Digestion Naturopath

1. Food reactions-Sensitivities, Allergies and Intolerances 

After you eat something your are sensitive to you should get constipation, loose bowels, reflux or bloating, right? Wrong! These may not be evident immediately hence this is why they are often overlooked. Clinically, we organise pathology testing for almost every patient and unsurprisingly most have reactions to foods that they are commonly eating. These foods have the potential to activate the "hypersensitive" part of your immune system, damage the gut lining and this cause irritation and lowered nutrient absorption. Sometimes an intolerance response can happen well after you have consumed the food making it tricky to identify.

2. Microbial imbalance

Bacterias, fungi, viruses, parasites could all potentially be causing your symptoms. Simple functional stool testing is able to give us a clear view of the level of "good functional" bacteria and pathogenic microbes that are living in your gut. You have trillions of bacterias in your gut and they can easily become imbalanced. Many people have imbalanced gut flora and have minimal symptoms. Our gut health naturopaths are experienced and trained in analysing a variety of stool tests.

A condition known as small intestinal dysbiosis (or SIBO) is characterised by excess bloating usually caused by an imbalance in bacteria. There are bacterias that help with the breakdown of  carbohydrate, some fibres and others protein. When there is not enough of the "good guys" in there you will experience increased gas, reflux and bloating because the other bacterias will ferment your food and produce gas. Fatigue, foggy mind, irritation and poor motivation can be secondary symptoms of SIBO. There are tests that can determine the level of SIBO. If the food is not being broken down properly in the small intestines the large intestines have too much work places on them and hence Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) may develop. The role of bacterial imbalance in IBS and SIBO is very well documented and recognised in both Naturopathic and Conventional Medicine.

3. The Gut : Brain Connection

When you are exposed to stress, trauma or illness your bodies hormones cortisol and adrenaline become out of balance. This greatly influences bowel movements as it can cause damage to the cells that line the gut. We know the feeling of "butterflies" in the tummy or nausea when we are nervous so we know there is a gut:brain connection. When you are stressed your body is unable to heal properly and digest food efficiently.

To have a happy mind you need to have a happy gut!  In an article I was reading Dr Gershon, from University of Columbia, states that 95% of serotonin is made in your gut, this is your happy, feel good neurotransmitter! 

4. Nutrients

For many people this is a tricky one to navigate, they feel deficient in nutrients, without enough nutrients the gut cant heal efficiently, thus they wont absorb nutrients efficiently and thus the cycle continues. It is important to assess nutrient status in the body, dietary nutrient intake and possibly nutrient absorption. An IWC gut health naturopath can organise pathology testing to work out if you are deficient and if you are then supplement and/or boost your dietary intake.

5. Hormones

Hormones can strongly influence gut function. And gut function can affect hormones. Excess of certain hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline and oestrogen can affect gut motility (movements) and integrity. Prolonged stress is known to affect these hormones which can throw out the balance of bacteria flora. Cortisol in particular alters the way the gut functions, this is the hormone released during stress. At times, our gut health naturopaths may need to offer herbal medicine to help you sleep better and cope with stress better.

Our approach is tried and tested.

We work with YOU to tackle the symptoms as well as identify the underlying causes to work at repairing.