Episode 88: All Things Gut: H. Pylori, GERD, SIBO, Candida, CBD & More
Today I’m talking all about the gut and answering some listener questions about the gut. I’m going to talk about H. Pylori (what it is, who is at risk), reflux & GERD, the link between oral & gut health, different types of bloating, what you need to know about treatment, and more.
In this episode:
Updates on gut stuff
What is H. Pylori?
Other causes of ulcers:
Who is at risk of H. Pylori?
Issues with acid-blocking drugs
Reflux & GERD
How is H. Pylori transmitted
The link between oral health and gut health
Symptoms of H. Pylori
What different types of bloating tell you about your gut
Candida & Fungal Overgrowths
SIBO
Different types of gut testing
All about gastritis
What you *need* to know about treatment
How to use CBD for gut health
Sign up for gut program updates
Learn More About Gut Health
Episode sponsors:
Coyote River Hemp Co. Use code FUNK10 for 10% off
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Erin Holt [00:00:05]:
Welcome to the Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast. I'm your host, Erin Holt, and I'm a board certified integrative and functional nutritionist. I live on the seacoast of New Hampshire and work with clients in my virtual practice all over the world through private consultations and online nutrition and functional medicine programs. Functional Medicine Nutrition is all about diving deep with people to get to the root cause of their health issues. And that's exactly what I tackle in this podcast. All things health, food and nutrition, unpacking, current research, and almost a decade of clinical experience. I love to bring experts and thought leaders to the table so we can all learn together. Please keep in mind this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment.
Erin Holt [00:00:55]:
Thanks for joining me. Now let's dive in. Hello? Hello? Hello. I'm panting right now. I just sprinted up the stairs. I need to record this podcast in exactly one hour so I can go pick up my daughter from school in time. Today we're going to talk all about the gut. Lots and lots of gut goodies.
Erin Holt [00:01:17]:
I had a couple listener questions that came in and so we're going to dive into those. Hey, if you want me to hear, if you want to hear me talk about the gut and other cool stuff, check out Align. It's Saturday, March 21, at All Plus One in Portsmouth. It's going to be from 10am to 5:30pm so it's like a day retreat. There's a lot of cool speakers. I'm one of them. There's going to be meditations, there's going to be yoga. If you want to go, today's your last chance to save 20 bucks off of your ticket.
Erin Holt [00:01:53]:
Use code ERIN2020. It's like I'm running for president. Erin 2020. It expires today, February 20th. So if you're listening in real time, go check that out at thealignexperience.com and of course I will link up to it in show notes. I'm going to be talking about the connection between the gut and the brain and hormones. We'll talk about where to start when you're trying to fix your gut hormones in leaky gut. That connection, thyroid, gut healing diets, how the gut can drive hormonal imbalance, all that good stuff.
Erin Holt [00:02:27]:
Okay, so hope to see you there. I do want to give you guys some updates on my gut healing program. Inquiring minds want to know. I am starting to build it out. Totally overwhelmed. I mean, starting to build out an online program is just so, so much work. But I'm preparing the outline and I started to realize, like, damn, this is going to be a comprehensive program. Because I don't think what I'm building actually exists out there.
Erin Holt [00:03:00]:
There's a lot of really good gut healing 101 programs, don't get me wrong. But what I'm trying to do is pull together all of the trainings and all of the resources that I've studied over the years, also bringing in my clinical experience, pulling it together in this cohesive fashion. So you could see why creating an outline is a tremendous amount of work just doing that. But I really want you guys to get the best information out there in a way that's easy to follow. That's pretty much what I did with Your Hormone Revival. It really is a lot of information to the point where I'm like, is this too much information? But I just went for it. And fortunately, that was one of the biggest pieces of feedback that I got from the beta group is, oh my God, I wish I had all this information years ago. I wish I had known this all along.
Erin Holt [00:03:52]:
Even healthcare providers and practitioners that went through the program and are currently going through the program keep saying things like, I actually never learned this in school. I wish I had. So I do feel like my audience can handle it. To be honest, I think you guys are a little bit of a niche crowd, that you're beyond the basics, right? You're not like, learn like just looking how to clean up your diet. You're really into that, like, next level stuff, which is exciting because that's exactly the stuff that I love to teach about. But I did start to get a little bit of anxiety just knowing how labor intensive Your Hormone Revival was. Before I went into full force production mode with the gut program, I was like, freaking out. I was like, what if I create this program that nobody wants.
Erin Holt [00:04:45]:
I had those same fears with Your Hormone Revival, for the record. But this was like, extra, extra. Because now I actually know how much work is required of me. Whereas before I was just going in blind. I was like, this sounds great, let's do this. I've been building virtual programs for like 10 years now. 2010 was the first one that I built, so I'm no stranger to the production mode. But Your Hormone Revival was really the first of its class in terms of just how much research and time was required.
Erin Holt [00:05:15]:
So on Sunday morning, I was having, having a little bit of a freak out, little bit of a freak out. My heart was racing. I was like, is it too much coffee or is it too much work? I don't know. I started to get a little bit too much in my head about it. I was really busy in my brain with all of the things and all of the fears and all of the insecurities and all of the what ifs, and I realized, hey, I can actually just ask for help. So I made a quick questionnaire on Google forms. I posted it in my Instagram stories, asking for feedback. And you guys, people came through.
