Full Transcript Podcast Introduction and Guest Background 0:00 are some practical steps people can take right now to start improving gut health through diet 0:07 or lifestyle. So there's some very basic things that everybody can do and everybody can benefit 0:12 from whether you knowingly have a gut issue or not. Number one is diet. Diet is can't, 0:18 I always told my weight loss patients, you cannot out exercise a bad diet. You cannot, it's the 0:23 same concept with gut. You cannot eat. and have good gut health. So I always tell patients 0:30 focusing in on looking at lean sources of meats, looking at a whole food plant-based diet, not 0:37 saying you have to be vegetarian, but really looking at good clean sources, organic sources. 0:42 I give all of my patients the clean 15 dirty dozen list when they come in. um Looking at 0:47 eliminating pesticides, insecticides right off the bat. Also making sure you're getting plenty 0:52 of healthy fats. making sure that you're consuming nuts are a great source of that, your fatty 0:58 fishes. Your health is shaped by more than symptoms. Through real stories and expert 1:05 insights, we explore how your genetics, environment, and daily choices affect your wellbeing. 1:12 We uncover root causes and share practical tools to help you find the healing you need. Welcome 1:18 to the Forum Health Integrative Medicine Podcast. Welcome back to the Forum Health Integrative 1:24 Medicine podcast. I'm your host Amanda and I'm here with Amanda Dyer-Moss, our nurse practitioner 1:30 in our Greenville location. And today we are going to be talking about gut health and a 1:35 root cause approach because your gut isn't just about digestion. It's connected to your immune 1:41 system, hormones, mood, and even your energy. Today we're going to talk about why gut health 1:47 is central to the whole body approach. and why testing matters and what you can do to get 1:53 to the root cause of symptoms. Amanda, thank you so much for being here today. I'm so excited 1:59 to talk. Just want to start, tell us a little bit about yourself and how did you get into 2:04 functional medicine? So I have been a nurse practitioner for about five or six years now. 2:09 I actually got into functional medicine just because of personal experiences. Looking at 2:14 more of, I had a lot of medical problems in my 20s. kept going to physicians, never got 2:19 answers and started treating myself. And so that's kind of what led me to functional medicine. 2:24 I have been a nurse for over 20 years and worked in ICU primarily. saw a lot of heart patients, 2:30 a of cardiovascular patients. And again, a lot of times it was, we were putting bandages on 2:35 patients, never treating root causes. Yeah. Hear that a lot in integrative and functional 2:40 medicine that there's a lot of times just like that personal journey that kind of opens up. 2:47 Pandora's box and there's really no going back. There's not here, right? Okay. So let's dive 2:52 into our topic. Let's talk a little bit about gut health and why gut health is central to 2:57 the whole body approach. A lot of patients, a lot of people think that gut health just 3:02 means like, oh, I'm digesting my food or my poop in, or, you know, all that. So what does 3:09 gut health really mean from a root cause approach and from a provider's perspective? So from 3:15 a provider's perspective, know, my philosophy is, and I've done a lot of reading on this 3:20 topic in particular, and I educate a lot of patients, it's not just the digestive system. 3:25 I have a lot of patients come in, I don't have any GI problems, but then their micronutrient 3:30 levels are in the toilet, and they also are experiencing a lot of anxiety, depression-type 3:35 symptoms. That doesn't sound like gut health. No, it doesn't. But there is a huge correlation 3:41 between what takes place in the gut and what affects the overall body. Yeah. You know, there's
Why Gut Health Affects the Whole Body 3:45 the link between, we call it the gut-brain axis. That's a term that's been thrown around 3:49 a lot, increasingly, over the last 10 or 15 years, where you have some of your neurotransmitters 3:53 manufactured in your gut itself, which is going to affect anxiety, depression. There's even 3:58 been some studies showing links between Parkinson's disease as well as autism, a link back to 4:04 gut microbiome. But we also know that there is uh an interplay between hormone production, 4:09 not just sex hormones, but also thyroid hormones. There's a huge link between that. Yeah. mean, 4:14 these micronutrient deficiencies, it makes sense, but you know, it's the male absorption, right? 