Have you ever wondered why so many seemingly unrelated health issues—like hormonal acne, period pain, fatigue, and digestive troubles—often appear together? The answer lies in the intricate relationship between your gut and your hormones. From processing nutrients essential for hormone production to eliminating excess oestrogen, your gut plays a pivotal role in keeping your hormones balanced.

In this post, I’ll explore how nurturing your gut can be the key to unlocking better hormonal health and overall well-being.

How Gut Health Influences Hormones

1. Microbiome and Hormonal Metabolism
   Your gut microbiota—the ecosystem of bacteria in your digestive tract—plays a critical role in regulating hormones. Specific bacteria in the microbiome metabolize and recycle hormones like oestrogen through the “oestrobolome.” An imbalanced microbiome, or dysbiosis, can lead to excess estrogen recirculation, increasing the risk of PMS, endometriosis, and estrogen-dominant conditions.
2. Nutrient Absorption
   The gut is responsible for absorbing key nutrients (like B vitamins, zinc, and magnesium) required for hormone production. Altered absorption can lead to deficiencies of these nutrients which are vital for healthy hormone balance.
3. Oestrogen Detoxification
   It also helps eliminate excess hormones, such as estrogen, through bowel movements. Issues like constipation or dysbiosis may reintroduce excess hormones into circulation, exacerbating imbalances.
4. Stress and the Gut-Brain Axis
   This connection goes both ways, as gut issues can affect stress hormones due to the role of the gut bacteria in production of neurotransmitters and cortisol levels. Chronic stress impacts your gut lining and microbiome diversity, impairing digestion and increasing inflammation. This can disrupt adrenal hormones, leading to fatigue, poor sleep, and heightened PMS symptoms. It’s a vicious cycle.
5. Histamine and Ovarian Activity
   Dysbiosis can cause an overproduction of histamine, a compound involved in immune and allergic responses but also strongly involved in conditions like endometriosis and IBS. High histamine levels can stimulate the ovaries to produce more estrogen, exacerbating conditions like oestrogen dominance and premenstrual symptoms.

Signs Your Gut and Hormones Are Out of Sync

• Persistent digestive issues (bloating, constipation, reflux, nausea, poor appetite or diarrhea).
• Hormonal symptoms like acne, mood swings, or irregular periods.
• Low energy or brain fog that doesn’t improve with sleep or rest.
• Skin conditions such as eczema, acne or easy welting.

Steps to Support Your Gut and Hormonal Health

• Dietary Choices
  • Incorporate fibre-rich foods (vegetables, legumes, and whole grains) to feed healthy bacteria.
  • Add fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, and kefir, which provide beneficial probiotics (not as much of this if you have histamine issues).
  • Have a variety of plant foods to help provide beneficial nutritional compounds and a variety of fibre types, which reduces inflammation in the gut and supports microbiome diversity.
  • Limit inflammatory foods, including sugar, alcohol, and processed items, to reduce systemic inflammation
• Supplement Strategically
  • Use strain-specific probiotics that are specific to your health concerns to support gut diversity and hormone metabolism. Consult a naturopath to find the right strains for your needs.
• Feed the gut bugs
  • Specific prebiotic fibres can help to reduce the overgrowth of bacteria which impair oestrogen detoxification.
  • Glucomman, found in konjac noodles are helpful in reducing betaglucoradinase.
  • PHGG is a low fodmap prebiotic fibre that is a good allrounder, helping to regulate bowel motions and supporting microbiome balance.
• Stress Management
  • Chronic stress and poor sleep disrupt the gut-brain axis, which can dysregulate hormones. Incorporate stress-reduction techniques like yoga, meditation, or gentle walks to calm the nervous system
• Hydration and Gentle Detoxification
  • Drinking sufficient water supports bowel regularity and toxin elimination. Simple rituals like starting the day with warm water and lemon or apple cider vinegar can enhance digestion.
  • Adequate fibre and water helps with regular bowel motions which is important because you need regular bowel motions to support oestrogen detoxification and clearance.
• Restorative Practices
  • Improve sleep to regulate cortisol and support nightly hormone repair.
  • Incorporate gentle, restorative exercise, such as walking or pilates, to avoid over-stressing the adrenals.

Long-Term Benefits

Balancing your gut is the foundation for hormonal health. By addressing digestive issues, supporting your microbiome, and managing inflammation, you can improve symptoms such as period irregularities, skin problems, and fatigue.

By healing your gut, you’re not only improving digestion but also empowering your body to regulate hormones naturally. Balanced hormones mean better skin, more energy, fewer mood swings, better hormone balance.

Supporting your gut is a long-term investment in your health. By adopting these practices and seeking personalized care from a naturopath, you can achieve better balance and resilience in both your gut and hormones.

Disclosure: Links to products are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.

The post The Connection Between Your Gut and Hormonal Health appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

It’s becoming more common nowadays for people to be intolerant or allergic to certain foods, and while some may disregard this concept as a fad, a cry for attention or perhaps an attempt at being trendy – food intolerances really do exist. Improperly managed they can cause a wide variety of symptoms that can be extremely uncomfortable and can significantly affect your quality of life.

It is estimated that one-fifth of the population believe that they have a food intolerance. (1) Many people with food intolerances know that there is a food that is disagreeing with them, but they can’t quite put their finger on what it is. Sometimes there’s a reaction and sometimes there isn’t, it all seems so vague and confusing that it’s easier just to throw your hands up, give in and eat whatever (or practically nothing, as some people chose to do).

If you suspect that you’ve got a food enemy, this article will hopefully show you some of the avenues that you can investigate to find what it is that you’re reacting to, and what you can do about it.

Food allergies are a reaction by the immune system to a specific part of a food, usually one of the protein components.  Symptoms of food allergies can include hives, swelling around the mouth, rashes and/or vomiting.  The worst case scenario is an anaphylactic reaction, which can be life threatening.  Food allergies do not disappear and are usually present from birth. Most commonly these reactions are to foods such as peanuts, cow’s milk, egg, tree nuts, soy, fish and shellfish, however it’s possible to be allergic to anything (1).

At this point of time there isn’t much we can do about it except for avoid the foods and be ready to administer first aid should exposure occur.

There is however, some hope for future treatment for allergy sufferers. A recent trial by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute found that use of a certain strain of probiotics was able to reduce peanut allergy in 23 out of the 28 children studied. This is only a small study so far, so it’s unlikely that this will be a widely accepted treatment for a while to come, and it’s not recommended to try this at home due to the life-threatening nature of these allergies, however it does highlight the importance of keeping your gut healthy and also provides some hope. (2)

Recognising the difference between an allergy and an intolerance is important, as the incorrect use of these terms is often what leads to the general confusion about the whole area.

