It’s rare to see someone with a healthy digestive system nowadays. There are a few reasons for this:

• Nutrient deficiencies affect the ability of the intestines to regenerate. The intestinal lining is usually replaced every 5-7 days, so it requires a lot!
• Frequent use of antibiotics wipe out your beneficial gut flora, allowing harmful bacteria and yeast to flourish.
• Chronic stress reduces our ability to digest food. This is because your body tends to be in a fight or flight mode (sympathetic nervous system), rather than resting and digesting (parasympathetic nervous system).
• An abundance of gluten in the diet. When you eat gluten your intestinal cells release a protein called zonulin. This protein loosens the space between the cells that line your intestine, allowing the contents of the intestine, like bacteria and undigested food particles to leak into the bloodstream (called leaky gut). The immune system doesn’t recognize these things as you, so it mounts a response that can lead to food sensitivities, autoimmune diseases and even cancer!
• A poor diet consisting of refined sugar and processed foods can inflame the intestine and lead to food sensitivities.

Services Offered at Radiant Life Naturopathic Clinic

• IgG food sensitivity testing to ensure you are eating the right foods
• Testing for leaky gut and protocols to heal your intestinal lining
• Targeted supplementation and lifestyle tips to ensure you are digesting your food
• Testing for conditions that could be causing your digestive symptoms (eg: thyroid, diabetes)
• Testing for a healthy gut ecosystem
• We may look for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) through a breath test or run a digestive stool analysis where we look at numbers of good and bad bacteria and fungi
• Digestive stool analysis tells us if you have enough enzymes, which bacteria or parasites are living in your gut, if you are absorbing nutrients and it detects inflammation
• Testing for nutrient deficiencies
• Vitamin B12 is commonly deficient in those digestive troubles
• Fat soluble vitamins may be deficient if you aren’t digesting fats properly

For more information you can contact the clinic at (236) 425-2205.