illustration showing gut and intestines with probiotics and bacteria

Understanding and Improving Gut Health

What gut health is and what gut health looks like are still within their infancy of understanding. Most of healthcare at this time believes in the importance of gut health. The idea and application of gut health, nutritional advice, fad diets/eating programs are constantly changing every few months.

For better or worse, by the time you read this vs. the time we wrote this, there is a good chance there have already been various fad diets which have newly become mainstream. We work beyond the fad diet programs and get you back to the idea – you are what you eat. We are about assessing, testing, implementation, and re-testing. Through this approach we can better understand where you are, where you need to go, and how to get you there.

With 70-80% of our immune cells being present within the gastrointestinal (GI) system,¹ we know your overall health is heavily dependent on the quality of health within your gut. No one in healthcare questions the importance of the microbiome within the gut. But what we should question is what is a “healthy microbiome” and separating short-term benefits from long-term results.

General Gut Health Advice

We strongly feel everyone would benefit from simple principles or rules which we form habits around. We have made healthcare very complicated and in so doing, we have lost the awareness around these simple principles. However, it does not have to be so. Our Top 10 Steps to Health can help you along your journey. This is a generic roadmap we feel can help the masses without making health more cumbersome.

Probiotics and Gut Health

Are Probiotics More Important Than Eating Habits?

Probiotics are an important factor in health; however, supplementation of probiotics should be secondary to eating habits. Probiotics are beneficial for many people due to our eating habits and the use of heavy metals and glyphosate (round-up) destroying the gut lining – biofilms. Glyphosate kills the shikimate pathway which our gut microbiome thrives on for survival². By killing of the biofilm, you are wreaking havoc on your health.

Why Do Probiotics Help My Gut Feel Better?

Probiotics are “healthy bacteria.” In an essence, you give yourself healthy bacteria which makes you feel better. This is an indicator that your microbiome, gut bacteria, is not within an ideal state of health. This is largely driven by your diet. Long-term, focusing on quality eating habits will be the game changer in addressing your gut distress.

The Next Step to Addressing Your Gut Health

Elimination Diet(s)

There are many levels of assessing your gut health – from elimination diet to high end lab testing – which can offer benefits to your health. There will always be a new fad of an elimination diet. If one has worked for you, then great. If it worked but wasn’t perfect, then we can help in various ways.

Lab Testing for Gut Health

Often, when a person reaches out to us, they have already attempted to work through varying fad diets with little to moderate success. If this is you, we can help with the next step. After an initial visit, we may work with different gut health tests and genetic tests. What lab tests we may run depend largely on you – what have you tried, interest(s) with lab testing, what you have not tried, what you are willing to try, etc.

The Importance of Gut Health

Do not forget, in the end – your health is your wealth. When you are ready to take your gut health seriously, we will be here for you. For us, we work deeper. We question our approach constantly to identify stronger, or deeper parameters of health and what is best for each individual. We question ourselves not only to improve your current gut health, to never settle for short-term benefits – but for long-term health.

We utilize various lab tests and protocols, when appropriate, to discover precise foods and supplements you need to restore your gut, or microbiome, health. What we have found over the years, is much of testing is identifying what is occurring within your blood, urine, hair, and stool testing at that moment in time – not necessarily what you should do to ‘reset’ your gut health for the long haul.

Content written by Dr. Keith Sparks, DC | Root Cause Protocol (RCP) Consultant
Content reviewed by Dr. Rachel Sparks, DC | Root Cause Protocol (RCP) Consultant

View Citations and References

¹ Wiertsema SP, van Bergenhenegouwen J, Garssen J, Knippels LMJ. The Interplay between the Gut Microbiome and the Immune System in the Context of Infectious Diseases throughout Life and the Role of Nutrition in Optimizing Treatment Strategies. Nutrients. 2021;13(3):886. Published 2021 Mar 9. doi:10.3390/nu13030886

² Seneff, Stephanie. TOXIC LEGACY: how the weedkiller glyphosate is destroying our health and the environment. CHELSEA GREEN PUB CO. 2021

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If you are in the Wichita, KS, area and are having frustrations, complications, or stagnant results with care, then contact us for in-person help with our unique healthcare approaches. If you are not within the greater Wichita, KS metro, we have created amazing Telehealth and Video Programs to provide you the same high-quality care. Contact our professional chiropractic staff at our East Wichita clinic or West Wichita clinic about possible treatments for your muscle, joint, nutrition, and health-related concerns today.

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