Food intolerances are reactions to foods that are not classed as an allergy. In some instances it can be due to a lack of enzyme such as in lactose intolerance, and in others it can be due to a reaction from the IgG or IgA immune cells. Unlike fructose malabsorption and coeliac disease, this is not a widely accepted phenomena and research into this area is still in its infancy.

Food intolerances are usually developed as a result of gut flora imbalances and/or damage to the lining of the digestive system (often referred to as intestinal permeability, or leaky gut) however they can occur when a food is regularly consumed in large quantities (3) (4).

Food intolerances are not life threatening like an allergy, and the symptoms that can occur from eating something you are intolerant to are usually digestive (bloating, heartburn, diarrhoea, constipation, cramping and gas) however if you’re eating food intolerances too frequently then it can create symptoms elsewhere in the body that are less likely to be related to food (1). These include brain fog, headaches, mood swings or weight gain.  Food intolerance symptoms are often delayed in their onset (they can come on 48 hours after eating) which means they are much harder to identify as the culprit for your symptoms.

Fructose malabsorption can be a common issue for many people with digestive complaints, especially bloating, pain and diarrhoea.  It is estimated that up to 70% of people with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) have fructose malabsorption (5).  The diet to manage this is known as the FODMAP diet.

The FODMAP diet was originally developed by Dr Sue Shepherd, an Australian dietician. She has proven, through her pioneering PhD research, that limiting dietary FODMAPs is an effective treatment for people with symptoms of IBS. Several research papers have confirmed her work and so this diet has become better known in the last few years, even being accepted overseas.

Fructose is a naturally occurring sugar found in certain fruits and vegetables, and in some people this sugar cannot be effectively processed in the small intestine.  As a result it is left to ferment, which can cause bloating, diarrhoea and/or constipation, flatulence, stomach pain, and even mood imbalances (6).

As wheat contains FODMAPs, some people attribute non-coeliac reactions to gluten to fructose malabsorption.

It is important to remember that high FODMAPs foods are not always the only culprit for IBS symptoms.  Consider being aware of your reaction to fatty foods, caffeine, alcohol, fibre (excess or lack of), medications and stress, which may also influence your symptoms. Hormonal problems and bacterial imbalances can also be responsible.

Contributing factors towards the development of fructose malabsorption include:

• Diabetes (especially type 2)
• Diets that are high GI (glycaemic index)
• Stress
• Certain medications including Corticosteroids and Metformin
• Digestive damage from excessive alcohol, smoking and other factors

As you can see from the above list, fructose malabsorption is likely to occur from poor blood sugar regulation and digestive damage – commonly seen in inflammatory bowel disorders such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (6).

Diagnosis

Fructose malabsorption can be diagnosed using a hydrogen breath test, which recognises unabsorbed fructose.

The FODMAP elimination and challenge diet is also a way of determining whether you react to FODMAPS, and narrowing down what types and how much. The FODMAP diet is very strict, so it’s not a long term solution but rather a means to identify which foods in this group you are reactive to.

The FODMAP diet

FODMAPs are found in the following foods:

• Fermentable Oligosaccharides (e.g. Fructans and Galactans)
• Disaccharides (e.g. Lactose)
• Monosaccharides (e.g. excess Fructose)
• And
• Polyols (e.g. Sorbitol, Mannitol, Maltitol, Xylitol and Isomalt)

The list of foods that are to be avoided in a full FODMAP diet is rather large, but it includes a lot of fruits, honey and some other sweeteners, wheat products, most dairy sources, soy milk, legumes, and certain vegetables including garlic, onion, mushrooms and asparagus (8).

Chemical sensitivies.

There are a number of substances that are naturally contained in foods which can cause reactions in some people, including rashes, headaches, fatigue, digestive symptoms, hyperactivity and irritability. The main food chemicals which can cause symptoms are salicylates, amines and MSG.

Salicylates can be found in a wide range of fruit (especially in unripened fruit) and vegetables (more concentrated in the outer leaves), as well as nuts, herbs and spices, jams, honey, yeast extracts, tea, coffee, bear and wines. Aspirin also contains salicylates.

Amines are high in foods such as deli meats (salami, bacon, ham, frankfurts), tinned fish and tinned meats, tomato paste and pasta sauces. They are also present in cheese, chocolate, wines, beer and yeast extracts.

MSG (monosodium glutamate) is well known for the reactions it can cause, particular when used as a flavour enhancer in some Asian cooking, soups, sauces and packaged snack foods. It is also found in high amounts naturally in some foods such as tomatoes, blue and parmesan cheese, mushrooms, broccoli and some meat and yeast extracts.

Sulphites can cause a worsening of asthma symptoms, headaches and fatigue. The food additives to watch out for in this category are the numbers E220 – E224, E226 and E227. They are found in a lot of dried fruits, packaged salads and fruit salads, some dried foods such as garlic, ginger, potatoes, soft drinks and fruit drinks, pickles, sauerkraut and corn syrup. People who are very sensitive to sulphites may benefit from increasing their intake of the mineral molybdenum.

Histamine intolerance often mimics the symptoms of a food allergy, however it is an inflammatory reaction caused by an impaired ability to breakdown the chemical histamine, which is naturally present in many foods. Symptoms of histamine excess include hives and itching, racing pulse, anxiety, swelling of the face and throat, runny nose, conjunctivitis, headaches, digestive upset, fatigue, confusion and irritability. This problem is often developed after some form of disruption to the digestive system, usually an infection or course of antibiotics, but can also be triggered by stress and other digestive problems. Some medications such as painkillers, asthma medications and sleeping medications can also interfere with the enzymes that process histamine. Methylation problems can also affect histamine levels, and people who are in this category are more likely to experience mood disorders such as depression and OCD. Some of the main food triggers include red wine, fish (unless very fresh), smoked, processed or fermented meats, left-over foods, most cheeses, citrus fruits, pineapple, raspberries, prunes, tomatoes and tomato products, spinach, red beans, eggplant, olives, pumpkin, pickles and relishes, chocolate, soy sauce, most alcohol drinks and tea. (9) (10)

Coeliac disease

is one of the most well known forms of food intolerances, first discovered in the 1950s it was originally thought to only be a childhood disorder. The prevalence of this condition is increasing, however it is thought that there are many people with this condition who are still undiagnosed.

