Did you ever have a Gut check?
Maybe it is time
I received many replies to my last stack, about the conference I recently attended. The most common reply was to learn more about how Gut health can affect overall health. Let me tell you I did not learn this in medical school. I learned more about Gut health and how it affects overall health and wellness from my Functional medicine training and fellowship.
So today I think the best way to approach understanding this topic is to take a trip thru the Gut, aka the GI track, or is it GI tract? I get confused at times but I think they both work.
The Gut or GI tract actually begins in the mouth (the In-Hole). Technically the Gut is a tube that while it is inside or within the body, its contents are actually considered outside our body. This is similar to if you put a straw straight through a corn dog. The inner part of the straw or lumen contents are not part of the corn dog. The contents within the straw or lumen really just pass thru the corn dog from one end or opening to the other end or opening. Think of it like an In-Hole and an Out-Hole. No jokes please!!! Everything within the In and Out Holes are outside of the body. You could see this better if you try it at home but that would involve getting a corn dog and a tough sharp straw. I suggest you avoid corn (99+% GMO and a grainy carb) as it is not good for you and perhaps avoid straws as well. Besides, they don't make straws like they used to. Remember those good ole plastic straws?? They went the way of the Dodo bird and plastic and paper bags. Am I showing my age mentioning the Dodo bird? Perhaps they are not extinct??
Ok, where was I?
Oh yeah, the Gut starts in the mouth (In-Hole) where chewing and enzymes in saliva start breaking down food. We swallow the mashed and ground up food down thru our esophagus (food pipe). If we miss we swallow it down our trachea (air pipe) and into our lungs. This is called aspiration. DON'T DO THAT AT HOME, or anywhere for that matter unless you want the Heimlich maneuver applied to you. Food aspiration can lead to problems such as choking, ER visits and even aspiration pneumonia. Not fun.
After the broken down food gets thru the esophagus it lands in the stomach, an acid filled organ that further helps break down the food into even smaller parts before it gets to the next place, the small intestines. Some issues that can occur if this step does not work properly include GERD (Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease), Ulcers, Dyspepsia, H.Pylori overgrowth, etc. Some people especially as they age don't make enough stomach acid, do not break down their food well enough and end up with nutritional deficiencies in protein and vitamins, including B12. So it's really about balance in the stomach and always keeping food moving in the forward direction and not backwards or refluxing.
The small intestine composed of the duodenum, jejunum and ileum are where these small food particles are further broken down by digestive enzymes and mixed with bile (from the liver produced by my favorite substance CHOLESTEROL) so it can now be more easily absorbed into the body for use somewhere. These absorbed contents are supposed to first pass thru the liver for detoxification and processing (First Pass Liver Metabolism) before getting into the blood. So you need a well functioning liver to detoxify and then package nutrients to move thru the body. Guess what the liver uses to move fat soluble nutrients thru the bloodstream? It uses something called lipoproteins composed partly of my favorite substance CHOLESTEROL. Some issues that can occur if this step does not work properly include SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth), Leaky Gut, Pancreatic insufficiency, Gall stones, Crohn’s disease, Fatty liver, Cirrhosis, Dysbiosis to name just a few.
What’s left after the small intestine then passes thru the large intestine otherwise known as the colon which also includes the rectum and anus (the Out-Hole). The colon helps reabsorb water and minerals. Your stool starts out liquidy at the beginning of the colon and hopefully becomes a normal more solid consistency stool on the way out. Some issues that can occur if this step does not work properly include Diarrhea, Constipation, IBS-C, IBS-D, Colon/Rectal cancer, Colon polyps, Hemorrhoids, Ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, Appendicitis, Diverticulitis, Dysbiosis and I am sure many other conditions.
Soooo, food actually takes quite a trip thru our Gut but luckily our body has evolved to be able to make this trip daily without the need for a travel agent. If everything works correctly it’s a one way route from start (In-Hole) to finish (Out-Hole), so no navigation system is needed. Yes siree, our Gut evolved to not need Mapquest. But if things get overcrowded, swollen, infected, backed up or filled with not nice things such as toxins or bad bacteria/bugs (dysbiosis), well, that’s when the Gut can go rogue and not always in a fun or healthy way.
So that is the overview of your Gut.
Time for a meal break.
My Organic Grass Fed Ribeye last night with some sauteed onions. #Delicious
I'm back.
The most common Gut issues discussed at Conference include SIBO, Leaky Gut and Dysbiosis. Probably about 20 years ago these diagnoses were mostly functional as the traditional healthcare system scoffed at them. Of course now the traditionalists don’t remember scoffing at them and say they always believed in them. The traditional system can have a short memory but that is OK. As long as they are learning and moving forward, that is what is important.
Second meal break.
Scrambled eggs are one of my favorite LowCarb-Keto-Carnivorish meals. Inexpensive and so easy to make.
“What starts out as Holistic or Functional usually becomes Traditional in a few years time”.
So at Conference I was presented with further information on some testing to better evaluate your Gut, different from traditional testing. I will mention them here. Both are from Precision Point Diagnostics Lab. They offer many tests but there are two that piqued my interest.
They offer the P88 Food Allergy and Sensitivity test- this test does what it’s name implies and evaluates food allergies/sensitivities and can be used to help you change your diet to one less reactive.
They also offer a Small Intestinal Barrier Assessment test which looks for markers of Leaky Gut and immune inflammatory reactions as well as markers of excess Histamine which could also be Mast Cell issues (MCAS). Of great interest to me, dysfunction here can be associated with metabolic imbalances that can lead to fatty liver which can then lead to overweight, obesity, diabetes, cirrhosis, and much more you don’t want. You know one of my biggest interests is in reducing metabolic disease. Here is a test that could help us find causes of Metabolic disease and Fatty Liver other than just the dietary carbs.
What is nice is that if your results are not as good as they should be, we do have some newer functional protocols to help re-balance those areas so they work for you instead of against you. It involves cleaning up your diet as well as some other nutrients and supplements.
FYI
The Gut works best if each part of the system works as it should. When one part is not working well, it can effect everything that comes after. If you don’t chew your food up well before swallowing, your stomach has a more difficult time doing it’s part. So do as your mother told you and chew your food well.
If you don’t have enough acid in your stomach, you won’t break down your food as much so it might remain in your stomach longer and cause problems such as reflux and bloating. If you have too much acid you could also have acid reflux or even an ulcer.
If your small intestine gets inflamed it does not process the food as well which can mess up absorption of nutrients leading to malabsorption issues, SIBO, bloating, and Celiac disease. You could also end up with dysbiosis in your small or large intestine.
Dr. Sabine Hazan wrote a book, “Let’s Talk Shit”, that if you are further interested in this topic, you should read.
If your colon does not work well you can end up with diarrhea, constipation, hemorrhoids, polyps, dysbiosis….
These are only some of the issues you get with a malfunctioning gut. I didn’t even mention how the gut and brain talk to each other and the gut can be responsible for mood disorders, anxiety, depression, migraines etc. Well I guess I just did mention that. The gut is also where over 70% of our immune system resides so a messed up gut can mess up our immune system function elsewhere.
Gut health is extremely important. So maybe you should go back to the beginning and reread this stack again. I said a mouthful and it just might help to read it again. Try and figure out if your gut is working in a healthy manner. If not, perhaps we can help re-balance it to improve your journey towards optimal health.
Did you ever have a Gut check?
Maybe it is time??
I find this topic to be very interesting. How are gut checks done?
Ok, if we are going to want to keep a healthy gut biome nice and fed, we are going to need some starch and fibre sometimes. Again, let’s not oversimplify things with a generic statement, that all carbohydrates are bad.