Our gut health is a very underrated, yet extremely important part of our health. Our gut, often dubbed the second brain by some, and the first brain by others is a literal conductor of our health. If our gut is not working optimally, then our digestion, our brain, our skin, and so many other things, may not work properly. The health of our gut affects every functional process in our body.
The gut is our center and our core. It holds our immune system, absorbs and processes our food and nutrients. It helps us to clear toxins. And it clears out the hormones our body has used.
It’s also where energetically our intuition lies. You know the phrase “I have a gut feeling”?
Our gut is the center of our intuitive connection as well.
And… A healthy gut is essential to healthy hormone function too.
What causes the gut to break down?
Over time the gut can easily take a hit or multiple hits that break it down. When this happens it can send your health spiraling. And it’s really hard to avoid this from happening because there are so many triggers.
Here is a long list of common things we are regularly exposed to that can damage the gut:
- Stress
- Antibiotics
- Steroid meds
- Birth control pill
- Sugar
- Gluten
- Dairy
- Food allergies and sensitivities
- Processed foods
- Food chemicals
- Toxins
- Pesticides
- Aging
- Loss of hormones – like in perimenopause & menopause
What happens when the gut takes a hit?
When the gut takes a hit, the microbiome becomes damaged. And the beneficial bacteria are then not as strong as they need to be to fight off invaders. This can cause bad bacteria, parasites and infections to take over. Think of your gut like a garden. The flowers and vegetables are the good microbiome. The weeds are invaders like bad bacteria, parasites and infections.
Of course, in our garden we want the flowers and vegetables to flourish. Yet all gardens are exposed to weeds. The repeated exposure to those invading weeds can make it difficult to get them under control. And they can soon take over! Soon enough, it’s the weeds that are what’s flourishing, not the flowers and vegetables. This can mean that bad bacteria, parasites, or infections are what is running the show in the gut.
The weeds also damage the mucosal lining of the gut. Let’s use another analogy to explain this one. When the lining of the gut is damaged, it’s like the lining of a pool that has tears or cracks in it. The cracks then create leaks which damage the structure of the pool, and its surroundings. Soon the integrity of the pool has been compromised because of all the leaks.
What is this gut breakdown called?
The gut breakdown is called leaky gut or dysbiosis. And in this situation the strength of the gut garden has been compromised. When the lining of the gut is damaged, it creates gaps in the gut lining, and lets toxins, spent hormones, and even food particles seep through to the blood stream.
These particles then circulate around the body instead of sending them out through digestion. This can wreak havoc on our body in a multitude of ways causing symptoms like: joint pain, breast pain, brain fog, skin conditions, food sensitivities, and more.
And… this can happen without us even knowing or causing symptoms!
How do hormones affect our gut?
In addition, as our hormones lower to deficient levels while we are in perimenopause/menopause and beyond, that loss of estrogen is like losing an extensive part of our microbiome army that keeps the gut strong.
Literally the loss of estrogen in our bodies, is also a loss to our gut microbiome. Estradiol is in every cell in our body, and helps to maintain the lining of our gut. Estrogen and progesterone also help to support strong microbe diversity, which means we have a variety of strong soldiers supporting our gut. When our gut microbiome is compromised it affects our immunity, creates an inflammatory response, and can affect our cognitive health too.
Our hormones have a huge role in keeping our microbiome strong and flourishing with good microbes while keeping the diversity of good microbes high.
What is the gut’s influence on metabolic health?
A strong microbiome is also important to keep our metabolic health stable. Bad bacteria in the gut can affect our ability to stabilize our blood sugar and insulin levels. When our metabolic health is dysregulated, it pushes us towards the cascade of weight gain, pre-diabetes, diabetes, and cardiac issues. This is often a slow silent cascade that doesn’t present itself symptom wise until you are in the thick of it, which can make it even more difficult to come back from.
I personally had this happen. I thought I was doing all the right things, and to a certain degree I was! But I had gone through a pretty significant trauma at the same time that I went through perimenopause, and transitioned into menopause, and this all happened during the pandemic. Talk about being in a stress response!
My estrogen was dropping to a minimum, I was in an extreme trauma/stress response, I was dealing with gut dysbiosis that was aggravated by the stress, and all of this sent my metabolic health into a tail spin. It took conscious effort, extensive nervous system work including EMDR, gut testing, gut healing and HRT to get me back on track. Now my story is more on the extreme side, but it does show the cascade that can happen even when you think you are on the right track.
But how do we know what is the root of our issues? How do we know the gut could be a factor? Remember what I said in the first paragraph of this article? The gut is the “conductor” of our health. Even though we have not been taught to start in this place, or to look here first, this is what I am suggesting is the first place that you look.
Let’s explore this further.
How do we know if our gut health is off?
This is a tricky question, because gut dysbiosis doesn’t always come with symptoms. And sometimes the symptoms we are experiencing may not seem to be tied directly to the gut.
So when considering if your gut health is off, it’s important to start by knowing the following:
- Gut dysbiosis / dysfunction can be symptomless
- Gut health disruption can come on slowly, and subtly which can make symptoms less noticeable.
- Gut health symptoms often are normalized. When actually those “normalized” symptoms can be a sign of bigger issues.
- Traditional / allopathic medicine rarely looks at gut health as a “tell” for other symptoms, dis-eases, or issues.
- You may experience symptoms that seem completely unrelated to the gut.
- Traditional / allopathic practitioners rarely do stool gut health tests to get to the root cause of issues.