It is not an allergy or sensitivity, but rather an autoimmune reaction to gluten, which is often genetically inherited.  In people with coeliac disease the immune system causes severe damage to the cells of the small intestine, which causes digestive symptoms and significantly impacts on the absorption of nutrients, resulting in nutritional deficiencies. At a microscopic level, your digestive lining should be coated in hair like protrusions called vili – essentially it looks like a shag pile rug – and this creates lots of surface area to absorb nutrients. When damage has occurred in people with coeliac disease, these vili become flattened and fried, resulting in malabsorption problems.

Diarrhoea, cramping, bloating and constipation can be caused by celiac disease. However not everyone with coeliac disease experiences digestive problems, and so it can go undiagnosed for a long period of time, wreaking havoc in secret. Fertility issues, anaemia, osteomalacia, osteoporosis, autoimmune problems and mood disorders can all be related to undiagnosed coeliac disease (11) (12) (13).

Having the gene for coeliac disease does not automatically mean that you have the condition, but you cannot have coeliac disease without having the gene for it.

If you suspect that you have coeliac disease but have been avoiding gluten, then you can get yourself tested for the coeliac genes first.  If you do have the genes, you will need to eat gluten containing foods for 6-8 weeks before doing the antibody tests (as these would not be accurate without having eating gluten previously).  This will confirm whether you have coeliac disease or not. In some cases your doctor may refer you to get a biopsy performed, which is considered to be the most conclusive diagnosis.

Many people who are avoiding gluten have not been adequately screened for coeliac disease before commencing a gluten free diet and so coeliac disease often goes undetected (14).

In people with gluten intolerance/sensitivity or fructose malabsorption they can often handful small amounts of gluten with experiencing problems, however with coeliac disease you might get away without experiencing symptoms, but the damage to the vili will always happen. This means that having the diagnosis of coeliac disease gives you the knowledge of whether you need to be 100% strict with gluten avoidance or not.

Some ways to make life easier for yourself:

It can be very overwhelming and stressful to get a diagnosis of a food intolerance or allergy, particularly if it is a common food such as wheat or dairy. Thankfully due to the magic of the internet there is more help than ever for people trying to manage their diet around food intolerances.

Join a support group. There are plenty of Facebook groups and online forums dedicated to specific food intolerances, and often the people in these groups have done plenty of research so will be able to share resources and recipes with you.

Research food substitutions. Instead of giving your favourite recipes the flick, try substituting ingredients you can’t have for foods which will create a similar effect. For example, eggs, which are commonly used to bind dishes can be replaced with a little corn meal or extra kneading; cheese can be replaced with ‘vegan cheese’ which is often made with cashews and nutritional yeast; cow’s milk can be replaced with oat, nut or seed milks and wheat flour can be replaced with several gluten free flour options. Keep your pantry stocked with these and that way you won’t be disappointed if you get a whim for cooking a particular dish.

Plan your meals in advance. Meal planning and prepping can make life easier for everyone, but especially so for those dealing with food intolerances. Create a list of meals that you can have and rotate through these. Try a new recipe each week and eventually you will have a big repertoire of recipes that you are familiar with.

Call ahead. If you’re going out to eat, call ahead and advise of any food intolerances so that the kitchen can have options prepared.  It can be a good idea to ask if they’re okay for you to bring your own gluten free bread or milk alternative.

Educate your friends and family. Share this article and other information with friends and family who might be struggling to understand, and discuss with them what foods you can and can’t handle and how much you can tolerate, if any. Most people will be happy to accommodate your requirements as long as they understand.

You may be interested in:

Ultra low histamine 4-week meal plan and recipe eBook

Low Salicylate Meal Plan (one week)

Bread or Dead by Allison Jones

Coeliac Disease; How to take control of your health and healing your gut with herbs.

Works Cited

The post The Many Faces of Food Intolerance appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

Guts & Girl Bits – Episode 45 with Kirsten Greene

I’m so excited to share this episode with you all because SIBO is a condition I have been seeing a lot in clinic, and so I am thrilled to share this deep dive into SIBO with you.

Kirsten Greene (previously Swales) is a Naturopath who loves working with all this digestion, especially SIBO. She shares helpful tips of how to work through SIBO and also her own journey with this condition.

SIBO, also known as Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth is a condition that can contribute to a wide variety of symptoms, but some of the classic signs that this may be something to consider include:

• Bloating, especially soon after eating
• Diarrhoea, or Constipation
• Wind (Farting, Burping)
• Stomach pain
• Food sensitivities – especially the fodmap group
• other inflammatory conditions that you can’t pinpoint the cause

In this episode Kirsten shares information about:

• What is SIBO
• Her personal journey with SIBO
• How to test for SIBO
• How to treat SIBO, and how to target treatment based on whether you have a dominance of methane or hydrogen bacteria
• How to support digestive health while healing from SIBO
• What is hydrogen sulphide SIBO?
• Other forms of microbial imbalance: LIBO, and SIFO
• Strep infections and SIBO, and how your dental health can impact SIBO
• Biofilms and SIBO
• What are some common mistakes that people make when trying to treat themselves from SIBO?

The Podcast

Have a listen here or on the embedded player below:

iPhone   Stitcher   Youtube   Soundcloud  Spotify 

Get in touch with Kirsten

Kirsten Greene (previously Swales) has been a practicing Naturopath, Nutritionist and Western Medical Herbalist for the past seven years, and specialises in working with clients who have SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth).

Kirsten has worked in Australia, South Africa and Europe and consults with clients worldwide online.
Originally from South Africa, trained and qualified in Australia, Kirsten is a practicing member of Naturopaths and Herbalists Association of Australia and now calls Bali, Indonesia home.

Kirsten has worked in Australia, South Africa and Europe and consults with clients worldwide online.
Originally from South Africa, trained and qualified in Australia, Kirsten is a practising member of Naturopaths and Herbalists Association of Australia and now calls Bali, Indonesia home.

Her primary focus is helping women heal their digestive issues so they can enjoy a loving relationship with their body and food, and for some, so that they may feel “normal”, sometimes for the first time in their lives.

Having been through SIBO and suffering digestion issues herself for years, Kirsten is super passionate in this area and can relate to what her clients are going through.
SIBO free to this day, Kirsten has gone from living with an extreme fear of food due to bloating, weight gain and discomfort, to having a healthy, functioning digestive system and sound relationship with all food.
This is what she wants this for all other SIBO sufferers too.

