What Causes IBS & Digestive Symptoms In The First Place?
“I’m not sure if I have IBS?” “I’ve been told IBS is a lifelong condition that can’t be healed”.
We hear this all the time from prospective clients and we offer the same guidance every time - you don’t need an IBS diagnosis to heal the gut and eliminate digestive symptoms for good! And we certainly don’t subscribe to using band aid medications like miralax and linzess that only manage symptoms.
If you are currently experiencing digestive symptoms, that is the only evidence we need to dig deeper, identify the root causes and work with you towards the path to long term healing. But before we dive into how we eliminate digestive symptoms and IBS, let's start with what IBS is in the first place.
IBS, or irritable bowel syndrome, refers to a group of gastrointestinal and digestive symptoms that occur together repeatedly. Kind of vague, right!
These symptoms are what we consider to be suggestive of IBS:
Constipation
Loose Stools
Bloating
Heartburn
Urgency
GI pain
GI cramping
We work with clients that have a large range of digestive symptoms like the ones above in addition to symptoms like gas, food feeling like a brick in your stomach, and acid reflux, BUT you don’t need a formal IBS diagnosis from a doctor in order to work with us or to fully heal from these symptoms.
What we do differently than conventional GI doctors, is we not only work to eliminate and heal the gut symptoms but we also address the body as a whole as there are many non-GI symptoms that occur alongside IBS. And it takes more than just putting someone on antibiotics or giving a bandaid medication to get the whole body benefits of healing the gut.
The most common non-GI symptoms we help eliminate in our clients are:
Fatigue
Mood imbalances
Skin conditions like acne, rosacea, rashes and eczema
Brain fog, poor focus or memory
Sleep issues
Headaches or migraines
Hypothyroid
Autoimmune conditions
Let’s talk a little more about what leads to IBS in the first place. While you might feel like you are doomed with these digestive symptoms forever, there are actually 3 major root causes to IBS, that when treated from a holistic standpoint, can eliminate your symptoms for good!
3 Major Root Causes to IBS
Maldigestion: This occurs when food is not broken down properly into the building blocks required for absorption by the digestive system and can lead to bloating, heartburn, constipation and can feed dysbiosis.
Infection & dysbiosis: Infection and dysbiosis are referring to the overall balance of the microbiome in the gut of an individual. If the “good” and “bad” bacteria are out of balance, dysbiosis occurs that can lead to loose stools, constipation, a mix of both, bloating, etc. While infection occurs when a foreign pathogen, like bacteria or parasites are introduced into the GI system and disrupt the environment leading to potential GI symptoms but can impact non-GI such as sleep and mood imbalances.
Inflammation: This is one of the major root causes of IBS that occurs when the gut mediated immune system responds to a pathogen that triggers an inflammatory response.
Understanding the exact root causes of your IBS can explain your symptoms and develop a solution to address them directly. In our 1:1 practice, we help clients finally get the answer to their chronic IBS symptoms and guide them step by step to eliminate their symptoms without restriction or missing out on their life. If you want to get to the root of your chronic IBS like symptoms, book a complimentary strategy call today to discuss your symptoms, our approach and your solutions.
What are the root causes of IBS & who is at risk for IBS?
We know the root causes of IBS and we know how to heal them - this is not a mystery to us. Unfortunately, it still feels like a mystery to all of conventional medicine and thus to many of our prospective clients who have struggled to find answers to their chronic GI symptoms for years without success.
IBS & digestive symptoms have very specific root causes that can be identified, healed and eliminated when treated with a personalized approach. When we work with clients to identify their unique root causes, it is often a collection of several root causes that all build off of one another to create the perfect storm of their digestive symptoms. That is why in our practice the solution is not just one thing that fully heals and eliminates our clients symptoms, but addressing the exact areas that are revealed from functional testing to customize an effective approach is unique to the client.
All three root causes are related and can be present in our clients, which is why many of our clients come to us “doing all the right things” but still not address the specific combination of root causes that are leading to their symptoms.
