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Top Functional Medicine Tests For Gut Health

Jun 30, 2021

Nothing is more frustrating than trying to cope with constant tummy troubles like bloating, belly aches, and emergency trips to the bathroom! Especially when you’re a busy on-the-go working Mum!

In this article, we’re going to share what most doctors miss when it comes to sorting out GI issues and the best functional medicine testing to get to the bottom of things (mind the pun, lol!).

When All Your Conventional Medical Testing Comes Back as “Fine”

Typically, when people go to their primary care physician complaining of gut issues, their doctor will do some standard labs, which usually involve scopes or maybe a blood test. 

While scopes and blood testing are important, it may provide only a small portion of information you need, and doesn’t reveal important information about the microbial balance of your gut health.

So if your test comes back fine, they may suggest it’s just a sign of getting older or may just be “stress”. They may offer you an antidepressant – which doesn’t even begin to address the real reasons you are experiencing GI symptoms like bloating, cramps, and diarrhea. Or maybe you’ll be prescribed some antacids or antispasmodics for the gut.

Then, we find people are sent home, to deal with the symptoms on their own. Often the symptoms just keep getting worse until many Mum’s find themselves feeling totally exhausted and burned out, struggling to cope with the demands of work, and the intensity of caring for the kids and the home.

 

Functional Medicine Lab Testing For The Gut

In our practice, we take a much deeper dive when it comes to gut health - and your overall health and happiness, and that of your family’s, as we know that a Mumma’s unhappy gut can have a negative rippling effect on the kids and your partner. We do specialty gut testing to see if you could be experiencing a gut infection or a condition like SIBO or Leaky gut.

Testing includes protocols like a breath test, comprehensive stool test, and even something like an organic acid test which can pick up bacterial infections or yeast infections that are usually missed by their primary care physician or even a GI specialist.

Hiatal Hernia Testing

In some cases, we also do a hands-on test for hiatal hernia as well. A hiatal hernia is when the stomach goes up through the diaphragm and into the esophagus.

This can cause things like reflux and heartburn, impact stomach acid, and can cause you to be in a constant stressed state. Stress on its own can also cause a hiatal hernia. Sometimes your feelings of overwhelm and your snappiness at the kids it’s LITERALLY because of a hiatal hernia!

With a hiatal hernia, you can also develop downstream gut issues also. For example, if you're not breaking down the food properly in the stomach, it can lead to things like constipation, bloating, diarrhea, and gut pain. And it’s more common than you think! In fact, it’s estimated that up to 85% of the western population have hiatal hernia syndrome. And often the hernia is too small to pick up on an endoscopy, so even if you have had this test with a gastroenterologist, chances are the hernia was missed. Even small hernias can cause very big troubles!

And it’s not just gut issues that are linked to a hiatal hernia. Hiatal hernias can also affect your lungs, heart, and your brain. Because it can push onto your lungs and your heart, many people experience anxiety-type symptoms like heart palpitations and shallow chest breathing.  It can also press on the vagus nerve which runs from your brain, through your esophagus, and into your stomach. This pressure against the vagus nerve can actually cause things like anxiety and depression- just like bacterial infections can do! Mums already have a bucket-load of stress - add on a hiatal hernia or gut infections, and it’s no wonder you’re feeling like Dragon Mum!

Once we know exactly what’s going on with your GI symptoms we can help guide you through the correct protocol. But we also guide our clients through mindset training as well as nutritional therapy so that they can learn how to deal with many of the causes of gut issues (which often come back to the way your brain is programmed) and preempt issues in the future.

 

Learn More About Gut Testing In Our FREE Video Course

To go deeper on the topic of gut testing,  and the impact an unhappy gut is having on your family, register at this link for our free video course series on Conquering Hormonal & Gut Burnout & Rebalancing Naturally - https://www.chrisandfilly.fm/minicourse 

 


Co-Authors: Chris & Filipa Bellette are the Co-Founders of Chris & Filly Functional Medicine, which is best known for turning time-poor, burned-out & frustrated professional working Mums & Dads, into Power Parents who are present, healthy & connected to their family, their passion and their purpose in this world. They have worked with over 2,000+ burnout clients in the last 10+ years, with their own passion for creating Power Parents coming from their own personal experience of body, mind & family breakdown, after a prolonged period of physical and mental stress.

 

Filipa is an accredited Clinical Nutritionist, and a Functional Medicine Practitioner, graduating from the Kalish Institute of Functional Medicine. She is also a PhD thought-leader, author and award- winner writer in Human Rights. Chris is an accredited Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) Master Practitioner, holistic personal trainer, and holds a Bachelor of Human Movement Science, and has won multiple placings in state and national level sporting competitions.


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