Posts Tagged ‘irritable bowel syndrome’
When I talk about belly bugs, technically known as gut microbiota, I usually talk about them in terms of digestive function and treating gut problems like IBS, IBD, constipation or bloating. But now there are new studies from Nature.com exploring the effect of the microbiota on mental health. Mind Control, science fact. The highlights are that a vaginal birth can affect a baby's tendencies toward anxiety or depression. The microbiome passed to the infant through the vaginal tract is important and if babies are born via C-section (and not receive the mother's bacteria) they are more likely to have anxious and depressive moods. And this can continue to be true for the entirety of their lives. Another study showed that the lack of the bacteria Bacteriodes fragilis in a mouse's digestive system caused autism-like symptoms. When replaced, the bacteria the mice recovered normal behavior and digestion. Furthermore - a bacterial product found in their blood was injected into normal mice who then displayed the autism-like symptoms. All this leads me to deduce that bacteria are amazing at mind control! [caption id="attachment_171" align="alignright" width="134"] Healthy Digestion and Mental Health Depends on your Microbiome[/caption] The article linked above also discusses leaky gut and its role in allowing…
Read more >
Many people come to me with very unhappy bellies. Seriously. Their bellies cause them a terrible amount of pain and severely disrupt their quality of life. Because of their bellies they are missing work, missing sleep, depressed or at just at their wits end. I see people with inflammatory bowel disease like crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome and other functional bowel conditions like gastroesophageal reflux or constipation. The approach to assessment and treatment of each person is unique. It has to be! Everyone is different! After a full health history and various lab tests there are general treatment objectives and questions I ask myself: Remove Are there foods that are causing dysfunction, are there bad belly bugs that are infecting the gut or altering its ability to detoxify environmental inputs? Replace Are there nutrients or factors missing required for proper digestion? Reinoculate What happy belly bugs need to be reintroduced to help digest food, crowd out the bad belly bugs and make nutrients essential for health? Repair Is the gut lining damaged, are there food particles getting through into the blood and exposed to the immune system? Rebalance What other factors are influencing digestive and overall health? Are…
Read more >
The future of medicine is a movement Functional medicine has been slowly and quietly growing for decades as chronic disease (diabetes, obesity, cancer, heart disease) increase dramatically. The future of medicine is now growing exponentially as we discover that the causes of chronic diseases are attributed to our environment. Its our food, our water and our air that cause disease. The more we disrupt the balance of biology; the sicker we become. The more chemicals we put into our bodies in the place of whole, real foods; the sicker we become. Forget disease entirely Instead, consider: what is causing your body to become dysfunctional? To treat chronic disease we must remove what causes an imbalance and disrupts the normal function of the complex system. Then we must provide what creates balance. Simple? Almost. Functional medicine is not naturopathic approach, it is not conventional approach, it is the intelligent use of systems biology and our in depth understanding of biology and physiology. Functional medicine will revolutionize your health When I treat my patients for their main health concerns (pain, irritable bowel syndrome, acne, stress, depression) they feel better with a few important changes to their lifestyle and some well prescribed remedies. If we…
Read more >
