part three
11
Healing the Whole Body
A
t this point in our journey, we’ve thoroughly discussed leaky gut—how it develops, how we make it worse, and how we can begin to make it better. By now I hope you’ve started to implement some of the Eat Dirt program principles in your life, such as eating more organic produce and fermented foods, managing your stress, and getting outside more often. But what if you’re still suffering from digestive distress, feeling fatigued, or holding on to excess weight? What if your gut issues don’t seem to be fully resolved?We know that the body’s organs and systems are inextricably linked—the health of each is dependent upon, and affects, all others. When it comes to leaky gut, multiple systems throughout the body are involved. Following every thread of this delicate web is part of the diagnostic process that helps us identify leaky gut. Once we have that diagnosis, we can turn our attention back to the web that created it and address each individual thread in our treatment.
Treating thousands of patients over the years, I’ve seen firsthand how unique every person’s health story really is. For some, the root cause of their leaky gut might be candida overgrowth. For others, it might be immune system dysfunction. When specific body systems are not functioning optimally, the path may require a slightly different approach to healing. If you can zero in on what’s going awry in your body and identify the weakest link, you can begin to fix systemic problems at their source.
If you’ve been helped by the basic Eat Dirt plan, that’s wonderful. But if you find that you need a bit more help, or you want to customize your plan even
further, you may want to learn more about the five leaky gut types. At the end of this chapter, you will find a small excerpt from the Eat Dirt gut type quiz; the full quiz is hosted on my website (www.draxe.com/gut-type-quiz). This quiz can help you to determine which gut type best reflects your situation. Once you have your gut type, you can turn to the corresponding chapter in part 3 to refine your core plan with some type-specific modifications. If you’ve been hoping for more dramatic results, you may find these specific guidelines are just what you need.
These types hold personal resonance for me, because I discovered my own at a time when my health was at an all-time low. Early in my career, when I was starting to help many people to heal from leaky gut, I still hadn’t truly connected all the dots about this mysterious condition nor refined the nuances until I experienced it for myself. (Hey, we all need a little help sometimes!)
— Doctor, Heal Thyself —
Before I started my clinical practice, I did a six-month internship in Naples, Florida, which necessitated a short-term house rental. Toward the end of my internship, I developed digestive issues and a red flushing on my face. I also noticed that whenever I ate certain foods, such as eggs and dairy products, my nose would start to run. I had never experienced anything like this and wasn’t completely sure what was causing my symptoms.
Just before I left Naples, I was replacing an air filter inside my rental home when I found mold in the air duct. I determined that mold toxicity was the probable cause of my skin inflammation as well as the digestive issues and food sensitivities I’d been experiencing. A couple of weeks later, I moved to Nashville to open my wellness clinic, which turned out to be the busiest time of my life.
I worked six days a week, typically putting in twelve-hour days. Not only was my clinic expanding—it would quickly grow into one of the largest functional medicine clinics in the country—I was also training for triathlons before work or during the middle of the day, taking two-hour blocks to swim, run, and ride my bike.
In the midst of this physically demanding and stressful period, I continued to have skin inflammation as well as sensitivities to a variety of foods. I was
determined to find out why my body hadn’t completely rebounded from the mold exposure, so I ordered a series of tests for myself:
an Organic Acids Test (OAT), which revealed that I had vitamin and mineral deficiencies for vitamin B12, zinc, and iron
an IgG test and an IgE test, which both showed food sensitivities and food allergies
a stool test, which told me that I had an imbalance of good and bad microbes in the gut, notably an excess of yeast and a lactobacillus probiotic deficiency
The findings surprised me—I’d always considered myself exceptionally healthy, my diet rich in organic foods. In response to the four tests, though, I began taking digestive enzymes and probiotics, and beginning each day with a bowl of homemade bone broth—the nutrient-dense, glutamine-and-collagen-rich consommé we talked about in chapter 6 that supports gut health.
I’d say that over the next year, I got 70 percent better. The red flaking skin improved dramatically, but my health issues still weren’t completely resolved. I knew I was missing something that would restore my gut health back to 100 percent.
Motivated to find answers, I went online to some of my favorite medical resources. I came across a journal article that discussed the benefits of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in dealing with similar symptoms. Intrigued, I contacted a colleague who was formally trained in this field, Dr. Gil Ben-Ami, an Israeli-born acupuncturist and herbalist.
I consulted with Dr. Gil to better understand the essential teachings of Chinese medicine. Along with many other fascinating details, Dr. Gil explained that two of the favored diagnostic tools in TCM were examining the tongue and feeling the pulse. Later that day, I went home and noticed that my tongue had redness and indentations along the edges. I soon learned that this was a sign of heat and stagnation in my liver and gallbladder.
My medical training had taught me that when the liver is stressed, fats are not digested properly, which stresses the small intestine and ultimately causes gut permeability. I researched foods that best support liver function and discovered that sour and bitter foods were among the most nourishing, as well as foods that