Hippocrates said more than 2,000 years ago, " All health begins in the gut" but we are only now coming to understand just how right he was. Research over the past two decades has revealed that gut health is critical to overall health, and that an unhealthy gut contributes to a wide range of diseases including diabetes, obesity, rashes, skin disorders, acne, rosacea, psoriasis, hives, allergies, sinuses, rheumatoid arthritis, depression and chronic fatigue syndrome. Other Factors such as stress, lack of sleep, antibiotics, the contraceptive pill, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, illness, ageing and poor diet choices can often lead to an imbalance of the bacteria in your digestive tract. We know as well that stress negatively affects your digestive function - when stressed, the blood supply to the digestive system is decreased. Higher stress leads to increased cholesterol, deficiency in essential fatty acids, deficiency in hydrochloric acid- (essential for digestion) raised cortisol ( a stress hormone leading to inflammation) salt retention, insulin resistance (a pre-cursor to diabetes) thyroid and other endocrine problems, reflux, disturbance in the good bacteria in the gut, and increase in all the pro-inflammatory factors.