The state of your gut microbiome is a current trending wellness topic. And for good reason! Your gut microbiome is the colony of good and bad bacteria that live in the gut. Research shows that the balance — or imbalance — of the gut microbiome impacts almost every other system in the body. Think: your digestive, cardiovascular and immune systems.
Read on to learn why the gut plays a large role in overall health. And how functional medicine testing helps guide your custom wellness plan.
Let's start with how the gut microbiome impacts your immune system. Studies show that gut health is directly tied to how likely you are to experience certain health outcomes. From viral and bacterial infections to chronic conditions and diseases like irritable bowel syndrome, autoimmune disease, obesity, diabetes and certain cancers – gut health plays a large role in how these develop.
Gut testing pinpoints the root of your issues to help you overcome them, naturally.
This pushes proper gut health to the top of our priority list to help patients achieve overall wellness. The problem is that everyone has a unique gut microbiome and wellness goals. Next, we'll cover how our practitioners use functional medicine testing to evaluate your gut microbiome.
Your gut's health is largely dependent on your diet, lifestyle and genetic makeup. This means there's no one-size-fits-all approach to gut health. Here's where gut microbiome testing comes into play.
If you eat what you consider a healthy diet and exercise regularly but experience frequent sickness, discomfort or inability to weight, here's the situation: those "good-for-you" foods you eat aren't actually good for you!
Depending on your genetic makeup, some traditionally healthy foods may actually cause inflammation to your system. Since inflammation is the start of almost every chronic disease, we want to reduce inflammation as much as possible.
Other nutrients may simply not be bioavailable to you. Instead of being digested efficiently, they are flushed out of your system and do nothing to improve the state of your health. Now, we'll explore how to determine which foods cause you issues and how we create a custom gut care plan just for you.
Gut microbiome testing analyzes the unique composition of your gut. It shows your balance of good and bad gut bacteria and how your gut reacts to the foods you eat. Results from tests like the GI-MAP Test (available for current patients) help us create personalized nutrition recommendations to help you reach and maintain your ideal gut balance and function. Explore the gut health tests (and our full menu of functional medicine tests) we offer to patients here.
Since all your body systems work more efficiently when nourished properly, gut health testing puts you on the path to overall wellness!
If you suffer from frequent illness, autoimmune disease, IBS or other chronic conditions, you don't have to deal with them alone. Our team helps you confront them naturally with custom care plans that get to the root of your gut issues. Become a patient here!