Connect with Kirsten:
www.kirstenswales.com/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/kirsten.greene.nd/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/kirstenswalesnaturopath/
Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCjgjfDxqujHARmLtuf3Dpug

Kirsten’s Online Course: www.kirstenswales.com/online-course/

Podcast Transcript

Alison Mitchell 0:08
Hi everyone, you’re listening to Guts and Girl Bits. I’m Alison Mitchell, a practicing Naturopath. I hope to share with you all sorts of information about women’s health and digestive health to educate and empower you to make informed choices about your own health. Please remember that all information is general and does not replace consulting with the practitioner.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to guts and girl bits. Today, I’ll be talking with a fellow naturopath. All About SIBO! SIBO, also known as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth is something that is affecting so many people and causing all sorts of tummy troubles. So I love working with people with digestive stuff, hence the name of this podcast, guts and girl bits and I’m really excited to share this information because Something that I’ve been talking about to a lot of my patients about SIBO and finding there’s heaps of people out there that are like ‘What? What is SIBO?’

So this podcast is awesome because my guest is extremely, extremely knowledgeable about SIBO. She has been through the process of healing herself, of SIBO and has helped countless people in their own journeys with the SIBO as well. We talk about what is SIBO? How does it come about? What are some of the testing options? What can we do to treat it, including different options with medicines from doctors like certain anti biotics as well as different herbal options, and we talk about, you know, do we use probiotics? And if you do, what sort do we use? We talked about the different diet options because there’s so much information out there. And what are the common mistakes that people make when trying to treat themselves for SIBO? And how long should we wait expect to get better.

So my guest is the amazing Kirsten Swales (Greene). She has been a practicing naturopath, nutritionist and Western medical herbalist for the past seven years. And she specializes in working with clients who have SIBO. She’s worked in Australia in South Africa and Europe and she consults with clients worldwide online. She’s originally from South Africa, but she’s trained and qualified here in Australia. And she now calls Bali Indonesia home. So her primary focus is helping women to heal their digestive issues so that they can enjoy a loving relationship with their body and food emphasizes that they might feel normal sometimes for the first time in their lives. Having been through SIBO and suffering digestion issues herself for years because it’s super passionate in this area, and can relate to what her clients are going through. Having been SIBO free to this day. Kirsten has gone from living with an extreme fee of food due to bloating rates. pain and discomfort to having a healthy functioning digestive system and a sound relationship with food. And that is what she wants for all other SIBO sufferers to have as well. Kirsten is so generous with her knowledge. And she has shared so much amazing content in this podcast. I was like wow Kirsten you are giving gold. So I’m really excited for you to listen to anyone that has been diagnosed with SIBO or suspects that they have SIBO or even if they just have some health issues that they haven’t quite been able to get to the bottom of have a listen to this episode because as we talked about SIBO is linked to so many other things in the body and it’s actually not a forever Doom diagnosis you can get better. So thank you for listening. I hope you enjoy!

Hi, Kirsten, thank you so much for joining me today.

Kirsten Greene 4:03
Thanks, Alison. Thanks for having me.

Alison Mitchell 4:06
Yay. So I’m so excited to have you here to talk about all things SIBO, because this is just a topic that I’m seeing so much more of, I think is becoming so much more common as well. And many people don’t know much about it, but it’s one of those hidden issues, isn’t it? Like, you know, if in doubt, look for SIBO in terms of gut health do you think that’s right?

Kirsten Greene 4:32
Definitely. And it’s just it’s been around I’ve found references in the studies from like the 1800s. But only recently has it been getting that awareness and it’s so so so common, and it’s something that is fixable, so I get really excited about it.

Alison Mitchell 4:47
Yeah, I love that you start with that it’s fixable because it is isn’t there then so many people like ‘oh no have I got this forever?

Kirsten Greene 4:56
Yeah, where sometimes people get tell they just have IBS, and it’s given what’s causing your IBS, and then this is something that causes it and you can get to the bottom. Mm

Alison Mitchell 5:05
hmm. You know, that’s so common, isn’t it? IBS? Oh, I’ve got IBS. That’s the answer. So I have to eat this particular diet or take this drug for the rest of my life. And it’s like, no. Oh, you don’t? So I’m really fascinated to know, how did you get into this career path?

Kirsten Greene 5:28
So I think like most naturopaths it comes from a desire to fix ourselves. I had issues most of my life, and I got a bit of a joke that I probably popped out the womb on a digestive back foot. my mom said I was a very colicky baby. And then I was always just aware that digestion was not so much digestion. I was always just aware that food was a bit of an issue for me. So I was often hungrier than I seemed. compared to most of my friends. I struggled with gaining weight really quickly, except now that I know that I want to know It wasn’t that I was getting fat, I was just getting bloated. So I just came to believe that it was normal that every time I put food into my stomach that it would puff out. That’s actually not normal. That’s not meant to happen. So i was constantly trying all these different things to just feel better than I did for any new diet that came along. I would try to eat one thing diet, I would try eat cabbage diet, I would try the Atkins diet just so I could feel better. And I maybe did feel better in the moment, but it would always just rebound. And I often feel a bit worse than when I first started. So that was always a thing for me. And when I travel quite a lot in my early 20s and then run by the age of 24. I decided I was going to study something and it just happened to be a trade remedial massage because I like people I like working with people and this was an area that fascinated me. So it always been into natural stuff and how this can help us without hurting ourselves and then didn’t even know what a naturopath was but the college that I was studying at in Australia had a naturopathy course, a nutrition course, had a homeopathy course. And then we go home and with my friend, we had that prospectus in our hand, and we were googling these names meant because we didn’t even know. But just before the course started, there was a lecturer giving a talk on introduction to naturopathy and I thought. Oh, my goodness, this is it. So walked out of that room into the registers to my course and haven’t looked back since. So I’m so so grateful for all the issues that I’ve had myself, even though they were so horrible, but it led me to where I am. And if I had to do it all over again, I totally would, I’m so grateful.

Alison Mitchell 7:37
Yeah, I guess that has given you that real empathy that so many people really need from their carer as well. Mm hmm.

Kirsten Greene 7:45
Yeah. I can totally understand because I probably had all the symptoms that they’ve had themselves. Yeah.

Alison Mitchell 7:53
Hence the passion for digestion. Right. So is that what people mostly come to see for for digestion, Or are people coming to see you for other things as well?

Kirsten Greene 8:04
Definitely digestion. And so now I focus. I specialize in SIBO specifically. So I myself had SIBO back in 2016. And since then that’s really, really been my focus. So I know inside out and I get so much joy from helping other people with it. So they come to me with SIBO. Sometimes it turns out that it’s not SIBO, even if they’ve been told that it’s SIBO. So, I don’t specifically exclude anybody else that doesn’t have SIBO so all digestive stuff I help with. So often the method of healing up the digestive system is the same the specifics in terms of treatment might be different. But there’s so many different guidelines that apply with all digestive health. So it could be “just IBS” or it could be crohns, or it could be coeliac or it could be food intolerances. So all these things are my favorite topics. And when people come to me for.

