Health Begins In The Gut

Hippocrates lived nearly 2500 years ago but he understood something that doctors are just beginning to acknowledge.

When you eat, drink, apply sunscreen, take medicine or hormones, we are exposing ourselves to chemicals and toxins. In fact every single thing we put in or on our bodies either feeds disease or fights disease.

The human microbiome is made up of millions of microbes. It may surprise you to learn that there is 10x more bacterial cells than human cells in the microbiome. 

Your microbiome plays a beneficial role in your body and helps metabolize and make some important vitamins, helps break down food and produce energy from food, helps support your immune system, produces anti-inflammatory compounds, and keeps the gut wall healthy.

Changes in the composition of our microbiome correlate with many diseases—from diabetes to autoimmune diseases. The common thread in the disease process is a lack of bacterial diversity and a decrease in good bacteria, aka dysbiosis (Dysbiosis is characterized by a disruption to the microbiome resulting in an imbalance in the microbiota, changes in their functional composition and metabolic activities, or a shift in their local distribution). 

Dysbiosis leads to inflammation in the gut wall which in turn effects the permeability of that barrier leading to leaky gut. In leaky gut, the tight cell junctions become compromised due to inflammation and particles that would not normally pass through this barrier now make their way through the barrier and into the bloodstream. This sets up immune reactivity including allergies, anxiety, and systemic inflammation that creates disease. 

Think you have leaky gut? I use Functional Testing to assess the health of your gut and microbiome. Through stool analysis we can assess exactly what is growing in your gut, what is overgrown, what is depleted, and better understand some of the symptoms you might be experiencing. We can also choose the right products with key ingredients to soothe the gut wall, reduce gut inflammation, support detoxification, and improve digestion in order to set up the conditions to support a healthy microbiome and a healthy immune system. 

If you’re ready to get your a handle on your gut health, book a complimentary Root Cause Discovery Call to learn more about how we might work together!