Blog Post 3 (BP3) *Not medical advise* *For entertainment purposes only* 🙂
The topic of gut health and gut microbiome has turned into quite the buzzword among the health industry it seems. There is so much talk, especially in the alternative and holistic health industry, around improving gut health or healing existing gut issues. There is even a great deal of chronic health concerns that do not seem directly related to gut health but studies are showing they are, in fact, caused by one’s poor gut health.
My own journey of gut health started many years ago. My symptoms were mild and more of an annoyance at first. There weren’t any glaring issues at that time but I could feel that something wasn’t quite right. Those assumptions were solidified when I decided to compete in a bodybuilding competition.
As one would imagine, the nutrition, in preparation for this competition, was very dialed in. There were very little processed foods, very little variety and very strict timelines for the 12 weeks leading up to the competition. But to my amazement, my stomach issues decreased significantly. Bloating was gone, stomach aches were gone, energy levels up, digestion more consistent. This is when I knew I needed to find out what was really going on inside my body.
I started by scheduling an appointment with a nurse practitioner at a conventional clinic for a checkup and had her run some blood work. Unfortunately, she was not open to finding the root cause of my issues. She quickly chalked my fatigue up to “being a mom” and my stomach issues to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). In my non-medically trained opinion, IBS is a terrible diagnosis. It is a diagnosis that says, “I don’t know what is wrong with your gut so I’m calling it this”. It does not give any answers to the person diagnosed with this as to why these symptoms are displaying themselves.
Symptoms are merely our body’s way of throwing a red flag. Medical professionals should treat the cause of the red flag not the red flag itself. If they hide that red flag by giving the person a prescription for it, does that really fix the reason the red flag was presented in the first place? At times, maybe. But I don’t think that’s the typically outcome.
Fast forward after completing two competitions and knowing that competition life wasn’t sustainable for me, I returned to “normal living”. This was followed by more years of discomfort and no answers to the symptoms that had returned after expanding my diet.
Around this time, I really started to dive into alternative and holistic medicine. I then found a naturopathic doctor near me. In my hopeful desperation, I scheduled an appointment. I was blown away by the level of medical history that was taken at that initial appointment. What my sleep was like, how much exercise I did, what I ate, when I ate, how much water I drank, family history, past health history, and much more.
After my lab results came back, we met again to go over my levels and to put together a game plan to regain my health. It was confirmed that my levels were “in the normal range” according to most conventional medicine standards. However, in naturopathic medicine many other factors are taken into account rather than merely what the lab results showed. This then confirmed that my levels were, indeed, out of range for me, given my current lifestyle.
After collecting many pieces to my health puzzle, we thought it would be beneficial to test for SIBO. This is much more common than many people realize I found out. In order to confirm that I did have SIBO, I completed a breath test which consisted of drinking a lactulose drink and collecting my breath in test tubes in regular intervals over a period of time. Those tubes were then evaluated to check my levels of methane and/or hydrogen which is an indicator of the presence of SIBO and can also tell what type of bacteria are present.
My levels were off the charts around the one hour mark indicating that the SIBO was in fact present and most likely was heavily populating the middle section of my small intestine based on the timing of the spike in methane. This was a huge relief because I finally had a root cause answer to my discomfort. The downfall of this answer was that it is very hard to get rid of this bacteria overgrowth.
It would take herbal supplements, combined with two prescriptions over a period of time to rid by body of these nutrient thieves. The duration depends on the severity of the SIBO. I was told to buckle up for a six month journey.
I, no doubt, have improved my gut issues since being on this protocol but there is still more work to do. However, I know we are on the right track judging by how I feel!
Thanks for stopping by! I am looking forward to sharing more life, fun and adventure with you! Be sure to leave a comment; I’d love to hear from you.
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Until the next one..
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