Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Hello, and welcome to a Wonder Care podcast. I'm Sheena Mitchell, pharmacist and mum of three. I combine healthcare and practical advice to support you on your parenting journey. This week, I'm talking all about how best to survive silly seasons. December is definitely a time of overindulgence, and this episode is a reminder for myself, definitely not just for you. I've had a little think about all of the ways that we can help ourselves and our families to get through December without ending up in a really exhausted, lethargic, horrible state in January. In this episode, there are lots of tips about how to approach December to safeguard your gut health, and the same for kids. Also, some ideas and chat about drinking at Christmas, alcohol that is so obviously not for the kids, and the importance of keeping up exercise and some other simple swap outs. And tips that you can do to try and keep yourself and your body feeling well at this time of year. And as I am a pharmacist, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge that there are sometimes that we'll get a bit carried away with ourselves. That's human, and no one wants to be a complete scrooge. So I'm going to give you some remedies for maybe some days or nights that you've overindulged, and you want to feel better as quickly as possible because there are a lot of common pitfalls that people fall into, and really they just prolong your misery. So I'm going to tell you the quickest way to bounce back.
First of all, gut health. Gut health is probably the single most important part of this conversation. Our gut is so important, it contains a whole ecosystem full of trillions of different bacteria, all doing different jobs. This is known as your microbiome. The health of your microbiome dictates a lot. It will determine how well you'll absorb vitamins and minerals from food, how much Bloating and gas you'll have in your stomach, even how well your immune system functions. Every year we learn more and more about our microbiome, and it's now considered to be a supporting organ because it plays so many key roles in promoting daily operations of the human body. One tricky part of it is that everyone's microbiome is unique. There's so much that can impact it, and sometimes different people will require different approaches to protect it. However, we do know that any disruption to this microbiome can make you more susceptible to disease. So your microbiome basically has good bacteria which attack pathogens, so they stop disease causing bacteria from establishing in your gut. Sometimes, though, we can destroy our own microbiome, and that can happen from overindulgence, especially things like drinking a lot of alcohol or certain diets can increase acidity and maybe lack foods which are known as prebiotics, which help good bacteria to grow in your stomach. Things like infectious illness or taking antibiotics can also destroy your microbiome. So it's really, really important that we keep it at the forefront of our mind when we're approaching Christmas this year. I'm not going to talk too much about probiotics in this episode because the next episode that I record will be a full review of all adult probiotics which support gut health. Now, when I say all, I'm focusing on the top ten and I'm currently taking suggestions from you and requests over on my Insta at Wondercare IRL. So just have a look for the Grid post and you can leave your suggestion of what brands I cover within that episode, which I will also make into a really clear chart so you can see the benefits of each product. Because again, due to the popularity of the microbiome and all of the research which supports it as this amazing supportive organ, of course marketing comes into play and I like to strip out the marketing and just talk fact. So I'll do a lot more work on that. It's going to take a lot of research because there's a gazillion different bazillion strains of probiotics and then we need to take prebiotics into consideration. So that will come next week.
So for now, I'm just going to suggest that it is a good time of year to consider taking a probiotic. Now, there are probiotics available for kids as well. And children. While they mightn't suffer from hangovers from alcohol, they certainly suffer from sugar hangovers. In my experience, their diet can change a lot around Christmas. They go from having in our house healthy packed lunches, to eating foods that they just wouldn't normally be eating and a lot more treats and a lot more maybe rich desserts and things than they would normally eat. And all of this can affect their microbiome. So it's a good idea to get the whole family on a probiotic and hopefully next week the episode will help you to make your choice based on that. So other than probiotics, how can we safeguard our gut health?
