The gut-brain connection is a very powerful force within the body that requires a specific balance to maintain overall health and wellness. If and when an imbalance occurs, there is a consequential cascade while the body tries to restore the proper balance that can be difficult to identify, stop, and reverse.

SIBO, or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, is an imbalance of the microorganisms in your gut that maintain healthy digestion. Many imbalances can lead to SIBO including a potential parasite, but more commonly it is a result of an impaired HPA axis or lack of diversity and dispersement. This imbalance can lead to uncomfortable or unwanted symptoms such as constipation, bloating, gas, diarrhea, reflux, frequent UTIs etc. and/or it can inhibit your ability to digest and absorb nutrients from food.

Balanced Health utilizes blood and stool to comprehensively assess the root cause, the body’s attempt to repair the imbalance in both inflammatory and histamine responses, and the amount of damage that has been done as a result. Depending on the extent of impairment, most guts can be repaired in 3-6 months, freeing up your mind and body to focus on what is really important!

Leaky gut a common complaint that is often misunderstood and mistreated. For the sake of simplicity, a leaky gut means that the gut microbiome and its environment have some level of damage (likely from SIBO, parasites, or nutrient deficiencies) which allow particles and molecules to freely enter and exit the system.

The easiest way to explain it is to think of the digestive system like a tiled shower. If you left the shower moist and never cleaned it, you might start to see some pink mold grow. If you kept the environment moist and unclean, different types of mold would grow in addition to the pink mold. Eventually, with no change in the environment, the molds would start to degrade the grout between the tiles allowing for passage in and out of other substances.

Similar to SIBO and parasite assessments, there are stool tests that will help us identify the root cause and also provide the tools to reverse the cascade. As with anything, not all stool tests are equal (meaning they may not test the same things, they may not provide the path to fix it, they may only tell part of the story. Often these patients have had many tests and scopes and scans done, but were repeatedly told that everything looked normal and healthy. So just because you have had previous testing, doesn’t necessarily mean it was the right testing for you to provide the answers you needed to heal.

At Balanced Health, we have successfully treated many leaky guts in kids and adults alike. Once testing is complete, it takes about 3-6 months to heal the gut completely.

Unfortunately, constipation and/or encopresis (fecal incontinence) are more common than people realize. These can be very intrusive issues that begin to dictate and limit the patient’s life (what can I eat, where can I eat, where is a bathroom, what if I can’t control it etc.). A lot of worrisome energy is expended and a certain degree of damage can occur depending on how long and how severe the issue.

At Balanced Health we see patients of all ages with these issues that have often become dependent on interventions such as Miralax, Lactulose, fiber supplements etc. While those interventions may provide temporary relief, they are not intended for lifelong use and are not treating the root cause thus acting as a bandaid solution.

Similar to the SIBO and Leaky Gut descriptions, we have specific blood and stool testing that can help us identify the cascade of events happening and thus, treat the root cause. There are so many possible contributing factors, usually there isn’t just one causative agent. And while there are likely multiple impairments contributing, there are multiple risks associated with these stooling patterns if left untreated.