The root of Reflux and Indigestion disorders
Episode 181
Taking a dive into the gut series. Today on Integrative Wellness Radio, Dr. Nicole will be talking about some of the common issues related to the gut such as indigestion and reflux. We are seeing so much increase in such disorders recently that it has now started to become normal for people suffering from gut issues. From changing prescriptions to trying new methods, Dr. Nicole will briefly explain why we need to stop and start looking at our body as a whole from the fundamental level. Tune in to today’s episode as the Doctor will be shedding light on why you need to stop accepting your symptoms as the new normal and how conventional medicine can easily overlook the root cause of reflux, indigestion, and other gut issues. Interested in learning more about Dr. Nick & Dr. Nicole’s courses, memberships, or private work? Learn more at Integrative You . Have a quick question, Would you like to schedule a call, or just want to say hi? Text us at 732.913.0009. Our mission to innovate humans & Healthcare does NOT start and stop with us! This is why we are also dedicated to helping other practitioners in evolving healthcare too! If you are a healthcare leader and are looking to up-level your clinical + business excellence Learn more about our course membership: Limitless Healthprenuer and start boldly disrupting this industry! Noteworthy Time Stamps: 03:13 It’s about how you do it 11:29 Mouth is a part of your gastrointestinal system 25:36 Myths about gut issues 52:14 If you understand the root cause, anything is possible
Topics: root, reflux, indigestion, issues, cause, unknown, disorders, integrative
Key takeaways from this episode
- ## The Root of Reflux and Indigestion Disorders
- The increasing prevalence of indigestion and reflux is a sign that we need a more holistic approach to gut health.
- Your mouth plays a crucial role in your overall gastrointestinal system, and its health impacts digestion.
- Common beliefs about gut issues may be misleading and prevent effective treatment.
- Understanding the root cause is the key to successfully managing and overcoming digestive disorders.
Pull quotes
Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems.
Nick and Dr. **Unknown:** Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey.
So we're actually gonna be diving into, you know, just understanding the overall function of the gut, why there is so many issues when it comes to different types of gut diseases and pathologies.
Transcript
**Unknown:** I've been up all night, no sleep. Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems. Dive into Integrative Wellness Radio with Dr. Nick and Dr.
**Unknown:** Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey. Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out here on my own. Hello, hello, everyone. Welcome back.
**Unknown:** This is our third part to our gut series. So we're actually gonna be diving into, you know, just understanding the overall function of the gut, why there is so many issues when it comes to different types of gut diseases and pathologies. And then the other big focus is really understanding a little bit more about the root cause to GERD, reflux, indigestion, heartburn. Because unfortunately, there are so, so many people that are dealing with those types of symptoms on a day-to-day.
**Unknown:** And, you know, some of us are managing it through utilizing different types of antacids, Tums, Rolaids over the counter. You know, some of us are using more intense, uh, prescriptions like Nexium and Prevacid and Prilosec. And then some of us, it's so severe that we can't even lay down. And I know that one of my more recent clients, she told me that she purchased a $200 pillow to prop her up so she can be in a seated position while sleeping because her reflux is that severe.
**Unknown:** So with that being said, we really wanna uncover, you know, some of the reasons this is happening in the first place, some of the reasons why you may have not gotten better with approaches you've already tried, and then obviously giving you some tools to be able to take those steps to really resolve it altogether. And I think that's an important thing to start with is it can be resolved. But most importantly is the reason why you have reflux is different person to person, so we have to really understand, you know, what testing is out there that can give us the answers and then why maybe some of the approaches you've tried haven't been working because they potentially haven't been addressing the root cause at all. So first and foremost, I want you to understand if this is not your first rodeo or second to that is you're just like, "You know, let me see what she has to say, but she's probably gonna say the same things that I've heard over and over" is I want you to understand that whatever information that you have had that didn't work out for you, whatever diet you tried that didn't work out for you, whatever supplements you tried that didn't work out for you, I get it.
**Unknown:** And I want you to know that it's not your fault that you have not been able to get where you wanna be or you haven't been able to resolve your issues because there is a lot of information out there. There is a lot of conflicting information out there. And when you're trying to navigate the sea of all of this information, it becomes very overwhelming to the point that it might even cause paralysis and you just give up before you even start, or you just get really, really overwhelmed and really confused, and then you give up because you try a bunch of things and really, really almost like sacrifice most of your, you know, your fun in your life, and you don't get better. And the biggest thing that I say to people is it's not about what you do, it's about how you do it.
**Unknown:** And when you have strategy in your healing process, it completely transforms your results, and it also gives you results in a fraction of the time that you would expect. So it's not your fault that you haven't been able to get better, and just being here, and being present, and being able to understand some of these principles will make you understand why you may have not been able to get where you wanna be thus far. So this may be one of the most important, and I say this because this is not just about the gut. This is really just about understanding some of the reasons why we are not necessarily getting better as a society, and we are finding that we're having more and more prevalence of all different types of disease, especially gastrointestinal disease.
**Unknown:** And first and foremost is my personal opinion is the biggest detriment to medicine right now is the fact that there are these specialties and subspecialties. So what I mean by that is we're segregating every system of the body. We're assuming that the gut is separating or, or is functioning separately from all other organ systems. But what's always so fascinating is just the basic principle of if we feel stressed, which stress is going to affects, affect us, you know, neurologically, it's going to affect our adrenal glands 'cause our adrenal glands pump out a bunch of stress hormones.
**Unknown:** If we get really stressed, there's a lot of us that we always say, "Oh, I feel it in my stomach." You automatically have a stomach ache. And when we're, we're talking about the connection of syn- or systems, it's just as simple as you could easily have a shift in how your gastrointestinal system is functioning because of a stress response. And in addition to that, that kind of brings me to the second point here is the lack of ba- of understanding basic physiology. So if somebody presents to you, to me as a physician and says, "Okay, I have gastrointestinal issues.
**Unknown:** I have GERD, I have reflux, and I also have a history of irritable bowel syndrome." And then in addition, they also tell me how they're struggling with depression. They might be dealing with anxiety. And normally in the conventional system, they're gonna be working with a gastroenterologist, and then they also might be working with a psychiatrist or a psychologist due to their depression and anxiety. But what's fascinating about that is 90 to 95% of your serotonin, which is your feel-good hormone, is made in your gut.
