TAKE THE 6R GUT HEALING QUIZ! https://alessifunctionalhealth.com/gut
(0:00) Introduction and the role of probiotics in gut health (2:00) Uncovering hidden gut imbalances with advanced testing (5:47) Understanding the key players in your gut microbiome (9:30) The dark side of gut bacteria: Pathobionts and pathogens (12:55) Connections between dysbiosis and chronic health issues (14:12) Leaky gut markers and their significance (15:51) Sponsor: Alessi Functional Health (17:21) Functional markers and digestive health insights (20:44) Actionable steps from your personalized gut health report (23:28) How to access your gut health score and special offer (24:25) Closing thoughts and contact information00:00:00
Taking a probiotic that's not that's not a fix that's a that's a band aid approach just a more
00:00:05
natural band aid approach.
00:00:07
The goal is to find where the imbalances and correct that and so feeding the good guys
00:00:13
eliminating the bad guys.
00:00:15
That's what we discuss in our six hour protocol of gut healing.
00:00:18
And so using things like prebiotics, anti inflammatory foods, but in particular lifestyle
00:00:23
factors, reducing stress, optimizing sleep, because when we can rebuild that gut ecosystem,
00:00:29
we don't just eliminate symptoms, but your biology begins to recalibrate, and this is how
00:00:35
you start to unravel and and undo these negative changes and symptoms that you've had.
00:00:40
Welcome to Health Decode, your number one source for real health information with your
00:00:45
host, doctor Alessi and Matt Tack.
00:00:51
Welcome back to another episode of the Health Decoded podcast.
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I'm your host, doctor Alessi.
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Today, we're gonna pull back the curtain on one of the most powerful diagnostic tools in modern
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functional medicine, what we call the deep gut scan.
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And you can see already I have a report here pulled up on my screen if you're watching this.
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If not I highly recommend you do watch this is very informative report here basically I'm
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going to be going through a sample of this deep gut scan report that we use in clinical
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practice to help uncover what is going on under the hood, if you will.
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And so in this episode, I'm going to take you inside what this report is.
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We'll go through section by section together, so you can see exactly what we look for when
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we're identifying what we call root causes of dysfunction and not just chasing symptoms.
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Things like joint pain, energy, mood, hormones and your immune system are all linked to your
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gut.
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We've talked about this in previous episodes.
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In fact, last episode was a very good episode that we relaunched talking just about this.
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And so you're going to learn really how we uncover the hidden imbalances and how most
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conventional testing actually misses these things, like gut dysbiosis, low bacterial
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diversity, leaky gut, and inflammatory toxins that can then trigger everything from fatigue
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to autoimmune disease.
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So, the end of this episode, you will understand why I say this is the best test and
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really why it's become a cornerstone for nearly every patient we see at Alessi Functional
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Health.
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Because when you fix the gut, you are fixing the foundation.
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So, let's get right into this.
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Let's start with what you're looking at here is basically the overview.
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And so, page one is a summary.
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So you basically get a summary when you take this test of your results.
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So And it's what we call like a bird's eye view, or your gut health snapshot, right?
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So it basically gives you a gut health score.
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Everybody went to school, we all understand that you get a grading system, right?
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And you want to be closer to that 100 to get a good grade.
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And so, you can see here it gives you an overall gut health score based on all the
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different metrics that we are going to dive into here shortly.
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And so, the two key scores we're looking at is number one, your diversity score, and then
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also, again, the gut health score.
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Now, the diversity score tells us how rich your ecosystem is, how many species of bacteria are
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living and working together in your gut.
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Think of it like an Amazon rainforest, where the more species that coexist, the healthier
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and more resilient the system will be.
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But when diversity stops, when we start losing certain species due to stress, antibiotic use,
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poor diet or toxicity, the ecosystem can become fragile, similar to like when a species of
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animal goes extinct, it can affect the entire ecosystem in that area.
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And so there was a study in 2021 published in Nature Microbiology that found reduced
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microbial diversity was linked to everything from metabolic syndrome and autoimmune disease.
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And in that study, they also found that this related to things like neurodegenerative
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disorders like Alzheimer's disease.
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So, this number right here, and this is again on your reports, not just a data point.
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This is a reflection of your biological resilience.
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And then the gut health score is combining metrics from multiple categories like I said,
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microbial balance, how much beneficial versus harmful species you have in your body,
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inflammation markers, and overall functionality of your gut.