Obviously, the festive season is one where we go out to restaurants a lot and we order a starter main course, maybe even dessert or a coffee, and our Christmas or family gatherings even around New Year's as well. We sit down for big family meals and we love them. Like, it's amazing. I love a big Christmas dinner myself. However, it is a better idea to eat small meals often. So if you're going out to restaurants, et cetera, just think about the volume of food that you would normally eat for dinner at home and that mightn't look like a starter and a really big rich main course. It might even look like two starters. So that's something that I'm going to be considering because I hate watching other people eat their starters and just eat my main course.
I don't have the patience for that. So maybe two starters is a way to go. Look, it totally depends on your day and your normal diet and this isn't about being restrictive. Obviously there's room to enjoy yourself, but just remember that if you put a whole load of food in your tummy at once, your gut is really going to struggle to process that. So if you are eating a large meal, try and eat it slowly to give your gut a chance to digest. During family days it's a bit easier because you can pick unhealthy things throughout the day and that's fantastic because your gut has time to adjust and digest it. Your choice of food is also really important. So we know that we love to fill up our plates with Christmas dinner. And this year, after doing all of the research for this episode, I'm going to make a conscious effort to make sure that a lot of the food on my plate is vegetables and lean turkey. I'm going to try and ease off some of the normal dressings and cheese sauces and all of that that I would normally have on it. I am going to still enjoy my dinner and everything in moderation, but it's just more conceptually to think about what you're eating and think about your tummy. Basically, we need to think about our tummies as a little person who just can't cope with all that we're doing to it. At this time of year, the next thing is keeping active. So it's winter, it's freezing cold, it's not great, but when you're on holidays and the kids are on holidays, and if everyone's just at home picking on food, it isn't a recipe for success. A sedentary lifestyle can inhibit movement through your gut. So definitely I would recommend wrapping up warm and this can be a lovely thing to do if it's a crisp, dry day. Wrap up everyone really warm and go for a little walk around your neighborhood. It doesn't have to be sprints, but just keep moving if you can. If you normally exercise can try and stick to your routine, but I'm a runner and I'm certainly not going to be hitting out on Christmas Day for a ten k run. I know a lot of people would, but for me it's a busy day and it's about my children and it's about family time. Normal routine may well go out the window. Bosch I'm going to plan ahead and try and make sure that I'm going to fit in at least 50% of my normal weekly exercise activities. That gives you flexibility to prioritize your family days, but also incorporate your exercise which will keep your gut healthy, keep your immune system fresh and keep happy hormones moving as well, which is really important and absolutely get the kids involved. I know there'll be a lot of whining because they won't want to be torn away from their toys if they're anything like mine. And they don't really have much interest when it's cold outside, as I found out when I tried to make them cycle to school, there at the start of the year, I was running along beside them and even though they were on their bikes, they were like, no, thank you. But anyway, other ways of making sure that you're not heaped in a big slothernly pile at Christmas is to organize some activities. And this is definitely something that I'm going to try and do. There are obviously ones that cost money, which are great fun, like ice skating and that kind of thing, but there's a lot you can do for free. There's a lot of carol services on and you could go for a walk around town and go for a walk around your neighborhood and look at the Christmas lights. All of these kind of things are just great to get you out and about and in somewhat more of a normal routine. When I talk about the kids and the eating, try and explain to them that they're not going to be eating. It's like, look, we're back to the Halloween balance. You make them pick a couple of favorite things to eat. Of course they can have some treats, but just be conscious that their stomachs won't thank you for it. And having an unhealthy microbiome and struggling with gut health can have an impact on a child's emotional well being. They can get really stroppy and moody. They can start to suffer like ourselves with constipation or diarrhea or bloating. And children don't communicate that as well as adults do, and it can just come out as pure crankiness. Also, the highs and lows of a bad diet and sugar intake and all of that kind of stuff can really affect your mood. It can be hard to regulate yourself.