**Unknown:** So we're assuming that depression, and anxiety, and other types of mental health conditions are great from our gastrointestinal health. And in fact, they are 100% tied together. And this is in the research, but unfortunately because ourSystem is segregated and we have a specialist for each of the body systems. Your gastroenterologist is not versed on understanding that depression can start in the gut.
**Unknown:** So when we're always seeking out the expert, we need to kind of think twice is we of course wanna work with somebody who has clinical experience in our condition, but we also want to be working with somebody who's going to consider us as a whole and is going to consider all of the pieces. Because when you have a variety of different sy- uh, sys- symptoms, they're not separate. Chances are you have one foundational problem that is creating a cascade effect of a variety of different symptoms. So it's a matter of targeting what is that foundational problem so you can actually resolve things once and for all.
**Unknown:** So another thing that usually comes up when people come to see us, they often say, "Wow, you have so many amazing technologies. Why doesn't everybody look at the body this way?" And one thing that's really important to understand is that most of our testing, especially in the United States, is based on chemistry. And what I mean by that is when you're looking at blood work, you're looking at biochemistry, you're looking at biology, chemistry. So what often happens is if all of our testing is based on chemistry and we find kinks in the chemistry or in the pathway, then we are going to then find a solution that is going to manipulate th- that chemistry based pathway.
**Unknown:** And that really allows our system to rely on pharmacology because if you have an alteration in your chemistry that is shown in your blood work, then we are going to manipulate that by chemistry altering drugs. So at the end of the day, medicine is for profit, and we all know that medication is for profit. So it's business. At the end of the day, it's business.
**Unknown:** And when we find ourselves defaulting onto the one pill fix or always looking for what pill is going to resolve my symptoms, that's exactly what it's gonna do, is it's going to band-aid your symptoms and it's never gonna actually get to the root cause. And we're pretty much relying on a system that only looks at us from a chemistry standpoint. What about our emotions? What about energy?
**Unknown:** And I know energy can be so foreign to some people, like what does that even mean? You know, that's hocus pocus. But what's funny is that acupuncture is such a well-respected, sought out practice, and acupuncture is energy medicine. So we are going to acupuncture thinking we're going for fertility or we're going for our back pain, but at the end of the day, what that's doing is removing energetic blockages.
**Unknown:** So if your problem is energetic, you're gonna do great with acupuncture. If your problem is not energetic, you're not gonna have any change with acupuncture. So again, it's important to understand that there are so many reasons for why we might not be feeling our best, and to look at it super linear and say, "Oh, it's just a chemistry based problem", that's usually when we will hit plateaus. So this kind of brings me to the inability to find the root cause is if we're only looking at one avenue of testing, which is only evaluating the chemistry of the body, we're never gonna find the root cause because the root cause might be due to an emotional trauma.
**Unknown:** It might be due to PTSD. It might be due to a meridian problem. It might be due to toxicity. It could be so many different things and we need to start thinking out the outside of the box to really figure out what is the root cause.
**Unknown:** 'Cause once you figure that out, the healing process is so much easier. And last but not least is the concept of the one pill cure all. And you know, when I say one pill cure all is we're, we're always looking for what's going to be the new medication that's going to cure cancer or g- going to cure some other type of pathology. But at the end of the day, there's more and more research coming out about how dietary changes can vastly shift your health.
**Unknown:** Meditation and other types of stress management can vastly improve your health. So we're kind of drawing at straws thinking that we're just gonna one day have this one, you know, this one pill that's going to fix all of our issues. At the end of the day, you have to take charge of your health and you have to be a huge player in the healing process. And last but not least is this concept of if there's something bad, just kill it.
**Unknown:** We've overused antibiotics in our society. We've overused it in our livestock. It's in most of the food that we are eating, especially animal-based protein and dairy. And we've also overused it as an approach to illness.
**Unknown:** You know, a lot of times when you're going in and, "Oh, I have a sore throat", antibiotic. "Oh, I have a sinus infection", antibiotic. "Oh, I have diarrhea", antibiotic. And we're just defaulting on antibiotics.
**Unknown:** We're actually not figuring out is it viral, is it stress, is it a bad diet? And because of this we are developing more and more antibiotic resistant infections, which I'm bringing this up because this is so, so important when it comes to gastrointestinal health, especially reflux, GERD, and heartburn, which I'm going to elaborate further on. It's very, very important to understand that a big part of our gastrointestinal issues stems from things being in our gut that should not be there at all. That includes infections and it also includes toxicity from a lot of the things that we're consuming on a day-to-day basis.
**Unknown:** I think that just understanding how elaborate the gastrointestinal system is, is, is a huge part of what we're gonna talk about tonight. And number one is the mouth is technically part of your gastrointestinal system. So for those of you that are listening because you're really struggling with your GERD, your indigestion, your heartburn, you actually need your doctor and even yourself to acknowledge do you have a lot of dental workHave you had a ton of root canals? Have you had a bad dental infection?
**Unknown:** Did you have an abscess? Have you had really intense dental surgeries? Have you had a receding gum line, bleeding gums, an infection from your wisdom teeth being removed? These are extremely important because if you think about just the anatomy and you also think about the downward stream of gravity, your mouth will continuously create issues in your stomach because the mouth is connected to the stomach which is where indigestion and GERDs stem from.
**Unknown:** So sometimes you have a stomach problem, and sometimes you actually have a mouth problem. So understanding that and having your physician be able to also understand that is a huge part of getting to the root cause, number one, and obviously being able to fix the root cause. If the root cause is your mouth and you keep addressing your stomach, your stomach, your stomach, you're gonna keep falling flat with your results. And in addition to that, just kind of a side note is when you're talking about the stomach which is where a lot of these gastrointestinal...
