The SHN #21: Gut Health, Douglas Harding, and Sunlight

Welcome back to The Synergetic Health Newsletter! 

In this edition, we’ll explore the bioenergetic approach to gut health.

After that, I’ll introduce you to author and teacher Douglas Harding.

Then comes a mainstream media puff piece on the benefits of sun exposure.

Finally, I’ll include some links to things I’ve found particularly interesting recently.

Joe Burt

🩺 Healing Your Gut Using the Bioenergetic Approach

A recent survey found that two-thirds of Americans are affected by digestive troubles.

The most common include irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) which affects an estimated 10-15% of the population, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) which affects about 20% of the population, inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, and more.

It's essential to understand the connection between digestion and overall health. Gut function is closely tied to metabolism and energy production in the body and recognizing this connection allows us to approach gut health holistically.

If you're experiencing gut issues, it's crucial to identify potential triggers. Keeping a food diary to track your symptoms and identify any potential culprits in your diet is one way to do this.

Here’s a list of gut health apps that could help you with this.

To promote healing, it's important to minimize factors that impair the flow of energy and contribute to gut inflammation. You can do this by eliminating processed, indigestible foods and focusing on easily digestible options like red meat, eggs, bone broth, applesauce, white rice, and specific fruits like bananas, blueberries and strawberries. Additional foods can be found here.

Optimizing digestion and gut motility is necessary for proper nutrient absorption and waste elimination. Here, practices like deep breathing before meals, consuming digestive bitters, or using lemon/lime juice, and incorporating digestive enzymes, if needed, are all helpful (I’ve used these digestive enzymes in the past, hard to tell if they did anything tbh). Alongside these practices, properly chewing your food, maintaining an upright posture after meals, and avoiding late-night eating can also aid digestion.

If you want to hear directly from Ray Peat himself, here’s an interview he did on “How to Fix Your Digestion and Poop.”

Inflammation and Gut Motility

Inflammation within the gut can lead to various symptoms and hinder the healing process. One piece of advice is incorporating gelatin into your diet due to its ability to heal the gut lining. Additionally, supplements like niacinamide, vitamin K, and cyproheptadine can help lower bloating and reduce inflammation.

Here are a few ways to make gelatin.

If you're dealing with slow gut motility, insoluble fiber can be beneficial. Eating the Ray Peat carrot salad would be an excellent choice to get some insoluble fiber. Other options to explore include well-cooked white button mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and specific vegetables boiled for easier digestion.

To further support your gut health, incorporating natural laxatives or pro-motility agents can be helpful. These include magnesium, cascara sagrada, and aloe vera. Magnesium helps to increase the amount of water in the intestines, which can help with bowel movements.

A healthy gut microbiome is essential for overall gut health. Consider incorporating antimicrobial agents like oregano oil, neem, and berberine to target harmful bacteria while promoting a balanced microbiome. Also, using binders like activated charcoal or clay can help eliminate toxins released during the process.

Thyroid Function

Optimizing thyroid function plays a crucial role in enhancing gut health. It’s important to work on improving overall metabolism and energy production through dietary and lifestyle means. Additionally, maintaining adequate magnesium levels, optimizing CO2 production (read this great thread on carbon dioxide) through various methods, and exploring thyroid-supporting supplements like Vitamin D and K can be beneficial.

For additional reading about your thyroid and gut function, check this out.

For the audio/video fans who want to learn more about this approach to healing your gut, check out this Energy Balance Podcast episode that goes deep on restoring gut health, why not to use probiotics, and Ray Peat’s carrot salad.

🙏 The Four Stages of Life by Douglas Harding

Douglas Harding (1909–2007) was a British philosopher, spiritual teacher, and author known for his work in the field of human consciousness and self-inquiry. He developed a unique approach to self-realization and spiritual awakening that is often referred to as the "Headless Way.”

One of the most famous exercises associated with Douglas Harding's teachings is known as the "Headless Experiment." In this exercise, individuals are guided to directly experience their own consciousness by inquiring into the nature of their own awareness. Participants are asked to point to their head, their face, and then to what is looking out of their eyes.

Through this process of self-inquiry, Harding aimed to help people recognize that their essential identity is not confined to the physical body but is a formless awareness that encompasses their entire field of experience.

Harding wrote several books on these topics, including "On Having No Head" which became one of his most well-known works. In his writings and teachings, he emphasized the importance of shifting one's perspective to see reality from a different angle and to directly experience one's true nature beyond the limitations of ordinary thought and perception.

Douglas Harding's teachings and the Headless Way have influenced many individuals interested in self-realization, meditation, and spirituality. While his work may not be as widely known as some other spiritual teachers, it continues to resonate with those who are drawn to experiential and direct approaches to understanding the nature of consciousness and the self.

I loved this short video from an interview in 2001 in which Harding discusses the four stages of life:

1. Newborn Baby: The first stage is being a newborn baby, where our attention is completely focused on the present moment and the immensity of our own experience. We are fully immersed in the first-person perspective and not conscious of our self-image.

