Colorado Springs Functional Medicine

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Testing for Leaky Gut: Yes, It Does Exist

‘Leaky Gut’ has become a household term, at least from the clients walking into my door.  A gut’s leakiness is can be linked to mental/emotional issues, behavioral issues, auto-immune issues, and virtually any disruption in the body’s intelligent expression.

But the elephant in the room is that it’s hard to quantify.  You’re convinced there is a gut issue but you just don’t know to what extent.  There’s good news, labs are getting better and better at quantifying a leaky gut.

A newer test to me, maybe it’s old news to you, is the Advanced Intestinal Barrier Assessment from Dunwoody labs.

What Does It Test?

Zonulin

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Full Body Fix Radio: Pain, Inflammation, and Auto-Immune

Functional Medicine Colorado Springs

 

I was recently interviewed on Dr. Scott Mills’ podcast, The Full Body Fix.  You can subscribe to it on iTunes or click the image above for show notes.  We dive into the topic of when your aches and pains are more than just aches and pain and where to look when traditional body work isn’t fixing the problem.  Enjoy.

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Childhood and AutoImmune Expression: How Your Current Immune Overload Could Stem From Childhood Trauma

A trend that I have noticed on my intake forms from new clients over the past 4-6 months is that there are 2 questions answered that breaks my heart.  Both are yes/no questions.

Question #1:  Did you feel safe growing up?

Question #2:  Have you ever been abused?

I can say more often than not, I have seen more ‘Noes’ when asked if they felt safe growing up and I have seen more ‘Yeses’ when asked if they have ever been abused.  And a common ailment in those answers are autoimmune conditions.  Is there a direct correlation?  I wouldn’t rule it out but that’s just based on my observation.

Functional medicine Colorado SpringsI’ve had conversations about this with colleagues as well as I’ve talked about these similarities in my workshops.  But what I didn’t know, is that my speculation has already been quantified.

I was recently introduced to the ACE study.  I hadn’t heard of it but as it was described, I had to go find it.  The ACE Study (Adverse Childhood Experiences) was conducted between 1995-1997 and eligible for follow up through 2005.  ACEs included childhood physical, emotional, or sexual abuse; witnessing domestic violence; growing up with household substance abuse, mental illness, parental divorce, and/or an incarcerated household member.

In an autoimmune analysis based on those results, the outcome was hospitalizations for any of 21 selected autoimmune diseases and 4 immunopathology groupings.  64% reported at least one ACE.  First hospitalizations for any autoimmune disease increased with increasing number of ACEs.  Compared with persons with no ACEs, persons with >or=2 ACEs were at a 100% increased risk for rheumatic diseases.

MIND. BLOWN.

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