’Tis that time of year. You know… When all of your best intentions about not scarfing down mass quantities of holiday delectables go out the door. What to do when you’re at a holiday gathering and your belly is starting to bloat like a hot air balloon, but you forgot to wear stretchy pants? Well, if you planned ahead, you take out your little brown bottle of digestive herbs.
Gut health isn’t as complicated as it sounds. But a vast majority of people all over the world are plagued with stomach problems brought about by irritable or sluggish digestion, despite eating all the right stuff and exercising too. Why does this happen and what consequences can it bring about?
If you like to cook, drink tea, or simply enjoy a variety of tastes for your sophisticated palate, you have undoubtedly used ginger at some point in your diet in several different ways. Available for ingestion as a fresh root, a powder, a whole leaf, and even pills, ginger has played a large role in kitchens and medicinaries for centuries all over the world.
Stomach cramps and bloating are uncomfortable at best, and downright painful at their worst. Almost all of us are familiar with dull pains that originate in our lower abdomen and cause us to curl up, swearing to avoid dairy or roasted garlic for the rest of eternity.
When I was little, I would suffer from terrible stomachaches in school. They were so bad that I would have to go to the nurse’s office at times and even be sent home. It turns out I was lactose intolerant—that coupled with having high anxiety did not mix very well.
Bitters are plants that work by activating the bitter receptors on the tongue (and elsewhere in the body). Bitter receptors, in turn, trigger the production of digestive juices and enzymes so that by the time your food hits your stomach, the digestive system is revved up and ready to go.
If you have ever been in the backseat of a car on a winding road and started to feel nauseated, dizzy, and just plain awful, you have experienced motion sickness. We often feel symptoms of motion sickness when we are on a boat, a train, and even when flying on a plane. Children can sometimes get motion sick when playing on swings at the playground or when on rides at the fair, such as a spinning ride, or one that has you hanging upside down.
Ever notice how certain foods make you cranky? Or sad? Or tired? How does that work, anyway?
Frankincense (Boswellia) is best known as incense to most folks. It’s been used for thousands of years as a wonderful aid for mood, medication, ritual, and prayer. As such, frankincense was extremely valuable in the ancient world and was a key part of the spice trade 2000 years ago, making the folks who controlled frankincense trees in the Southern Arabian Peninsula and East Africa extremely wealthy (1).
Frankincense is also great support for the digestive tract. More on this in a moment…
Upset tummies can happen for many reasons. The foods you eat, pregnancy, and even anxiety can cause an upset stomach. There are various herbs that can be used to help ease an upset stomach. Different herbs treat different issues while some of the herbs can be used to ease several aspects of an upset stomach.