Welcome to Digestive Health! This is such an exciting topic to learn and share with others! With over 70 million Americans suffering from digestive disease, it's safe to say we are either personally experiencing these issues or know someone that is.

You know the saying "knowledge is power" so lets equip you with the power needed to conquer and take back our digestive health!

Fun facts!
* We have more bacteria in our gut than we have cells in our body!
* Gut Bacteria do more than just help us break down our food.
* They keep bad bacteria under control..keeping diseases like Crohn's, Ulcerative Colitis and IBS away.
* They work all over our bodies affecting our physical and mental wellness!
* Depending on the food we eat, our bacteria makes chemicals that even affect our TMAO production changing our cholesterol and affecting our heart and kidneys!

Just these few facts make it pretty clear we need to encourage each other and make digestive health a priority in our lives!

 

I'm Joanna Hodgen a mother of two amazing boys a lover of all things traveling and adventure. Often times I can be found in the barn training horses and giving lessons. With an active lifestyle staying to top of gut health is key! Our family has personally walked a journey of digestive issues both with my husband and boys within our home, and within our farm with our animals. Let me just say how grateful I am for the resources that Young Living provides to aid in our digestive success journey in a healthy and natural way! Let's explore them shall we?!

 

Tonight we are going to walk through the steps we can take to improve our digestive health, or maintain it if we are blessed with good digestive health.

Gut Check

 

Did you know our gut has a nick name? It's our "Second Brain". Well according to Webmd when our brain sends messages to our body our gut talks back!

 

The levels of bacteria in our gut affects how it talks back. Let's talk food shall we...we've found as a family if my youngest son does not eat a proper breakfast, he would, as a baby, have meltdowns. Now, as he gets older he just gets really "Hangry". It's truly a real thing! His gut bacteria is affecting his emotions. Our gut microbiome has power in affecting our emotions, our senses, our anxiety, even depression and chronic pain, obesity and the connection to our pituitary gland.

 

After learning this I can see where our gut gets its nick name can't you?

 

In our house we keep some staple items around at all times...NingXia Red, Copaiba, Di-Gize, as well as some pre and probiotics, and Digest & Cleanse among the few.

 

We've found the Ningxia Red in the morning with breakfast is a great way to get the day started out right and since it is considered a super fruit, if Wade doesn't get the perfect breakfast this helps bridge that gap making the entire house happier! Other great options we choose are the Ningxia Wolfberry bars! Yum!

 

Young Living has some other amazing options as well such as Balance Complete, Life 9, ICP, Essentialzyme, and ComforTone to name a few!

Cleansing

So now that we've evaluated our Gut health let's chat what to do about it!

When I was pregnant with my second son, I stopped by a BP station, put the green diesel handle in the gas tank and filled her up. It wasn't until the truck started acting up as I was driving that it hit me...at the BP stations the green handle is NOT the diesel like it is everyplace else! I had put regular gas in my diesel truck! There I ended up..on the side of the road very large and pregnant needing a restroom and waiting for hours to get someone to come and tow me into the station....what was the first thing they did? Drain the bad fuel of course....

We, much like the truck, may need to cleanse our digestive system of the yuck we put into it. In the middle of all our Holiday Cheer our gut might just be left feeling sluggish and unable to use its fuel properly to keep the body going.

If you haven't done a cleanse before don't fret! I too was a little nervous the first time, but Young Living has some great options to aid in this process. I personally like doing the 5 day nutritive cleanse using the Ningxia Red, Digest & Cleanse and the Balance Complete. They also offer The Cleansing Trio Kit which includes ICP, Essentialzyme, and ComforTone. I am looking forward to trying it next! Detoxyme is also powerful for cleansing and getting the digestive system rebooted to a healthier state.

When you use the options above your body is doing some amazing things!

The ICP helps in the cleansing of the colon while the Essentialzyme does some amazing things too!

Enzymes are used in every cell in our body to promote growth. So Enzymes have a very important job in our bodies...think of all the disease that are traced back to our cellular make up! We are choosing to support healthy cell growth when we choose Essentialzyme.

