Why it matters & how to support it through digestive issues or IBS

Gut health. It’s all the rage, but what does it actually mean?

What is Gut Health

Gut health refers to the balance and function of bacteria and other microorganisms in the digestive system. A healthy gut efficiently processes food, absorbs nutrients, and supports overall immune function, while maintaining a balance of good and bad bacteria.

Do you experience gas, bloating, heartburn, etc.?

Your gut health could probably use some love! These symptoms that we’ve chalked up to being “normal” or easily solvable with a medication are actually your body’s way of alerting you that something needs attention.

Poor gut health can lead to so many issues within the body

It can impact your overall nutrient load in the body - if your gut isn’t absorbing nutrients from your food, it doesn’t matter how great of a diet you follow.

It can lead to digestive tract symptoms like bloating, gas, diarrhea, constipation and more.

It can lead to disease in the body if your gut lining is compromised and letting "foreign” substances into your bloodstream.

It can even lead to mental health challenges through the gut-brain connection.

But where do we start if we want to improve our gut health?

Things I don’t recommend

Taking a probiotic

Probiotics have become synonymous with gut health. But, unless you know what exactly is going on inside of your gut, you could actually be causing more harm than good with a probiotic.

Probiotics are bacteria, but if you have bacterial overgrowth of any kind, you could be feeding the overgrowth and creating a less balanced environment than it was in the first place. I find that these work better if we can target the exact strains you may need or as used to maintain gut health after we’ve solved the root cause.

I always recommend doing a Stool Test or an Organic Acids test with clients before treating any gut dysfunction with supplements as it’s crucial to understand what is going on under the surface before solving.

Taking a food sensitivity test

These have become the number one way to diagnose the “cause” of gut issues.

My POV is a healthy gut is able to tolerate all sorts of foods - so all you’ve learned if you take this test and get a list of 20+ foods you “should” avoid is that your gut needs some work.

This can be useful supplemental information to help reduce overall inflammation as we work on healing and improving gut function, but the more informative tests are the Stool or Organic Acids test I mentioned above for true root cause analysis.

If you take a food sensitivity test and it comes back with a laundry list of foods to NOT eat, don't eliminate everything!

Diving into a diet alone to fix the problem

Similar to the food sensitivity test above, any diets shown to improve IBS and other digestive symptoms are likely reducing inflammation and reducing the amount of fiber/bacteria you’re feeding your gut. Which will help manage symptoms in the short term.

But diets alone won’t fix the cause of the problem.

What to do instead

Test, don’t guess

Find a practitioner to run a stool and/or organic acids test for you. These are both the gold standard in gut health testing.

These tests can find underlying gut imbalances and infections that often go undetected because they are not common practice in traditional medical settings which often go straight to a colonoscopy or something similar to diagnose. But if nothing “looks” abnormal yet in those scans, you’ll likely be told things are fine and to take this IBS medication to manage symptoms (which can actually further damage the gut long-term).

Under the surface there could be:

Parasitic Infections
H. Pylori Overgrowth
Small Intestinal Bacteria Overgrowth (SIBO)
Candida Overgrowth

…all wreaking havoc on your gut function.

If you are testing stool, make sure it is a 3-day test as a lot can be missed if you’re only collecting one sample.

This information is so valuable in understanding what is at the root of your problem and can help you better manage if symptoms return in the future.

Focus on a whole foods, organic diet as you’re able

While we don’t recommend going straight into a crazy, restrictive diet, it is important to audit what you’re eating and remove ultra-processed foods, sodas and other food that provides little nourishment to help lower the burden on your gut while you’re healing.

It’s easy to want to blame a specific food group and things like gluten and dairy can be helpful to limit for a time being, but in reality, it’s the processed junk that is contributing the most to our poor gut health and swapping your pure cheddar cheese for a vita-life alternative, is likely doing more harm than good.

Manage your stress

Emotional and psychological stress can impact the gut lining (you can read more about the science of this here).

But there are other ways we often put unintended stress on our gut:

Lack of sleep
Medications
Alcohol
Pesticides/herbicides
Microplastics in the water
Chemicals in household products

Without getting too overwhelmed, it’s important to control what we can control in our modern environment. If you’re at the end of your shampoo, try replacing with something less toxic. You can shop my favorites here or use the Healthy Living app by EWG to find products that meet the EWG standards.

So, where should you start?

Calibrate was founded to help women properly identify and solve the root cause of their chronic health challenges. We have a free Gut Tune Up Guide available to you if you’re like us and needed some information yesterday. Download your free guide below.

You can also follow Calibrate and our founder Lauren on Instagram for more health and wellness tips!

Gut Health 101