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In the clinic, we like to see this number in the 80s.
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I prefer 85 or above.
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A score below 70 tells us the gut is struggling severely, whether that's an infection, poor
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digestion, or again, imbalance in the bacterial terrain.
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And so we can see here this 78, I mean, that's definitely suboptimal, it's under 80.
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And so we would take attention to what things need work.
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Now, if you see a score like this, it doesn't mean that you're broken, you're dying, right?
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It's not the end of the world, but it means that your gut has something going on and it's
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asking for some attention.
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And so, the perspective I always give my patients, conventional medicine is going to
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wait for this score to be bad enough that you have severe issues.
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But with functional medicine as we know, we talk about on the podcast all the time.
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This lets us get a gauge of where you are to get ahead of problems before they possibly
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become worse.
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And so let's get into some of these things on the next few pages here.
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I'm going to get into more of the detail that I think some people are going to appreciate some
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people.
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This might be more than you care to look at either way gonna get into this and so you know
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this section here is what we call the good guys.
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These are probiotic and commensal bacteria.
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And so these are what I like to call like the guardians of your gut.
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Your beneficial bacteria.
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They're probiotic and commensal species that keep inflammation low and your digestion
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strong.
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And so, your immune system is also calm and balanced because of that.
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When these microbes are thriving, you will feel it.
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Your digestion is smooth.
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You don't have those loose or constipated stools.
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You feel more normal, right?
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You are more regimented.
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But when they're depleted, you can start to feel symptoms.
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You can start to feel things unravel.
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And so, let's get into what are some of the power players here, okay?
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And so, if you're looking at the screen, obviously, I will be talking about this if
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you're not watching, but if you are watching, we're going to go through this list here.
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And so, the Bifidobacterium and the lactobacilli, these are like your frontline
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probiotics.
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They're going to support digestion, produce vitamins like B12, K2, and they help to kind of
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crowd out pathogens.
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Low levels of these often correlate with things like constipation, bloating, or a tendency
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towards like food sensitivities.
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Now, when we see these like phaco bacterium Parizanitzi, one of the single most important
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anti inflammatory bacteria in the human gut.
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And so, it produces something called butyrate, which is a short chain fatty acid that actually
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heals your gut lining and fuels your colon cells.
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There was a 2021 study in Cell Host and Microbe Journal found that low phaco bacterium levels
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were strongly associated with Crohn's, depression and obesity.
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Now, let's keep going here.
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Let's look at some more.
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Now, what we get here in this next page, rosaburia, another butyrate producer, it
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actually stabilizes your gut barrier.
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When this is low or missing, we often see leaky gut or we can correlate leaky gut because the
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intestinal wall is becoming more porous.
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And then, we get into things like acromancy.
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Sorry about that.
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The acromancy.
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So, acromancy of Municipila, I always tell patients this one's like your intestinal
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housekeeper.
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It will strengthen the gut, the mucus lining improves your insulin sensitivity, and low
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acromancy often shows up in patients with obesity, type two diabetes, or any type of like
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autoimmune, specifically thyroid disease.
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Now, you know, if you look at this sample report clinically, what does this mean?
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You'll notice some of these species are flagged as below optimal.
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Some are low, some are fine, right?
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And so, again, it's a clue.
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This is not a diagnosis, but it's a map of showing us where your gut ecosystem is and
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where it's out of balance.
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Again, we are base level here.
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We're at the foundation of like these things then can determine a diagnosis, right?
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And so when the good guys are low, the gut is going to lose its natural defense system.
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That's where opportunistic bacteria, yeast and toxins can start taking over.
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It's like firing half the security team in a busy city.
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The chaos will come.
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Right?
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Defund the police.
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You start getting rid of these things.
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The chaos will come.
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And so, this is where functional medicine goes beyond, right?
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Taking a probiotic.
00:09:03
That's not a fix.
00:09:05
That's a band aid approach, just a more natural band aid approach.
00:09:09
The goal is to find where the imbalance is and correct that.
00:09:14
So feeding the good guys, eliminating the bad guys and that's what we discuss in our six hour
00:09:19
protocol of gut healing.
00:09:21
And so using things like prebiotics, anti inflammatory foods, but in particular lifestyle
00:09:25
factors, reducing stress, optimizing sleep.
00:09:30
Because when we can rebuild that gut ecosystem, we don't just eliminate symptoms, but your
00:09:35
biology begins to recalibrate and this is how you start to unravel and undo these negative
00:09:42
changes and symptoms that you've had.
