Your gastrointestinal tract takes in food and drinks every day – pulling and creating important nutrients while keeping pathogens out so you stay healthy and well. When your gastrointestinal tract is doing a good job it’s easy to take it for granted. Only when there’s inflammation interrupting the gut’s daily tasks do we suddenly realize how important the gut is to our overall health.
Your gastrointestinal tract is also home to trillions of bacteria called the gut microbiome. Research has found that the gut microbiome is largely responsible for your wellbeing. We evolved alongside these microbes and they help us extract nutrients, make important byproducts, and maintain balance to keep harmful pathogens in check.
In fact, when your gut microbiome is out of balance it’s called dysbiosis, which is associated with numerous gastrointestinal issues but also chronic diseases – many you might not expect to be caused by the gut. When gastrointestinal issues go unchecked for a long period of time, it can progress into more serious and life-threatening conditions such as autoimmune disease.
This is why we always encourage our patients to take their gut health extremely seriously. You should never ignore signs of recurring gas, bloating, heartburn, and indigestion. These are often symptoms of a much bigger problem.
Gut conditions are one of the most common problems we see in our practice today, some of these include:
- Leaky Gut
- Dysbiosis
- Inflammatory Gut Conditions
- Yeast overgrowth
- Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)