Why your gut health is not improving

Seven reasons your Gut Health is not improving. 

Root cause medicine, or finding the exact reason for symptoms, is growing in popularity because it improves outcomes greatly. If don’t know what the problem is, it’s hard to fix it. It also saves time, money, effort and disappointment.

An IBS diagnosis gives no clues to the cause of symptoms and therefore few clues on how to solve them.

This is why people turn to alternative approaches, and when those don’t seem to work it’s easy to get discouraged, anxious and hopeless.

But there are several reasons why a protocol is not working. And when you understand and include that missing piece, everything falls into place.

Below are 7 root causes of IBS. You don’t need to work on all 7 to get better, but it is important to understand these things and determine which one is getting in your way.

The GI Map stool test (link) and SIBO breath test (link) is where I start with clients to understand what’s going on in the biome. But helping the body heal and alleviating symptoms may require a bit more than just diet and supplementation.

Of all the factors below, supporting the immune system and the nervous system are the most power things you can do to support your recovery.

So don’t lose hope, here are some options for moving forward. You may notice how the body systems are connected. For example, supporting the adrenals will support the immune system AND the nervous system as the body deals with less stress.

Dysregulated nervous system

A common reasons people develop digestive issues is a disruption of healthy nervous system function. Doctors understand this on a high level but don’t explain it to patients, nor do they offer solutions.

The autonomic nervous system controls digestion, detoxification, elimination and motility, among many other things. It also regulates breathing, hormones (reproduction), heart beat and muscle control.

The biggest disruptor of normal, healthy nervous system function is chronic stress and/or trauma.

Chronic stress triggers cortisol, and creates a flight or flight nervous system state, where digestion is shut down and the body is in survival mode. Bodies can’t heal and repair in survival mode.

Trauma disrupts healthy nervous system function, leaving it stuck in the on position. And this makes it very hard to ever feel truly relaxed.

Trauma doesn’t have to be dramatic, it’s simply and experience that sent your system into overwhelm. Different people have different reactions to the same experience. One may be traumatized (overwhelmed) while the other is not. When the system gets overwhelmed it gets locked into fight or flight or freeze mode.

Being in this state constantly may not feel like stress, but can manifest as digestive issues, pain, lowered immune function, physical tension/muscle tightness, or anxiety.

There are many therapies that can help your system move from overwhelm and process the experience by breaking it up into small, manageable parts.

The nervous system will complete its natural cycle of arousal and release.

My favorite therapy for that, and one I’m doing personally, is somatic experiencing.

You can deal with trauma that you don’t even remember, but your body is still holding onto. For me, it is something from infancy. And it is helping me regulate my stress response. Very helpful.

Trauma could be a hidden root cause of the chronic stress or anxiety that trigger physical issues. Dealing with that stored trauma and releasing the nervous system response to it can help your body function as it was meant to.

Working with the vagus nerve, which connects the brain to the gut and other major organs, is another way to help regulate the nervous system. And improve the communication between the gut and brain.

For many people, having IBS is traumatic in itself. Trying harder to be more perfect or stricter with diet and supplements won’t help a nervous system issue.

The solution is to regulate the nervous system. If you’re not sure where to start, get in touch for some guidance.

Subconscious beliefs & mindset

Your doctor may have told you that your symptoms were in your head. That’s not what I’m saying exactly.

But what happens in your brain does affect your gut. The vagus nerve is always sending signals back and forth.

The way you see the world, your thoughts and that running dialogue in your head dictate how your nervous system functions and the quality of signals sent back and forth. Is is distressful or calming.

Trauma can shape the way you think. A perception of safety and what may happen in the future.

Thoughts have a physical manifestation in your body by increasing stress (cortisol) and inflammation (the immune system’s response to stress and perceived danger).

Your thoughts can be as inflammatory as a food intolerance. You can increase or decrease cortisol or inflammation with a thought. This is much more control than we thought we had over our body.

You’re not making your symptoms up. They’re real. But they can be better or worse based on your perception of what is happening in your body and your thoughts about it.

What happens in your brain, happens in your gut.

