Hey and welcome back to another episode of Vibrant You!
If you experience digestive issues like bloating, gas, abdominal cramping, IBS like symptoms like loose stools or constipation, this episode is for you because today we are going to be talking about the five main underlying root causes behind your digestive issues and how to identify yours so you can kickstart your path to healing.
So whether you experience digestive discomforts like bloating or burping or abdominal pain, indigestion, acid reflux, burning sensations, loose stools, or whatever it might be, there really are only a few key reasons why your digestive system is out of balance.
My hope today is to share with you what those key imbalances are and really simplify the path to gut healing so you can empower yourself with this knowledge and take out a lot of the guesswork when it comes to your digestive healing. So you can move a whole lot further a whole lot faster, and start healing your gut so you can live vibrantly again.
The way I see it, there are really only four main ways that your gut and therefore your digestion become imbalanced. And this is based on lab tests that I've seen over the last years with people that have been experiencing chronic digestive health issues for many years.
So the four main underlying root cause imbalances behind your digestive issues are:
1) Parasites
2) H. Pylori
3) Yeast overgrowth
4) Bacterial overgrowth (or undergrowth)
So all four of these we can lab test for and we can get measurable data to show why perhaps there's inflammation in your gut, why you're experiencing discomfort and some of the underlying root causes behind the symptoms that you're facing. So let's get into each one a little bit more in depth.
Parasites
Parasites are self-explanatory, they are some sort of worm or parasite that is feeding off of your body. We can get parasites from many different places. From unhygienic food sources from a bout of food poisoning we may have had, if we have pets we're exposed to parasites. If we live in the world- like there's a saying in the functional medicine world, if you have a pulse, you have a parasite.
It's just so prevalent and not only if you live in a foreign country. I Iive over here in Bali, we're in Asia, there's very different standards when it comes to hygiene and it's a tropical place. So these types of organisms can be quite common.
However, even in the United States there are such a high percentage of people that have a parasite. So this is a very common one.
Common signs or symptoms behind parasites to help you determine if parasites may be an underlying root cause imbalance behind your digestive issues is common things like:
- Bloating
- Abdominal pain
- Gas
- Achiness in your joints
- Brain fog
- Anal itching
So especially if you're noticing that anal itching is coming at night when parasites are most active, parasites are most active at night and they're most active around the full moon. So if you're noticing an increase of symptoms around those times, because these parasites they have different life cycles, they have their egg cycle, their larva cycle, the adult cycle and they actually move with the moon so we may notice them more active at those times. Very, very common.
I see parasites all the time in my practice, whether it's roundworms or tapeworms or liver flukes, all these kinds of things parasites are a very common very overlooked underlying root cause and balance behind so many of the digestive discomforts that you may be experiencing.
H. Pylori
So the second one is H. Pylori, and h pylori is a bacteria. It's a bacterial infection located in the stomach organ and H. Pylori is one of the most ancient and resilient bacterias known to humanity. So this is a thousands and thousands year old bacteria it goes back way beyond us humans were around and so therefore it's very resilient. It's been around for a while it knows how to survive.
Now some of the most common symptoms, if we are experiencing an H. Pylori infection, is anything related to:
- Acid reflux
- Burning sensation after you eat
- Burping
- Gas
- Abdominal pain (especially between the belly button and ribs)
- Dark or black, tarry stools
- Difficulty digesting protein
People with H. pylori infection, they'll often notice an increase in symptoms after they eat things like meat or really high protein based foods. This causes a lot of the acid and burning sensations.
And the interesting thing about H. Pylori is that H. Pylori is a very resilient bacteria that clings on to the inside of the stomach lining and releases the secretion of ammonia. So ammonium is very basic, our stomach environment when we have food, and it should be very acidic, and it's actually our stomach acid that should kill all of these pathogens.
We're exposed to parasites and bacteria and all kinds of things on an everyday basis. However, when we have adequate stomach acid, our stomach acid kills all of those things. However, if we're not producing enough stomach acid, to kill these things off as we ingest them, which our body should naturally do, then we are giving these pathogens a free pass into our intestines while they're still alive. They don't get killed in the stomach acid, and therefore they proliferate.
