Are you struggling with blue moods and feeling totally stressed out?

Are you feeling more anxious about things that never used to bother you in the past?

Are you having trouble getting a good night's sleep and just having that sense of calm that you used to?

It may not just be a sign of the times, it could be brain imbalances that have escalated from poor gut health. 

When people see their doctor about anxiety, they're given prescription medicines to manage their anxiety without finding out the root cause of their anxiety. These drugs are usually selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, also known as SSRIs. They work by increasing the level of serotonin in the brain, and most of you probably know of serotonin is the happy hormone. 

These medicines may help some people but they come with a whole host of side effects, which can affect your gut health and your brain health in the long term. 

These side effects include:

• diarrhea or constipation
• dry mouth
• nausea or being sick
• increasing anxiety
• dizziness

They can also alter brain chemicals and function and not for the better, it can create codependency and it can be so difficult to get off them.

In my practice, wen I see women with low mood and anxiety issues, the first place I investigate is the gut and then the brain. The gut  and  brain kind of coexist. They're connected with gut-brain access, and messages are sent from the brain to the gut and vice versa.

We actually have more messages going into the brain from the gut. So improving and working in your gut is key to healing the brain. 

The things you can start doing right away to improve your gut health include:

• Reducing the amount of processed foods in your diet
• Getting good quality sleep
• Managing daily stress as best as you can by doing breath work, meditating, exercising, or just moving your body
• Eating fermented foods and or using good quality probiotics are really good as well
• Keep hydrated with pure filtered water