HINT: it covers more than just gut-related symptoms!
Your microbiome is like a rainforest ecosystem, what happens when the soaring trees that provide the foundation for this eco system, your beneficial gut bacteria, are wiped out or reduced greatly in number? While it’s normal to have some weeds in the rainforest, given the opportunity they will overgrow and take over the ecosystem. This is how opportunistic bacteria can behave in your gut creating an imbalance in the eco system. We call this dysbiosis.
- These opportunistic bacteria contain a toxin in their cell wall called lipopolysaccharides (also known as LPS)
- When you have dysbiosis it is highly likely that the associated inflammation & GIT disfunction will be causing some degree of leaky gut or intestinal permeability.
- High levels of LPS due to the microbiome dysbiosis can make their way through the wall of the large intestines, thanks for nothing leaky gut, and into the bloodstream where they can cause all sorts of problems by placing a burden on liver function and crossing the blood brain barrier causing depression or cognitive disfunction like poor memory, brain fog and fatigue.
- Other conditions that have been linked to high levels of circulating LPS include:
– Alzheimers
– Parkinsons
– Behavioural disorders
– Liver disease
– Diabetes - The inflammation caused by a dysbiotic gut can cause a cascade effect that can cause a breakdown of digestion function leading to disordered bowel motions and digestion as seen in IBS and food intolerances.
- Dysbiosis has also been linked to IBS, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, obesity, intestinal permeability (aka leaky gut), liver disease, neurological conditions, eczema and allergies – especially in children and infants.
If you’re concerned about dysbiosis we can arrange a non-invasive stool test to measure the bacterial levels and see what effect it may be having on your health.
Tessa
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