So funny thing about H. Pylori is that as I mentioned, it releases the secretion of ammonium, which is very basic and alkaline, the inside of our stomachs should be quite acidic. And so therefore, it actually decreases the stomach acid which we need to break down our food properly and to prevent a lot of these other pathogens from coming in and proliferating.
So the funny thing with H. Pylori is that it's often associated with acid reflux, which most people would think is associated with too much acid. So what's the common solution that we hear when you have too much acid people say take an antacid tea things like baking soda, take a Tums, things you may have even been prescribed by your doctor some sort of antacid. However, the stomach acid is not the problem. It's the bacteria that is secreting all of this basic substance.
So the thing is, is with acid reflux, it's not actually too much acid, it's not enough. And what happens is, is when our stomach acid isn't at the quality and the strength that we need it to be, instead of the food breaking down and digesting in the stomach acid, it actually starts to ferment. And through that fermentation process, gases start to build up and all of a sudden the contents of our stomach, the food that should be digesting actually starts to go up, it starts to go up the esophagus and we'll get this burning acidic like sensation.
So often with H. Pylori, we might have a rockhard stomach. So people with H. Pylori, a very common sign, is they'll just have this pit in their stomach and the stomach as an organ is just underneath of the ribs, it's above the belly button, and they may just feel tender there, it might feel quite hard, it might feel stiff, they don't even need to eat anything to have that as a symptom. So this is really quite common and such an important underlying root cause imbalance to rule out to see if H. Pylori may be an underlying imbalance behind a lot of the bloating and the gas and the acid reflux, all these types of things.
Most cases of stomach ulcers, I think it's 80 or 90%. I can't remember this statistic, but a very high amount of ulcers is actually a root cause of H. Pylori being the underlying cause behind most stomach ulcers.
Candida Overgrowth
The third main way that your gut may go out of balance is a candida overgrowth, so Candida is a yeast, Candida in and of itself actually isn't bad. It's an overgrowth of yeast, we all have yeast inside of our system, there's a few different types of Candida, or yeast in our body, it's not bad, but when it gets in overgrowth, when we have an overgrowth or too much of it inside of our intestines, then we will start to see symptoms.
Candida is very, very common. Some people think Candida they think automatically of like a vaginal yeast overgrowth or yeast infection, however, where Candida actually begins for us is not inside of the vaginal canal. Or sometimes people will get yeast in their sinuses or in their ears or in their thrush inside of their mouth. A lot of children will get this.
So the problem is not actually these areas, it's where it's stemming from which is inside of our gut, it's an imbalance in our gut microbiome. That then starts to create inflammation in the gut, the gut wall starts to open up creating something called increased intestinal permeability are also commonly known as leaky gut. And those Candida or yeast-based particles then start to freely circulate throughout the body, and they'll relocate in more vulnerable areas of the body, which for some people is in the vaginal canal, or they'll get ears, yeast infections, or sinuses or in the mouth as well.
The most common symptoms of candida overgrowth:
- Bloating
- Gas
- IBS
- Constipation
- Loose stools
- Abdominal cramping
- Vaginal yeast infection
- Nail fungus
- Fungal infection in the ears
- White coating on the tongue
- Brain fog
- Fatigue
- Sugar cravings
So the most common symptoms of candida overgrowth, of course, can be a vaginal yeast infection that is originating from an overgrowth of yeast inside of the gut can also be a lot of cognitive-based issues beyond all of the digestive ones. So of course, bloating, gas, constipation, loose stools, abdominal pain and cramping, indigestion but also a lot of energy-based and cognitive-based symptoms.
So brain fog, and I'm talking next level brain fog like unshakeable fatigue, lethargy, heaviness, just it's hard to focus it's hard to recall your mind may not be not as sharp as you'd like it to be, this can be a lot of signs and symptoms that you may be experiencing a candida overgrowth or an overgrowth of this yeast.
Bacterial Overgrowth
So the fourth main way that your gut might go out of balance is a bacterial-based overgrowth or undergrowth, and we'll get into that as well. So oftentimes, a bacterial overgrowth or commonly known as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth can be a very common underlying cause behind a lot of digestive issues that people face.