Alison Mitchell 8:53
yeah, okay. And SIBO in particular is something that as we were talking about, you know, it’s becoming more more well known people are getting more awareness around it. But it’s been around for a long, long time. But So how long have you been treating that specifically? Has that been something that you know, you’ve just jumped you started your practice really passionate about it? Or was there a moment where it’s like, oh, this is the thing.

Kirsten Greene 9:19
I kind of evolved from my own journey. So when I graduated as a naturopath I knew that I wanted to specialize in digestive health because that had been my journey. And then when I got see by myself four years ago, then it became my sole practice because I know it. I know it so well, because I’d been through it myself and I’ve all the hundreds of you are treated since then. I’ve just know it so well and what to look out for how to get better in the quickest and most enjoyable way because it doesn’t have to be awful SIBO treatment doesn’t have to be awful. You just need to know what you’re doing. And I really enjoy that the past four years and then just have health for the past almost decade, I guess. Yeah.

Alison Mitchell 9:56
Now I think there might be some people listening that don’t actually know what SIBO is. So can we just, you know, backtrack a little bit and say what actually is a SIBO?

Kirsten Greene 10:09
Sure thing so it’s S I B O, and that’s acronym for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. So it doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s bad bacteria in your digestive system, it just means that it’s in the wrong spot. So ideally, we want this one to find to be relatively sterile in terms of bacteria. And then we want most of our bacteria to be in the large intestine. And there’s different kinds of SIBO as well. So there’s two main ones and then there’s a third one that’s getting more attention recently. So you have your methane dominant SIBO, where your methane gasses at highest produced by the methanogens, and then you get your hydrogen dominance SIBO, and then the third one that’s come out recently, more more focus on recently is the hydrogen sulfide to see by three different kinds there.

Alison Mitchell 10:56
Ah, and the hydrogen sulfide one is not somthing thing that I’ve heard or is that something that you can pick up, particularly with the testing, which we’ll talk more about the testing later.

Kirsten Greene 11:07
So there’s no specific test just yet that you can get Park Pimental from Cedar Sinai is working on it. But so it’s more of a process of elimination from the other tests, and then also taking a really good case history, and then they can find out more about this. There’s certain kinds of bacteria that released the sulphate gas, like Desulfovibrionales and Bilophilia wadsworthia they are the most common ones, but it’s that stinky guess is that rotten egg smelling gas may produce that.

Alison Mitchell 11:34
Interesting. So, let’s talk about some of the symptoms of SIBO what are some things that people should be looking out for that might go ‘hmm Maybe that’s related to me.’

Kirsten Greene 11:47
There’s so many, so the most common one for sure is the bloating especially and the timing of the bloating is important as well. So if it’s one to three hours after eating, then you can suspect at this moment of time, if it’s actually to three hours, then you might think of the large intestine. So definitely, definitely, definitely the most common symptom, but you don’t have to have bloating to have super. I’ve had clients before that, no issues with bloating but still have SIBO. Then also there are issues with your number twos. So it could either be diarrhea, it could be constipation, or could be an alternating of the two. Then you also get your food intolerances. So lactose intolerance is definitely a common one. And then also an issue with foods like the fodmaps, which are your fermentable carbohydrates and certain foods, and even garlic would be a biggest triggers for sure. There’s often an issue with digesting and breaking down the fibers in the foods and then the fiber is the indigestible part of a plant food so in your carbohydrates, so that’ll be the biggest one in there. But then you can also experience pain, gas. cramping, brain fog is really really common, joint pain, stiffness, skin issues, so many things associated with SIBO.

Alison Mitchell 13:01
Okay. So sometimes it could be something that you wouldn’t even think is related to your digestive system, but then turns out it actually is.

Kirsten Greene 13:13
I know, it’s all so connected.

Alison Mitchell 13:16
Yeah, the gut’s just connected to so many things. Okay. So why are people actually getting SIBO in the first place?

Kirsten Greene 13:28
Someone asked me on my Instagram a little while ago what I think the common cause of SIBO is, and I say stress. And that could be physical stress. It could be mental stress, or it could be emotional stress. So SIBO is a condition and SIBO is an underlying cause of things like IBS, but then what went wrong to allow SIBO to get there in the first place? Because our bodies are so amazing. It’s an amazing organism. It is so well adapted at keeping everything in check and functioning by itself. But for SIBO to have got there, there’s got to been a breakdown in a protective mechanism somewhere along the way that allowed it to get there. A really common cause is food poisoning. So a lot of people can pinpointed on that holiday to Mexico where they had a funny mohito. And now they’ve got digestive issues. So food poisoning can do things with a digestive system and then somehow the bacteria is allowed to migrate up into this momentous time. And once it’s in this momentous sign, you have to take steps to get it out. So that could be we’ll come to this later, I’m sure but the antimicrobials or pharmaceuticals or the elemental diet. So that’s a physical stress that can cause the SIBO but really underestimated is the emotional stress as well. So if we are constantly under pressure, and no one likes to think that they stress they really don’t, but if you could take a little minute and just look at yourself and how you respond to the stressors in your life. So say you say someone scratched your car and he didn’t even really care that might be pretty low on the scale. Say you went to the shop to buy an avocado and they were out of stock and he burst into tears, it would probably that your stress response is a bit on high alert And if you’re having panic attacks, and you might get a 10 out of 10. And I just wanted to bring that up is because when we’re in the stress mode, we tend to be in what we call our sympathetic nervous system, which is also called our fight and flight. And then when we’re in our sympathetic nervous system, our parasympathetic nervous system, which is our rest and digest gets shut down. So what that means is that sometimes our stomach acid doesn’t get produced at the right amount, or our stomach is constantly contracted like this, if you get a fright, you can notice that you gasps and your stomach will be contracted. So the peristalsis couldn’t happen. So things don’t move through as effectively. So that would be really common. But in terms of the physical thing for sure, there’s food poisoning, and then a history of antibiotic use. It could be back from when you were two years old, unfortunately, and things like this probably out of your control. So it’s always lovely to find your underlying Cause for getting SIBO in the first place. But also knowing that sometimes there might not be one specific thing. So for myself, I probably can’t relate it to one specific thing, more like a accumulation of things going wrong from birth, pretty much. So then it’s looking after your whole digestive system to get everything. And there’s protective mechanisms back in place, and then you can keep it away.

Alison Mitchell 16:26
Beautiful, thank you. I think that’s really interesting. linking it to that sort of relative stresses of that and how some people would say, I don’t have that much stress, everything’s right, but it really comes down to how they feel about it, how they react.