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[00:11:41] Speaker A: Alcohol alcohol is obviously a huge feature of Christmas and New Year's in many houses. A lot of people don't drink alcohol for very good reason, whether it be from addiction or whether it be for health reasons or they're training for a sporting event or just personal choice. But for many, many, many people, Christmas and New Year's and December celebrations in general is a time where you increase your alcohol intake. And if you are one of those people, which I have to say I probably am, try and be cognizant of a what you're drinking, and b that you should probably pick and choose your occasions. So in terms of what you're drinking, try and avoid cocktails and all the really heavy liqueurs. Your body won't thank you for them in either gut health or in calories, so try and stick to diet mixers or low calorie drinks. Also, drink a lot of water when you're drinking alcohol, it really helps to prevent dehydration and an awful headache the next day. I know that I have planned for the next few weeks, while I have a few Christmas outings to go on. I'm going to drive so that I'm not drinking and I'll save any of my alcohol consumption for maybe a glass of wine on Christmas Eve and a couple of glasses of wine maybe on Christmas Day night with my family or Stephen's Day. I just don't want to have a three week lead in because that's not going to do my mental health or my physical health any good at all. So driving is a really good option and it's really, really acceptable nowadays. I know you shouldn't have to justify why you're not drinking, but if you're not bothered, have those conversations, just drive, because no one's going to ask you to drink and drive. It's end of another option, which I often do when I'm out and about. If I've decide to drink, I'll have a couple of maybe alcoholic drinks first and then I'll swap over to the zero percents. These are really good. I actually love a Guinness.
This is only a relatively new thing this year, but now my drink of choice when I'm out is a pint of Guinness. Random. Anyway, they do an amazing 0% and I certainly feel like I'm still having a treat and I don't notice that there's no alcohol in it. Look, it's just something to be conscious of. Alcohol is a tricky one because everyone has different relationships with alcohol. So obviously if you find that you're someone who has difficulty easing off the alcohol at times when it's been party season, then I really would advise just not to engage with it. And for a lot of my listeners, you're going to have young kids and nobody wants to wake up with a hangover.
How the hell are you going to deal with the children's sugar hangovers if you've got an alcohol hangover, just doesn't work. Alcohol and kids are not a good mix. So I'm not suggesting that you need to be abstinent, but I'm just saying that a lot of people, as parents, will have had to have moderate their intake anyway. I think it's a good idea to plan all of these things in advance in your head, to choose some nights out that you maybe want to go and let your hair down and just have a great time and to choose nights where your maybe work week is too busy or you've too much on that you just can't possibly keep going without crashing if you don't find a way to regulate it. Seeing people and socializing is one of the best things for our mental health. So for me, I would much rather drive and not drink and see all these people and catch up with friends and work colleagues and anyone I haven't seen in a while. But the only way that I'm going to be able to see all the people that I want to by easing off the booze. Okay? So if you do have a big night out, or if you've had even just a couple of glasses of wine, and because you're not a big drinker, the next day you wake up with a sore head, there is a tendency to reach for sugar and fizzy drinks to try and get yourself over a hangover. But that is not a good idea. The best idea is to take something simple like paracetamol if you've got a banging headache, and to take a rehydration sachet. So there's lots of different rehydration salts. Examples include diorlite, which lots of you will be familiar with. There is another alternative on the market now called electrocell. And finally, then you've got things like ors rehydration tablets. So they're ones that you just pop into water and they dissolve. Some of them have added vitamins and things, so it's worth checking out those ranges. The next thing then is get out for a walk. So you will feel so much better if you stay away from the fizzy drinks. Don't go to sugar, drink lots and lots of water, maybe some nice peppermint or ginger tea to try and actually save your gut any more irritation, because if you drink fizzy drinks and sugar, you're just further destroying your microbiome. So nice natural teas, rehydration salts, exercise and small meals often is definitely the best way to go. Another option is if you know you're going to have a few drinks and you really don't want to have a sore head or a hangover the next day. You can take something like lifeline capsules. So these contain activated charcoal, and activated charcoal is really often and frequently used to absorb toxins and impurities. So in this case, it's absorbing toxins and impurities that are found in alcoholic beverages. They also contain some vitamin B and vitamin C, which will maybe help with energy and help to reduce tiredness and fatigue. They're quite handy, but you do need to be kind of planning when you're taking these. Take them an hour before you drink alcohol and this helps to ease a hangover before it kicks in. So it's just one or two capsules an hour before drinking and hopefully that will keep you well.
