.SOMETIMES RAW.

In light of the recent school changes with the Omicron mutation I have compiled a list of questions from concerned parents. Please submit your questions below. Maybe our school board (bored?) team will read and answer them.

“If I’m fully vaccinated and boosted, will my newborn receive any immunity to Omicron while breastfeeding, and will she be able to meet her grandparents before she turns five?” 
— Sarah, new mother

“When I take my kids to the indoor Playground and there is a sign next to an empty hand sanitiser that says, LEAVE THE GERMS OUTSIDE, but fifty people are gathering indoors without masks, should I laugh or cry? Or do they mean to leave the kids outside?”
— Christian, father of three

“If an unmasked person does not adhere to two meters of distance in the supermarket near my unvaccinated children, do I invite them home to spend time alone with my kids for the approximate one million hours that exist between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.?” 
— Kirsten, mother of three children under five
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“When I am at the drugstore with my infant and a masked costumer ridicules me for not maintaining distance while fake-coughing in my direction, can I punch her in the face or would that put me at risk for Omicron?”  
— Claudia, first-time mom

“If my unvaccinated child has to attend preschool so I can work to pay for said preschool and to add to the crippling debt of my never-ending student loans, when will the Equal Rights Amendment be ratified by all fifty states in America?”
— Johanna, mother of two

“With Omicron being the most contagious variant yet and my baby too young to wear a mask for supermarket trips, should I splurge on online delivery services for groceries or begin hunting wild game in my backyard and building a complicated gutter system to capture rainwater?” 
— Cal, first-time dad

“If my kids go to a school where everyone will be send home if a sister of a student who is not even in the school tested positive five days ago but wasn’t even in school for the last ten weeks and we are forced to stay at home quarantined in eighteen-degree rainy weather, is drinking alone still a red flag for alcoholism?” 
— Klara, mother of four

“Since we’ve been quarantining to protect our child for nearly two years while anti-vax, anti-mask people populate our playground, is there a God and does she believe in chaos theory?” 
— Kayla, mother of two

“If I keep my unvaccinated children home from school to protect them from the latest COVID surge, who will be more developmentally delayed—the twins because they missed preschool or me because I had to leave my career at forty?” 
— Ellen, mother of twins

“Why does God hate me? Is it something I did? Did I have too many sexual thoughts as a teen? Is this because I bent that car’s fender while pulling out of the parking garage and didn’t leave a note on the other car’s windshield?” 
— Daniela, parent of an eight-year-old

“Day after day, I dream of driving my head through a wall and watching the small pieces of plaster and dust gather at my feet while the pain slowly builds in my forehead and spreads behind my eyes. Is this an Omicron thing?” 
— Roman, father of four

“As a high-risk pregnancy, I’m concerned about contracting Omicron. With no support for parents navigating the unassailable reality of raising children during a pandemic while struggling to afford childcare, nannies, groceries, I’m just wondering… will people give a shit about my children once they are born or do people only care about them while they are still in the womb?” 
— Julie, expectant mother

Thank you for your questions. We look forward to answering them during our Friday briefing at noon which will be cancelled on a short notice due to Covid.

“We need to get back to normal,” they say, while I continue to live my life normally, having barely changed my behaviour and lifestyle—or faced any of the horrifying consequences millions of other people have—during the entirety of this still-ongoing pandemic.

“You cannot buy clothes or shoes anymore unless you have 2G,” they say at a clothing store while I wonder if the virus knows the difference between this store and a fully packed grocery store where I am allowed to enter.

“When can we go out to dinner again?” they say as I walk into a restaurant full of people indoor dining and taking a seat.

“When can I see my friends again?” they ask my friends, whom I’m eating dinner with right now.

“When will these restrictions end so we can finally start living our lives and go to clubs again?” they demand while I imagine building a swimming pond and sauna in my backyard.

“You should get your kid vaccinated,” they say, while I give my son tons of Vitamine D3 and healthy food to strengthen his immune system.

“You should get your third booster shot. Even though they have heart issues from the first vaccine but this time they got Pfitzer,” they say while I shake my head in silence breathing deeply.

“This is the kind of stuff we’re missing out on because of lockdown but now we got the booster shots so we can see this movie”, they say while sitting in the front row at a packed showing at the movie theater, while I take a walk into the woods with my son to show him how awesome nature is.

“Stop making me wear a mask!” they shout, while I am maskless or “prepped” mine.

“When will we stop being governed by fear?” they ask, quizzing random people at the mall while I tell my son to not be afraid and that this too will pass.

“Your kids should be in school right now!” they say to a mom, who is constantly anxious because her kids are not in school while my kid, in fact, still is and was in school the entire time.

“The federal government has to stop with all these lockdowns,” they insist, in a country whose government wants a mandatory vaccination, while I say this will not be mandatory in the end and I rather pay the fines than get this vaccine.

“This is Orwellian!” they declare while I am on a crowded subway train wondering while 2-meters-distance does not apply here.

“You cannot pay for your books here if you don’t have 2G,” they say while we walked around in the bookstore for two hours already but now I have to ask my son to pay for the books because he is eight years old and I am not allowed to purchase the books but he is.

“I just want my life back!” they yell while I am on a date with someone at the Ginsberg Bar in Vienna.

“I’m done with COVID and these measurements, rules and regulations have to stop,” I say on a TV show broadcasting across a country while thousands of people are backing me up.