So some of the main symptoms of a bacterial overgrowth is often things like:
- Loose stools
- Abdominal cramping
- IBS
- Gas
- Bloating
- Nausea
- Constant feeling of fullness
- Very foul smelling gas and stool
- Brain fog
- Fatigue
- More bloating after carbs or fibre rich foods
You may experience loose stools, so especially if you're experiencing more bowel movements in a day bowel movements that don't feel so complete, you're experiencing a lot of belly cramping and queasiness in your stomach, you may have some nausea, there's a lot of gas, especially after eating carbohydrate-rich foods or things with a lot of fiber in them as both yeast or candida and bacteria, they feed off of the sugars inside of carbohydrates, starches and fibers.
So SIBO is actually very, very common, we can test for it, we can test for all of these, but especially if you're noticing a lot of sensation and a lot of the cramping around the navel area, which is the site of the small intestine.
When a client comes to me with digestive issues, we go through a full wellness-based assessment, I ask loads of questions, and we start to get some strong clues as to what might be their underlying root cause and balance. And often I will ask people, where are you experiencing that and they'll point, oftentimes, if it's in the upper regions have the belly towards the ribs above the belly button, it's pointing to some kind of imbalance in the stomach. If it's around the navel, it's often pointing to something in the small intestine. And if it's lower down towards the pelvis, it's often speaking to an imbalance with the large intestine can talk left side and right side and what that can mean.
But these are some very common signs. All four of these are the most common underlying root cause imbalances behind most of the issues that you may be experiencing. And all of these we can lab test for.
Recommended Lab Test for Gut Issues
So the lab test that I use inside of my practice with my clients is the GI map stool test, which is an amazing gut microbiome comprehensive test that will show us your good and bad levels of bacteria, it will show if there's a presence of h pylori, or a yeast overgrowth in which strain it might be. And it will show the most common parasites and if we do have any traces, eggs, larva or adults inside of our stool.
So the other interesting thing that this particular lab test shows us is not only if you have an overgrowth of bacteria, but a lot of these symptoms can also come from an undergrowth of the of good bacteria. So any sort of dis-ease in the body, if we really simplify this, the simplicity of health is this, if we have too much of something, we create dis-ease in the body, or if we have not enough of something we create dis-ease in the body health is simply a state of balance. And dis-ease is a state of imbalance too much or too little, our body likes it just right, a bit of a Goldilocks Rule for us there.
And if you're interested in learning more about functional labs and what they offer, you can visit my website, www.bindistables.com/labs, and you can read some of the most common labs that I work with people on and you can always send us an email if you'd like to learn more.
All of these parasites, H. Pylori, Candida bacterial overgrowth, these are the root causes on a lab test. However, what are the things that actually allow those imbalances those pathogens to proliferate inside of the body? What are the conditions that allow those things to overgrow and wreak havoc on our system?
But Why Do You Have Gut Issues to Begin With?
The truth is, is that for thousands of years, our human species, you know, has been exposed to parasites and bacteria. So why is it that in some people, these things proliferate?
You've had this experience, right?
You've been out for dinner, you're eating at a new restaurant, maybe you're in a foreign country, and you're sitting with your partner, or your friend or a family member, and you all eat the exact same food. And somehow at the end of the night, you're the only one that's rushing to the toilet and feeling sick and unwell for a few days. Or maybe one of the people in your group you know, they felt a little bit off, but you know, a day they were 100%. And for you, you had a bout of food poisoning. And for weeks for months, maybe even years, your gut simply hasn't been the same since.
So what are those conditions? What are the deeper underlying root causes imbalances beyond what we see on a lab test that are showing us well, why is your body allowing pathogens and why is h pylori proliferating? Why is there an imbalance of Candida or bacterial overgrowth?
5 Most Common Underlying Root Causes Behind Gut Pathogens
So I'm going to share with you now the five most common underlying root cause imbalances behind why these pathogens might be showing up for you and truly like we can absolutely lab test for the pathogens and we can put you on an amazing Integrative Health functional medicine protocol to rebalance the body at a root cause level. However, unless we have these factors in place, we might be able to clear those things out. But we won't necessarily be able to prevent them from proliferating again, or minimizing the likeliness, of getting an overgrowth again.
So let's get into it.