- Most traditional / allopathic are not trained in stool gut health testing.
Knowing this information, it’s important to take your health into your own hands. Especially if you have tried multiple things without success. You know your body best. Testing, and not guessing is key to get to the root of gut issues. I use GI-Map testing in my own practice to get to the root of the issues going on. This test looks at gut health from the top down.
The GI-Map looks for the following:
- Pathogens
- H.Pylori
- Heliobacter Pylori
- Commensal Bacteria – which is not really good nor bad, but we want a good balance.
- Opportunistic/overgrowth microbes – which can easily swing out of balance
- Fungi / Yeast
- Viruses
- Parasites
- Intestinal Health Markers – which help to show us the inflammatory health of the gut.
We are all exposed to gut destroyers on the regular, so gut dysfunction can be almost unavoidable.
Since I have been using the GI-Map, I haven’t seen a “normal” test. And my mentors and teachers haven’t either.
But I don’t say that to be doom and gloom. I say that to teach you that gut health nourishment is an important part of keeping our overall health strong. And with attention, intention and testing, you can optimize your gut health and the rest of your health.
Let’s talk about what symptoms to look for when it comes to gut health.
What are the Symptoms of Gut Dysbiosis?
Let’s start with some of the more obvious, yet not always obvious symptoms of gut dysfunction. These are commonly known symptoms, but they are so common that we have normalized them in many ways. So we don’t always see them as a flag for potential other issues.
Symptoms of gut dysfunction are:
- Gas
- Bloating
- Belching
- Constipation
- That full feeling
- Feeling of heaviness in the gut after eating certain foods
- Nausea
- Upset stomach
- Weight gain
- Joint pain
- Brain fog
- and more!
And now let’s talk about the less commonly known symptoms/issues that can come up due to gut dysfunction. This is a really interesting list, because as one of my mentors recently said “Gut problems don’t always cause gut symptoms. They often cause issues in OTHER parts of the body.”
Fascinating… right?
My mentor went on to say those unusual symptoms that you can’t figure out where they are coming from, can very often be associated with gut dysfunction.
Here are some of the more unusual issues that can pop up:
- Infertility
- Hormone Imbalance
- UTI’s
- Yeast infections
- Bacterial Vaginosis
- Blood sugar imbalance
- Weight gain
- Metabolic dysfunction
- Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes
- PCOS
- Fatigue
- Sleep Issues
- Liver detox issues
- Can’t make enough glutathione (your master antioxidant)
- Can’t make enough dopamine
- Unable to absorb protein properly
- Skin Issues and infections
- Eczema, psoriasis, dandruff, acne, rash
- Food sensitivities
- Diseases of age
- And… you can also be completely asymptomatic
Ack! This is a really big list! So how do we know if the gut is the cause of one of these issues? The easy answer is to work on the gut and see if the symptoms improve. Because when you address the gut, the body has a HUGE opportunity to heal. So many of those seemingly obscure issues can heal, and be improved with testing and a good plan.
So if you suspect gut issues, what’s next?
- Testing with a GI-Map is essential – this gives us the picture of what is happening in the gut. And trust me… no one’s gut is completely clean. There are always issues to work on unfortunately, and when they go unaddressed for long periods of time, they can create bigger issues down the road. Make sure you are testing with a practitioner that can interpret the test, and help you build a plan for healing as well.
- Restore the nervous system – Removing stress, and restoring the nervous system is a key part of healing the gut. You can’t heal while you are being chased by a tiger. The body is only in survival mode when this is happening. Conscious, specific effort is necessary to break stress patterns, slow life down, eat to nourish the nervous system and approach life differently. I recommend working with someone like myself that specializes in the nervous system to help you make these shifts.
- Remove the infection and soothe the gut – Herbal supplements can usually do the trick to remove the offenders – but it does depend on what is going on. These supplements vary by issue.
When the gut is irritated, soothing also helps with the removal of the pathogens. In other words we don’t want to just throw more gas on the fire. Soothing supplements like DGL, L-Glutamine, Slippery Elm, Marshmallow Root, Aloe (or a combo) may be helpful here, but again, it does depend on what is going on. Soothing the gut is about calming the inflammation and quieting the fire.
4. Prepare, Replace and Repair – once the infection is gone or going, then it’s time to prepare and grow the gut garden once again. This is where we restore the good bacteria. Again the supplements are dependent on the issues you are dealing with, but Sunfiber (Save 15% with this link) is a product that helps improve the beneficial bacteria and works for most cases. When you start it, start small like an ⅛ of a scoop, and work yourself up to a full scoop over a couple weeks. Longer if you are sensitive. Additionally probiotics are important to add here, and again it can depend on what the issue is, but this is one I like that can support many issues. Probiotic (Save 15% with this link, and you’ll need to create an account to see it, it’s not click bait, it’s just literally the way this platform works unfortunately).
5. Reinforce – this process creates a stabilizing boundary for the gut. Think of it like your own gut-army with a reinforced wall that works to keep the pathogens out. Eat to grow the garden of your gut, ample protein, fresh herbs and vegetables, berries for the polyphenols, and fermented foods if you can tolerate them. Eat whole foods, shop the perimeter of the grocery store and kick out the processed foods.
Let’s face it, we are ALL subjected to pathogens, bad bacteria, toxins, etc. It’s the strength of our gut that helps us fight these things off, or not…
I hope this helps give you some direction on listening to your gut on a deeper level, and considering if you need your gut-army rebuilt. If you are ready for support in healing your gut, or working on your hormones, click the link below get started with me.