4:21 Like if you're eating food, you have to digest that and you have to absorb it. So we talk 4:27 about micronutrients like, oh, but how does that deal with the gut? Well, you have to absorb 4:30 them into your system. The anxiety, the depression you mentioned. serotonin is made in the gut. 4:36 So of course it's going to impact your mood and anxiety and depression and things like 4:41 that. that's so interesting. I think it's really important for patients and listeners to understand 4:48 that like the gut. Affects every system. So the gut, it's connected to the immune system, 4:57 hormones and brain health. We know that now and a lot of times people ask the question 5:03 when they're sitting in the chair, I know I've asked it before even as a patient is, do I 5:09 really need the test? Why is gut testing so important and what can it reveal? So, you know, 5:17 a lot of patients do ask that. You start getting into testing, you you open up Pandora's box 5:23 with that. But I always tell patients the importance of gut testing is we're looking at identifying 5:30 specific issues. So, you know, we're looking at is there a problem with your stomach acid? 5:37 So do you have hypochloradria? Then we need to treat that from a different approach. We 5:42 also need to look at what is causing that issue. If we look at pancreatic function, we have 5:46 to look at is there a pancreatic insufficiency? We need to treat that pancreatic enzymes. But 5:52 also again, what is causing that pancreatic insufficiency? Sometimes heavy metal toxicity 5:58 can be linked back to that. oh Um, you know, that's where I talk about Pandora's box. You 6:02 do a gut test. That's foundational. You're looking at what you can identify upfront. Um, 6:07 and I always tell patients we look for the elephant in the room, the biggest thing we can find 6:11 first, which is going to be gut. And then we start looking out at what is causing the issues 6:16 in the gut. Then we may go down the road of heavy metal testing. Things of that nature. 6:20 Thyroid testing. It's uncovering one piece of the puzzle at a time. And I love that it's, 6:27 you know, maybe we do this first and it's. It's not all at once. That's so much information 6:32 for you as a provider. So much information is for a patient also. But also when you get one 6:37 test and you start working and correcting that, it's gonna affect the next test and the next 6:42 test and the next test. So then you'll never know what came first, the chicken or the egg. 6:46 Exactly. So I love that approach. love not necessarily jump all in, but let's take the mindful approach 6:54 of let's... What's your symptom? What's the most appropriate test for that symptom for 6:59 us to start? And taking it one step at a time. And I think that's really important. And the 7:04 other thing too is that like we're talking about gut health here, right? But it's not just 7:09 like the gut. It's not just the stomach. It's the pancreas. It's the liver. It's the gallbladder. 7:16 So it's, you you think gut health, but there's a lot of other organs and a lot of other things 7:21 that's that gut health is about. Yes. And I get a lot of patients who say, can I just do 7:26 a treatment protocol? You know, they'll come in and they'll say, can I just forgo testing? 7:30 Just put me on what you would put every patient on. You know, and always tell patients. funny. 7:34 It is. I always tell them, I'm like, it's not a one size fits all. It's kind of like if you 7:38 walk in your bathroom and there's water on the floor, are you just going to mop it up every 7:42 time you go in there or are you going to fix the leaky part? There's things that you can 7:45 do if you are not able to do testing that is just going to be helpful. You're not going 7:52 to have. some of the same guidance from information perspective as a provider with the patient 7:59 provider relationship, but doing a detox, cleaning up your food, like even doing small things 8:04 at a time, right? Elimination diet, understanding what your potential triggers could do. And
The Value of Gut Testing 8:09 I would almost argue too that sometimes doing some of those foundational things upfront before 8:14 the testing too, so that you have a, I wouldn't say a clean bill of health because that's not 8:19 what it is, but you're removing some of the noise from the body so that when the testing 8:26 is done and comes back, you don't have all the extra noise in there. And I will say, I see 8:32 a lot of patients who come in specifically just for gut testing upfront. They're usually 8:38 on 45 different supplements. They're trying, they've done a lot of research, a lot of Googling, 8:43 Dr. Google. And they are taking a lot of things that I sit down and I look at them and I go, 8:48 some of this may be unnecessary. Right. And that's where testing again comes back into 8:52 play. They may be on things that they don't really need. They're wasting their money, but 8:57 they're also putting things in their body that are not necessary that they're just basically 9:00 eliminating. That's a uh good point that just came to my mind is when you're testing and 9:06 people are already coming on a protocol that they found or was prescribed, anything like 9:12 that. Should they stop taking supplements? It depends on the situation. So like I had one 9:17 particular patient came in one time. She had a diagnosis from GI for pancreatic insufficiency. 