are we.

It’s where over 80% of our immune system is.

It’s more connected to our nerves and brain than any other part of our body, affecting our mental clarity and alertness, and our mood.

It significantly influences our hormones.

It can cause or prevent cravings for sugar and junk food.

It helps us to lose weight or prevents it.

It allows us to build lean muscle quickly or prevents it.

This is the third article in the Autoimmune series.

In the last two articles we covered what autoimmunity is and what causes it.

And in this article we’re going to talk about how to address it.

When we look at treating some kind of condition or illness, we can look at it from two different angles: addressing the symptoms and working to suppress those, or locating the root cause that is creating the condition, and keeping it created on a daily basis, and address that so that it is no longer being continually created.

This is the second article in the Autoimmune Series.

In the last article we covered what autoimmune conditions are and what they’re actually doing in the body. But in this article we’re going to cover how they come about.

What actually causes them.

And it starts in the gut, our first defense against illness.