Dr Kelly Brogan Holistic Psychiatrist, Discusses the Importance of Gut Health…

Gut Health is the Gateway to Healing

By Kelly Brogan MD

Naturopaths and holistic healers have always focused on gut health as the gateway to healing. But as a physician not specialized in gastroenterology, my involvement with gut health and ecology used to consist of Malox and Immodium for the side effects of psychotropics. These days, though, it’s a near obsession.

Some enlightened practitioners would argue that gut dysfunction and specifically alterations in the “microbiome,” or the trillions of bugs that live in our guts (and outnumber host cells 10:1!), is at the root of every single chronic disease today – cancer, autoimmunity, heart disease, mental illness, you name it. I, personally, believe it is a dance between gut dysbiosis and sugar-driven inflammation, but today we will talk about the gut and its generational decline.

From what we understand of this rapidly evolving field of study, we are born with a blueprint for how our immune systems will coexist with certain populations of bacteria, yeast, and even parasites. Throughout the course of our lives, different influences alter this landscape in ways that give rise to proliferation of resident microbes or opportunistic ones. This matters because our guts are the primary interface between our immune systems and the environment and it is there that our bodies make micro determinations all day and every day about what to call “self” and what to call “other” – putting our system on alert and promoting immune system response, or quiescence.

These microbes also play a critical role in mental health. The vagus nerve is thought of as the primary conduit between the enteric nervous system and the central nervous system, and it appears that probiotics may serve to ameliorate certain symptoms like anxiety. Many critical vitamins and fatty acids are made by bacteria in our guts, and determine what is absorbed, used, or leaked of the nutrients we eat. Interestingly, compounds produced by gut bacteria can also negatively impair our ability to metabolize other toxins that we come into contact with, kind of like one robber distracting you with the flashlight while the other lifts the safe.

We’ve come a long way from ancestral-levels of gastrointestinal integrity, so let’s look at some reasons why. To learn the top four drivers of gut imbalance, view the remainder of Dr Kelly Brogan’s article.

 © Kelly Brogan MD This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of Kelly Brogan MD. For more articles, sign up for the newsletter at kellybroganmd.com

Dr Kelly Brogan MD, “Own Your Body. Free Your Mind.”