9:23 She was on Creon. I did not take her off of Creon because we had a diagnosis to support 9:28 the use of that. But we did go ahead and do stool testing to see was she on enough Creon? 9:32 Did we need to alter dosages? Did we need to support and other mechanisms? Did she also 9:36 have SIBO or gut dysbiosis going on in addition to the pancreatic insufficiency? So that particular 9:42 patient, we left on her protocol. I've had other patients come in and they're on probiotics, 9:47 but they're still experiencing lots of issues. And I'm like, well, you know, it's kind of 9:51 best if we stop this probiotic. It's not helping anything. Let's start back over. And generally 9:56 I tell patients, you know, in those situations, let's stop everything for about 14 days and 10:01 then let's proceed with testing. I think that's valuable. And don't stop telling anybody to 10:07 stop any protocols. Yes, maybe the provider first. Meet with providers first. So we know 10:13 that the gut impacts a lot, a lot more than we think, right? We know testing can be really 10:20 valuable in a treatment plan when you're working with your provider. But what are some of the 10:25 hidden causes of symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, or hormone issues that actually start 10:32 in the gut? So, you know, a lot of times we have to think about the immune system as being 10:38 part of the gut. Like 75 or 70 % of your immune system lies within the gut. That's a lot of 10:43 our immune system. a lot of our immune system. And if we think back to what happens in the 10:48 immune system with we end up with inflammation in there from either an acute infection or 10:53 long term. then we end up with gut permeability increases. so what is permeability? What is 10:59 gut permeability? So that's where you have tight junctions in the gut and they should be allowing 11:05 certain things through certain things not through. And then when you get leaky gut, those junctions 11:09 open up and now they're allowing things to pass through that membrane that may be necessarily 11:15 should be through to the bloodstream. And then we're now stimulating. chronic low-grade inflammation. 11:21 And we know there's multiple studies that show that chronic low-grade inflammation is the 11:26 root of all diseases. You can pinpoint back to everything from cancer to heart disease, 11:31 to a lot of your neurodegenerative diseases. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's really important. 11:37 Thank you for explaining that to me. So how can the gut... how can gut health influence 11:47 autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto's or rheumatoid arthritis or psoriasis? Because those are autoimmune 11:54 conditions that really are very different from each other. Very different, but they're very 12:00 common. one thing I always explain to new patients when they come into our office is I explain 12:05 to them epigenetics. Epigenetics is a term that some people are familiar with and some 12:09 are not. And epigenetics is the... very complex um interplay between what genes you have, things 12:16 you were born with, maybe genes that turn things off, turn things on, but also environments.
Hidden Causes of Symptoms and Autoimmunity 12:22 So how do those two work together to either improve things or to make things worse? So 12:29 for instance, we know that there are some genetic components to some of these autoimmune diseases, 12:34 but something in the environment turns them on or off. And that thing from the environment 12:40 got into that person's body through intestinal permeability. Very likely. into the bloodstream. 12:47 Likely. And triggering something. Very likely. And so when we have increased gut permeability, 12:52 we have dysbiosis, we have infections, we have environmental toxins, things that are not able 12:57 to be detoxed through the body through the colon, our colon detoxes our body. And so now we can't 13:02 detox the way that we need to. We can't move things through. So we're increasing autoimmune 13:07 diseases because of again, chronic low grade inflammation. There is a really interesting 13:11 statistic that I saw that somebody who has one autoimmune disease is far more likely to have 13:21 two or three because of with one autoimmune disease, it's almost proven that you have leaky 13:28 gut or intestinal permeability. And I can't tell you how many patients I've seen who have 13:33 come to us as they come in and they go, you're my last resort. I've seen rheumatology, I've 13:38 seen neurology, and they keep telling me I have an autoimmune disease, but they don't know 13:42 which one. And then I tell the patient, I'm like, we may never tell you what autoimmune 13:47 disease you have, but that's not the point. Let's fix what the problem is. Let's go back 13:52 to gut. We actually don't need to know what it is because we already know what the trigger, 13:56 well, we don't know exactly what the trigger