In order to best use the food we eat, our digestive enzymes need to be working properly. If they aren't working then we aren't getting all the nutrients out of our food. To add to this if we aren't able to digest food properly then our body could end up with a deficiency of these enzymes. If we are eating candy canes and pumpkin pie we need those enzymes to help break down the food! Unfortunately, some of them are lost in our food when we cook. So if we have a deficiency, Young Living's Essentialzyme is an excellent source of supplementation. Let this capsule be your best friend this Holiday season so that it's dual time released enzymes can do the work on that extra piece of pie while you relax and enjoy the festivities!

 

Think of ComforTone as your Colon's helper! It supports the normal "wave-like contractions" that help move the food through the intestines.

 

For an extra helpful digestive boost drink lots of water this season! Your gut and intestines will thank you!

 

As you choose to go through your cleanse ask friend to do it with you. Support and encourage each other! Remember to follow the directions closely and drink plenty of water to help your body get rid all you are cleansing!

 

Have you done a cleanse before? If so, do you have any tips to share?

 

Personally, I get into he routine of my supplements for a cleanse taking them around the time I work out...its a frame of mind that I am supporting my body both inside and out! I mean if we are being honest... we sweat like a crazy person just to burn a few calories...so it's then that we are thinking...what else can I do to support this body properly! Healthy choices come easier the more we make them! You can do this!

Correcting

Doesn't it feel good to say you are on step 4! The correcting stage! By this time you are feeling better after disposing of the extra yuck you've been carrying around. Personally, I always have more energy and usually shed a few pounds which I'll gladly take! But this stage feels so awe....like I've just accomplished something big and now I'm ready to take on the world! I've got momentum and it feels good!

After the cleanse getting our body working properly is key to moving forward! Now is the time to start those probiotics and to balance those pH levels. These are going to be your foundation for incredible support and correcting our issues. Lucky we are once again blessed by Gary's vision to offer complete wellness through the oils and supplements.

Two excellent choices for the support needed are AlkaLime and Life 9.

AlkaLime is conveniently packaged with two different options!
#1 Bottle- For the easy "community" morning routine keep a bottle on the counter so you and your spouse can both take them to get your day started right!
#2 If your job takes you traveling..or you know you might be eating something not quite right later...no worries Young Living has you covered with the convenient grab and go individual stick packets) I love these to keep in my purse or in the barn and at the shows. They are also a great way to help a friend out when you see they are needing some extra support...but more on that later.

What does AlkaLime do? Great question! Alkalime works to balance the pH levels in the body with the help of calcium, sodium, potassium, and lemon powder mix. It also includes biochemical mineral cell salts...these fancy little dudes are actually mineral salts that exist in human tissue cells! Their job appears to be critical in cellular metabolism. Studies have been done in their use and support of cellular homeostasis! How cool is it that AlkaLime is formulated to support cell function through these cell salts!

There are many stimulants in the foods we eat that affect our normal pH and with the Holidays extra sugar, processed foods, among others our levels can easily get off! Add stress and the acidity soars and our pH balance is lost.

 

But why is proper pH so important? Proper ph should be at a level of 70:30 alkaline to acidity. When our body becomes too acidic the body starts pulling from our organs, bones, and tissues to try and naturally balance the acid levels. This as you can easily see weakens our overall body wellness. Some of the results of this last of wellness can show up as yeast and fungi overgrowth, hormone concerns, chronic fatigue, free radical damage, weight gain, bladder and kidney damage even diabetes and joint pain and the famous lactic acid build up....restless leg anyone? Wow all because your body is trying to get those pH levels balanced!

 

So, let's be thankful today for some natural resources that hope is not lost in getting those pH levels back into balance! Once we are in balance we have tools to use to keep it where it needs to be!

