How do you know if your gut health is improving? 

I have been working on my gut health for a few years now. And like everything else in health and wellness, this is not a "one and done", it takes constant effort.

My journey back to better digestive health started in late 2019 when I finally started seeing a Functional Medicine Practitioner and started studying functional medicine myself. 

After some testing and trial and error, we figured out that I had multiple digestive issues and started tackling them head-on. I had significant pathogenic overgrowth, low stomach acid, sluggish digestion, leaky gut, and chronic constipation.

Fast forward to 2020 when I became a Pro Partner with Ixcela Wellness and took my first gut metabolite test. Metabolite testing is different from stool testing because it does not test the composition of your gut, but more of the function

For example: Instead of just knowing the players' names on your baseball team, you learn their stats.

A little bit about Ixcela: 

"Founded by MIT biochemists Dr. Erika Ebbel Angle and Dr. WayneMatson, Ixcela’s patented approach to assessing the functionality of the gut goes beyond the standard doctor’s office blood panel. For a variety of lifestyle-related reasons, the body’s internal biochemistry can be moved from a healthy, balanced state to a state which can lead to chronic disease. These chronic conditions include various neurodegenerative diseases, heart disease, and diabetes. Additionally, poor internal health may cause less severe but more common health issues such as irritable bowel syndrome, acid reflux, respiratory tract infection, and leaky gut. Individuals with good internal health are less likely to become ill. In fact, they recover from illness more quickly, enjoy the benefits of increased energy, enhanced emotional balance, and improved cognitive acuity"

With Ixcela the test provides you with an overall gut "fitness" score and gives recommendations on how to improve these scores. 

I recently did a re-test to see how my gut health has improved from a metabolite standpoint. I have been having a ton of trouble sleeping, so it was no surprise to me that my serotonin was SUPER low

Serotonin is a precursor to melatonin which helps you sleep! 

Besides that, my Indole markers were ALL in range which reflects the gut microbiome’s ability to break down food through digestive processes, support the health of the intestinal wall, and maintain a diverse population of beneficial microorganisms. So that was great progress!

All of my internal fitness scores improved EXCEPT for Emotional balance. This one was no surprise to me. My stress has been through the roof lately, and my gut metabolites are confirming this is impacting my health.

Overall, I am pretty happy with the improvement in my scores. It shows that all my hard work on my gut health over the last couple of years has really made a difference. 

Of course, you can also assess if your gut health is improving by simple observation. Are you sleeping better? Are you less bloated? Has your sinus congestion cleared up? Does your skin look better? Is your energy better? Are your moods better? ALL of these things are impacted by our gut health!

If you are interested in what your "internal fitness" score is, reach out, I would love to help you get started with an Ixcela test and results review session!