How to address pathogens in the right order

Both leaky gut and candida get a lot of attention as a common causes of digestive issues. 

Both can be triggered by chronic stress, a poor diet and antibiotic use, and can cause symptoms like bloating, gas, inflammation, brain fog, diarrhea/constipation and fatigue.  Leaky gut can also cause joint or back pain and/or food sensitivities.

People try to remedy these issues with diet, herbs and supplements, without much success. And in this blog post I will explain why. 

Often, leaky gut and candida are not the actual problems, they’re just additional symptoms caused by major gut disruptors like parasites, h pylori or SIBO. 

Because bacterial overgrowth, worms, viruses, parasites or h pylori can cause candida and leaky gut, you can’t get rid of yeast overgrowth or intestinal permeability without addressing the underlying issues first.

Without addressing core pathogens, the gut will remain in chaos. Anti-fungals and low carb diets will not make a dent. Candida thrives in a disordered microbiome.

Supplements like l-glutamine, collagen or slippery elm won’t mend a leaky gut either if the inflammation does not subside.

How one gut pathogen leads to another

If you have candida, leaky gut or SIBO, you have to ask why?

There is almost always an underlying reason.

Disruptions in stomach acid, motility, inflammatory food intolerances and immune strength (Sig A) can be underlying reasons. As can pathogenic invaders. 

Stomach acid is our first line of defense against bacterial and parasitic invasion. H pylori can lower stomach acid, which allows pathogenic bacteria, viruses and parasites to get through into the intestine. It also fails to break down food properly before it goes into the small intestine.

Both can lead to SIBO. SIBO, in turn, can cause leaky gut as extra bacterial cling to intestinal walls and produce inflammatory excretions. 

Parasites can also cause leaky gut, SIBO or candida by creating an environment where bad bacteria outnumber the good guys. It’s the beneficial bacteria in the right numbers that support our immune system and keep unwanted overgrowths and visitors at bay. 

One pathogen can throw the gut biome out of order, lowering the immune system and inviting in more invaders.  Creating a vicious cycle. 

If your stool test (my favorite is the GI Map) shows multiple pathogens, this is good news because you finally know what you are dealing with and you can address each on in the correct order. 

The order in which you address each pathogen is extremely important. 

H pylori is always the first thing to be fixed. It’s effect on stomach acid is crucial in improving digestion, protecting your gut, taming inflammation and reorganizing the biome.

Often fixing h pylori, which is tough to test for, can fix downstream issues like candida and leaky gut.

Skip these common mistakes

Don’t diagnose yourself based on symptoms.

Your symptoms can be caused by many different things. If you chase symptoms and address them with supplements you are guessing at best. You might get lucky, but usually you’ll waste your time, money and and hope. 

If you want to know the actual cause of your symptoms, nothing beats function stool and SIBO testing.  

The GI Map will find things that standard stool tests miss. 

Don’t address overgrowth and infections out of order

You address one gut bug at a time. And the order is crucial.  As I mentioned, h pylori is always addressed first because it can be a root cause for problems like SIBO, candida and even parasites.

After h pylori, parasites are next. If you have parasites AND SIBO, it will be much tougher to resolve your SIBO. 

This is the proper order to address gut bugs:

Worms

H pylori
Parasites
Sibo
Candida
Leaky gut

Leaky gut is last on the list because it will heal itself when the other overgrowth/infections are gone.

The gut is a self-healing organ. New intestinal cells are produced every three days and if inflammation is tamed, those holes are plugged by cell turnover.

The last mistake is ignoring digestive markers such as enzyme production,  fat malabsorption, and gluten tolerance. 

If your pancreas does not produce enough enzymes (the tiny chemical scissors that cut up food and makes it easier to digest), you won’t be able to digest your food properly. Undigested food particles will feed bacteria in your small intestine. And that’s the beginning of SIBO. 

Temporary use of digestive enzymes can solve this problem. As the gut heals the pancreas will produce proper enzymes. 

If fat malabsorption is an issue, the liver is not producing enough bile to digest carbs, protein and fat. This usually requires oxbile supplementation or liver support to fix. 

Supporting digestion, finding gut pathogens and addressing them in the right order is the key to any successful gut repair protocol. 

If you’re fighting SIBO and getting nowhere, there may be something going on in your large intestine or stomach that needs to be dealt with first.

If you were building a house, you wouldn’t start with the windows or doors. You need to lay the foundation and create the frame. Same is true with a good gut protocol. 

You need to follow the right steps, in the right order, and not leave anything important out. 

If this is overwhelming get good help.