Thoughts like:

“I’ll always be sick”
“I have no control of my body”
“No one can help/understands”
“I may suffer for the rest of my life”
“This may lead to something more serious”

Send messages to your gut that you are in danger and perpetuate the cycle of stress, inflammation and nervous system activation.

And often, these thoughts are not conscious and we are not aware of what we are thinking. When you are not aware how do you address it?

You may want to heal desperately but your subconscious mind/thoughts need to be aligned with your conscious intentions to heal.

If you find yourself falling off the bandwagon, sabotaging yourself, procrastinating or making excuses about starting a protocol, you’re most likely being stopped by your subconscious programming. Things like “nothing ever works for me ” “I will be disappointed” “My body is broken and health is not available to me”.

There are many ways to work with subconscious programming and sabotaging self talk. A very powerful method is hypnosis. It helped me deal with my subconscious beliefs about my body being weak and vulnerable after having IBS almost 2 decades ago. This gave me health anxiety.

Because I had such powerful results, I became a hypnotherapist to help clients uncover and transform their self defeating thoughts and beliefs. And help them move forward past their healing blocks.

There are other ways to work with the subconscious and conscious mind: tapping (also called EFT) journaling, gratitude practices, affirmations, cognitive behavioral therapy, and somatic guided meditations like yoga Nidra.

The key is to find something that resonates with you. And get support around it. This is hard to do alone. But will produce life and health changing results.

False negatives on tests or not getting right testing

Most conventional tests are not sensitive enough or produce false negative results, which throws people off track.

I use a stool test called the GI Map, which is more sensitive because it check for DNA clues that pathogens are present instead of finding the pathogens themselves.

It’s like finding fingerprint clues instead of catching the crime in the act.

Many clients test negative for pathogens like h. pylori and parasites on standard stool tests only to find either or both on the GI Map.

When people get thrown off track by false negative results they lose years of their life to this oversight.

Getting the right tests that are sensitive enough and look at the whole biome can solve this problem. Not only can we identify pathogens but we see the effect they are having on the system (inflammation, poor digestion, sluggish liver function, bacterial overgrowth, etc.)

The GI Map is an easy, at home stool test that can be ordered by most functional practitioners. I order these tests for my clients and also do second opinion interpretations of the GI Map.

The other test I work with is the SIBO breath test that looks at the biome in the small intestine. This will give a complete and accurate picture of what is going on in the gut.

Food sensitivities

There are a variety of diets you can choose from to address gut dysfunction.
There’s Paleo, Keto, Carnivore, Autoimmune Paleo, Low FODMAP, Vegan, Gluten and dairy free, low fiber, low fat, low allergen, one meal a day, the list goes on.

All these diets give generic recommendations. None of them are personalized to your body.

If you’re doing a Paleo diet and still feeling bad, it may be a hidden food sensitivity that is driving symptoms.

It doesn’t mean that your diet is not effective at generally reducing inflammation or increasing nutrient density, but eating a food your immune system tagged as an enemy and cause inflame every time you eat it. And the symptoms can manifest up to 3 days later. Typically the trigger is something we eat quite often.

You can determine food sensitivities with a blood test or an elimination diet. Cutting out more and more foods based on food fear or intolerances is not a permanent solution. And can often lead to an increasingly shrinking diet and biome.

More food fear and a the less diverse biome leads to more symptoms.

To tolerate more food it’s important to optimize digestion by either clearing h. pylori or supporting stomach acid, enzyme production or bile flow.

Working on fear around food also helps with nervous system function and thus digestion.

Clearing h. pylori has helped many of my clients tolerate more foods. The goal is to move towards healing not run from triggers.

Environmental toxins

When I had IBS, I had to work on detoxing my liver because I had lots of heavy metals in my body.

Since then I have also had brushes with mold exposure.

The way to deal with toxins is to support the liver and the other detox pathways (lymphatic system and the kidneys). The liver detoxes chemical, mold and heavy metals from the body.

These toxins can clog detox channels and create sludgy bile. Thick and slow moving bile will not do a good job of disinfecting/cleaning the small intestine or digesting proteins, carbs and particularly fats.