Kirsten Greene 16:42
yeah, if you’re waking up at 3am definite sign that your adrenals are a little bit fried. So I would you know, glands help us with our stress hormones, so adrenalin and cortisol, which is really important because if someone is pointing a gun at you, you need to make it so the cortisol will help us make those really quick decisions about which way to go. What do we do? So we need this one. But when it goes into prolonged stress, that’s when it becomes a problem. If you ever seen a zebra getting chased by a lion in the wild, while they’re getting chased, they in full on sympathetic nervous system fight or flight. But if they managed to get away from a lion and see the lion eating a difference zebra, they switch back very easily into their parasympathetic so they get back into the rest and digest. So you’ll see them eating grass happily and no problem. And then the biggest stressors, they say, studies have even backed this up. The biggest stressors that we have these days is deadlines, the deadlines at work, and bills that we receive a bill and then also even low batteries on our smartphones. So we know… laughs it’s so funny. So we intellectually know that these things won’t kill us. But our body will go into the same protective mechanisms as if it would. So it goes into your sympathetic nervous system, so digestion shuts down. Huge Cause.

Alison Mitchell 17:58
you know, I mean, for me I’ve got a really good life and things stress me out. And it’s the stupidest things. It’s things like my son way to put his socks on in time. You know, they’re such little things and yet maybe my adrenal glands need a bit of nourishing, who knows. But it’s all relative, it’s how you feel about the situation.

Kirsten Greene 18:24
And then also in our digestive system, we’ve got the enteric nervous system. So enteric relates to your intestines, and there are more nerve endings in your enteric nervous system than they are in the spinal cord. So if you’ve got digestive issues, and you’re constantly being triggered by an enteric, nervous system, say with food intolerances, that’s going to over stimulate the rest of your nervous system as well.

Alison Mitchell 18:46
For sure, so I think that people don’t often think about that do they but I’m so glad you’re talking about it because you’ve got to work on the gut to treat the nervous system, and you’ve got to treat the nervous system to treat the gut.

Kirsten Greene 18:59
No and it’s so wonderful when it all comes back into balance and it’s kind of I see my clients go through the process and then when I’m doing my last consult with them and then when they’re better we go through the intake form and compare with how far they’ve come and they often it’s so wonderful to see that they forget how stressed they used to be or they forget how scared of who they used to be. And that’s when you know that… God love it. I love it. I love it so much.

Alison Mitchell 19:25
That would be so nice, for both of you I would imagine. So that’s so that’s really interesting. So the SIBO has this massive connection with our mental health because of enteric nervous system and we’ve got all these neurotransmitters being made in gut like our serotonin and dopamine and our GABA, they’re all needing a health gut. We need that for our healthy neurotransmitters. But what about other sorts of conditions? Are there other sorts of health conditions or other seemingly unrelated symptoms that we can link to SIBO?

Kirsten Greene 20:04
I could probably tie almost every condition back to the gut. The main ones I’d say, because SIBO can lead to a lot of inflammation in the guts. And so SIBO can mess around with our digestion and absorption. So if you imagine that you are making food in the kitchen, and you just leave it lying around, so if you leave it laying around long enough, you’ll start to get the ants, leave it lying around even longer, and then you’ll start to get the mice and then you’ll start to get a whole bunch of stuff. So it gets a really big, festy mess. So that’s happening in your digestive tract. Just imagine the kind of bacteria that you are attracting and the pathogens that you are attracting, and it crowds out good stuff, which usually controls them. So then that can lead to a lot of inflammation in the digestive system. And then inflammation in that digestive system, if it goes on too long, can lead to inflammation, body wide. So most conditions have to do with inflammation. So almost anything that ends in ‘-ITIS’ so like arthritis, dermatitis, the itis relates to even hepatitis relates to inflammation of – all those conditions for sure. Then acne is a big one. I used to have horrendous skin, it was so bad. And then back when I was in college, it was okay. And then learning what we know, I came off the contraceptive pill, my skin just exploded. And then I was managing it a little bit with different herbs. And then I went vegetarian for a period of six months, because it was heralded as the most healthy diet. It’s like, Okay, this is gonna make me feel amazing. I’m going for it. So I went full vegetarian for six months. But I felt so so so awful, because at that stage, I didn’t have the digestive system strong enough to handle it. Whereas nowadays, my diet is mostly vegetarian, because I’ve spent so much time working on it and I can actually digest the food that I’m eating.

Alison Mitchell 21:52
A lot of plant fibres there.

Kirsten Greene 21:53
I know, and it’s so good for us. We just need to make sure that we can digest them and break them down. I had really, really bad acne when I was going through the vegetarian stuff. Now I don’t. So now that I healed my gut that’s gone away. Definitely joint pain for sure. And then also anxiety and depression often are connected to the digestive system as well. Not saying always, but definitely a lot of the time. If there is a group of bacteria called the gram negative bacteria, and these are the not so good bacteria, and then when our digestive system is out of balance, they can override a lot of good bacteria. Just I love to compare it like a garden it’s so similar to a garden. So if you have this garden, the grass and the plants and all the things and if the weeds start to take over, and they knock that balance, then they can just grow and grow and grow and more and more and more our good plants would kind of suffer there’s no space for them. So these Gram negative bacteria, they, in their shells, they have something called lipo- polysaccharides. So lipopolysaccharides are classed as an in endotoxin: endo means within and a toxin is a toxin. So these lipopolysaccharides are so inflammatory. And then if there’s a case of leaky gut, which is when the tight junctions of the gut separate and things can get into the bloodstream, they aren’t meant to. So if these lipopolysaccharides get into the bloodstream, and then just like the gut barrier, we have a blood brain barrier, which can also end up leaky, so leaky brain some people call it, and then if that gets into the brain, it can inflame the brain and cause feelings of depression. And this is even how they test the pharmaceutical antidepressants. Like they inject the poor mice with lipopolysaccharides and then test their pharmaceutical antidepressant to see if it’s effective. So that’s hugely connected.

Alison Mitchell 22:41
That doesn’t get spoken about much does it?

Kirsten Greene 23:43
Noo, and people don’t realize and they think that it’s a nervous system condition, when actually it’s coming from the gut. And if you can fix your gut, you don’t need to be on antidepressants you don’t need to be on even if it’s herbal Nervous System support, if it’s coming from your digestive system. There’s a lady called Dr. Allison Siebecker. She’s probably one of the pioneers in terms of theSIBO world. I love her. And she’s got a website called siboinfo.com, and she’s got a whole page dedicated to associated conditions. Also, because she’s a research scientist, she’s got the research studies backing up all the different things. If you wanted to see more, what’s involved in you can go to siboinfo.com. I forget the exact page, but it’ll be there somewhere.

