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Chanler | Gut - Brain Health Coach

@flowtoalignment

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- Gut-Brain Health Coach (in training) 🌿
- Helping you create alignment in gut, brain, and nervous system
- Chronic illness can start in the gut

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Most of us have been taught to think that stress, anxiety, brain fog, and low energy all start in the brain.

But the conversation is much bigger than that.

Your gut and brain are in constant communication through the gut-brain axis, with the vagus nerve acting as one of the main communication pathways. In fact, most of the information traveling along the vagus nerve is sent from your gut to your brain.

That means the health of your gut can influence how your body responds to stress, supports digestion, and affects how you feel day to day.

Supporting your gut isn’t just about digestion—it’s about supporting your entire body.

✨ Nourish your microbiome.
✨ Stay hydrated.
✨ Eat whole, nutrient-dense foods.
✨ Prioritize sleep.
✨ Practice slow breathing and stress management.

Small, consistent habits can create powerful changes over time.

What’s one thing you’ve done that helped your gut or nervous system? Let me know below. 👇

#guthealth #gutbrainaxis #vagusnerve #nervoussystem #microbiome holistichealth functionalhealth healingjourney wellness healthtips by @flowtoalignment

A diagnosis can provide answers—but it doesn’t determine what’s possible for you.

Your body is dynamic. It’s responding to the choices you make every day: the food you eat, the sleep you get, how you manage stress, how you move, and how you support your overall health.

While not every condition can be reversed, many people can improve their quality of life, reduce symptoms, and support better health through sustainable lifestyle changes alongside appropriate medical care.

Don’t let a diagnosis convince you that change is impossible.

Use it as information. Learn about your body. Advocate for yourself. Take one small step at a time.

Your story is still being written. 💛 by @flowtoalignment

Food allergies aren’t always just about the food. 🦠

Your gut is home to nearly 70% of your immune system, and when the gut barrier becomes compromised, it can change how your immune system responds to what you eat. While genetics, environment, and other factors all play important roles, gut health is one piece that’s often overlooked.

Supporting a healthy gut barrier may help create a healthier immune environment and is an important part of overall wellness.

Your body is a system—not a collection of separate parts. Start with the gut. 🌿

Follow for more science-backed gut health content that helps you understand why your body works the way it does. by @flowtoalignment

Most chronic diseases don’t start overnight—they often begin with chronic inflammation.

One major contributor? Leaky gut.

When the gut lining becomes compromised, unwanted particles can pass into the bloodstream, triggering the immune system and contributing to ongoing inflammation. Over time, that inflammation may play a role in many chronic health conditions.

The good news? Your body has an incredible ability to heal when you support it.

✨ Focus on:
• Healing your gut with whole, nutrient-dense foods
• Reducing ultra-processed foods and excess sugar
• Managing stress and supporting your nervous system
• Prioritizing quality sleep and daily movement
• Replenishing key nutrients that support gut health

Small, consistent changes can create powerful results.

👇 Want to learn how to reduce inflammation, support your gut, and optimize your health naturally?

Check out my Linktree for my favorite resources, education, and tools to help you get started.

#GutHealth #LeakyGut #ChronicInflammation #Inflammation #HealingJourney HolisticHealth FunctionalHealth WellnessJourney NervousSystem NaturalHealing HealthEducation HealthyLifestyle by @flowtoalignment

Your brain is about 60% fat by dry weight, and healthy fats are essential for building cell membranes, supporting neurotransmitters, reducing inflammation, and maintaining the myelin sheath that helps nerve signals travel efficiently

Animal Sources
*Wild salmon
* Sardines
* Mackerel
* Herring
* Anchovies
* Trout
* Pasture-raised eggs

Plant Sources
* Avocados
* Extra virgin olive oil
* Olives
* Walnuts
* Almonds
* Pecans
* Macadamia nuts
* Pistachios
* Chia seeds
* Flaxseeds
* Hemp seeds
* Pumpkin seeds
* Sesame seeds

Other
*Unsweetened coconut
* Coconut milk
* Full-fat plain Greek yogurt
* Grass-fed butter or ghee (in moderation)

Best fats for brain health
🥑 Monounsaturated fats (support blood flow and reduce inflammation)

* Avocados
* Extra virgin olive oil
* Olives
* Almonds
* Cashews
* Pecans
* Macadamia nuts

🐟 Omega-3 fats (EPA & DHA) (the most important fats for the brain)

* Wild salmon
* Sardines
* Mackerel
* Herring
* Anchovies
* Trout

DHA is a major structural component of brain cells, while EPA plays a larger role in regulating inflammation and supporting mood.

🥜 Plant omega-3 (ALA)

* Flaxseeds
* Chia seeds
* Hemp seeds
* Walnuts

⸻

🚫 Fats to Limit

Trans Fats

* Foods with partially hydrogenated oils
* Some packaged pastries
* Shelf-stable frostings
* Older stick margarines

Highly Processed Oils (especially in ultra-processed foods)

* Soybean oil
* Corn oil
* Cottonseed oil
* Canola oil (especially highly refined versions)
* Safflower oil
* Grapeseed oil
* Refined sunflower oil
* Rice bran oil

Foods High in Processed Fats

* French fries
* Fast-food fried chicken
* Potato chips
* Packaged cookies
* Doughnuts
* Processed snack cakes
* Frozen fried foods
* Many crackers
* Microwave popcorn with artificial butter
* Highly processed frozen meals

⭐ Brain-Healthy “Go-To” Foods

* Salmon
* Sardines
* Avocados
* Extra virgin olive oil
* Walnuts
* Chia seeds
* Flaxseeds
* Eggs
* Pumpkin seeds
* Almonds by @flowtoalignment

You know that feeling where everything is fine but all the sudden or even long term your hit with dread, stress, anxiety. It could be your gut microbes communicating with your brain.