**Unknown:** or I'm sorry, GERD and reflux symptoms stem from, your stomach is actually shaped like this, and your pancreas is embedded. So your pancreas and your stomach work hand-in-hand with each other. So unfortunately, because your pancreas is what regulates your blood sugar, when you have pancreatic issues, you tend to crave more sugar, you tend to crave more carbohydrates, and then you have this perpetuating s- process because the more you crave those foods, the more you consume them, and the more likely those sugars are to create more inflammation that can create more GERD and more heartburn and more indigestion. So it's important to know kind of how it all works together, but for this topic tonight, specifically issues in the mouth will play such a significant role in your stomach which can play a role in your gastrointestinal reflux disorders, your indigestion, and your heartburn.
**Unknown:** Okay. So often on a day-to-day basis, I find myself blowing people's minds, and I usually can tell when their mouth drops and their eyes open wide. So some of the things that come up, uh, often come up just in our consultation, and it's really because we spend 75 minutes during our consultation digging, digging, digging to really understand the timeline of when this all started and asking questions that most of the time your physici- your physician is not asking. And one of them is actually in reference to the moon cycles.
**Unknown:** So those of you that are watching, just so you know, we have a massive full moon that started yesterday into today. So if your mood has been dramatically affected or you are finding that your gastrointestinal system has been more upset over the past two days, I will tell you that you have not been diagnosed properly, but you more than likely have parasites. So I know that's crazy, but parasites are organisms that we get exposed to a lot more often than people realize. These are different types of organisms that can come from raw fish like sushi.
**Unknown:** It also come from contaminated meat, dairy. It can come from swimming in contaminated river. It could be from so many different things. But I will tell you, you do not have to go to Mexico to get parasites.
**Unknown:** They are right here in the US. They are right here in our backyard. And the interesting thing about it is parasites have a tendency to hijack our behaviors. I'm not saying that that happens all the time, but if you've heard that phrase, "Oh, everyone's acting crazy.
**Unknown:** I wonder if it's a full moon," there is validity behind that statement, and it is because the parasites under a full moon are the most active, and they will hijack our behaviors. And also, if the parasites reside in our gastrointestinal system, it will make our gastrointestinal system more upset. So this is not, you know, my opinion. This is science.
**Unknown:** And I'm actually gonna talk a little bit more about parasites and some of the limitations with testing them because there are many, many limitations on how you can properly diagnose them. So in addition to that, a lifetime of constipation and gut issues. I wanted to make note of this because this applies to constipation, but it also applies to, um, our ability to break down food as a whole which definitely can... starts in the stomach.
**Unknown:** So when people have embarked on so many different types of therapies to get their gastrointestinal system working better and they constantly hit plateaus or don't see any results at all, sometimes it's actually a brain problem. And the reason I say that is because your brain is connected to your gastrointestinal system via your vagus nerve. So if you start to have issues with your vagus nerve, then it can definitely create a lot of issues with your gut that are not being resolved through your conventional approaches. So one of the ways to kind of know if you potentially have a vagus nerve issue is if you get very lightheaded and dizzy, maybe even potentially have vertigo.
**Unknown:** In addition, you either have a very, very overactive gag reflex or you have no gag reflex at all. So that kind of indicates that there's dysfunction in the vagus nerve. So those are a couple of things to keep in mind when you're struggling with gut issues because it might not be your gut at all. It might actually be cognitive and be a brain issue.
**Unknown:** So another big thing too stems from enzyme deficiencies. So a lot of times people are trying to, you know, block their acid and take these antacids, everything from your Tums to your Rolaids to your Prilosec and your Prevacids and your Nexiums. And sometimes what's happening is that you don't have proper, excuse me, amounts of enzymes, and enzymes break down all the different components of your food. They break down your sugars.
**Unknown:** They break down your carbs. They break down your fats. They break down your proteins. And if you have these enzyme deficiencies, you could easily have these really, really persistent gut issues that are not going away.
**Unknown:** So, like, as an example, um, more recently I actually had a patient who had all of these different gastrointestinal issues, and she-She's like, "There's no rhyme, there's no reason. No matter what I do from a dietary perspective, nothing makes a difference." And it was actually so severe that she was having massive, massive bleeding. And but every time she would go for a colonoscopy, they were like, "We don't... You don't technically have hemorrhoids, so we really don't understand where the bleeding is coming from." And one of our technologies called the bioresonance is such a fascinating technology that I'm gonna show you guys later.
**Unknown:** But, uh, what it actually uncovered was that she had a disaccharide enzyme issue. So pretty much what that means is she had zero capabilities to break down lactase or, I'm sorry, lactose, sucrose, and galactose. These are all different types of dairy related sugars. And the best part was is she loves dairy, and she never came up allergic to dairy, so she kept eating it.
**Unknown:** But it wasn't an allergy, it was the fact that she had zero capability to break down the components of the dairy. So this is something that was just so eye-opening and allowing us to, to decipher, you know, the root of the problem. And since she's been able to cut out obviously the dairy, but then fix the root cause, she's been able to recover from these gut issues that she had for 20 years. So in addition to that, sometimes when you...
**Unknown:** I work with clients, they come in with a specific complaint. I had a patient that I was working with that had a lot of respiratory complaints, and a lot of my testing kept uncovering that he had a lot of gastrointestinal issues, and he had a lot of issues specifically in his stomach. And he was like, "Well, I used to have GERD. I don't have it anymore, so I really don't think that that's part of the puzzle." But the problem was is that all the inflammation that was in his gastrointestinal system was pushing up on his diaphragm and respiratory distress.
**Unknown:** He was actually having spasms in his, uh, respiratory system, and it was causing shortness of breath, and it was e- even inducing sleep apnea. So sometimes the... it's when you're working with certain symptoms, it can stem back to a, a problem that w- you wouldn't necessarily tie together. So another really, really important fact here, which I'm going to dive a little bit deeper into, is GERD, and GERD is gastroesophageal reflux disorder, so we can call it reflux for short.
**Unknown:** But one of the biggest things is that, oh, it's because you have too much acid. And at the end of the day, one of the biggest connections proven by research to GERD is actually an infection called H. pylori. So H.
**Unknown:** pylori is a bacteria that can get into the gastrointestinal system and cause a lot of symptoms in relation to reflux, heartburn, as well as GERD. So I'm here to tell you that you don't know what you don't know. So if you have had GERD for many years and you've been to many doctors and many gastroenterologists and nobody has once said the word H. pylori, that is okay.
