How Long Does it Take to Heal the Gut?

Looking for a quick fix or overhaul for your gut? Gut healing takes time, patience, energy, and a little help from the experts.

Depending on your root cause of dis-ease or illness, it may take longer to heal the gut than many realize. But no matter the cause, achieving gut health is something we can all strive for and achieve in time.

Read below for an overview of our approach to healing the gut and check out our YouTube video here which dives into this topic further!

What are the top potential root causes of gut illness?

There’s no one-size-fits-all root cause to gut illness. In fact, it can be hard to determine a root cause for stomach or GI problems at all. This is why at Rachel Scheer Nutrition, we rely on functional medicine knowledge and testing practices to find the root cause of illness among our clients.

However, we do find common patterns in gut health illness. Some common root causes of gut dis-ease that we find include:

• Inflammation (both in the gut itself and systemically)
• Poor diet
• Emotional stressors
• Sleep disturbances
• Medication use
• Bacterial imbalances (SIBO, for example)
• Intestinal permeability (leaky gut)
• Hormone imbalances
• Mold or Lyme disease
• … and more!

What are the symptoms of gut problems?

Gut symptoms are the first that come to mind when we think of gut dis-ease or problems. Common symptoms of gut health imbalances can include:

• Gas
• Bloating
• Diarrhea
• Cramping
• Food intolerances or sensitivities
• Irregular bowel movements
• and more

But, you don’t HAVE to have gut symptoms to have a gut illness. This is a common misconception!

Many people who suffer from issues like skin conditions, heartburn, fatigue, depression or anxiety, or even hormone altercations may be suffering from a gut health imbalance after all.

Seemingly “random” symptoms or conditions like changes in menstrual cycle, newfound mood changes, arthritis or other autoimmune diseases can all signify that something in the gut is amiss.

The good news – or great news, really – is that once we are able to develop a protocol for success, many seemingly unconnected symptoms of gut illness can also dissipate.

How long does it take to heal the gut from each root cause?

In medicine and in life, it can be hard to pinpoint exact answers. Because the gut can impact other areas of our health and vice versa, we must take a full-body and whole health approach to healing.

At Rachel Scheer Nutrition, we focus on our 3R approach to gut healing – a pattern of weeding and reseeding. This includes removing, restoring, and reinoculating the gut.

The remove phase ensures that we change your environment as best we can. You simply cannot heal in the same environment that once got you got sick!

This phase of healing can take a few weeks or months, depending on the root cause. Eradicating the bad toxins in the gut (like excess bacteria, parasites, or even fungi) can be a difficult process, but it is important to remove what is not needed or useful so we can create a better environment.

Next, we will restore your gut with specifically designed nutrients and other healthy habits.

And finally, we provide a healthy environment for your gut to transition from gut healing to maintained gut health.

This is where we really watch your gut thrive.

In this phase, good bacteria from diet and even supplementation can help provide a better environment for the gut. Prebiotics can help fuel those bacteria so they survive in your gut.

This process can take as little as six months, but extend to a year or more.

Each gut is unique, and finding a protocol as well as sustaining healthy gut habits requires times, energy, patience, and a great deal of mindset work, too.

While a quick fix or bandaid approach is often used in conventional medicine, our team’s functional medicine philosophy addresses the root cause and heals the gut through sustainable habits.

How do diet and lifestyle play a role in gut healing?

While we may all want a quick solution to heal the gut, diet and lifestyle are some of the largest contributing factors to not only healing our gut, but preventing against future symptoms or illness.

It isn’t just a matter of supplementation; but a matter of choosing to consume foods and habits that love us back.

When it comes to diet, we recommend a few changes such as:

• Removing industrial oils like seed oils, which can be inflammatory
• Removing excess sugar, which can ferment in the gut
• Adding in “good gut” foods like omega-3 fish oils, polyphenols, probiotics, and more
• Focusing on an overall anti-inflammatory diet

On the other hand, lifestyle is key in healing the gut, too. Habits can make a huge difference in the gut and your overall health! We recommend:

• Managing stress through mindset and even meditation
• Incorporating strength or resistance training rather than excess cardio or HIIT
• Addressing self-limiting beliefs and barriers to healing

Remember: gut healing is temporary but gut health is forever.

Choose to invest in yourself and your health TODAY so you can experience a happy, healthy gut for life. Join the waitlist for the Gut Health Repair Program, which goes LIVE to purchase on Black Friday (November 25, 2022). This course is designed to provide you with the tools and accountability you need to heal your gut and reclaim your dream body for LIFE.