Digestive Healing | What 99% Of People Don’t Realise About Their Chronic Gut Issues

Gut health author Marc McLean reveals the dangerous toxins that cause chaos in the digestive tract

Stress, food intolerances, an unhealthy diet…just some of the issues attributed to the gut health problems running rampant in the UK today. And rightly so.

But what if there was another underlying root cause behind the countless cases of IBS, ulcerative colitis, gastritis, Crohn’s Disease etc that Brits face daily?

There is. Many naturopaths talk about it. Functional medicine practitioners test for it. Experienced holistic health experts are knowledgeable about it.

Problem is, this digestive dysfunction culprit is barely acknowledged in mainstream medicine – despite plenty of scientific research on it.

We’re talking about heavy metal toxicity.

Article Summary

• The types of toxic heavy metals and how they can accumulate in the body
• The direct link between toxic heavy metals and digestive disorders
• Digestive healing: how you can improve gut function and overall health by clearing heavy metals out of the body naturally.

But why listen to me? My name is Marc McLean and I’m author of the book More Than A Gut Feeling: Natural And Simple Steps For Tackling IBS And Ulcerative Colitis.

I was diagnosed with IBS in 2010, which later developed into severe ulcerative colitis. After being told by my doctor that I’d have ‘just have to live with it’ and take medication for the rest of my life, I went down the natural health route.

It was a long, bumpy road for the best part of a decade, but I managed to successfully reverse these conditions and have been symptom free for the past four years.

A huge part of the puzzle was discovering that the accumulation of heavy metals in the body is a root cause in most gut issues. Once you clear them out safely, clean up your internal environment, and provide the body with the right nutrients, it has a phenomenal capacity to heal.

What Are Toxic Heavy Metals – And How Do They Get Into The Body?

Heavy metals are environmental toxins that are everywhere in our 21st century world filled with pollution and chemicals. Some examples are:

• mercury
• aluminium
• lead
• cadmium
• chromium
• arsenic.

They have found their way into our water, food, beauty products, cleaning materials etc. 

For example, in 2019 a news report stated that cancer-causing chromium had been found flowing from an old factory into the River Clyde in Glasgow – posing a ‘huge health risk’ to the 612,000 people living in the city.

In the US, a scandal broke out when tests on commercial baby foods widely available in supermarkets showed that they contained high levels of arsenic, lead, and cadmium. These heavy metals can have serious neurological effects, lead to cancer, and can cause kidney and brain damage, among other health issues.  

Meanwhile, many paints used to contain lead and some skin lightening creams have been banned after being found to contain mercury.

These examples are not meant to scare you half to death and make you wanna lock yourself indoors for the next decade. No, they’re just being shared to underline how these substances can be consumed/absorbed without us knowing.

And when too many toxic heavy metals accumulate in the body they affect the functioning of your body at a cellular level, block the absorption of nutrients, feed pathogens, and trigger chronic inflammation (which is at the root of virtually all disease).

The Dangers of Mercury Poisoning

Mercury poisoning in particular is a common problem identified as a root cause of many health issues. 

Dr Mark Hyman, New York Times best-selling author, said: “There’s no doubt about it, mercury is the most alarming, disease-causing source of environmental toxicity that I see daily in my practice. 

“Many of patients have toxic levels of mercury – and they’re not alone. I personally suffered from mercury toxicity and chronic fatigue syndrome – which I cured myself from, in part by getting rid of the mercury in my body.”

The Link Between Heavy Metal Toxicity And Gut Issues

Back in 2018, 38 world-leading doctors, scientists, naturopaths, nutritionists, and various other natural health experts got together to stage a week-long Heavy Metals Summit to educate people on the harm these toxins can cause to the body, and the best ways to detoxify and minimise exposure.

Three years later, a team of five Iranian professors published one of the most in-depth, well-researched studies ever seen on the harm heavy metals cause to human health.

They gathered evidence from nearly 200 other research papers and produced their 10,000 word scientific paper titled ‘Toxic Mechanisms Of Five Heavy Metals: Mercury, Lead, Chromium, Cadmium And Arsenic’.

Here’s what they wrote in their introduction to the paper: “Gastrointestinal and kidney dysfunction, nervous system disorders, skin lesions, vascular damage, immune system dysfunction, birth defects, and cancer are examples of the complications of heavy metals toxic effects.”

Note the first word: gastrointestinal.

How Do Heavy Metals Affect Digestive Health?

Heavy metals can get lodged in your digestive lining and are not easy to get rid of, unless you detoxify properly (which we’ll cover soon).

But another huge issue is that your liver can become overburdened with mercury, lead, aluminium etc and this directly leads to gut issues. 

A sluggish, stagnant liver overloaded with toxic heavy metals cannot produce enough bile, which is essential for the breakdown of protein and fats along with hydrochloric acid. 

The stomach then overcompensates for this bile shortage by producing more and more hydrochloric acid. Eventually this leads to the stomach glands becoming worn out and not being able to produce enough stomach acid either.

The result? Food is not broken down properly, fats go rancid, bugs and pathogens proliferate because there’s not enough stomach acid, there’s an imbalance in the gut microbiome, and over time this unhealthy environment causes chronic inflammation which can ultimately lead to a diagnosis of IBS, ulcerative colitis, gastritis, or other digestive disorders.

There is much more information on this in the top-selling book Liver Rescue by US health guru Anthony William, which is essential reading for anyone with gut and chronic health problems.

How You Can Rid Your Body Of Heavy Metals And Improve Your Gut Health

Removing heavy metals from the body was once considered a very difficult job, and can even be dangerous if done incorrectly.

However, there are two specific safe, natural ways to cleanse the body and clear out these harmful toxins.

#1 Drink the ‘Heavy Metals Detox Smoothie’

This consists of various natural ingredients including spirulina, coriander, and dried seaweed, wild blueberries, and barley grass juice extract powder. 

These ingredients all work together synergistically to help pull heavy metals out of the body’s tissues to be excreted. 

For more information and the exact instructions for making the detox smoothie, click here. 

#2 Take a sauna once or twice per week

Saunas are an ancient detoxification method which helps rid the body of toxins, including heavy metals, through sweat. 

Numerous studies back this up, including one published in 2012 which showed the sweating from sauna use was very effective for removing four harmful heavy metals in particular: arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury.

The team here are PRESS are all huge fans of smoothies made from natural ingredients, and looking after our health through cleansing and flooding the body with nutrients.

Digestive healing is absolutely possible when you deal with root causes of chronic gut inflammation, rather than just managing symptoms.

REFERENCES

The Guardian: Why Are There Dangerous Levels Of Arsenic And Lead In American Baby Food?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/17/why-are-there-dangerous-levels-of-arsenic-and-lead-in-american-baby-food

Toxic Mechanisms Of Five Heavy Metals: Mercury, Lead, Chromium, Cadmium And Arsenic

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2021.643972/full

Glasgow Live: River Pollution Causing Huge Health Risk To Glaswegians

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/river-clyde-pollution-posing-huge-15999896

Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, and Mercury In Sweat: A Systematic Review

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3312275/