is that your body responded to, but we do know 14:02 where it's coming from. And if we correct that, clean up the gut and remove the trigger, then 14:09 the response goes away. Right. You know, and I always tell patients the degree that you 14:15 may benefit from with your autoimmune process that you have going on varies by lifestyle, 14:21 again, genes, other toxins in your body, metals, microtox, that sort of thing. But you also 14:26 have to think about the... We may not get rid of things, but we can at least help control 14:31 them and improve quality of life. Yes, absolutely. I know some common triggers and things like 14:36 we'll do a lot of elimination diets and stuff like that. Very common things that one, it 14:41 might not be your trigger, but we do know that it has an uh impact on intestinal permeability, 14:47 but like things like gluten and sugar and processed foods and additives and like all of those things 14:57 that really our body wasn't designed to be, the additives and preservatives um weren't 15:02 designed to be exposed to that way. Yes, and so a lot of times when I have patients come 15:07 in when they initially report gut symptoms, a lot of patients come in and immediately think 15:11 it's because I have a food allergy. That's what the problem is. And I always tell patients, 15:15 food allergies are only a piece of the puzzle and may not be the initial problem. If you 15:20 have gut dysbiosis, you have SIBO, you have increased intestinal permeability. That may 15:25 be the problem and may be causing food sensitivities. So I'll have a lot of patients who immediately 15:30 come in and say, I want food testing. And I discourage them from immediately doing food 15:34 testing. like, let's again, let's look at gut. Let's treat gut three to six months down the 15:39 road. Then we can look at food sensitivity. You need to remove that. I've seen so many 15:42 times people jump into food testing a little bit too soon where they haven't done any of 15:47 the work where everything becomes a red flag. Yeah. Instead of what's supposed to be like. 15:53 Yes. Your body's overreacting right now. You have to calm down. Otherwise, you're going 15:57 to get this report and it's going be like, oh. It's lit up like a Christmas tree. Yeah. Everything's 16:02 positive. can't do anything. Yes, you can. But we got to clean up first. And so it's a very 16:08 basic Timing and testing sounds important. Yes. It's a very basic concept that I explain to 16:12 patients when it comes to that is I always tell them, if you eat a food and you have a response, 16:17 you have bloating, you have acid reflux, you don't feel good, you have fatigue, brain fog. 16:21 then stop eating it. It's pretty simple. Yeah. I'll be the first to admit sometimes it's just 16:27 a little bit harder than it sounds. Okay. That's great. In your practice, what nutritional deficiencies 16:34 do you often uncover when the gut is impaired? I like this question. Yes. So this is a very 16:40 important question and this is chicken and egg again. it's, did your gut issues cause a nutritional 16:48 deficiency? or did your nutritional deficiency contribute to a gut problem? And sometimes 16:53 we don't have an answer for that, but you have to treat from both aspects. So what we do on 16:58 all new patients in our clinic is what we call our, it's basically a mini micronutrient test. 17:03 It's not as extensive as some of your specialty testing, but we look at things like zinc copper 17:08 balance. We look at vitamin B12 levels. We look at vitamin D levels. We look at ferrets in 17:13 levels. And even though you're not doing the big comprehensive, even those that small panel 17:18 just tells you a lot about the whole picture because if those are impacted, you can make 17:22 an assumption on the rest of the nutrients that you didn't test for yet. Correct. Well, 17:28 and I don't oftentimes check magnesium in patients because number one, most people are deficient 17:34 in magnesium. 80%. Yes, and so I don't... So, it's kind of safe to say it takes some magnesium. 17:41 Yes, it is safe to take some magnesium. But most patients are walking around deficient. 17:46 We know that if you are vitamin D deficient, you have to have magnesium on board for the 17:50 synthesis and processing of vitamin D. So I just put a patient on magnesium if they're 17:55 vitamin D deficient. And so we can make a lot of inferences from that very small basic panel. 18:00 And if I have a patient who they're deficient and all of that, I know whether they say they 18:06 have a gut problem or not, there is something gut at play. And it can be something as simple 18:11 as low stomach acid. And it could be something as major as they have chronic diarrhea and 18:16 they are now also infected maybe with something like a klepsiella or citrobacter that is completely 18:22 destroying the life. Absolutely. That is so important to know. And I think the connection 18:31 is important to know. Question for you, what role does the microbiome play in regulating 18:36 inflammation and metabolism? We know it has an impact, like, can you... go a little bit
