Integrative medicine promotes gut health because gut health is good health!
All Disease Starts in the Gut
Gut Bugs — New Medical Revolution Crucial to Health
Hippocrate’s declaration, all disease starts in the gut, is as true today as it was 2000 years ago. Why? It has to do with our gut bacteria, known as our microbiome. Microbiome influences all aspects of our health.
Prescription drugs can be a cruel barrier to good gut health. Here are the facts, you decide…
- over 80% of our immune system is made in the gut
- 80-90% of serotonin is made in the gut
- the gut is the major source of inflammation in the body
- number of bacteria in the gut are ten times more than all the cells of entire body
- bacteria have DNA that influences our own DNA expression
In the near future, we will treat disease with certain bacteria. Science has already figured out people with more firmicutes bacteria are prone to obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The ratio of firmicutes to bacteroidetes bacteria in the gut determines a person’s health and illness risk! This is just the beginning of the new science of the microbiome.
This new understanding of our gut bacteria’s role in health led to the creation of the Human Microbiome Project funded through the National Institutes of Health. The mission is to sequence all 10,000+ bacteria and find how changes in the microbiome cause disease as well as help reverse disease.
Integrative medicine gastroenterologist Dr. Robynne Chutkan demonstrates in her book, The Microbiome Solution: A Radical New Way to Heal Your Body from the Inside Out, how the wrong type of bacteria in our gut adversely affects our health.
“The new paradigm of bacteria as friend rather than foe is at the heart of a revolution in health care that’s forcing us to reexamine how we live as well as our medical practices.”
Watch Dr. Chutkan’s video on YouTube for more information…
Live Dirty, Eat Clean! Why The Microbiome Is The Future Of Medicine
Neurologist David Perlmutter, M.D. witnesses the health improvements he sees in his patients daily when treating the gut microbiome. He shares his patient stories and science in his book, Brain Maker,:
“ … individuals with myriad, enfeebling health challenges – from chronic pain, fatigue, and depression to serious bowel disorders and autoimmune disease experienced a complete vanishing of symptoms following treatment. These stories are not outlier cases for me but by standard measure of what might typically be expected, they seem almost miraculous. I witness these stories every day… this new knowledge can help virtually any degenerative or inflammatory condition…”
Prescriptions for Disease
Science recognizes a balanced microbiome is essential to health. We treat patients and ignore this crucial point. When we disregard this wisdom, we make our patients sicker longer. How many times have you given out the prescriptions listed below?
- Antibiotics
- Proton pump inhibitors
- NSAIDs
- Birth control pills
These prescriptions create an imbalance in the “bad bacteria” of the microbiome. The long term harm far outweighs the short term benefit taking these drugs.
Each time we write these prescriptions we are responsible for fueling the very diseases we are treating!
No wonder people feel better when their gut feels better! Think about it… if our gut is the main factory for inflammation, then all diseases including heart disease and diabetes are linked to gut inflammation.
Hippocrate’s wisdom lives on.
I urge you to learn how integrative medicine supports the micro biome, and how to avoid giving the prescriptions that make our patients sicker in the long run.
If you agree or wish to comment, I invite you to call me, Cathy Ochs. Even if your point of view is different than my own, your opinion is still very important to me. We learn by communicating. So let’s talk about integrative medicine. What it is and is not. Benefits, limitations, and what possibilities the future holds for integrative and preventative medicine.
More…
U.S. Healthcare
7 Integrative Principles
Big Pharma vs. Integrative Medicine
Underlying Cause
Detoxification
Nitric Oxide Miracle
Roadblocks to Optimal Health
Forever Young
IMPAA Practice
Beyond Wellness
PA Owned Medical Practice
The Integrative Medicine Solution, by Cathy Ochs, PA-C, founder of IMPAA.
AVAILABLE at Amazon.com.
Defines what an integrative medicine PA practice does. A must read for every physician assistant and health care professional committed to exceptional patient care. More info here.
FREE RESOURCES
Why Every PA Should Practice Integrative Medicine. The facts about integrative medicine, owning your own practice and more. Provocative, informative and often controversial. More info here.
How California PAs Can Own a Medical Corporation. Blueprint to operate a physician assistant owned medical corporation. Complete instructions A to Z. More info here.