Alison Mitchell 24:25
I’ll pop the link for that in the show notes. (Here it is: https://www.siboinfo.com/associated-diseases.html).

…more transcript to come!

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Guts and Girl Bits Podcast #41 with Jenn Malecha

In this episode I’m joined with Jenn Malecha – also know as the (W)holistic Health Boss. I had a great time chatting with Jenn about her own health journey but she shared a lot of knowledge about functioning testing and considerations for chronic health conditions.

We talk about how if you have a chronic illness, you need to look at getting your hormones and gut health under control to achieve long lasting results, and we also chat about black mould.

We discuss:

• Jenn’s journey with her health overcoming autoimmune disease by battling hormone imbalance, mould and gut issues.
• The benefit of functional testing to put together the puzzle of your health, especially talking about the DUTCH test to look at your hormones and stress hormones indepth, and microbiome (stool) test options.
• How for some people, black mould can dramatically affect your health, and what to do to get on top of it.
• What major hormonal issues Jenn sees affecting women’s health.
• How to work out the causes of why you are chronically ill and putting that information together.
• Adrenal fatigue and nervous exhaustion.
• What are the nutrients and supplements Jenn thinks most people would benefit from.
• Her top lifestyle recommendations to improve health and wellbeing.

The Podcast

Have a listen here on on the embedded player below.

Subscribe.

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You can find out more about Jenn here:

the W(holisitic) Health Boss

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Mahatma Gandhi once said that we should “chew your drink and drink your food”.  Even if chewing your food more was the only thing you introduced into your routine, you’d be pleasantly surprised the benefits your health and wellbeing would reap.

If you catch yourself inhaling food and swallowing food chunks the size of golfballs, it’s probably a good idea to slow down a bit, cut a small portion, and chew.

Digestion starts in the brain and the mouth, and if things aren’t going well here then it’s likely they won’t go too well further on down the digestive tract either. Chewing your food properly is one of the best ways to positively influence your digestive system, your dental health and your weight.

• Each time you chew you are sending a message to your brain that you are eating, and the more this occurs the more your brain responds by both producing more enzymes and acids to digest your food, but also by producing hormones that tell you that you are full. Not chewing properly can mean you’re often hungry after you’ve eaten.
• Chewing more means it’s less likely that you will eat mindlessly. By forcing yourself to slow down you will be less likely to overeat, and you’ll also allow your body to send through the message that you’re full (which is often a slow to come message) before you’ve overstuffed yourself.
• Chewing your food well means less damage on the oesophagus – if you’re swallowing whole chunks of food it can damage the delicate tissue in this area. By chewing properly you’re also lubricating the food with saliva, making its journey down to the stomach an easier passage.
• Saliva contains several enzymes that kickstart the digestive process. Fat digestion begins with saliva, and there are also enzymes that break down starches into sugar. You can experiment on this by chewing a plain cracker for a long period – it will transform from a savoury snack into sweet!
• The more you chew your food the more surface area you are creating, which means the digestive acids and enzymes will have an easier time breaking your food down even further.
• If your food is not chewed properly this acts a food source for the unfriendly bacteria in your digestive tract, allowing them to grow and crowd out your good bugs.
• Chewing is important for your teeth. It helps to keep your jaw and gum muscles strong, and the saliva produced is also important in controlling the bacteria in your mouth.

You should aim to chew each mouthful 25 times, or at least until it becomes a paste. For soups and drinks you don’t have to worry about the 25 count, but do give it a few chews to ensure the enzymes are working and to stretch out those jaw muscles.

This can be a hard thing to remember to do, so I often suggest to my patients to set a reminder in their phones to go off before their regular meal times “Remember to Chew!” and if possible to avoid eating while in a hurry, because this will mean you’re more likely to gobble down your meals.

Give chewing more a go, and let me know if you notice a difference!

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“The immune system present in the gut makes more immunological decisions in a day than the rest of the immune system does in a lifetime”.  (1)

If your immune system isn’t behaving itself properly, you might want to consider that your digestive system is the culprit.

Your digestive system has a special mucosal lining over the surface of your intestines, and the health of your gut flora (the complex, extremely important colony of bacteria within your digestive system, also known as the microbiome) has a huge amount of immune decisions to make on a daily basis – it has to deal with bacteria, viruses and food, and decide each time whether it is a friend or foe.

Setting up the gut bugs

The bacteria within your gut are established within the first 20 days of life.  If the bacterial colony does not set up adequately, babies can be immune compromised and can be more prone to immune imbalances later on in life, as well as increased inflammation which is largely controlled by our immune cells.

Frequent use of antibiotics can severely impact on the health of your digestive system.  In some cases, certain bacteria can never recover after they have been killed by antibiotics (2).

The gut reports to the immune system

There is a special type of cell within the digestive system called a dendritic cell.  This cell is responsible for determining whether our immune system should be on high alert or not.  Occasionally this cell will extend a little feeler (almost like a tentacle) and take a handful of whatever is in your digestive system to examine, to then report back to the rest of the immune system whether everything is okay or not.  This can explain why your diet can have an effect on allergic conditions such as hayfever and eczema, as well as autoimmune conditions (3).

Immune cells in the gut

There are also a lot of other players involved in the gut, such as Immunoglobulin A (sIgA) and certain T lymphocytes.  sIgA helps to protect the epithelial layer from being inhabited by bacteria and viruses.  This helpful immunoglobin is actually produced by lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) which are actually created by Bifidobacteria (a good bacteria that exists mostly in the colon).  Unfortunately, Bifidobacteria are easily damaged, especially by antibiotics.

Enzymes do more than digest food

When you think about digestive enzymes, you’ll probably be thinking that they’re there to break down your food so it’s primed for absorbing.  They also have another important role to play, and that’s in breaking down substances that might be harmful to your immune system.  Due to poor eating habits, the secretion of enzymes is compromised in a large proportion of people.  Implementing habits such as chewing each mouthful more and taking time to enjoy and concentrate on your meal are helpful for stimulating the cephalic phase of digestion – where your brain tells the rest of the digestive system to get ready for food, and consequently more enzymes and acids are produced.

Fix your gut to improve your immunity

By now you are probably realizing that keeping your gut healthy is pretty dang important. In order to achieve this, there are a few strategies that can be implemented, all depending on how bad your gut and immune system is to begin with.

I highly recommend working with a practitioner in this, particularly if you are looking to assess and treat specific microbial imbalances, as it can be a complicated process that may require stool analysis, and some gut infections can take a long time to resolve so it’s helpful having the support of a practitioner.