Nutrient Deficiencies and the Microbiome 18:40 more. I think that's a big topic for a lot of our patients. One, inflammation, and then two, 18:46 metabolism. So inflammation kind of goes back to, that immune system lies in that gut. So 18:51 you're inflaming that mucosal lining. You're breaking it down. You're increasing intestinal 18:56 permeability. Now you have, again, molecules traveling through that membrane that should 19:00 not travel through, stimulating low-grade inflammation. So that's the inflammation side of things. 19:05 When it comes to the metabolic side of things, there's also a big process there. A lot of 19:08 your bacteria, your microbiome and your gut, play a role in production of certain bacterias 19:15 and also hormones. And so we have to kind of think of the correlation back to hormones. 19:19 So you actually have production of GLP-1s naturally in your gut. Acromansia is a great bacteria 19:24 that helps to promote your GLP-1 production naturally. So instead of having to get it from 19:29 an outside source, a GLP-1 injection, then you can look back at gut health and the correlation 19:34 to that. So that is an aspect of that. But you also think about the bio acid transformation 19:40 process that takes place in the body. If you don't have enough adequate bio acids, then 19:45 you're not going to break down the foods that you're in and you're going to get the right 19:49 nutrition and absorption. if your gut is also all over the place too, you might even if you 19:55 are digesting it, you might not even be absorbing it. oh Because you have little sensors on your 20:00 gut lining that are going to say and pick up what they need to. But when you have intestinal 20:05 permeability, those sensors are kind of damaged. They're not picking up, oh, I see a vitamin 20:09 D in there because now it's all open. And I'll say this too, you could have a healthy diet 20:15 and still have leaky gut. Correct. Right? Because leaky gut doesn't just mean what you're putting 20:19 in. if you're on medications or medications play a huge role. Even the environment plays 20:25 a role in it too, right? So you can have a healthy diet and chronic infection. Exactly. That all 20:31 impact the gut and leaky gut and even a piece of broccoli. If that gets through, right, that 20:36 can be a trigger. So you can have a great diet and still have all these triggers because of 20:41 intestinal permeability. And also intestinal permeability doesn't mean you're also absorbing 20:46 everything either because you don't have the appropriate receptors to pick up the micronutrients 20:52 that it needs to actually absorb into the cells. Wow, I felt really smart there for a second. 20:59 are some practical steps people can take right now to start improving gut health through diet 21:06 or lifestyle? So there's some very basic things that everybody can do and everybody can benefit 21:12 from whether you knowingly have a gut issue or not. Number one is diet. Diet is can't... 21:18 I always tell my weight loss patients, cannot out exercise a bad diet. You cannot, it's the 21:23 same concept with gut. You cannot eat poor and have good gut health. So I always tell patients 21:30 focusing in on looking at lean sources of meats, looking at a whole food plant-based diet, not 21:37 saying you have to be vegetarian, but really looking at good clean sources, organic sources. 21:42 I give all of my patients the clean 15 dirty dozen list when they come in. looking at 21:47 eliminating pesticides, insecticides right off the bat. Also making sure you're getting plenty 21:52 of healthy fats, making sure that you're consuming nuts are a great source of that, your fatty 21:58 fishes. Also making sure you're getting fiber. I get these patients who come in on these keto 22:03 carnivore diets. They're eating zero fiber and then they're like, well, I feel good. And 22:08 I'm like, but your gut is struggling. And if you do this long-term, you're causing more 22:12 damage than benefit that you're achieving. You need to be pooping every day. You have 22:18 to poop every day. And that's a question I ask every patient. How often do you go to the bathroom? 22:22 They're all like, oh, it's fine. I'm like, well, how often are you going? Yeah. But it might 22:26 not be here. It might not be. Yeah. The other things you have to think about are the correlation 22:30 with stress and sleep. we live in a very fast paced world. And we underestimate the importance 22:36 of sleep. I'm guilty of that myself. I think, well, I've got four hours. I feel OK. I'm fine. 22:41 But really we need to, our body resets and it heals and repairs over throughout sleep. And 22:47 if you are not getting adequate sleep, if you're under a lot of stress, you have elevated stress 22:52 hormones. We know that. And so those elevated stress hormones can actually disrupt the gut 22:58 microbiome. Yeah, it's almost like a signal to the gut to increase intestinal permeability. 23:03 Yes. I have a question. Yes. Why? If our body, if... this intestinal permeability, this leaky 23:10 gut where things can get through. Why does the body do it in the first place? Because obviously 23:14 right now our lifestyle is overreacting this response in the body. But it exists in the 23:22 body for a reason, more primal reason. Well, you got to think you have to have the transport 23:29 of your minerals and nutrients things that you want through molecules you want through that 23:33 gut membrane. But what happens is think of it like a sponge. The sponge gets too many holes