**Unknown:** But it's because they're not always thinking that it is going to be infection based, and that is because the person who is an expert in infections is actually an infectious disease doctor. So when we are working with our gastroenterologist, they're usually looking at some of the chemistry of our gut. Do you have enough stomach acid? Do you not?
**Unknown:** But they're not always necessarily looking at the infectious agents that can be playing a role. So when we use this example of how many of us actually have indigestion and heartburn, the numbers are actually staggering. And one of the biggest things that we are attributing these symptoms to is a high amount of stomach acid. So we've now established that potentially there could be an infection that is playing a role here.
**Unknown:** But more importantly, what I will tell you is if there is an infection or not, the most common cause for reflux, indigestion, and heartburn is a lack of stomach acid. So you might be confused because if you obviously feel that burning sensation and you feel that acid coming up the esophagus, which I know is very painful, then you would take your antacid. Again, it could be Rolaids, Tums, heartburn, or I'm sorry, Prevacid, Prilosec, et cetera. You take these things, and you feel better.
**Unknown:** So you then you assume, "Oh, of course, I am dealing with too much acid, so this is obviously my best remedy." But what actually happens is if you have a lack of acid, then when food goes into the system, what's gonna happen is it's not gonna be broken down properly. So it is going to sit there for extended amounts of time. So if your food is sitting there for extended amounts of time, not to be gross, but it can start to break down and decompose. And if it's going to decompose, it's going to give off what we call rancid acids.
**Unknown:** And these rancid acids are what induce the heartburn indigestion symptoms. So it's not that your stomach is producing too much acid, it is that you have a production of rancid acids due to the inability for you to break down your food which circles back to the low acid. So when you take your antacids, it's going to actually reduce the amount of those rancid acids and make you feel better. But the longer you use the antacids, the more you might find that you're grabbing for them more frequently.
**Unknown:** You also might find that you're taking a higher dose or you're taking more pills, and it's because you're not resolving the problem, you're potentially making it worse. But again, you don't know what you don't know. So it's a matter of if that's been the cycle that you're in, it's time to look further to see, do I have low stomach acid? Do I have an infection?
**Unknown:** Do I have something more going on that hasn't been found yet? So mind-blowing. Two-thirds of the world-Population has H. pylori.
**Unknown:** So when I'm sitting here talking to you about H. pylori, this is not a few people, this is not, oh, maybe this is part of the puzzle. There is a high, high, high probability that this is part of the puzzle if you are struggling with reflux, indigestion, heartburn. So it's very important for you to kind of understand everything that we just talked about because if you are taking these H2 blockers, antacids, these acid blockers, that these are never going to get rid of the infection.
**Unknown:** If anything, the infection can grow because acid ... You have acid in your stomach, by the way, not just to break down your food, but you also have acid in your stomach to help you to ward off infections. So the lower the stomach acid is, the more inclined you are to acquire more and more infections. So it's very, very important for you to understand that that is a huge part of the puzzle.
**Unknown:** And another thing too is there's many people that get different types of surgeries, like the gastric sleeve, gastric bypass. People that have a tendency to have a lot more complications with those types of surgeries are usually due to having an infection in their stomach, um, H. pylori being the most common. So the point of what I'm saying here is we need to stop accepting, you know, this normal.
**Unknown:** We need to stop ac- sc- accepting that, oh, if I eat out, I need to make sure to bring my Tums. I need to make sure to bring my, my antacids 'cause I know that I'm gonna feel sick. Or I know I'm gonna eat the tomato sauce, but I know that I'm gonna need to take my antacids to make me feel better 'cause it's 100% gonna cause heartburn. It's really just a matter of stop adapting to these different changes and thinking that it's just a normal part of the aging process, and it's really trying to dig deeper and understand that you can actually resolve this and obviously not put yourself at risk for something more serious developing.
**Unknown:** Because there is a huge correlation to these chronic longstanding H. pylori infections and gastric cancers. So if you're able to decipher, do I have this infection, and, or you're able to resolve it, not only are you gonna get rid of these symptoms that you're dealing with, but you also decrease the risk of something more serious down the line. So some of the biggest myths about gut issues.
**Unknown:** Number one is that gut issues are, or gut conditions are genetic. Number two is that the testing that you've already had is always gonna be accurate. And number three is that your gut issues, your autoimmune gut issues, your inflammatory gut issues, that they're irreversible. And we're gonna bust through these different myths because it's very, very important to understand why you potentially haven't gotten the answers in the first place, and also why you maybe hit plateaus with what you've been trying to do already.
**Unknown:** So when it comes to genetics, they're not necessarily doing genetic testing for all gut conditions, but some of the big ones is celiac disease, and we are looking at genetics in order to decipher, um, are you at risk? And one very important thing for you to understand is this concept of epigenetics. Epigenetics means that no matter what your genetics say, that epigenetics say that your genes will express differently based off of your lifestyle choices. So you may have a specific gene mutation, but that gene can express differently based off of your health, your stress level, your sleep, and all of the other things in your life.
**Unknown:** So you're not doomed to your genetic predispositions. And when it comes to celiac, we focus on utilizing this HLA marker. And first of all, it's a very small percentage of people that actually have the HLA marker that will ever develop celiac. But again, this can be completely avoided based off of having a healthy diet and having a low stress level and, you know, really being able to avoid inflammatory foods and things like that.
**Unknown:** But an important point that I wanna make is the HLA-DQ2 is the specific marker that we're using to dictate are you at risk for celiac disease. But the HLA gene group is actually called the human leukocyte antigen. So just to keep this as sim- simple as possible, the last line here, "The HLA complex helps the immune system to distinguish between the body's own proteins and proteins made from for- foreign invaders, viruses, and bacteria." So the point I'm trying to make here is that when we think of autoimmunity, we think that one day the body just turns on itself and that the immune system just starts targeting a tissue for no good reason. But when we're talking about celiac, what celiac is is when the immune system is attacking the villi of our gastrointestinal lining.
