Gut microbiota (formerly called gut flora) is the name given today to the microbe population living in our intestine. While each of us has a unique microbiota, it always fulfils the same physiological functions, with direct impact on our health:

• It helps the body to digest certain foods that the stomach and small intestine have not been able to digest.
• It helps with the production of some vitamins (B and K).
• It helps us combat aggressions from other microorganisms, maintaining the wholeness of the intestinal mucosa.
• It has been shown to modulate our immune system.

A healthy and balanced gut microbiota is key to ensuring proper digestive functioning. Oftentimes, on further investigation through a comprehensive stool test assessment – The GI Effects ™ – I pick up gut infections such as Helicobacter Pylori or parasites that are negatively impacting the microbiome.

Years or lifetimes of poor diet and medication such as antibiotics severely disrupt the ecology of your gut, leaving a state of dysbiosis where pathogens such as yeasts and bad bacteria can flourish.

In a normal, healthy gut lining there are epithelial cells forming tight junctions that allow certain molecules to pass across into the bloodstream, such as vitamins, minerals and digested food in the form of amino acids, glucose and some fatty acids. However, it also acts as a barrier preventing entry to larger damaging molecules, foreign particles and bacteria.
This intestinal lining is very delicate and can be easily damaged by poorly digested foods, provocative proteins (such as gluten), toxins, antibiotics, some medications and high levels of cortisol.
When there is damage to this lining, it can open up slightly, causing a condition called leaky gut or Intestinal permeability. This allows partially digested foods, toxins, and bacteria to enter into the bloodstream and thus presented to the immune system just beyond the gut wall. Resulting symptoms are persistent inflammation, irritation, possible autoimmune attacks, pain, digestive discomfort and food intolerances (resulting in further inflammation).

You’ve probably heard the saying ‘fight or flight’ as a reaction of the nervous system in response to a stressor. During fight or flight, blood flow is shunted away from the gut, and towards muscles that can fight the perceived stress. This is why food feels so heavy and undigested if we eat on the run or while stressed. We literally shut our gut down in order to attend to more urgent matters.

So many people living this modern lifestyle are experiencing unsustainable stress levels. Not only will they have chronic poor blood flow to their gut, but also high levels of the stress hormone cortisol and stress-related neurotransmitters such as adrenaline and glutamate, which can cause damage to the mucosal barrier. A client suffering from stress and IBS or functional digestive disorders will not totally improve until the stress has been addressed.

SIBO is actually a very common (up to 84%) yet often undiagnosed cause of IBS.
It’s not uncommon for clients to tell me that they wake up with a flat stomach and by lunchtime their clothes are so uncomfortably tight they look six months pregnant.If you’re having gas and/or bloating regularly, you could have food sensitivities and/or a gut infection, such as SIBO.
What is SIBO?
SIBO stands for Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth.
Normally, bacteria are found in the trillions in the Large Intestine, where they perform numerous symbiotic functions for our overall metabolism. SIBO is a condition where bacterial overgrowth occurs in the absorptive area – the Small Intestine. Those bacteria are then able to act on poorly-digested, fermentable carbohydrates, causing hydrogen, methane and hydrogen sulphate gases that produce uncomfortable symptoms such as bloating, gas, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and/or constipation.
The effects of SIBO can, and often do extend beyond direct gastrointestinal symptoms. Increased gut permeability can occur, causing translocation of bacteria and insufficiently digested food particles that trigger immune activation, leading to pain and other symptoms such as brain fog. It also predisposes an individual to food sensitivities.
Nutrient deficiencies can arise as the bacteria consume some of the ingested foods; B12 and iron, for example, which can lead to anaemia, and deconjugation of fatty acids from bile that reduces absorption of fat-soluble vitamins – A, D, E and K.
SIBO sufferers also tend to have altered secretory IgA values, demonstrating that SIBO directly alters immune activity in the gut.

Symptoms of SIBO can include:

• Diarrhoea
• Constipation
• Alternating constipation and diarrhoea
• Abdominal cramping
• Bloating and/or wind
• Burping and Acid Reflux/GORD
• Food sensitivities
• Joint pain
• Skin rashes
• Iron and B12 deficiency
• Respiratory symptoms such as asthma

There are a number of associated conditions with SIBO:

• Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – especially associated with diarrhoea dominant SIBO
• Chronic constipation – associated with methane-dominant SIBO
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• Inflammatory Bowel disease (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis)
• Acid reflux
• Coeliac disease
• Interstitial Cystitis
• Restless leg syndrome
• Acne Rosacea
• Diabetes
• Hypothyroidism
• Scleroderma
• Chronic Prostatitis
• Diverticulitis

Gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, is a digestive disorder that affects the lower oesophageal sphincter (LES): the ring of muscle between the oesophagus and stomach. Stomach acid belongs in the stomach – not in the oesophagus – and this is why we have this valve. The standard approach is to provide a proton pump inhibitor medication to reduce stomach acid secretion in people suffering from heartburn and GERD.

Instead, I propose to always the question, “what is causing the LES to malfunction?” It can be any number of the areas described previously under the digestion 101 or SIBO section. As always, I take a whole picture approach and work across all of these areas, endeavouring to get to the root cause.