Why is a healthy digestive system important? 

This is such an important topic, in my opinion, when it comes to optimizing health. The good news is that more healthcare practitioners are starting to talk about it. The digestive system is vital to our wellbeing because this is how we get nutrients into our body so that we can stay healthy.

The key to a healthy digestive system is that we need to properly absorb nutrients from our food in order for our body to benefit from them. Someone can eat the healthiest food in the world, but there’s a problem if they are not able to absorb this food. We are not simply what we eat. We are what we absorb. However, there are many things that can get in the way of the optimal absorption of nutrients.

Are other systems affected by digestive health?

There are other reasons why digestive health is important. Approximately 80% of our immune system is located in the gut. It’s also estimated that approximately 90% of the body’s serotonin is made in the gut. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps contribute to our happiness and wellbeing.

It’s not just our mood and immune system that can improve from optimal digestive health, our skin can improve as well. Improving our digestive health can help us in so many ways, both on the inside and outside of our body.

What can I do for a healthy digestive tract?

There are a number of things that we can do for a healthy digestive tract. Decreasing our stress levels and choosing whole foods can be helpful, but, in this blog, I want to focus on the testing that can be done to help us have healthy and optimal digestion.

If there’s something in the digestive tract that is preventing us from absorbing the nutrients in our food, activating our immune system, affecting our mood, or making our skin break out, then it’s good to know what it is and be proactive about it. If we are going to find the root cause of why we are having certain symptoms, this is one important place that we can look. We can do this through a comprehensive GI (gastrointestinal) panel.

What is a comprehensive GI panel?

This is a test that can evaluate many different things related to GI health. It can tell us if we have an overgrowth of opportunistic “bad” bacteria, what the levels are of beneficial “good” bacteria, if we have an overgrowth of yeast, if we have parasites, if there is inflammation, if we are digesting our food well and if there are signs of intestinal permeability. It’s a lot of data to look at. It can be helpful to work with a practitioner who is trained to interpret the results and also trained to make recommendations based on what we find.

This comprehensive GI panel is a simple test that you can do at home. You get a kit and then send a small stool sample into the lab for analysis. There are a number of panels that are available, but I like using a test from a lab that is unique in the field of comprehensive stool testing. It uses quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) technology, which targets the specific DNA of the organisms tested.

Why is comprehensive GI testing important? 

Once we know the test results from a GI panel, then we know what we can do to specifically improve any positive or negative results. I like to have the data from comprehensive GI testing because it helps to guide me in my suggestions and it also gives us a way to monitor and track progress over time. 

For example, if we find that there is an overgrowth of yeast (like Candida) on testing then we can make certain changes in diet and supplementation. After a certain period of time, we can reassess symptoms and retest to make sure we have seen improvement. There are usually a few things that we are working to improve at the same time and a trained practitioner can help to guide this process.

GI health is an important topic to discuss when it comes to optimizing health. I’m grateful to have comprehensive GI testing because it’s a valuable resource that has been helpful for so many of my patients.

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