**Unknown:** And the villi is pretty much what moves your food along and helps you to break it down and digest it. So if you start to have massive damage to the villi, it's thought to be, oh, you just have celiac, and we don't really know why it developed, but it's probably based off of your genetics. But wouldn't it make sense, especially because this marker, the HLA gene group, is specifically for targeting foreign invaders. So wouldn't it make sense that if you had foreign invaders in your gut, like bacteria, like this H.
**Unknown:** pylori, or you had parasites, or you had fungus in your gut like candida, that if your immune system was going to the area to fight those infections, that it could potentially cause damage to the surrounding environment? Because just so you know is a, an immune system attack or an immune system reaction is an inflammatory reaction. So when we have inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis and all different types of inflammatory bowel disease, that is because of an immune reaction, and it's more than likely because your immune system is fighting things in your gut that should have never been there in the first place. And if you think like, "Well, how the heck would I get bacteria in my gut?
**Unknown:** And how the heck would I get, you know, candida, and how would I get parasites?" Every single time you eat something, I don't care if it's healthy or not, I don't care if it's broccoli, if it's beef, every single thing that we eat has some level of organisms on it, some level of bacteria, some level of fungus, and that's just because it's grown outside. It's grown in the dirt. There's bugs that crawl on it. So not to totally creep out every single one of you that are germaphobes, but that's the reality of it.
**Unknown:** So we're constantly getting exposed to different organisms. But what happens is that sometimes if we're super stressed out or we're not sleeping or we got a lot going on in our lives and we're burning the candle at both ends, maybe your immune system is down, and you get exposed to a bacteria that normally you would fight off. But because the immune system is down, now you can acquire that infection, and it can get into the gut and stay. So there's a lot of variables that play a role in this.
**Unknown:** It's not super cut and dry. So one of the more interesting patient presentations that I had was I had a client that I was working with that he came in. He was dealing with gut issues for ... He w- He said he was dealing with gut issues for about five years.
**Unknown:** When we dug a little bit deeper, it really turned out he was dealing with gut issues most of his life. They just got really bad in the past five years and particularly-In the past six months before he came to me, they were so bad that he really wasn't able to leave his house for a good four hours because he was in and out of the bathroom. So it was really starting to compromise his life. It was, it was affecting getting to work on time.
**Unknown:** And we were doing all of our tests on him. We do a variety of different tests. Uh, we actually collaborate everything from blood work to a couple of our in-house technologies. We actually do look at meridian systems.
**Unknown:** We look at a variety of different things. But one of the specific technologies that I used was called our bioresonance scan. But the bioresonance is a very interesting technology because it has the ability to scan the body down to the DNA level. And when it does this, it picks up on DNA changes.
**Unknown:** So when you have a tissue that is unhealthy, your DNA will change, not a lot, just slightly. So when it picks up on these DNA changes, it tells me, hey, this is what's going on in the tissue, and it also tells me, is there an inf- infection that's associated with it, and is there an allergy that is associated with it? So this technology is just mind-blowing 'cause it's able to uncover the mystery behind people's symptoms in just a very, very short amount of time. So one of the interesting things that came up as I was digging through his scan and piecing it together with the rest of his te- his testing was he had this drug coming up.
**Unknown:** It was called acetozymidine. And the drug was coming up as a major irritant to his body, let alone his gastrointestinal system. Zymidine is traditionally used as a tuberculosis drug. It's a very, very, very high dose antibiotic.
**Unknown:** So this is the reason why it's used in tuberculosis because it's, it's an aggressive approach to tuberculosis. So it came up so many times that I was like, you know, "I really need to ask this guy if he ever had tuberculosis." And trust me, I, you know, it did not come up in conversation in his initial consultation, so he wasn't like, "Oh, I had TB, TB," or, "I have a lot of respiratory issues." So when he came in, I decided, I was like, okay, let me just ask and see. I was like, "So this might seem a little far-fetched, but have you ever had any run-ins with tuberculosis, anybody in your family? Have you ever had a really, really bad respiratory infection that was never, you know, necessarily tested for?" And he's like, "No, I actually haven't." And I was like, "Okay." I always have to ask thing in var- ask things in various ways.
**Unknown:** So I asked, I was like, "Okay, did you ever have a skin test that bubbled up that, uh, stayed b- stayed bubbled for a couple of days?" And he looked at me really funny, and he goes, "Hold on." And he was actually texting his mom. So by the way, he's in his 50s. So he texts his mom, and she actually got back to him rather quick. And she goes, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe you remember that.
**Unknown:** But when you were about seven or eight years old, we had you in camp, and you actually tested positive for tuberculosis, and we had to take you out of camp and get you treated." So he's looking at me like, "How the heck in the world would you know this?" And I'm also just like, "Oh, I love my technology." So it's very, very fascinating because this was a man who was very well into his 50s that had a drug that was still creating residual effects that he received when he was not even a teenager. So it's very important to understand that there is such a snowball effect that gets us to where we are and secondarily is there's so many limitations in what our traditional testing tells us that will never necessarily uncover that there was a reaction like this that was still happening in the body. So with that technology, I gave you guys a glimpse of that, what's really interesting about it is obviously I was showing you the heart and the vasculature of the hand. You can scan the gastrointestinal system as well.
**Unknown:** You can scan everything from the stomach to the large intestine, small intestine, and you can get very deep into even the cells that make up the gut. And that's really the beauty of some of the technologies that we have at Integrative Wellness Group is we're able to see things before they fully manifest as a huge, huge problem. And the same thing goes for gastrointestinal issues is we're able to detect if there are infections that are really hard to diagnose through conventional testing. We're also able to decipher, is there different types of allergies?
**Unknown:** Because when we do these blanketed food allergy tests, we're looking at, okay, what is the, you know, body having a reaction to? But what if your stomach gets irritated, and I say stomach, I mean like left ribcage up here, but what if your stomach has issues digesting some things but your large intestine has issues digesting other things? You know, you need to kind of know that information to understand the bigger picture because all of these systems, they do work together, but they could easily be negatively affected by different things. It's not all going to be super black and white.
**Unknown:** So it's really trying to kind of uncover what is going on in each system and how-Now what type of support does each system actually need? So as we kinda get back into looking at some of these other pieces of the puzzle is this really brings us to the limitations in testing is we usually will have some type of gastrointestinal discomfort, and we'll seek out some type of testing, and then that testing will rule in or out something. And we kinda leave it at that. We don't necessarily go for the second opinion.