 

The other product to help with this is Life 9! A minute ago we talked about the many areas affected by our pH levels being off...one result was yeast growth as a result of our bodies good bacteria being compromised and lowered. When good bacteria is killed off weather it be from medicines that kills both good and bad, or from stress, eating poorly, or a combination of these then we clearly need to get the good bacteria added back into our bodies. How do we do this?

Growing up I had many breathing problems, often found myself on antibiotics, and inhalers. When I was in Jr. High and all the way through high school and college I was on 7-8 different inhalers and medicines for my issues. My specialist preached and preached the importance of Lactobacillus acidophilus, Vit. D and eating fermented foods. Probiotics were a key if I wanted to improve my health. As time went my oldest son was born with major tummy issues. He too had an imbalance from birth. We struggled with specialists and formulas from Riley Hospital. Little did I know what we are discussing today....that it was affecting other areas of his body like his speech and his eye muscle development. As we discovered his eyes weren't tracking properly his Eye specialist made a very interesting comment "if his primary functions weren't working then his secondary functions couldn't develop properly." Learning what we have today shows the power to that subject!

 

The good news is that we can improve those areas! My son is now doing amazing and even thriving! We have used lemon, and probiotics, along with better health choices! He overcame and you can too!

 

Life 9 takes live cultures from 9 different bacteria strains to give this potent probiotic 17 billion cultures to powerfully promote healthy digestion, support the gut, and support healthy immune system with the help of maintaining normal intestinal function. Wow!

Maintaining

Flushes and corrections are only great if we choose to maintain our body! This process is great for getting rid of those toxins and improving our overall health. But remember its a journey! I know I said I love all things traveling and adventure...I wasn't particularly thinking of the adventure or health and traveling the wellness path, but the truth is it is exciting to see our lives truly change as our wellness soars! It makes us want to share our transformation with our family and to keep going down the path of feeling better! So let's continue to travel the journey as we maintain our bodies!

What are some great items to put in our kit to help with this? Great question!
Let's try Ningxia Red, MultiGreens, K&B, Mineral Essence, and KidsScents MightyPro! While I can't go over everyone these great products they are all great additions to your daily routine that you quickly start grabbing because you love the benefits and support they give!

Personally, all four of us use the NingXia Red! It is a staple item in our house. Even my 92 year old Grandma now takes NingaXia Red daily! It's great to support our overall health. Here are some of the benefits of Ningxia according to Young Living's product information:

"NingXia Red is sweet, tangy, and infused with some of our favorite citrus essential oils, including Orange and Yuzu Crafted with superfruits and essential oils, it’s a powerhouse nutrient infusion that everyone can enjoy ade with exotic fruit extracts and the whole fruit of Young Living’s exclusive Ningxia wolfberries, NingXia Red can help prevent against oxidative stress, support eye health, and provide energy throughout the day NingXia Red is delicious on its own, in a smoothie, or with a few drops of your favorite dietary essential oils e love adding a drop or two of Peppermint, Grapefruit, Cinnamon Bark, or Thieves®, but experimenting with new avors for a customized blend is always fun!"

You will notice that there are several oils infused into this superfood drink. These are vitality oils...vitality oils while the exact same oil are specifically labeled for internal use. You will see these oils labeled in white with "vitality" on the label with the oil name...example "orange vitality".

 

MultiGreens are another great source of support for a healthy circulatory system and boosting our digestive health. In the equine industry it is a known that using alfalfa (hay) for horses with digestive issues help calm them and neutralize their acidic gut. Horses get ulcers when placed under stress and environment changes. Alfalfa is one thing we do to help them in correcting these tummy upsets and to recovery from the stress of travel, and work. This is also a great way to support the bodies joints... MultiGreens also contains Alfalfa Greens...remember what we said earlier about how our body pulls from our bones, muscles, and other areas when our acid levels are too high? Hmmmm....

 

MultiGreens uses chlorophyll formula to work with the glandular, nervous, and circulatory systems. " * MultiGreens is made with spirulina, alfalfa sprouts, barley grass, bee pollen, eleuthero, Pacific kelp, and therapeutic-grade essential oils. " And the answer is yes....it has been given to our horses before too!