Another kind of reliever product. It depends on what symptoms you're having. Obviously I've mentioned paracetamol, but if your gush feels really unwell, your stomach is unwell, you could even have diarrhea or stomach pains. There is a relatively new probiotic that I would recommend in this case. So this is one that you don't have to be taking all day every day. It's one that you can take from the onset of bad symptoms. It's called OptiBac S bulardi, and it contains 5 billion life cultures of sacramises Boulardi. This is a really well researched strain of probiotic, which does reach the gut alive and it can help with reducing inflammation in the digestive system and also in alleviating diarrhea symptoms. So this is one that might be very, very useful to have on standby over the Christmas period. I will pop a link to that in the show notes also. And actually, if you're listening to this on a podcast streaming platform, you mightn't be able to find the links in the show notes because for some reason my show notes don't fully go over. But if you go to the website wondercare. Ie and visit the podcast page, you'll be able to see this episode there and the full links will be in it. That product is actually so successful that in our pharmacy, people are starting to buy this as a treatment of diarrhea instead of products like emodium. So it's really, really cool and it just shows you the power of probiotics when they're formulated properly and they're reaching the right place. OptiBac Espulard good news is this can also be taken by children. Yeah, it's definitely something that I'll be keeping in the house at all times. For children over one, if they're not obviously able to swallow a capsule, which I wouldn't recommend trying at that young age, you can basically open the capsule and mix in the contents with cold food or drink, and then they can take the contents of maybe one capsule up to three or four times a day. For adults, you can take one to four capsules initially at the onset of your symptoms, and then up to six capsules daily.
[00:20:09] Speaker C: In terms of indigestion and upset stomach, from overindulgence, from food, alcohol, anything, just the change in diet can actually really upset your stomach. There are lots of different options available from your community pharmacy, so I'll talk.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: You through a couple of them.
[00:20:26] Speaker C: Now, the first and most common one for a little bit of kind of heartburn indigestion. So when you've got a little bit of fiery burny feeling in your chest, this is as a result of having too much stomach acid and sometimes it can actually come up through the little sphincter, the opening at the top of the stomach and cause irritation of your esophagus. So the best thing for that really, in my view, is gaviscon liquid. Now, I know a lot of people hate the liquid, but it does come in mint and anecede flavor. And the liquid is good because it kind of coats your whole food, pipe the way down into your stomach, neutralizes the acid. So that's an option. But obviously if you're out and about, they do handy little tablets as well. And then another one, which we commonly get asked for, and I do struggle to understand this is alkaselter. So alkaselter basically contains aspirin and also some sodium hydrogen carbonate, which acts as an antacid, so it has pain relief in it and it can help sort out a little bit of indigestion, but for me, the taste of that would be rank. It's a lemon effervescent tablet and I would much rather take two paracetamol and a little bit of gaviscon or something if you needed it. Another option instead of Gaviscon is rennie. I used to love these when I was pregnant. There's a nice orange flavor and basically, again, these are from the antacid family. They come in spearmint and peppermint as well. And again, they can be handy to have in the handbag. If you feel like you have more of a problem with Bloating, there is a product called Bloate which is on the market and that contains activated carbon.
[00:22:09] Speaker A: So, like I talked about earlier, that.
[00:22:11] Speaker C: Helps to absorb any toxins that are in your stomach, but also a thing called Somaticone. Now, somaticone is actually the same thing.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: That we would give to a colicky baby.