**Unknown:** We don't necessarily seek out a different type of test. But I want to go through this because it's so important to understand, like, what, what is testing what? And when it comes to colonoscopy and endoscopy, something that's really, really significant that not many people know is when you do a colonoscopy or an endoscopy, that is imaging. So imaging does not have the ability to tell us if there is an infection because you have to culture the tissue and put it under a microscope to be able to determine that.
**Unknown:** So these different types of imaging and scopes are going to tell us, do we have polyps? Do we have inflammation? Do we have ulcers? Do we have Crohn's?
**Unknown:** Do we have cancer? It's not able to uncover do you have cancer, do you have Crohn's, do you have inflammation due to an infection, due to an allergy? So there's massive limitations with just relying on imaging for our diagnosis, and there's limitations on all tests. There's limitations on celiac testing.
**Unknown:** There's limitations on stool testing. There's limitations on blood testing, parasite testing, et cetera. So one of the things that I wanna show you here is one avenue of really deciphering, do you have inflammatory bowel disease? Do you have Crohn's?
**Unknown:** Do you have, um, ulcerative colitis? All of the markers for those conditions look different. And one of the best ways of testing inflammation in the gut specifically is a stool analysis. And you're not going to be able to focus and hone in on gut inflammation through blood work.
**Unknown:** I know there, there are panels for Crohn's. I know there are panels for inflammatory bowel through the blood. I know. I use them sometimes, but I don't rely on them because there are certain tests that are better than others, and when you're truly trying to decipher inflammation in the bowel, the, the stool analysis is going to be the best.
**Unknown:** And this is Doctor's Data. Doctor's Data is one of the stool analysis that I do personally think is one of the best. So something that I want to, um, show you is, is something that I think is really, really, really eye-opening. And I, I wanna show you this because we had a, a specific scenario with our dog actually.
**Unknown:** Our dog ended up de- developing an autoimmune skin condition called pemphigoid. Pemphigoid, by the way, is so painful, um, in humans and in any, any living organism, but it's so painful that a lot of people end up committing suicide because of the massive amount of pain. So our dog developed this, and fortunately we were able to treat him, and he was able to recover in a very, very short amount of time. But when it first manifested, it was very, very extreme, and it was very, very difficult to watch, you know, your, your dog or, you know, an animal that you love in so much pain.
**Unknown:** But when we were going through this process of dealing with his condition, and this was an autoimmune skin condition, and obviously it was visible to the human eye because it was on his skin, it really made me think about all of my clients and all of my patients that I work with that have autoimmune conditions internally, everything from, you know, Hashimoto's, which is an autoimmune thyroid condition, you know, Crohn's disease, uh, celiac disease, et cetera. And it made me realize what his skin looked like was what people's insides look like. And this I feel like was very eye-opening because it's very easy for us to just take the anti-inflammatories or take the immunosuppressants to shut down the immune system in an autoimmune condition. And it's very easy to go that route and just keep powering on with our lives 'cause we're busy, and we have too much going on.
**Unknown:** And, you know, we have to take care of everybody else, and we can't take care of ourselves. And I'm showing you this for that reason to really open your eyes the way that my eyes were opened when this happened. And I know that this is really, really disturbing, and, you know, I feel so grateful and fortunate for what we do for a living because he was able to recover, and this is something that they say has no cure and has no ability to recover. And we actually found that this was due to a massive toxicity that he was exposed to from landscaping chemicals that he got exposed to.
**Unknown:** And with that being said, he was able to recover. But during that process of watching the, what his skin looked like, that is happening inside of us when we are dealing with an autoimmune condition. And if anything, I show that to help people to take action because this is what makes us more susceptible to the colon cancers and the gastric cancers. And it makes us, you know, obviously just live a life of just settling for being in pain and settling for sleeping upright 'cause our, our gastrointestinal system is so stressed, and we're dealing with such bad reflux.
**Unknown:** And, you know, for him, like I said, this was partly a massive chemical exposure that caused this condition for him, and this is not just about what you're eating. You know, so many of us are constantly, like, racking our brains about our gut thinking, "What did I eat today?" You know, "What..." you know, "What food triggered this response?" And sometimes it's not the food. Sometimes it's the chemicals on the food. Sometimes it's the additives in the food.
**Unknown:** Sometimes it's the, the chemicals that we're being exposed to from gum we're chewing or, you know, a variety of other things. So it comes down to really understanding that this is not just singular and linear. This is not just about one thing. And these are some of the chemicals that I see all the time affecting the gut.
**Unknown:** I see everything from different types of pesticides to herbicides. I see glyphosate. Glyphosate is the active chemical that isIs found in Roundup, which is found in our genetically modified foods. Glyphosate is one of the biggest connections to leaky gut syndrome.
**Unknown:** Then on top of it, we're constantly getting exposed to chloroform. Chloroform, you might be thinking like is that the stuff that people like put over people's faces to make them pass out? And you're right, yes. But chloroform is also happening ...
**Unknown:** We're getting exposed to it every time we take a shower. Reason being is because they use chlorine and ammonia to clean our city water, and then when you turn on your shower and it's hot and you have steam, it creates the compound chloroform. So we're getting little doses of chloroform every single time we shower. Then we have gluten, which is not the gluten you get in Italy, it's not the gluten you get in, in France.
**Unknown:** Our gluten in the US is hybridized and it is very, very different than what nature intended, which is one of the major reasons why so many of us are having reactions to it. So gluten is very much manipulated. It is not true gluten anymore. Another thing too is called manganized- manganese peroxide.
**Unknown:** So manganese peroxide is actually very interesting because it is part of the decomposition of fungus. So this is really eye-opening because people are ... If we ever even have mold or fungus on our radar, we think of mold that's visible in our home because of a leak or, you know, some type of water damage. But what's fascinating is that there is mold on a lot of the foods that we eat, and I will tell you an interesting story because when I was in France I was watching, uh, the news and one of the interesting things that came up was a segment on agric- or, I'm sorry, technology in agriculture.
