You might have heard it before: your gastrointestinal system, commonly called the gut, acts like a second brain. Your gut is innervated by a mesh-like system of neurons which contains approximately 500 million neurons. Although the gut health is directly connected to the brain via the vagus nerve and hence they have the ability to influence each other, it also acts independently: that’s why we call it the enteric nervous system.
Unlike the central nervous system, this secondary nervous system largely relies on our autonomic functions and is constantly regulated by feedback from our organs and our stress level. The main role of the enteric nervous system is to orchestrate your digestive function by helping to process food and absorb nutrients. Recent studies showed that it is also involved in many other vital functions: 90% of serotonin is produced in there with the help of gut bacteria. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that is essential for proper functioning of our brain, and improper action of serotonin has been linked with many conditions including cognitive dysfunction, poor sleep, depression, eating disorders, obesity, and mood disorders.
The gut health is also closely related with our immune system and how our body regulates inflammation. More specifically it is the gut microbiome that plays a key factor. The microbiome is the aggregate of microbes that live in our gut. We have trillions of bacteria categorized in over a thousand species, representing millions of genes, which outnumber the amount of genes in the human genome. Some of those bacteria are beneficial for the proper functioning of our metabolism whereas others can be harmful. In addition to that, our gut also contains viruses, fungi, and sometimes parasites or worms that can also affect us.
When did it go wrong:
We acquire our microbiome as soon as we are born and possibly even in the womb. During delivery, we are exposed to our mother’s birth canal. Breast milk is another early source of developing our microbiome. As kids, playing in the dirt helps us to be exposed more to bacteria that help build up our microbiome. Unfortunately in recent years we have seen an increase in births by c-section, use of formula milk, overuse of antibiotics, processed/sugary foods, and overall germophobia. This lead to a massive shift in our microbiome content, characterized by overgrowth of opportunistic bacteria (SIBO), or fungi (candida). In consequence, we start to see more and more people suffering form obesity, stomach bloating/pain, digestive issues, and food allergies. And that’s not all: due to the intricacies of the interactions between the gut and the hormonal and nervous systems, people are also suffering from mood disorders, chronic fatigue, night sweats, or brain fog to name a few.
Diagnosis:
Because the discoveries regarding the gut microbiome and its influence on the human body are fairly new, conventional diagnostic methods are for the most part robust enough to identify the issue. Our gut health treatment clinic uses cutting-edge lab testings that provide the most accurate picture of your microbiome currently available. We aren’t focused on labeling a disease, but rather dig deep to find the reason why your body expresses a disease and what the underlying mechanism is.
Treatment:
Instead of treating patients by masking their symptoms, we understand that symptoms are actually the body’s signaling system to warn us of major imbalances that need to be addressed. Once we have established the root causes to where these symptoms stem from, we can develop a comprehensive protocol that is customized to each patient’s needs. We implement nutritional and lifestyle changes that support the microbiome so the immune system can then thrive and allow the body to rebalance and heal.
Dr. Sara is not the run of the mill chiropractor- you most likely won’t get the same gut health treatment every week, and she does not stick to cracking necks. Stress management, nutritional therapy, and gut health are all part of the regimen, and she does a lot of soft tissue work too. She’s often helped me find supplements to repair deficiencies, and it can be a surprise to recognize “hey, this is working!C.M.
