Three Testosterone Boosters (that actually work)

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated January 2023. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter! Stefan Burns YouTube

Effective natural testosterone boosting herbs exist and can help you reach that next level, whether that’s improved athletic performance and general health, better libido and virility, an amelioration of mental health issues like anxiety and depression, and in general more confidence and swag.

Author Stefan Burns 405 lb Deadlift at 170 lbs bodyweight - 12/28/2022

Testosterone is a hormone produced primarily in the testicles but also in the adrenal glands, and it governs over lean body tissue by increasing muscle mass, bone density, and by reducing and redistributing body fat. Testosterone also has neurocognitive effects and stimulates higher-risk higher-reward seeking behaviors. Testosterone is one of the most important hormones for male development, and while this article is geared towards men, testosterone is also an important hormone for women. Low testosterone levels in women can lead to a loss in libido and reduced bone density as well as hormonal problems. Low testosterone levels in men and women can result in mental health conditions like anxiety and depression.

Testosterone is a vitally important hormone, an average testosterone levels have been declining in men for decades, and it also generally declines with age for men in western populations (1), though age related testosterone decline doesn’t appear to happen when exceptional health is maintained (2). There are many factors which have caused this, the biggest being changing western culture itself which doesn’t incentivize testosterone-stimulating behaviors as much anymore. Other testosterone reducing factors include circadian rhythm disruptions (like excess blue light at night and low light in the morning) and excess xenoestrogens entering into the body from plastics and phthalates.

The same question is often asked by men who have checked their testosterone levels and find that they are low and also by men who in the normal range and are looking to gain every masculine advantage, and it is:

“Is there a natural safe way to raise testosterone levels effectively and noticeably?”

The answer to this question is a definitive YES, and in this article we’ll discuss three herbs which actually boost testosterone levels, and they are cistanche, tongkat ali, and ashwagandha.

In the expandable section below I present some valuable foundational information on the limitations and potentials of hormone modulating herbs, or if you want to get right to learning more about these three herbs which have good scientific evidence supporting their testosterone boosting properties which I have also personally tested, then keep scrolling.

• Important Considerations on Hormone Modulating Herbs

  There is a lot of contradictory information on this topic which makes things confusing for people learning about natural ways to support and optimize hormone levels. It’s a common misconception that no effective natural testosterone boosters exist, and that any herbal supplement labeled as a testosterone booster is a scam. To clear the water in order to find the testosterone boosting herbs that do work, we must first identify what is making the water “cloudy” in the first place:

  1. Well-designed scientific investigations into the biophysiological effects of many herbs are severely lacking, many of the studies that have been done haven’t been replicated by other research groups, and sometimes replication studies showed contradictory effects (possibly due to poor study design, limited sample sizes, and biologic differences amongst research participants).

  2. Few human studies exist, most are done with mice/rats, and often these studies examined just the effect of supplementing with the main active compound in an herb rather than the entire herb, which is a major confounding variable.

  3. Well-known herbs like maca and horny goat weed have libido enhancing effects and can help with erectile dysfunction, which makes people believe it’s raising their testosterone levels, but no strong evidence supports this (3, 4).

  Against this backdrop it’s widely recognized and accepted that plants/herbs like soy and licorice root contain biologically relevant phytoestrogens (5, 6).

  The truth of the matter is that many tens of thousands of unique plant phytochemicals exist, each with their own diverse biologic effects, and some of these are endocrine system adaptogens which raise/lower hormone levels. Estrogenic herbs exist and androgenic herbs also exist.

  The safety of a testosterone boosting herb is also important. For example the South African herb Bulbine Natalensis, traditionally used as an aphrodisiac, appears to be a very potent testosterone booster (in rats, 7), but the 10:1 extract doses used to boost testosterone levels the most (50 mg/kg for rats, human equivalent dose is 8mg/kg bodyweight) have evidence of elevating liver and kidney enzymes which indicates stress to the liver and kidneys, while also causing some unfavorable lobules and tubules to develop (8). More research is clearly needed.

  Boosting testosterone levels is one thing, being healthy is another, and the two don’t have to be in opposition to each other but instead can occur in tandem. Having adequate testosterone levels, especially as a man, is a key part of being optimally healthy and living a long life.

Here are the basic requirements as I see it for any testosterone-boosting herb to fulfill that you’re considering to use:

1. Stimulates testosterone production and increases free testosterone levels while keep estrogen levels healthy

2. Contains phytochemical antioxidants which are health beneficial and keeps the body in a safe anti-inflammatory state

3. Has a long history of traditional use and is safe when used at effective dosages

Cistanche, tongkat ali, and ashwagandha nicely fulfill these requirements, and we’ll start with the herb I have the most personal experience with and I have noticed to be the most potent…cistanche.

Cistanche - A Mega Testosterone Booster

Cistanche is a genus of perennial herbs consisting of 22 known species that grow in arid deserts throughout Eurasia. Cistanche is unique in that it’s a parasitic plant that draws water and nutrients from its host plant. In Traditional Chinese Medicine Cistanche is considered the “ginseng of the desert” and is used primarily to correct yang (androgen) deficiency (9).

Cistanche deserticola and Cistanche tubulosa are the two main species of cistanche that are harvested and prepared into herbal supplements and extracts. They only differ slightly in the composition of their chemical constituents, and Cistanche tubulosa is more commonly found as a supplement than Cistanche deserticola.

Recommended Cistanche Supplement

The most basic form of cistanche is a raw powder made from the stem of the plant. Most cistanche supplements are extracts created from this raw powder, condensing the main active constituents and standardizing them to certain percentages.

Nootropics Depot sells a Cistanche tubulosa supplement, available as a powder or in capsules, which has been standardized to contain minimum 50% echinacoside + 10% acetoside, the two main testosterone-boosting chemicals identified in cistanche.

I have used this specific cistanche supplement many times and prefer it over others on the market because it’s highly effective, isn’t extremely bitter (like others are), and contains the highest percentages of phytochemicals echinacoside and acetoside.

With cistanche I boosted my free testosterone by 53% in just 30 days as part of a self-designed cistanche and cholesterol protocol. Click that link if you’d like to learn more about the protocol (so you can try it yourself) and to see my results which include my before and after free testosterone levels, gym log, and DEXA lean body mass scans.

What does Cistanche do?

In addition to raising free testosterone levels, cistanche also works beneficially with the brain and kidneys, has metabolism boosting effects, simulates the immune system, and is a potent aphrodisiac. Yeah it’s a pretty great combo for most men in the modern world we live in!

• Cistanche and Testosterone

  Cistanche stimulates testosterone production by improving the transport of cholesterol (the base molecule of all hormones) to the testosterone-producing Leydig cells of the testes. Cistanche also appears to increase the gene expression which signals for greater testosterone production. Acteoside also has an antiestrogenic effect by modulating the conversion of testosterone into estrogen, a necessary feature for an effective and safe testosterone booster. Learn more about how cistanche boosts testosterone with this article that goes in-depth.

• Cistanche Brain Interactions

  Cistanche improves brain health by preventing neuron cell death, promotes neurogenesis, limits amyloid plaque deposition, and increases dopamine, noadrenaline, and serotonin neurotransmitter concentrations in the brain. These factors make cistanche useful for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease as well as for mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and brain fog. It’s a combination of cistanche’s effects on the brain and sex organs that make it one of the best natural libido enhancing herbs.

• Cistanche Metabolic Interactions

  Cistanche improves metabolism by enhancing mitochondrial function, remedying Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction (aka chronic fatigue syndrome), improving the resiliency of lactic acid and blood urea nitrogen pathways, and in general by increasing autonomic nervous system activity. The adrenal glands produce both cholesterol and testosterone, and it’s not uncommon for certain testosterone boosters to overly stress the adrenals, leading to chronic fatigue, and this makes cistanche’s protective effect on the adrenal glands highly valuable.

• Cistanche and Immunity

  Cistanche improves immunity by increasing the kill rate of cancer cells, stimulating the proliferation of antibodies, beneficially modulating memory T cells, and by activating the phagocytic (engulfing) function of macrophages. As a herb containing powerful antioxidants cistanche prevents DNA damage and unwarranted cellular apoptosis (cell death).

• Cistanche as an Aphrodisiac

  Cistanche has a notable aphrodisiac effect because it triggers the release of dopamine in parts of the brain responsible for sexual arousal, by improving the functions of the testes, by reducing latency periods in-between erections, and through its general vaso-relaxing properties. Cistanche increases sperm count, increases their motility, and reduces the amount of abnormal sperm.

How does Cistanche Work?

Cistanche has these many different and beneficial biologic effects because of the unique phytochemicals it contains. The most notable of these are phenylethanoid glycosides, echinacoside, acteoside, and tubuloside B.

Firstly, these compounds and others like flavonoids are strong antioxidants. An antioxidant is a compound has the ability to give away a free electron to stop an electron-deficient free radical compound from oxidizing something. This process makes the body more stable at the atomic scale. Antioxidants keep certain chemicals which are naturally more unstable (because they have multiple receptors they need to be able to bind to, like dopamine and testosterone) protected from oxidation and this improves cellular signaling and functioning. It’s partly because cistanche (and the other two herbs tongkat ali and ashwagandha) keep the body in a more anti-inflammatory state that the body is then able to secrete valuable hormones and neurotransmitters like testosterone and dopamine without fear of them being oxidized and therefore squandered.

Cistanche also alters gene expression to upregulate steroidogenesis and cholesterol transport which results in more testosterone being produced by the Leydig cells of the testes. Testosterone can be better protected from oxidation by being bound to SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin), and in a more overall anti-inflammatory environment, more free testosterone can safely float around allowing for greater androgenic masculinization effects to occur. In effect, men can better be men, and for women this can improve fertility and make pregnancy possible.

Phytochemicals also interact directly with cells and the microbiome, which adds another layer of depth to how cistanche works that is still poorly understood and requires more scientific research.

Dosing Instructions for Cistanche

If using the Nootropics Depot Cistanche Supplement, the serving size is 200 mg, and that is a good dose to begin with. Take the cistanche on a relatively empty stomach in the morning or at night. I typically stir it into my morning coffee alongside other herbs like chaga mushroom, cinnamon, and cacao.

If you are a larger individual (>200 lbs, 90 kg), or you’re not noticing the effects of the cistanche after a week or two, you can increase the dose to 400 mg, taken either once daily or split into two 200 mg doses morning and night.

Personally while I find the masculinizing effects of cistanche quite obvious, I also find that it’s a gentle herb that the body tolerates well and can be used for extended periods of time. Its effects build up smoothly and leisurely and are harsh and sudden like other tonifying yang herbs.

For first time users I recommend cycling off cistanche for the duration of your first use. For example if you supplement with cistanche for thirty days, then refrain from using it or any other testosterone booster for thirty days afterwards. It’s better to play it safe and this allows you to more clearly establish what effects you felt/noticed.

Cistanche is well-tolerated and safe in larger doses, which allows for megadosing in the 600-800 mg range (with the Nootropics Depot supplement), as I have done myself, but this should only even be considered by experienced users and for those with larger bodyweights (>75 kg).

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If you’re interested in learning more about cistanche, which I would recommend if you plan on purchasing and using the herb, then click the button below to be taken to the main herb encyclopedia page for cistanche.

Tongkat Ali - A Popular Testosterone Booster

Tongkat ali (Eurycoma longifolia) is a plant native to the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia with a long history of use in the traditional medicine use. Tongkat ali is also known as Malaysian ginseng or “long jack”, and its traditional uses are for improving libido and as an aphrodisiac, and for the treatment of malaria (10).

The roots and bark of Tongkat ali contain the highest levels of its main active compound, eurycomanone, and its typically the roots that are harvested and prepared for use. As with any herb, it’s the entourage effect of Tongkat Ali’s unique phytochemical flavonoids, quassinoids, terpenes, and others that determine its biologic effects.

Recommended Tongkat Ali Supplement

Tongkat ali supplements range from a raw powder to highly concentrated and standardized extracts. Tongkat ali contains a lot of bitterants (i.e. plant compounds that are highly bitter tasting) and thus the best tongkat ali supplements strike the right balance of retaining their raw phytochemistry while also undergoing a level of extraction which increases the concentration of eurycomanone while reducing bitter flavors.

Nootropics Depot sells two versions of tongkat ali to consider. They sell a tongkat ali powder supplement standardized to contain 2% eurycomanone, also available as capsules, and then they also sell a more potent tongkat ali capsule supplement which contains 10% eurycomanone.

If you plan on supplementing tongkat ali daily for an extended period of time for its testosterone boosting, cognitive enhancing, and immunity properties, then I recommend you use the 2% eurycomanone powder as many herbs have a U-shaped efficacy curve. What that means is that the sweet spot for the greatest biologic effects is in the middle dosing range, and if more is administered beyond that it becomes less effective.

I recommend the 10% eurycomanone tongkat ali capsules if you are specifically interested in the aphrodisiac and libido-enhancing properties of tongkat ali. For this type of use-case, you could take it 2-3 hours before you expect the fun to begin, so for example at the beginning of a date night. Alternatively the more highly concentrated tongkat ali supplement sold by Nootropics Depot would also be good to take as a one-off before an event where additional masculine energy would be beneficial, say for a sales presentation, night on the town, or before a fitness event.

What does Tongkat Ali do?

The most notable effects that tongkat ali has is its ability to raise testosterone levels while keeping estrogen levels in-line and its general libido-enhancing effect. Like cistanche and ashwagandha though, tongkat ali has other beneficial biologic effects you may be interested in and wish to use it for.

• Tongkat Ali and Testosterone

  Tongkat ali is such an effective testosterone booster because its improves androgen steroidogensis across multiple pathways. Evidence shows that tongkat ali raises total testosterone levels by directly enhancing steroidogenesis in testicular Leydig cells. Additionally tongkat ali unbinds testosterone from SHBG (or inhibits its binding), allowing a greater quantity of free testosterone to circulate throughout the body. The eurypeptides of tongkat ali, most notably eurycomanone, stimulate dihydroepiandosterone (DHEA) which initiates the conversion of precursor hormones into testosterone and estrogen. It’s also been shown that tongkat ali influences the aromatization of testosterone into estrogen by limiting the actions of aromatase, thereby keeping testosterone levels elevated in the body.

  All of these factors together make tongkat ali one of the best natural testosterone boosters currently known to man.

• Tongkat Ali Brain Interactions

  Tongkat ali interacts with the brain and nervous system in a few ways, most notably through neurotransmitter modulation. Tongkat ali increases dopamine concentrations in the cerebral cortex and hippocampal regions, the parts of the brain responsible for higher cognitive processes and memory & learning respectively. Higher dopamine concentrations enhances muscular control, motivation and reward circuits, and improve intra-cellular communication.

  Tongkat ali contains many plant antioxidants, many of which are able to pass through the blood-brain barrier, and through this mechanism tongkat ali has a neuroprotective effect.

• Tongkat Ali Immunity Improvements

  In general antioxidant phytochemicals improve the functioning of the immune system, and tongkat ali has been shown to be cytotoxic and have antiproliferative properties on certain cancer cell lines and tumors such as breast, gastric, cervical, and lung cancers.

  One of the main traditional uses of tongkat ali is to help fight off a malarial infection, malaria being caused by a parasite introduced to the body by mosquitoes. Eurycomanone and other phytochemicals found in tongkat ali in research settings have shown significant antimalarial properties by inhibiting the growth of P. falciparum malaria parasite strains.

• Tongkat Ali for Male Infertility

  Tongkat helps remedy male infertility, an increasing problem, through a variety of mechanisms. First through its modulation of brain neurotransmitter concentrations it stimulates arousal pathways in the brain which trigger the autonomic nervous system to stimulate an erection. Tongkat ali is useful to remedy erectile dysfunction, can make erections bigger and harder, and it reduces the latency period in-between erections.

  Not only does tongkat ali help improve the functioning of male “hardware”, but it also increases semen volume, sperm concentration, sperm motility, and improves sperm morphology (aka reduces defective sperm).

How does Tongkat Ali Work?

Tongkat ali contains a rich assortment of plant phytochemicals which have various biologic effects, the most prominent being quassinoids like eurycomanone. These phytochemicals interact with the microbiome of the gut and cells directly, influencing the biologic activities that happen at the cellular level. Through electromagnetic interactions phytochemicals like eurycomanone alter gene expression. Herbs assist the body in upregulating the activation of genetic instructions it already has, and in this way you can see how tongkat ali or the other testosterone boosters cistanche and ashwagandha simply unlock your latent genetic potential. With good diet and lifestyle habits in place, it’s possible that natural herbal testosterone boosters permanently upregulate androgen steroidogenesis, even after cessation of the herb, though this is speculation of a “water tends to flow down a well-cut stream” nature and research is needed to confirm the effect.

The abundant antioxidants found in tongkat ali support this whole process and help maintain a stable cellular and atomic environment throughout the body. Put simply, tongkat ali is an herb that makes it easier to be masculine while not being dangerous like exogenous steroids are.

Dosing Instructions for Tongkat Ali

The serving size for the Tongkat ali powder sold by Nootropics Depot is 200 mg, standardized to 2% eurycomanone but overall containing >2% eurypeptides as eurycomanone is just one of many eurypeptides. If using this brand of tongkat ali start supplementation with 100 mg for 1 week and then increase to 200 mg afterwards. If no noticeable effects are felt at the standard serving size or you’re a larger individual then the dosage can be increased to 200 mg twice daily (morning and night). One way to know it’s working as a guy is if you’re waking up frequently with a stiffy.

Since tongkat ali contains so many bitterants you may find its taste unpleasant. For this reason I either mix it into a small shot glass of water or milk and shoot it back. I find that following that with a shot of apple cider vinegar, followed by another of just water, helps. Slightly unpleasant but over quickly, and having a shot of apple cider vinegar daily is good for the microbiome and metabolism.

Like with cistanche, tongkat ali also goes well with a cup of coffee, with any bitterness being easily dealt with by the addition of a sweetener like honey. Cistanche is the testosterone-boosting herb I add to my nootropic coffee, but tongkat ali works well here too as the two are very similar to each other.

It’s best to take tongkat ali on a relatively empty stomach so it is absorbed into the bloodstream effectively and without delay.

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If you’re interested in learning more about tongkat ali, which I would recommend if you plan on purchasing and using the herb, then click the button below to be taken to the main herb encyclopedia page for tongkat ali.

Ashwagandha - A Mild Testosterone Booster

Ashwagandha is a well-known adaptogenic herb in ayurvedic medicine also known as “Indian ginseng”, understood to be a powerful tonic, aphrodisiac, anti-parasitic, and useful for various brain disorders (11). The roots are the most common part of Withania somnifera to be used, with the word ashwagandha meaning “odor of a horse” and it’s also traditionally believed that consuming ashwagandha imbues one with the power of a horse.

The main active phytochemicals found in ashwagandha are alkaloids, lactones, and saponins, with the most notable being withanolide lactones. Together these phytonutrients and others broadly influence the function of the cognitive, immune, metabolic, digestive, and reproductive systems via the entourage effect. If you are only interested in mildly raising your testosterone levels, balancing out your overall hormone profile, while also enjoying many other health benefits all from one supplement, then ashwagandha is one of the best herbs to use.

Recommended Ashwagandha Supplement

Ashwagandha is a very popular supplement and thus many different types of the herb exist on the market, from chopped root and raw powder to highly extracted versions like KSM-66 ashwagandha.

It’s not uncommon to find anecdotal reports online of people who supplement with ashwagandha to help with their libido for example only to find it completely disappear on them, and from my observations it seems this happens most commonly with the highly extracted versions of the herb like the KSM-66 ashwagandha. As stated earlier, the most effective doses typically lay in the middle of the U-shaped efficacy curve, and it’s mostly likely over-supplementation of ashwagandha that causes these unexpected oppositional effects.

For this reason I recommend taking either a raw ashwagandha powder like that sold by Mountain Rose Herbs or just a lightly extracted version like that sold by Nootropics Depot. The 12% withanolides ashwagandha powder sold by Nootropics Depot sits nicely in the U-curve “sweet spot” and is easily dosed up or down depending on your needs.

If you are interested in an ashwagandha supplement that has a higher concentration of withanolides, then Nootropics Depot also sells a 35% withanolide Shoden ashwagandha powder. As long as you are precise with your dosing, either version can be used.

Some quick back-of-the-napkin calculations show that at current prices (01/2023), the 12% withanolide powder comes out to 300 mg withanolides per dollar if purchasing the 60 gram tub (the largest), whereas the shoden 35% withanolide powder comes out to 260 mg withanolides per dollar if purchasing the 30 gram tub (the largest).

Withanolide percentages can vary widely between different ashwagandha products (12) depending on a variety of factors like their cultivation and processing, and for this reason a standardized extract ashwagandha from a reputable supplier is typically preferable over a raw powder.

What does Ashwagandha do?

One of the main effects of ashwagandha is that it increases parasympathetic nervous system activity. If you’re stressed and/or engaged in energetic pathways, then your sympathetic “fight or flight” nervous system is dominant. This causes the adrenal glands to release cortisol and changes the expression of the overall hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The average person in western society engages their sympathetic nervous system more often than their parasympathetic nervous system, and over the long term this autonomic nervous system imbalance leads to many chronic health conditions such as sleep issues, heart disease, thyroid problems, chronic fatigue syndrome, and more. Learn how to balance the autonomic nervous system.

Ashwagandha is such a valuable natural herbal supplement because it assist in balancing the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. The reason ashwagandha has only been shown to increase testosterone levels on average by 10-15% is because it’s primary action is on the adrenal glands, which in addition to producing cortisol also produce testosterone in small quantities. Ashwagandha for example has been shown to reduce the cortisol response of stressful situations (13), like an endurance event to complete exhaustion, thereby destressing the adrenal glands which improves their resource management and functioning. Through its modulation of cortisol and other hormones, ashwagandha improves sleep, makes it easier to rest and relax,

In addition to this ashwagandha also benefits the brain, immune system, and the digestive system.

• Ashwagandha and the Brain

  Ashwagandha is a powerful cognitive aid because it interacts with the brain in a variety of beneficial ways. Ashwagandha has a balancing action on neurotransmitters GABA and serotonin and normalizes dopamine levels to normal. Ashwagandha inhibits nerve cells from over-firing and intensifies acetylcholine, glutathione, and secretase enzyme activity. Overall ashwagandha has been shown to be comparable to pharmaceutical drugs in its ability to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety and to stabilize mood. Ashwagandha also inhibits the production beta amyloid plaques and reverse neural decay by promoting neurogenesis and through the creation of new synaptic connections.

• Ashwagandha and Immunity

  Ashwagandha improves the functioning of the immune system by returning it to a state of normal functioning. It does this by bringing white blood cells back to normal ranges if overly elevated or suppressed while also having a powerful anti-cancer effect which inhibits the reduces the growth of tumors. The phytochemicals that ashwagandha possesses also have general antimicrobial properties.

• Ashwagandha and Digestion

  Ashwagandha improves digestion, a very important aspect of overall health and wellness as readers of Wild Free Organic should know. Ashwagandha does this by having antimicrobial and anti-parasitic properties which beneficially shift the microbiome towards greater symbiosis with its host (you). Ashwagandha also simulates digestive action, reduces flatulence, and has a strong effect in preventing and healing stress-induced gastric ulcers.

How does Ashwagandha Work?

Ashwagandha has these many health benefits because of its unique phytochemical profile which confer upon it adaptogenic properties which promotes balances between the different systems of the body. Overall ashwagandha is considered a tonic which revitalizes the body by correcting deficiencies and over-abundances, whether they are yin/yang or hot/cold as classified in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The benefits received from supplementing with ashwagandha depend on how long it is used for and how consistently. A single large dose of ashwagandha is useful before an endurance event, improving stamina and reducing the following stress response and cortisol dump. A large one-off dose many also be all that’s needed to stimulate an aphrodisiac effect, though that may require more consistent supplementation depending on your individual physiology. The longer term health and wellness benefits of ashwagandha, especially the neurocognitive and immunity effects, take a few weeks to begin to manifest and will be more pronounced over a 6+ month long time span.

As for it’s hormone modulation and testosterone boosting effects, it takes 2-3 months of ashwagandha supplementation to observe favorable increases in body-weight and testosterone levels.

Dosing Instructions for Ashwagandha

The most common part of Withania somnifera to use is the roots, and the dosing instructions here are for the roots (though the leaves are of a similar amount). Raw ashwagandha root is typically dosed at 300-600 mg daily for general health and wellness benefits, while it was a 5 gram raw ashwagandha root powder dose taken daily that was effective at boosting testosterone levels in men with fertility issues. This high dose of 5 grams daily for a few months showed no health complications. A sweet spot in-between these two dosage recommendations is 1 gram of ashwagandha taken daily and this is what I would recommend to athletes.

If using the Nootropics depot 12% withanolide ashwagandha supplement, start with the recommended 300 mg serving size for a few weeks before considering increasing it further to two servings taken daily, and that should only be done if no effect is observed. For the 35% withanolide Shoden Ashwagandha supplement, stick to the normal 120 mg serving size for a few weeks before any consideration of increasing the dose.

Ashwagandha is safe and well-tolerated with few if any side effects at normal dosages which provides it a degree of “wiggle room” which is useful in catering it to your unique needs and biology. If you find you respond well to lower doses of ashwagandha then stick with low doses, and if you find you require higher doses then that’s fine too so long as you’re careful and mindful of how your body is feeling.

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If you’re interested in learning more about ashwagandha, which I would recommend if you plan on purchasing and using the herb, then click the button below to be taken to the main herb encyclopedia page for ashwagandha.

Optimize your Testosterone

Cistanche, tongkat ali, and ashwagandha are three well-proven and effective testosterone-boosting herbs that are well-tolerated and safe. Comparing them side by side it’s easy to see their similarities, not only in their names of “ginseng of the desert”, “Malaysian ginseng”, and “Indian ginseng” respectively, but also in how they influence the body biologically.

All three of these herbs work simultaneously with the brain, nervous system, immune system, endocrine system, and reproductive organs. They all have energy enhancing effects whilst simultaneously promoting parasympathetic activity (feed and breed, rest and digest) which results in vaso-relaxation.

Ashwagandha helps to blunt the cortisol and stress response from extremely stressful and strenuous events, and cistanche and tongkat ali both help promote recovery and increase lean body mass. If you are cautiously interested in raising your testosterone levels, then ashwagandha is the herb to choose as it only boosts them moderately, by 10-15% on average according to the research that has been done. Tongkat ali is more potent and in my experience cistanche is the most potent testosterone booster of the three, though your individual response and results may vary.

You can purchase high-quality cistanche, tongkat ali, and ashwagandha supplements from Nootropics Depot. If you decide to make an effort to boost your testosterone levels using either of these herbs, be mindful of your lifestyle and ensure that you’re getting adequate sleep every night, eating a healthy diet, and are limiting your stressors (both internal and environmental). If you are primarily interested in boosting your testosterone levels as a way to increase your libido, then read my guide on how to increase your libido naturally.

Please share your experiences with any of these herbs in the comments below for others who may be interested in your anecdotal findings.

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11. Singh N, Bhalla M, De Jager P, Gilca M. An overview on ashwagandha: a rasayana (Rejuvenator) of ayurveda. Afr J Trad Compl Alt Med. 2011;8(5S).

12. Sangwan, R. S., et al. “Phytochemical Variability in Commercial Herbal Products and Preparations of Withania Somnifera (Ashwagandha).” Current Science, vol. 86, no. 3, 2004, pp. 461–65. JSTOR,

13. Singh N, Nath R, Lata A, Singh SP, Kohli RP, Bhargava KP. withania somnifera (Ashwagandha), a rejuvenating herbal drug which enhances survival during stress(An adaptogen). International Journal of Crude Drug Research. 1982;20(1):29-35.

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More Articles on Performance

Stefan Says #1 | Q&A on Fasting for Gut Health

Today’s questions from Wild Free Organic readers, and my responses, are centered on fasting. They are:

Can I add psyllium husks to a fast?

Will fasting help with Eczema?

What to eat before and after a fast during a IBD colitis flareup?

This is the first Wild Free Organic Q&A, and I wish I had thought to do this sooner as it’s a direct way to provide my best guidance on those questions which are difficult to find answers for, and guaranteed many more people than just these three are asking these questions.

To submit your questions please contact me. With that we’ll begin!

Fasting and Psyllium Husks

Reader Susie writes:

“Thank you for your wonderful article! I am wondering if during a fast can I take psyllium husk. Psyllium doesn't have calories or sugar and it is a prebiotic and helps keep peristalsis of the gut. Also taking coconut oil, and slippery elm during fasting? Maybe an approach is an initial 48hr fast, then introduce the above for longer fasting? Thank you, eager to hear your thoughts.”

Hi Susie, I am glad you have found my writing so useful!

Yes you can take psyllium husk during a fast. You’re right in that it’s a fiber which contains no sugar, acts as a prebiotic for the microbiome, and normalizes the movement of food through the gut (aka improves gut motility). As psyllium husk contains zero calories it won’t break a fast. Sounds like an excellent fasting aid!

An important consideration to make is that anything consumed is a deviation from the alternative of nothing going through the gastrointestinal system. Certain things, like herbal teas, can help during a fast tremendously, providing food to the symbiotic microbiome. As beneficial microbes metabolize flavonoids and other plant phytochemicals, they produce short chain fatty-acids which makes fasting easier by improving energy metabolism, and the body is also provided with abundant antioxidants (1). Drinking herbal teas during a fast like a dandelion and chamomile blend aids symbiotic microorganisms which want to work with you, and selects against harmful pathogenic microorganisms which produce toxins harmful to your body.

Though I have yet to use it during a fast, psyllium husk would have many of those same benefits as herbs as it’s a fermentable carbohydrate rich in phytochemistry. Give it a try and take observations!

According to the Encyclopedia of Herbs and Herbalism, Slippery Elm (Ulmus rubra) bark is a laxative and can be used for the treatment of diarrhea. Slippery elm is useful following gastrointestinal illness. One of its main components is mucilage (2). Mucilage is a gel-like polysaccharide that soothes and protects inflamed mucous membranes like digestive linings. If you have symptoms of leaky gut and feel your digestive mucosal linings are thin, then using slippery bark is worth a try.

As for the coconut oil, that may or may not be useful depending on the health of your liver, gallbladder and overall bile production. I would try psyllium husk and slippery bark independantly during a fast before combining them, as psyllium can slow or stimulate gut motility while slipper elm appears to only increase it.

Certainly you can fast to 48 hours easily without anything, so if you’re aiming for 72 hours or greater, then introducing different herbal components at different types in my experience keeps the fast progressing smoothly.

Does Fasting help Eczema

Reader Lexxa writes:

“Hello I have been battling a spreading eczema for almost a year now. I have spent thousands on doctors visits, creams, medicines etc. I do not want to take steroids anymore and am much more interested in healing my condition naturally and from within. I have a feeling my gut flora is off, as I deal with some mild digestive issues and now this eczema. I practice intermittent fasting in the form of a 16/8 fast, so I think a longer fast will be doable. Is this topic something you can help me on?

Hi Lexxa, I am sorry to hear that you’re been struggling so much with eczema.

Your intuition is correct, poor gut health and inflammatory skin conditions like Eczema are absolutely linked together. It very well could be that your microbiome contains pathogens which are producing endotoxins which have your immune system and detoxification pathways in a tizzy. One way the body can deal with toxins is to push them out through the skin.

Intermittent fasting is useful for healing the digestive system and reducing inflammation, and you may be able to make further inroads on reducing your endotoxin exposure by performing a longer fast. Symbiotic microorganisms survive periods of nutrient deprivation better than pathogens, and during longer 48+ hour fast, memory t-cells retreat into bone marrow, the birthplace of blood, for regeneration (4). By lightening or even reducing the endotoxin load that may be the cause behind your eczema, and by resetting the harmful auto-immunity memory t-cells have developed, you may experience a significant improvement in your eczema after a 48-72 hour fast, or longer if it can be performed safely. What you eat after the fast is very important in further cultivating a healthy microbiome, I recommend nutrient rich plant-based meals. More on that in the next question.

Remember to treat eczema from the outside in too. Aloe vera gel is very soothing and anti-inflammatory, and anti-inflammatory essential oils like peppermint will also help; dilute in a carrier oil as necessary.

Fasting for IBD Colitis

Reader Vera writes:

“I’m having a terrible flare of colitis at the moment and I’m willing to try the 24 or 48 hr fast.. I need to heal, I’m scared.. if I start after my meal tonight what foods do I begin to eat when it’s over? More importantly what food do I NOT eat?”