00:09:43
And so, this section of the deep gut scan tells us exactly where to start with that rebuilding
00:09:48
process.
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Now, let's get into what we call like the bad guys, right?
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Pathobionts, pathogens.
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Again, here are more commensals.
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Let me scroll down here.
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So, now you're seeing what we call again these Pathobionts and these reports are great because
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as a non doctor, somebody reading this can still understand a bit of what's going on.
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And so these pathogens or these these overgrowths these are opportunistic bacteria
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that start to crowd out and eliminate some of the good bacteria and then these can begin to
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create again dysfunction and then the symptoms coming from that.
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And so, you know, every gut should have some of these, right?
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It's not that you have, it's not if these are present, it's how much and whether or not your
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beneficial microbes are keeping them in check.
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And so again, that goes back to the balance thing.
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Now, what we are looking at, and again, we'll get a little myopic here, but I'm not going to
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go too crazy with detail, but looking at things like Klebsiella, Enterobacter, when we're
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looking at Citrobacter, these are our pathobioids that can trigger bloating, fatigue,
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inflammation, often tied to autoimmune conditions, things like AS, rheumatoid
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arthritis, more joint based.
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So, if someone has those types of things and they have joint pain, chronic rheumatoid pain,
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they've often not checked the gut if you've gone with Western conventional medicine route
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and they put you on some type of medication which can actually cause toxicity to the gut
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making this worse.
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And that's where people get frustrated.
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People get burnt out on doing the same thing with no change.
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And so there was a study in clinical and experimental immunology 2020 showed that
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molecular mimicry from klebsiella species can actually trigger autoimmune flares.
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Molecular mimicry is when your body thinks one thing is something else.
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And so, your, your cells or immune system starts to attack itself rather than this
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bacteria.
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And so, it's very, it can be very dangerous and it can lead to a lot of really, you know,
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harmful and long term symptoms as well.
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And so, again, this report shows if you're watching on the screen more of these
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pathobionts and pathogenic bacteria.
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And so again, there's you can see how it shows you very cleanly, you're in the green or you're
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in the red.
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Now we know where we need to focus.
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Other things that we would look for things like Clostridium species, which some of them are
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good, some are bad.
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Candida, which is a common fungal overgrowth that we see thrives when good bacteria gets
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depleted.
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So, somebody uses antibiotics a lot.
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They often can get this then Candida overgrowth, which is like a yeast.
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And so, way we read these again is not that, oh, every one of these needs to be eliminated
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completely.
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It's that they need to be within a relative abundance, meaning that there needs to be a
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certain level, but not an overabundance.
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And so, the term dysbiosis, if you're not familiar or I've said that and you're like,
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what is that?
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It's basically where dys meaning, you know, dysfunctional and then biosis with the
00:12:55
bacteria.
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So, there's an imbalance in that.
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And so, it is linked to things like leaky gut, food sensitivities, anxiety, depression,
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chronic fatigue, or even skin issues like eczema or acne.
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And there was a journal that said in Nature Communications Journal 2021 found that
00:13:13
dysbiotic microbiomes in adults were correlated with elevated CRP, which is C reactive protein,
00:13:20
and interleukin six, which are two major inflammatory markers that drive metabolic and
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cardiovascular disease.
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And so, again, we need to understand not just, okay, do we need to focus symptom wise, but
00:13:35
what's under the hood, what's at the deep level that is then leading to a downstream causing
00:13:40
symptoms?
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Because if these organisms are producing toxins, that's creating inflammation.
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That's then hijacking your nutrient absorption, your gut's ability to digest and process and
00:13:51
absorb nutrients that leads to a problem down the road as well.
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And so when these bad guys are dominating, then your gut turns from you know, a guardian a
00:14:00
healthy ecosystem into more of a battleground where things are attacking each other.
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It's very inflamed.
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And that's where the symptoms kick in.
00:14:07
So, now that we've seen the good guys, the bad guys, you know, this test does go deeper.
00:14:12
I'd like to touch on if again, you're following on the screen, this is where it gets pretty
00:14:16
cool.
00:14:17
What we call like the leaky gut and the functional restoration piece.
00:14:22
And so, as we get into this, again, let's scroll here.
00:14:27
Actually, real quickly, this is cool and this I didn't have this set to talk on, but this is
00:14:33
great.
