According to Dr. Google, "Dysbiosis refers to an imbalance in the composition and function of the microbial community within a body, particularly the gut microbiome. This imbalance can lead to various health issues, including digestive problems, inflammatory conditions, and even neurological and mental health concerns."

In the medical or scientific world, you would have to live in a cave to not know the word "dysbiosis" - - it's ALL OVER the scientific literature, it's a popular buzzword on the internet, and along with "leaky gut" it's REALLY, REALLY important for autoimmunity - - but what exactly does that MEAN?!?! It just means imbalance of living things in the body, but it is a MAJOR DRIVER of inflammation, permeability, immune imbalances, histamine, autoimmune progression, and SYMPTOMS.

Did you know you can have dysbiosis of the ear canal and that drives inner ear inflammation?

Did you know you can have dysbiosis of the mouth and it drives gingivitis and cavities?

Did you know you can have dysbiosis of the sinus, lung, vaginal tract, or skin?

Dysbiosis is bad, it drives inflammation, and the solutions are generally to "pull weeds and plant seeds" - - but still - - HOW DO YOU KNOW, HOW CAN YOU MEASURE IT, and WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?!?!

That's what this podcast breaks down - - (some of) the tools I use in an effort to suspect dysbiosis (symptoms), detect dysbiosis (labs), or address dysbiosis (action steps) - - some of my favorite probiotics, antimicrobials, and more.

Bloating is one of the most common symptoms that I see, if not THE SINGLE MOST COMMON COMPLAINT I HEAR IN PRACTICE (but anxiety is up right there....).

Honestly, I see great results with bloating and feel confident that I can help improve this complaint, but over the years I have realized that there are different "types" of bloating - - there can be gas production, food reactivities, intestinal inflammation, uterine/ovarian inflammation, maldigestion, water retention, or all-of-the-above could be happening at the same time - and all these can lead to the feeling of abdominal distention and make someone say "I just feel BLOATED!"

I used to think that almost all bloating was fermentation of foods from imbalanced gut bacteria (dysbiosis - my next podcast episode!!!), but as I've helped hundreds of cases of bloating throughout the years, I now realize that not all "bloating" is the same thing - there is fermentation and gas production yes, which can come from Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), and this is STILL the single-most common driver, but what if it's NOT SIBO? What if it's SIFO (fungal overgrowth)? What if it's LOW bacteria in the gut? What if they have H. pylori or a parasite? What if it's not from gut dysbiosis? What are the MECHANISMS THAT MAY BE INVOLVED? How can we test for these things, and WHAT CAN WE DO?!?!

In this podcast I discuss how I approach these cases, what the mechanisms might be, and how I differentiate bloating from foods vs. bloating from inflammation vs. bloating from histamine vs. bloating from water retention vs. bloating from hormone cycles - and how I might address each of these differently so that someone comes back in and says "MY BLOATING IS GONE!", which is a great thing to hear :)

In this episode, I interview my friend and colleague Dr. Roberta Van Zant DO, a functional medicine expert in many areas, but especially Lyme disease and tick-borne infections.

Due to several reasons, including my background training as a chiropractor, scope of licensure (can't prescribe....), my practice style (cash-based consultations services - no insurance), and some other reasons that I discuss in the podcast, I personally don't dive as deep into infections as many other practitioners do - Lyme, Bartonella, EBV, CMV, HHV, HSV, Strep, Pseudomonas, Mycoplasma, etc - but that doesn't mean I don't think they matter in autoimmunity, they matter A LOT.

Everyone knows that infections drive inflammation. Everyone knows when they have the flu they don't want to get out of bed. Everyone knows when they have strep throat they can't hardly swallow. Everyone remembers 2020. My kids even know this stuff. Fevers, coughs, lethargy, earaches, belly aches, headaches - that's an immune response, and it's a GOOD THING most of the time. BUT, then it can get confusing when you go deeper than surface-level!

There are a lot of different "types" of infection - acute, chronic, something you picked up from your kids vs. something that's been living inside of your body that has become imbalanced (yeast, SIBO, etc) vs. something that "reactivates" like a virus....then there are RNA viruses and DNA viruses, there are tick-borne infections that can lay dormant or be passed in utero to babies, there are biofilm colonies of bugs (which Dr. Van Zant describes as a "party" that we don't know who all is at at the party, but we know it's going on inside of us.....I love that!), and there are GOOD BUGS TOO - and it can be confusing.

SO, in this episode, Dr. Van Zant and I discuss all of these things and more, including testing, treatment, some clinical tools we use, some reasons for why we do what we do when we do it, while both having the same goal - trying to help people get better.