Hi Vera, unexpected gut health flareups can be a sign that it’s time to perform a fast. The body experiences its most profound regenerative and healing state when fasting. Intestinal bowel disease and inflammation of the colon points towards severe gut dysbiosis, and your intuition is correct that the meal that you eat before and after a fast are of critical importance in determining microbiome composition.

The best foods to eat to break a fast are nutrient and fiber rich. If a fast is longer than 24 hours then foods higher in fat are also preferred. With these recommendations avocado is highly recommended, as are mushrooms which are 50% fiber and 50% protein. Sautéed dark leafy greens are excellent to eat before or to break a fast, and I am also a big fan of brown rice and beans. All together you can see how that would be quite a delicious and nutritious meal!

Most importantly you need to focus on your microbiome and get the inflammation in your colon down immediately. Herbal teas are one of the best ways to accomplish this task in addition to strictly observing a good diet for you.

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I hope you found this useful, and if you’re new to fasting then I recommend you read the article Fasting for Beginners.

For more comprehensive support and education on gut health, fasting, and herbal remedies, I recommend you purchase my Holistic Gut Health Guide.

Submit your questions and they may appear in a future Q&A, and I hope to see you there!

Heal Your Gut Naturally

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Holistic Gut Health Guide eBook

Sale Price:$12.95 Original Price:$18.95

Together the digestive system and microbiome are the foundation of health from which everything else is dependent on.

The Holistic Gut Health Guide contains all the information you need to identify and understand the gastrointestinal and microbiome problems you may have while also providing you the most effective natural methods you can use to heal your gut. No gut health problems are unsolvable, give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

Purchase

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References:

1. Cassidy A, Minihane AM. The role of metabolism (And the microbiome) in defining the clinical efficacy of dietary flavonoids. Am J Clin Nutr. 2017;105(1):10-22.

2. Malcom Stuart, et al. The Encyclopedia of Herbs and Herbalism. Crescent Books, New York.

3. Sánchez B, Delgado S, Blanco-Míguez A, Lourenço A, Gueimonde M, Margolles A. Probiotics, gut microbiota, and their influence on host health and disease. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2017;61(1):1600240.

4. Collins N, Han SJ, Enamorado M, et al. The bone marrow protects and optimizes immunological memory during dietary restriction. Cell. 2019;178(5):1088-1101.e15.

Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.

Reprograming your DNA

DNA reprograming is not only possible, it’s a key evolutionary feature

An important aspect of being human and overall health is electromagnetic. What that means is that humans interact with electric and magnetic fields bioelectrically. The resonant vibration of DNA to the strongest electromagnetic field frequencies is a key determiner of DNA signaling. AKA which section of DNA is vibrating the most, attracting to it RNA and other transcribing molecules.

By changing the electromagnetic environment of the body DNA expression can be optimized towards health. This is still a very new understanding in science, and the best evidence that exists corroborating this effect comes from earthing and the cellular actions of herbs.

Learn more by watching my video below:

*Note - this page is under development

Earthing and the Earth’s Magnetic Field

What is Bioelectricity?

Herbs that Improve Bioelectricity

What’s the Evidence?

Fasting for Beginners

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter! Stefan Burns YouTube

I have done my best to make this a complete guide on fasting for beginners. As part of a 10 year gut health journey to great gut health I have researched extensively into the gastrointestinal system, cellular biology, and human health, and I found through experimentation that fasting was incredibly effective in healing my gut, improving my digestion, and resetting my microbiome to work with me instead of against me. My complete advice on this subject of gut health and fasting is the Holistic Gut Health Guide. For everyone new to discovering fasting and gut health mindfulness, you will get started on the right foot with a foundation of good information with the guide below. Everything that I have written on fasting I have tried, and research fills in the rest in regards to disease states such as obesity and diabetes, the full reference list is at the end.

sale

Holistic Gut Health Guide eBook

Sale Price:$12.95 Original Price:$18.95

Together the digestive system and microbiome are the foundation of health from which everything else is dependent on.

The Holistic Gut Health Guide contains all the information you need to identify and understand the gastrointestinal and microbiome problems you may have while also providing you the most effective natural methods you can use to heal your gut. No gut health problems are unsolvable, give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

Purchase

If you haven’t discovered already, a lot of what is written on the internet is by robots, so welcome to my authentic human website backed by common sense and forward looking science. Based on the popularity of my Use Fasting to Reset the Digestive System article, I know this is going to help so many of you which is very exciting! Welcome!

Fasting: Abstaining from food or drink

Water fasting is not consuming any food or caloric beverages, and dry fasting is not consuming any liquids. Dry fasting can be done in different ways, and as it removes the vital resource of water, it is not for beginners and won’t be discussed in this article. Everything written below is for water fasting.

Fasting helps with (1):

• Digestive upset and gut health problems

• Weight-loss and excess body fat

• Autoimmune issues and active infections

• Metabolic conditions like diabetes

• Neurodegenerative problems along with mental fatigue and brain fog

Fasting is able to help with most heath problems because of how it reduces inflammation throughout the body through the activation of autophagy. There are many possible reasons you have heard of fasting and why you may find it of interest, and it’s beyond the scope of this beginners guide to explore every avenue. Instead we will look at how fasting benefits health by examining some of the universal health actions it promotes, discuss the most popular applications for fasting, and cover the important considerations that need to be made with fasting.

This most common reason people find initial interest in fasting is for losing body fat. Since fasting removes all caloric inputs and forces the body to metabolize body fat, fasting is an effective weight loss technique. Cyclical weight loss is typically not healthy, and a better way to consider fasting than as a weight-loss tool is as a metabolism-enhancing tool. A number on a scale is not as important as a healthy metabolism. Typically having a healthy metabolism means you’re at your perfect body fat percentage and weight, as fat loss and having a healthy body composition is causative from metabolism, but misalignment between the two can occur at times and therefore this is an important mindset distinction to make if seeking best long term success.

Fasting for Metabolic Health

Metabolism: The near infinite number of life-sustaining reactions that occur within the body cellularly every second

Having a healthy metabolism means you have all the normal components needed to complete all the metabolic reactions required for optimal health every day. The largest component of metabolism comes down to human thermodynamics, but there are other pieces that are useful, like using herbs which contain compounds that beneficially facilitate and stabilize chemical reactions throughout various parts of the body.

Fasting is so useful for improving metabolic health because it changes genetic expression. Activating the regenerative state of autophagy requires the stimulation of those parts of your DNA that govern the process, and as DNA expression changes so to does cellular protein production. Mitochondrial function improves, and in the first two days of fasting you often experience an energy surge as the body’s energetic burden from digestion has been lifted. As the gut regenerates, future periods of food consumption will yield greater metabolic resources through improved digestion, the result being better metabolism and being in a better fat burning environment. More energy, resources, and healthy connective tissues means more activity and greater NEAT (2).

Fasting for Weight Loss

Approximately 75% of adults aged 20 and over are overweight or obese. The obesity rate for this age group in the USA is 40% (3). For anyone in either of these categories, the most effective way to improve metabolic function. which is the primary object over simply weighing less, is to improve body composition. Shedding body fat and increasing lean body mass (muscle) does this most effectively. Fasting reduces body fat percentage quickly and can be done safely with proper knowledge and experience, and with proper refeeding and exercise afterwards, fasting has no discernable effect on lean body mass in my experience. Lean body mass have even been shown to improve with repeated bouts of a calorie restricted “fasting mimicking” diet (4).

Let’s say you have twenty pounds (10 kg) to lose. An effective way to lose that weight in order to improve metabolic health and overall wellness is to complete a 48 hour fast once a week, with a 2 meal a day intermittent fasting schedule in-between. This is a 5:2 schedule:

• Five days 16 hour intermittent fasting with a daily eight hour eating window

• Two days of fasting (i.e. a 48 hour fast)

That weight could also be lost rapidly in a few weeks or a months time if a good diet is eaten and an overall caloric deficit is maintained. That weight could also be lost over time though not as quickly with a daily intermittent fasting or one meal a day (OMAD) schedule. The most rapid way to lose weight is to not eat for 3+ days, and many people who are overweight or obese are successful in multiday/seven day/10+ day fasts. More important than losing excess body fat once is keeping it off, and thus I think it better to take shorter more frequent fasts while improving diet quality in-between than it is to do a mega-long fast and then possibly binge afterwards, which is just another form of yo-yo dieting but riskier.

Croatia, 2021. I was swimming a lot and practicing yoga. Diet of rice, beans, tofu, eggs, and abundant fruits and vegetables. Occasional intermittent fasting as guided by intuition and gut health.

How to Activate Brown Fat

There are two main types of fat in the body. White fat is metabolically inactive, and these stores of calories do not activate easily. Brown fat is metabolically active and generates body heat. White fat is long term calorie storage and can accumulate to dangerous levels that increase risk of disease and all-cause mortality (5). Brown fat on the other hand has active energy in-flows and out-flows. Cold therapy activates and increases brown fat, and having a greater brown fat percentage is correlated with improved metabolic health (6), better heat regulation, and less energy volatility.

As the phytochemicals of herbs like flavonoids have metabolism boosting effects, it’s possible that the metabolism of these plant compounds by the liver and/or microbiome also stimulates brown fat creation and usage, most likely due to selective DNA activation.

Fasting also stimulates brown fat simply because it is advantageous. Brown fat can be activated for energy needs faster than white fat, and a healthy metabolism can shift between carbohydrate metabolism to brown fat metabolism to white fat metabolism (if any exist) with few interruptions in-between. As body composition and metabolism improves, the body is better able to manage its energy requirements and white fat is selectively reduced in favor of keeping a tighter budget in brown fat and if physically training, bigger muscles which can store greater amounts of glycogen.

Eating a higher-fat diet in-between fasts composed of unoxidized fats, primarily monounsaturated fats like you receive from olive oil and avocados, will broadly improve fat metabolism and therefore brown fat activation.

Fasting for Diabetes

Diabetes: Dysfunctional glucose processing and utilization which causing excess blood sugar

As fasting improves blood glucose utilization, it can be useful for those with diabetes, but care should be taken to avoid dangerous moments of too high or too low blood sugar. If you have diabetes please consult with a health practitioner knowledgeable in fasting before scheduling any long fasts. There are two types of diabetes, type 1 and type 2.

Type 1 Diabetes: An autoimmune condition where insulin-producing cells in the pancreas are destroyed by the bodies immune system. About 10% of people who have diabetes have Type 1. Often diagnosed in children and young adults.

Type 2 Diabetes: The body doesn’t make enough insulin and/or the body’s cells don’t respond normally to insulin. Type 2 diabetes occurs most often in middle-aged and older people.

Diabetes and its mismanagement once developed has serious consequences, being stressful much of the body, including the heart, kidneys, and nervous system. As fasting helps with autoimmune conditions and also the normalization of pancreatic function and blood glucose levels, fasting can help type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

If performed safely and with many safety fallbacks, like having food always available on hand, fasting can be useful for diabetics to improve their condition and overall health. By clearing the digestive system of food, or at least by spacing the time out between meals more, fasting relieves stress on the pancreas and allows for insulin levels and blood glucose sensitivity to normalize back to optimal. For those with diabetes, intermittent fasting can reduce insulin requirements and aid in weight loss (7).

If you begin to notice increased energy volatility characterized by too low or too high blood sugar levels, fasting is an effective way to reset the functioning of the pancreas. Insulin is the main anabolic hormone of the human body, and it’s only produced by the pancreas, but this only accounts for about 1% of pancreatic functioning. The other duties of the pancreas that make up 99% of its purpose is secreting pancreatic juice and digestive enzymes into the first part of the small intestine known as the duodenum, which neutralizes stomach acid and aids in the breakdown of food and it’s digestion. And its fasting’s digestion improving effect which is really quite amazing.

Not eating to eat better, who would have thought?

Fasting for Gut Health

There are many ways to relieve stress on the digestive system, from adopting a liquid diet to removing intolerant foods from the diet via an elimination diet. There is no question though that the simplest and most effective way to reduce digestive stress and inflammation is to simply not eat. The epithelial layer of the digestive system regenerates about 20% per day, and this rate is increased even further when the regular stress of digesting food is alleviated via fasting.

That’s right, it is stressful to eat! Eating and digesting requires the production and secretion of many different chemicals from a bunch of organs like the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. The immune system has to be active to ensure nothing unwanted penetrates through the gut-blood barrier into the blood stream. Digestion requires energy, which is why eating a big meal often induces sleepiness, but the reason we do it is because if we eat nutritious foods we get more out of digestion than we put into it. Fundamentally that’s how life exists.

For some people this isn’t the case though, either because their diet is such a poor nutrient quality that the body puts more into digestion than it receives out of it, or the body does its best to digest food but other issues are causing malabsorption of nutrients, like diarrhea, damaged/destroyed villi, or poorly functional glands which fail to release adequate enzymes and biles vital to proper digestion. An “easy” fix for these problems is to fast.

Evolutionarily it’s in our physiology to fast, it’s another “default mode network” the body that has developed over millions of years of evolution. In fact the body wants you to fast every now and then, it’s the most efficient way to active autophagy, the cellular process that repairs and regenerates the tissues of the body. Fasting also changes the composition of the microbiome quickly, an important aspect of proper thorough food digestion. If you fast off a meal for a day or two, your microbiome will be better at digesting those particular foods than they were when you first ate them.

The most obvious effect that fasting has though is that it reduces inflammation in the gut.

Fasting for Gut Inflammation

The role of the digestive system is to take food, which is made up of animal, plant, or fungal cells which contain complex macronutrients like starches, long-chain fatty acids, and protein chains, and break everything down into the smallest most usable and absorbable compounds. Food is often first broken down and made easier to digest through cooking, and chewing mechanically breaks food down into smaller components. From there stomach acid and digestive enzymes erode and break apart the molecular bonds of food, transporters are utilized to facilitate certain chemical reactions, and as you can imagine the digestive system becomes a very busy environment chemically. Within the chaos of digestion there is an order, but there is no avoiding the inflammation created from the digestive process.

When you are in good health, the inflammation created during digestion is easily mitigated and is no cause for concern, but if a health imbalance exists, then gut-based inflammation can tip the body over into a state of over-stress, which isn’t good over the long term. You may be interesting in fasting as a way to heal the gastrointestinal system and reduce gut inflammation, and fasting is very effective in achieving these objectives. All of chapter 8 of the Holistic Gut Health Guide is how fasting is useful for gut health.

Fasting is one of the best ways to repair the gut because the absence of food activates widespread autophagy.

Autophagy: Body’s cellular recycling system that processes the reusing of old and damaged cell parts

The necessary inflammation of the gut causes the cells of the digestive system to experience rapid turnover, with intestinal digestive linings experiencing about a 20% daily turnover rate. By strongly activating autophagy, fasting increases the digestive systems regenerative systems and cellular resources are better recycled and reused, which places less of a resource drain on metabolism.

It takes time for food to transit through the digestive system, and food spreads out in the digestive system after eating, so the longer the fast and the more time is allowed for food to completely clear out and pass, the more effective the anti-inflammatory and regenerative effects of fasting.

Drinking zero-calorie herbal teas aid greatly in the inflammation-reducing and gut healing fasting process. Well-known and safe herbs like chamomile and dandelion contain abundant antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial flavonoids and other phytochemicals, and drinking a 1:1 ratio chamomile flower and dandelion root tea throughout a fast and on normal eating days improves digestion, quells excess gut inflammation, and helps shift the microbiome towards symbiosis and away from destructive pathogenesis. Endotoxin-producing pathogens can be a large potential source of gut inflammation, and fasting helps to limit their presence in the digestive system.

Fasting for Microbiome Reset

The microorganisms that live in the human digestive system have a very short life-cycle and cannot survive nutrient deprivation as long you can. By removing food from the system, fasting influences the composition of the microbiome.

Most of the microbiome lives in the large intestine, which food begins to reach at about 6+ hours of digestion. Food is then further digested by the microbiome and body in the large intestine for 24-36 hours typically. To change the composition and diversity of the microbiome in a substantial way with fasting, a complete emptying of the large intestine and a subsequent zero-digestion period are required, which necessitates a longer 48+ hour fast.

Still it’s been found that short fasts, like the 16 to 20 hour fasts common to intermittent fasting can also favorably shift the microbiome over time (8), especially when paired with favorable dietary changes like the consumption of more fiber. Intermittent fasting also helps the body achieve better circadian rhythm through modification of the gut microbiome (9).

There are two main strategies for improving the gut microbiome, and the first is to diversify the microbiome with more symbiotic microbes and to support their growth, and the second is to select against and reduce pathogenic microbe populations. Most effective is to pair both strategies together, and if this is done then it’s possible to shift the microbiome towards greater symbiosis in a significant way quite quickly, and fasting does this effectively especially when paired with certain herbal remedies which you can learn more about with the article on the other side of this button.

Fasting for Parasite Removal

Fasting is an effective way to reduce and eliminate parasites from the gastrointestinal system as it removes their primary food source which is what you eat, while instead you draw from your fat reserves. If parasites are a serious problem, only a very long fast 7+ day fast will completely eliminate them, so fasting is best paired with a parasite removal protocol.

This can be accomplished in a number of ways. You can fast for a period of time, say 2 days, and then in-between each fast you run an herbal parasite cleanse. If you’re overall healthy and wanting to make a faster more dramatic change, then you can fast and take the anti-parasite herbs at the same time. For both options, I recommend drinking herbal tea throughout the fasting and feeding periods as it will help regenerate the gut, favorably improve the microbiome, improve energy metabolism, and beneficially activate the immune system. A perfect tea for this would be a 1:1:1 ratio blend of chamomile flowers, dandelion root, and peppermint leaves.

The stronger anti-parasite herbs are oregano (specifically oregano oil), clove, black walnut hull, and wormwood. A good premixed supplement I used before which worked great was SCRAM, and I followed those dosing instructions while also taking oregano oil twice a day. To learn more about parasites and parasite removal, you can read my following article.

Fasting for Immune Health

Beyond weight loss and gut health, fasting has been shown to have powerful effects on the immune system. The majority of immune system activity is centered around the gut, as vigilant defense against pathogens and unwanted compounds from entering into the blood stream is needed. When the immune defense requirements of the gastrointestinal system decrease due to less food transiting through (which also means less microbial growth at that moment), the immune system is able to regenerate, recharge, and reset its functions.

Case reports abound from medically supervised fasting clinics of people who have seen complete remission of an autoimmune disease by undergoing long multi-day water fasts (10), usually exceeding two weeks in length. Autoimmune diseases are characterized by the immune system mistakenly attacking parts of the body, and this destructive cellular behavior has the potential to be eliminated and the immune system reset towards normal function through fasting.

Severe calorie restriction (50% and greater) and fasting changes immune function by altering the distribution of immune cells throughout the body, with memory T-cells for example accumulating in bone marrow as a protective mechanism (11). The adaptive immune system enhances survival in the face of infection because it allows the host to rapidly respond to and control infections as they arise. Immunological memory enhances this protective ability especially if new infections are the same or similar in nature to infections previously experienced.

Fasting in effect regenerates the immune system to a more youthful state that is better at fighting pathogens and cancer and less likely to turn on healthy cells of the body.

One reason appetite typically decreases during a cold, flu, or covid is because of the immune-boosting effect that calorie restriction and fasting has. By activating autophagy, the body is better able to fight infections and repair the cellular damage caused by them.

Fasts of different lengths have different effects on the immune system, so if you are interested in fasting to improve immune health, I recommend starting with intermittent fasting, and then trying OMAD, and then trying a 2-3 day fast, making careful self-observations during each fast of how you feel and how your symptoms improve (if you have any).

If you have a serious autoimmune condition and want to try a longer water fast to help with the condition, contact a fasting clinic near you and consult with your health practitioner.

The Simplest Types of Fasting

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is the most popular type of fasting, typically scheduled as sixteen hours of fasting followed by an open eight hour feeding window (16:8). This ratio of fasting to feeding can be shortened to and 12:12 ratio or lengthened to a 20:4 ratio, with the longer intermittent fasts taking the body deeper into autophagy.

It’s easier to maintain caloric balance or even a caloric surplus with intermittent fasting than it is with multi-day fasts. Intermittent fasting is useful for athletes who want to improve their insulin sensitivity, hormone profiles, and improve their digestion, all while still increasing in strength, stamina, and possibly lean body mass.

Intermittent fasting is the easiest form for fasting to do for the average person, and overtime it can dramatically transform one’s health.

Intermittent fasting is most effective done consistently day after day, and the daily increase in autophagy intermittent fasting stimulates as compared to a normal 3-4 meals & snacks a day eating schedule is helpful for healing the gut, reducing inflammation throughout the body, and improving energy metabolism.

OMAD Fasting (One Meal a Day)

Fasting for twenty-four hours is also known as one meal a day or OMAD fasting. The most common type of OMAD fasting is eating dinner every night, though it’s not uncommon to do breakfast or lunch OMAD. OMAD is similar to intermittent fasting in that food is still eaten every day, and OMAD is typically done consecutively or for a certain number of days per week.

Since OMAD takes the body deeper into a fasted state of autophagy across twenty-four hours than intermittent fasting, it’s a good way to begin experimenting with longer fasts and to examine one’s relationship with eating behaviors. Physiological hunger is quite different than a psychological food craving, and if struggling to make healthy dietary choices, consistent OMAD fasting is a great way to reset psychological eating behaviors and patterns.

The gut-brain axis is beneficially altered with OMAD and each fast will have you become better at identifying when you’re truly physically hungry or when you simply have a psychological food craving.

48 Hour Fasting

Fasting for longer than 24 hours reduces the body’s glucose sugars stored in muscle cells and the liver, and around the 48 hour mark is usually when all the stored glucose is depleted in the body which forces the body to shift into ketosis.

Ketosis: Metabolic process that converts fatty acids into energy molecules known as ketones.

The brain runs exclusively on simple sugars, or if those are not available, ketones. When carbohydrates are in short supply, either from fasting or from eating a high-fat ketogenic diet, the body begins producing ketones to keep all the metabolic systems running smoothly. Some people with neurodegenerative diseases see a massive reduction in symptoms and their disease state when their brain runs on ketones instead of simple sugars.

Just as fasting is another default mode network for the body, switching from sugar metabolism to ketone metabolism is another metabolic state change that can be used to improve health and diagnose health issues. A 48-hour fast is useful because it takes the body deep into autophagy, deeper than most people have ever gone in their lives except maybe during a bad illness like the flu (hint hint a protective mechanism from widespread viral inflammation and damage). Forty eight hours of fasting really provides the digestive system time to rest and regenerate by greatly reducing stress and takes the body to the edge of or into ketosis.

A 48-hour fast is short enough to be easily completed by most people without serious health issues as long as they have the willpower. a 2 day fast doesn’t require too much planning, and it’s also long enough to bring about noticeable differences in digestion, energy, and weight. Undergoing a 48 hour fast allows for valuable health observations to be made on digestion, metabolism, mental health, and more.

3 Day Fasting

A longer 72-hour fast will take the body fully into ketosis and the autophagy healing effects are even stronger than they are for shorter fasts. It’s recommended to break a 72 hour fast with a small fat-heavy meal, like a mixed green salad with avocado, as this reduces the shock of reintroducing food to the digestive system while also keeping fat metabolism high and ketosis activated. If a fast that has induced ketosis is broken this way, you have a choice with subsequent meals to stay in ketosis or revert back to carbohydrate metabolism.

Your experience may vary, but I have found through personal experience that I don’t need to concern myself greatly with electrolytes during a 48 hour fast, but that electrolytes becomes more important with a 72 hour fast.

Fasting and Electrolytes

Electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, chloride, magnesium, calcium, phosphate, and bicarbonates are required for the basic functions of life like transmitting nerve signals and keeping cells electrically neutral. We derive electrolytes from our our food and drinks, and high or low electrolyte imbalances are health disruptive and can be life-threatening (12).

By removing all food from the metabolic equation, fasting changes electrolyte inflows, outflows, and overall ion balances in the body. For intermittent or OMAD fasting, there is generally little need to concern oneself with electrolytes as food containing electrolytes is still consumed daily. Making sure you acquire sufficient electrolytes and in the right ratios is important during longer fast.

I have fasted many times for 48 hours without taking any electrolytes with zero problems, so “wiggle room” exists. Your experience may vary, and it is better to do the following if fasting for greater than 24 hours:

• Add a pinch of sea salt to the water you drink. Sea salt contains an abundant assortment of salts and ions, like potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg), whereas land-derived table salt contains just sodium (Na) and chloride (Cl) ions.

• Drinking herbal teas throughout a fast will provide the body a natural and varied assortment of electrolytes. Dandelion root is especially good for this as it contains abundant micronutrients (13)

Pre-made electrolyte fasting mixes exist, often called snake juice, and can be useful if used properly, but I urge caution in using them because they are often dosed incorrectly which results in symptoms like cramps and sudden diarrhea (as you’ll hear from the “never trust a fart” fasting crowd). Gross but worth knowing if you’re going to try fasting so you can avoid that embarrassing situation.

Breaking a Fast (refeeding)

I’ll conclude this fasting for beginners guide with how to break a fast, otherwise known as the refeed.

Fasting is amazing and incredibly healing if done safely and intelligently, and at some point every fast must come to an end. When it becomes more healthy to eat than to continue fasting is the hard limit.

The meals you eat before and after a fast have a dramatic effect on the ease and quality of the fast undertaken. For example, fasting off of a highly processed cheeseburger will be a much lesser experience with greater food cravings, energy volatility, and reduced cellular regeneration, than fasting off a meal consisting of vegetables, pulses (beans, lentils, etc), and a whole grain like rice. Fasting off of cake would be even worse! As it takes about 8-12 hours for food to reach the large intestine, and food can remain there for processing by the body and microbiome for 36-72 hours, the content and quality of the food eaten before a fast has a big impact on how easy a fast is.

A healthy microbiome is able to metabolize indigestible fiber and phytochemicals like flavonoids into short-chain fatty acids and beneficial secondary metabolites respectively. Fasts up to 72 hours in length does not eliminate all resource acquisition from the digestive system, it just encourages complete and thorough digestion of the remaining food while simultaneously shifting towards greater and greater activation of body fat for pure energetic needs.

A meal high in fiber and beneficial plant phytochemicals will beneficially remodel the microbiome towards symbiosis throughout the course of the fast, and then refeeding after the fast further effects the course of development of the microbiome. The final meal before a fast should consist of organic whole foods with an emphasis on vegetables, and the meal breaking a fast should consist of much the same.

For example with a 48 hour fast following this advice ensures that energy levels remain relatively stable during the fast, electrolytes are not in short supply, the microbiome shifts favorably towards greater symbiosis, and that food cravings are avoided.

This may be TMI, but I’ve personally experienced during 48 to 72 hour fasts that the last meal I eat is able to be processed down and absorbed to almost nothing if you have a healthy microbiome and the meal eaten was of a high quality. What this means is that instead of a having a bowel movement of normal volume from that meal, you may experience a much smaller bowel movement, or it’s possible that it doesn’t occur at all because your digestive system work together over the course of 2-3 days to absorb everything. Yes this is possible and really reshapes your understanding of how much food you really need to eat daily, and how many nutrients are wasted everyday, via the typical diet an eating schedule.

Get Fasting

Life has evolved to be adaptable to periods of nutrient scarcity, and fasting is not only useful but necessary from time to time. Optimal heath and longevity requires there to be a balance between anabolism (growth) and catabolism (repair). Over consumption of processed foods in addition to deleterious modern lifestyle factors has led to many of the health problems of the present day.

Fasting is an elegant solution to many of the health problems common today and it’s as old as time. Fasting allows you to experience a greater range of what’s possible biologically: from digestion efficiency improvements, to better metabolism, an enhanced immune system, and improved cognitive function.

Developing an intuition around knowing when to feed and when to fast is an important part of the heath journey and will help you to achieve your best wellness. I hope you find fasting as useful as I have, it has helped me tremendously in improving my gut health, once was my biggest health concern but now I navigate it with ease, and anytime I have the rare gut heath flareup the first thing I do is to begin fasting, whether its just an intermittent fast or I discover a 48 hour fast is needed or a longer period of OMAD fasting is beneficial. Once you have completed a few fasts for each of the primary methods 16 to 72 hours in length, fasting becomes a reliable tool you can use at any time to improve your health so long as it serves you and can be done safely.

I have written a lot more on fasting on this website, you can view the other articles here, or read chapter 8 of the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

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Heal Your Gut Naturally

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Holistic Gut Health Guide eBook

Sale Price:$12.95 Original Price:$18.95

Purchase

If you read all the way here then it’s clear to me that you’re ready to do what it takes to finally restore your digestive system and gut microbiome back to healthy and optimal function.

I wrote the Holistic Gut Health Guide to help you accomplish exactly this! It contains all the information that you need to understand the gastrointestinal system, gut-brain axis, and microbiome in-depth, and the Holistic Gut Health Guide also educates you on the natural methods you can holistically use together like fasting and herbalism to transform your health from the inside out.

I’m so excited to be able to help you along your gut health and overall wellness journey with the Holistic Gut Health Guide! Please contact me with any questions you have and wishing you the best.

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References:

1. Mattson MP, Longo VD, Harvie M. Impact of intermittent fasting on health and disease processes. Ageing Research Reviews. 2017;39:46-58.

2. Levine JA. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (Neat). Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 2002;16(4):679-702.

3. Fryar CD, Carroll MD, Afful J. Prevalence of overweight, obesity, and severe obesity among adults aged 20 and over: United States, 1960–1962 through 2017–2018. NCHS Health E-Stats. 2020.

4. Longo VD, Panda S. Fasting, circadian rhythms, and time-restricted feeding in healthy lifespan. Cell Metabolism. 2016;23(6):1048-1059.

5. Flegal KM, Kit BK, Orpana H, Graubard BI. Association of all-cause mortality with overweight and obesity using standard body mass index categories: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA. 2013;309(1):71.

6. Herz CT, Kulterer OC, Prager M, et al. Active brown adipose tissue is associated with a healthier metabolic phenotype in obesity. Diabetes. 2022;71(1):93-103.

7. Grajower MM, Horne BD. Clinical management of intermittent fasting in patients with diabetes mellitus. Nutrients. 2019;11(4):873.

8. Larrick JW, Mendelsohn AR, Larrick JW. Beneficial gut microbiome remodeled during intermittent fasting in humans. Rejuvenation Research. 2021;24(3):234-237.

9. Daas MC, de Roos NM. Intermittent fasting contributes to aligned circadian rhythms through interactions with the gut microbiome. Beneficial Microbes. 2021;12(2):147-161.

10. Fuhrman, Joel, Barbara Sarter, and David J. Calabro. Brief case reports of medically supervised, water-only fasting associated with remission of autoimmune disease. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 8.4 (2002): 112-112.

11. Collins N, Han SJ, Enamorado M, et al. The bone marrow protects and optimizes immunological memory during dietary restriction. Cell. 2019;178(5):1088-1101.e15.

12. Shrimanker I, Bhattarai S. Electrolytes. In: StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing; 2022.

13. González-Castejón M, Visioli F, Rodriguez-Casado A. Diverse biological activities of dandelion. Nutrition Reviews. 2012;70(9):534-547.

Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.

Essential Oils for Acne

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter! Stefan Burns YouTube

Widespread acne is a sign of a health imbalance. It mainly originates from hormonal imbalances, poor diet, low sleep, stress, or a combination of the above.

Acne: Lesions in the skin filled with puss, a mixture of oils, white blood cells, and pathogens

To overcome consistent acne requires fixing the source of the problem, and aiding the bodies ability to clear out the infection and heal the skin expedites the process.

Essential oils from plants like peppermint contain powerful antioxidant and antimicrobial compounds (1) that aid the skins ability to heal and regenerate.

Skin is healthiest when it receives the least amount of contact with chemically reactive substances. A lot of modern body products oxidize and damage instead of support and heal due to the instability of some of the compounds they use.

A pimple is a hotspot of free-radical activity, the immune systems way to clean everything up, and applying essential oils to these micro-injuries reinforces immune activity and stimulates cellular regeneration. Cold therapy and earthing helps with skin problems too.

In my experience the best essential oils for acne are peppermint and tea tree (2). They smell nice, can be used directly (trial this first before widespread usage), and are relatively inexpensive.

You can purchase organic essental oils ate fair prices through Mountain Rose Herbs. I recommend their peppermint essential oil, their tea tree essential oil, vetiver essential oil for aromatherapy, and blue chamomile essential oil for muscle soreness, sleep, and lucid dreaming

Reducing the skin care routine to essential oils and aloe vera has saved me a lot of money and my skin health has never been better.

