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You are Special

But Your Digestion Should Conform to the

Standards for the Species

You are not so special that you get your own personal normal of pooping a couple times a week, or having ongoing soft stools, or experiencing pain and bloating after you eat.

What is Normal Digestion?

Normal digestion involves the following steps

  • You are hungry
  • You eat food
  • You feel full
  • You do not experience tiredness, increased energy, pain, bloating, burping, or gas
  • You poop 1-3 times daily (often in the morning before breakfast and after meals)
  • When you poop, you feel that you fully evacuate the stool
  • The poop comes out easily without pain or straining
  • The poop looks like a snake, log, or chunks
  • When you clean your bottom after pooping there is barely any poop to wipe off

What is Irritable Bowel Disease (IBS)?

  • IBS impacts 7-16% of US population and is more common in women

Symptoms

  • Painful Belly
  • Change in Bowel Habits
  • People may also experience
    • Urgency
    • Mucus in Stool
    • Feel like can’t empty bowel

Types of IBS

  • IBS-D (Predominantly diarrhea)
  • IBS-C (Predominantly constipation)
  • IBS-M (Mixed diarrhea and constipation)

Natural Medicine Treatment of IBS

Dr. Caroline Peterson will take a careful history and diet intake from you to try to establish patterns of digestive symptoms

We have a wide variety of diagnostic assessments to draw from including

  • Food sensitivity testing
  • GI genetic mapping of microbiome, parasites, bacteria, viruses and other constituents
  • Elimination Diet

Intervention could include

  • Dietary changes
  • Sealing the gut
  • Killing overgrowth in the gut
  • Building under-represented flora
  • Visceral manipulation

What is Inflammatory Bowel Disease?

Inflammatory bowel disease includes two chronic inflammatory gut conditions:

  • Crohn’s Disease
  • Ulcerative Colitis

Symptoms

  • Persistent diarrhea
  • Chronic abdominal pain
  • Blood in stools
  • Weight loss
  • Fatigue

What is Crohn’s Disease?

Crohn’s is an inflammatory bowel disease that can affect any part of your digestive tract from your mouth to your anus

  • Mainly affects teens and young adults up to 35 years old
  • The immune system is overactive in crohn’s disease

Symptoms

  • Diarrhea/constipation
  • Urgency
  • Abdominal cramps/pain
  • Feeling like have not fully evacuated bowels
  • Rectal bleeding
  • Anal fissures or fistulas

Natural Medicine Treatment of Crohn’s Disease

  • Determine what is provoking over-activation of the GI immune system and treat it
  • Calm the immune system
  • Sooth and seal the gut
  • Visceral manipulation

What is Ulcerative Colitis?

Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory bowel disease that occurs only in the colon (large intestine) and rectum.

Symptoms

  • Diarrhea
  • Urgency
  • Bloody stool
  • Abdominal cramping and pain

Natural Medicine Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis

  • Determine what is causing over-activation of the immune system and treat it
  • Calm the immune system
  • Sooth the gut
  • Visceral manipulation

What is Celiac Disease?

Celiac (AKA celiac sprue or gluten-sensitive enteropathy) is an autoimmune disease that has a genetic component.

Gluten triggers an autoimmune response and must be avoided at all costs.

Symptoms associated with gluten exposure include

  • Diarrhea
  • Bloating/gas
  • Abdominal pain
  • Weight loss
  • Anemia
  • Fatigue

Natural Medicine Treatment

  • Avoiding gluten is the most important thing to do
  • If you are just discovering you are celiac, we will work to bring down gut inflammation and seal the gut
  • If you have accidental exposure to gluten we recommend DPP-IV enzyme therapy
  • Visceral manipulation is important for treating adhesions caused by inflammation in the gut

What is SIBO and SIMO?

SIBO=Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (hydrogen dominant)

SIMO=Small Instestine Methane Overgrowth (methane dominant

Symptoms

  • Diarrhea
  • Constipation (Methane overgrowth only)
  • Abdominal pain
  • Loss of appetite
  • Nausea
  • Weight loss
  • Bloating/gas

Diagnosis

  • Lactulose Breath test to evaluate hydrogen and methane levels (the break down products of the bacteria)

Treatment

  • Antimicrobial herbs have been found to be as effective as antibiotic rifaximin
    • SIBO = Berberine, Oregano, Neem
    • SIMO= Allicin, Neem, Oregano
  • Balance gut microbiota
  • Seal the gut
  • Decrease inflammation
  • Fodmaps diet
  • Perhaps elemental diet
  • Visceral manipulation and craniosacral therapy to improve gut/brain axis signaling

Most SIBO/SIMO reoccurs after intense pharmaceutical/herbal and diet intervention.