Root Cause # 1: Stress
The first possibility of why you may have contracted a parasite or candida or any of these things is stress.
So when we have stressors in our life, whether these are external stressors, the environments that we're in the people that we're around financial pressures, things going on with our work, or our family, all of these things take a toll on our physical body.
Whether it's stressors inside of our mind, how we're thinking, the beliefs, that we're believing the emotions, that maybe we're not processing, maybe we're in this kind of state of perfectionism, where we just have too high of expectations on ourselves, we put so much pressure on ourselves to do and achieve maybe we're experiencing a lot of fear in our bodies, or lack of boundaries, all these types of things create stress in our body. And the mind-body connection is so profound, our psychology becomes our biology. And when we're not taking care of the things going on between our ears in the form of our thoughts, that energy of those thoughts has to go somewhere. And where it will go is it will go from the subtlety of our mind into the gross the density of our physical body and show up as dis-ease. When we are experiencing too much stress.
Our bodies are designed to experience stress. However, when we are experiencing it to such a degree that our bodies don't have time to come down from that stressor. Normally, we are designed by nature to experience a stress right, a stimulus maybe in ancient times we were getting chased by a tiger, our body would go into a stress state to pump blood to our muscles to make our heart rate quicken to put us in that sharp minded, I have to fight or I have to flee mode to survive, and then the stressor passes, the tiger goes away, you're fine and our stress levels in our body should come back down and we should come back to this state of homeostasis.
However, in today's day and age, we're just simply so bombarded with so much intensity and so much going and doing and expectations and responsibilities, that we're kind of constantly living in this stressed state. In our nervous system, we become dysregulated.
When we've been going through stress for quite some time and haven't had this time to come back into homeostasis or that balanced state, our nervous system gets stuck in overdrive, it gets stuck in the sympathetic state, which is the stressed state of our nervous system. We never have the time or space or maybe even the tools to come back into our parasympathetic state, which is our rest and digest state.
So in our nervous system, we have two main branches:
- 1) Sympathetic = stress and
- 2) Parasympathetic = rest and digest
When we're hanging out too much over in the stress state, our bodies simply can't digest in that our body is prioritizing survival and our survival organs, right making our brain sharp, making our heart pump fast making our muscles filled with blood so that we have the energy to fight or flee a stressful situation.
So of course, all of our blood, all of our body's energy and resources escapes the digestive organs, because our brain in that moment is telling our body digestion is not an essential function for survival.
We need our muscles to work, we need our heart to pump we need our pupils to dilate so that we're alert to the dangers around us. This is why stress is such a common underlying cause behind so many digestive issues that we may be experiencing.
This is the mind-body connection. And when our body is in that sympathetic state, the stress state, we simply can't produce stomach acid. We can't produce digestive enzymes that we need our state of peristalsis where our intestines basically push food through and we extract nutrients is not doing its job.
So stress reduction is perhaps the number one thing that we need to be looking into when it comes to rebalancing our gut.
Root Cause # 2: Trauma
The second main cause behind some of these deeper gut issues we may be experiencing or why maybe we have tried so many things that we've been trying for years to overcome our digestive issues. And we've done amazing protocols and elimination diets. And we've been on this probiotic and this herb and seen this naturopath and this healer is trauma.
What I see with my clients, especially with chronic long-term digestive issues is that you can be doing everything right, you can follow your protocol, you can follow the right nutrition plan, you can follow the herbs, you can follow the lifestyle.
However, if we're experiencing unresolved trauma, and that trauma is living on inside of us in our nervous system, our healing is incomplete.
And what I find with most people is that there's almost always an event when someone has a chronic health issue, whether it is digestive-based issues, hormonal imbalances, cognitive issues, or whether they've been diagnosed with any sort of chronic-based illness or disease.
There's almost always an event. So I say that diet and lifestyle and toxins that were exposed to really load the gun when it comes to our health issues. But it's really stress and it's trauma that pulls the trigger and it's the trigger the event the death of a loved one. A big change in our work or our finances, our felt sense of safety in the world, a change in relationships, something going on, there's almost always an event that happens. That pushes someone over the edge. It's the straw that breaks the camel's back.