Balance your gut flora: This process may need to start with a stool analysis to see if you’re lacking in certain beneficial bacteria, or whether you have a unfriendly bug that needs killing off. Depending on where your gut flora is at, you may need to look at using some herbal anti-microbial herbs or oils to kill off the unfriendly bugs, and also replacing the good guys with a probiotic supplement, as well as probiotic and prebiotic foods.

Repair the gut lining: There are plenty of options when it comes to gut healing. Things like slippery elm, the amino acid glutamine and glycine are my favorite tools for repairing the gut lining. Other options that can be helpful include Aloe Vera and Bone broths.

You also need ample supply of protein in your diet, as well as the mineral zinc.

Avoid irritating foods: This can be different for everyone, but some of the most common irritants for gut health include wheat, dairy and processed soy. As frustrating as it is, food intolerances can be developed to anything, so if you’re unsure what you’re intolerant or sensitive to it may be worthwhile completing an elimination diet or a food intolerance test.

Processed foods, sugar, alcohol and coffee can damage the gut lining as well so if gut healing is your goal it’s worthwhile keeping these foods out of the diet, or at least to a minimum.

Minimise stress: Interestingly the state of our gut and our mental health are interconnected (you can read more about this here) so it makes sense that if you are stressed, anxious or adrenally fatigued it is going to impair your gut healing journey.

Yep, stress affects everything in our body, and this includes stress of all forms. So even if your house isn’t on fire or something similarly dramatic, it doesn’t mean you’re not affected by stress. In this day and age there are a lot of pressures and expectations on people, everyone is usually in a rush and we’ve also got less support networks and rituals in place to help us deal with these stresses. On top of that, most people consume a diet that is less abundant in the nutrients that our bodies need to cope with stress, so it’s no wonder that stress has such as huge impact on our health and wellbeing.

Of course everyone deals with stress differently so the degree to which it affects your health will vary, but I recommend that everyone (regardless of whether you’re trying to heal your gut or not) incorporates stress management techniques into their day. This can include exercise, yoga, meditation, mental stillness, leisure time, time spent with friends or family, or journaling.

Works Cited

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The human body is made up of a diverse colony of micro-organisms that live predominately in the mucous membranes of our gut.  The adult intestine contains 300 to 500 different species of bacteria, with 30 to 40 species comprising up to 99% of the total population.

There exists a balance of good and bad bacteria.  In healthy people the good bacteria outweighs the bad.  The most common forms of micro-flora that exist in our gut include:

• Bacteroides
• Bifidobacterium (good)
• Eubacterium
• Clostridium
• Lactobacillus (good)
• Fusobacterium
• Various anaerobic gram-positive cocci

Medical scientists are now acknowledging gut dysbiosis as a phenomenon in disease. A recently published definition of dysbiosis was: a breakdown in the balance between protective versus harmful intestinal bacteria

Our good gut bacterium has several functions.

• To grow and proliferate
• Energy salvage (fermentation of non-digestible dietary contents and endogenous mucus) and production of Short Chain Fatty Acids (SCFA)
• Production of some vitamins, e.g. K and B12
• Synthesis of amino acids from ammonia or urea
• Control of epithelial cell proliferation and differentiation
• Metabolism and enterohepatic circulation of xenobiotics
• Immune system development and regulation
• Pro/anticarcinogenesis
• Resistance to infection – crowding out pathogenic organisms
• Prevention of bacterial translocation
• Control of ion concentration and absorption
• Control of colonic motility and transit time
• Control of colonic pH

What causes Dysbiosis?

When there is an imbalance of good to bad bacteria, dysbiosis is the result.  This can occur from many factors such as:

• Antibiotic use
• Contraceptives (the Pill)
• Steroids
• Altered gastric secretion
• Spastic colitis
• Constipation
• Diarrhoea
• Radiation
• Diet including sulphur, excessive protein, excess refined carbohydrates, lack of fibre, excess fat
• Decreased immune status (especially low secretory IgA)

Why is Dysbiosis bad?

The good bacteria in the stomach are very important for our guts immune health and to protect against invading bacteria.  Bowel flora play an important role in our ability to fight infectious disease, providing a front line in our immune defence, provide a passive mechanism to prevent infection, and produce many vitamins – Vitamin B12 and Vitamin K. Acid-producing lactobacilli and bifidobacteria increase the bioavailability of minerals, which require acid for absorption–calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese. Without a healthy colony of bowel flora, we cannot expect robust health and wellbeing.

There are many health conditions associated with dysbiosis.  Recent research has revealed that dysbiosis is strongly linked with all chronic gastrointestinal, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.  It may also be very important in conditions such as fatigue, poor immunity, cancer and allergies.

The breakdown products of gut bacteria (endotoxins) are involved in immune reactions.  High endotoxins are associated with chronic diseases such as psoriasis, pancreatitis, SLE (lupus) and liver disease.

The more minor symptoms of dysbiosis include bloating, flatulence, nausea, bad breath, vomiting and diarrhoea and/or constipation.

How do I know if I have Dysbiosis?

A test is available in naturopathic consultations which can assess the presence of bad bacteria in the gut.  This test is called the ‘Urinary Indican Test’ or ‘Obermayer test’.  It is performed by mixing a urine sample with two reagents and assessing the colour change according to a chart.

Dysbiotic bacteria in the intestine produce a chemical called indole.  A portion of this is reabsorbed and metabolised to a indoxyl sulfate (or indican) which is then excreted in the urine where is can be assessed by this test.

The test takes approximately 10 minutes and costs $16.50.

The night before the test is performed ensure that you consume some protein and also avoid alcohol and iodine containing foods and supplements as these may give a false positive.

UPDATE: This test is no longer available.

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Probiotics could be the new yoga for those needing stress management techniques.

Researchers in Ireland were interested in the effect of Lactobacillus rhamnosus on behavioural responses to stress. Their experiments delivered significant results: when placed in a stressful situation, the probiotic group displayed less anxiety and released less stress hormones.

When looking into how the probiotics were able to modulate stress and anxiety, the researchers found that L. rhamnosus increased the number of GABA receptors in the brains in areas associated with memory and the regulation of emotion, similar to what is seen with the use of pharmacological anti-anxiety medications.

Lehrer J. The yoghurt made me do it. Wall Street Journal, 17 Sep 2011 http://online.wsj.com

Bravo JA, Forsythe P, Chew MV, et al. Ingestion of Lactobacillus strain regulates emotional behavior and central GABA receptor expression in a mouse via the vagus nerve. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011;108(38):16050-5.
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