How Do I Know If I Have Poor Gut Health?

If your healing chronic illness, struggling with mystery symptoms (like fatigue, brain fog, weight gain/weight loss, mood changes, and more) Gut health is usually a great place to start when healing. Initially, we may wonder why?

Why Gut Health?

We are all bacteria. The human microbiome project revealed that we are 10 times more bacteria than human cells. A large majority of this bacteria resides inside your gut and is essential to being well. The gut control aspects of self like emotions (gut-brain axis), toxin elimination, and full-body health. Much of our health starts and ends in the gut. When we choose to focus on healing our guts we consequently also heal our hormones, mood disorders, skin, detox organs, digestion, and so much more.

The human microbiome project also revealed that 80 percent of the population has leaky gut. Now, that’s an 80 percent of the population that leaks what the gut disposes of directly from their guts into he other functions of the body. The modern age is plagued by bacteria imbalance, toxic mold, candida SIBO, and IBS. Not to mention a toxin overload in our environments and food supply. Now, imagine- with 80 percent of the population having a leaky gut it is no surprise we are becoming more plagued by illness. Those toxins and leaching out into our bodies and making us ill.

The 20 Percent 

If you happen to fall within the 20 percent of people without leaky gut, I would not consider you to be  100 percent clear from gut illness. Again, those toxins, lack of bacteria, and the food we consume have a huge impact on our gut, Take action and preventive measures.

The Action Steps 

I always suggest starting off with testing. Identifying where we need the most healing is key. I also recommend not “writing off” any of your symptoms. Brain fog, fatigue, weight gain, inflammation, food allergies, and so on. These are all clues about what is happening inside your body. 

Proper testing to gain a broad picture of what’s going on may include Stool testing, blood tests, and hormone panels. This is not the full scope of testing merely a starting ground.

Another method would be to just focus on the gut(with or without testing). With the lack of good bacteria in our diets(found in the soil) and lack of proper probiotics, the odds are that our guts are imbalanced. Let me ask you. Were you swabbed as a baby? Do you have a diet high in bacteria? Small steps like this make large impacts on our health as adults.

Key factors 

The key factors when deciding if a gut health program is right for you always come down to a few questions:

1. Do you have a history of long term antibiotic use?
2. How is your digestion? What other symptoms do you have?
3. What is your relationship to probiotics and pre-biotics?

Again, this is not all the answers( in fact it’s nowhere close) to all the answers but identifying that our guts may need extra support is vital o our health as human beings.

So, How do I know If I have poor gut health?

I cannot answer this question for you. I hope you answer the above question honestly with your self and take action to help heal your gut. Your gut is a major puzzle piece to wellness and should never be overlooked. In fact, it is a great place to start. Start by identifying through problem-solving or by the questions I posed in this article. Then take action. What are you feeding your body? Do you often cleanse ( for parasites, digestive reset, or otherwise)?, and most importantly: How do you feel? If you feel anything less than well you gut health is a fanatic place to start.

Need more?

I support individuals with chronic gut health identify the lead causes of why they aren’t feeling well. If you looking for 1-1 support for your chronic illness or mystery symptoms, please check out my bio individualized 1-1 coaching where I help you get to the root cause of your health concerns and wellness goals.