A major clinical focus for me is identifying and treating dysbiosis, but many people don’t know what that is or the many health consequences that it has on human health. So, let me try and break it down.
Dysbiosis occurs when the balance of the good and beneficial bacteria in the gut, also known as the gut microbiome, gets disrupted. For a healthy individual, good bacteria are abundant in and on the body. In fact, we have more of these beneficial bacteria than we have human cells.
What are the Major Causes of Dysbiosis?
Did you know that good bacteria play a vital role in human health since they synergize the normal function of the brain and body? So much so that without them, we would face serious chronic health issues.
However, one of the most important things you need to know about Dysbiosis is how it happens. Usually, it can get disrupted in one of three ways:
- The good or beneficial bacteria get killed off and no longer populate the gut in a sufficient quantity.
- Non-beneficial/harmful bacteria or yeast grow and overpopulate the gut.
- Both the good bacteria significantly decline, and the harmful/non-beneficial microbes overgrow in the gut.
The digestive tract represents the foundation of health
How Common is Dysbiosis?
Unfortunately, dysbiosis is surprisingly common. Most of the commonly prescribed medications are known to cause dysbiosis, including antibiotics, steroid medication, heartburn medication, and even birth control pills.
Dysbiosis can also arise if you have health issues like chronic diarrhea, food poisoning, or other digestive tract infections. It can even develop due to certain lifestyle habits such as overeating sugary foods, excessive alcohol intake, or the avoidance or overconsumption of a single macronutrient.
Can You Easily Detect Dysbiosis?
It is important to note that when dysbiosis occurs, the effects are not immediately experienced. That is to say, the symptoms are not always apparent. However, there are many negative consequences of having a significant disruption of the gut microbiome.
The vast majority of a person's microbiome resides in the digestive tract. Imagine the digestive tract as a hollow tube that extends from the mouth to the anus. Inside it, the gut microbiome carpets the surface, while the outside surface of the tube is covered by a layer of immune cells. In fact, research shows that 70-80% of the body's immune cellsreside in the gut.
The Link Between Gut Health and Inflammation
As food, beverages, and air enter the digestive tract, a vital interaction occurs between the microbiome, digestive tract, and the immune system. The digestive tract makes a critical “decision,” which centers around what should be absorbed into the bloodstream as a form of nourishment vs what should be eliminated from the body as waste.
In this interplay between the microbiome and the immune system, the microbiome acts as a teacher to the immune cells. It instructs them when to react, when not to react, and when not to overreact to substances they encounter during the digestive process.
However, if this process between the microbiome and the immune system gets disrupted, then it can result in a confused or disordered immune response, leading to the emergence of chronic inflammation.
This connection between dysbiosis and chronic inflammation is so important that it has been confirmed by scientific observation. Substantial disruptions of the microbiome have been reproducibly observed in people with inflammatory bowel disease, psoriatic arthritis, atopic eczema, chronic sinusitis, obesity, celiac disease, type II diabetes, and arteriosclerosis.
Do I need to take probiotics?
Common Questions About Dysbiosis | |
|---|---|
What is Dysbiosis? | Dysbiosis is the disruption of the microbiome in the digestive tract. |
What causes Dysbiosis? | Dysbiosis can arise due to: Overuse of certain medications Chronic diarrhea, food poisoning, or other infections of the digestive tract. Overeating sugary foods, excessive alcohol intake, or the avoidance or overconsumption of a single macronutrient. |
How does Dysbiosis affect my health? | It can disrupt your immune and digestive function while also causing chronic inflammation at various sites in the body or brain. |
What can be done to correct Dysbiosis? | Functional testing targets the gut, which helps create a simple-to-follow treatment plan that is used to correct Dysbiosis and its symptoms. |
Can Dysbiosis Be Cured?
Fortunately, there are multiple ways to detect and treat dysbiosis. When done properly, it can even address many of the downstream symptoms that this microbiome disruption leads to.
Testing the microbiome is essential, and it can easily be done with a take-home stool test that I can issue. Unlike OHIP stool testing, which literally tests for two common and self-limiting parasites, the stool testing I recommend is very comprehensive.
Through testing, we are able to identify which components of the microbiome are insufficient or missing, which symptom-causing microbes are present, and which therapeutic agents are effective in eradicating the specific symptom-causing microbes that were detected.
Testing is an invaluable tool for creating a targeted and effective treatment plan that corrects dysbiosis while simultaneously addressing the symptoms caused by this microbiome imbalance.
Bottom Line
All in all, Dysbiosis is treatable, and the negative outcomes of this condition can be avoided. However, after being diagnosed with dysbiosis, it is important to have stool testing performed so that specific microbial strains can be identified and the correct medicines can be selected.
At Aspire Natural Health, Dr. Romi Raina has many years of experience in helping patients treat this condition. It allows us to treat the symptoms by addressing the root cause of the issue so that you can return to a happy and healthy gut in no time!