Skin care is made out to be more complex than it is. Treat your skin with respect, splash it with cold water and sunlight from time to time, and use minimal natural products.

Essential oils are also very useful in underarm care, acting as a natural deodorant and armpit microbiome and lymph node cleanser.

My elimination of most acne is mostly in thanks to great gut health, of which I share everything I’ve learned about in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

sale

Holistic Gut Health Guide eBook

Sale Price:$12.95 Original Price:$18.95

Together the digestive system and microbiome are the foundation of health from which everything else is dependent on.

The Holistic Gut Health Guide contains all the information you need to identify and understand the gastrointestinal and microbiome problems you may have while also providing you the most effective natural methods you can use to heal your gut. No gut health problems are unsolvable, give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

Purchase

Improving microbiome symbiosis and diversity is a key aspect to healing and managing acne (3). In all things health make sure to consider the state of your microbiome.

With positive thoughts and consistency clear skin is possible!

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References:

1. Tsai M, Wu C, Lin T, Lin W, Huang Y, Yang C. Chemical composition and biological properties of essential oils of two mint species. Trop J Pharm Res. 2013;12(4):577-582.

2. Winkelman WJ. Aromatherapy, botanicals, and essential oils in acne. Clinics in Dermatology. 2018;36(3):299-305.

3. Lee, Byun, Kim. Potential role of the microbiome in acne: a comprehensive review. JCM. 2019;8(7):987.

Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.

How to Increase Libido

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter! Stefan Burns YouTube

Libido is your life force, a wellspring of heat, passion, and creativity that adds growth and color to all aspects of your life.

Depending on your state of physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual health, you may be unable to feel or connect to your libido. Being disconnected from your innate libido is not healthy if sustained, and it can have long-term damaging effects.

The beautiful aspect of libido is that it’s easy to connect with at anytime with the rights information, tools, and experience. Libido is stimulated in the brain by the thalamus, which regulates consciousness, sleep, and alertness. The thalamus is a sensory hub for the cerebral cortex, the decision making part of the brain. Without the activation of the thalamus, motor signals to the cerebral cortex are delayed or changed.

By reducing inhibition of the thalamus, the cerebral cortex is exposed to more information, and now realizing a greater amount of opportunities, consciousness is attuned to chose the best outcome. Sometimes the problem with failure to get aroused is the inability to see that the possibility exist.

As much society tries to make it normal, and it is, sex is a “taboo”. It touches the deepest parts of our body and energy. Sex is energy work, and unforeseen events can occur when creating energetic bonds with others at certain levels. Therefore any sexual act is a ritual of serious responsibility, and how it’s performed speaks a lot about who we are and how we are changing.

Sex may be “taboo”, but it’s the ultimate gift if done consciously, and when you’re more consciousness you’re more likely to take opportunistic riskier behaviors as you’re most self-assured of a favorable outcome. It’s this mindset that guarantees you have a healthy libido that can activate on command, if the situation presents itself and it’s to your benefit.

Libido isn’t just an important aspect of sex, but an integral part of human willpower, creativity, and drive.

“Sex is energy work, it touches the deepest parts of body and soul”

I write this as a male in touch with my yin and yang nature, and it should resonate with everyone at some level as we each have a divine feminine and divine masculine part of ourselves. One reason libido shuts down and is one day realized lost by a lot of people is that they haven’t connected to any energy sources that feed the source of their libido, the root chakra. Is your root chakra open or closed, in what situations and with who? Is the energy of your root chakra being drained by your actions or energetic bonds you have with others? These are important questions to ask yourself and answer honestly when seeking to restore your natural libido.

Energy connections at the root Chakra are the most rooted in the deeper energetics of the planet <2 Hz, and it’s there that you can begin to reclaim your sovereign root chakra energy. To create a 2 Hz or lower frequency at the root chakra, aka the hips, then you need to practice muscular exercises for that part of the body known as kegels.

Kegels for Increasing Libido

To make kegels easier, lay on a earthing sheet connected to the Earth. Contract your glutes, squeeze your rectum, breathe up into your diaphragm, and perform this pattern of breathing, contraction, and relaxation for the musculature you want at a slow rhythm of your choosing. Once you have a regular pattern going, explore the frequency range. Being electrically connected to the Earth, you will attune yourself to the electrical currents of the Earth known as tellurics at whichever frequency you are pulsing at. Change your frequency slowly around 0.5 to 3 Hz and find the cycles per second that’s easier to maintain unconsciously because that is where the Earth frequency is strongest. If you accomplish this, and it’s possible because I do it, you can turn your focus to breathing and visualization and let the magic happen all on its own. You may experience auto-orgasm if the stimulation enough, even without using your hands in any way. If this occurs consider it a crowning accomplishment of connecting to your libido.

I have been performing deep work on my hip to level it out, and I find that before I fall asleep I naturally begin to exercise with kegels, and it’s in this space that I have my best insights into sexual health and romance. When I lay down to sleep I keep my hands to the side as recommended with dream Yoga. When I practice kegels consistently and work deep around the sexual organs I find it is good for my energy metabolism, the endocrine system and having healthy hormone levels, sexual reproduction, and for stimulating creative energies.

Hormones and Libido

For men, a lot of libido boils down to prolactin levels. Having low prolactin levels means a stronger libido, harder and longer erections, a short refractory period (time in-between ejaculations), and determination/willpower. Dopamine can be high only when prolactin is low, and after ejaculation dopamine goes down while prolactin goes up. For women prolactin is elevated during breast feeding and is associated with breast development. The ideal arrangement for health and reproductive evolution is for women to have high prolactin levels and for men to have low prolactin levels.

Herbs that reduce prolactin levels over time are blue lotus flower and cannabis. More nuance on that in the following section. For men and women another very important aspect for having healthy libido is to have balanced testosterone and estrogen levels.

Beneficial hormone changes that are governed by behavior (engaging in manly or feminine activities, flirting and socializing, etc) are long lasting and stable, and when building those healthy habits there are herbs that can help the process greatly by changing your brain and hormone chemistry.

Herbs for Increasing Libido

There are various herbs that stimulate and enhance libido through distinct but overlapping pathways. Any of the herbs below can be used to increase libido, and I have a safe and synergistic natural libido enhancing stack I will describe how to use at the end that is comprised of these herbs.

Blue Lotus Flower

The African blue water lily Nymphaea caerulea contains rich plant pharmacology and was used by the ancient Egyptians for thousands of years as one component in an elixir of life known as didi.

How does it work? Blue lotus flower contains alkaloids apomorphine and nuciferine which modulate the parasympathetic nervous system, dopamine levels and transport, and serotonin levels and transport. Activates the thalamus and is a potentiator for psychedelics in my experience and as recorded throughout history. Lowers prolactin which helps in the treatment of erectile dysfunction.

Cautions: Blue lotus flower is sedative and liver produced metabolites from its alkaloids can be toxic to the kidneys. Do not consume in excess, pairs exceptionally well with the herb cistanche due to cistanche’s renal benefits and antioxidant nature as observed in the brain. Under conditions of stomach sensitivity, high consumption may trigger the urge to vomit.

Cistanche

Cistanche C. tubulsa, C. deserticola, C. phelypaea, sometimes referred to as the ginseng of the desert or in Traditional Chinese Medicine Rou Cong-Rong is a potent activator of the male hormonal system.

How does it work? Cistanche has a libido boosting effect through its interactions with cholesterol transport, cholesterol being the building block for all hormones. Cistanche boosts testosterone (free and total) by working directly with the gonads. Cistanche also have neurocognitive antioxidant benefits and protects the renal system, which as described above alleviates some of the renal stress created by blue lotus flower.

Using cistanche can make you horny, increase the frequency of erections, cause morning erections, and with long term use (1+ month) enlarge the size of the penis permanently.

Cautions: Cistanche powerfully activate the male hormonal system and for best health and wellness it should be used carefully, being cycled on and off at a 1:1 frequency. For example if you run a cistanche and cholesterol protocol for 2 months, cease using cistanche for 2 months afterwards before using again if desired. Since cistanche increase free testosterone so dramatically (>50% in my case), it can cause increased inflammation throughout the body as the testosterone molecule, like dopamine, isn’t the most stable. This can show as acne, and to help keep the circulatory system and blood free of inflammation I recommend concurrent usage of dandelion root powder. Flavonoids like apigenin found in herbs dandelion and chamomile also reduce the conversation of testosterone to estrogen via aromatase.

Cannabis

Cannabis C. sativa, C. indica, C. ruderalis contains cannabinoids like THC, CBD, and CBN which influence brain chemistry and increase sensory awareness by acting on CB1 and CB2 receptors. Cannabinoids are sticky and are easily absorbed into the blood stream when dry-vaporized.

How does it work? As a mild-psychedelic, cannabis can connect you to parts of your being that you are currently only weakly connected to, like your libido and sexual nature. Cannabis use lowers prolactin and increases sensory pleasure of the sex organs.

Cautions: Heavy long-term cannabis usage can lead to brain changes that while not permanent take time to reverse. Video: Does Smoking Weed Permanently Mess with the Brain? Cannabis, specifically the cannabinoid THC increases heartrate by 10-20 bpm and reduces blood pressure. Cannabis has interactions with the thyroid and adrenal glands and long term usage may lower testosterone production (easily offset by cistanche usage if desired).

Chaga Mushroom

Chaga Mushroom Inonotus obliquus contains a wide variety of beneficial biologic compounds that have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects such as polysaccharides, beta-glucans, terpenes, mycoflavonoids, melanin, and other myconutrients.

How does it work? Chaga mushroom is an adaptogen and can slightly boost testosterone on its own in addition to the protective effects it has on the organs and the neuroprotective effects it has in the brain. Modulates the activity of the nervous system, specifically the autonomic nervous system, a critical component of the libido and sexual systems.

Cautions: Chaga mushroom in high doses can destabilize heart rhythms

Chamomile Flower

Chamomile Matricaria chamomilla is one of nature’s best herbs for overall health and wellness. Contains many antioxidant and anti-inflammatory plant phytochemicals.

How does it work? Chamomile guides the autonomic nervous system to increase parasympathetic activity, relaxation being a key requirement to arousal. Increases endogenous flow state alpha brainwave rhythms which have a frequency of 8-12 hz.

Cautions: Chamomile is a very safe herb and can be used in large quantities. Chamomile may trigger an allergic reaction if an existing ragweed allergy exist. Additionally since chamomile reduces platelet clumping, care should be taken with chamomile if already using a blood thinner.

Natural Herbal Aphrodisiac Stack

Cistanche | 200-400 mg daily. Can be split into two doses

• Why? Natural testosterone booster, aphrodisiac, neuroprotective, and protects the kidneys

• Purchase Cistanche Powder from Nootropics Depot.

Dandelion root | 1 gram daily. Take it with the cistanche and at the same daily frequency

• Why? Blood purifier with broad antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, possible aromatase inhibitor (flavonoids)

• Purchase Dandelion Root Powder from Mountain Rose Herbs.

Chaga Mushroom | 500 - 1000 mg. Take it with the cistanche and dandelion root powder

• Why? Antioxidant/anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, endocrine adaptogen, normalizes the nervous system

• Purchase Chaga Mushroom Powder (course) from Mountain Rose Herbs. Good for brewing with coffee or into tea.

• Purchase Chaga Mushroom 1:1 Extract Powder (fine) from Nootropics Depot. Good for taking with tea/water.

Blue Lotus Flower | For tea use 1-2 grams of ground flower. For vaporization mix with other herbs, only a small amount (100 mg) is needed due to the highly efficient extraction. Can also be smoked.

• Why? Promotes parasympathetic activity, aphrodisiac, neuroprotective, lowers prolactin and raises dopamine

• Purchase Blue Lotus Flower from Schmerbals Herbals.

Cannabis | The effect from blue lotus flower is felt the strongest when its bioavailability is increased when consumed alongside cannabis. The important alkaloids of blue lotus flower are highly lipid soluble and cannabinoids are sticky lipids and carry into the bloodsteam easily. Both cannabinoids and alkaloids pass the blood-brain barrier easily.

• Why? Increases dopamine and reduces prolactin, aphrodisiac, increases sensory awareness and pleasure

• Purchase CBD cannabis (in the USA) from Tweedle Farms.

• Purchase THC cannabis (if legal where you live) from a dispensary or grow it yourself ;)

Chamomile | Chamomile tea activates the parasympathetic (rest and digest, feed and breed) nervous system and is a good carrier for the cistanche, dandelion root, chaga mushroom, and blue lotus flower.

• Why? Promotes parasympathetic activity, stabilizes heart and brain rhythms, antioxidant/anti-inflammatory

• Purchase Chamomile Flowers from Mountain Rose Herbs. Blue Chamomile Essential Oil can also be applied topically where desired (forehead and pubic area is best for libido); highly effective!

*Aphrodisiac Tea | 2:1:1:1 ratio of chamomile flowers, dandelion root, chaga mushroom, blue lotus flower. Add the cistanche powder to the tea after steeping. Course-grained chaga mushroom powder and dandelion root can be steeped with the chamomile flowers, or the fine-grained powders of each can be added after steeping the chamomile and blue lotus flower tea alongside the cistanche.

• Purchase Bodum French Press from Amazon.

*Aphrodisiac Dry-Vaporization Blend | 2:2:2:1:1 ratio of blue lotus flower, THC cannabis, CBD cannabis, damiana leaf, chamomile flower.

• Purchase Fury Edge Dry-Vaporizer from Healthy Rips.

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If you find the advice and science shared in this article useful, share it where it can also help others rediscover and connect to their natural libido.

If you use any of the herbs above, specifically if you try the who Aphrodisiac Stack, please share your experiences in the comments below.

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References:

1. Malcom Stuart, et al. The Encyclopedia of Herbs and Herbalism. Crescent Books, New York.

2. Ober C, Sinatra S, Martin Z. Earthing. Second Edition. Basic Health Publications, Inc.; 2014.

3. Emboden W. The sacred journey in dynastic egypt: shamanistic trance in the context of the narcotic water lily and the mandrake. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. 1989;21(1):61-75.

4. Li Z, Lin H, Gu L, Gao J, Tzeng CM. Herba cistanche (Rou cong-rong): one of the best pharmaceutical gifts of traditional chinese medicine. Front Pharmacol. 2016;7.

5. Shashkina MYa, Shashkin PN, Sergeev AV. Chemical and medicobiological properties of chaga (Review). Pharm Chem J. 2006;40(10):560-568.

6. Andre CM, Hausman JF, Guerriero G. Cannabis sativa: the plant of the thousand and one molecules. Front Plant Sci. 2016;7.

7. González-Castejón M, Visioli F, Rodriguez-Casado A. Diverse biological activities of dandelion. Nutrition Reviews. 2012;70(9):534-547.

8. Miraj S, Alesaeidi S. A systematic review study of therapeutic effects of Matricaria recuitta chamomile (Chamomile). Electron physician. 2016;8(9):3024-3031.

Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.

The Secret to Longevity

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated September 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

I’m going to share with you the secret to longevity.

This is longevity in health and lifespan, and the same concept can also be applied to various other parts of life like friendship, love, your career, etc.

First let’s examine the current trend for health and wellness advice, and wow is there an overwhelming amount of health and wellness practices that are good for you to follow.

Some are well-known and proven like:

• Eat more vegetables!

• Walk 10,000 steps a day!

• Sleep 8 hours a night!

• Don’t smoke or drink!

• Get some sun on your skin everyday!

Others are very niche and promise magic effects:

• Take this one supplement to transform your health

• Avoid this one food to lose 20 pounds

• Boost your cognition with this rare herb

• Increase your testosterone 200% using this special light

What both of these categories have in common, one full of things known to benefit your health, the other possibly helpful but more dubious in nature, is that they are something new to do.

Add this into your lifestyle, change this, remove that.

Whether relatively simple or complex to implement, they require that you make a structural change to your life, whether that’s taking a new supplement every morning, completely changing your nightly routine so you sleep better, or shining red light everyday on your family jewels (if you have them) to increase your testosterone.

Yes that last one really exists (1).

Now I don’t want to discount the importance of structural life changes, whether these are dietary, lifestyle, work-related, or other…but what’s important to recognize is that the best advice, even very simple advice, often fails because it simply is too great of a demand for a very stressed person.

Just the thought of doing something different, even if a lot of what they’re doing currently isn’t helping them, is stressful and gets rejected and dismissed. When this is the case, even if sleeping better and activating their parasympathetic nervous system may be exactly what they need to solve their health problems, a different approach is required.

This different approach is what I believe is the secret to longevity.

The Importance of Frequency

Most people, no matter how unhealthy, are doing at least a few things right in regards to their health.

Consider the obese individual who enjoys a cup of herbal tea every morning, or the person plagued by anxiety who still goes to a yoga class once a week.

Prescribing a new concept, idea, modality, or supplement to these people, who are already overloaded to the max, is nearly impossible because there is simply no bandwidth available to implement the change.

What they can do that doesn’t tax their bandwidth is to increase the frequency of the healthy habits they already have.

These habits are already imprinted into their psyche at some frequency of occurrence, and it’s much easier to change the frequency of something that’s already part of someone’s routine than it is to add or subtract from someone’s routine/lifestyle.

To the overweight individual who drinks a cup of chamomile tea every now and then: Great! Drink chamomile and other herbal teas not just just a few times a week or one cup a day but drink 3-4 cups throughout the day! Mix it up, add in some other herbs like mint, chamomile, dandelion, which benefit health by:

• Improving digestion

• Shifting the microbiome towards greater symbiosis

• Increasing metabolism

• Improving cognition

• Reducing inflammation

To the stressed and anxious individual who does yoga occasionally: Great! Now practice yoga daily, even if just for 15 minutes. Yoga benefits health by:

• Strengthening the body

• Increasing metabolism

• Balancing the bioelectrical system

• Increasing parasympathetic nervous system activity

• Releases feel-good endorphins

The secret to longevity is to pulse goodness as frequently as possible

Spend more time outside breathing fresh air, meditate more often even if just for a minute or two at a time. There are so many things that can be increased in frequency safely that will greatly benefit your health and wellness if done so!

Whether you’re at the beginning of your wellness journey or further along the path, the more frequently you incorporate wellness promoting things and activities into your life the healthier you’ll be.

Whether it’s drinking tea or eating vegetables more often, making sure to get some safe sun exposure (and therefore synthesize vitamin D) daily, or to keep your body limber and strong by moving it more often, find the healthy habits you already have that can safely be increased in frequency, and simply do them more often! This will improve your health and provide you more room to then overtime embrace new wellness practices into your lifestyle, which you can ten apply the same principle to them.

This concept of pulsing goodness more frequently doesn’t have to apply simply to one wellness practice. It can be multi-faceted. For example it can be a cup of tea in the morning, then a 10 minute stretch break at mid-morning followed later by a healthy meal and a walk at noon…you get the idea.

Heath is a Wave

You can think of health as a wave that is slowly declining in power as you age. Every time you pulse some wellness goodness into your life, you increase the height of the wave slightly and improve your health, and the more frequently you trigger these upswings, even if minorly, the more stable the wave becomes. Then as life allows, bigger structural changes like improving your sleep, earthing, and changing your diet can be incorporated which cause those big jumps in health and wellness.

Lastly this concept of pulsing goodness more often in order to increase longevity applies to many other areas in life such as friendships, love, and your career. Try it out and see how you can transform those areas of your life too.

Spend some time considering the impact frequency has on your wellness and overall life, identify something in your life that you already do that you can easily increase the frequency on, and try it out!

My top recommendation for this would be to drink herbal tea more often. Herbal tea is amazing for health for a variety of reasons which I discuss more in-depth in the article below.

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Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.

References:

1. Ahn, Jinhee et al. “The effects of low level laser therapy (LLLT) on th e testis in elevating serum testosterone level in rats.” (2013).

Best Supplements for Brain Fog

and for Optimizing Cognitive Performance

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated September. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

If you have brain fog you know how helpless it can feel at times to remedy the problem, as the very symptoms of brain fog like an inability to concentrate and focus limit your ability, energy, and drive to find and implement useful helpful solutions.

When this is the case, using the best supplements for focus and concentration can provide some relief from brain fog and mental fatigue and help bring in enough energy and clarity of mind to kickstart the lifestyle changes that need to be made to permanently solve the problem.

Brain fog can be experienced all on its own, or it can be part of a larger health problem like chronic fatigue syndrome. The best supplements that help with mental fatigue aren’t ones that simply stimulate the brain but instead are ones that beneficially target the stressed and dysfunctional parts of the body that are creating the mental fatigue in the first place.

There is no perfect brain fog cure, but with the right supplemental support and then the corresponding necessary lifestyle changes, mental fatigue can be recovered from and brain function can be returned to normal. In this article I share with you my favorite remedies for combatting brain fog and why they work.

Chronic vs Acute Mental Fatigue

There are two types of mental fatigue, chronic and acute. Temporary mental fatigue that is the result of one night’s bad sleep is quite different in effect and in its treatment from daily mental fatigue brought on from excessive stress, constant sleep deprivation, or neurocognitive conditions. When people ask for solutions that help alleviate their brain fog and mental sluggishness, most often they are seeking help for chronic mental fatigue.

Symptoms of Brain Fog

A term commonly used to describe mental fatigue is brain fog. Just like with sleep deprivation, where after a few continuous days of insufficient sleep you begin to not notice your symptoms of sleep deprivation (though they still exist), brain fog has a similar desensitizing effect. A lot of people who have mental fatigue do not realize they have it as they have become used to their chronically sluggish mental processes. It’s usually only when brain fog lifts temporarily for some reason, and clear lucid awareness is experienced before the brain fog returns, that people realize that they’re not functioning at their best. The symptoms of brain fog are subtle, especially when desensitized to the effect, so if you have any of the symptoms below, especially more than one, then it’s worth closely examining the functioning of your brain, your lifestyle, and perhaps taking one or more of the supplements below to see if you experience a noticeable before and after improvement.

Common symptoms of mental fatigue and brain fog:

• You have difficulty focusing and concentrating on one task. High distractibility

• You get lost in unconscious behavioral patterns (like endlessly scrolling on social media)

• Its a struggle for you to hold onto multiple thoughts/ideas at once in order to understand a greater concept, follow a conversation, etc.

• You get tired easily, especially with a cognitively demanding task like studying, learning a language, etc.

• You experience frequent mood swings, and these mood swings can be triggered from small relatively insignificant events

• Your short and/or long term memory isn’t good

• You don’t have much patience

• You get triggered and angered easily

If mental performance needs to be raised while experiencing acute mental fatigue, like from a poor night’s sleep, then it can usually be treated successfully with a stimulant like caffeine. Chronic mental fatigue is quite different though, and treating chronic brain fog with a stimulant like caffeine can further exacerbate the problem.

Treating long-term brain fog is best done with things that activate the parasympathetic “rest and digest” nervous system. Resting more often, improving sleep, engaging in restorative exercise like yoga, grounding, meditation, breath work, and more are all things that activate the parasympathetic nervous system and help reduce chronic mental fatigue. This article will mostly stick to supplemental measures that help with mental fatigue, so if you wish to examine and treat the very important lifestyle component of the problem, then I suggest you read my article How to Balance Sympathetic and Parasympathetic States.

Sometimes brain fog and mental fatigue is so severe that it can be difficult to even think about let alone implement lifestyle changes that will help and reverse the issue, and when this is the case supplements are a convenient and useful way to jumpstart the turnaround process.

Chamomile for Brain Fog

One of the best things for treating chronic brain fog and mental fatigue is also a very well-known herb, and that’s chamomile!

Chamomile is one of the most ancient and well-known medicinal herbs known to mankind, the two most common varieties being Roman chamomile and German chamomile. Chamomile is identified by its small white flower petals that surround its yellow center, and it’s the chamomile flower that’s used in herbal practices because the flowers contain a wide range of biologically active chemicals such as terpenes, flavonoids, and azulenes that have been shown to be health promotive.

Chamomile is so useful in treating chronic mental fatigue because it provides multi-targeted treatment to the systems which are under the most stress and are causing the symptoms of brain fog as described above.

Chamomile Increases Parasympathetic Activity

First, chamomile helps promote more balanced autonomic nervous system by increasing parasympathetic activity throughout the body, and this helps reduce systemic stress and regenerate the bodily systems that are most worn down, like the adrenal glands.

Chamomile does this by improving heart rate variability (HRV), reducing erratic heart rhythms and instead shifting heart rhythms to be more sinusoidal and coherent in nature (see right half of figure 1). Heart rate variability is the measure of the time interval between heartbeats, and HRV is a key measure of cardiac health, stress, and sudden mortality risk.

Figure 1 - Change in heart rate when emotionally reframing from feelings of frustration to appreciation

CC - McCraty R. The Energetic Heart. HeartMath Institute; 2003

Chamomile’s ability to improve HRV and overall cardiac function is more important than most people realize, because the functioning of the brain is determined to a large degree by the health and functioning of the heart.

Chamomile Increases Alpha Brainwaves

Every heartbeat creates a pressure wave that travels through the circulatory system, and it has been shown that when this blood pressure pulse reaches the brain it generates 8-12 Hz alpha brainwaves. Put another way, the change in blood pressure 1-2 times every second (depending on heart rate) in the brain is the timing signal the brain uses to generate and synchronize alpha brainwaves that cycle 8-12 times per second.

Alpha brainwaves are so important because they are the middle frequency brainwave that sit in-between slow rhythm 0-4 Hz delta and 4-8 Hz theta brainwaves and 12-30 Hz beta and 30+ Hz gamma brainwaves. How well your brain is functioning can be measured quite clearly via brainwave patterns across the head, with the most important factors being brainwave frequency, power, and synchronicity.

There aren’t many (if any) studies that directly show this, but enough evidence exists to greatly suggest that those suffering from mental fatigue and brain fog have weak non-synchronous brainwave activity without clear frequency bands of activity. Chamomile’s ability to increase alpha brainwaves is so important because alpha rhythms are the dominant brain rhythm from which other brainwaves can then be switched to. When alpha brain rhythms are propagating strongly throughout the brain, there’s sense of calm, patience, creativity, and a feeling of relaxed alertness. Sounds like a good resting state of mind eh?

If alpha rhythms are propagating strongly throughout the brain, then it’s easier for the brain to rev up and begin propagating higher frequency beta and gamma brainwaves, which are associated with focus, productivity, and ingenuity. By supporting the stable functioning of the heart and the overall cardiovascular system, chamomile also improves brainwave activity and overtime trains the brain to establish these patterns of activity on its own.

How to Use Chamomile for Brain Fog

There are a few ways chamomile can be used in the treatment of mental fatigue, an important factor to known is that chamomile in my experience acts like an adaptogen for this purpose. If you’re overly tired then chamomile will help to stimulate and gently pick you up because it’s increasing your brainwave frequencies and their coherence of propagation, whereas if you’re overly stimulated and scattered then chamomile will help calm you down by increasing the power of lower frequency brainwaves. In many ways alpha brainwaves are the base from which all brain activity shifts up or down from, and building a strong base of alpha brainwave activity is incredibly useful in coping with stress and for clearing the haze of brain fog.

The three main ways chamomile can be used are as a tea, as an essential oil in aromatherapy, and by dry vaporizing or smoking the herb.

Chamomile Tea: This is the most common way to use chamomile as brewing chamomile tea is simple and very effective. Chamomile tea is also really helpful for gut health, and we’ll discuss further down why the gut-brain axis and the microbiome are really important to address when combating mental fatigue. Bring water to a temperature of 75-100 C (170 - 212 F) and steep dried chamomile flowers for 5-15+ minutes. Chamomile is a pleasantly sweet herb and it can be steeped for hours without the resultant tea becoming bitter. Chamomile makes for a great iced tea, and when endeavoring to remedy brain fog, drinking chamomile tea throughout the day is one of the best things you can do, and it’s so simple! Just brew a large batch of the tea once everyday and drink it often. I usually make 1 liter of chamomile tea (often with other herbs, more on that at the end) at night by bringing water to a boil and then letting the herb steep overnight in the fridge. When I wake up delicious iced tea is waiting for me every morning!

Chamomile Essential Oil: Chamomile essential oil is an ultra convenient and effective way to enjoy the beneficial parasympathetic effects of chamomile. You can simply smell the essential oil from the bottle, place a few drops into a diffuser, or apply it directly to parts of your body like your temples, forehead, the back of the neck, and your chest. I find chamomile essential oil if applied directly to the body to be more sedative in effect than chamomile tea, so it’s best used at night or when you quickly need to calm down and relax.

Chamomile Herb for Vaporizing or Smoking: Dried chamomile flower can also be shredded by hand or with a herb grinder and vaporized or smoked for a relaxant effect. I recommend dry herb vaporization because no carcinogenic smoke is produced in the process, but if you’re already a smoker then incorporating chamomile into your tobacco cigarettes, cannabis joints/bowls, or herbal smoking blend is really simple. Vaped or smoked cannabis has a pleasant sweet taste and has an nice overall calming effect that lasts quite a while.

For those who are struggling with chronic mental fatigue and the symptoms of brain fog, chamomile is my top recommendation for helping with the problem. Chamomile is an amazing herb for overall health and wellness, and while it won’t fix brain fog in one day, if chamomile is used consistently then it will almost certainly have a large positive effect.

Chronic mental fatigue takes time to develop, it sometimes develops over many years, and it’s the beneficial habits that can be done daily for long periods of time that will prove the most useful in reversing brain fog, and chamomile is one of the best herbs for this.

Organic dried chamomile flower and blue chamomile essential oil can be purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs. I like to use and combine both in my self-care practices, and if you pick up one then I recommend you purchase the other too.

Medicinal Mushrooms for Brain Fog

Not all mushrooms are poisonous or cause psychedelic effects, and the medicinal mushrooms I have listed below are safe and have a bunch of great wellness benefits. Every medicinal mushrooms varies in their chemical composition, but in general they contain phytochemicals like polysaccharides, beta-glucans, and triterpenoids which benefit your brain as well as other parts of the body.

Reishi Mushroom

Reishi mushroom is one of my favorite “herbs” for helping with brain fog not only because it’s very effective in doing this but also because in my neighborhood Ganoderma sessile, a type of reishi mushroom, grows everywhere and I have a lot of personal experience in using this mushroom.

Reishi mushroom is polypore mushroom nearly impossible to misidentify once its distinguishing features are known, and it has broad effects throughout the body. One of the main benefits of reishi is that it activates the parasympathetic nervous system, just like chamomile, thereby promoting rest and relaxation after use. In fact you can brew reishi and chamomile together into a tea and just like as described above and drink this tea throughout the day to help remedy long-term brain fog.

Reishi mushroom can be purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs in a variety of formats from whole cap to slices to powder to extract, and 1:1 reishi mushroom supplement capsules and 8:1 reishi mushroom supplement capsules that are more concentrated in active ingredients can be purchased from Nootropics Depot.

I wrote a full article on using reishi mushroom for stress, chronic fatigue, and anxiety, and if you’d like to learn more about the many other health benefits of reishi mushroom then you can read the reishi mushroom herbal page. You can also watch my video below!

Chaga Mushroom

Chaga mushroom is very useful in the treatment of mental fatigue and brain fog because it contains many powerful antioxidants, is anti-inflammatory, and optimizes the cardiovascular and nervous systems by calming erratic heart rhythms and increasing the contractile power of the heart. Chaga also contains antimicrobial compounds which benefit the microbiome of the gut by selecting against harmful pathogens while simultaneously supporting good symbiotic bacteria.

As you can see, these natural products are all similar in their ability to help treat mental fatigue because they target not only the brain, but also the heart and gut . Stress destabilizes the proper functioning of the heart, nervous system, and digestive system, and the herbs that support the actions of these parts of the body, in addition to any direct cognitive benefits they have, improve the functioning of the brain.

Chaga mushroom can be purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs as a course powder which can easily be brewed alongside coffee to create a chaga coffee. Nootropics Depot also sells a 1:1 chaga extract powder which is more concentrated in active ingredients and mixes very easily into any beverage.

Chaga is an ingredient that’s part of a nootropic coffee blend that I absolutely love, and if you’re a regular coffee drinker then I recommend you learn more about the best nootropic coffee, as that provides an easy route to creating a daily habit which will help reduce your brain fog and also dependence on coffee. One cup of this nootropic coffee is enough to power you throughout the day without any need for additional cups of coffee, which helps to reduce the possibility of a caffeine tolerance building up, something which commonly occurs with people who are trying to stimulate away their brain fog. More on that below.