Let’s do a little deeper dive on the three root causes of IBS & digestive symptoms.
1: Maldigestion: To put it simply, maldigestion is a miscommunication between our digestive organs. It occurs when we don’t break down food properly into the building blockers required for absorption and digestion. We see maldigestion not only from the chemical digestion process that includes stomach acid, bile and digestive enzymes, but also through physical digestion that happens from the nervous system and chewing food. Misalignment in either chemical or physical digestion can disrupt optimal digestion and bring about unwanted digestive symptoms.
One example of a common maldigestion dynamic is the suppression of stomach acid from stress and low mineral status in the body. Low stomach acid can lead to inability to break down and absorb protein and minerals such as B12, iron and magnesium. It is the number of reasons for bloating in most people. Low stomach acid can also make us more vulnerable to infection and dysbiosis if we aren’t able to properly utilize stomach acid to break our food properly and kill off potential pathogens. A small insight into how impactful just one area of maldigestion can be.
How can maldigestion happen? Nutrient and mineral needs, age, stress, cortisol imbalance, PPI use, taxed detox systems, or an overlap of the other two root causes.
Symptoms of Maldigestion: Gas, burping, bloating, early satiety or fullness, heartburn, acid reflux, prolonged fullness, floating/frothy/pale stools, food in stool, nausea, faintness/dizziness, dry skin, excess mucus production
2: Infection & dysbiosis: This refers to pathogenic organisms (infection) or an imbalance between “good” and “bad” bacteria (dysbiosis). This root cause is directly related to the health of the microbiome and the overall environment of the gut that is either supporting a balanced microbiome or enabling a disrupted microbiome.
To continue with our maldigestion example of low stomach acid, we can see the opportunity for a pathogen or dysbiosis to occur due to the lack of effective digestion.
Stomach acid is a major trigger for our bile release, which is our self cleaning antimicrobial in our gut environment. Without optimal levels of both stomach acid and bile, this can lead to overgrowth conditions such as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) which is present in almost 70% of IBS cases. However, the root cause for SIBO is not just bacteria but also maldigestion - this is often mishandled by many providers who do not support it properly and thus it can chronically come back until it is more properly supported.
How can infection/dysbiosis happen? Stressed eating environment, low dietary fiber, maldigestion, breakdown in gut motility, concussions, hypothyroid, taxed detox system, pesticide exposure, environmental exposures, antibiotic use, mold & mycotoxins.
Symptoms of Infection/Dysbiosis: Constipation, diarrhea, upper GI pain, skin conditions, waking at night, dairy sensitivity, newly acquired food sensitivities, post-nasal drip, coating on the tongue, cracks in the corner of the mouth, mood changes.
3: Inflammation: Inflammation occurs when there is an immune reaction in our gut to a trigger or pathogen. Inflammation is just another word for an immune response. This means that a pathogen or irritant is poking and prodding the immune system and our bodies create inflammation as a protective response. This immune response becomes an issue when it becomes chronic which leads to inflammation in the GI system that can cause a breakdown in the protective gut barrier and trigger digestive symptoms and IBS.
The key is that we must identify what is leading to the immune response and outside of gluten the answer is rarely food. When we have comprehensive stool testing we get deeper insight into exactly the present dynamics in the gut and can determine what is triggering chronic inflammation and thus address it directly.
How can inflammation happen? Infection & dysbiosis, gluten sensitivity, certain medications, pesticides/glyphosate, food additives, lack of dietary fiber, environmental exposure & mold toxicity.
Symptoms of Inflammation: Bloating, GI pain, burning in GI, food sensitivities, skin issues, flushing, fatigue, aches and pans, brain fog, fluid retention.
These three root causes are often triggered by a perfect storm of events and the major culprit almost always on the scene, is stress. Stress can certainly mean psycho emotional stress, but we often see stress in the form of not having a strong practice of the foundations of nutrition and lifestyle that prevent and protect against IBS and digestive symptoms.