Practical Gut Health Steps and Common Myths 23:39 in it and things just start flowing through. You do not want that to happen. And so, you 23:45 know, I was again back to telling all of my patients I'm like the toxic world we live in. 23:50 Yeah, it's not the same world our grandparents lived in. Yeah. 40, 50, 60, 70 plus years ago, 23:56 we're exposed to so many more things. Even viruses, think about COVID pandemic. Look how fast 24:04 it wrapped around the entire globe. It was very, very rapid. That would not have happened 100 24:09 years ago. It would have been a much slower process. You look at the Spanish flu in the 24:13 early 1900s, took place over the course of a year to travel around the world, whereas 24:18 COVID traveled around the world in a matter of weeks. And that also kind of parlays into 24:24 the environmental impacts that are taking place in our bodies. Wow. Great. What are some common 24:31 myths or misconceptions about gut health that you'd like to clear up? So there are a couple 24:39 of big things that I look at. uh I'll get patients who come in. The one that always makes me laugh 24:45 is why I yogurt every day. I like that one. That one I tried not to snicker at, but I'm 24:51 like, you know, what kind of yogurt are you eating? If you're eating Yoplait off the shelf 24:57 and it's full of sugar, then you're not getting any benefit from that because the elevation 25:04 in the sugar is damaging to, again, the gut excess sugar. So you're just not getting the 25:10 benefit. And the nice thing is though, it's a simple swap with the right tools and resources. 25:15 Correct. Right? We had the right idea. let's make it the right step for us. So let's get 25:23 the like ice land. Make your kefir. Yes, thank you. the kefir. And you know, you need it to 25:28 be a little sweet or something like that. Add a little bit of raw natural sugars, raw honey, 25:33 a little bit of berries or something that has a little bit of fiber in it. Correct. and the 25:38 antioxidants. Correct. All the nice stuff. That's the one that makes me snicker the most. The 25:43 next is patients will come in. And they'll say, well, I Dr. So-and-so's detox I bought on 25:49 Amazon. And I'm just like, what you're getting is not what you think you're getting. You're 25:54 getting a lot of times fillers, you're getting cheap products. The label may not even be accurate 25:58 for what you think you're getting. And you really shouldn't be pooping your pants all day on 26:01 a cleanse. Correct. Right? like, it worked. Because it had a laxative in it. Yeah. Thank 26:09 you. I'm trying to find a way to say it eloquently, but... You pooped your pants all day, that 26:13 doesn't mean it worked. The way you think it worked. It did actually work. The way they 26:18 wanted it to work. And then that brings me into probiotics. Patients will say, I bought 26:23 Dr. So and So's probiotic off of, you know, I saw it on Dr. Oz or wherever. I always tell 26:28 patients, probiotics are not all created equal. What you're purchasing on some website somewhere 26:34 may not be, number one, it may not be the strain of bacteria you need. That's very individualized. 26:39 Again, back to stool testing, what are you missing? What do you need? But also, is it in the right 26:45 form? Meaning, can it make it through the digest? There has to be a delayed release capsule that 26:52 can bypass the gastric acid in the gut so it doesn't get digested. And if it doesn't make 26:58 it to the colon, it's not doing anything. It's gone. Bye. Yes, it is. so, you know, looking 27:04 at quality ingredients of the products that you are taking is a big factor in that. And 27:10 I always tell patients you have to look at quality over your quantity pricing situation. Absolutely. 27:16 Can you share a success story where gut focused care transformed a patient's health? Yes. So 27:23 I have one particular patient who she's an older lady. see both her and her husband. She's been 27:29 seeing GI for 20 years and They just kept telling her, let's do a colonoscopy. So she's had like 27:35 20 colonoscopies and they can never. does not sound fun. No, it's not at all. And she kept 27:43 saying that they just kept telling her she had IBS and just stop, do a low FODMAP diet and 27:49 you know, your symptoms. And so they wanted to keep putting her on an Imodium and some 27:53 things like that. So she came to see me and she was almost in tears at her first appointment 27:58 for GI. She said, I can't even go out to eat with my family anymore because I have to go 28:03 to the bathroom before I can even get to the car. Which for someone who's an older patient, 28:08 she's retired. She's very centered around her grandchildren and that sort of things. This 28:13 was detrimental for this lady. 100%. Absolutely. We did stool testing on her. found out she 28:19 also had... A husband at Chilz. Yes. She was post-menopausal, she had a thyroid condition. 