In functional medicine, we believe gut health and the health of your microbiome are essential to wellness. If your gastrointestinal tract is not optimal, illness can occur. Studies have shown that the quantity and diversity of one’s microbiome can influence your immune system (much of the immune system is housed in the gut) your mood (many neurotransmitters are produced in the gut) and yes, your weight (certain bacteria are known to cause increased weight). Of course, these are just a few of the things that are supported by the microbiome.
When considering gut health, we use the 5R framework made popular by the Institute for Functional Medicine: Remove, Replace, Reinoculate, Repair, and Rebalance.
Remove refers to identifying and removing any stressors to the system such as environmental toxins, unhealthy foods often found in the Standard American Diet (SAD Diet), foods that you may be sensitive to that are causing inflammation and other opportunistic or pathogenic bacteria, viruses or parasites.
Second, we must replace any digestive enzymes that are deficient to ensure the proper digestion and presentation of nutrients to the small intestine mucosa.
Next, we ensure that our microbiome is balanced. To restore proper balance, we at The Logan Institute recommend the Gut Restoration Program by Microbiome labs. This 90 day program is designed to re-inoculate good bacteria into the gut microbiome with a spore-based probiotic, feed the microbiome with a prebiotic and repair the mucosal barrier with a supplement that provides key nutrients and amino acids needed, thus reducing intestinal permeability.
Finally, we rebalance. For me personally, this may be the most important R. Often we intentionally make lifestyle choices that do not support our microbiome or our gut health. I believe that many chronic conditions begin in our gut, and we cannot hope to avoid or reverse illness if we ignore or neglect this very important organ. Rebalance activities could mean making the choice to exercise more, get enough sleep or learn to manage stress better. Rebalancing is becoming aware of where there are areas in your life that may be affecting your health and actively making a change to address those areas.
One of the tools we use to assess the health of the microbiome is the GI MAP test by Diagnositic Solutions. This test measures the levels of healthy, pathogenic, and opportunistic bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi. It also has some additional assays that measure inflammation, mucosal immunity and digestive enzymes. Results from this and other similar tests help inform Dr. Logan and myself about which and how many of the “Rs” need to be supported in an individual to improve health.
With an optimized microbiome and an intact mucosal barrier (no leaky gut) we can reduce the risk of autoimmune conditions, chronic inflammation (that often manifests as neurological and orthopedic conditions), and hormone dysregulation to name a few. In addition, a healthy gut supports the detoxification and elimination of toxins and waste products from normal physiologic activities. If we are not eliminating well (by having a bowel movement at least daily) those unwanted substances stay in our intestines longer and can be reabsorbed back into circulation.
So let us make sure we are nurturing our bodies and our gut well by eating healthy foods, sleeping well, exercising regularly, reducing stress and, you guessed it, pooping daily. Your body thanks you.
-Dr. Litty
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