All these conditions have been lying dormant in your body from lifestyle and toxin buildup and poor eating habits and stress and all of these things, they're there. But we don't notice symptoms until an event happens often a big significant one that weakens our immune system that weakens our body's resources. And all of a sudden, all these things that have been laying dormant under the surface start to show and manifest as physical symptoms, which we then label as a dis-ease.
So trauma is a big one, what we need to do is we need to rebalance the body. Often we need to do some sort of deeper holistic counseling, or trauma, healing or re-regulation of our nervous system to ultimately help us feel safe in our body. So much of digestive issues revolve around not feeling fully safe in our body. This is the mind-body connection, we call this psychosomatics, how our mental or emotional states manifest into the physical tissues of our body.
And so much of our gut issues, which is our core, is so much about not feeling safe in our bodies, not feeling safe in our environment, not feeling safe in the world. And often there's a lot of things going on with control.
They're often people with digestive issues may experience things like anxiety, or in my case, when I was experiencing a lot of gut issues, I had major control issues. I wanted to control everything I was such a perfectionist, I was so high achieving and so high, strong and wanted to get everything perfect and always worried. Am I doing enough? Am I enough?
So much of this comes from old traumas from our past, making us feel like we don't belong, we're not lovable. And we just hold that in our stomach we hold this as so much residual tension that we can hold on to for years. This becomes an important piece of the puzzle is are there any traumas from your past that maybe you're still holding on to inside of the tissues of your gut that are weakening your stomach acid and allowing these types of pathogens to proliferate?
Root Cause #3: Poor Eating Habits
The third possible underlying cause behind all of these gut issues is poor eating habits.
What we consume when we consume it, how we consume our foods and our what we drink, what we bring into our senses as well, the technology what we're seeing through our eyes, hearing through our ears, our music, our, you know, media, all of these things, that has an interaction with our system. And we are what we consume in so many ways body, mind, soul, all of it.
So poor eating habits, such as eating processed foods and refined oils, genetically modified foods, foods high in pesticides and toxins, artificial foods and colorings. When you read a package of food, which I mean, if you're eating from a box, a bag, a tin can, it's processed food.
Basically, we want to shop the outside of our grocery store for filling our shopping cart with the middle aisles that are full of preserved foods, then we're not getting the nutrition that we need. So these are the types of things that we want to avoid things like too high of a carbohydrate-based diet, which causes all kinds of blood sugar dysregulation.
Remember that candida and bacteria feed off of sugar. And that's what our carbohydrates break down into.
How much water we drink, right? Are we drinking enough? Are we drinking too much, especially with meals that dilutes our stomach acid, our stomach acid we want it to be very acidic.
We don't want to be drinking too much water with our meals because water, which is a neutral pH will actually increase the pH of our stomach environment which we want a nice low pH low pH means it's very acidic. When we drink too much water we dilute that stomach acid and all of a sudden the possibility of that stomach acid to break down parasites and kill bacteria inside of our stomach. Before that food enters into our small intestine. We miss our chance.
Nutritional deficiencies!
This is a big thing for not getting enough healthy, nutritious, clean, organic wholesome food. And then when we eat matters as well.
So if we're eating our main meal right before bed and then going to sleep... sleep and digestion are different actions in our nervous system again, so they compete with each other. We either will digest and sleep horribly or will sleep and digest horribly. So we don't want to be eating right before bed.
We don't want to be snacking.
When we snack in between our meals our stomach acid doesn't know what to do. It's still digesting the previous meal it hasn't rebuilt his reserves up to release another bout of stomach acid. So it creates all this fermentation in the gut and that fermentation creates gases which is the bloating and the gas that we experience.
This is improper eating habits and a huge key to healing our gut revolves around eating in a healthy way proper food combining not combining, you know fruits that digest so quickly and that are high in sugar with meat which is very heavy and dense and takes several hours inside of the digestive system that causes fermentation, gas, inflammation leads to leaky gut, pathogen proliferation, all the stuff that we don't want.
Root Cause # 4: Lifestyle
The fourth underlying cause behind all the digestive issues that we experience is lifestyle, the common ones that we already know. If you're smoking, if you're drinking alcohol, if you're not sleeping well, if you're simply too busy, you're constantly on the go, you never allow yourself time to properly rest and to drop into that parasympathetic nervous system state, that state and your nervous system that allows you to rest and digest.