Cordyceps Mushroom

Cordyceps mushroom is another medicinal mushroom that has broad health benefits, it’s especially well-known for its physical endurance and stamina promoting effects. The exact mechanisms for how cordyceps improves energy metabolism isn’t known, but its thought to interact and improve the functioning of mitochondria, the energy powerhouses of our cells. By improving mitochondrial function, cordyceps not only improves physical energy levels but also mental energy levels, especially if taken daily.

I supplemented with cordyceps mushrooms extensively to aid in my weight training a few years back, and I could tell one of the reasons it improves physical endurance is by increasing mental focus. It’s easier to push through something when you’re more focused on your desired outcome, and if chronic mental fatigue is a problem during work or any other time of the day where focus is required, then cordyceps will help. Cordyceps can also be used to help treat acute fatigue, it’s a supplement that can be used for both acute and chronic tiredness and brain fog.

I share my full experience with cordyceps mushroom and talk about it more with my friend Rob in this video interview.

Cordyceps mushroom can be purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs, and Nootropics Depot also sells a 1:1 cordyceps mushroom powder as well as a 10:1 cordyceps mushroom powde, both of which are concentrated in cordyceps’s main active ingredients.

Lion’s Mane Mushroom

Lion’s mane mushroom is another medicinal mushroom useful in improving the functioning of the brain, but it’s a bit different than the others because it has been well shown that lion’s mane promotes neurogenesis! Neurogenesis is the growth of new neurons, and any brain under stress and experiencing chronic fatigue is a brain that is losing brain cells due to increased inflammation and apoptosis. One way to turn around overall neurocognitive conditions, either minor like brain fog or more major like dementia, is to increase neurogenesis in the brain.

Supplementing with lion’s mane mushroom, either with a lion’s mane extract like the one sold by Mountain Rose Herbs, or with more condensed supplements like the 1:1 lion’s mane mushroom powder or the 8:1 lion’s mane mushroom powder sold by Nootropics Depot, is an excellent way to incorporate the neurogenesis benefits of lion’s mane into your everyday life.

My friend Rob from Secrets of the Underground made a good video which explores the benefits of these four medicinal mushrooms along with turkey tail (another good one), and you’ll see a cameo of me starting at 07:44 ;)

Note - Yes lots of YouTube videos in this article from myself or my friend Rob, and if you want to reinforce what you’ve learned in this article then I suggest you add these videos to your watch later playlist and enjoy them at some future point in time.

Gut Health for Brain Fog

While this recommendation isn’t a supplement, for your best success in overcoming mental fatigue it’s necessary to mention the very important role gut health has in the development of mental fatigue and mental health problems. The gut and brain are linked via what’s known as the Gut-Brain Axis, and when the digestive system is functioning poorly and microbiome is pathogenic in nature, then the functioning of the brain suffers. Once you learn of how this connection works, then it becomes much easier to consciously make choices which improve the functioning of your gut-brain axis and therefore your mental health and overall wellness.

Gut-Brain Axis

The gut-brain axis is a bidirectional connection pathway that exists between the gut microbiome and nervous system + brain, and not only does the microbiome effect the functioning of the brain, but conditions of the nervous system and brain like stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and more in-turn effect the microbiome and gut.

Put simply, if you want your brain to work optimally, then attention must be given to gut health and the condition of the microbiome. The gut and brain are connected together via four main pathways:

1. Neurologic - Neurologic signals are sent between the gut and brain via the vagus nerve, with neurologic signals being the fastest mode of information transfer between the gut and brain.

2. Endocrine - The digestive system is a key component of the endocrine (hormone) system, and changes in the functioning and expression of the gut alter the overall status of the endocrine system and hormonal secretion as a result.

3. Metabolic - Compounds with metabolic functions that the microbiome produce like short-chain fatty acids influence overall metabolism which then affects cognitive ability. Having unstable blood sugar levels for example can result in periods of focus-scattered hyperactivity followed by energy crashes and brain fog.

4. Immune - The immune system protects the body from foreign microorganisms and unwanted compounds, and in the cleanup process they produce inflammatory cytokines. If the immune system is overly stressed then inflammation becomes rampant throughout the body and brain, which effects physical, mental, and emotional status.

Cultivate a Healthy Microbiome

Humans have co-evolved with microorganisms for millions of years, and having a healthy microbiome is so important for overall health and wellness in many different ways. The types of microorganisms that inhabit the gut have a big impact on general brain health, neurocognitive and neurodegenerative disorders, and brain performance.

To explain the relationship in more detail, microorganisms produce chemicals that are either useful or harmful to the body. In the large intestine where most of the gut microbiome resides, symbiotic (helpful) and pathogenic (harmful) microorganisms reside. Symbiotic and pathogenic microorganisms compete against each other for resources and space, and to survive pathogens produce and release toxins into their immediate environment. These toxins hurt symbionts, degrade gut tissues, reduce overall digestive function, and if absorbed into the bloodstream create inflammation throughout the body and brain. Symbiotic microorganisms on the other hand produce natural antimicrobial compounds which keep pathogens in check, and if symbiotic microorganisms are fed with fiber and flavonoids, they respectively produce short-chain fatty acids and beneficial secondary metabolites which are biologically beneficial for metabolism, cognitive health, and gut health.

A microbiome with too many pathogens exposes you to greater levels of toxins than your body can normally cope with and handle without much fuss, and a common result of having this type of microbiome is poor gut health, chronic inflammation, and brain fog.

Luckily shifting the microbiome towards greater symbiotic function is relatively simple! It’s outside the scope of this article but if you’d like to learn how you can do this you can read my article How to Restore Healthy Gut Flora or purchase the Holistic Gut Health Guide which covers how to improve gut naturally in-depth.

Heal Your Gut Naturally

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Holistic Gut Health Guide eBook

Sale Price:$12.95 Original Price:$18.95

Together the digestive system and microbiome are the foundation of health from which everything else is dependent on.

The Holistic Gut Health Guide contains all the information you need to identify and understand the gastrointestinal and microbiome problems you may have while also providing you the most effective natural methods you can use to heal your gut. No gut health problems are unsolvable, give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

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Ashwagandha for Brain Fog

Ashwagandha is a powerful adaptogenic herb well-known in the ayurvedic system of medicine that contains many beneficial compounds such as alkaloids, lactones, and saponins. Ashwagandha is an herb that can be used to treat both acute or chronic mental fatigue. Ashwagandha has the following cognitive benefits:

• Ashwagandha leaf and root extracts reduce symptoms of anxiety, comparable to pharmaceutical drugs

• Ashwagandha inhibits nerve cells from over firing

• Slows, stops, and even reverses neural decay by promoting the growth of new neurons and by creating new synaptic connections

• Comparable to pharmaceutical drugs in reducing symptoms of depression, stabilizes mood

• Normalizes dopamine levels to normal, increasing dopamine levels in those suffering from Parkinson’s disease

• Intensifies acetylcholine, glutathione, and secretase enzyme activity

• Inhibits the production of amyloid beta plaques in those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease

• Helps to reverse addiction through its balancing actions on neurotransmitters GABA and serotonin

All of these cognitive benefits help with mental stress, and ashwagandha further helps with mental fatigue through how it supports the functioning of the adrenal glands. An interesting effect of ashwagandha is if it is supplemented before a stressful event/task, the stress response and the amount of cortisol that is secreted after the stressor is greatly blunted, allowing for faster recovery.

Mental fatigue and the corresponding brain fog is often a result of a dysfunctional Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis. the endocrine glands of the HPA-axis influence a lot of biologic functions throughout the body and one’s physiological status, and when the HPA-axis is constantly loaded with greater demands due to stress, it becomes deficient in necessary nutrients and changes its secretion of hormones in response to the demands placed upon it. By stopping the adrenal glands, and the HPA-axis in general, from generating a strong reaction to a stressful event, it provides an opportunity to the body to recharge and begin returning to normal physiological function.

For treating acute bouts of mental fatigue, ashwagandha is best used before the stressful event is to occur, or as soon as possible after it’s happened, and for helping with chronic brain fog ashwagandha should be used daily at a lesser dose.

Various ashwagandha products can be purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs, and ashwagandha can also be purchased form Nootropics Depot in a variety of formulations, the two I recommend being the standard ashwagandha powder and the other being the shoden ashwagandha powder.

Caffeine for Brain Fog

Lastly we arrive at caffeine, probably the most well-known and abused compound used to help with brain fog and mental fatigue. Caffeine has been well-studied in how it affects the brain and how it improves certain measures of mental performance like focus, attention span, reaction speed, and more, and caffeine also helps reduce sleepiness. For these reasons caffeine is very effective in ameliorating some of the effects of acute mental fatigue if a preexisting caffeine tolerance doesn’t exist, and what’s common is after people first notice some success with caffeine they begin to consume too much caffeine too often in hope of treating not the acute but the chronic brain fog they have. Caffeine is not useful in treating chronic mental fatigue because its stimulatory, and if overused in this manner it’ll usually make the situation worse.

If you have chronic daily brain fog and mental sluggishness, then I recommend you reduce your caffeine intake (if you’re consuming it) to under 100 mg a day, the equivalent of 1 cup of coffee or a couple cups of tea. To learn more on the science behind how caffeine works and how to do, this read my Caffeine Usage and Tolerance Reset Guide.

With that disclaimer said, caffeine is very effective for helping alleviate an acute bout of brain fog brought on from one-off events like a poor night’s sleep or temporarily increased mental and/or emotional stress. The feeling of brain fog can also sometimes descend when dealing with/studying a very mentally complex and demanding subject, and caffeine can also be used in these situations to assist with the increased information processing demands.

One important note with caffeine is that it blocks the binding of adenosine to adenosine receptors in the brain. If caffeine is consumed too early after waking up, adenosine builds up in the brain, and then when the caffeine wears off the flood of adenosine then causes an energy crash. A better method of using caffeine is to wait 90+ minutes after waking up to consume it, which allows the brain to process a lot of the adenosine in that first 90 minutes, and then when the caffeine wears off later, not as much adenosine is pooled up and ready to activate adenosine receptors.

The most common ways to ingest caffeine are by drinking tea or coffee, though caffeine pills are also a viable alternative.

Green Tea

Green tea is my favorite way to consuming caffeine because each cup of green tea only contains about 30-45 mg of caffeine versus 95 mg per cup of coffee, and green tea also contains plant polyphenols known as green tea catechins which have many beneficial health effects. Green tea also naturally contains L-theanine, an amino acid that helps to stabilize the energy increasing effect of caffeine while simultaneously promoting better sleep. Green tea is a wonderful beverage with a broad holistic effect for treating acute mental fatigue, and with each cup of caffeine containing much less caffeine than a cup of coffee, it’s easier to carefully dose caffeine upwards in a sequential manner with green tea to avoid a caffeine overload and subsequent energy crash.

A variety of green teas can be purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs, Nootropics Depot sells a green tea extract powder and a green tea extract + piperine supplement (piperine is another cognitive boosting compound), and Pique Tea sells green tea crystals that are super convenient and dissolve easily in both hot and cold water.

Coffee

Coffee is the classic beverage of choice fueling millions of people around the world day in and day out, and for good reason! Coffee contains a bunch of beneficial plant phytochemicals, and at ~95 mg of caffeine per cup, one cup of coffee is a significant pick-me-up which can reduce brain fog and the feelings of mental fatigue. Since coffee contains more caffeine than tea, it’s best to stop coffee consumption after 4pm in order to not deviate the circadian rhythm and cortisol secretion (remember caffeine simulates cortisol) too far off normal. The beneficial effects of caffeine greatly taper off after 300 mg, so if you are going to drink more than one cup of coffee, stick to a maximum of three cups in the ideal 90 minutes after waking up to 4pm drinking window.

Other nootropics mix well with coffee, and if you want to experiment with boosting the beneficial mental effects of coffee, then read my article on the best nootropic coffee.

Brain Fog Treatment

How you treat brain fog and mental fatigue is dependent on whether the effect is acute or chronic in nature. Chronic mental fatigue is best treated supplementally with herbs and medicinal mushrooms that activate the parasympathetic nervous system and support the HPA-axis, whereas acute brain fog can be treated preventatively by supplementing with ashwagandha or by using a stimulant like caffeine.

Each of the herbs and mushrooms listed above can be used independently for the treatment of chronic brain fog, but my recommendation would be to brew a tea from a combination of these herbs, for example a 1:1:1 blend of equal parts chamomile:reishi mushroom:green tea would be broadly supportive to the body and brain and overtime will help greatly in reducing chronic fatigue.

If you suspect your mental fatigue is just a symptom of a larger problem like chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as adrenal fatigue, then I suggest you read my article on adrenal fatigue to learn more about the condition and what you can holistically do to turn the issue around.

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Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.

References:

1. Miraj S, Alesaeidi S. A systematic review study of therapeutic effects of Matricaria recuitta chamomile (Chamomile). Electron physician. 2016;8(9):3024-3031.

2. McCraty R. The Energetic Heart. HeartMath Institute; 2003

3. Batra P, Sharma AK, Khajuria R. Probing lingzhi or reishi medicinal mushroom ganoderma lucidum (Higher basidiomycetes): a bitter mushroom with amazing health benefits. Int J Med Mushr. 2013;15(2):127-143.

4. Shashkina MYa, Shashkin PN, Sergeev AV. Chemical and medicobiological properties of chaga (Review). Pharm Chem J. 2006;40(10):560-568.

5. Das SK, Masuda M, Sakurai A, Sakakibara M. Medicinal uses of the mushroom Cordyceps militaris: Current state and prospects. Fitoterapia. 2010;81(8):961-968.

6. Ryu S, Kim HG, Kim JY, Kim SY, Cho KO. hericium erinaceus extract reduces anxiety and depressive behaviors by promoting hippocampal neurogenesis in the adult mouse brain. Journal of Medicinal Food. 2018;21(2):174-180.

7. Zahiruddin S, Basist P, Parveen A, et al. Ashwagandha in brain disorders: A review of recent developments. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 2020;257:112876.

8. Cooper R. Green tea and theanine: health benefits. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. 2012;63(sup1):90-97.

9. Smith A. Effects of caffeine on human behavior. Food and Chemical Toxicology. 2002;40(9):1243-1255.

10. Papadopoulos, A., Cleare, A. Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis dysfunction in chronic fatigue syndrome. Nat Rev Endocrinol 8, 22–32 (2012).

Earthing - Connect to the Earth and Heal

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated August 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

There is a natural, free, and non-invasive health and wellness practice that exists that provides you the most benefits for the least amount of work of any holistic wellness practice that I know of.

This wellness practice, known as earthing or grounding, is as old as time, and recently thanks to the determination of a few resourceful people it’s been rediscovered from a modern scientific perspective.

Earthing is as simple as placing your bare feet on some grass or going for a swim in the ocean.

With earthing you will experience significant changes in a very subtle way. Seems like a paradox but that’s the best way to describe the effects that happen when you begin grounding often. Consistently reconnecting with the Earth’s natural energy restores to the body a vital element largely absent in your life (unless you’re already grounding often 👏).

Your bodies bioelectric system which controls every cellular function operates best when connected to the Earth’s electric field regularly, and if you ground yourself often you will experience a complete physiological and psychological renewal from your DNA up.

Earthing is one of the easiest things you can do for your health that will create more more vitality in your life, and without any negative side effects. Earthing regulates the master bioelectric switch board that controls inflammation, pain, DNA expression, nervous system activity, and so much more.

Put simply, connect to the Earth and heal. In this article we’ll discuss what earthing is, how earthing benefits human bioelectricity, earthing’s numerous health benefits, the geophysics of earthing, and methods of incorporating earthing into your everyday lifestyle.

How Earthing Affects Human Bioelectricity

While it helps to understand how earthing works in a complete sense by examining the geophysics of the Earth’s global electric circuit (covered in the geophysics section), we’ll start with how connecting to the earth affects human bioelectricity. It’s how earthing changes the functioning of the human bioelectrical system that provides it its many and sometimes miraculous health benefits.

We are Electrical Beings

The Earth and the human body are both electrically conductive. What this means is that negatively charged electrons can move easily through both. The Earth is conductive because of it’s mineral content, hydrosphere, and ionosphere, and the human body is conductive because we are made up of mostly water, have numerous electrolytes in our body, and have dedicated cellular structures like neurons and connective tissues which easily conduct electricity. Because of this we are strongly influenced by our external electrical environment. Want to measure the activity of the nervous system? Perform a simple skin conductance test. Some of the bodies most complex systems can be accurately measured in their functioning by testing simple properties like skin conductance or heart rate variability. The relationship between biology and electromagnetism goes very deep,

The human bioelectrical system starts with DNA, the blueprint and building blocks of life, and then works its way up to larger structures like endocannabinoid receptors, cell membranes, neurons, and interstitial connective tissues. The largest expression of the human bioelectrical system is the heart, brain, and human biofield (in spiritual terms, the aura).

All life evolved in the varying electromagnetic fields of the Earth and cosmos at large, from the Earth’s global electric circuit to natural energy fields like the Schumann resonances.

The Schumann Resonances - What are they?

As life evolved for millions of years saturated in these energy fields, its interactions with them became increasingly complex, at which point we reach Homo sapiens (us!), one of the most bioelectrically advanced species on the planet.

For example it appears our brain evolved to transmit to and receive information from a worldwide energy field which Carl Jung dubbed the Collective Unconscious. Our bioelectrical systems evolved for more than just ensuring the proper functioning of our body but also to connect all of humanity over space-time at the speed of light, pretty cool huh?

How to Connect your Brain to the Schumann Resonances

I lay this out because I want to impress upon you some of the amazing complexities of human bioelectricity, and how if the bioelectrical system is functioning properly, how optimizing its functioning can help us achieve amazing accomplishments. It’s the status of the bioelectrical system that determines whether one can perform incredible feats of athleticism or transcend to higher states of consciousness.

Without regularly grounding to the Earth the human bioelectrical system can never operate to its greatest potential, and some metaphysical evidence for this is that grounding can increase lucid dreaming and ESP abilities.

The Heart is the Core of the Bioelectrical System

Every heartbeat is a contraction of the heart muscle generated by an intrinsically produced electrical signal from specialized cardiac cells. This signal is measurable via an electrocardiogram (ECG) and each heartbeat also produces an nanotesla strength (nT) magnetic field that’s measurable with specialized magnetometers.

What’s recently been scientifically discovered is that the heart functions much better when grounded to the Earth. Most people know of a “ground” as a conductive object (typically an iron rod) that is driven into the earth in order to absorb or dissipate electrical charge, allowing what ever is connected to the ground to remain at the same electrical potential as the Earth. Put another way, anytime two conductive objects make contact, electrons flow from where they are abundant to where they aren't abundant, which equalizes both objects to each other. In a nutshell that's earthing, it’s simply an electric equalization to the Earth.

The heart, just like any modern electrical appliance, likewise also benefits from being grounded to the relatively stable electrical potential of the Earth. How the body operates from DNA expression all the way to each heartbeat and your brainwaves is strongly influenced by the internal bioelectrical environment of the body, and when the Earth’s stabilizing electrical reference point is present, the bioelectrical system operates better with less problems.

One way earthing has been qualitatively measured to improve the functioning of the heart is by how it improves heart rate variability.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV): The variation in the amount of time between heartbeats.

Depending on a variety of factors, most notably your breathing, the time in-between heartbeats increases and decreases over time. HRV is the most accurate predictor of sudden death and is a very good measure of stress. When the time variation between heartbeats is low, then the cardiac system is performing poorly as compared to when HRV is high.

In addition to earthing, your mental and emotional status influences HRV.

CC - McCraty R. The Energetic Heart. HeartMath Institute; 2003

By taking your rubber/plastic insulating shoes off and walking barefoot on a natural surface like a grass lawn, dirt, or rock, or by going for a swim in a body of water (the saltier the better), the entire body grounds to the electric potential of the earth due to the movement of free electrons in the body. With the body neutralized of erroneous charges, the heart is able to function better and heartbeats become coherent and regular in their pattern like shown in the graphic above.

Earthing Improves Energy Circulation

Most people live highly insulated from the Earth’s natural conductive environment. They wear insulating plastic and rubber shoes, they live and work in buildings elevated from the earth often made with insulating materials like wood and plastic, and they sleep in comfy beds with big fluffy sheets. Most people are disconnected and “Earth starved”.

More evidence for this comes in the fact that the sole of the foot contains about 1300 nerve endings per inch, one of the highest nerve densities anywhere on the entire human body. Our feet are big conductive electrical paddles meant to regularly be in contact with the conductive surface of the Earth as we go about our day, and this used to be the case up till the advent of modern human society.

Connecting to the Earth often reduces electrical imbalances in the body and improves energy circulation. Anytime you are grounded you don’t carry a built-up charge, and it’s electrical charges in the body that determine a lot of things such as inflammation, the activity of the nervous system, pain and much more. Built-up charges in parts of the body inhibit the easy flow of bioelectric energy, which disrupts overall health and wellness.

Earthing Health Benefits

As a holistic health method earthing helps the body in the ways it needs and isn't necessarily directable. That said earthing commonly helps with a wide variety of conditions and can be employed daily to help with symptom management and also to heal the underlying causal problems.

The human bioelectrical system is the base layer that influences and controls nearly every every aspect of health, and earthing are we evolved to do stabilizes the bioelectric system to the Earth’s surface electric field. As part of our evolutionary heritage, earthing has notable cardiovascular, cognitive, nervous system, digestive, hormonal, and physical health benefits.

Earthing Cardiovascular Benefits

Earthing improves circulation by reducing blood viscosity to its normal level. Red blood cells carry a negative surface charge so they are repelled from one another and don’t clump. The greater the positive charge that builds in the body by staying insulated from the Earth’s negative potential, the weaker the negative surface charge of red blood cells, known as zeta potential. How earthing improves zeta potential is one of its biggest effects.

To preventing clumping of red blood cells, blood viscosity is reduced and the heart has an easier job pumping blood throughout the body and into the small blood vessels and very narrow capillaries. By improving blood electrodynamics, earthing reduces high blood pressure and reduces inflammation. Earthing has also been shown to reduce coronary artery disease, arrhythmias, and diabetes. And as discussed already Earthing improves HRV, a very important measure of overall health.

Earthing Nervous System Benefits

The nervous system runs on electrochemical impulses, and by neutralizing any imbalanced charges throughout the body via the stream of free electrons that earthing moves through the body, the nervous system is stabilized in its functioning.

In order for electrical impulses anywhere in the body to be detected and then acted upon, the strength of the signal must stand out significantly from background bioelectrical noise. When ungrounded the bioelectrical noise of the body is higher and therefore bioelectrical signals must be stronger to be actionable, which requires more energy and resources, or certain functions are simply given up as being too costly and are not possible to do, which manifests as a limitation of potential (aka nervous system disorder or simply a reduction in physical/mental ability).

By stabilizing the nervous system and reducing bioelectric noise, earthing helps with disorders of the nervous system like Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis. Earthing activates the “rest and digest” parasympathetic nervous system instantly. Stress of any kind whether physical, mental, or emotional activates the “fight or flight” sympathetic nervous system, increasing cortisol and adrenaline secretion, and by shifting the body back towards a more balanced ratio between sympathetic and parasympathetic activity, grounding reduces stress, anxiety, and promotes a deeper more restful sleep. Sleep is when the body undergoes its daily tune-up, repairing and regenerating whatever needs to be fixed, and these natural rejuvenating processes work best when the body is a quiet calm state of nervous system activity.

The body is highly interlinked and it’s these nervous system benefits that are partly responsible for the cardiovascular, cognitive, and digestive benefits that earthing offers.

Note - If you’re really struggling from nervous system dysfunctions then alongside earthing use a natural herbal like reishi mushroom. Reishi mushroom can be used to help treat stress, anxiety, and chronic fatigue, learn more.

Earthing Cognitive Benefits

The bioelectrical neurology of the brain is incredibly sensitive, and by stabilizing the bodies bioelectrical system and reducing excess bioelectrical noise, earthing improves the functioning of the brain. Earthing helps with anxiety, depression, insomnia, and other mental health disturbances, and earthing also improves brainwave activity.

Earthing helps with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and other neurocognitive diseases, and in general earthing improves cognitive abilities and performance. Earthing has been linked to an increase in lucid dreaming and precognition.

Another big benefit of earthing is that it shields you from power grid, WiFi, and cellular electropollution. The body did not evolve in the presence of high frequency microwaves which cycle millions to billions of times per second, and these rapid electromagnetic oscillations disturb the brain via interactions with magnetosomes.

If you ever get into that tired but wired state, where the mind is racing but the body wants to rest and you’re unable to relax/sleep, then the best thing you can do is to ground yourself and neutralize your bioelectrical system back to the Earth’s normal electric potential.

Note - Watch my video to learn more about how electrosmog impacts the brain (YouTube link).

Earthing Gut Health Benefits

Wild Free Organic has a lot of articles on gut health, and we’re also the home of the Holistic Gut Health Guide eBook, and I mention this because if you have gut health problems then know that earthing is another wellness practice that greatly benefits gut health because of how it normalizes nervous system activity. By increasing parasympathetic “rest and digest” activity, earthing normalizes gut motility and helps the body maintain consistent and regular waves of smooth muscle activity that move food through the digestive system. In this way earthing helps with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), reduces constipation, and helps with acid reflux.

Note - If you’re really struggling with IBS, peppermint has proven useful for IBS and can be used alongside earthing to enact noticeable improvements.

Earthing Hormonal Benefits

Earthing benefits the endocrine system greatly for both men and women, mainly because it helps to reduce the release of over-stimulated hormones (in modern society) like cortisol while increasing the secretion of under-stimulated hormones like melatonin. Earthing smooths out hormonal imbalances for both men and women.

Earthing is overall helpful for periods, reducing PMS, cramps, and sometimes even period duration. For women who are perimenopausal or in menopause, earthing helps reduce hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, and irritability.

For men earthing can help with erectile dysfunction because of how it improves blood flow, and in general is beneficial for the male hormone system*.

Earthing has also been shown to improve blood glucose through its interactions with the pancreas and insulin secretion.

*Note - If you’re a man and want to boost your testosterone and functioning down under while also improving your overall health and wellness then check out the natural herb cistanche. Average testosterone levels have been declining for decades now and cistanche boosts testosterone effectively.

Earthing Physical Benefits

Earthing has many benefits for the tissue and muscular systems of the body. Whether you’re an athlete or someone wanting to move and feel better, earthing can improve your physical fitness. Earthing improves sleep quality which aids in rest and recovery, it reduces pain, speeds up wound healing, decreases muscle protein breakdown, and has even been shown to improve flexibility.

If you have any sort of physical impairment, wound, injury, or are striving to optimize your athletic abilities to the max*, then earthing consistently everyday is an absolute must.

*Note - The endocannabinoid system is one component of the bioelectric system, and cannabinoids benefit athletes if used appropriately and responsibly.

Other Earthing Benefits

It should be clear by now that earthing has a tremendously beneficial impact on health because it targets an aspect of human biology that is at the foundation of our existence, human bioelectricity. As such it should be no surprise then that there exist even more heath benefits to earthing that haven’t already been discussed. For example:

• Earthing improves renal (kidney) function

• Earthing helps with glaucoma

• Earthing relieves acute and chronic pain

• Earthing speeds up wound healing

• Earthing reduces bacterial growth

• And I’ll say it once more, GROUNDING REDUCES INFLAMMATION (the main driver of 80+ diseases)

Geophysics of Earthing

You’ve now been primed on earthing, bioelectricity, and the health benefits of being grounded, but you may be asking why this is even a thing in the first place?

Well the reason why earthing is something we evolved to do naturally is because the Earth is a 6 sextillion metric ton battery continually replenished with energy from solar radiation and internal radioactivity. This energy keeps the Earth’s geologic processes going which generates a magnetic field deep within its core. From this internal electromagnetism all the other electromagnetic forces of the Earth like the Schumann resonances, telluric currents, and the global electric circuit derive from.

The Global Electric Circuit

About 100 kilometers above the surface of the Earth radiation from the Sun strips electrons from the gas molecules of the atmosphere and breaks their chemical bonds, creating highly charged ions. This atmospheric layer is known as the ionosphere, and its electric potential ranges from 250-500,000 volts. The electric potential of the Earth’s surface is about zero, so as you move up in the atmosphere towards the ionosphere the electric potential increases*. While air is a poor conductor of electricity, it can build up a static charge due to thermal heat convection and the movement of water. As this happens weather storms develop and the built-up atmospheric charge will discharge eventually either via rainfall or lightning strikes. Across the globe lightning strikes 50-150 times a second, and with each lightning bolt being a massive surge of electrons, the Earth’s surface is continuously replenished with free electrons from the constant lightning activity.

Credit: NSF, Jeffrey Forbes - University of Colorado at Boulder

To explain how this works a bit more, as a storm system grows, a positive charge builds in the ground surface underneath, and once the electric potentials of the Earth’s surface and storm clouds reach a critical point, the resistance of the air is able to be overcome and the opposite electric charges of the two systems equalize via a lightning channel (see right side of graphic above). These massive surges of electrons create conductive ionized gas channels which they flow through, always moving along path of least resistance which is either in-between points within the storm system or downwards towards the ground.

*Note - At 1.5 meters up (about head level) the electric potential is around +350 volts, but since air is such a poor conductor of electricity you don’t get zapped from the voltage gradient that exists in-between your feet and head. Since the human body is conductive, if you’re grounded the near-zero electric potential of the Earth rises up to your head and creates a protective umbrella effect that shields you from EMFs and electropollution.

Variations in the Earth’s Surface Electric Potential

The earth’s surface electrical potential isn’t always the same, as discussed above it changes based on atmospheric activity and during storms, its primary rhythm though is that it increases during the day due to solar radiation and decreases at night as the Sun’s energetic influence is removed.

In this way grounding is one of the primary signals the body uses to stabilize its circadian rhythm, in addition to the diurnal fluctuations in visible light and temperature. Having a in-sync circadian rhythm is of course vital to good health and wellness.

When the Earth’s surface electrical potential changes rapidly, like during a powerful thunderstorm, bioelectrically sensitive people sometimes experience symptoms like fatigue, anxiety, headaches, and just overall instability. This can also happen during a full moon. Every 28 days the moon lines up with the Earth and Sun and is positioned inside Earth’s magnetotail, accumulating electrical potential from the Sun non-stop and also from plasma waves from within Earth’s magnetotail. At night on Earth this built-up lunar charge discharges down Earth’s magnetic field lines to our planet’s surface and has a measurable influence on the Earth’s surface electric potential causing it to become more volatile than usual.

I found this Earth-full moon electromagnetic interaction fascinating so I made a video on it which you can watch below to learn more!

The Science of How Full Moon Electromagnetism Affects your Body

How to Ground Yourself

The beautiful thing about grounding as a wellness practice is that it requires almost zero effort, just awareness of whether you’re grounded or not. Overtime grounding will become second nature to you and won’t require any special planning or willpower to accomplish. Below are the easiest ways to practice earthing.

Walk Barefoot

Our feet our loaded with nerve endings, we evolved to walk barefoot and remain in grounded contact with the Earth at all times, and walking barefoot is therefore one of the best ways to ground yourself. When at the park, beach, or in nature kick the shoes off and spend time with your feet in direct contact with the surface of the ground. Wet sand at the beach or wet grass are especially conductive and also simply feel wonderful.

This advice goes beyond just barefoot contact with the Earth. Laying down or meditating in lotus posture in a natural environment will also ground your body, though it may not be as quick in effect. Do some yoga in the park(!), the more time you spend grounded the better.

Go for a Swim

Water can be an excellent conductor of electricity depending on the amount dissolved ions. Ions from salts like NaCl assist in the transfer of electrons, so going for a swim in a salty body of water like the ocean washes you in free electrons and beneficial minerals. The nice thing about swimming is that the entire body is immersed and grounds simultaneously from the outside in. When standing barefoot a wave of free electrons will travel upwards from the feet, and it can take 30+ minutes for the entire body all the way up to the head to become grounded, whereas with swimming the effect is much quicker.

There’s a reason why going for a swim, laying out on the beach, and sunbathing feel so good…you’re earthing the entire time and while also charging your body with solar radiation!

Using a Grounding Mat or Blanket

When unable to spend time outside you can ground yourself using a grounding mat or blanket. Grounding mats and blankets are made of electrically conductive materials and are either connected to the ground port of a building’s electrical system or are connected directly to a ground rod placed outside. I personally only recommend using a grounding mat or blanket if you connect it to a grounding rod you yourself place some distance away from the building. The standard ground rod for a building is placed along its side and its wires run alongside the electrical wires, picking up the electrical field from the power system.

