Take Collagen!
One of the most important things you can do to boost your health and re-set your gut, after adding kefir to your diet, is to take a daily collagen supplement.
Collagen is quite literally the “glue” that holds our bodies together. It’s the most abundant protein in our bodies – found in tendons, bones, muscles, skin, blood vessels and most importantly for the purposes of this discussion – the digestive system.
The lining of your gut is only one cell thick – and this commonly gets ripped and torn. When these tears get infected, we call it diverticulitis. But this damage is occurring on an ongoing basis.
Your body uses collagen to repair these rips and tears. But here’s the catch – your body slows collagen production around age 25, and by age 50, your body is no longer producing any of its own collagen! This slowing-down process is a big contributor to the things we expect as we age: sagging skin, wrinkles and pain in joints. It’s all about a decrease in collagen inside your system.
That’s not good! And it’s part of the reason that after age 50 people tend to develop diverticulitis, or infected pouched in the lining of their gut.Your body simply doesn’t have enough collagen to make the needed repairs.
So, we’ve got to consume collagen. And when I say consume, I mean take it every day, like religion. You’ve absolutely got to have it in your system, so that your body can repair the holes and tears in your gut.
Collagen and kefir work together in a marvelous one-two healing tango – collagen heals the lining of the gut, and the kefir re-populates it with the good bugs it needs to get your serotonin system singing again.
Inside the gut, collagen helps forms connective tissue, sealing and healing the protective lining of the GI tract. Studies have found that in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, serum concentrations of collagen are decreased.1 Collagen also helps with the absorption of water within the intestines, keeping things moving more freely out of body.
So, collagen – super-important! You’ve got to consume it. How are we going to get it into your body?
For a while I was advocating bone broth. Food-wise, collagen lurks in a lot of foods that our ancestors used to eat and cook with, but that we mostly throw away – bones, tendons and gristly bit. Bones are loaded with collagen, and as the bones simmer in broth during the cooking process that takes place over one to two days, the collagen slowly breaks down into gelatin – the cooked form of collagen. If you then consume the broth, you ingest all that collagen goodness.
So, bone broth is terrific! However after some real-world analysis – I found that people just weren’t carrying through with the bone broth every day. Too much hassle. I get it! We’re all busy.
But it’s sooo important that you have collagen every single day, that I now recommend simply taking a high quality collagen supplement. You can find it in a powder that can be mixed into hot or cold drinks – relatively odorless and tasteless, and simple enough to do consistently, day in and day out.
Apart from helping with IBS, depression, anxiety, and autoimmune issues as it repairs your gut lining, you’ll notice other nifty benefits to taking a daily collagen supplement: firmer smoother skin, reduced cellulite and stretch marks, reduced joint pain, increased metabolism, improved energy levels, better wound healing, stronger nails, teeth and hair, better liver and artery health, and improved circulation.2 What’s not to love?
This article is excerpted from Shann’s upcoming book “The Kefir Solution: Natural Healing for IBS, Anxiety and Depression,” due out from Hay House May 2018. All rights reserved.