“Enough is enough—we can’t do this forever,” I say.

Is this government and these measurements for real? Leave your comments below.

I’m passionate about gut health. From a personal perspective, I’ve experienced first-hand the debilitating symptoms associated with a severe case of gastroenteritis and gallstones. And as a result, you bet I’ve done a whole lot of work on healing my gut because this was no fun!

The digestive system is one of my favourite parts of the human body as it’s truly the basis for whole-body health. It’s where we digest, absorb, and assimilate nutrients and it’s the major home of our immune system, protecting us from harmful pathogens, foreign particles and toxic substances entering our body. Our digestive tract is the primary barrier between us and the outside environment, and that is why gut health is so critical.

In a perfect world, our gut would be happily metabolizing the food we eat, removing waste efficiently and fighting off illnesses effectively. And while many people go through most of their life without much complaint, many aren’t experiencing the luxury of a robust digestive system and are instead experiencing food triggers, uncomfortable digestive symptoms, unusual bowel habits, and chronic inflammation.

Fortunately, there are some steps we can take to mitigate these issues. And while it definitely involves patience, it’s absolutely possible to make improvements in your gut health. Each of the steps listed below were all things that I did when my digestion was an absolute disaster a few years ago, and some of them are still part of my life to this day.

5 Steps to heal your gut

Healing your gut involves a few specific steps collectively known as the 5 R’s (remove, replace, reinoculate, repair and rebalance). Removing triggers, replacing your digestive system with factors that help it to function optimally, reinoculating your gut with the bacteria it needs to thrive, repairing tissues with specific types of healing nutraceuticals (supplements), and rebalancing the body with new lifestyle habits.

Before we dive in here, I want to point out that this process is best done alongside a qualified healthcare practitioner who has a thorough understanding of your unique situation.

1. Remove

This first step involves removing 3 main categories from your diet IF APPLICABLE.

*Please note that the removal of foods from your diet should be done carefully. This is a step that can lead to disordered eating behaviours if not done with proper guidance. The specific foods eliminated will depend on what’s contributing to your unique symptoms.

• allergens/sensitivities
• irritants
• pathogens (if present)

This step involves removing triggers in the form of offending foods (food sensitivities, intolerances, allergies), items that promote inflammation or gastric irritation such as alcohol and removing any existing pathogenic infections such as bacterial overgrowths or candida. Antimicrobials such as black walnut, oregano oil, grapefruit seed extract, olive leaf extract, berberine, caprylic acid, and garlic can help eradicate these infections.

An elimination diet may be helpful for determining your unique intolerances. This is a period of about 4-6 weeks where common food triggers are avoided and then re-introduced to determine tolerance. Foods are never intended to be avoided indefinitely in this process unless absolutely required (such as allergy).

Reminder: It’s best to work with a qualified healthcare practitioner for any kind of elimination diet or when undergoing antimicrobial therapy.

2. Replace

Step two is to replace the factors that are lacking or not functioning optimally in our digestive system so that we can restore the proper function of our digestive organs such as our stomach, liver, gallbladder, or pancreas.

This can be achieved via supplements and may include stomach acid support (hydrochloric acid, apple cider vinegar), digestive enzymes, bile salts and/or digestive bitters. These types of supplements are very useful for easing the burden on a poorly functioning gut, enhancing our ability to break down and extract nutrients from food, and reducing symptoms.

Everybody’s requirements are different. Again, speak to your healthcare practitioner if you have questions about taking these kinds of supplements.

3. Reinoculate

Step three is to reinoculate! It’s a fancy word, but it simply means to reintroduce, and in this case, reintroduce friendly bacteria. If antimicrobial therapy (in step 1) was done, then this step would happen after.

Microbes play a critical role in what’s known as our microbiome and disruptions in this delicate bacterial balance from things like antibiotics, stress, food triggers, or a diet low in fibrous plant foods can lead to an array of symptoms and conditions (such as IBS).

Slowly increasing your consumption of prebiotic-rich foods (these are plant foods like vegetables, fruits, grains and legumes that stimulate the growth of our gut flora), probiotic-rich foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi and yoghurt, as well as good quality probiotic supplementation is very important here.

4. Repair

The repair phase is where you really begin to put an emphasis on repairing the gut even further.

This is done through specific types of nutrients that have very therapeutic uses such as tissue-repairing glutamine (a favourite of mine), zinc, soothing deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL) and other mucilaginous herbs, and anti-inflammatories such as turmeric and omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil. Your healthcare provider can help shed some light on which ones may be best suitable for you and your unique case.

5. Rebalance

The fifth step is to rebalance the body with supportive lifestyle habits, such as reducing stress and getting proper sleep. These are often overlooked when we think about healing because it may not always feel like they make a big difference, but indeed they do. Maintaining a gut-friendly way of eating is also important, including the points mentioned in #3: Reinoculate phase.

Meditation, deep breathing exercises, and adaptogenic herbs are all things that can support this rebalance phase.

It’s important to remember that healing takes time. There’s no magic formula to improving your health nor is there a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s also important to remember that many of the lifestyle changes we make to better ourselves should be part of our lives long-term to continue to support our body (and to prevent us from slipping back to where we were before).

Once again, if you have any concerns, always speak to your healthcare provider.

Questions? Got an experience to share? Leave it below in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.