There are two clues on the GI Map that the liver is overwhelmed and that bile is sludgy. It is the beta glucuronidase and the steatocrit markers.

It is very important to open up detox pathways when doing a gut healing protocol that addresses pathogens ( yeast, parasites, bacterial overgrowth) to minimize detox reactions. This is why sometimes people feel worse during a protocol. It is like having a partially clogged sink and pouring lots of water in it.

If you want ways to support your liver and detox pathways, reach out and I will send you my liver care sheet.

Supporting the detox pathways are even more important for people who genetically have a decreased ability to detox. I’m one of those people with a mutation of the MTHFR gene.

Start supporting your detox and drainage pathways before you start a protocol and do it during to improve digestion, get the cleansing benefits of good bile flow and help make your experience more tolerable.

Crashed adrenals and stress

The adrenals are tiny glands located above your kidneys. They produce adrenaline and cortisol to produce energy that gets you into action. You pump out adrenaline and cortisol when you are stressed, doing something dangerous, exciting or scary. It’s also released when your blood sugar goes on on rollercoaster ride (cortisol helps stabilize blood sugar).

When the adrenals produce cortisol without a break they get fatigued. When they get depleted they can take the gut down with them.

Cortisol is an anti inflammatory and immune modulator. Without a healthy amount of cortisol in the system we become less tolerant of inflammation in the gut.

If an adrenal crash was a root cause of gut distress, you have to address the adrenals alongside the gut.

Keeping your blood sugar stable is extremely supportive for the adrenals. Eating regular meals with a balance of protein, carbs and fat and low in refined sugar is helpful. Fruit is usually ok in moderation.

Managing or lowering stress and getting rest is important for adrenal recovery. Light and gentle exercise is ok but vigorous exercise contributes to the problem.

Addressing an overactive nervous system is also important. If you nervous system is always switched on, your foot is on the gas and brakes at the same time.

Supplements that support the adrenals are adaptogens (which help the body adapt to stress). Examples are rhodiola, ashwaganda, lemon balm and tulsi. Vitamin C is also important. As is magnesium and salt in the diet.

And while a blood sugar balancing diet and supplements will support adrenal recovery it is important to cultivate a feeling of safety, calm, stability and confidence. Get support to deal with life stressors to find solutions for dealing with them. Hypnosis is a great tool and so is meditation.

I personally find that working with someone I trust gives me to support to lower my stress response and have faith in my process and knowing I am on the right track.

Faith in someone or something is the best way to combat anxiety.

Symptoms of adrenal fatigue are tiredness, inability to handle stress, poor immunity, cravings for salt, caffeine or sugar, fat around the middle, trouble getting up in the morning or sleeping, mood issues (anxiety or depression) and second wind at night despite being tired all day.

You can test your adrenals by taking a 4 point cortisol blood, urine or saliva test.

Low Sig A

There are several immune systems in the body. The general immune system that determines how often you get sick.

There is also an immune system in the gut which lives in the healthy mucus of the gut lining. This mucus protects us from pathogenic invasion by enveloping intruders in mucus to escort them out of the body.

When the mucus lining of the gut is compromised it doesn’t perform its job well of fighting or preventing infections.

The marker on the GI Map that measure the strength of gut immunity in the gut is called Secretory IgA or SIgA.

Low Sig A makes it harder for the body to beat infections, even with the help of herbs and supplements. If Sig A is under 150 you have to build it up before starting a killing protocol.

Two of the supplements that raise Sig A are saccharomyces boullardi and SBIs like MegaIGG2000.

Supporting your adrenals also helps raise Sig A because stress lowers immunity. I write in depth about Sig A here because one of the biggest mistakes that I see people make in healing their gut, by not raising or supporting immunity if it is too low.

Now that you understand that 7 things that could keep you feeling bad and prevent your protocol from working well, you have some promising avenues to explore.

While these may seem like a lot of things to juggle, they are connected.

Get the right tests, support your nervous system, immune system and adrenals and gain awareness of your thoughts. This is something that an experienced health coach can help with because they typically work with more aspects of health than just physical interventions.

Understanding the mind body connection is key and supporting both will make IBS a very bad and distant memory in your future.