Leaky Gut Syndrome Natural Health Advice for Healing Leaky Gut Syndrome
  • Mar
    17

    What Exactly Is It That I Do?

    Filed under: Alternative Therapies;
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    I get a lot of questions from people about this and oftentimes people misunderstand what it is that I really do.

    Oftentimes I get labeled as a Nutritionist which is true to an extent. My education is in food science and human nutrition and I have extensively studied holistic nutrition for more than 10 years. And yes, nutrition is a huge piece of the overall puzzle and without it you’re not going to get lasting results. So there’s definitely a huge advantage to my nutrition background.

    But the way I practice involves much more than diet or nutrition alone. I practice Functional Medicine which looks beyond just food and works to determine the underlying cause(s) of your chronic symptoms.

    What is Functional Medicine?

    (From Wikipedia)

    Functional medicine is an emerging field of medicine grounded in the functional application of basic sciences. Some have coined functional medicine as patient-centered medical healing at its best. Instead of looking at and treating health problems as isolated diseases, its focus is on treating individuals who may have bodily symptoms, imbalances and dysfunctions. Functional medicine seeks to identify and address the root causes of disease, and views the body as one integrated system, not a collection of independent organs divided up by medical specialties.

    Functional Medicine vs. Conventional Medicine

    When dealing with functional medicine, we don’t treat disease or even symptoms. In fact, we don’t treat anything at all.

    It is very different from conventional medicine which relies primarily on drugs to suppress or offset the symptoms that the patient is presenting with. For example, prescribing pain killers when pain is present.

    Instead functional medicine looks at symptoms as a possible road mad that oftentimes points toward the underlying cause of the problem. And in many cases, this can be verified or further investigated through the use of lab testing.

    But in any case, there is always an associated underlying cause of stress on the body. And this stress causes dysfunction among one or more systems (digestive, hormonal, detoxification) within the body. And when the body can’t function properly then it shifts away from health and symptoms begin to develop.

    So the key is not to suppress the symptoms but rather determine and remove the underlying cause of stress that that is driving the symptom. If you do this then the body can return to normal homeostatic function and the symptom(s) will disappear on its/their own.

    And one of the easiest ways to return homeostatic balance to the body is to provide it with all of the necessary components that it needs to heal and achieve balance.

    Are Your Symptoms the Real Problem?

    Honestly, no.

    Your symptoms are merely a sign or signal from your body that is telling you that something is wrong. But too often people ignore or mask these signals until your body develops more serious symptoms as it moves further and further away from balance and health.

    So it’s important to look at your symptoms as a tool to get to the underlying problem instead of as the source of the problem itself.

    How This Relates to Leaky Gut Syndrome

    When specifically dealing with Leaky Gut Syndrome and gut dysfunction, few people realize that there’s much more involved than the digestive system alone that absolutely needs to be addressed.

    Hormonal System: When Leaky Gut develops, your liver becomes sluggish. And one important role of your liver is to process and break down or metabolize some key hormones. So if your liver can’t process these key hormones then they build up in your body and impair both your immune system and your body’s natural ability to heal, your gut included.

    Digestive System: When Leaky Gut develops, the entire digestive process becomes impaired. The inflammatory damage to the intestinal lining impairs your ability to produce the necessary enzymes to properly digest and break down your food. And your intestinal lining becomes far less efficient at absorbing nutrients. This leads to nutrient deficiencies and it becomes increasingly more difficult to obtain the necessary nutrients for healing.

    Detoxification System: When Leaky Gut develops, the toxic load on your body increases. We already mentioned above that your liver becomes sluggish so it can’t properly process the toxins that it comes into contact with on a daily basis. And oftentimes your colon which is one of the most important detoxification pathways within your body becomes impaired as well. So you lose your ability to properly process and eliminate toxins which instead are left to accumulate and create even more inflammation and damage inside your gut to further worsening your symptoms and condition.

    So as you can see, it’s very important to focus on all of the body systems together instead of addressing any single one alone. Otherwise, it becomes increasingly more difficult to heal the gut.

    That’s it in a nutshell and hopefully that clears up some common misconceptions about what I do and how I work with Leaky Gut Syndrome.

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    5 Comments
 

5 responses to “What Exactly Is It That I Do?” RSS icon

  • Hi Karen….HALLELULA!!!!!
    At last there’s someone out there who treats the whole body as an integrated organ with natural common sense remedies. Especially not demanding huge volumes of money to share their knowledge.
    THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

    I have suffered my entire life with digestive problems (am now 55) I’ve seen countless naturopaths, doctors and had colonscopies. Doctors always prescribe medications of which I have never taken (natural instinct) Naturopaths would just give me supplements which never seem to do a thing.
    I have done the process of elimination from my diet. Mainly grains, red meat and dairy. This helps me if I stick to it. But my dilema is we eat out alot with family and friends. This creates hunger for me if there’s no vegetables, fruit or simple protein foods that are’nt processed. Hence I end up eating a little to curb the hunger and not willing to offend those around me. Yes, I know my health is at risk by doing this, yet these people already think I’m a health nut and laugh as I’m overweight by 4 stone!
    Have tried taking fruit, nuts and seeds with me everywhere Igo as a back up, but this becomes boring and sometimes inconvenient living in a hot country like Australia.
    Do you have any suggestions?
    Regards.
    Jasmine

  • This is so overwhelming. I have had this problem for so looooooooooooong and everybody says the same thing there is nothing wrong with you it must be IBS. OK . I have had 6 colonscopies eaten radioactive eggs swallowed a camera scratch test for allergies did the gluten tests don’t have that MRIS. I had my husband drive me 4 1/2 hrs to the emergency room at the mayo clinic same thing IBS ok. stool samples nothing ok.life goes on I guess. I’m so tired. I don’t have diherriah and i’m not constipated. I feel like I have formented food in my stomach i’m nauseated every day my stomach blows up like a balloon if I eat there are times it takes 15 min and I have a bowel movement other times i’m so sick I have to lay down my body aches so bad and I never sleep i’m so exhausted and I have no sex drive at all. I’m terrified eating at work that I will get sick. we go on vacation we always eat at are destination me and my husband have signals if I get sick at a restaurant and have to leave. I have seriousious on my foot drive me crazy.One time I can eat a Food and the next day eat the same thing and i’m sick I have tried so many different diets I give up. You offer so much in your program I guess i’m scared that mabe it isn’t leaky gut. You ask what I would do if I had energy and felt normal what would I do I think I for got what normal is. Oh also odors if there is a bar a soap in the bathroom I get goofy I feel like I have a buzz or something same thing with perfumes cleaning supplies oils and any odors.When I feel the best is when I don’t eat at all.Thanks for listening . You cry so much there are no more tears

  • Thank God For you have been a blessing to thank you.

  • Thank you for your efforts to help people in understanding the leaky gut syndrome problem and any thing around it.
    Thank you for shearing your information with all of us. The best material in this matter.
    Hugo W. Galvez

  • Hello Karen:

    your website is very helpful, thank you so much. what fruits can i eat with this leaky gut issue? which ones should i avoid.

    many thanks, ruby alonso


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