We often see lack of quality sleep, not supporting circadian rhythm, blood sugar imbalances, low fiber or low carbohydrate diets, too much stress from exercise, and fasting or not enough caloric intake. This all creates a crack in the foundation and allows for the final root cause, like an infection, to be significant enough to get louder and provoke more intense symptoms.
We’ve built our practice around these invaluable foundations and where we guide clients to start before using functional testing. We use a wide variety of tools to fully address all three root causes of your symptoms including a strong practice of the foundations that we teach inside of the Nourished Gut Guide (NGG).
How we eliminate the root causes of IBS and not just manage them
There is a world in which you can be symptom free from your digestive symptoms and not just manage them! And this doesn’t involve avoiding trigger foods or practicing a restrictive elimination diet forever.
The first level is the Nourished Gut Guide, it is the backbone to the work we do with our clients to help them build the essential foundations to heal their gut. We have all of our clients start with the foundations of nutrition and lifestyle, because without this, it will be challenging to fully heal your gut and digestive symptoms. This is why we’ve made NGG under $200 for lifetime access. We want our clients to know they can heal and stay healed, no matter the twists and turns of life.
The second level is functional testing, this is how we fully customize our healing protocols by identifying the exact root causes in a unique client and build a holistic protocol of nutrition, lifestyle and short-term supplements to efficiently and effectively heal their IBS for good. One functional test for all of our IBS and gut healing clients is a comprehensive stool test called the GI Map. This test helps us understand the unique root causes at play by providing specific insight into the environment of the gut so that we can address all the areas needed to help our clients fully heal their symptoms.
The GI MAP measures over 75+ gut health markers to uncover the information needed to build a customized healing protocol to restore optimal digestion and eliminate symptoms. If you’re curious to learn more about a GI Map test check out our “What Does Your Functional Stool Test Actually Tell Us” article!
A functional test alone won’t help you to heal your gut, the power of functional testing is only as knowledgeable as the provider interpreting it. We work with our clients, understanding their health history, symptoms, their personal story and their current lifestyle to build realistic healing protocols that reflect nutrition, lifestyle and the short-term supplements needed to be the solution our clients come to us needing. These are the healing tools we use and see immense success in clients healing everyday.
If you want to get to the root of your chronic IBS-like symptoms, book a complimentary strategy call today to discuss your symptoms, our approach and your solutions.
Chronic SIBO, loose stools, constipation and bloating resolved in 3-months!
My client had been previously told by his GI doctor to take antibiotics every month for the rest of his life to deal with his chronic loose stools, constipation and bloating. My client was stuck in the cycle of chronic recurring small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) that was chronic because none of his previous providers were addressing his specific root causes. Let me tell you what we did to eliminate his chronic symptoms in just 3-months.
First off I just want to say, taking antibiotics monthly is not a solution, especially after my client had already done 6 rounds of antibiotics that all worked short term but failed longterm to eliminate his chronic SIBO.
How we identified his root causes…
We ran functional testing to identify exactly what was leading to his chronic recurring symptoms including a functional stool test to get insight into the full environment of the gut, a DUTCH adrenal cortisol test to understand cortisol. our stress hormones, role in his gut healing and a hair mineral test to understand how is body is managing stress through his mineral status.
What we found…
Maldigestion
Dysbiosis
Congested drainage pathways
Need for liver support
Low cortisol levels
What we did differently…
We educated him on each test and helped him to understand how each of these root causes is playing a role in his recurrent symptoms. We also helped him to build a customized protocol on these results that involved nutrition, lifestyle and short-term supplements to address the root causes.
In the 3 months we have been working together we have been working on:
Balancing his cortisol levels
Optimizing his digestion
Supporting his liver
Increasing minerals
Balancing macronutrients
We have completely eliminated his chronic GI symptoms without using antimicrobials or antibiotics at all. When we identify the exact root causes at play we are able to work with the body to heal. It is an amazing process to get the privilege of being a part of all of our clients' healing journeys.