Find a spot of ground far removed from any electrical equipment, lines, transformers, etc and drive in a ground rod there. Connect your grounding mats and blankets to that ground rod using a shielded wire and check the connection occasionally to make sure it hasn’t been broken.

Sleeping grounded is one of the best things you can do for your health, so I recommend sleeping with a grounding sheet connected in this manner. If you want to go all out and purchase a grounding sheet for the bed, a grounding mat, a grounded pillowcase, and grounding patches (for localized pain relief), as well as learn more about Earthing, then you can purchase the Earthing Starter Kit from Earthing.

I want to be clear that grounding sheets and mats are not required to incorporate earthing into your life, but if an honest examination of your lifestyle reveals that you’re unlikely to spend as much time outside as would be needed for best effect, or you have a mental or physical disability which limits your ability to ground naturally, then earthing products are an excellent way to enjoy all the benefits of earthing from within your home or office. Because earthing is so foundational to health, any money spent on earthing products that actually gets you grounded daily will turn our to be one of if not the best health investments you’ve ever made (alongside the Holistic Gut Health Guide 😉).

Interact with an Electrically Conductive Object

Another way to ground yourself not discussed often is to interact with an electrically conductive object that has a neutral charge. This can be the metal railing outside a building, a metal water pipe, or even something as simple as a chunk of metal.

For example I have small sphere of pure copper than I’ll hold occasionally if I’m inside and on the computer for a longer period of time than normal. Since copper is so conductive, any excess electrical charge that I have built-up will flow to the copper sphere, and then when I put it down, it’ll slowly discharge back to neutral ready for the next time I use it. Something like this is great for localized pain relief, I personally use it most for hand or abdominal pain.

Don’t be Electron Deficient Any Longer

As you can see, earthing doesn’t have to be complicated. Once you have a good fundamental understanding of the biophysics and geophysics involved, which I hope this article provided you with, then you begin to see the simplicity of earthing and how staying grounded throughout the day only requires the slightest lifestyle adjustments.

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References:

1. Ober C, Sinatra S, Martin Z. Earthing. Second Edition. Basic Health Publications, Inc.; 2014.

2. Chevalier G, Sinatra ST, Oschman JL, Sokal K, Sokal P. Earthing: health implications of reconnecting the human body to the earth’s surface electrons. Journal of Environmental and Public Health. 2012;2012:1-8.

3. Chevalier, Gaétan et al. “The effect of earthing ( grounding ) on human physiology.” (2005).

4. Chevalier, Gaétan and Stephen T. Sinatra. “Emotional Stress, Heart Rate Variability, Grounding, and Improved Autonomic Tone: Clinical Applications.” (2011).

5. McCraty R. The Energetic Heart. HeartMath Institute; 2003

6. Bevington M. Lunar biological effects and the magnetosphere. Pathophysiology. 2015;22(4):211-222.

Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

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How Cistanche Boosts Testosterone

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated August 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

When it comes to natural testosterone boosting supplements, there are generally two schools of thought.

1. There are the people that don’t think it’s possible to boost androgenic hormones like testosterone naturally using herbs. These people almost always have never tried using the natural testosterone boosters that exist and do work.

2. Then there are the people who have used natural testosterone boosters like cistanche and saw the benefits from it such as increased confidence, more muscle, a strength boost, and an increase in other androgenic traits.

Interestingly the people in group 1 have no trouble believing that estrogenic hormones like estradiol can be increased using certain herbs and by eating foods like soy. Increasing testosterone naturally using herbs may not be as well studied scientifically as is the opposite of how to boost female hormone levels (in an effort to help with menopause and post-menopause symptoms), but just as it’s possible to increase circulating levels of female hormones in the body, it is possible to increase circulating levels of male hormones too.

I speak from personal experience here because I’ve successfully used cistanche to increase free testosterone by 53% in the span of one month before, and every time I’ve used cistanche since the effect was similar physiologically.

Cistanche growing in the desert

In this article we discuss how to boost testosterone naturally using a special little-known herb known as cistanche, and some other herbs, foods, and supplements that can be used simultaneously to increase the overall androgenic effect while also reducing any side-effects that may occur.

How to Boost Testosterone

To understand how total and free testosterone levels can be increased naturally, a general understanding of the endocrine (hormone) system is required.

All hormones are synthesized from cholesterol. Cholesterol is a very valuable biologic compound, produced by the body and also available via dietary sources like eggs. For men testosterone and other androgenic hormones are synthesized from cholesterol by leydig cells in the testes. In the diagram here I’ve outlined cholesterol and testosterone in red.

For any testosterone booster to work, it needs to make the steroidogenesis process more efficient, fill in some critical nutrient deficiency that is limiting steroidogenesis, or it has to trigger a greater increase in steroidogenesis.

Common nutrients that are well-known to raise testosterone levels if deficient in them are vitamin D, vitamin C, magnesium, zinc, and boron, and making sure you intake enough of these nutrients is also simply good for overall health and wellness.

Then there is cholesterol. By increasing cholesterol levels in the body more hormones can be produced. Depending on your size and sex the amount of cholesterol produced naturally by the body varies, but it’s on average about ~1000 mg a day. If you want to increase the amount of cholesterol your body has access to, then the easiest way I can recommend is to eat eggs. One large egg contains ~200 mg of cholesterol, and eating 3-5 eggs a day will by itself have a notable positive impact on your hormone system.

With these base optimizations done, if you’re still interested in raising your testosterone levels beyond normal physiological levels, then supplementing with the safe & natural herb cistanche is highly effective.

Is Cistanche the Best Natural Testosterone Booster?

Cistanche is a genus of perennial herbs consisting of 22 known species that grows well in extremely arid desert climates. One of the reasons that cistanche is still a relatively obscure herb is because it’s an endangered wild species and only found in select parts of central and east Asia. Cistanche supplement is made from the ground up stem of the plant, which contains it’s main active compounds: the plant glycosides echinacoside and acteoside.

Cistanche is popular in Chinese Traditional Medicine for its wide-ranging beneficial health effects such as:

• Enhanced cognitive function

• Improved metabolism

• Strengthens the immune system

• Is a potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant

• Supports the renal system (kidneys)

Cistanche Male Benefits

For men specifically cistanche is a useful herb because of its androgenic effects. Male hormone levels and sperm counts have been declining for decades, and cistanche can be used to reverse that trend. Whether you’re interested in boosting your testosterone, to improving your fertility, or you want to upgrade your performance in the bedroom, cistanche is a safe and natural herb than can help.

For a more detailed look at the health and androgenic benefits of cistanche check out the cistanche herb page.

How does Cistanche Work?

No human studies exist yet for cistanche, but the androgenic effects of cistanche have been studied in mice/rats and in other more isolated ways. The principal beneficial constituents of cistanche are echinacoside and acteoside, and it’s these compounds that are primarily responsible for the testosterone boosting effects of cistanche. It’s not a single pathway that cistanche activates that increase testosterone production by Leydig cells, but rather a selective activation of a few different genes and pathways that combined together to have a dramatic androgenic effect. There are also a few lifestyle factors that if done alongside cistanche supplementation greatly boost the overall effect.

The Liver and Cholesterol

To start, cistanche has been shown to significantly reduce serum cholesterol levels in mice which were fed a high-cholesterol diet. Cistanche does this by enhancing cholesterol transport from the digestive system to the liver. The liver is the primary chemical factory for the body, and it’s at the liver that cholesterol is encapsulated into lipoproteins made of lipids (fats) and proteins. Lipoproteins travel in the bloodstream to deliver cholesterol and triglycerides to the cells of the body. In addition to hormones, cholesterol is a major component of cell membranes, and cells throughout the body require cholesterol for their regular upkeep and biologic functions.

Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is the main lipoprotein responsible for transporting cholesterol throughout the body. As LDL cholesterol reaches tissues in need of cholesterol it binds to the tissue’s LDL receptor and the cholesterol is released from the lipoprotein. The now depleted LDL compound is processed by the liver or taken up by macrophages.

Leydig Cells and Cholesterol

Leydig cells where hormones like testosterone are produced require an efficient and constant supply of cholesterol for their biologic functions. Under normal conditions testicular Leydig cells produce a lot of the cholesterol they need endogenously (themselves) for testosterone production, with any additional demand for cholesterol being mostly supplied by serum LDL cholesterol floating about.

The key in how cistanche works in raising testosterone levels is if Leydig cells have an additional demand for cholesterol. If you’re living a sedentary lifestyle with little physical activity and you’re not engaging in testosterone-stimulating social behaviors, cistanche will still boost your testosterone levels to some degree, but the effect is made much more significant when “alpha-male” lifestyles factors are in place like working out and engaging in varied social interactions. When those lifestyle factors are in place and there is a demand for testosterone in order to increase chances of success, whether that’s lifting a heavy deadlift, closing a sales deal, being in a leadership position, or attracting the cute girl, then Leydig cells respond to the increased need for testosterone and look abroad for the extra cholesterol they need. If cistanche is being supplemented alongside an increased consumption of dietary cholesterol from a source like eggs (say 4 a day), then the extra dietary cholesterol is being efficiently packaged into lipoproteins and circulated to Leydig cells which take up the cholesterol and create extra testosterone from it.

Acteoside, one of the main active constituents of cistanche seems to play a major role in enhancing cholesterol metabolism and transport, and acteoside also has an antiestrogenic effect. All that’s required for testosterone to be converted into estradiol, the strongest estrogen hormone, is for it to be converted by the aromatase enzyme (see steroidogenesis graphic above). The exact anti-estrogenic mechanisms of how acteoside are still not fully known, but it seems to stop the conversion of excess testosterone into estrogen. That’s one problem with a lot of testosterone boosters, they increase testosterone but do nothing to stop aromatase enzyme so the body ends up having high levels of testosterone and estrogen, which isn’t a good thing.

The exact mechanisms of how cistanche boosts testosterone isn’t 100% clear, but the overall biologic process is known and can be confirmed for yourself by supplementing with cistanche and experiencing the testosterone boosting effects yourself. And by knowing the above biology it’s possible to improve the effect further with the addition of some other natural compounds like dandelion, zinc, and vitamin D.

Cistanche Testosterone-Boosting Supplement Stack

To make supplementing with cistanche as effective as possible in boosting testosterone, the following is required:

• A high-quality cistanche supplement with sufficient acetoside concentrations, like Nootropics Depot Cistanche supplement

• Testosterone-boosting lifestyle factors like lifting weights, engaging in sports, being a leader, or social interactions

• Increased consumption of dietary cholesterol

• Dandelion for its high levels of flavonoids which function as aromatase inhibitors

• Zinc, magnesium, vitamin D, and vitamin C

I’ll cover the dosing requirements for each and provide you my recommended supplements, and then at the end put it all together for you so you can try your own 1-2 month cistanche testosterone-boosting protocol.

Cistanche Dosing

If using the Cistanche tubolsa powder (recommended) sold by Nootropics Depot, then start with the recommended dose of 200 mg and increase up to a maximum of 600 mg if desired.

In my experience the higher the dose of cistanche the greater the testosterone boosting effect, but the side-effects like more acne can also manifest, which is why I recommend dandelion root is also used alongside cistanche.

Dandelion Dosing

The entire dandelion plant is edible and incredibly safe, and supplementing with dandelion root, usually by brewing it into a tea, reduces some of the unwanted side-effects that can occur when supplementing with cistanche. Dandelion is a blood purifier and will keep inflammation and acne under control, and the flavonoids that dandelion contains are aromatase inhibitors, which means less of the testosterone that is being produced thanks to the cistanche is being converted into estrogen. You can harvest and dry your own dandelion root or organic dandelion root can be purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs.

Apigenin is flavonoid that has strong aromatase inhibiting properties, and the liposomal apigenin powder sold by Nootropics Depot could also be used in the place of or alongside the dandelion tea if desired.

Cholesterol Dosing

Alongside 200-600 mg of cistanche you should also increase your cholesterol by 600-1000 mg. To increase your dietary cholesterol you can simply begin eating more eggs, I recommend 3-5 a day. For the best nutrition purchase pasture-raised eggs.

Micronutrient Dosing

Vitamin D is another very useful chemical for hormone health and overall health and wellness, and if you’re unable to get some safe sun exposure daily, then you can take a 5000 IU vitamin D supplement.

Vitamin C is important for the health of your adrenal glands and necessary for the production of cortisol, and in order to avoid placing any undue stress on the adrenals from the cistanche supplementation I recommend you increase your vitamin C intake by consuming more citrus, like one lemon a day. Skip the vitamin C supplements, they’re junk and not readily bioavailable.

Zinc is a key part of the androgenic pathway, and if you’re deficient in zinc then you’re limiting your bodies ability to produce testosterone and recover from workouts. Zinc is found in high concentrations in oysters, nuts and seeds, and some other foods, or you can supplement with a safe level of zinc by taking a 15 mg zinc balance supplement. Taking too much zinc (>35 mg) can be dangerous and lead to toxicity and also severe nausea if taken on an empty stomach.

Magnesium is another mineral important for testosterone production as well as being needed throughout the body. Magnesium is the second most common nutrient deficiency and can be consumed in greater amounts by eating more nuts and seeds, dark leafy greens like spinach, dark chocolate, by drinking spring water than contains dissolved magnesium, or by taking a 500 mg magnesium supplement.

Note - An easy way to increase your consumption of zinc, magnesium, and other valuable minerals like manganese is to eat pumpkin seeds. Five health benefits of pumpkin seeds

Boost your Testosterone Fast

So here’s how I recommend you supplement with cistanche. Split your daily dose into two and consume half in the morning and half at night. If you’re taking 400 mg of cistanche that means 200 mg before breakfast and 200 mg before dinner. Every morning brew a couple cups (16 oz) of dandelion tea by steeping a couple grams of dandelion root in boiling water for 15 minutes, and once the tea is ready you can stir the cistanche directly into the tea. Take the zinc, magnesium, and vitamin supplements at the same time and then 30-60 minutes later eat breakfast. If you’re intermittent fasting then this can be done before lunch. Save the second cup of dandelion tea in the fridge for later that night, again stirring the cistanche directly into it.

Use this testosterone boosting supplement stack consistently for thirty days while also having a strength training routine in place, good sleep, and a healthy diet and you’ll be blown away by the androgenic changes you experience! If you really want to be scientific and qualitatively see how your body adapted to the supplements and changes implemented, get a total and free testosterone test before and after the 30-60 day supplement period.

60 days is the upper limit I’d recommend for supplementing with cistanche, and then make sure to not use cistanche or any other testosterone booster again until you wait the same amount of time you used it for. This is the 1:1 rule and its highly recommended to follow in order to keep your endocrine system healthy and functioning normally.

I notice that much of the increased androgenic expression that’ll be experienced from supplementing with cistanche “sticks”, so in my experience it seems to help upregulate natural testosterone production permanently to some degree, likely through the activation and increased expression of certain genes.

If you follow this natural testosterone boosting protocol please share your experiences in the comments below.

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References:

1. (2014). "Diagram of the pathways of human steroidogenesis". WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (1). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.005. ISSN 20018762. - Häggström M, Richfield D

2. Shimoda H, Tanaka J, Takahara Y, Takemoto K, Shan SJ, Su MH. The hypocholesterolemic effects of cistanche tubulosa extract, a chinese traditional crude medicine, in mice. Am J Chin Med. 2009;37(06):1125-1138.

3. Papoutsi Z, Kassi E, Mitakou S, et al. Acteoside and martynoside exhibit estrogenic/antiestrogenic properties. The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. 2006;98(1):63-71.

4. Azhar S, Reaven E. Regulation of leydig cell cholesterol metabolism. In: Payne AH, Hardy MP, eds. The Leydig Cell in Health and Disease. Humana Press; 2007:135-148.

5. Jeong HJ, Shin YG, Kim IH, Pezzuto JM. Inhibition of aromatase activity by flavonoids. Arch Pharm Res. 1999;22(3):309-312.

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How to Restore Healthy Microbiome

and how to get rid of bad bacteria in the gut

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated October 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

As our understanding of the gut microbiome and gut-brain axis increases, more and more people are asking the smart question of how they can improve their gut microbiome to upgrade and optimize their physical, mental, and emotional health.

At first it may seem bizarre that small microorganisms can influence foundational aspects of our being like our metabolism, memory, focus, and how we feel emotionally, but with a greater understanding of the microbiome and gut-brain axis it becomes clear quite quickly why cultivating a healthy gut microbiome is so important for not only gut health but for overall health and wellness.

There are two main strategies for improving the gut microbiome, and the first is to diversify the microbiome with more symbiotic microbes and to support their growth, and the second is to select against and reduce pathogenic microbe populations. When both strategies are paired together it’s possible to shift the microbiome towards greater symbiosis in a significant way quite quickly.

To educate you on how to restore healthy gut flora populations, in this article we’ll cover the following topics:

1. The microbiome and gut-brain axis

2. What is gut dysbiosis and why you should improve your gut microbiome

3. How to increase good bacteria in the gut naturally

4. How to starve out bad bacteria

5. Are you ready to heal you gut?

Read to the end to receive a special 10% discount on the Holistic Gut Health Guide, the all-in-one eBook to help you overcome your gut health and microbiome problems once and for all!

The Microbiome and the Gut-Brain Axis

The gut is collectively the largest overall organ, immune organ, and endocrine organ of the human body. Its functions are varied and complex enough that it has its own nervous system known as the enteric nervous system, often described as a “second brain” because the enteric nervous system functions relatively independently of the brain. An example of the independence of the gut, microbiome, and enteric nervous system is how it maintains itself and its functions even in those stuck in a vegetative state.

If we examine the gut from a numbers standpoint, it would best be considered a “microbial organ” because 90-95% of its total cell number are from microorganisms. Important for our understanding of the gut-brain axis is the concept that humans are a “superorganism” in which more than 90% of the total genes and cell numbers of the superorganism are microbial and not human in nature.

We’re more bacteria than human in some regards…

Humans have co-evolved with microorganisms for millions of years, and a healthy microbiome is vital to the optimal development and wellness of Homo sapiens, individually and as a species. Until just recently in our time spent on Earth, humans and the microbiome co-evolved under the conditions of a hunter-gatherer, or still very natural Neolithic villager lifestyle. As hunter-gathers humans were exposed to a wide range of natural environments. Every environment like the ocean or the jungle has a unique microbiome, and by spending time in these different environments, humans inoculated themselves with a wide range of microorganisms, thereby supporting diverse microbiome populations in their guts.

With the recent modernization of human society, dramatic changes to the individual and collective human microbiome have occurred, and exposure to the beneficial microorganisms of the world’s different natural environments has greatly reduced for most people. These alterations in the human gut microbiome are well correlated with the changes in disease patterns in modern society.

Whereas the human gut microbiome used to contain many more symbiotic microorganisms, now the average human gut microbiome contains less symbionts and more pathogens and commensal microbes.

Symbiotic: Symbiotic microorganisms like lactobacillus and bifidobacteria work with you to process food like fiber that you can’t digest into beneficial compounds like short-chain fatty acids and neurotransmitters that you use biologically throughout the body. Inside the gut symbiotic microorganisms interact with the digestive system to keep integrity of digestive barriers high, the immune system strong, the hormone (endocrine) system functioning properly, the activity of the nervous system stable and coherent, and brain functionality at optimal. As you can see, the microbiome touches nearly every aspect of human health.

Pathogenic: Pathogenic microorganisms like C. difficile, salmonella, E. coli, and E. faecalis can inhabit the gut in small or large percentages depending on one’s state of health, and their presence is problematic because pathogens don’t work with you the host, instead they seek to exploit you for their every advantage. If pathogens are able to expand in population unchecked they cause health problems that can range from mild like fever, diarrhea, and pain to severe like chronic disease, cancer, mental health problems, and organ failure.

Commensal: Commensal microbes are typically the most numerous in number, they’re helpful but not to the same degree as symbiotic microbes, and commensal microorganisms will shift to become more symbiotic or pathogenic in nature over time depending on the evolutionary conditions they experience.

What Purpose does the Microbiome Serve?

You can imagine how the human digestive system is a cozy place for microorganisms to live because it’s warm, protected from dangerous ultraviolet radiation from the sun and other hazards, and there is usually a constant influx of food. In exchange for these comfy conditions, a healthy microbiome beneficially influences the development and functioning of you, the host, by working with the cells of the digestive system to better digest food, by influencing and supporting immune and endocrine functions, and by producing valuable neurotransmitters that your nervous system and brain needs. Normal aspects of psychology, such as cognition, emotion, pain perception, social behavior, stress response, and a person’s character are all influenced by the microbiome of the gut.

Gastrointestinal disturbances affect the gut microbiome, and gut microbiome disturbances affect the functioning of the gastrointestinal system, and disturbances to either can be caused by many different factors, including an unhealthy diet, lifestyle and stress, excessive use of medications and antibiotics, mental illness, environmental toxins, and more. Gut dysbiosis can lead to the eventual development of neurocognitive disorders like mood disorders, depression, anxiety, ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease.

The reason why humans and microorganisms evolutionarily formed a symbiotic relationship is thought to be primarily for metabolic reasons. The metabolic actions of the microbiome provides additional energy from food that otherwise wouldn’t be extractable, which is highly advantageous from an evolutionary standpoint, and because the composition of microorganisms of the gut microbiome can rapidly adapt to dietary changes, it provided humans an ability to adapt to new environments and novel foods faster, increasing the evolutionary fitness of our ancestors. Additionally, it’s thought that microbiome-brain interactions were a critically important factor that guided the evolution of the human brain and the development of the social brain. It’s our evolutionary history that explains why the gut-brain axis is such an important and powerful system in the body.

To boil it down our gut microbiome makes us more efficiently metabolically, confers upon us brain-development and cognitive benefits, and gives us greater survivability in a diverse range of environments. With this known, who wouldn’t want the best gut microbiome possible?

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Ready to Heal Your Gut?

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Holistic Gut Health Guide eBook

Sale Price:$12.95 Original Price:$18.95

Together the digestive system and microbiome are the foundation of health from which everything else is dependent on.

The Holistic Gut Health Guide contains all the information you need to identify and understand the gastrointestinal and microbiome problems you may have while also providing you the most effective natural methods you can use to heal your gut. No gut health problems are unsolvable, give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

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Some of the information in the Holistic Gut Health Guide isn’t common knowledge but when implemented it is highly effective in healing the gut and shifting the microbiome towards symbiosis. Give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

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Why you Should Improve your Gut Microbiome

The are three main reasons why everyone should strive to cultivate the healthiest microbiome possible:

• Improved digestion

• Better metabolism

• Increased consciousness

It’s impossible to have a good metabolism if digestion is inefficient. Metabolism can be defined as the uncountable amount of life-sustaining reactions that occurs every second in our body. By providing a lot of the chemicals required for metabolism, and by facilitating some of those reactions themselves, a healthy gut microbiome is essential for having the best metabolism possible; a metabolism that keeps you lean, healthy, and mentally sharp.

The general flow is Digestion ➞ Metabolism ➞ Cognition

And this cycle repeats around because you (hopefully) consciously choose what to eat! Because the microbiome affects digestion and the gut-brain axis, factors perturbing the gut microbiome affect the brain and mind simultaneously. This is important to know because if gut dysbiosis is experienced, then by result mental health problems have a much greater likelihood of developing.

If you’re reading this you either have a preventative interest in improving your microbiome, or you have some level of gut dysbiosis and are looking for ways to treat your condition. In the next chapter we begin our discussion on how to increase symbiotic microbes in the gut, but first what exactly is dysbiosis?

Gut Dysbiosis

Dysbiosis Definition: Dysbiosis is an unhealthy microbiome imbalance that results from unfavorable changes in the diversity, metabolic activities, and distribution of the gut microbiota

As we mentioned earlier, the diversity of the human microbiome has decreased dramatically with the widespread lifestyle changes that have occurred as people have moved from rural communities to large cities and also from the advent and overuse of antibiotics, pesticides, and antimicrobial cleaning products.

While most people don’t consider themselves to have dysbiosis, the reality of the situation is that unless you take great care to cultivate a healthy and diverse microbiome, then you share in the larger gut dysbiosis that human society is experiencing currently. Then on top of that if you are particularly unhealthy for whatever reason, be it diet, lifestyle, disease, or drug related, then your gut dysbiosis will be even worse.

Gut Dysbiosis Symptoms

Because the microbiome interacts with so many different systems throughout the body, there are a wide range of symptoms that result from gut dysbiosis. The most common symptoms are:

• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) - gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain

• Candida (yeast infection)

• Food allergies, intolerances, and sensitivities

• Nutritional deficiencies

• Fatigue

• Headaches, brain fog, poor memory

• Mental health problems like anxiety, depression, insomnia

• Skin issues like rashes, acne, eczema, psoriasis

• Auto-immune disorders, allergies

• Asthma

Gut Dysbiosis Treatment

There are many ways to treat gut dysbiosis and a pathogenic microbiome, some being safer and more effective than others. Unfortunately many common treatment methods like antibiotics are prescribed by those with an dangerously limited understanding of how the microbiome works, and while symptoms of dysbiosis may improve temporarily as the microbiome dies off from the antibiotics, the dysbiosis gets worse once the course of antibiotics is finished and pathogens expand outwards.

To treat gut dysbiosis that isn’t immediately life-threatening, one must look back to the factors that caused society’s larger gut dysbiosis to develop, and to then seek to integrate into one’s lifestyle the beneficial gut microbiome practices that our ancient hunter-gatherer and Neolithic ancestors followed, which were:

• Interacting with a large variety of environments, getting “dirty” in the process

• Eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and fiber, all free of chemical contamination

• Living a relatively stress-free and active lifestyle

• Experiencing occasional periods of nutrient deprivation (aka fasting)

• Utilization of the healing medicinal herbs that exist

What is the Fastest Way to Heal the Gut Microbiome?

To heal the gut microbiome we have our two strategies of promoting microbial diversity and the growth of symbiotic microbes while also selecting against pathogenic microbes. If you integrate into your life the lifestyle and dietary factors above, both goals can be accomplished simultaneously. Fasting and utilizing antimicrobial herbs are particularly useful in treating dysbiosis because not only do they support the growth of helpful symbionts but they in the same stroke make life much more difficult for pathogens. We’ll get into the specific reasons why that is in the next two sections.

The most effective strategy to heal the gut microbiome will be one that combines multiple strategies together holistically in a way that is safe and sustainable to maintain. The gut microbiome cannot be healed in one day, it will take at least a week to begin seeing progress and months to see significant progress, and in reality their is no final end destination as the microbiome is always changing and in flux. For these reasons, in order to make serious and lasting improvements in the microbiome, the recommendations given below must be incorporated into one’s lifestyle and diet naturally and without fuss (indeed they should be happily welcomed!) and become permanent life changes.

How to Increase Good Bacteria in the Gut Naturally

To increase the populations of good bacteria in the gut naturally it’s first required to expose yourself to these different symbiotic microbes in order to diversify the gut microbiome, and then it’s necessary to support their growth. Most people turn to probiotics in order to increase their microbial diversity, and this works because it’s easy to take probiotics, they’re widely available, and different multi-strain formations exist. A much more natural method for increasing microbial diversity is to place yourself in a variety of different environments. Eating fiber and fermented foods also increase good bacteria in the gut naturally. We’ll cover all the main strategies for increasing helpful microbial diversity and then discuss how to support the population growth of symbionts in the microbiome.

Expose Yourself to Different Natural Environments

Microbiomes exist everywhere, not just in the gut. Your skin has a microbiome, your bed has a microbiome, and every toilet has a microbiome. Some microbiomes are beneficial to exposure yourself to because they are full of useful microbes, whereas others like the toilet microbiome are best avoided (yuk!).

Microbes float through the air, live in the water we drink, and exist in the soil. These natural microbiomes, the ones that we interact with to varying degrees just by existing have proven themselves to be on the whole incredibly safe over millions and millions of years, and it’s exposure to the air, water, and soil microbiomes of nature that are the most beneficial for developing good gut health and a strong, diverse, and resilient microbiome. Perform the following activities to not only improve your health and fitness but also to exposure yourself to the diverse microbiomes of nature!

Hiking: Hiking through nature is an excellent wellness activity not only for the physical, mental, and emotional benefits, but also for the microbiome benefits. The fresh oxygen-rich air of a forest has special healing properties and this forest air will lightly expose you to different microorganisms. The density of microbes in the air is very low, but they do exist, and with a long hike with plenty of deep breathing the effect is not insignificant.

You can increase your exposure to the natural microbiome of the environment you’re walking/hiking through by interacting respectfully with the environment. Run your fingers through the moss, splash your face with water from the stream, forage on edible herbs that you may find like miners lettuce or mint. Some of these tips require common sense and some skills, for example don’t drink the stream water or splash it directly into your eyes, and don’t eat plants if you’re not a herbalist and haven’t 100% positively identified them as being safe, but if you have the sense and skills necessary to engage in these practices then it’s a powerful way to increase the diversity of your gut microbiome.

Swimming: Swimming in natural and clean bodies of water is another way to increase microbiome diversity as the full body gets immersed in the microbiome of the water. Swimming in the ocean is fantastic as the salt water naturally keeps a lot of harmful microorganisms low in concentration, and if you swallow some water every now and then accidentally after let’s say being hit by a large wave, that’s not necessarily a bad thing (but don’t go out of your way to do this). The key is natural exposure to the microbiome of the environment, what happens happens! Your gut microbiome is already a highly competitive place with limited space and access to resources, and whatever microbes that come in from the environment, your food, or probiotics will have to compete and carve out space and resources for themselves in order to survive and flourish in your gut whether they are symbionts, pathogens, or commensal microorganisms.

Gardening: Digging your hands into the soil, growing plants, and harvesting the food that results is one of the absolute best ways for the average person to increase the diversity of their gut microbiome. Gardening isn’t limited to just those who live in rural places, if you' live in the city you can likely find a community garden and establish a garden there, or you can garden at home outside on a small plot or inside using pots.

Gardening is the easiest and most fruitful way to expose yourself to the rich and highly diverse microbiome of the soil. Just as with us and our microbiomes, the soil microbiome is of key importance in the health and growth of plants and fungi. Soil microorganisms are the foundational biologic and chemical communication layer that life depends on, and digging around in good soil with your bare hands is a very effective way to improve the diversity of your microbiome over time. I can personally attest to this as gardening over the summer of 2021 noticeably improved my gut health, and anytime I have the opportunity to garden consistently my gut health seems to be more resilient.

Gardening also improves gut health and the microbiome through the cultivation of food. If growing fruits and vegetables without the use of any fertilizers or pesticides (highly recommended), then you can pick food directly off the plant and eat it. Every piece of produce has its own little microbiome, and eating food this way overtime is incredibly effective at diversifying and improving your own microbiome.

Probiotics for Gut Health

Certain species of bacteria have been studied scientifically for their effects on gut health, and as the biologic benefits of more of these strains have been quantified more varied probiotic supplements have hit the market. In some ways choosing the right probiotic can now be overwhelming as there are so many choices available! While probiotics are certainly useful in restoring populations of healthy microbes in the gut, I think it’s best to keep probiotic supplementation simple and consistent and instead spend more time in healthy natural spaces like our paleolithic and Neolithic ancestors did rather than fuss over which probiotics are best for you. It’s the fact that we’ve strayed away from lifestyle’s like theirs, not a lack of probiotics, that has led to the now “normal” gut dysbiosis that most people have.

Probiotics are definitely helpful though, and one reason why probiotics are useful for gut dysbiosis and gut health problems is that some of the microorganisms contained in the probiotic will form biofilms and colonize the mucosal layer of the digestive barrier, these biofilms persisting for a week or longer. If probiotics are taken daily then many probiotic biofilms colonize the gut and permanently change the diversity and composition of the microbiome. It’s like the colonization of North America by the British, French, and Spanish. One ship wasn’t enough to establish permanent colonies, but repeated ships of colonists and time turned out to be successful.

Biofilms are structures that certain microorganisms create that provide them shelter and help them adhere to surfaces, and they are arguably the most successful form of life on Earth, existing in nearly every environment. In the gut environment, both pathogenic and symbiotic microorganisms produce biofilm structures made of mostly polysaccharides, proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids and then adhere them to the intestinal mucosa where they can persist for a long period of time.

Used consistently probiotics have been shown to improve functional brain responses in healthy people, reducing psychological distress and anxiety conditions. Probiotics containing strains of lactobacillus and bifidobacteria appear to be the most effective, and these probiotic formations have also shown small but consistent benefits for those experiencing IBS. A multi-strain probiotic is usually more effective than a single-strain probiotic, and probiotics should be taken with a meal so more of the beneficial microbes survive the harsh acidic conditions of the stomach and can begin populating in the intestines, specifically the large intestine.

