What’s Dr Mel Saying

Mel Fourie is an IT Executive turned AADP Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner. A true healer at heart with a Doctorate in Alternative Medicine. Co- Founder of Our Grounds and founder of Nourished Well-Being, she remains in private practice teaching ‘Living-Foods and Functional Nutrition’ to people around the globe.

Hippocrates (460BC – 370BC), known as the “Father of Medicine”, once said, “All disease begins in

the gut”, and thus it would be safe to assume that all wellness begins there too. In over a decade as a wellness practitioner I have seen remarkable recovery and remission of many chronic disorders when incorporating some of Hippocrates principles into the Gut Fix Protocols I guide my clients through. Despite the uniqueness each client presents, time and time again, I find

that the initiation of all healing begins with the gut, giving them a key to reaching their full healing

potential. What is the gut and why is it so important to our heath? I often pose these questions in my health talks. The answers the audience share is anatomically correct and quite simple, the stomach, the small intestine, and the colon.

There is however a much more complex entanglement within the human digestive system. The gut is

a collection of spaces and organs, including the mouth, pharynx (throat), oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, rectum, and anus. Additional facets within the digestive collective also include the salivary glands, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. Finally, there’s a vital component we can’t even see. Your gut houses a colony of microbes that are known as the gut microbiota, a multitude of organisms and bacteria that make up the human gut microbiome.

Unfortunately, a lifestyle of convenience, stress, the overuse of antibiotics and pharmaceutical

interventions for various treatments has resulted in a significant loss of our bacterial diversity.

While this doesn’t sound serious, research has shown how specific species that reside within us

communicate with our human cells regulating many of our bodily functions, from controlling our immune system, to our brain function, with the ability to shift our hormones, our mood, and so much more. These bugs are the natural forces within us that are the true healers of disease. 70% of the immune system cells reside in our gut making the gut a fundamental barrier to the outside world as it is in direct contact with the food we eat and the bacteria that we are exposed to daily. How amazing, your gut not only keeps you nourished but it also keeps you healthy and free of infections.

Your gut has its own nervous system and can function entirely on its own. The gut is known as the second brain because it contains almost 200 million neurons. The gut-brain axis is well documented and is the bidirectional communication between the gut and the brain. This means the gut talks to the brain and the brain talks to the gut. Therefore, your gut health can be contributing to brain-based issues like anxiety or depression.

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” – Hippocrates.

When you eat healthy food, you are not only eating medicine, but you are also feeding your beneficial bacteria. Despite a multitude of nutritional philosophies there is one thing that many experts agree on: eat plenty of colourful fruits and vegetables. There are 1000s of phytochemicals in the plant kingdom identified to date, and they’ve only recently been deemed critical for health. Prebiotics are vital in creating a healthy gut. These are the things your beneficial bacteria love to eat. You’ll find soluble fibre in fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and most whole grains and incorporating

clean high-quality protein sources that suit your morals, along with plenty of healthy fats like avocados, walnuts, olive oil, and coconut offers your bacteria the diversity they seek. The bacteria in your gut metabolise these foods, producing beneficial compounds such as short-chain fatty acids, which have been shown to help prevent things like cancer. Can it be that some of the simplest answers we seek were founded almost 2400 years ago? That

healing your gut, nurturing your gut bugs and a few simple dietary tweaks can invoke a divine cascade of health benefits..

Get in touch with Dr Mel

Practice number +27 83 844 3703

Email: melody@our-grounds.com