2. Child/Young God: The second stage is when we grow a bit older and start to perceive ourselves through the eyes of others. We begin to recognize our own reflection in the mirror, but still maintain a sense of being connected to the world and as wise as the world.

3. I Am What I Look Like: The third stage is when we enter adolescence and start to become more self-conscious. We begin to identify ourselves solely based on our external appearance, losing touch with our inner immensity. This stage can often lead to feelings of anger and rebellion.

4. I Am What I Am: The fourth stage is the stage of self-realization, where we rediscover our true nature. We let go of the fixation on our self-image and start living from our inner essence, just as we did when we were newborn babies. This stage is about embracing our innate wisdom and experiencing the world through a childlike perspective.

A more detailed explanation into Harding’s thinking is found in this picture, which outlines eight stages of development.

☀️ The Guardian Is Now on Team Sun

Long-standing British newspaper The Guardian recently published a story on the “unexpected” benefits of sun exposure on your skin. I’m happy that a publication such as this is sharing this message, and hopefully more people will embrace catching some rays.

Here are some of the discussion points and findings from the article:

“People who are exposed to lots of sun appear to have longer life expectancies, on average, than sun avoiders.”

“Women who spent more time in the sun lived for one to two years longer than those who avoided the sun, even after taking into account factors such as wealth, education and exercise.”

“Those with more active sun-seeking behaviour were 14% less likely to die from any cause during the study period compared to sun avoiders, and their risk of death from cardiovascular disease was 19% lower.”

“The more sunlight people have, the longer they live.”

“Further research revealed that these stockpiles were activated by UVA rays, and that exposing individuals to a dose of UVA equivalent to spending about 20 minutes outdoors at noon during British summer time, resulted in a temporary, but significant drop in blood pressure.”

“In 2020, Weller, Hart, Lindqvist and 12 other researchers published a review in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, alerting doctors and policymakers to the “significant public health problem of insufficient sun exposure”.

The manifold benefits of getting sunlight, maintaining an appropriate “light diet”, and keeping with the natural circadian rhythm of your environment was a major reason why I started writing this newsletter. It’s still a relatively little-known influence on your health that needs to get as much or more attention than diet and exercise. The best part is it’s free (except maybe some blue light blockers) and hardly any effort is required to reap the benefits. More info can be found in some of my first few letters.

To recap: do your best to get outside for 20+ minutes in the first 1-2 hours of the day, get maximum body exposure to midday sun for 5+ minutes without sunscreen or sunglasses, spend time outside around sunset, and avoid artificial light for the 2-3 hours before bedtime (wearing blue light blocking glasses, minimizing screen time, turning your phone and house lights red, etc).

𝕏 Thread of the Week

🥩 Jack Kruse’s Epi-Paleo Protocol Explained: I’ve referenced Dr. Kruse several times in this newsletter, mostly in regard to his message of improving your circadian rhythm for optimal health. He also wrote a book called “Epi-paleo Rx: The Prescription for Disease Reversal and Optimal Health.” If you want to get an idea of Kruse’s thoughts on an Epi-Paleo-Ketogenic seasonal diet, fluoride-free water, supplementation, circadian rhythms, cold thermogenesis, and non-native EMF, you can read this article which summarizes the book and Kruse’s thinking.

For the majority of my life, I absolutely cared what other people thought of me and my life. I wanted people to like me, to think I was “cool”, “smart”, “successful”, “good looking”, “desirable”, etc. I’ve since found living life seeking external validation counter to living an authentic, joyful life. For a non-dual perspective on people pleasing and authenticity, check out this video.

☣️ Aluminum and Glyphosate Work Together to Induce Neurological Damage: This paper, with over 180 citations, argues that these two toxicants synergistically induce pineal gland pathology. “In this paper, we have developed the argument that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide, Roundup, and aluminum, a pervasive toxic metal in our environment, operate synergistically to induce dysfunction in the pineal gland leading to the sleep disorder that is characteristic of multiple neurological diseases, including autism, ADHD, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, anxiety disorder and Parkinson’s disease.”

The pineal gland is known to be the “spiritual third eye”, believed by many traditions to be key to our spiritual awakening. This small gland sitting in our brains behind our eyes is, I believe, designed partly for trans-dimensional access. A calcified and/or poorly functioning pineal gland, which would happen in this case, would block some of our potential as a higher-conscious being.

🐀 Stress Levels and Sexual Activity May Determine Longevity: A study done on mole-rats “discovered that the longest living members of this species are the ones who are sexually active, have low stress levels. and produce the most DHEA.” The DHEA/cortisol ratio is already known in medical circles as a good predictor of morbidity and all-cause mortality, and the study suggests that ratio may be a good predictor of longevity too.

✔️ That will do it for this time! Hopefully you got some value out of it. If you have any questions/comments/things you’d like to learn more about please don’t hesitate to reach out.

🔗 If you know anyone who loves learning about these types of topics, send them this link!

📰 To read all past newsletters, go here.