28:25 So a lot of other things in the background you have to think about with gut health. And we 28:29 found out she had terrible pancreatic insufficiency. She had low stomach acid and she had SIBO. 28:35 So we were able. What's SIBO? Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. The basic way I explain
A Patient Success Story and Closing Thoughts 28:41 it to patients is a lot of times it's regurgitation from the large intestines into the small intestines. 28:46 Small intestines should be sterile. Perfect. Now it's not. Okay. Um, and so we were able 28:50 to put her on a protocol to treat the SIBO, but also to help normalize her stomach acid, 28:56 help with pancreatic function. for a follow up at six months, not long ago. And again, 29:00 she was almost in tears, but this time for the opposite. She said, I can go to a restaurant 29:05 with my family and then I can go to Hamrick's afterwards. She said, I don't have to rush 29:09 home anymore. And she said, I cannot tell you how life changing this last year. When I was 29:14 doing more health coaching, I was doing that for more like complex chronic illness and things 29:20 like that. And it was amazing. The volume of women I saw who were post retirement and trying 29:28 to live their best life after giving so, so much to their families and everything like 29:33 that. And it's their time to shine. And they were running so hard for so long that like 29:41 you said, the last resort, right? And being able to give that back to people, give them 29:49 so much of a better quality of life where they can enjoy what they worked so hard for is so 29:56 incredibly rewarding. It is, it is. And that's the reason I do what I do. Absolutely. That 30:02 was a beautiful story. And I hope that she does not have any more colonoscopies. Yes. at least 30:09 maybe a maintenance or an alien, whatever she needs for like She told me she was firing her 30:13 GI doctor after I was done with her. And the thing is, is that you partner really well with 30:19 collaborating practitioners because we don't do primary care. Right. Right. But this is 30:24 an opportunity for patients to, one, understand themselves a lot better, have somebody listen 30:31 to them and not just look at the labs, but then also become an advocate. Yes. For themselves. 30:37 Right, and I always, you know, not to downplay any other primary care specialty or anything 30:42 like that, but this is what I always tell patients. I approach that as a collaborative arrangement. 30:48 It has to I refer patients, you know, if I find something calprotectin is elevated on 30:52 a GI stool, they've got to see GI. They've got to have a scope because we have to look 30:57 for big things first. It takes a village. It does. And so, you know, if I have a patient 31:01 come in and they're having terrible acid reflux, this has been an ongoing issue. They didn't 31:05 endoscopy an upper. Yeah. So look to make sure there's not any varices, any barotesophagus, 31:10 things of that nature, anything structurally going on. So there's a time and a place for 31:15 both sides of things. Yeah. Well, I had such a great time talking to you today. It's really 31:22 clear that the gut is the foundation of the whole body. It is. Right? If you struggle with 31:28 fatigue, brain fog, autoimmune issues, or hormone imbalance, the root cause may start in the 31:34 gut and testing helps uncover hidden problems and with the right plan, healing the gut can 31:39 transform how you feel every day. Amanda, can you tell our listeners how they're going to 31:44 find you if they want to connect with you and see you in Greenville? So our office, like 31:50 I said, is in Greenville. You can look us up online, Forum Health, and then look specifically 31:54 for the Greenville office location. Thank you so much for joining us today. It was such a 31:58 pleasure to have you. I can't wait to invite you back to the podcast and talk more with 32:02 you. Guys, stay tuned for next week's episode. Amanda, it's been real. Thank you. Have a great 32:08 one. Bye. Thank you for joining us on the Forum Health Integrative Medicine podcast. Each 32:15 episode, we help you understand your health from every angle and inspire your lifelong 32:21 wellness journey. Follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope, leave a review, 32:27 and take the next step toward feeling your best at forumhealth.com.
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