Video 4-1
===
[00:00:00] Hi, I'm Sonya and I'm on a mission to fix constipation and bloating for everyone. So you've been told you have IBS, but did your doctor explain to you what could be causing those symptoms or did he just give them a nice name? Because IBS isn't a disease. A Rome four criteria defines it as recurrent abdominal pain with defecation changes for six months or longer with no identifiable biochemical or structural abnormalities.
That last part is critical because the tests they ran didn't find anything. Your symptoms are real and IBS doesn't really tell you why. It's like if a mechanic told you, oh, you have won't start syndrome, that's $200, please. But why won't it start? Why is it happening? IBS symptoms are almost always caused by identifiable dysfunction.
It could be sibo, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, which is present in up to 78% of IBS patients. But SIBO is another conversation because it's also a symptom of a deeper [00:01:00] dysfunction. Gut pathogens like h pylori, candida overgrowth, parasites, or even mold toxicity, these can go unidentified for years.
Dysbiosis and short chain fatty acid depletion. The loss of butyrate producing bacteria means your colon is literally starved of its favorite fuel and opportunistic species fill the vacuum, driving inflammation and constipation. Intestinal permeability. Your gut lining is one. Cell thin when it's damaged by infections, stress, medications, environmental toxins.
It becomes more permeable and particles cross into the bloodstream that shouldn't be there and trigger an immune reaction, which can present itself as food sensitivities and chronic systemic inflammation, liver congestion, and impaired detoxification. When phase one and phase two detox is imbalanced.
Bile quality drops, beta glucuronidase rises. Estrogen recirculates and toxic burden increases. HPA dysregulation chronic stress suppressing [00:02:00] vagal tone, SIG A and motil all at the same time. Environmental toxic load, mycotoxins from mold, heavy metals, pesticides. These are hidden stressors, burdening the liver and the gut cascading into digestive dysfunction.
Both infections, motility damage, food poisoning damages the nerve cells that control your motil reflexes. Thyroid dysfunction, subclinical hypothyroidism is often missed on conventional testing and histamine intolerance driven by gut dysfunction that impairs DAO enzyme production. None of these show on standard testing, all identifiable with functional testing and all reversible.
So we have three types, which is IBST, which is often driven by dysbiosis and butyrate, producing bacteria being impaired, slower deficient, motility, bile insufficiency, thyroid insufficiency, and pelvic floor dysfunction. And then we have IBSD often driven by bile acid malabsorption, food sensitivities from permeability, histamine intolerance.
And IBSM, [00:03:00] which is mixed and coming from dysbiosis and a combination from all of the above. IBS isn't one thing. It's a label for multiple conditions, sharing surface symptoms. So why don't doctors go deeper? It's not to dismiss you. They're just operating within a system of limitations. Conventional GIS are designed to identify diseases like Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, cancer.
They're excellent at that. But when disease is ruled out and you are still symptomatic, the system isn't designed to identify what's driving that. It has no next step. So you're given an IBS label, a low FODMAP handout, and maybe a laxative, but the gap between no disease and healthy is enormous. And that's where functional nutrition comes in.
Functional testing examines a comprehensive stool panel, SIBO testing, cortisol pattern identification, food sensitivities, intestinal permeability, and thyroid panel markers. So what do we do next? Step [00:04:00] one is stop accepting IBS as a label. It is the beginning of the investigation, not the destination. It's more like it tells you what you don't have rather than what you do.
Step two is start the investigation with a functional practitioner and order some lab tests for yourself. In the meantime, you can set some foundations so you can space out your meals four to five hours to let your MI migrating Motil complex do its work, no snacking. Take magnesium glycinate, three to 400 milligrams before bed.
Start practicing vagal toning exercises. If you're constipated, take ginger as your pro kinetic. A thousand milligrams per day, eliminate as much as possible processed foods. Stop taking Advil and other NSAIDs and try to eliminate or drastically reduce alcohol consumption. And lastly, the one that everybody rolls their eyes at, prioritize sleep because your gut repairs while you sleep.
If you're not sleeping properly, you're not repairing your gut. Step three is to deep dive into your pattern. So when did your symptoms [00:05:00] start? What makes them worse or better? Are they stress driven? Are they food driven? Did you have a bout of food poisoning? Did you take antibiotics? Was there a life crisis that started off this cascade of events?
These patterns are. Diagnostic tools. Step four is keep looking. Use the functional labs to figure out what is driving your symptoms and address them systematically. IBS isn't a life sentence. It's completely reversible, and I'm making a series of videos on all the potential root causes like sibo, impaired motility, bile dysfunction, liver congestion.
So if you're interested in learning more about them. Make sure to subscribe below, and if you're ready to just dive in and figure out what your root cause is with functional labs, I've dropped a link in the description to get the free discovery call with me to figure out if we should be working together.
See you in the next one.