00:14:33
So, essentially, what we did with this test was we were able to combine our two most popular
00:14:39
tests that we use one is a parasite gut stool test and then the other was what's called an
00:14:43
oat test or an organic acids test this test both of those.
00:14:47
However, we're able to save our a ton of money by doing it in one test as well.
00:14:53
So, a lot of time saved, lot of money saved, and able to make this a little bit more
00:14:58
accessible and affordable for people.
00:15:00
And so, it's definitely helped us to help more people and more people to learn about what's
00:15:04
going on in their body.
00:15:06
That was just an aside there.
00:15:07
And so, again, when we get into some of these leaky gut markers, what we're looking at is
00:15:14
three things really.
00:15:15
One is what we call zonulin.
00:15:17
And so, we're going to go back up to here.
00:15:20
So, now let's get into some of these things we look towards that are going to tell us what is
00:15:25
the health of your actual gut lining, the gut barrier, how your body is being affected by
00:15:32
this dysfunctional bacteria if that is going on.
00:15:35
And so, a lot of these markers get a very nitty gritty, but it's also very helpful for us as
00:15:41
providers to be able to see this to know what things need attention.
00:15:45
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00:17:19
Alright.
00:17:19
Welcome back.
00:17:20
Thank you for that.
00:17:21
Now let's get into this.
00:17:22
Okay?
00:17:22
So, again, the the three markers we're gonna look for when it comes to figuring out whether
00:17:28
you have confirmed leaky gut or what's going on with the gut lining.
00:17:32
Number one is called zonulin.
00:17:34
This is basically the protein that controls the tight junctions between your intestinal cells.
00:17:39
Think of your lining of your gut like a fence that's has metal bars and zonulin being the
00:17:45
pieces that hold those together.
00:17:47
When it gets affected, those start to open wider.
00:17:50
Now, more things can leak into the gut, into the bloodstream, and it becomes more porous,
00:17:56
allowing things like toxins, food particles, bacteria to now leak into your bloodstream.
00:18:01
And that's what we call leaky gut or intestinal permeability.
00:18:04
And so, a journal in Frontiers in Immunology 2020 linked elevated zonulin with autoimmune
00:18:12
thyroid disease, celiac disease, metabolic syndrome, and we have seen this, I mean, it's
00:18:18
ten out of ten times in our office, somebody comes in with thyroid autoimmunity that's been
00:18:23
confirmed with blood work, we test the gut and we find zonulin is out of control, leaky gut,
00:18:29
and now we know, hey, all the thyroid meds in the world are not going to fix this, we need to
00:18:33
fix your gut.
00:18:35
Another marker is something called calprotectin, an inflammatory protein released
00:18:40
by neutrophils, which are white blood cells.
00:18:43
High levels here point to active gut inflammation, sometimes even like early
00:18:48
inflammatory bowel disease like Crohn's or ulcerative colitis.
00:18:52
And then the third one is secretory IgA, immunoglobulin A.
00:18:56
It's your gut's first line of immune defense.
00:18:59
Basically like an antibody shield in your intestinal wall.
00:19:04
When this is low, your immune system is burned out and overwhelmed.
00:19:07
And when it's high, it's fighting something.
00:19:10
So, either way, high or low, it gives us data, it gives us insight.
00:19:14
Some of the other digestive function markers are things like these metabolites, right?
00:19:21
And so, these are able to tell us how well you're actually digesting and absorbing food,
00:19:27
is your body processing these things.
00:19:29
Pancreatic elastase tells us how strong your digestive enzyme output is.
00:19:34
If it's low, then you're not breaking down proteins and fats efficiently.
00:19:38
Beta glucuronidase helps us understand detox and hormone recirculation.
00:19:43
When it's too high, your body is reabsorbing toxins and used estrogen instead of eliminating
00:19:49
them.
00:19:49
And this is where then downstream hormonal imbalances can occur.
00:19:54
And so, those short chain fatty acids like butyrate, acetate and propionate, these are
00:20:01
basically your gut's anti inflammatory currency.
00:20:04
Low levels of these mean beneficial bacteria aren't producing enough fuel for your colonic
00:20:08
cells.
00:20:10
There was a study in the American Journal of Gastroenterology 2022 found that low butyrate
00:20:16
producing bacteria directly correlate with metabolic inflammation and impaired insulin
00:20:22
sensitivity, or metabolic syndrome diabetes, prediabetes.
