Prioritizing Gut Health as the Key to Overall Wellness

While prescriptions and many modern doctors help people feel better, Dr. Akmal Muwwakkil of the Energy Institute of Healing Arts and Healen Arts Wellness Studio, argues Western medicine doesn’t always get to the root of the issue.

“Medical science doesn’t look at healing, they look at curing. The problem is that we don’t really get cured, we have to be healed,” Dr. Muwwakkil said. “Healing comes from understanding what the body needs. And so in my practice, I teach people what the body needs in order to heal. [It’s] different from pharmaceuticals – what pharmaceuticals do is they pacify the ailment. When you start looking at natural remedies, you deal with the baseline factor of where [the ailment is] coming from – the root cause.”

As founder of “Dr. Akmal Speaks” and his educational holistic healing institute, Muwwakkil prescribes healthy options that can be purchased in stores to contribute to overall wellness.

In treating patients over the years, Dr. Muwwakkil, 73, has seen a common thread among his African American patients: upset stomachs.

“I have noticed one thing, and especially about Black people, is that we have a digestive imbalance. So the first thing that we want to do is correct digestion,” he said.

Below are a few tips from Dr. Muwwakkil to prioritize gut health:

• “The first thing I tell anybody – you can come to my office for a hangnail, this is what I tell you before you leave – ‘You want to go to the health food store, not the big box stores, but the health food store, and get you some probiotics because probiotics are going to provide healthy bacteria to your small intestines, which is the seat of your nutrition.”

• “The second thing that I tell people that you want to get at the health food store [is] digestive enzymes… The digestive enzymes help correct digestion.”

• “The third thing I would tell people is that they should eat from their hands more often, meaning they should cook more often and eat the food that they cook, opposed to eating out. When you eat out, you’ve got other people’s energy in your food, and you don’t know what people are putting in your food.”

• “The fourth thing I would say is that people should start to eat in season. Eat foods that are in season and within a 100-mile radius of you.”

• “Stay away from fat and greasy foods.”

Dr. Muwwakkil also said there are other healthy items that can be purchased over the counter to keep the body’s immune system boosted and ready to fight disease.

“Depending on your age there are other things you can take. You can take black seed oil. But when you take stuff like that you should have a great understanding of what it does,” Muwwakkil said. “You can take chlorophyll. Liquid chlorophyll cleans the cells.”

While a lot of people are hopping on the sea moss train year-round, Muwwakkil said he suggests taking it in winter and summer and in autumn and spring trying grasses like wheatgrass.

Further, he said it’s important to take these holistic health supplements in moderation.

“Only take it five days a week so it doesn’t build up in your system and stop functioning for you. The same thing with black seed oil, or olive leaf extract. You only want to take it five days a week because you want two days for your body to work.”