[00:22:20] Speaker C: So a baby who's struggling with trapped wind and that can be very useful and it does begin to work quite quickly, within about 15 minutes. So, if Bloating is your problem, I'd probably recommend Bloaties if you get more of a flare up of IBS symptoms, so intestinal pain and cramping and spasms, something like Culpermin might be a good idea. So these are peppermint oil capsules and they can really help with the relief of those symptoms. And again the same with buscapan, but I would probably try Culpermin first. Again, it can help with sore tight muscles that are making you feel like you have a lot of cramping. Other than that, then we kind of go up a step. So, instead of normal antacids, which basically neutralize the acid that is already in your stomach, you can use something which.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: Will help to reduce the release of.
[00:23:12] Speaker C: Acid from your stomach wall. So basically it stops the acid being produced in the first place. Examples of these in terms of brand names would be Nexium, so Nexium Control is available over the counter and there is also a generic available which is a little bit cheaper and effective as well. That is called Emizole, another brand which contains a different drug but from the same family. So again, works to reduce the acid secretion from your stomach is Low SEC Control and that is Omeprazole 20 milligram tablets. And again, they're available over the counter. So with these they're only really suitable for short term use. If you find that your symptoms are persisting, you really do need to go see a doctor. That is because if you need them regularly, you definitely need to get checked out because there is potential for stomach ulceration, et cetera, if your stomach has endured long term acid problems. And there is one other kind of drug which is from a slightly different family but does much similar work. And you will know that as Pepsid AC or Pepsid Duo, which comes in a chewable form, there is actually one other. I wasn't going to mention it because it gives me the horrors when I think back. But milk of magnesia, so that contains magnesium hydroxide and that is used for upset stomachs and indigestion. But I was certainly given too much of that as a young one and I just shiver when I think of it. Now, obviously for diarrhea symptoms, I did mention there that Amodium is available and also now that OptiBac espudari, which is a more natural option. If you have vomiting, actual vomiting and nausea, then it might be that something containing Domperidone is suitable for you. Now, Domperidone is known as Domrid in its generic form or Motilium in the original brand form. This particular medicine is now only sold under direct pharmacist supervision and this is because it has the potential to interact with a lot of different medications and this can cause cardiac issues. So it's no longer recommended for just a bit of indigestion, so it's really just for nausea and vomiting. And do speak to your community pharmacist about that because you'll need to have a consultation just to make sure that.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: It'S suitable for you. Okay? So I think I have covered the hangover, the diet, the cures, the prevention and the alcohol choices. So there's a lot there and I know it's a bit wishy washy, but to be honest, I think I needed to hear this episode as much as any of you. So it is a good idea to just have a plan at this time of year because we can enter January in such a state of January blues if we feel absolutely rubbish and we've spent the entire of December avoiding any form of exercise and just absolutely trashing our gut. So we can do a lot to make sure that we're entering the new year a little bit happier. And with the dark nights and the dark mornings, it's important to be proactive. Actually, one last tip. This isn't really about good health, just a Christmas tip. In general, do remember to keep a couple of bottles of wine or a couple of boxes of chocolates near the front door in gift bags in case any visitors come to your door that you have forgotten to bag up gifts for. So then you are prepared and you will look great. We are hoping for a stress free Christmas and as is commonly said, failing to prepare is preparing to fail. So I need to go and get on my preparation because I have a lot to do.
I'm no saint. Anyway, I'll talk to you next week about probiotics with all of the evidence and all of the supporting information and a breakdown of what products contain what so that we know we're spending our money in the right ways. Because I also have to go now and choose an probiotic to take for the month of December. If you enjoyed this episode and you're interested in any of the products that I mentioned, please do visit wondercare. Ie visit the podcast episode page so that you can see the links to the products that I have recommended. We offer online delivery and obviously it would help and support me a lot if you shopped from us, but other than that, if you just found the lifestyle and health information useful, please do share this episode and review it on your podcast streaming platforms. Thank you so, so much for listening.
[00:27:59] Speaker C: Talk to you next week. Bye.