I have used the following multi-strain probiotic from Nature’s Bounty successfully many times when experiencing a gut health flareup and I recommend you use take it daily when experiencing a worsening of gut health symptoms.

Eat Fermented Foods for a Healthy Microbiome

Foods that contain sugar, starches, and/or fiber are able to be fermented by microorganisms, and most fermented foods benefit the gut microbiome by diversifying it with new species and strains of beneficial microbes from the fermented food. Fermented foods like kombucha, pickles, kimchi, sauerkraut, and others are typically easy to digest and contain many bioavailable nutrients; it’s no surprise that fermented foods have been cultured for thousands of years by different cultures around the world.

The best fermented foods are the ones that contain abundant fiber, as the fermentable fibers and starchy carbohydrates they possess further positively support the gut microbiome. Some of the symbiotic microbes of fermented foods will survive the transit through the harsh conditions of the stomach, and once this wave of food reaches the large intestine the survivors will establish themselves while the rest of the gut microbiome will begin metabolizing the leftover food as best as possible, producing beneficial biologic compounds like short-chain fatty acids.

Recalling the gut-brain axis, it’s been shown that the consumption of fermented foods is inversely associated with neurocognitive issues like neurosis and social anxiety. Even those at a higher genetic risk for social anxiety disorders showed improvements in their condition when consuming more fermented foods.

Eat a diversity of fermented foods at least a few times per week to receive the greatest benefit and to give yourself the best advantage in establishing a healthy gut microbiome.

Fiber Feeds the Gut Microbiome

Fiber is a type of carbohydrate the body is unable to digest. Some types of fiber are soluble in water, whereas others are insoluble, and some fibers are fermentable by the microbiome whereas others aren’t. The solubility and fermentability characteristics of fiber influence the entire digestive process, notably gut motility, and the more fiber is consumed, the bigger the effect on digestion.

Fermentable fibers are converted into short-chain fatty acids and other biologically useful metabolites by the microbiome of the large intestine, which are then absorbed into the bloodstream for various metabolic and cognitive functions. For example, the short-chain fatty acids that cross the highly selective blood-brain barrier regulate brain development and brain tissue homeostasis through their interactions with microglia immune cells of the nervous system. Disruptions to microbiome short-chain fatty acid metabolism have been linked to the development of neurocognitive disorders.

In general, most people consume too little fiber and would be well served to increase their fiber intake to forty-plus grams a day to improve their gut health, energy metabolism, and microbiome. Fruits and vegetables are the best sources of fiber because they also come paired with abundant vitamins and minerals in addition to useful plant phytochemicals. Plant polyphenols for example like flavonoids are also metabolized by symbiotic microorganisms in the gut microbiome, supporting their growth and your health.

How to Restore Healthy Gut Flora with Herbs

Spending time in natural environments, probiotics, and fermented foods increase microbial diversity, and eating adequate fiber is one of the best ways to then support the growth of a healthy microbiome, and the useful strategies for improving the gut microbiome don’t stop there. Herbs are one of the most powerful ways of reshaping the gut microbiome because not only do certain herbs support the growth of symbiotic microorganisms, they also select against pathogenic microorganisms at the same time.

How is it that herbs can do this, and what is the best way to use herbs for this effect?

Herbal tea blend consisting of peppermint leaves, chamomile flowers, and dandelion root

One of the main reasons herbs are so good for the microbiome is because of the plant phytochemicals they contain like flavonoids. Flavonoids are secondary metabolites plants produce via the shikimate pathway for functions like protection against ultraviolet light; defense against insects, fungi, and harmful microorganisms; as antioxidants; and as plant hormone controllers. Flavonoids are biologically useful chemicals for plants, microorganisms, and humans.

With gut dysbiosis it’s also common to have gut health problems like leaky gut and IBS, and flavonoids like apigenin and quercetin are valuable in treating these conditions alongside their microbiome improving effects because they possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties. Drinking herbal teas, or consuming herbs like parsley, rosemary, thyme, and others as part of your regular diet increases the amount of flavonoids that your body has access too.

As these flavonoids move through the digestive system some are directly taken up and used by the tissues of the gut like intestinal epithelial barriers, some flavonoids are transported and metabolized by the liver before being circulating throughout the body, and whatever flavonoids remain make their way to the large intestine where they interact with the microbiome. Throughout this whole process flavonoids are reducing inflammation throughout the body by neutralizing unstable and highly reactive free radical compounds, stimulate the natural healing and regenerative pathways of the body (autophagy), and improve the functioning of the cardiovascular and cognitive systems.

Flavonoids, and herbs by extension, are so useful for restoring healthy gut flora because they possess selective antimicrobial properties that inhibit the growth of various pathogens while supporting the growth of useful symbiotic genera like bifidobacterium and lactobacillus. These symbiotic microbes also produce their own antimicrobial compounds that make life difficult for pathogens, and in this way using herbs acts like a one-two punch in remedying gut dysbiosis.

Flavonoid-microbiome interactions further improve gut health and heal dysbiosis because they help regenerate mucosal and epithelial digestive linings. When digestive linings are thin and degraded, biofilms begin to affix directly onto epithelial cells, causing systemic inflammation by triggering a strong immune response, and the consistent use of herbs, say through drinking herbal teas daily, helps to dissolve these biofilms while restoring digestive barriers to healthy integrity. Once this happens symbiotic microbes can begin to reclaim “lost territory” and fulfill their normal role of keeping pathogenic bacteria populations in check by outcompeting them.

My favorite way of using herbs to promote the growth of a healthy microbiome is to drink herbal teas often and to utilize herbs in my cooking daily. A great herbal tea for gut health and the microbiome is a 1:1:1 blend of chamomile, dandelion, and peppermint. These three herbs are very well-known for their digestive enhancing effects, they contain abundant plant phytochemicals like flavonoids, and they have a track record of safe use thousands of years long. Plus this tea blend is remarkably tasty unlike some other effective anti-microbial herbs like wormwood.

In addition to herbal teas, utilizing herbs like parsley, sage, oregano, thyme, rosemary in cooking makes your meals tastier and healthier. Dried parsley is especially useful as it contains absurd amounts of nature’s most powerful flavonoid - apigenin, and dried parsley is really easy to incorporate into a variety of foods. Mix some along with some digestive-boosting black pepper into your favorite dips, spreads, or plain cream cheese. Sprinkle dried parsley onto favorite dishes like a grain bowl, pasta dish, or with potatoes, incorporate into a breading or season your protein of choice (meat, fish, tofu) with it. Herbs are highly versatile in the kitchen, and including more herbs into your diet improves your nutrition in addition to helping improve the health of your microbiome.

Herbs are one of nature’s best prebiotics, and if you have gut dysbiosis and/or are looking to improve your gut microbiome, I would recommend making a habit out of drinking herbal teas and in using herbs in your cooking daily. Personally it’s made a huge difference in my gut health and in the efficiency of my microbiome, and it can do the same for you.

Mountain Rose Herbs is my go-to supplier of organic herbs and spices, they sell all the herbs I mentioned which are dandelion root, chamomile flowers, peppermint leaves, and black peppercorns.

How to Starve Bad Gut Bacteria

Just as important as increasing microbiome diversity and supporting the growth of symbiotic microbe populations is to select against and reduce pathogenic microbial populations in the gut. This is very important for a few reasons, and it’s something that is underappreciated and often treated dangerously and inefficiently by the standard medical system.

The reason why reducing pathogenic populations in the gut must be a top priority alongside supporting the diversification and growth of symbiotic populations is because pathogens and symbionts compete against each other. When pathogen biofilms are numerous and deeply entrenched in the gut environment, they have established territory and nutrient streams, and from these “strongholds” they produce endotoxins that cause inflammatory and immune health problems and make life difficult for symbiotic microorganisms.

With gut dysbiosis, bringing in new symbiotic bacteria via probiotics (the standard recommendation) helps to beneficially shift the microbiome slightly, but for probiotics and other methods that increase good bacteria in the gut naturally, it’s much more effective to clear out pathogenic bacteria first and then overlap that effort with a symbiotic microbiome supportive protocol.

Salmonella among epithelial cells

The standard medical treatment that is done to accomplish the goal of reducing pathogens in the microbiome is one or more course of antibiotics, but as discussed antibiotics typically make gut dysbiosis worse in the long run unless the condition being treated is immediately life threatening. A better method of reducing pathogens is to cut them off from their food supply by changing the diet and via fasting. Switching the diet from highly-processed low-nutrition foods to whole and unprocessed foods rich in nutrients and fiber like vegetables is the first thing that will help a lot in reducing bad bacteria in the gut. The second thing that can be done which is highly effective in starving bad gut bacteria is to undergo a period of nutrient deprivation by fasting.

Fasting Kills Gut Bacteria

Fasting is incredibly useful in healing the gut and for reducing pathogens in the microbiome, but there is some nuance to the process. The length of a fast determines how strong the gut-healing and pathogen-reducing effect is, as does how often fasts are done, and the food eaten before and after a fast is incredibly important in the effectiveness of any fast. The composition of the microbiome is determined in large part by one’s diet, and eating poor quality food before and after a fast won’t make a noticeable difference in improving the gut microbiome over the long run.

• Intermittent 16:8 Fasting

  Intermittent fasting is the most popular type of fasting, typically scheduled as sixteen hours of fasting followed by an open eight hour feeding window. This ratio of fasting to eating can be shortened to 12:12 or lengthened to 20:4, with the longer intermittent fasts taking the body deeper into autophagy. The benefit of intermittent fasting is that by eating every day and with a long eating window, it’s much easier to maintain caloric balance or even a caloric surplus if trying to gain weight if underweight and/or build lean body mass if an athlete.

  Intermittent fasting is most effective done consistently day after day, and overtime the slight daily increase in autophagy it stimulates during the fasting window heals and regenerates the body.

• 24-Hour OMAD Fasting

  Fasting for twenty-four hours is also known as one meal a day OMAD fasting. The most common type of OMAD fasting is eating dinner every night, though it’s not uncommon to do breakfast or lunch OMAD. OMAD is similar to intermittent fasting in that food is still eaten every day, and OMAD is typically done consecutively or for a certain number of days per week.

  Since OMAD takes the body deeper into a fasted state of autophagy across twenty-four hours than intermittent fasting, it’s a good way to begin experimenting with longer fasts and to examine one’s relationship with eating behaviors. Physiological hunger is quite different than a psychological food craving, and if struggling with making healthy dietary choices, consistent OMAD fasting is a great way to reset psychological behaviors and patterns in regard to dietary eating patterns. The gut-brain axis can be beneficially altered with OMAD and with time you’ll become better at identifying when you’re truly physically hungry or when you simply have a psychological food craving.

• 48 to 72-Hour Fasting

  Fasting for longer than 24 hours reduces the body’s glucose sugars stored in muscle cells and the liver, and around the 48 hour mark when all the glucose has been depleted is when the body will enter ketosis. Ketosis is a process that converts fatty acids to energy molecules known as ketones. The brain runs exclusively on simple sugars, or if those are not available, ketones. When carbohydrates are in short supply, either from fasting or from eating a high-fat ketogenic diet, the body begins producing ketones to keep all the metabolic systems running smoothly.

  Just as fasting is an alternate operating system for the body, switching from sugar metabolism to ketone metabolism is another metabolic state change that can be used to improve health and diagnose health issues. A 48-hour fast is useful because it takes the body deep into autophagy, deeper than most people have ever gone in their lives except maybe during a bad flu (hmmm why is that?). 48 hours of fasting really gives the digestive system time to rest and regenerate and takes the body to the edge of or into ketosis. A longer 72-hour fast will take the body fully into ketosis and the autophagy healing effects are even stronger.

  A 48-hour fast is short enough to be easily completed by most people without serious health issues as long as they have the willpower, it doesn’t require too much planning, and it’s also long enough to bring about noticeable differences in digestion and energy. The gut health observations made possible during a 48+-hour fast are invaluable in accurately diagnosing gut problems and, subsequently, in healing the gut.

Daily 16:8 intermittent fasting has been shown to be useful in changing the composition of the microbiome over time, and more effective are 24 and 48+ hour fasts. The longer a fast, the more food clears the digestive system, and typically at the 48 hour mark the digestive system is cleared of food and strong evolutionary pressures are increasingly placed on the microbiome. Fiber transits through the gut slowly, and being a nutrient that pathogens can’t utilize but symbionts can, if a fiber-rich meal is eaten at the start of a long fast, symbiotic microbes will be supported while pathogens die off from the lack of available “easy nutrients” like sugar that they feed on.

As pathogens die off and the linings of the digestive system repair, space once occupied by pathogens is freed up and symbiotic microbes are able to reclaim this territory in the gut. Then when the first healthy and fiber-rich break-fast meal is eaten, symbionts further expand in their populations and pathogens are further selected against.

In my experience just a single 48 hour fast can be transformative in healing the gut and changing the composition of the gut microbiome as long as the diet eaten around the fast is healthy, nutritious, and fiber-rich. Additionally as discussed earlier zero-calorie herbal teas can be enjoyed during the fast which through their plant phytochemicals and flavonoid content provide nutrition to symbionts while actively suppressing pathogens. Just because you’re not eating any calories doesn’t mean it’s not possible to feed the symbiotic gut microbiome, and combining fasting with herbalism is therefore one of the most effective ways to cure gut dysbiosis naturally.

Foods the Kill Bad Gut Bacteria

Diet has a huge influence over the composition of the microbiome, and regularly eating foods that are nutritious and supportive of the symbiotic microbiome while being selective against pathogens is an excellent way to heal from gut dysbiosis and restore healthy gut flora. Here are three foods that kill pathogens while supporting overall gut health.

Pumpkin seeds are an example of a food that specifically kills bad gut bacteria. Pumpkin seeds have anti-parasitic and anti-microbial properties, and eating a bolus dose of pumpkin seeds (2+ handfuls, can also be alongside something like a slightly-green banana) is not only incredibly nutritious, but it creates a wave of microbiome-supporting food that transits through the digestive system killing pathogens while supporting the growth of symbionts. Eat raw pumpkin seeds as a snack a few times a week and over time it’ll have a positive influence on your microbiome.

Another food that kills bad gut bacteria would be coffee. Coffee contains fiber and flavonoids and other useful compounds that have been shown to shift the microbiome towards greater symbiosis while improving the gut-brain axis.

Pickles are another food that are good at killing bad gut bacteria because not only are they fermented and contain abundant fiber, cucumber seeds like pumpkin seeds have anti-parasitic and antimicrobial properties. In fact all squashes are very nutritious, contains abundant fiber, and are super useful for the microbiome.

Strong Antimicrobial Herbs

Another way to reduce pathogens in the gut is to utilize some of the stronger antimicrobial herbs that exist like oregano, black walnut hull, wormwood, and clove.

Oregano: Oregano is a well-known herb that has powerful antimicrobial and anthelmintic properties. Specifically, oregano oil has been shown to be highly useful in killing and eliminating parasites from the body, and it appears most of this effect comes from its main active chemical, carvacrol.

Black Walnut Hull: The outer hull of black walnut seeds is rich in tannins and black walnut hull is a well-known antimicrobial and anti-parasitic herb. Typically, an extract will be made by soaking black walnut hulls in alcohol, and the resulting tincture is dosed, but powdered black walnut hull can also be used.

Wormwood: Wormwood is a super herb for killing pathogens and expelling parasites from the body, especially roundworms and enterobiasis. Wormwood has been used medicinally in Europe for thousands of years, and it used to be common during medieval times to perform an microbiome and parasite cleanse using it a few times a year. Wormwood is extremely bitter and difficult to drink as a tea, and for this reason, in my experience it’s best used as a powder supplemented in pill form. Ingesting too much wormwood can be dangerous but the amounts used for a microbiome cleanse are nowhere near harmful levels.

Clove: Cloves are effective in killing parasites and pathogens like malaria, cholera, scabies, tuberculosis, and others. The high levels of tannins and eugenol that cloves possess are the chief agents responsible for their antimicrobial and anthelmintic properties. Clove can be taken tinctured or powdered

To utilize these stronger antimicrobial herbs you can take an oregano oil supplement alongside HealthForce SuperFood’s SCRAM supplement which contains black walnut hull, clove, and wormwood. Follow the 17 day dosing instructions for SCRAM and take ~500 mg of oregano oil daily at the same time.

These natural antimicrobial herbs are relatively gentle on the good microbes in the gut but are tough on pathogenic microbes.

I recommend you follow a natural herbal antimicrobial protocol like this at the very onset of your gut dysbiosis healing endeavor, and use those first two weeks to make the dietary changes you need to make in order for the microbiome to stay healthy long after the herbal supplementation is over. During the SCRAM protocol practicing intermittent fasting is useful, and then at the end of the SCRAM protocol you’ll have enough experience with 16+ hour fasts to begin implementing longer 24 and 48 hour fasts 1-2x per week. All the while during this you can drink herbal teas and begin spending more of your free time in natural environments. Make a game of it, make it fun! Write out a plan and stick to it, and if you do all these things together, then with time and consistency your gut dysbiosis can be cured and the gut microbiome can be radically transformed.

The gut-brain axis improvements that result will be striking, you’ll be surprised by the abundant energy and mental clarity you now have, gut health problems will greatly reduce in severity and possibly go away entirely. Expect improvements in any of the gut dysbiosis symptoms you’re experiencing! No promises as everyone is highly individual in their health and wellness, but it’s highly likely and definitely worth a dedicated honest effort.

If we each heal our own microbiome imbalances we can together begin to heal society’s dysbiosis and make the world a happier and healthier place.

Heal Your Gut Naturally

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If you read all the way here then it’s clear to me that you’re ready to do what it takes to finally restore your digestive system and gut microbiome back to healthy and optimal function.

I wrote the Holistic Gut Health Guide to help you accomplish exactly this! It contains all the information that you need to understand the gastrointestinal system, gut-brain axis, and microbiome in-depth, and the Holistic Gut Health Guide also educates you on the natural methods you can holistically use together like fasting and herbalism to transform your health from the inside out.

I’m so excited to be able to help you along your gut health and overall wellness journey with the Holistic Gut Health Guide! Please contact me with any questions you have and wishing you the best.

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This article features excerpts from the Holistic Gut Health Guide. The Holistic Gut Health Guide provides you the information and framework you need to finally make the changes needed to remedy your gut health problems.

References:

1. Modern City Dwellers Have Lost about Half Their Gut Microbes.; 2022

2. Cleveland Clinic | Disease and Conditions. my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases

3. Liang S, Wu X, Jin F. Gut-brain psychology: rethinking psychology from the microbiota– gut–brain axis. Front Integr Neurosci. 2018;12:33.

4. Mayer EA, Tillisch K, Gupta A. Gut/brain axis and the microbiota. J Clin Invest. 2015;125(3):926-938.

5. Sánchez B, Delgado S, Blanco-Míguez A, Lourenço A, Gueimonde M, Margolles A. Probiotics, gut microbiota, and their influence on host health and disease. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2017;61(1):1600240.

6. Appleton J. The gut-brain axis: influence of microbiota on mood and mental health. Integr Med (Encinitas). 2018;17(4):28-32.

7. Cassidy A, Minihane AM. The role of metabolism (And the microbiome) in defining the clinical efficacy of dietary flavonoids. Am J Clin Nutr. 2017;105(1):10-22.

8. Su J, Wang Y, Zhang X, et al. Remodeling of the gut microbiome during Ramadan-associated intermittent fasting. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2021;113(5):1332-1342.

Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.

Can Marijuana Help With ADHD?

All Questions Answered

Article by Jennifer Gallagher, edited by Stefan Burns - Updated August 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental condition. It causes individuals to have trouble focusing, staying calm and sitting still when needed, and sometimes those with ADHD display impulsive behavior. Many people with ADHD are looking for natural methods of treatment, and the question often comes up if weed can help with ADHD symptoms, or whether it worsens them?

Cannabis has the reputation of relaxing consumers, which many believe could benefit those with ADHD. So, can weed have a positive effect on the condition? Should you plant cannabis seeds and grow your own medicinal batch to help with ADHD treatment?

Discover how marijuana interacts with ADHD and whether it has the potential to provide relief for patients with the condition.

Can Cannabis Help With ADHD?

There hasn’t been a lot of research regarding the effects of marijuana on individuals with ADHD. Due to weed’s Schedule I status, federal studies are restricted. However, some research is available that provides insights into whether marijuana helps with ADHD:

• A 2016 study (1) looked at online posts that discussed cannabis and ADHD. The results showed that 25% promoted a positive message about combining the two, while only 8% said it might be harmful.

• In 2020 a small study (2) of 112 ADHD patients who used medicinal weed took place. Researchers discovered that those who received a higher dose of cannabidiol (CBD) took less of their ADHD medication.

• A study in 2021 (3) of 1,700 students showed that those who used cannabis for ADHD enjoyed positive results. They reported improved symptoms and fewer side effects from their regular medication.

Despite most evidence pointing to the fact that weed might improve ADHD, more research is needed. Few states include the condition on their qualifying list for a medical cannabis card.

How Does Weed Interact With ADHD Medication?

Adderall is a common medication prescribed to patients with the condition. There’s limited research on how this medication for ADHD and cannabis interact, though. One 2015 study (4) found that when the two were taken together, the effects were unique in comparison to each by itself.

If you take medication for ADHD and consume marijuana, be upfront with your doctor. Cannabis is now legal in various parts of the US, and your healthcare provider can help you understand the benefits and risks when mixing it with ADHD medications.

CBD or THC: Which Is Better for ADHD?

The two main cannabinoids in weed, THC and CBD, determine the physiological and psychological effects you experience when using cannabis. THC is the compound that makes users feel “high” by producing psychoactive effects. Most users experience euphoria and heightened senses with strains high in this cannabinoid. CBD provides similar positive feelings and balances nervous system activity but doesn’t get you stoned.

Most consumers prefer to consume CBD for ADHD, so look for cultivars high in the compound. The calming and focused effects improve their symptoms, and they can continue their day as usual.

THC-V is an interesting cannabinoid in regards to treating ADHD because it is similar in effect to Adderall in increasing focus, but it’s a natural compound. THC-V is found in high concentrations in Durban Poison, a specific strain of cannabis that hails from South Africa.

Which Cannabis Strains Are Best for ADHD?

Many people are unaware of the sheer variety of marijuana strains on offer. Hundreds are available, categorized as indicas, sativas, or hybrids—a combination of both. How do they differ?

Sativa cultivars provide consumers with an energy boost and a feeling of euphoria. Some users report an increased ability to focus and get more tasks done.

Indica strains provide a sense of calm and physical relaxation. Patients with chronic pain claim to experience relief with these cultivars.

Instead of picking just an indica or sativa for ADHD, a hybrid is more suitable. This way, consumers enjoy balanced effects to potentially treat all symptoms of the condition.

The sativa genetics may help patients concentrate better, allowing them to accomplish more goals. The indica heritage could encourage individuals to sit still for extended periods and control impulsive behavior.

Because cannabis is such a diverse herb there are a lot of different factors to consider when selecting the right cannabis strain, learn how to select the right cannabis strain with our cannabis buyers guide.

Are There Any Risks of Using Weed for ADHD?

The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) (5) warns that there may be long-term, adverse effects of using THC, especially in early brain development. The risks include:

• Slowed cognitive development

• Increased risk of depression and anxiety

• Lower IQ

• Attention, learning, and memory problems

For this reason, THC cannabis use for minors is extremely rare. However, there’s not a lot of evidence to support the same idea with CBD. Although more studies need to happen, anecdotal reports suggest CBD may help ADHD symptoms with minimal risk. The reason for this is because CBD has only a low binding affinity for CB1 and CB2 receptors but it can still act as an antagonist for these receptors which is useful for treating nervous system and mental disorders.

Can a Child Safely Use Cannabis for ADHD?

ADHD is more common in young people, but marijuana isn’t legal for this age group. Even in regions where recreational cannabis use is allowed, users must be over 18 or 21. Medical marijuana use for children is almost non-existent—only those with a severe form of epilepsy can consume it at the moment. For now, kids with ADHD cannot access the potential benefits of CBD for their condition. Psychoactive cannabinoids like THC should never be consumed by minors.

What Other Herbs are Useful for ADHD?

If you’re still waiting for your state to legalize cannabis, there are some other herbs for those with ADHD to try. These natural remedies make an excellent alternative to prescribed medication and come with little to no side effects.

• Green oats: These are a version of unripe oats and get harvested before the crop matures. Anecdotal reports claim the herb boosts attention and concentration.

• Ginseng: This natural remedy has been used for centuries in China, and ginseng has a reputation for increasing energy and brain function. The “red ginseng” variety may also help calm restless ADHD patients.

• Pine bark extract: A 2021 study (6) of 20 kids with ADHD found this extract helped lower hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention.

• Brahmi: This herb, sometimes known as water hyssop, thrives in the wild in India. There, locals have used it for centuries to improve memory and brain function.

• Ginkgo biloba: This is another natural medicine long used to boost mental sharpness and memory. A study in 2014 (7) showed that children with ADHD who took the extract experienced improved symptoms.

• Herbal teas: These drinks are a safe option for children looking for relief from the effects of ADHD. Lemongrass, chamomile, and spearmint are all ideal for drinking before bed to encourage a good night’s rest and to calm hyperactivity.

One key way herbs help with mental health problems like ADHD is by improving the functioning of the gut-brain axis by shifting the gut microbiome towards greater symbiosis with you the host. Learn more about how herbal teas help with gut health by clicking the button below:

The Jury’s Still Out

So, can weed cure ADHD? With few research findings, it’s hard to say for sure. There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence and a few studies to suggest marijuana may help ADHD symptoms, but more is needed. What is clear is that when used responsibly, cannabis increases consciousness, which is useful for all mental health conditions.

In the future, we hope to see further research on cannabis use for the condition. As laws surrounding marijuana consumption ease countrywide in the US and worldwide, there’s hope that soon you’ll be able to pop over to your local dispensary with a medical cannabis card and purchase your favorite strain to help ease your ADHD symptoms, or symptoms from other mental health issues.

If you live where weed cultivation is legal, nothing stops you from buying seeds and growing your own. Remember to speak to your doctor to understand how cannabis reacts to your medication and give it a try.

The potential benefits of marijuana are staggering, and you may find the relief you need from this natural herb. To learn more about all the herbal uses of cannabis and the science of it’s cannabinoids, visit the cannabis herbalism page.

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References:

1. Mitchell JT, Sweitzer MM, Tunno AM, Kollins SH, McClernon FJ. “I use weed for my adhd”: a qualitative analysis of online forum discussions on cannabis use and adhd. Lidzba K, ed. PLoS ONE. 2016;11(5):e0156614.

2. Hergenrather J, Aviram J, Vysotski Y, Campisi-Pinto S, Lewitus G, Meiri D. Cannabinoid and Terpenoid Doses are Associated with Adult ADHD Status of Medical Cannabis Patients. Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal. 2020;11(1).

3. Stueber A, Cuttler C. Self-reported effects of cannabis on adhd symptoms, adhd medication side effects, and adhd-related executive dysfunction. J Atten Disord. 2022;26(6):942-955.

4. Kollins SH, Schoenfelder EN, English JS, et al. An exploratory study of the combined effects of orally administered methylphenidate and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Thc) on cardiovascular function, subjective effects, and performance in healthy adults. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. 2015;48(1):96-103.

5. NIDA. 2021, April 13. What are marijuana's long-term effects on the brain?. Retrieved from https://nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/what-are-marijuanas-long-term-effects-brain on 2022, July 22

6. Hsu C, Hsieh L, Chen Y, et al. Complementary effects of pine bark extract supplementation on inattention, impulsivity, and antioxidative status in children with attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder: A double‐blinded randomized placebo‐controlled cross‐over study. Phytotherapy Research. 2021;35(6):3226-3235.

7. Uebel-von Sandersleben H, Rothenberger A, Albrecht B, Rothenberger LG, Klement S, Bock N. Ginkgo biloba extract egb 761 ® in children with adhd: preliminary findings of an open multilevel dose-finding study. Zeitschrift für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie. 2014;42(5):337-347.

Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.

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How to use Peppermint Oil and Tea for IBS

Treating Constipation, Diarrhea, Bloating, and Gas with Peppermint

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated July 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most commonly experienced gut health problems, with 5-15% of the population in western countries having IBS. In fact IBS is the most common disease that gastroenterologists diagnose, and they might tell you that IBS will be with you for life, but that doesn’t have to be the case with a proper understanding of what IBS is and if you utilize the natural methods that help treat IBS.

There isn’t any single causal factor for IBS, the condition is defined by a general irritability and volatility of the digestive system, characterized by frequent and rapid shifts in digestive function and near constant abdominal pain and bloating. More women than men have IBS, and women with IBS may find that symptoms flare up during their periods. Three sub-types of IBS have been identified and they are:

• IBS with constipation (IBS-C)

• IBS with diarrhea (IBS-D)

• IBS with mixed bowel habits (IBS-M)

To best treat gut health problems it’s helpful to understand the sequence of events that leads from what’s causing a gut health problem to the symptoms being experienced.

1. Causal Factors: IBS for example can be caused by lifestyle and emotional stress, anxiety & depression, food intolerances, gut dysbiosis (pathogenic microbiome), and a poor diet.

2. Altered Digestive Activity: These causal factors influence the activity of the gut-brain axis, gut motility (the transit of food through the digestive system), intestinal permeability (leaky gut), and the digestion of food.

3. Symptoms: With the functioning of the digestive system now disrupted, symptoms of IBS like constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating, lower abdominal pain, and cramps occur.

For IBS to be healed it’s important that the causal factors are addressed and that effective treatment options are used to favorably influence digestive activity and ease symptoms.

Peppermint, in the form of peppermint essential oil capsules and peppermint tea, are excellent treatment options for IBS because not only do they both ease the symptoms of IBS, they both help normalize gut motility, restore normal communication between the gut-brain axis, and reduce pathogens of the microbiome.

Gut motility, the gut-brain axis, and the microbiome are linked together, and the reason peppermint has shown good success in treating IBS is because it helpfully targets all three of these simultaneously.

This article covers the following:

• What is peppermint and its health benefits

• Why peppermint essential oil is useful for IBS and how to use it safely

• Why peppermint tea is useful for IBS and how to use it most effectively

Read to the end to receive a 10% discount on the Holistic Gut Health Guide, the all-in-one gut health eBook that will help you solve your gut health problems once and for all!

What is Peppermint?

Peppermint (Mentha piperita) is a perennial herb native to Europe and now found and cultivated in many parts of the world such as North America and Asia. Peppermint is a hybrid of spearmint and water mint. Peppermint has a strong flavor and fragrance thanks to its high menthol content. The chemical constituents of peppermint vary depending on plant maturity, where it was grown, and its specific variety.

Peppermint leaves contain anywhere from 1-4% essential oil, and peppermint essential oil contains menthol (33–60%), menthone (15–32%), isomenthone (2–8%), 1,8-cineole (eucalyptol) (5–13%), menthyl acetate (2–11%), menthofuran (1–10%), limonene (1–7%), β-myrcene (0.1–1.7%), β-caryophyllene (2–4%), pulegone (0.5– 1.6%), and carvone (1%).

When using peppermint essential oil for IBS you’re working with the chemicals above, and using peppermint tea for IBS exposes you not only to the above essential oils but also phytochemicals like carotenoids, chlorophyll, tocopherols, polyphenols, and flavonoids in addition to vitamin and mineral micronutrients. Of particular importance for gut health are the polyphenol flavonoids like apigenin that peppermint contains, as flavonoids exert beneficial effects on the gut microbiome of the large intestine and therefore on the gut-brain axis, and this is useful because most symptoms of IBS originate from the large intestine. About 75% of all polyphenols and a significant amount of peppermint essential oils are extracted from peppermint leaves when brewed into a tea, making peppermint tea very useful for IBS and gut health problems in general.

Peppermint Health Benefits

Peppermint has a wide-range of health and wellness uses (see reference 3) because of the biologic properties it possesses. Notably peppermint is:

Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory: Peppermint is able to lessen inflammation locally or throughout the body depending on how it’s applied/used. Peppermint has this anti-inflammatory effect in part because it contains antioxidant compounds that bind to and neutralize inflammatory free radicals (highly reactive and unstable molecules).

Antitumor: Peppermint through its diverse array of active compounds like menthol exerts antitumor effects on the body through a variety of different chemical and cellular pathways. Peppermint is beneficially cytotoxic to cancer cells while not being harmful to healthy cells.