✨The vagus nerve runs from gut to brain and is bilateral communication but research suggests that roughly 80–90% of the nerve signals traveling along the vagus nerve go from the gut to the brain, while only about 10–20% go from the brain to the gut!!✨

Your gut heavily influences your mindset.

What does serotonin do?

In the brain:

* Supports mood and emotional balance
* Helps regulate anxiety
* Aids sleep, memory, and impulse control

Low serotonin is linked to:

* Depression
* Anxiety
* Poor sleep
* Increased cravings

In the gut:
About 90–95% of serotonin is made in the gut, where it helps regulate:

* Digestion
* Appetite
* Gut-brain communication

💪 Throughout the body:
Serotonin also plays a role in:

* Blood clotting
* Bone health
* Sexual function
* Pain regulation

Follow along for more on the gut brain connection and how to change your life by healing your gut by @flowtoalignment

You deserve to live up to your potential and have a body that works for you not against you.

Your gut and brain is incredible intertwined, change your gut to change your life. by @flowtoalignment

Epigenetics is the study of how your environment and lifestyle influence which genes are turned on or off—without changing the DNA sequence itself.

Every meal, workout, stress response, toxin exposure, relationship, and night of sleep sends signals to your cells. These signals can add or remove chemical tags that affect gene expression, influencing inflammation, metabolism, immune function, aging, and disease risk.

Ways to positively influence your epigenetics:

* Eat nutrient-dense whole foods
* Exercise regularly
* Get quality sleep
* Manage chronic stress
* Spend time in nature and sunlight
* Maintain healthy relationships and community
* Avoid smoking and limit exposure to toxins and endocrine disruptors
* Support a healthy microbiome with fiber-rich foods and fermented foods

You inherit genes, but you also influence how those genes are expressed. In many cases, lifestyle acts like a dimmer switch, turning genetic tendencies up or down rather than determining a fixed outcome. by @flowtoalignment

✨Fiber-rich foods (beans, onions, garlic, oats, apples, asparagus) tend to feed beneficial bacteria that produce compounds called short-chain fatty acids, which support gut and immune health.
✨Fermented foods (yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi) can introduce or support beneficial microbes.
✨Highly processed foods and diets low in fiber may favor less diverse microbial communities over time.
✨Artificial sweeteners, alcohol, medications, and antibiotics can also alter the microbiome

What’s fascinating is that changes can happen surprisingly quickly. Research has found that significant shifts in microbial activity can occur within 24–48 hours of changing your diet, although building a healthier, more diverse microbiome is usually a longer-term process.

One salad doesn’t create a healthy microbiome, and one fast food meal doesn’t destroy it. The microbiome responds most strongly to the patterns you repeat day after day. by @flowtoalignment

✨Prebiotics = Food for beneficial bacteria

-Mostly fibers and resistant starches that humans don’t digest. (This is good) it means it travels down and goes in the places it’s supposed to
-Feed and nourish the good microbes already living in your gut.
-Examples: garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus, green bananas, oats, Jerusalem artichokes.

✨Probiotics = Live beneficial bacteria

-Actual microorganisms that can help populate or support your gut microbiome.
-Found in fermented foods.
-Examples: kefir, yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, miso, natto.

So basically it’s kind of like:

-Prebiotics = Fertilizer and water
-Probiotics = Seeds and plants

You can take probiotics, but without enough prebiotic fiber, those beneficial bacteria may

🌱 Prebiotic: garlic, onions, green banana, oats
🦠 Probiotic: kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut

Together, they create what’s called a synbiotic effect—beneficial microbes plus the food they need to grow. This can support gut diversity, digestion, immune function, and production of compounds like butyrate that help maintain the gut lining. by @flowtoalignment

Feeling bloated, foggy, inflamed, or off all the time shouldn’t feel normal just because so many people deal with it.

A few reminders I keep coming back to:

✨ bloating after every meal is worth paying attention to
✨ stress can impact digestion more than we realize
✨ constipation matters
✨ more supplements doesn’t always equal more healing
✨ “healthy” foods can still feel triggering while your gut is healing
✨ tiny daily habits often do more than extreme protocols

Healing your gut can look less like perfectionand more like listening, slowing down, supporting your body, and staying consistent.

What’s one gut symptom your body has been trying to tell you lately? 👇🤍 by @flowtoalignment

The gut and brain and incredibly connected!!

• anxiety might get louder when your gut is inflamed.

• Brain fog isn’t always “mental.”

• Your cravings can shift when your microbiome shifts.

• Poor digestion can affect mood more than people realize.

• Resting your nervous system can feel like digestion support.

• Healing your gut can feel emotional because the connection is real.

✨Simple shift (tiny habits):
• Eat slower + stop multitasking while eating
• Space meals out so digestion can actually reset
• Prioritize nervous system regulation daily (walks, breath, sunlight)
• Keep meals simple when symptoms are loud
• Track patterns instead of guessing

If this hits, I go deeper into this inside my Gut-Brain-Life Course—where I break down how digestion, mood, and nervous system are connected in a simple, realistic way you can actually apply. Check link in bio or comment “ready” to start today

Because a calmer mind usually starts with a calmer gut. by @flowtoalignment