How often do you think about your digestion?
The answer SHOULD be, nearly never
Unfortunately for so many patients, digestive disorders can create a lot of stress, discomfort, and long-term health challenges. Perhaps this is why digestive issues are such a common reason patients seek out naturopathic care!
Functional digestion is the foundation upon which health is built; correcting digestive disorders is often necessary to allow the body to optimally absorb nutrients from the diet, heal other chronic health issues, and prevent long-term illness.
On the flip side, poor digestion can lead to symptoms in and the breakdown of many other body systems.
I have experience with a variety of digestive disorders, including:
- Halitosis/bad breath
- Heartburn, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)
- H. pylori infection
- Gas, bloating
- Constipation, diarrhea/loose stools, Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency (EPI)
- Gallstones, gallbladder attacks
- Celiac disease, gluten sensitivity
- Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
- Fungal dysbiosis, including Small Intestinal Fungal Overgrowth (SIFO)
- Colon dysbiosis, including Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) overgrowth
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Crohn’s, colitis
- Intestinal parasites
- Food sensitivities
My approach to healing digestive disorders
I LOVE working with patients to improve digestion! Because the digestive system is multi-faceted and complex, each case is unique but my approach to solving digestive problems follows a similar structure.
First, we talk through the subjective information which includes current symptoms, history and treatments, and overall medical history and timeline. This subjective information helps me rule in or out some of the long list of possible contributors to your condition and identify relevant tests and/or treatments. In many cases, there are naturopathic therapies (diet, lifestyle, nutritional supplements, herbs, remedies) that can be applied immediately to ease symptoms and improve digestion.
In chronic or complex cases, it can be helpful to review the objective information already available, such as relevant physical exams, testing you’ve already completed, and/or gather additional objective information via additional or more in-depth testing to more definitively rule in or out underlying causes or contributors. Although testing has limitations, it can be incredibly helpful to guide us toward appropriate treatment rather than waste time, money, and energy on trial and error.
The third part of my approach is to formulate a hypothesis from the subjective and objective information we have, treat according to this hypothesis, assess results, and adjust treatment as necessary. The end goals are:
- Restore functional digestion and minimize symptoms
- Restore vital nutrients
- Establish sustainable and health promoting dietary habits
- Avoid long-term reliance on restrictive diets or other complicated treatments
In many cases, this can be achieved within just a few weeks or months. In more chronic and complex conditions it can take longer to thoroughly address digestive health due to the intricate and complex nature of this system. Each step of information gathering, treatment, reassessment, and adjustment yields important information to continue healing and achieve long-term improvement.
Related knowledge, courses, and training:
- Superceding SIBO
- Beyond Superceding SIBO: Gastrointestinal Dysbiosis, Disorders, & Disease
- Biofilms – Concepts and Theories
- Confident Clinician SIBO Demystified
- Confident Clinician Inflammatory Bowel Disease Module
- Botanical IBS Formulations
- The Microbiome and Pediatric Health
- Confident Clinician GERD Module
Helpful articles:
- Got SIBO?
- SIBO Diagnosis and Treatment
- Is there value in food sensitivity testing?
- What’s the difference between food allergy, sensitivity, and intolerance?
Ready to work together?
Book a free 15 minute Meet and Greet consultation to learn more about me, Naturopathic Medicine, and find out if this is a good fit for you.