00:20:27
And so, you come connecting the dots here, when you combine inflammation, leaky gut, low short
00:20:34
chain fatty acids and weak digestion, you get this perfect storm as to why people have so
00:20:40
many chronic conditions.
00:20:42
And this is why we use this deep gut scan.
00:20:44
It's not just to find what's wrong, but the design is actually how to fix it.
00:20:48
And this is a really cool test because I'm going to show you now in this next part, it
00:20:54
basically takes all of and obviously there's, you know, the docs, the doctors view of this
00:21:01
too comes into effect, but it takes all of that analysis that it did and it makes
00:21:06
recommendations as to what bacteria we should be using, right?
00:21:11
Should we increase this, reduce this?
00:21:13
What's like what species need help or assistance?
00:21:16
It also makes recommendations on what foods to eat more of, what foods to avoid, certain
00:21:22
probiotics or supplements that you can use.
00:21:25
It also recommends lifestyle changes like diet type, increasing fiber, maybe going ketogenic
00:21:32
based on some of these bacterial trends.
00:21:35
And again, the test itself is never going to eliminate the conscious mind of a doctor.
00:21:41
However, it can help to provide some insight for the doctor to then make more specialized
00:21:47
and personalized recommendations for the patient.
00:21:50
And so, you know, an example is like ketogenic diet is going to enhance neurovascular function
00:21:55
and improve achromancy levels, which we talked about earlier as a key anti inflammatory
00:22:01
species in your gut.
00:22:02
And so, you know, the other thing is that I love about this test is if you want, I mean,
00:22:07
there are a million sources in here for different references to probiotics and what
00:22:14
they do foods and how they affect the gut supplements, and even like prebiotics and
00:22:20
lifestyle changes.
00:22:21
So, so many studies went into creating this amazing test.
00:22:25
That's why we've decided to use it within our clinic to get amazing results with our
00:22:29
patients.
00:22:30
And now, again, what the test does is it gives us data.
00:22:33
This is one of our core tools to get insight as to what is going on.
00:22:38
And then from there, what do we do?
00:22:40
And that's where we can personalize with functional medicine, a plan to help someone get
00:22:45
from inflamed leaky gut poor digestion hormone imbalance back to vibrant full health energy
00:22:52
levels and mood.
00:22:54
And so, I always like to share if you've been chasing any of these symptoms if any of this
00:22:58
kind of rung true to you, and you want to finally understand what your body's trying to
00:23:02
tell you, this is where you'd start inside your gut.
00:23:06
If you're interested in doing this deep gut scan and getting a personalized gut health
00:23:11
score like you saw on on this this video, visit us at alessifunctionalhealth.com/gut.
00:23:18
You can start by taking that two minute quiz.
00:23:21
Be sure to include that you heard about this on the podcast and you'll get an exclusive
00:23:26
discount on your test.
00:23:28
When you fix the gut, you truly fix the foundation and everything else from there.
00:23:34
As always, if you found value in today's show, please do like, subscribe and share this with
00:23:39
someone who needs to hear it.
00:23:41
That's how we grow the message.
00:23:42
That's how we change more lives and ultimately help more people to create that ripple effect
00:23:47
and that impact outward.
00:23:49
If you want to get in touch with us or be featured on an episode, if you're a patient
00:23:52
who's experienced this, gone through this journey and had great results and want share
00:23:57
your story, please send any questions or information to askalessifxhealth dot com.
00:24:03
We'll be happy to share that on the show and answer those questions.
00:24:07
Also, can visit alessifunctionalhealth.com, sign up for the newsletter, check out our
00:24:11
resources page, you can learn more about our approach to nutrition, cutting edge therapies
00:24:16
and functional medicine.
00:24:18
I thank you again for tuning in to Health Decoded.
00:24:21
I'm Doctor.
00:24:21
Alessi, and I'll see you on the next one.
00:24:25
Thank you for tuning in to Health Decoded, where we break down the truth about all things
00:24:29
health and empower you to take charge of your well-being.
00:24:33
If you found value in today's episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with
00:24:38
someone who needs to hear this.
00:24:40
For more resources and personalized support, visit us at alessifunctionalhealth.com and sign
00:24:46
up for our newsletter.
00:24:48
To hear your questions answered live on the show, send them to ask at AlessiFX Health dot
00:24:53
com.
00:24:53
That's ask@alessifxhealth.com.
00:24:59
Until next time.
00:25:00
Stay curious, stay empowered, and remember, your health is in your hands.