There is something called Metabolic Syndrome. And while you may or may not have heard of it, about one third of the US population has it.

And almost 90% of us are somewhere on our way to it.

It's a group of symptoms occurring together that show a lowered functioning in the overall processes within our body that keep us alive, healthy and doing well.

And it can lead to:

• Aches and pains
• Weight gain
• Poor recovery
• Lowered immune function
• Weakness
• Low energy
• Depression
• Heart disease
• Insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes
• Stroke
• Liver and kidney disease
• Sleep trouble or apnea and much more.

As only about 12% of the population of the US are metabolically healthy as of ten years ago… it’s something that is important for us to understand so we know both what is happening, and also what to do about it.

There is an idea that saturated fats raise cholesterol and so blood pressure, and this isn’t the case.

Your body needs saturated fats. About 25% of each of your cells are made from saturated fat. And they wouldn’t function without it.

Even more, it’s necessary if we want soft, healthy skin.

But there is another type of fat which has been confused with saturated fats, and which is very destructive: Trans Fats.

We aren’t hearing as much about them today, but they exist in many processed foods and we need to check for them as they cause inflammation in the blood vessels that does lead to high blood pressure.

So let’s see what these are and what they do.

Testosterone levels have been dropping for decades, while estrogen levels have risen sharply. And thyroid is a huge problem.

Hormonal imbalances are no longer just being deficient in one or another hormone.

There are exact chemicals in the environment, in our food, air, and water, which didn’t exist before, chemicals that block hormones from being created, block them from being able to communicate their instructions to a cell, disrupt their normal actions, or impersonate them entirely.

This is the end of the Gut Health 30-Day Challenge. Now it’s time to take a step back and see where we are, and where we go next!

The goals for this program were:

• Digestion significantly improved and heartburn should be gone or noticeably lessened.
• Bowel movements will have normalized.
• Cravings for sugar or junk food should be gone or severely diminished.
• Any extra inches around the waste caused by bloating from gas should be fully or mostly gone (this is a bigger deal than most people realize).
• Hormones will be in much better balance.
• Mood and energy levels will be much higher and stress levels will be lower.
• It will be easier to relax, to fall asleep and to stay asleep.
• Skin health will have improved, quite visibly in some cases.
• Mental ability will have improved for some.
• Longevity will have increased.
• It will be much easier to lose fat on a diet and get through the “cravings hurdle.”
• It will be easier to add muscle, especially for those in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.
• And, if HRV levels were measured at the beginning of the challenge, these should now be higher.

While we’ve all heard of Candida, most of us don’t actually know what it is and how it works.

But it’s something we do need to know, as almost all of us have it.

And when it gets out of control, as it often does with today’s diets, it can cause all sorts of trouble, affecting our mood, our sleep, our ability to recover both from illness and exercise and our overall health.

And it can create some pretty uncomfortable physical conditions.

We’ve covered how toxins affect our digestive tract and microbiome.

But now we’re going to cover how the weed killer Glyphosate affects us, because this is one of the most toxic substances there is and, due to its widespread use, it’s in almost all processed foods and non-organic meats.

And it plays a very large roll in the destruction of our digestive tract, microbiome and overall health, leading to some of the worst physical conditions there are, as well as premature aging.

In the last article we covered what the microbiome is, a colony of trillions of bacteria in our colon, and how it affects every aspect of our health, our hormones, our longevity and the ability to build muscle and stay fit. 

These bacteria also produce or help to produce neurotransmitters in our body, such as Serotonin and GABA, which calm and relax us, de-stress us and allow us to fall asleep.

In this article we’re going to cover how the number of toxins coming into our body, which increases every year, affects these bacteria.

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.