 

I can't end this post without mentioning the importance of KidScents MightyPro in your family's life! It is both a prebiotic and a probiotic! It is designed specifically to help kids with healthy digestive function! What a great way to start them with proper digestive health starting early! Remember Wade and his "Hangry" spells? Well this and Ningxia Red have been game changers! The added benefit that he says they taste like Pixie sticks is even better! He started out asking me for them if I would forget and now he is naturally in the routine of grabbing them in the mornings before school begins! Don't be jealous though...you can take them too! I do!

 

KidScents MightyPro has a great punch taste that can be taken directly or added to a glass of water. It contains Ningxia wolf berry fiber which just happens to be a natural occurring prebiotic. This is huge because it works to promote healthy bacteria in the colon aiding the probiotics work! I'm always up for more bang for my buck and this is one product that gives the power punch! Did I mention it is in a convenient single serve packet that makes this be another great on the go throw in your purse or travel bag item! I love that Young Living keeps the active lifestyle in mind! This makes maintaining our wellness so much easier! (This product is NOT one you want to give to your pets though.)

Balancing

It's pretty clear to say that by now we are all understanding the importance of our digestive health in the balance of our overall health. Let's talk this balance real quick.

 

There are a few oils I use daily to support my daily overall health..those are both Lemon and Thieves. My favorite use for the Lemon is through the vitality supporting the daily flushing of my Liver and the positive uplifting aroma for our emotions. The Thieves I will also use in vitality form sometimes as a soothing tea and others as an extra punch in my NingXia Red. But I mostly use it on the bottoms my feet and applied to my check for the added benefits of overall wellness support.

 

Sulfurzyme is also a great product that can be used. It contains the great Combination of MSM and Ningxia Wolfberry. The MSM with its organic dietary sulfur give a great addition to our body support. This support is need by our bodies to support structure of proteins and protect cells.....remember that conversations of cellular damage well here is a great way to support those cells once again! This supplement works to replenish and preserve our molecular frame work and connective tissue! The MSM also does so much more as it is also working to support our liver, immune system, and I love how Young Livng describes it as it works to "scavenge free radicals"! Who doesn't want that!

Mater Formula is also an option that can be used to continue the connection of balance in our overall health!

 

Remember me mentioning my specialist and his focus on Vit. D and B...well here is your chance...among other great benefits to master formula it includes Vit. D and Vit B. These are two important Vitamins needed in order to have the body be able to break down and absorb other vitamins and minerals in our body.

Did you know? Up to 80% of the people around you are Vit. D deficient! This is why supplementation is key to our continued balance of health! Master Formula has so many great options in this sweet capsule this vegetarian option to neutralizing free radicals while supporting gut health and infusing the body with antioxidants, and critical vitamins and minerals are all packed into this food-based nutrition!

Rescuing

It's important to remember that even when our digestive health is working well we are bound to have a set back from time to time. Don't be discouraged by this...it doesn't necessarily mean that you are in bad gut health. This discomfort can be from an occasional overeating, maybe eating the wrong thing that your healthy gut just doesn't like. This isn't always a true indication of improper gut health.

We actually take that as a good thing knowing our gut is agreeing with the toxin free and warning us when it isn't healthy to have.

Yesterday John and I went out for a great evening. It was a fun surprise Christmas present for John. Unfortunately, the meal he had didn't agree with his stomach. I was so thankful I had some DiGize vitality in my purse for the rescue. Disaster averted....and fun evening had by all!

 

DiGize and Peppermint are my two go two oils for our rescuing although John has actually found for him that Spearmint is excellent! These all three come in Vitality and non-Vitality forms.

Yesterday while I used the DiGize vitality with a few drops in my water, John chose to start with the non-Vitality on his stomach. If we would have planned ahead a little better we should have easily used the vitality in a capsule or a glass of water prior to our meal as a preventative measure instead of a reactionary measure. We all make mistakes from time to time...that's when grace comes in and we are blessed to know we have resources to rescue our moments of lapse.