Antiallergenic: Peppermint has antiallergenic properties because it has an inhibitory effect on histamine release and suppresses the release of inflammatory compounds like leukotriene, prostaglandin, and interleukin. Leukotriene in particular triggers the contraction of smooth muscles which can alter gut motility.

Antimicrobial, antiviral, antifungal: Like many of herbs, peppermint limits the growth and replication of pathogens, viruses, and funguses. The antimicrobial action of peppermint is very useful for improving the gut microbiome because flavonoids, one of the main antimicrobial active constituents found in peppermint (and other herbs), limit the growth of bad endotoxin producing pathogens while promoting the growth of good symbiotic microorganisms like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria. Symbiotic microorganisms living in the large intestine metabolize flavonoids into biologically-useful secondary metabolites that improve the functioning of the gut-brain axis.

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Ready to Heal Your Gut?

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Together the digestive system and microbiome are the foundation of health from which everything else is dependent on.

The Holistic Gut Health Guide contains all the information you need to identify and understand the gastrointestinal and microbiome problems you may have while also providing you the most effective natural methods you can use to heal your gut. No gut health problems are unsolvable, give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

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Some of the information in the Holistic Gut Health Guide isn’t common knowledge but when implemented it is highly effective in healing the gut and shifting the microbiome towards symbiosis. Give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

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Peppermint Oil for IBS

Peppermint oil is an effective treatment option for IBS, particularly acute bouts of IBS, because peppermint oil naturally helps normalize gut motility by relaxing gastrointestinal smooth muscle tissues through blockade of cellular Ca2+ channels. What this means is that peppermint oil helps to restore regular and consistent peristaltic waves of smooth muscle activity in the digestive system.

IBS is characterized by digestive peristaltic waves that are ever changing. Sometimes these waves that move food through the gut are too frequent, other times they are too slow. The waves can also be too weak or too strong. What is desirable is for peristaltic waves to be regular and consistent in strength and frequency.

IBS is often treated with antispasmodic drugs, but research studies have shown that peppermint oil is as effective as antispasmodic drugs in treating IBS but better tolerated with less adverse events occurring. As a natural carminative (prevents gas formation, assists in the expulsion of gas), peppermint oil also reduces the very common IBS symptoms of bloating and gas and also significantly reduces abdominal pain from IBS

Peppermint Oil for Digestion

The small intestine has three sections, the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. The duodenum connects to the stomach and measures about twenty-five centimeters (ten inches) long. Ducts from the pancreas and gallbladder connect to the small intestine early at the duodenum so the digestive enzymes and bile they release may pass through the full length of the small intestine. Following the duodenum is the jejunum, the middle section of the small intestine, about one meter (three feet) long. The twists and folds of the small intestine really begin with the jejunum, and as the jejunum subtly transitions into the ileum these folds, twists, and projections increase. The ileum is the final section of the small intestine, which connects to the large intestine, about 1.8 meters (six feet) long. The ileum is thicker, more vascular, and has more developed mucus folds than the jejunum.

How food transits through the small intestine determines how well it is digested. Each section of the small intestine absorbs different nutrients, and if food is pushed through one section faster than optimal due to IBS, then food won’t be properly digested. For example if food is pushed through the duodenum faster than ideal, it won’t be mixed with fat-digesting bile as well as it could be, and fats will only be at best poorly digested and absorbed even if they spend long lengths of time in the jejunum and ileum..

By normalizing the bioelectrical activity and contractile waves of the gastrointestinal smooth muscle tissues, peppermint oil improves digestion and ensures that food spends the optimal length of time in each part of the digestive system.

Peppermint Oil for Bloating & Gas

Peppermint oil has been shown to reduce acute and chronic occurrences of bloating and indigestion, and peppermint also reduces abdominal pain and frequency in those who have dyspepsia (indigestion).

For reference, in a study where 96 people with functional dyspepsia were given 90 mg of peppermint oil plus 50 mg caraway oil twice daily, on average the study participants observed an average 40% reduction in pain intensity, 43% reduction in the sensation of pressure, heaviness and fullness, and 67% global improvement as compared to their baseline assessments. The efficacy of the peppermint + caraway oil treatment was unaffected by Helicobacter pylori, a bacteria which can cause gut health problems, which approximately 50% of patients suffering from functional dyspepsia have.

Peppermint Oil for GERD

In addition to improving digestion through normalizing gut motility and reducing bloating, gas, and indigestion, peppermint oil is also useful in treating acid reflux, clinically known as Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). Peppermint oil helps with GERD for the same reason it improves gut motility, it works to relax smooth muscle activity.

Peppermint oil reduces multiphasic, spontaneous, and missed esophageal contractions while improving the amplitude and duration of these contractions. Notably peppermint oil completely eliminated simultaneous esophageal contractions. What this means is that peppermint oil reduced erratic all-over-the-place esophageal contractions and stabilized them back to regular consistent strong waves of activity.

Peppermint oil also helps normalize duodenal contractions, with 90 mg of peppermint oil relaxing the smooth muscle activity of the duodenum and stomach, reducing the frequency and duration of contractions in both parts of the digestive system. Altogether, peppermint oil is a useful treatment option for GERD that is effective and well-tolerated, causing adverse events very infrequently.

How to Take Peppermint Oil

Peppermint Essential Oil Capsules: There are a few ways to use peppermint oil for improving IBS. The first method is to use enteric coated-peppermint essential oil capsules during an acute bout of IBS symptoms, and you for chronic IBS it is useful to take these peppermint oil capsules daily on an empty stomach or with a very light meal.

I recommend Heather’s Tummy Tamers enteric-coated peppermint essential oil capsules, with each softgel containing 180 mg of high-grade peppermint essential oil in addition to ~20 mg each of digestion-friendly fennel (helps with gas) and ginger (helps with pain and nausea) essential oils. It’s extremely common for IBS to be caused in part by microbiome dysbiosis, and if you’re already going to be taking peppermint oil capsules daily for IBS, I recommend taking an oregano essential oil capsule at the same time. Oregano oil is an even more potent antimicrobial which will reduce pathogenic bacteria populations while supporting symbiotic bacteria populations.

Both of these essential oil supplements use sunflower oil as a carrier oil and are free of major allergens.

Peppermint Essential Oil: The other way peppermint essential oil can be used to help with IBS is by topically applying it to where pain is being felt, most commonly the lower part of the abdomen. This is how I typically use peppermint oil to improve digestion, I simply rub it in and enjoy the invigorating menthol effect while it kicks in, which takes about 15+ minutes.

Mountain Rose Herbs sells an organic peppermint essential oil which I use and recommend. BTW peppermint essential oil also makes for a good natural deodorant because it is naturally antimicrobial and has a strong pleasant aroma. Learn more by reading our underarm health guide.

Peppermint Oil Safety Considerations

Rarely peppermint oil can cause mild and transient adverse side effects like heartburn, dry mouth, belching, rash, dizziness, headache, and peppermint taste and smell. Making sure to take a peppermint oil capsule that is enteric-coated will reduce the chance of these side effects because the enteric coating will keep the pill intact during transit through the stomach before finally dissolving in the intestines.

The use of peppermint oil is not recommended in patients with bile duct, gallbladder and liver disorders. People with GI reflux, hiatal hernia, or kidney stones should be more cautious in using peppermint oil. Also avoid using peppermint oil if you you have a G6PD enzyme deficiency or take certain medications where the inhibition of enzyme CYP3A4 is problematic, please consult with your doctor.

Peppermint Tea for IBS

Peppermint Tea for Bloating, Gas, and Constipation

Most research has examined how peppermint oil can help with IBS and its symptoms, and peppermint tea is similarly effective in treating IBS and for improving digestion and gut health overall. Peppermint is one of the most popular single ingredient herbal teas, and most people know that drinking mint tea helps with gas and bloating.

You’ll consume less peppermint essential oil when drinking a peppermint tea than if using peppermint oil capsules, but the advantage of the tea is that you’ll consume valuable plant polyphenols like flavonoids. IBS is caused in large part by a bidirectional miscommunication between the nerves connecting the brain and gut, and this gut-brain axis as it is known is hugely impacted by the microbiome. Flavonoids are super beneficial for the microbiome, for improving gut health, and for overall wellness because:

• Pathogens don’t tolerate the presence of flavonoids well and their populations will reduce if flavonoids are a constant presence in the diet

• Symbiotic microorganisms like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria like flavonoids because they are able to metabolize them into secondary metabolites, and flavonoids support the growth of symbiotic microorganism populations.

• Flavonoids and their secondary metabolites exert beneficial biologic effects throughout the body because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Flavonoids help aid in the repair of digestive linings, improve the gut-brain axis, fight cancer, improve cardiac health, normalize nervous system activity, and more. To learn more about flavonoids read about nature’s most powerful flavonoid - apigenin.

Peppermint tea will extract peppermint essential oil and flavonoids (among other useful phytochemicals) from peppermint leaves quite effectively, and if you are interested in brewing peppermint tea either by itself or in combination with other gut-healing herbs like dandelion and chamomile, I recommend purchasing organic peppermint leaves from Mountain Rose Herbs.

If experiencing an acute bout of IBS, prepare some peppermint tea and drink it over the course of 5-10 minutes for fast relief, and for help with chronic IBS you can drink peppermint daily, either once a day or multiple times per day. You can drink peppermint tea with a meal to help improve your digestion of that meal, or you can drink peppermint tea on an empty stomach for a stronger effect.

Peppermint isn’t the only herb useful for IBS and gut heath in general, learn more on how herbs help with gut health by clicking the button below.

Other Ways to Treat IBS

Peppermint essential oil and peppermint tea are very useful for treating IBS but they doesn’t address the root causes of IBS, which are typically stress, a poor diet, a pathogenic microbiome, or a combination of all of these. It’s very common to have leaky gut at the same time as IBS, and for the best success in treating IBS steps should be taken to heal digestive barriers and reduce intestinal permeability.

One of the best ways to accomplish these objectives and to return the digestive system to good health is via fasting. Fasting to reset the digestive system is one of my top recommendations to people who are experiencing gut health problems because it’s so effective in holistically treating the reasons why gut health problems exist in the first place. Fasting for 24-48 hours will provide noticeable relief from gut health problems, and highlight any changes and improvements that have taken place. There’s little guess work with fasting, it’s beneficial effect on the digestive system and overall health is felt and understood very clearly at the end of every fast, and this is invaluable.

I hope you found the information in this article on how to use peppermint to treat IBS useful, and if you really want to heal your gut then I recommend you continue your gut health and wellness education by purchasing the Holistic Gut Health Guide. Use the code PEPPERMINT10 for 10% off at checkout, and best of luck!

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Heal Your Gut Naturally

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If you read all the way here then it’s clear to me that you’re ready to do what it takes to finally restore your digestive system and gut microbiome back to healthy and optimal function.

I wrote the Holistic Gut Health Guide to help you accomplish exactly this! It contains all the information that you need to understand the gastrointestinal system, gut-brain axis, and microbiome in-depth, and the Holistic Gut Health Guide also educates you on the natural methods you can holistically use together like fasting and herbalism to transform your health from the inside out.

I’m so excited to be able to help you along your gut health and overall wellness journey with the Holistic Gut Health Guide! Please contact me with any questions you have and wishing you the best.

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Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.

References:

1. Cleveland Clinic | Disease and Conditions. my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases

2. Khanna R, MacDonald JK, Levesque BG. Peppermint oil for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology. 2014;48(6):505-512.

3. McKay DL, Blumberg JB. A review of the bioactivity and potential health benefits of peppermint tea (Mentha piperita L.). Phytother Res. 2006;20(8):619-633.

How to Heal Leaky Gut with Fasting

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated July 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Systemic inflammation throughout the body can cause many health problems and chronic diseases, and one way chronic inflammation occurs is through a gut health condition known as “leaky gut”. When the barriers of the digestive system are degraded and intestinal permeability is higher than normal, things like too-large food particles, microorganisms, and toxins that normally are unable to cross the digestive barrier into the bloodstream and the body as a whole are in fact able to do so. When this happens, the immune system goes on high alert and works to cleanup and detoxify the body, and the worse the condition of the mucosal and epithelial layers of the digestive barrier, the worse leaky gut is.

Leaky gut is most commonly a gut health condition that is experienced alongside other gut health problems like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but it can be experienced by itself, and leaky gut is often the first gut health problem that is experienced before other gut health problems develop. The tissues of the digestive system are highly dynamic and undergo cellular turnover quite rapidly, and at the same time the integrity of digestive barriers can degrade rapidly depending on what one eats, environmental or lifestyle stressors, and exposure to pathogens. What this means is that leaky gut can develop rapidly. Everyone has had leaky gut at least a few times in their life due to eating a poor diet, excessive stress, or illness, and while normally leaky gut will go away as everything returns to normal, leaky gut can persist if certain conditions remain.

Because leaky gut is characterized by excessive inflammation caused by chronic activation of the immune system, symptoms of leaky gut can be quite diverse, ranging from skin inflammation to joint pain to cognitive impairment to the typical digestive problems of bloating, gas, constipation, and/or diarrhea. To recover from leaky gut, digestive barriers must be restored to their normal integrity, and this can be done rapidly by fasting. By abstaining from all food and emptying the digestive system over the course of many hours or days, the presence of gut barrier degraders like food particles, gut microbiota, and toxic chemicals like pesticides are dramatically reduced and the digestive system is able to rapidly regenerate in a much quieter immune system environment. Combining fasting with stress reduction practices, certain herbs, and supplements like probiotics and zinc amplify the healing effect further.

Leaky gut can persist for a long time if left untreated and can set the stage for more serious gut health problems or inflammation-based diseases to develop, but it is relatively easy to treat when the right steps are taken.

In this article we cover:

1. The science and biology of digestive barriers, the microbiome, and the immune system

2. Things that cause leaky gut, symptoms of leaky gut, and food intolerances

3. How fasting can rapidly heal leaky gut

4. Beneficial dietary changes for leaky gut, herbs that help with leaky gut, probiotics and zinc

5. How to combine fasting with dietary changes, herbs, and supplements to heal your leaky gut

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Ready to Heal Your Gut?

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Holistic Gut Health Guide eBook

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Together the digestive system and microbiome are the foundation of health from which everything else is dependent on.

The Holistic Gut Health Guide contains all the information you need to identify and understand the gastrointestinal and microbiome problems you may have while also providing you the most effective natural methods you can use to heal your gut. No gut health problems are unsolvable, give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

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Some of the information in the Holistic Gut Health Guide isn’t common knowledge but when implemented it is highly effective in healing the gut and shifting the microbiome towards symbiosis. Give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

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Intestinal Permeability and Gut Health

The Role of Digestive Barriers

Digestion is the process that takes nutrients from the outside world and converts them into components usable by your body. As far as the human system is concerned, something is not truly in the human body until it has passed through the intestinal lining and into the bloodstream. Everything inside the digestive system is technically “outside” the cells and tissues of your body. The body wraps around this long, high surface area tunnel that end to end (mouth to anus) is exposed to the outside world, sealed by various gates (sphincter valves) along the way. All the food that is transiting through the gut, the acids and juices that are released into the gut, and the microbiome that reside in the gut all exist outside the human tissues of the body. For there to exist an outside and an inside there must exist a separator between the two; a wall, barrier, divider of some sort. In the case of the digestive system the linings of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine are that divider.

Digestive barriers exist for the following reasons:

• To create a immune-silent environment inside the body, stopping viruses and pathogens from entering into the bloodstream and beyond

• To limit the exposure of epithelial cells to chemically-reactive digestive juices like stomach acid, bile, and digestive enzymes

• To differentiate and select nutrients usable by the body from those that aren’t fully digested and broken down small enough yet

• To protect the body from unwanted chemicals and toxins, like environmental toxins such as pesticides or endotoxins produced from pathogenic bacteria

Healthy intestinal epithelial barrier with no weak tight junctions.

DOI: 10.1038/s12276-018-0126-x | CC4.0

The Mucosal Layer

The digestive lining starts with a layer of mucus which sits over the one-cell-thick internal lining of the gut made of different types of epithelial cells. The mucosal layer is a chemical barrier that limits contact between the epithelial cells and the microbiome, which is of critical importance. Mucus also protects epithelial cells from the various digestive juices such as stomach acid, bile, and enzymes. Depending on the gut health of an individual, mucosal layers can be thick and healthy or eroded and unhealthy, and this can vary between the different sections of the digestive system.

In the context of leaky gut it’s typically the intestinal mucosal layer that is degraded, whereas an eroded mucosal layer for the stomach can lead to issues like gastritis and acid reflux (GERD). If the gut is healthy when viruses and pathogens in the digestive system make contact with the mucosal layer, there is a robust immune response from white-blood cells like T-cells and monocytes that occurs. Dysregulation of the mucosal immune response is a very important factor in the progression of gut health problems like leaky gut, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and more serious conditions like irritable bowel disease (IBD).

Epithelial Cells and Tight Junctions

Underneath the mucosal layer are epithelial cells, the main component of digestive linings. Once food particles are fully digested they pass through the mucosal layer and upon reaching the villi of the intestinal epithelium are transported across the cell membrane and into the bloodstream. Epithelial cells are wedged tightly together to stop things from passing in-between them, and the strength of these tight junctions are a key component of gut health.

The layers of the digestive system are selectively permeable, and the status of the mucosal layer and the epithelial cells determines intestinal permeability. The defining characteristic of leaky gut is that intestinal permeability has increased because the mucosal layer is thin and the tight junctions of the epithelium are degraded and gaps exist in-between the epithelial cells.

An increase in intestinal permeability allows food particles, chemicals, toxins, and microorganisms to pass from the digestive system into the body, which then triggers the immune system to clean up the “mess”. If digestive barriers are degraded and inflamed, restoring these digestive barriers to optimal health and function is one of the most important things that can be done to improve gut health. Restoring intestinal permeability to normal is the key to healing leaky gut.

Symptoms of Leaky Gut

Increased Intestinal Permeability

Leaky gut is a gut health condition characterized by increased intestinal permeability caused by eroded protective mucosal layers and an inflamed epithelial cellular layer. Leaky gut isn’t a health condition currently recognized to exist by the medical establishment, but its existence is undoubtable simply due to the sheer volume of people who suffer from health symptoms caused by increased intestinal permeability. Leaky gut can exist by itself as a gut problem, though more typically it is a gut health problem that exists concurrently with other gastrointestinal issues like IBS and IBD.

It’s the inflammation of the epithelium and the systemic response of the immune system that is primarily responsible for the symptoms of leaky gut.

Leaky Gut and Inflammation

By far the most notable symptom of leaky gut is that it triggers a constant inflammatory response in the body. It’s this inflammation that causes a lot of the symptoms commonly associated with leaky gut like:

• Skin problems like acne, rashes, auto-immune skin issues

• Joint pain, swelling, arthritis

• Chronic fatigue and energy an overall deficit

• Neurocognitive problems such as brain fog, anxiety, depression,

• Asthma

Being caused by the inflammatory response of the body, when leaky gut is healed and inflammation goes down these symptoms can disappear quite rapidly.

More common are symptoms digestive in origin which themselves are effected by the inflammation leaky gut causes but are triggered primarily through mechanisms before the inflammatory response. These symptoms are:

• Bloating and gas

• Abdominal and stomach pain

• Changes in gut motility like constipation and diarrhea

• Food sensitivities and intolerances

• Nutrient deficiencies

The body is always doing its best to heal itself, and with leaky gut it recognizes that its digestive barriers are functioning poorly, so it alters digestion how it can to help the digestive barriers heal. For example this could mean that if a meal is eaten that will make the leaky gut condition worse because it contains damaging foods, the transit of the food through the digestion system may be expedited and diarrhea experienced. Or since leaky gut is typically paired with some degree of microbiome dysbiosis, bloating from excess gas production of an overgrown pathogenic microbiome is common. As it is with gut health problems, the answer to the problem can be found in the symptoms experienced.

With leaky gut every meal feels like an unknown in whether symptoms will be triggered and which ones at that. The reason fasting is so effective in healing leaky gut is that it completely empties the digestive system of food, and food is one of the main triggers of leaky gut symptoms. Food may trigger symptoms of leaky gut, and certain foods can cause leaky gut, but leaky gut can be caused by factors other than food.

*Read till the end to receive a special discount code for the Holistic Gut Health Guide, the all-in-on eBook on how to heal the gut using natural methods.

Things that Cause Leaky Gut

Pesticides and Leaky Gut

Pesticides are well-known to increase intestinal permeability and thin mucus linings. In the USA ~2.5 kg of pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, bactericides, and rodenticides) are applied per hectare of land (100 x 100 meters). What this means is that most of the food sold in grocery stores is contaminated with significant amounts of pesticides. Excessive pesticide exposure also causes gut dysbiosis and unfavorably alters the gut-brain axis because pathogenic bacteria like Clostridium spp. and Salmonella, which produce noxious health-disrupting endotoxins, are more resistant to common pesticides like glyphosate (the herbicide roundup) than symbionts like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria.

Pesticide residues are found in high concentrations on many fruits and vegetables as well as wheat, oats, rice, beans, and legumes. Eating these foods, particularly wheat and oats in excess (multiple times per day), exposes the body to pesticide concentrations beyond tolerable and can contribute greatly to leaky gut.

Pathogens Increase Intestinal Permeability

Toxic pesticide exposure in excess will lead to gut dysbiosis, a condition marked by an increase in harmful pathogenic microorganisms in the gut microbiome while helpful symbionts decrease in population. Pathogens and the toxic metabolites they produce degrade digestive linings and increase intestinal permeability. An especially troublesome situation is when hard-to-dislodge pathogenic biofilms are able to adhere close to or directly onto epithelial cells because the mucosal lining is thin/non-existent. Biofilms are protective structures both symbiotic an pathogenic microorganisms make for a variety of reasons and to increase the survivability. In the worse cases of leaky gut the presence of pathogenic biofilms on the intestinal epithelium is almost assured, and this creates many complications.

Drugs and Antibiotics Increase Intestinal Permeability

Certain pharmaceutical drugs and antibiotics erode and degrade digestive linings. For example oral low-dose antibiotics are often prescribed for skin acne, and this daily antibiotic will slowly degrade digestive linings while simultaneously altering the microbiome towards gut dysbiosis. A short-course of antibiotics or certain drugs will also unfavorably alter intestinal permeability and the microbiome, but the effect is generally less than that caused from the constant use of these drugs, and can be recovered from quickly if the right steps are taken.

Stress/Anxiety and Leaky Gut

The gut-brain axis is a bidirectional connection pathway that exists between the gut microbiome and nervous system/brain, and not only does the microbiome effect the functioning of the brain, but conditions of the nervous system and brain like stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and more in-turn effect the microbiome and gut. Excessive stress and anxiety in particular degrade digestive function and the integrity of digestive barriers.

For example an extended stressful period of one’s life can lead to gut health problems like gastritis (stomach inflammation) and IBS. The depth of the connection between stress and the gut isn’t well-known by most, and it’s often a mystery to people who are experiencing gut health problems like leaky gut why they are having these problems; they never consider that the stress they are experiencing day by day may be a large contributing factor in their gut health problems.

Food Intolerances and Leaky Gut

A food intolerance occurs when the digestive system has a difficult time breaking down a particular food or chemical, and it can be common to be intolerant to many foods at once. When intestinal permeability is high and undigested food particles are slipping past epithelial tight junctions and into the bloodstream, then the immune system begins to recognize that certain food nutrients are constantly causing problems and a preemptive immune response can develop to those foods. If the body is having difficulty breaking down certain food macronutrients in the digestive track, like with fructose, lactose, or wheat proteins, then greater numbers of those nutrients will be not fully digested as compared to other food nutrients that are being adequately digested, and they will trigger the immune system strongly causing greater amounts of inflammation.

Food intolerances are highly individual, and it’s often hard to diagnose what food(s) is causing the digestive problems without first performing a few carefully observed 48+ hour fasts or with a 6+ week elimination diet.

The Case of Joe and Kate

To understand how all these leaky gut causing factors interplay with each other let’s examine a hypothetical scenario that unfortunately is all too common.

Joe and Kate eat a typical American diet high in wheat, other grain products, and ultra-processed foods. Their poor quality diet causes chronic inflammation of the digestive system (and body), and the high levels of pesticides they expose their gut and microbiome to through their diet exacerbate the problem more by further degrading digestive barriers and promoting the growth of pathogenic microorganisms. Both Joe and Kate take a few different pharmaceutical drugs for health conditions they have, and then when they mention that their developing gut health problems to a gastroenterologist they are prescribed a low-dose antibiotic, worsening the problem. Overworked and underpaid, the stress from each of their jobs bleeds over into their daily life, and one of the few ways they find comfort is by eating highly-pleasurable junk foods that trigger the food intolerances they’ve developed (but don’t yet know they have). With limited gut health consciousness, the health of their gastrointestinal systems and their overall wellness goes down day by day.

As you can see every factor is influencing the others, creating a feedback loop that degrades gut health further and further, and whereas leaky gut was the first and only gut health problem that existed, if things aren’t changed then eventually IBS and then IBD develops. If those conditions aren’t treated, then long term chronic diseases and cancers can develop. To unravel this knot of problems is no easy task, but one way significant progress can be made quickly is stop the downward spiral at the beginning and to abstain from all food for a period of time.

Fasting for Leaky Gut

There are many ways to reduce stress on the digestive system, from a liquid diet to removing intolerant foods from the diet, but there is no question that the simplest and most effective way to reduce digestive stress and inflammation is to simply not eat. The epithelial layer of the digestive system regenerates about 20% per day, and this rate is increased even further when the regular stress of digesting food is alleviated via fasting.

Luckily it’s in our physiology to fast, it’s a second “default mode network” for the body that has developed over millions of years of evolution. In fact the body wants you to fast every now and then, it’s the most efficient way to active autophagy, the cellular process that repairs and regenerates the tissues of the body.

With leaky gut the barriers of the digestive system are highly degraded and dysfunctional, and to heal leaky gut these tissues must be repaired and regenerated. Not only does fasting create an environment in the gut free of triggering food particles and greatly reduces microorganism populations, it also triggers this value process of autophagy which is essential in recovering from leaky gut. Leaky gut will not be remedied if autophagy isn’t activated, and autophagy is most powerfully activated by nutrient deprivation.

Intermittent Fasting for Leaky Gut

Most information out there that discusses how fasting can be used to remedy leaky gut focuses on daily 16:8 intermittent fasting. Most people eat every few hours, so food is constantly transiting through their digestive systems, and intermittent fasting changes this by condensing food consumption to an eight hour window (typically) with the other 16 hours of the day being free of all food consumption. Intermittent fasting is a good place to start for people brand new to fasting and interested in experimenting with fasting for gut health, metabolism, and overall wellness benefits. To see the biggest benefit from intermittent fasting, it should be done consistently everyday.

Intermittent fasting can certainly be effective in reducing leaky gut, but it can take a long time (weeks to months) to see beneficial changes because the digestive system is still processing food everyday. To really heal the gut and regenerate the digestive barriers quickly, the digestive system should be completely emptied of all food, and this takes 24+ hours of fasting. Longer fasts are much more effective in healing the digestive system, and intermittent fasting is a good protocol to follow in-between longer fasts to keep autophagy elevated.

OMAD for Leaky Gut

A 24 hour fast will take the body deeper into autophagy than intermittent fasting will, and it’s a good way to begin experimenting with fasting for healing leaky gut because it’s easy to perform with a little preparation and the beneficial effects are more likely to be felt and experienced. The best way to stick to something is to actually feel how it’s helping you, and guaranteed after a 24 hour fast if you pay attention you’ll notice that your gut health has noticeably improved and whatever symptoms you normally have have reduced in severity. Twenty four fasting can be done daily with what’s known as one-meal-a-day (OMAD) fasting. As has been shown intermittent fasting is useful for treating leaky gut, and OMAD is even more so.

48 Hour Fasting for Leaky Gut

Most effective for treating leaky gut significantly and quickly is a 48 hour fast. While not eating anything for 2 days may seem daunting, in fact a forty-eight-hour fast is short enough to be easily completed by most people without serious health issues as long as they have the willpower and do a little bit of planning. Remember the body is physiologically designed to go through periods of nutrient deprivation, and most people carry around enough body fat to make fasting for 48 hours, let alone a week or two, no problem. Abstaining from eating for 48 hours really clears the digestive system of all food and greatly reduces the size of the microbiome through nutrient deprivation. Symbiotic microorganisms are more adaptable to conditions of nutrient deprivation than pathogens and better survive the conditions an extended fast, and this makes fasting an excellent way to treat gut dysbiosis, which is often a main contributor to leaky gut.

Fiber and Fasting

The size and composition of the 1-2 meals before a fast is critical for the success of any fast. A final pre-fast meal rich in fiber with a balanced fat, carbohydrate, and protein macronutrient profile will provide long-lasting energy to the body during the first 24 hours of the fast, and once it has transited to the large intestine, the microbiome there will metabolize the fiber present into short-chain fatty acids and other useful metabolites which provide energy to the body and are useful for the brain for the next 24+ hours. It’s remarkable how much easier a fast can be when the last meal eaten is for example a grain bowl loaded up with fresh vegetables, versus a highly processed meal like pizza with glass. Fiber also normalizes gut motility and helps to remedy gut dysbiosis by promoting the growth of symbiotic microorganisms like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria.

I don’t recommend you try fasting off a low-quality meal. If you really want to heal your leaky gut you should make healing your gut a priority, make a plan, eat the right foods, and provide yourself the time you need. How well you stick to the plan is up to you and no one else.

For example when I do a 48 hour fast I will schedule it during the weekend so I have no outside responsibilities that require my energy or attention. I specifically set aside those two days for deep relaxation which reduces my stress levels, and the biggest physical activity I may do is go for a walk and practice some yoga/stretching. While fasting, keep physical and mental energy demands on the body low and dip into a deep state of parasympathetic relaxation and healing. This places less stress on the metabolic and energetic systems of the body and greatly reduces the chance of experiencing any unwanted side effects from fasting like low blood sugar and lightheadedness.

Before embarking upon your first fast I recommend you learn more about the nuances of fasting, either by reading my article on fasting to reset the digestive system, or by reading chapters 8 and 9 of the Holistic Gut Health Guide. You should also consult with a medical professional to make sure fasting will be safe for you to do.

Heal Leaky Gut in Two Weeks

By utilizing fasting and a few other gut health boosting strategies, significant progress can be made in healing leaky gut in just two weeks.

First and most important is to eat a very simple and gut health promoting diet during this period of time. Only organic/biodynamic foods should be eaten in order to reduce pesticide exposure, lifestyle and environmental stress should be reduced as much as possible, and the use of drugs/antibiotics should ceased if possible.

Diet to Reduce Intestinal Permeability for Leaky Gut

Different people can react to the same food quite differently, and for this reason I won’t give sweeping dietary advice, but there are a few best practices I am comfortable recommending which you can try and evaluate for yourself.

The first step is to increase your fiber and vegetable intake. Aim for 40+ grams of fiber in a day. A healthy symbiotic microbiome is critical in having healthy digestive barriers, and eating sufficient fiber and flavonoids is the main way to promote a healthy microbiome through dietary measures. Polyphenols and flavonoids are plant phytochemicals found in fruits, vegetables, and herbs that possess strong anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antimicrobial (for pathogens) properties. Flavonoids in particular are well-known to strengthen intestinal tight junctions, decrease intestinal permeability, and decrease gut dysbiosis, which are the exact things needed to heal leaky gut.

Second step is to eat more rice. Rice is a very easy grain to digest that can be prepared into a wide variety of meals, and I recommend eating rice over other grains when healing gut health problems like leaky gut. Organic rice will contain much less pesticides than non-organic rice, and rice flour is also the backbone of many gluten-free products.

Third step is to remove the most common food allergens from the diet, these being eggs, fish, milk, peanuts, shellfish, soy, tree nuts, and wheat. With some preparatory meal planning, it’s not difficult to eat a nutritious and filling diet without these foods.

Begin Fasting Regularly

Alongside these dietary changes you can begin experimenting with fasting regularly. Start with daily 16:8 intermittent fasting, and then on the easy days in your schedule add in some 24 hour and 48 hour fasts. One 48 hour fast for example will cause a huge improvement in your leaky gut condition, and during this focused two week effort to heal your leaky gut you should aim to complete two separate 48 hour fasts and a few 24 hour fasts. It is possible to keep caloric intake at maintenance while fasting, but if you have some body fat to lose then don’t worry about eating the same volume of food and let your body burn some body fat for energy as that’s beneficial for your health too.

