GI problems present in many forms and flavors. Some patients come to us with upper stomach symptoms soon after eating and we can focus on gastritis (inflamed stomach), SIBO (Small intestine bacterial overgrowth), digestive enzyme insufficiency, or dysmotility leading to reflux and heartburn. Some come with lower symptoms of constipation, diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, or even autoimmune inflammation.
Others come with autoimmune conditions, brain fog, hormones imbalances or vitamin deficiencies and do not realize that their gut lies at the heart of their systemic symptoms.
Your story tells us the majority of what we need to know about gut health. The dietary history, the infection history, your travel history, and a review of GI related symptoms points us towards what testing will reveal the full picture.
From there, we customize your testing with options from food antibody testing, stool function and microbiome testing, SIBO breath testing, or organic acid testing for yeast and bacterial imbalances.
Less Sugar with the Antibiotics As more and more people recognize the risks of antibiotics’ effects on our gut bacteria, this article offers one more tool to protect our colon bacteria when antibiotics are unavoidable. While natural therapies can boost our immunity and fight some mild to moderate infections, at times severe infections just need…
A preliminary vote just got cast in the debate between functional medicine’s dietary emphasis in treating IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) and conventional GI doctors who dismiss the diet’s role, and it was cast for functional medicine’s side. Further, for those who hate spinach, the good news just keeps getting better: the oxalates it contains may…
In the old days, understanding toxicity meant studying a toxin’s effects on our metabolism, but today we know that the roughly 4,500 different types of bacteria in our GI tract also matter to the toxin’s effects. While many of the present world’s identified chemicals may not directly affect our metabolic processes, their effects on the…
Will a simple natural compound in rice bran one day become a foundational therapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) patients who struggle with diarrhea? The answer will take time and science as we await studies beyond the one in focus. Researchers, for now, can just tell us that ferulic acid, a chemical found in rice…
COVID Effects on the Gut-Brain Axis COVID has left diagnosable lingering effects on our guts beyond the “gut feeling” that we are sick and tired of hearing about COVID. A recent study looking across the globe reveals that a specific type of GI diagnoses have increased from pre-COVID to the present, leading researchers to dig…
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
Vitamin D stands out among the most critical and most researched nutrients. The list below only scratches the surface of known and suspected benefits of maintaining adequate vitamin D. It is actually more of a hormone than a vitamin in its mechanisms of action and in being produced from cholesterol metabolism. While nearly all recognize…