So much of our day in our life is just rushing around from here and there that we never take time to really enter back into balance as our body is intended.
Suppressing natural urges. If our body needs to cough, or sneeze or burp or go to the bathroom. If we're resisting these natural urges, we're going against nature, and we're basically teaching our body that we shouldn't be doing those things.
The essence of lifestyle when it comes to healing our gut is we want to work with nature.
When did nature intend for us to wake up in the early morning hours? When did it intend for us to go to sleep, when the sun goes down? When did it intend for us to eat, you know, when the sun is at its highest in the sky, and it's at its hottest our digestive fire is also at its peak. It's fascinating the connection between the human body and nature and how we really are just this little microcosm of the world, we are our own planet.
And so following the rhythms of nature to the best of our abilities, supports our gut health and going against it creates imbalances inside of our gut microbiome.
Root Cause # 5: Toxins
Okay. And finally, the fifth underlying cause behind so many of the gut issues we may be experiencing is toxins.
So toxins in the form of heavy metals, pesticides, and the foods that we eat chemicals from the cosmetics and the body care products that we put on toxins in the air that we breathe in pharmaceutical drugs, things like NSAIDs and painkillers and antibiotics and birth control.
There's simply so much research out there. It's undeniable, the connection between pharmaceutical drugs and imbalances in our gut microbiome chlorine in our tap water, so why is it that we put chlorine in a pool, it kills the bacteria, we want that chlorine is an antibiotic, that's why we put it in pools if we're drinking.
Sure, a low dose but if you're drinking two liters of water a day, that's quite significant, and it has a building effect in the body. We're directly killing our good beneficial bacteria that our body needs to manufacture hormones and brain chemicals like serotonin, right, all of these things are manufactured inside of our gut. So if we're every day drinking chlorinated, or fluoridated water, that is antibacterial, we're killing all of the good bacteria inside of our gut that we need to keep it balanced.
So all of these things reduce the beneficial bacteria in our gut. And all of a sudden, when we have less good bacteria, there's so much more room inside of our intestines and less defense for the bad bacteria to then proliferate and overgrow, I'll link up a study below in the show notes on the impact of environmental chemicals on the gut, you can have a read on that.
There's just so much research on there, sharing that connection.
That is what I wanted to share with you!
Today, I wanted to share with you the four main pathogens or imbalances in the gut microbiome that can be causing your digestive issues.
We had parasites, H. Pylori, Candida overgrowth, bacterial overgrowth, (or undergrowth.)
And then I shared with you the five underlying reasons behind why those pathogens may have been allowed to enter into your body to begin with, which was 1) stress, 2) trauma, 3) poor eating habits, 4) lifestyle factors and 5) toxins.
I am so passionate about gut health. This is my specialty. I am an Integrative Health Practitioner and I specialize in women's gut hormonal and cognitive, health and well-being. So if you are experiencing any digestive-based issues...
I would love to invite you into my 1-1 Find Balance program, which is a combination of Integrative Health Coaching and Functional Medicine, where we address your gut-based issues alongside of the Holistic Counseling, Mindset Coaching and Somatic Healing that's really needed to overcome the stress or the trauma or the lifestyle impact that may be impacting your gut in a negative way.
I've seen so much success with women coming through this program and finding such profound levels of healing and they really come through in not only healing their gut, but feeling so much more vibrant and connected to themselves and at peace and safe in their bodies and in the world that it's just amazing to see the transformation that can happen.
If that's something that interests you, you can check out my website www.bindistables.com, or send me a DM on Instagram @bindistables and I would love to hear how we might be able to support you!
So thank you so much for listening and I will see you back for another episode real soon. Take care!
Thanks so much for listening. If you loved today's episode, please spread the love by subscribing and leaving a review. Or if there's someone in your life that you think could benefit from this conversation, please share this episode with them. I would love to hear from you over on Instagram @bindistables or visit my website www.bindistables.com to connect and work with me.
Thank you so much again for being here and I'm celebrating you in this journey of becoming the happiest the healthiest, most vibrant you!