Supplements and Herbs for Leaky Gut

Lastly the whole gut healing process can be helped along significantly by utilizing the gut healing and normalizing properties of herbs like black pepper, dandelion, and chamomile in addition to supplements like multi-strain probiotics and zinc. Herbs are so useful for gut health because they contain abundant amounts of useful flavonoid phytochemicals like apigenin, and a tea brewed from herbs like dandelion and chamomile contains no calories making it the perfect drink to enjoy during fasting. In fact a herbal tea like this makes fasting much easier metabolically and more effective in healing the gut via an upregulation of autophagy.

Black Pepper: One of the main chemicals found in black pepper is piperine, it’s the chemical responsible for black pepper’s pungency. Piperine is a gut health wonder chemical because it improves digestion by stimulating the body to release more digestive enzymes, restores healthy mucous linings, is antimicrobial against pathogens, increases the bioavailability and absorption of nutrients, reduces inflammation and mitigates stress, reduces the toxicity of certain chemicals, and boosts the metabolism. Black pepper and piperine by extension are great for gut health problems because not only does black pepper improve digestion and balance the microbiome, but it also aids in nutrient absorption, and many people who suffer from gut problems like leaky gut have problems absorbing the nutrients they consume.

Nootropics Depot sells a good piperine supplement which is useful taken with meals or during fasting. The main way I dose piperine is to simply grind extra black pepper on all my meals. Piperine makes up 3-10% of peppercorns by weight, so if you grind up enough black pepper, you’ll receive a significant amount (20+ mg) of piperine every time.

Dandelion Root: Dandelion is useful for fasting and healing gut problems because it normalizes gut motility (the speed of food transit through the gut), increases gastrointestinal mucus production thereby restoring protective mucous linings, applies beneficial antimicrobial pressures on pathogens in the microbiome, increases bile production (improving fat metabolism), and helps heal gastric ulcers. In addition to these amazing benefits, the phytonutrients found in dandelion help purify the blood of pathogens, reduce inflammation throughout the body, and heal blood vessel epithelial linings.

Dandelion also boosts fat metabolism, improves blood cholesterol parameters, and reduces unwanted platelet aggregation, which improves energy and oxygen transport throughout the body. Dandelion also aids the autophagy process by inducing unhealthy cells to undergo apoptosis while protecting healthy cells.

Dandelion is a wonder herb, use it often and you’ll be amazed by how much it helps you to heal your leaky gut.

Chamomile Flower: Chamomile is a digestive aid, calms the nervous system, and improves cardiovascular health. Chamomile is one of the best herbs for fasting and gut health because it improves gut motility, applies a gentle antimicrobial pressure to the microbiome, and increases gastrointestinal mucous production. Chamomile improves blood cholesterol levels, reduces excessive platelet aggregation, and normalizes blood sugar levels.

Chamomile is notably calming and increases the parasympathetic activity of the nervous system, which aids in relaxing and improving digestion. Balancing the activity of the autonomic nervous system is foundational to good health. Sometimes during a fast, energy levels will dip and become more volatile, and chamomile tea helps normalize metabolism and promotes relaxation, which smooths out the energy volatility that otherwise might have been experienced. The autonomic nervous system is also responsible for the waves of smooth muscle activity that propel food through the digestive system, and by normalizing these peristaltic waves, chamomile stabilizes gut motility to the Goldilocks zone, with food not transiting too quickly or too slowly through the digestive system

Mountain Rose Herbs sells organic dried dandelion root and chamomile flower which can be blended together into a 1:1 tea blend. Steep with boiling water for 5-15 minutes and drink daily to enjoy the gut health and overall wellness benefits it promotes. Drinking this tea in-between fasts with every or in-between meals is another way to keep autophagy increased and the gut healing.

Multi-Strain Probiotics: Probiotics containing strains of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria appear to be the most effective in helping with gut health problems, and these probiotic formations have also shown small but consistent benefits for those experiencing IBS. A multi-strain probiotic is usually more effective than a single-strain probiotic, and probiotics should be taken with a meal so more of the beneficial microbes survive the harsh acidic conditions of the stomach and can begin populating in the intestines, specifically the large intestine. I have used the following multi-strain probiotic from Nature’s Bounty successfully, I recommend you try it if you have leaky gut.

Zinc: Zinc has been shown to strengthen epithelial tight junctions, and you can consume more zinc by increasing your consumption of zinc-rich foods like oysters, pumpkin seeds, pulses (beans, lentils, etc), cashews, leafy greens, mushrooms, and avocado. You can also take a zinc supplement. Taking zinc in too high of doses (>25 mg) can cause digestive upset and nausea, and it’s for this reason I recommend the 15 mg Zinc Balance supplement from Jarrow Formulas. This Zinc Balance supplement also comes with 1 mg of copper which helps to keep zinc and copper levels balanced in the body.

Signs Leaky Gut is Healing

The clearest sign that your leaky gut is healing is that your gut motility normalizes and you experience much less bloating and gas after eating a meal. If you are having inflammatory health problems as a result of the leaky gut, then you’ll begin to notice that these issues are decreasing in severity and/or becoming less frequent. For example you might notice your skin clearing up, your brain fog go away, joint pain lessens in severity or vanishes, and chronic fatigue lessens.

These are the initial signs that leaky gut is healing, once intestinal permeability has returned to normal because the mucosal lining is restored and the epithelium is once again strong and intact, then you may notice that foods which previously triggered your leaky gut symptoms now no longer cause problems. To elaborate on this further I will describe how I healed my leaky gut and the changes I noticed.

How I Healed my Leaky Gut

Leaky gut was one of the many gut health problems I had for many years, alongside IBS, small intestinal bacteria overgrowth (SIBO), food intolerances to gluten and fructose, gut dysbiosis, and other issues. Yeah it was a handful, and my gut health problems are one reason I started Wild Free Organic.

Restoring the integrity of my digestive barriers was a key step in healing myself of my many gut health problems as leaky gut was one of the main contributing reasons to my IBS and food intolerances.

The main way I healed my leaky gut was by focusing on the following:

• Fasting regularly with intermittent, 24 hour, and 48 hour fasts scheduled at regular intervals.

• Constantly optimizing my diet to increase my vegetable and fiber intake. Introducing more fermented foods like pickles into my diet also helped considerably.

• Reducing environmental stressors like pesticide exposure by shopping organic and by growing my own food. I also switched from drinking tap water which is bad for the gut microbiome to drinking only spring water free of added chemicals like fluoride and chlorine.

• Reducing lifestyle stress by being more mindful of my energy levels and being careful with the intensity of the exercise I did, listening to my body and resting more when needed, and not letting factors beyond my control (like at work) stress me out needlessly.

I hope you found the information in this article on leaky gut and fasting useful, and if you really want to heal your gut then I recommend you continue your gut health and wellness education by purchasing the Holistic Gut Health Guide. Use the code LEAKY10 for 10% off at checkout, and best of luck!

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Heal Your Gut Naturally

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Holistic Gut Health Guide eBook

Sale Price:$12.95 Original Price:$18.95

Purchase

If you read all the way here then it’s clear to me that you’re ready to do what it takes to finally restore your digestive system and gut microbiome back to healthy and optimal function.

I wrote the Holistic Gut Health Guide to help you accomplish exactly this! It contains all the information that you need to understand the gastrointestinal system, gut-brain axis, and microbiome in-depth, and the Holistic Gut Health Guide also educates you on the natural methods you can holistically use together like fasting and herbalism to transform your health from the inside out.

I’m so excited to be able to help you along your gut health and overall wellness journey with the Holistic Gut Health Guide! Please contact me with any questions you have and wishing you the best.

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Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material of this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.

Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.

References:

1. Chelakkot C, Ghim J, Ryu SH. Mechanisms regulating intestinal barrier integrity and its pathological implications. Exp Mol Med. 2018;50(8):1-9.

2. Cleveland Clinic | Disease and Conditions. my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases

3. Suzuki T. Regulation of the intestinal barrier by nutrients: The role of tight junctions. Anim Sci J. 2020;91(1).

4. Rudea-Ruzafa L, Cruz F, Roman P, Cardona D. Gut microbiota and neurological effects of glyphosate. Neurotxicology. 2019;75:1-8 5. Zhao GP, Wang XY, Li JW, et al.

5. Imidacloprid increases intestinal permeability by disrupting tight junctions. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety. 2021; 222:112476

6. Wang X, Valenzano MC, Mercado JM, Zurbach EP, Mullin JM. Zinc supplementation modifies tight junctions and alters barrier function of CACO-2 human intestinal epithelial layers. Dig Dis Sci. 2013;58(1):77-87.

Coffee and Digestion - The Complete Guide

Article by Stefan Burns - Updated July 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!

Besides water, coffee is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide next to tea. As a bitter drink containing various phytonutrients, coffee has an effect on digestion that can be quite variable, and depending on the gut heath of an individual, quite noticeable. Coffee exerts antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects on the digestion system while also increasing gut motility and thinning gut mucosa.

Coffee is one of the most well-known foods to effect digestion, most commonly known to cause heartburn or to need to use the restroom soon after consumption in sensitive individuals. There are a few reasons why coffee has these heartburn and/or laxative effects, and in this article we’ll explain why this so frequently occurs for many people. This article will also discuss coffee’s overall effect on digestion and gut motility, the phytonutrients it contains, how coffee can change the microbiome for the better, coffee’s effect on the gut-brain axis, and specific ways to drink coffee so it improves gut health rather than make it worse.

Digestion and the Large Intestine (colon)

Roasted coffee contains thousands of bioactive compounds that together exert numerous biologic effects on the body. Coffee affects the nervous system, brain, cardiovascular system, and the digestive system. Before any discussion on the effects coffee has on digestion can be had, the basics of digestion must be understood.

A Simple Summary on Digestion

Digestion starts before anything is actually eaten, as before eating food just the sight, smell, or thought of it releases digestive enzymes in the mouth. These digestive enzymes assist with the breakdown of food that is chewed in the mouth, and they also prime the stomach to release more stomach acid. Chewing food physically breaks it down into smaller pieces, then it’s swallowed and moves down the esophagus before dropping into the stomach where strong acids break the food down even more at a chemical level. Once the stomach has done its job the slurry that the food has become moves into the small intestine, more digestive enzymes and bile are released, and muscular contractions further break down food into absorbable proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that pass through the lining of the gut and into the bloodstream.

If all is normal, what’s leftover after this are harder to break down food particles, namely soluble and insoluble fibers. It’s in the colon that the microbiome can then break down the final food remnants and produce beneficial compounds, such as short chain fatty acids from fiber. These fatty acids are absorbed by the colon and provide base-load energy to the body. The longer the microbiome of the large intestine has to work on the food there, the more beneficial nutrients can be metabolized by the microbiome to then be absorbed into the body, and this overall increases the stability of human metabolism.

It’s the introduction of new food/energy that stimulates the bowels to release the stool that it has been holding onto, as the body senses it needs to make room for a new influx of nutrients. It’s a balancing act between what new nutrients can be taken in (eating new food) and what nutrients can be synthesized and absorbed from the stool in the large intestine already mostly digested of its fats, carbohydrates, and proteins.

Gut Health Problems and Incomplete Digestion of Food

A lot of gut health problems stem from the incomplete digestion of food. Certain biologically valuable nutrients and chemicals are only produced by the microbiome in the colon, for example short chain fatty acids, metabolites of polyphenols, and neurotransmitters. If the microbiome consistently isn’t given enough time to breakdown the final remnants of food in the colon, then nutrient and neurotransmitter deficiencies can occur over time.

An easy way to directly experience the ability of the microbiome to very efficiently break down and upcycle food is to fast for 48 hours. If the final meal before a fast is of high-quality and consists of whole foods, like a grain bowl (rice, beans, vegetables, healthy fats like avocado), then once that final meal reaches the colon the microbiome will have plenty to begin breaking down as whole grains and vegetables contains an abundance of material not extractable by the small intestine. If the normal defecation stool volume from that meal is a “1” with a normal eating schedule, then during a 48 hour fast what’s likely to occur is that defecation isn’t induced for the entire two days until a refeed meal is eaten, and then when defecation of that pre-fast meal does occur, the final stool volume may only be 1/2 to 1/4 of normal, or even less.

When there is a physiological need to extract more nutrients from less input, and the microbiome is given time to do this, food is more efficiently absorbed than normal. I’ve personally experienced during many a 2 day fast that my pre-fast meal was nearly completely absorbed. In 2 days the microbiome was able to completely break down and upcycle what I ate before the start of the fast such that I simply absorbed nearly everything. It wasn’t until a normal eating schedule was resumed that “normal” bowel movements returned. What this indicates is that “normal” bowel movements are more wasteful bowel movement as compared to the maximum level of extraction possible under conditions of nutrient scarcity.

Most people haven’t experienced long periods of nutrient scarcity like during a 48+ hour fast so what I described may seem outlandish, but all that’s required to prove this effect and ability for yourself is to go on a 48-72 hour fast. The quality of the last meal is very important to observe this effect, eat only whole unprocessed foods for final pre-fast meal. As shown by this phenomenon, fasting is one of the best ways to improve the functioning of the gut and to come to a better understanding of how the digestive system truly works.

As coffee alters the rate of digestion among other effects, it was important to present the information above as context for coffee’s specific impacts on digestion, which we’ll now dive into.

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Ready to Heal Your Gut?

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Together the digestive system and microbiome are the foundation of health from which everything else is dependent on.

The Holistic Gut Health Guide contains all the information you need to identify and understand the gastrointestinal and microbiome problems you may have while also providing you the most effective natural methods you can use to heal your gut. No gut health problems are unsolvable, give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

Purchase

Some of the information in the Holistic Gut Health Guide isn’t common knowledge but when implemented it is highly effective in healing the gut and shifting the microbiome towards symbiosis. Give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.

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Coffee and Gut Motility

One of the most obvious effects that coffee has on gut health for many people is how it speeds up gut motility. Gut motility is the speed of movement of food through the digestion system, and one of the hallmark signs of poor gut health is highly variable gut motility. If some meals sometimes takes days to transit through the digestive system leading to constipation, while other meals seem to transit through the entire gastrointestinal system in under a day or even just hours, and this variability in gut motility is common, then that’s a clear indication that the gut is not in a state of ideal health. This state of variable gut motility is often referred to as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

How does Coffee make you Poop so Fast?

Coffee exerts a diuretic effect on gut motility through its stimulation of the hormone gastrin. Gastrin stimulates the secretion of gastric acid (HCl) in the stomach, aiding the breakdown and digestion of food. For about 90 minutes after drinking coffee the stomach environment is made more acidic because greater amounts of gastric acid are released. The release of gastric acid signals to the body that more food is incoming and therefore an increase in gut motility is observed, specially in the large intestine (colon). Melanoidins found in roasted coffee also increase gut motility through direct activation of the smooth muscles of the digestive system.

Caffeinated and decaf coffee significantly increase motor activity of the colon, activating greater propagated and simultaneous contractions. Eating a meal causes an increase in colonic motor activity as well (gotta make room), and caffeinated coffee is comparable in effect to consuming a meal. Caffeinated coffee is about 25% stronger in this effect than decaf coffee.

At least one-third of the population is susceptible to being stimulated to defecate soon after drinking regular or decaf coffee, with the effect more frequently observed in women then men. Within five minutes of drinking coffee rectosigmoid colon activity increases significantly and lasts for 30 minutes of more. The rectum is the final section of the colon a few inches long that attaches to the anus, and the sigmoid colon is the 1.5 foot long (40 cm) section of the colon just before the rectum. Coffee stimulates muscular contractions in these sections of the colon in a large percentage of the population, and this can cause rapid defecation for sensitive people, especially those who have IBS.

The colon stimulating effect of coffee is generally beneficial for people who regularly experience constipation, whereas people who suffer from already rapid gut transit times should stay away from drinking coffee.

Coffee and Frequent Bowel Movements

If coffee is consumed multiple times per day, as is commonly done by a large percentage of the population, then it’s ability to trigger waves of increased colon motor activity can result in bowel movements becoming more frequent, even to the point where it is problematic.

This is significant for reasons made clear by the earlier section on digestion and also in the microbiome section below. If food that recently made it to the large intestine is being released preemptively, then the body is missing out on a lot of beneficial compounds and metabolites only the microbiome can produce. Without a consistent stream of short chain fatty acids from the colon, metabolism suffers and energy volatility is more likely to be experienced. One of the functions of the large intestine is also to draw water out of the remaining food/waste, and frequent bowel movements can make dehydration a very real problem, or at least make dehydration more likely to occur.

In 1992 it was published in the British Medical Journal that nearly one quarter of the general population has smooth muscle dysfunction and other symptoms consistent with irritable bowel syndrome. Considering that the majority of the world’s population on average has become less healthy in the 30 years since that study, it’s likely that IBS affects an even greater percentage of the population now than it did in 1992.

Coffee Digestive Issues

Before we get into all the ways coffee improves digestion let’s finish covering how coffee can cause digestive issues for people with sensitive gastrointestinal systems. How is it that coffee can cause digestion problems while also having the ability to improve gut health?

Certain herbs have a dual ability to improve a bodily system or to cause problems. A good example of an herb that does this is cannabis. Cannabis that contains an even ratio of cannabinoids like THC and CBD if used in moderate amounts occasionally is neuroprotective and stimulates neurogenesis, increasing connectivity within the brain while also boosting creativity overall. Cannabis that is too high in THC though, and if used in excessive amounts, can cause mental health problems like paranoia, insomnia, and anxiety, and long term use of cannabis in this way can shrink the gray matter of the brain and cause memory problems. The dose of certain herbs like cannabis or coffee is critical in how their consumption will affect the body, and what’s also important is the state that the body is in prior to use.

Coffee (and cannabis, among other herbs) has the characteristic of exacerbating certain health issues if a bodily system is already out of balance. Think of it as a wake up call, with coffee highlighting preexisting health issues by making their symptoms more obvious, and in this manner this effect is beneficial in diagnosing health problems. So if drinking coffee is causing digestive issues like heartburn, stomach pain, or diarrhea, then that’s a big sign that coffee consumption should be stopped until gut health is improved, because when the gut and microbiome are healthy, coffee has a net positive influence on the digestive system and gut microbiota as we’ll see later.

Coffee and Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most common gastrointestinal disorder, with up to 30% of the population or more having regular symptoms consistent with IBS. Most people with gut health issues never seek the help of the medical system, and as a result the prevalence of gut health issues is thought to be much larger than what’s reported in the literature. Irritable bowel syndrome is most prevalent in people in the 20-40 and over 60 age groups, and women in their 30’s-40’s in particular seem to have higher rates of IBS

The main symptoms of IBS are abdominal pain which is relieved by defecation, abdominal distension, more frequent and looser bowel movements progressing up to diarrhea, general digestive pain, and heartburn. Less common symptoms of IBS that are still experienced at a higher rate than in the normal population include rectal bleeding and the passage of mucus. Underlying these symptoms of IBS are smooth muscle abnormalities.

What is Smooth Muscle?

Smooth muscle is a type of non-striated muscle that is activated by the autonomic nervous system to apply pressure to various organs by contracting. Smooth muscle is a critical component of the digestive system, as it’s waves of smooth muscle contractions that cause food to move through the gut. Smooth muscle contractions are stimulated by nerve impulses, certain hormones (like gastrin), and other chemicals released by various organs. Smooth muscle contractions are much slower but sustained longer than skeletal muscle contractions. The amount of intracellular free Ca2+ is a key regulator of smooth muscle tone and contractility.

Why does Coffee make my Stomach Hurt?

Coffee lowers lower esophageal sphincter pressure while simultaneously stimulating the production of gastric acid via gastrin. For sensitive individuals with thin stomach mucosa linings and/or preexisting stomach ulcers, increases in stomach acid can cause stomach pain, and with the sphincter valve separating the stomach from the esophagus becoming more relaxed, the chance of acid reflux also increases.

If drinking coffee is causing stomach pain then the consumption of coffee should be ceased and steps should be taken to heal the stomach back to normal function. Coffee has not been shown to modify gastric wall compliance, wall tension, or sensory function.

Why does Coffee give me Diarrhea?

Alongside its effects on the stomach, coffee also increases contractile pressures in the rectosigmoid area of the colon, which can cause an increased and sometimes very rapid need to defecate. Both the possible symptoms of heartburn and diarrhea from drinking coffee point to coffee’s ability to affect smooth muscle function, and both of these symptoms are also common to IBS irrespective of coffee consumption. Basically if smooth muscle function is dysfunctional overall, then the smooth muscle stimuli that coffee causes can be too powerful and further exacerbate symptoms of IBS.

Having covered how coffee can trigger the same pathways already imbalanced in those who have IBS, we’ll now discuss the phytonutrients coffee contains and how these nutrients can benefit gut health and the microbiome.

Coffee Phytonutrients

Roasted coffee contains thousands of biologically relevant compounds, and many of them have beneficial antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and metabolism boosting health effects. Together these chemicals influence the functions of the digestive system, cardiovascular system, nervous system, and the gut-brain axis.

Coffee and Caffeine

The most well-known chemical found in coffee is caffeine. Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant that is rapidly absorbed into the body by the stomach and small intestine. Caffeine increases fat oxidation, in general boosts metabolism, and has been shown to improve cognition, especially for the elderly. One cup of black coffee contains ~95 mg of caffeine, and the upper bound for caffeine that shows health benefits is ~300 mg per day. Consuming more than 300 mg of caffeine per day causes significant hormonal alterations and can cause health problems best avoided.

If you have a built-up caffeine tolerance that you want to reset, and/or also want guidance on how to best use and dose caffeine, then read our guide on the subject for more information.

Coffee Polyphenols

Coffee also contains abundant polyphenols, which possess strong antioxidant properties. The polyphenols in coffee are not greatly effected by the decaffeination process. Flavonoids, a subgroup of polyphenols that are abundant in coffee, significantly increase the expression of proteins at epithelial tight junctions, improving their strength and reducing intestinal permeability which is a good thing. Weak tight junctions are a key symptom of leaky gut, food intolerances, and food allergies.

The polyphenol chlorogenic acid (CGA) is a major component of coffee, and chlorogenic acids have a regulating effect on glucose and lipid metabolism, which is why they have anti-diabetic, anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-obesity effects. One-third of free chlorogenic acids are absorbed in the small intestine and the rest of the polyphenols reach the colon where they are broken down into simpler molecules by the microbiome. Polyphenols influence the microbiome directly (more on that below) while also requiring microbial activity for their alteration into other compounds that have beneficial health effects when absorbed by the body.

Coffee Melanoidins and N-Methylpyridium

The chemical composition of green coffee beans is noticeably altered by the roasting process, and two of the notable chemicals produced from the heat-driven Maillard reactions that occur are melanoidins and N-Methylpyridium.

Melanoidins are brown pigment chemicals that are created when sugars and amino acids combine under high heat. Melanoidins have several health promoting properties such as being antimicrobial, antihypertensive, anti-inflammatory, antitoxin, and antioxidant in nature. Melanoidins are mostly indigestible and therefore act as dietary fiber, being fermented in the gut by the microbiome. People who drink a lot of coffee along with eating other foods that have undergone Maillard reactions (like crusty bread) may receive up to 20% of their dietary fiber from melanoidins. Melanoidins have a pro-motility on the gut not only because of their fiber effect but also through direct activation of the smooth muscles of the digestive system. In addition to melanoidins, dietary fiber is present in coffee.

N-methylpyridium (NMP) is an interesting chemical found in coffee that exerts an opposite effect on the stomach than coffee in general, as it reduces gastric acid production by stomach cells. NMP is only generated by the roasting process, and as such darker-roasted coffee contains more NMP than lightly roasted coffees, up to twice as much. For people who want to enjoy coffee and its health benefits but want to reduce their chance of experiencing heartburn and increased gut motility, drinking a darker roasted coffee is recommended.

Coffee and Gut Microbiome

On average 75% of feces are water, with the remaining 25% being solid materials. Bacterial biomass make up 25-55% of the solids in feces (6-14% total). This bacterial biomass is composed of dead and also living bacteria, and therefore as you can see, every bowel movement changes the microbiome because it’s removing a portion of the total microorganism population out of the body.

Coffee through its ability to trigger increased smooth muscle activity for the colon can cause defecation, and through this mechanism coffee influences the development of the microbiome. Microorganisms divide and reproduce on very fast timespans on the timespan of 20 minutes to 24 hours, with bad pathogenic bacteria typically dividing faster than good symbiotic bacteria. The longer stool stays in the colon, the longer the microbiome has to divide and evolve, which changes the overall population characteristics and diversity of the microbiome. If a healthy meal is eaten rich in vegetables and fiber, then symbiotic microorganisms will increase in population numbers, whereas if a junk food meal is eaten containing lots of highly processed foods and chemicals, then pathogenic microorganisms will better be able to survive and expand in population.

Coffee’s ability to trigger defecation can then be considered good or bad for the microbiome depending on the context. If the content of the stool in the large intestine is of a poor quality, then triggering defecation is a good thing as it’ll reduce the growth of pathogenic bacteria and remove toxins from the body. If the stool is composed of what’s left of a healthy meal from whole unprocessed foods, then triggering defecation early won’t be advantageous as valuable nutrients will be lost and symbiotic microorganisms will have less time to diversify and expand their populations.

Here’s the thing though, in my personal experience it’s the current contents of the digestive system that determine coffee’s defecating activating effect. When I eat healthy meals full of whole unprocessed foods, such as a rice and bean bowl with vegetables and avocado on top, coffee doesn’t trigger any significant increase in motor activity in the colon. If I eat a lower quality meal though, then I can definitely feel that coffee creates a stronger urge to use the restroom. At the beginning of the article I discussed how coffee can improve gut health because it highlights existing gut health issues like IBS by making the symptoms worse, and diet quality is a factor as to why that is the way it is. If you’re struggling with eating a good diet, resetting your dietary beliefs is an important step towards eating healthier.

If low quality junk food is in the digestive track, then it behooves the body to push it out quickly and hope for a higher quality meal to follow. Of course if junk food continues to be eaten then nutrient deficiencies develop and other health issues can compound, but having a longer transit time for these foods wouldn’t necessarily be better than a short transit time due to the presence of toxins in the food.

“There’s no way to win by eating poor quality food”

The benefits of coffee on the microbiome are further amplified by the abundant polyphenols that coffee contains. Coffee decreases populations of pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Enterococcus spp., Clostridium spp., and Bacteroides spp., while increasing populations of beneficial microorganisms like Lactobacillus spp. and Bifidobacterium spp., and this is thought to be primarily an effect of polyphenols, as polyphenols from things like herbs have shown similar effects.

Polyphenols both influence microbiome populations, and are also metabolized into different beneficial chemicals by the microbiome. By containing abundant polyphenols, dietary fiber, and melanoidins coffee exerts a strong influence over the microbiome and shifts microbial populations towards greater symbiotic function and away from pathogenic overgrowth. Drinking herbal teas are another way to shift the microbiome towards greater symbiosis, as an herbal tea blend like a 1:1:1 chamomile, peppermint, and dandelion tea contains abundant flavonoids and each of those herbs is already well-known for improving gut health.

Coffee and the Gut-Brain Axis

Coffee as a natural source of many chemicals like caffeine and polyphenols exerts an influence on the gut-brain axis, from changing emotional status to altering neurogenesis and neurodegeneration. Caffeine is the main psychoactive compound found in coffee, easily crossing the blood-brain barrier and stimulating the sympathetic nervous system in addition to the overall central nervous system. Caffeine increases extracellular dopamine concentrations and causes a greater expression of dopaminergic receptors and transports, leading to an overall cognitive improvement, especially amongst the elderly.

Additionally caffeine reduces the activity of the Gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) system and modulates GABA receptors. GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that acts on the central nervous system, lessening the ability for nerve cells to create, transmit, and receive signals to other nerve cells. Through this inhibitory effect GABA can produce a sense of calm as it reduces the activity of the nervous system, but as with anything too much GABA isn’t beneficial. Chronic caffeine intake is related to a long-term reduction in GABA, and that is also not good, as GABA plays a role in controlling stress, anxiety, and feelings of fear.

The gut-brain axis is also heavily influenced by the microbiome because it’s the microbiome that produces a large portion of the neurotransmitters the body uses, directly producing dopamine, GABA, and norepinephrine, and indirectly influencing the bodies natural production of serotonin in epithelial enterochromaffin cells (intestinal epithelial cells that play a governing role in intestinal motility and secretion). The gut microbiome also regulates stress hormones produced by the HPA-axis and sends direct signals to the brain via the vagus nerve. Through these interactions with the brain the microbiome has a strong ability to influence human behavior.

A Better Coffee

After learning everything that has been outlined in this coffee and digestion guide, there are a few key takeaways to remember:

• If currently experiencing gut health problems like IBS (either knowingly or unknowingly) coffee consumption has the possibility of increasing the negative symptoms being experienced as it’s a mechanism to bring consciousness to the problem and attempt to shift the microbiome to a more favorable symbiotic state.

• If gut health is good then coffee consumption can further improve gut health by modulating the microbiome towards greater symbiotic integration with the host by increasing populations of beneficial microorganisms such as lactobacillus and bifidobacteria, while also providing the body a rich source of health boosting polyphenols, fiber, and other unique compounds.

• Coffee consumption within reasonable parameters (<3 cups a day) improves brain health, especially for the elderly.

The darker the roast the less likely coffee is to trigger the excessive production of gastric acids thanks to greater concentrations of N-methylpyridium, and darker roasted coffees also contain more melanoidins which have beneficial effects on the colon.

With all this taken into consideration, when eating a healthy diet and with a healthy gut, drinking a dark roast black coffee has little chance of causing gut health disturbances and overall has gut health and metabolism boosting benefits. The cardiovascular and cognitive systems also benefit from reasonable coffee consumption.

Coffee can be made even better though!

When certain herbs are added to coffee, it improves the metabolic effects of coffee while smoothing out the increase in sympathetic nervous system activity that coffee causes, which can lead to energy volatility in some individuals. And if the autonomic nervous system is already unbalanced between sympathetic and parasympathetic states, with the sympathetic nervous system being too dominant, then drinking coffee can make that imbalance worse.

Adding cacao, ceylon cinammon, chaga mushroom, cistanche, and a small amount of honey to a black coffee creates what I call a dark mocha, and having enjoyed a bunch of dark mochas in my time it’s my experience that they have a much greater beneficial nootropic effect than regular black coffee while also improving energy metabolism noticeably. While a dark mocha still has a stimulant effect, it’s much more even keel and balanced than a regular cup of black coffee (or a cup of coffee with sugar), and the metabolism boosting effect seems to last all day rather than just for a couple hours.

I encourage you to learn more about why adding these ingredients to coffee makes it even better as it’s a good introduction to herbalism and it should significantly improve your day to day if you drink coffee often.

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Heal Your Gut Naturally

sale

Holistic Gut Health Guide eBook

Sale Price:$12.95 Original Price:$18.95

Purchase

If you read all the way here then it’s clear to me that you’re ready to do what it takes to finally restore your digestive system and gut microbiome back to healthy and optimal function.

I wrote the Holistic Gut Health Guide to help you accomplish exactly this! It contains all the information that you need to understand the gastrointestinal system, gut-brain axis, and microbiome in-depth, and the Holistic Gut Health Guide also educates you on the natural methods you can holistically use together like fasting and herbalism to transform your health from the inside out.

I’m so excited to be able to help you along your gut health and overall wellness journey with the Holistic Gut Health Guide! Please contact me with any questions you have and wishing you the best.

---

References:

1. Iriondo-DeHond A, Uranga JA, del Castillo MD, Abalo R. Effects of coffee and its components on the gastrointestinal tract and the brain–gut axis. Nutrients. 2020;13(1):88.

2. Jones R, Lydeard S. Irritable bowel syndrome in the general population. BMJ. 1992;304(6819):87-90.

3. Bitar KN. Function of gastrointestinal smooth muscle: from signaling to contractile proteins. The American Journal of Medicine. 2003;115(3):15-23.

4. Rubach, Malte, et al. Identification of a coffee compound that effectively inhibits mechanisms of stomach acid secretion in human gastric parietal cells. Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society. Vol. 239. American Chemical Society, 2010.

5. Rose C, Parker A, Jefferson B, Cartmell E. The characterization of feces and urine: a review of the literature to inform advanced treatment technology. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology. 2015;45(17):1827-1879.

6. Strandwitz P. Neurotransmitter modulation by the gut microbiota. Brain Research. 2018;1693:128-133.

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