AlkaLime would have been another great rescue option if I had one of the sachets in my purse. Earlier we discussed the fact acting power to this supplement. I love that those benefits for prevention, and support long term are the same ones that help us when we need something more immediate!

Sustaining

How you use these products and when you use them will all depend on the severity of your digestive issues, but the main thing is coming up with a plan with your doctor or nutritionist, sticking to it, and getting into a daily routine based on where you are either correcting or sustaining your proper digestive health.

If you are looking for a few good places to get started that cover a lot of the bases we discussed this evening, I would definitely choose the NingXia Red, Life 9, MultiGreens and the Master Formula first. Remember, though, that each person responds differently to the different products and you might have one that your body responds better to. Just like John using the Spearmint over the Di-Gize (most times)...he has found his body responds best to it.

The most important thing is to get started. One step at a time and help yourself succeed by putting a routine in place.

Personally our family uses the NingXia Red every morning while eating breakfast. We often take it with a vitality oil in it. John and I will often take our Ningxia Red along with our Balance Complete Shake. This is an easy way to remember this jump start to the day.

When we take our NingXia Red we are also taking our KidScents MightyPro and our other supplements to get our day started.

When going through the Digest & Cleanse or other supplements that are suggested to take prior to a meal, I set an alarm on my phone so I don't forget. I also pack it with my lunch or in my work bag so it's always handy and where it is needed when I need it. When you go through your morning check list be sure to include your supplements! Computer (check), phone (check), keys (check), lunch (check), supplements (check check)....don't forget the bottle of water!

Recap - Wow! There's a lot more to our digestive health that one would think! Isn't it empowering to see that addressing our gut health can affect the rest of our bodies in such a powerful way! Health can be so overwhelming sometimes. It's not uncommon to hear people say they feel like their health is unraveling.This is a perfect time when truly stepping back and doing a quick gut check might just make a huge difference! How encouraging!!

Let's review shall we?

So it's Christmas Eve and you're looking at your third plate of yummies thinking of how your stomach doesn't seem to be as happy about this plate as your mind was! You decide it's not worth the misery so you grab out a few items to help you along the way!

Maybe some Di-Gize? or AlkaLime? I mean we know they are fast acting and that's just what you need! Or, maybe just maybe, you decide a warm cup of Peppermint vitality might just do the trick! Yes! These are all great choices!

Once the festivities are over and the decision of "Cleansing must me done!" has been made. Use one of your many choices being The Cleansing Trio, Digest & Cleanse, or Detoxyme.

Don't stop there; look on to Correcting with the Life 9 or AlkaLime and Maintaining your awesome rebooted gut with Ningxia Red, MultiGreens, or maybe some K&B?

Kicking those New Year Resolutions as you Balance your overall health and reach for the new decade, remember to use your Sulfurzyme or Master Formula to keep you ready for the day ahead!

Don't be surprised when there are days where your gut just wants to be sassy and use its nick name of "Second Brain" to smack talk. When it does go for a good vitality oil or maybe choose to apply some spearmint along the affected area for some sweet smelling, belly rubbing, brain talking lovin's! After all they say mind over matter right? So let that first brain kick that second one back where it belongs....functioning efficiently!

How to Get the Goods

 

 

The great thing about these powerful products we've discussed tonight is that they are available for everyone!

 

If you are a current member, you can simply log in to your Virtual Office and place a Quick Order to have these items shipped to you! The products we've discussed this evening are excellent items to purchase monthly on the Essential Rewards as well! What are Essential Rewards? Learn more in the link below!

 

https://www.youngliving.com/e…/opportunity/essential-rewards

 

If you are not a member but ready to start using these products ask the person who invited you how you can get 24%. They will be excited to help you get started!

Thank you!

 

 

Thank you for hanging out this evening! It has been a joy to spend time with you! I pray you have learned something new and are encouraged and empowered to be strong in your health!