For this week’s show I wanted to focus on your gut. Not your gut instinct or going with your gut, but gut health. It’s a topic I’ve covered before on Real Health but for this episode I wanted to focus the 10 myths around gut health.

There are a lot of misconceptions and misinformation around the issue, so to find out more and to get some advice on how to best deal with your gut health, I spoke to Lorraine Maher a Specialist Gastroenterology Dietitian with the Blackrock Clinic.

Lorraine gives some great practical advice backed up with scientific study and amongst the ten myths, we discuss bloating, what causes it and how to help it, gluten-free and why it’s not necessarily healthier, plus she explains the gut-brain axis and why it’s so important, especially when it comes to Irritable Bowel Syndrome or IBS.

“Think of it like a super-highway of traffic going up and down and there's a traffic jam or roadworks and the messages aren't going up and down as they normally would,” she tells me. “So it's nobody's fault that they have IBS or they didn't cause IBS or what they're eating didn't cause IBS, so there's no guilt needed. It's just a functional issue in that the function of your gut isn't working.

“But I think that for people who have IBS, know that there's a whole raft of evidence-based interventions you can use to manage it and you don't have to put all your eggs in the diet basket. There's lots of things that you can do so you don't feel that you're on your own and you don't have to put up with it.”

Stay healthy and safe and do keep in touch with me for daily postings on Instagram and Twitter @KarlHenryPT.

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