**Unknown:** It was called agritech. And one of the things that they were showcasing was artificial intelligence in the vineyards of France. So they literally have these cameras that are hovering over the vineyards, and what their job is is to screen the vines for fungus, mold. And if they ever find any traces of it, it goes back to a technology and they're able to go in and rip that vine out so it doesn't spread.
**Unknown:** So this was very eye-opening to me because this just validates that there is a ton of problems with fungus on the food that we eat, wine being one. A lot of nuts, seeds, wheat, quinoa, rice, all of these different foods if they're not monitored properly are high mold foods c- which can also create a lot of negative effects on our gastrointestinal system. So again, this is not just about infections. This is not just about acid problems.
**Unknown:** There is a bigger picture behind the things that we're being exposed to. So some of the other pieces of the puzzle when it comes to testing is what you're seeing on the left is actually the celiac test that's done through LabCorp. So you can see that there are six items that are being tested by the LabCorp test, and one of them is deamidated gliadin. So if you look to the right, this is actually a true comprehensive celiac panel that's done by a company called Cerex Labs.
**Unknown:** So what you're gonna see here is that there is alpha gliadin, gamma gliadin, omega gliadin, then there's glutenin. And this is actually breaking down all the different types of gliadin 'cause there's all different types. There's not just the omega gliadin or just alpha gliadin. So the point of this is that you could easily be suffering with all different types of gastrointestinal issues.
**Unknown:** You go and you get a celiac test done by LabCorp and they tell you, "Oh, no, you definitely don't have an issue with celiac and you clearly don't have an issue with gluten." So you continue eating gluten and you're actually perpetuating your problem. So this just shows you that these six items that are being ran, there's a lot more that needs to be looked at to truly decipher does a person have celiac or not. So I already briefly, uh, mentioned this, is when it comes down to the concept of using an endoscope. An endoscope is they shove the camera down into the gastrointestinal system and they're looking around to see if there is any problems.
**Unknown:** And one of the things that they will do to confirm if there is celiac is they're going to then biopsy the tissue and they're going to verify are, is there damage to the villi? And what's very interesting about this is depending on where the biopsies or the samples of tissue are being taken from, this could either be celiac or this could be a different condition called autoimmune pernicious anemia, and this is very, very important for those of you that are dealing with the GERD, the indigestion, the reflux symptoms because autoimmune pernicious anemia stems from the stomach. And what I mean by that is you have very, very specific cells in your stomach called parietal cells. If you get an infection in those parietal cells, like the H.
**Unknown:** pylori, and the immune system is going to the area to try to kill off that infection, it could start to damage your parietal cells. If your parietal cells become damaged you can no longer absorb B12, and then you develop what we call pernicious anemia. Pernicious anemia is not an iron deficiency. This is a B12 deficiency.
**Unknown:** So if you're someone who's been dealing with gut issues and in addition you're very B12 deficient no matter what you do, you might need to explore do you have autoimmune pernicious anemia, and this can be done by a very, very simple blood test called, uh, antiparietal cell antibodies. So I mentioned parasites early on. One of the things that I said was we are currently in a full moon. It started yesterday.
**Unknown:** So if your stomach issues have been worse over the past two days or your mood has been worse, you might be dealing with a parasite issue. And if you have been working with all different types of physicians, even functional medicine or integrative medicine physicians, I know personally it took me a long time to learn this, is that parasites are very, very difficult to diagnose, and the reason they're difficult to diagnose is because in your stool sample. So after your bowel movement leaves your body, is 20 minutes after your bowel movement leaves your body, any parasites that would've been in your stool sample will self-destruct. So by the time you package up your sample and you send it off to a lab to analyze it, chances are all of the parasites in your sample will self-destruct and they will detect no parasites.
**Unknown:** And I learned this the hard way because I was working with a young boy who was about seven years old. He had a lot of sensory issues, so he was unable to take any supplements orally. So mom decided that the best approach was to use a suppository, which is inserted into the rectum, to help him with his detox process. So as she was doing that one night she saw a worm, and at this point I already did a stool sample which deemed him free of parasites.
**Unknown:** We did another stool sample which deemed him free of parasites again. And at that point she's like, "I've seen worms three times. What are we gonna do about it?" And I started to really dig into the research to understand more about this and I then uncovered how difficult it is to diagnose parasites. So with that being said, if you are someone who has been struggling with your gastrointestinal system and you've done supplements and you've done dietary changes and you've done an elimination diet and you've worked with integrative and functional doctors, they may potentially have missed this part of the puzzle because their testing did not allow for a proper diagnosis.
**Unknown:** So it's very important to understand that because parasites are a lot more prevalent than we may think. It's actually proven that one in four people have parasite issues. Okay, so a very, very interesting story about someone who was struggling with irritable bowel syndrome in addition to struggling with migraines. They actually came in mainly because of the migraines because the migraines were so frequent and so bad that they were really missing a lot of work.
**Unknown:** It was almost getting to the point that they were gonna have to go on a leave of absence.So during the consultation, one of the things that was uncovered by the patient was that, uh, she was dealing with a lot of pain in her right rib cage area, which is actually where your liver and gallbladder is located, and she also disclosed that she was lactose intolerant. So a lot of times with patients when they tell me they're lactose intolerant, I often start thinking, "Okay, are they truly lactose intolerant, or do they actually have an issue with breaking down fats, which stems from the gallbladder?" So I already kind of had a red flag there's something going on with this person's gallbladder. So we actually did all of our different tests, and one of the things that ended up coming up was she was definitely dealing with some infections in her gut. Parasites were one of, um, the pieces of the puzzle, but one of the things that the parasites were actually affecting was her gallbladder.
**Unknown:** So the lactose intolerance, the pain in the right rib cage area was actually stemming from her gallbladder. So just so you know, for those that ... For people that are dealing with gallbladder issues, they have a tendency to fluctuate between loose bowel movements and constipation because what happens is, is depending on the gallbladder and the stress that it's under, it will either over produce bile or under produce bile. And with that, if you're over producing the bile, you'll have more of those looser bowel movements, and then if you're under producing, then you're gonna have more constipation.
