Gut Health, Metabolism & Inflammation: Why Nervous System Balance Comes First

As a functional nutritionist and holistic health practitioner, I don’t focus on “treating symptoms”. Of course I want to help my clients resolve their symptoms, but people aren’t their symptoms and focusing on symptoms is almost never a long term solution.
Lasting results—especially with gut healing/digestion, inflammation, and weight balance—involves more than just eating the right foods or taking supplements: They begin with your nervous system.

Connecting the dots

Did you know that chronic stress (and elevated stress hormones like cortisol) are linked to systemic inflammation? Chronic stress (hormones) are also linked to increased intestinal permeability (aka leaky gut). Both systemic inflammation and increased gut permeability can impair metabolic flexibility, digestion, energy levels, and make weight loss feel frustrating or impossible—even when you’re “doing everything right.”
And it’s no surprise that chronic stress leads your nervous system to become stuck in fight-or-flight mode.

When your nervous system is stuck in fight-or-flight:

• Digestion slows and nutrient absorption drops
• The gut barrier becomes more vulnerable
• Beneficial microbes struggle to thrive
• Blood sugar regulation and fat metabolism become less efficient
• Sleep becomes impaired, more restless and less restorative
• Immune system becomes weaker and healing becomes impaired
• Energy production becomes impaired

The list goes on and on. You get the picture.

This is why stress reduction isn’t a “nice add-on”—it’s foundational.

Nervous System Balance: A Daily Necessity

Balancing or regulating your nervous system isn’t a “one and done”, it is one of the most critical daily habits you need.
Balancing your nervous system creates the internal environment where healing, metabolic flexibility, and feeling good in your body/mind can occur.
Simple practices done throughout the day make the biggest impact: incorporate habits like intentional breathing, mindful pauses, go to bed before 11pm, wake up and go outside or look out of a window to get some natural light to support your circadian clock, eat in an 8-12 hr window and stop eating 2-3 hours before bed, get some physical activity during your day, do yoga, practice HeartMath (my fave!) and/or meditation…these all support nervous system balance, sleep quality, biorhythms, and send powerful safety signals to your gut-brain axis.
When your body feels safe, digestion improves, inflammation calms, and your microbiome becomes more resilient. From that place, nutrition strategies actually work better.
One more thing, mindful breathing is the only thing within your conscious control that helps flip the switch on your nervous system towards the parasympathetic side of your nervous system, your “rest, digest, repair” branch. This is why every type of nervous system balancing tool or meditative practice is rooted in mindful breathing of some kind.

A Simple 2-Minute Nervous System Reset

Here’s the irony of nervous system balancing: it’s relatively easy to do and yet many of us procrastinate doing it or write it off entirely. It is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Don’t let its simplicity fool you. It only works if you actually do it consistently.

To  start, try this once or twice a day—especially before meals:

1. Sit comfortably with your feet on the ground.
2. Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds.
3. Exhale slowly through your mouth for 6 seconds.
4. As you exhale, gently relax your jaw, shoulders, and belly.
5. Repeat for 6 or more breaths.

Longer exhales stimulate the vagus nerve, helping shift the body out of fight-or-flight and into rest-and-digest—supporting gut integrity, blood sugar balance, metabolic flexibility, and so much more.

When done consistently, this practice and other nervous system balancing tools allow you to create powerful positive changes. Start today!  

If you need support with creating and maintaining healthy habits, you certainly aren’t alone. This is what I do! I truly believe your your health is your greatest wealth and it is my passion to help people just like you to make sure you’ve got the tools, skills, and confidence to follow through on the habits that will make a difference in how you feel in your body and show up in your life.
I’d love to connect with you!

Apply for a complimentary Unstoppable Health Discovery Session. http://bit.ly/schedulinghealth (subject to availability).

Wishing you unstoppable health,

~Rebecca

P.S. If you know someone who is ready to feel great & create health habits that stick, I would love to connect with them!

Please share my scheduling link with them so that they can schedule a complimentary Unstoppable Health Discovery Session with me.