In my opinion it is imperative to use manual hands-on therapy to treat the gut, regulate the valves (especially the ileocecal valve) and prevent recurrence.

What is a Gastric Ulcer?

A gastric ulcer is a kind of peptic ulcer that is characterized by open sores inside your stomach

Symptoms

  • Burning abdominal pain that is worse when eating (because stomach acid is washing over it) but can come and go or awaken you at night
  • Feel full fast
  • Bloating

Cause

  • Helicobacter pylori (H. Pylori)

Diagnosis

  • Endoscopy (for ulcer)
  • H. Pylori breath, blood, or stool test

Natural Medicine Treatment

  • Rebuild stomach lining
  • Kill H Pylori with herbs
  • Improve strength of digestion to prevent future infection
  • Visceral manipulation

What is a Duodenal Ulcer?

A duodenal ulcer is a kind of peptic ulcer that creates open sores in first part of small intestine.

Symptoms

  • Burning abdominal pain that is worse between meals or at night.
  • Feel full fast
  • Bloating

Cause

  • Helicobacter pylori (H. Pylori)

Diagnosis

  • Endoscopy (for ulcer)
  • H. Pylori breath, blood, or stool test

Natural Medicine Treatment

  • Rebuild duodenal lining
  • Kill H Pylori with herbs
  • Improve strength of digestion to prevent future infection
  • Visceral manipulation

What is an Esophageal Ulcer?

An esophageal ulcer is a sore on the inside of the tube you swallow food down.

Ulcers often occur close to where the esophagus hooks up to the stomach.

Symptoms

  • Burning or pain in chest/heartburn
  • Trouble swallowing/feeling of food stuck in throat
  • Black tarry stools or black vomit (indicating bleeding)

Cause

  • Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) often associated with a hiatle hernia
  • Could also be due to esophagitis from candida, herpes, or cytomegalovirus infection

Diagnosis

  • Upper endoscopy
  • Or just by symptoms and response to management

Natural Medicine Treatment

  • Treat hiatle hernia
  • Visceral manipulation
  • Sooth and rebuild esophageal mucosa
  • Kill infectious overgrowth if relevant and re-establish normal esophageal microbiome

What is GERD?

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) occurs when stomach acid comes up into the esophagus through the lower esophageal sphincter that hooks the esophagus to the stomach.

Symptoms

  • Heartburn usually worse at night or when lying down
  • Regurgitation of food or sour liquid
  • Upper abdominal or chest pain
  • Trouble swallowing
  • Lump in throat
  • Water brash (an excess amount of saliva is produced to mix with the stomach acids that are coming up)
  • Coughing
  • Sore throat
  • Hoarsenes

Cause

  • Hiatle Hernia
  • Abdominal obesity (beer belly)
  • Pregnancy
  • Low stomach acid

Diagnosis

  • Upper GI endoscopy (with biopsy)
  • By symptoms and response to management

Treatment

  • Treat hiatle hernia or other underlying cause
  • Visceral manipulation to tone valves and GI
  • Improve quality of digestion

What is a Hiatle Hernia?

A hiatle hernia is when a little bit of the stomach pooches up into the chest cavity.

Many hiatle hernias are sliding. This mean the stomach can move above the diaphragm into the chest cavity and then come back down into the abdomen later.

Symptoms

Symptoms of a hiatle hernia are often associated with acid reflux, since that is what happens when you have a hiatle hernia

  • Chest pain
  • Heartburn
  • Feeling full as soon as you eat
  • Difficulty swallowing
  • Shortness of breath

Cause

  • Poorly toned core
  • Incorrect breathing
  • Abdominal obesity (beer belly)
  • Pregnancy
  • Poor quality digestion

Diagnosis

  • Barium swallow x-ray
  • Manual visceral assessment

Natural Medicine Treatment

  • Visceral manipulation to reduce the hernia
  • Training of proper breathing to keep the stomach down
  • Training of proper core and diaphragm activation and strengthening exercises to keep the stomach down