**Unknown:** So you could easily yo-yo with this throughout the week or even the month. So as we explored and we did some of our other tests, one of the other things that we did was our bio scan, and our bio scan is different than the previous thing that I showed you guys 'cause the bio scan is a test that scans the meridians of the body. And meridians are pretty much the energy channels to all of your different organs. But what's interesting is meridians follow very, very specific patterns.
**Unknown:** So we decided to scan her gallbladder meridian to see if there was any additional stress that we had may have missed, and what was uncovered was that her gallbladder meridian was extremely stressed. And it was partly due to some of the parasite issues. It was also partly due to some toxicity issues. So it was the side of the head that it was specifically on her right side was where her migraines were.
**Unknown:** So her IBS, her irritable bowel, was actually happening for years, and she almost didn't even talk about it because she just learned to adapt to it. It was just her normal. But her migraines were so debilitating because what was happening is that her long, long-standing gut issues weren't getting better. They were getting worse, and her gallbladder was one of the most stressed parts of her gastrointestinal system, and that stress was then in turn the biggest culprit behind her migraines.
**Unknown:** So it was a gut problem all along. It was never actually a head problem. So this is just the beauty of some of the tests that we do on a day-to-day basis is being able to really target what is the culprit, what is the root. And you don't only just resolve the problem the person's coming in with, but you potentially resolve so many other things that they have just adapted to that are just their normal at this point.
**Unknown:** All right. So secret number three is gut disease autoimmunity is irreversible. So at the end of the day, if you understand the root cause, anything is possible. So if you're able to do the right testing to figure out is the GERD, the reflux, the indigestion, is it because of an infection?
**Unknown:** Is it because of toxins? Is it because of a dental problem? Is it because of, because of gum disease? Is it because of so many other things?
**Unknown:** Is that the cause? That will allow us to then uncover what can we do to get better. But if you don't actually know and you just assume that you have an overproduction of acid, you're going to be the, the hamster on the wheel, and you're going to, "I feel better. I feel worse.
**Unknown:** I feel better. I feel worse." And then you're gonna use more medication. Maybe you'll use different medication. Maybe you'll use two medications, and you'll just constantly hit plateaus with what you're dealing with.
**Unknown:** And, you know, I put this quote in here, "In Crohn's disease, a rogue immune system attacks the digestive tract causing inflammation and tissue damage." And this kind of just ... This is literally from the CDC by the way, uh, the Center for Disease Control. And the reason I put this in here because we're literally just sitting back just being like, "Oh, well, the immune system's attacking the digestive tract. We don't really know why.
**Unknown:** Well, we're just gonna, you know, flood your body with either steroids, anti-inflammatories, antispasmodics. And then if it gets bad enough, we'll put you on a biologic, which is going to shut down your immune system." And, like, this is what we're settling for to be the solution, and we're, we're not asking more questions. We're not even, you know, knowing the questions to ask, and that's why I'm doing this. And this is why I, I do these is because I want you to ask better questions.
**Unknown:** I want you to know that, you know, it... your gut issues can be connected to other things, and there easily can be testing that you've never explored. And that's the reason why you haven't gotten answers yet. So very, very rarely do things manifest like a textbook, and I think this is just so important is if you open a textbook, a medical textbook, and you look up gastroesophageal reflux disorder or if you look up heartburn or indigestion, there's going to be this textbook of this is what happens.
**Unknown:** This is why it happens. This is how it happens. This is how you fix it. And unfortunately, that's not always how it works.
**Unknown:** Being in clinical practice, I see so many different reasons for someone having reflux disorders. I see sometimes it's because someone has a boatload of pesticides and toxicity that is af- infecting their gut. I see H. pylori infections.
**Unknown:** I see stress. I see dental issues. There could be so many reasons for why you're developing those symptoms, and if you don't match the textbook, you can't expect that the textbook protocol is going to be your best solution. So it's a matter of understanding that there might be more to the picture, but more importantly, you might not do well with the cookie cutter approach.
**Unknown:** It's really just looking at you and looking at the specificity behind what's going to get you better. So lastly, I just wanna leave you with this, is I truly, truly love what I do. I literally do not fear disease. I do not fear for my health, my family's health because I know that we have so many tools at Integrative Wellness Group that will, you know, be able to uncover what we need to do to get better.
**Unknown:** And when I do these, like, I just want you to understand this is, this is an educational experience, and I hope that this was very eye-opening to many of you. But what it comes down to is when you figure out what is actually going on with your body and what do you need to get better, that's really when it becomes a breakthrough experience. And, you know, I just can't tell you the things that I see on a day-to-day basis how people's lives are completely transformed. And, and I'm not talking like they got rid of their, their GERD, and they got rid of their indigestion.
**Unknown:** Like, these are people that just look at life differently. They look at the healthcare of their family differently. They, they look at so many things in relation to their health differently, and it's because of some of the tools that they've learned. It's how much they've learned about themselves, and they're able to walk away really knowing how to maintain their health and their body 'cause now they understand so much more about themselves.
**Unknown:** So it's really just such an amazing thing to be able to offer this to people, and, um, it's really why I get up every day and, and why I absolutely love going to work.So I hope that, you know, you guys can experience that at some point and, um, and go through the onboarding process and be able to have your own personal breakthrough. All right, guys, so here is our website integrativewellnessgroup.com. We have tons and tons and tons of information there. And also too if you're looking to, you know, share this information with someone else that's dealing with a different type of condition, if you check out our arsenal of podcasts we have so much circulating content.
**Unknown:** I've talked about everything from hormones to thyroid to autoimmune conditions to brain disorders to, you know, PANDAS. So, um, so definitely check out our website if you're looking for more information and then schedule a strategy call. Just learn a little bit more about the process, how we do it, why we do it. All right, guys, thank you so much for being with me and, um, I hope to see you in the near future, and I will see you guys next week.
**Unknown:** We thank you for being a listener and subscriber to Integrative Wellness Radio. If you're looking to learn more about Integrative Wellness Group as well as Dr. Nick or Dr. Nicole, you can check out integrativewellnessgroup.com.
**Unknown:** All night, no sleep. 'Cause I feel like I'm always dreaming. Wide awake, that's okay
Related episodes
About Integrative You Radio
Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
Further reading
Listen and read the full episode →