Erin Holt [00:05:50]:
I mean, like, quick. People came through quickly. It was. I was moved to tears because it was so helpful to get that feedback if you're one of the people that gave feedback. I got over 50. It was only open for less than 24 hours, and over 50 people responded, which to me is. Seems like a lot of people that are willing to take their time to do that. So thank you so much. You should have received your $50 off coupon by now.
Erin Holt [00:06:19]:
I know how valuable your time is, and I do not take it for granted. And I do not like to ask for things without giving you something in return. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And if you're listening and you missed that, sorry. My Instagram stories, I treat them like little mini podcast episodes. So if you're not following me there, be sure to follow me there. And if you're on Instagram and you're not, like, really hip to the game, the way that you view stories is, if you go to somebody's profile page, there's a little circle, you know, where their profile picture is.
Erin Holt [00:06:51]:
If there's color around the circle, click on it and you're in for a real treat. It's a whole new experience when you start getting into stories. Anyway. The most exciting thing about the feedback is that you were all overwhelmingly into it. The biggest response I got was, give me all the info. So I'm stoked because I really wanted to throw down information. And it's so nice to know that we're in lockstep with that.
Erin Holt [00:07:24]:
You want the information? I got the information. Let's do the damn thing. Not so surprisingly, the biggest obstacle, I was like, what's your biggest obstacle to signing up for a program like this? 70% of you said finances. Again, no surprise. And that's definitely something that I will keep in mind. But to be really honest and transparent with you guys, as I always am, to build out the program that I want to build and that you want, it's not going to be an inexpensive program. Remember that my hormone program took me eight months to create, you know, and we're on track for something similar here. And I'll literally be putting hundreds of hours of study time and tens of thousands of dollars worth of trainings into this program.
Erin Holt [00:08:13]:
That is no word of an exaggeration. That is the truth. So I have to price it according to its worth. I'm not going to really throw out a set dollar amount right now because I need to figure it out, but it will be priced similarly to Your Hormone Revival. There's also going to be that live component where you'll get complete access to me for the length of the program and I will be analyzing labs. All of that is an extraordinarily time consuming process. So I'm still kind of tinkering around with details, like if I'm going to include functional labs as part of the program or will it be an additional add on where people can opt in. During the beta round of Your Hormone Revival, the DUTCH test and the thyroid panel were both optional, but everybody purchased the DUTCH test.
Erin Holt [00:09:03]:
So this last round I included it in the cost. It just made more sense that way. But there will be. There's so many different labs you can run for GI function. This one's going to have three different labs. So I do think, I mean, I think I'll probably give people the option of opting in or opting out. So anyway, I'm just letting you know all of this so you can plan accordingly if it's something that you really want to do. And just like my hormone program, there will be a monthly payment plan option and I will also do an early bird pricing discount like I did with this one, most likely.
Erin Holt [00:09:39]:
So those are the ways that I can throw you a financial bone and help you out. So take advantage of that. You know, if I do offer discounts. Hop on it. Take advantage of it. Okay, so let me read the first listener q. Hi, Erin, I'm reaching out because I have been following you for a while now and I'm in love with your podcast and hope you might have some research you can direct me to or possibly include my question as a future podcast topic. So that's what we're doing here.
Erin Holt [00:10:10]:
Anytime you email me with a question. If you're not a client of mine, you're not going to get medical advice from me or health advice. It's just inappropriate. So I will answer questions here on my show. Anyway, she says, long story long. Love it. I've had major GI issues for years and have struggled to find a doctor who would help. I finally started working with a naturopath who ran a full thyroid panel and diagnosed me with Hashimoto's.
Erin Holt [00:10:36]:
That was months ago. And after switching to the AIP diet and working on my lifestyle, stress, triggers, et cetera, things have been, to my complete dismay, getting worse and worse to the point that I was in urgent care this week after five days of severe diarrhea. They sent me home with a stool test which came back positive for Campylobacter and H. Pylori. The latter, I understand, is notoriously difficult to treat. I know your website states that the GI map test you use checks for H. Pylori, but I didn't find any of your articles or podcast. I searched via Google so I may have missed some on that topic.
Erin Holt [00:11:12]:
Can you speak to that on a podcast? Anything all about H. Pylori and what systemic effects it could have, why some are vulnerable to it causing major problems, treatments, et cetera. Or point me to any reputable resources where I might be able to get the full picture. Thanks in advance in case this is something that comes up on a future podcast. And if not, thank you still for continuing them. I can't imagine the time investment required and I am saving to join one of your courses eventually to be able to dig in deeper and pay to help continue your work. It is so, so valuable. Best, Faith. Hey, Faith.
Erin Holt [00:11:48]:
The gut program is looking pretty good. Pretty good for you, my girl. Okay, so the first thing that I want to say is that H. Pylori, I want to ease your fears because if you go into an H. Pylori treatment thinking that H. Pylori is notoriously difficult to treat, guess what? It's going to be difficult to treat for you. So our mindset and our beliefs, anytime we approach a healing protocol or a kill protocol or anything are massively important. And I want to say to you, as a way to talk you off your ledge a little bit, I've treated H.
Erin Holt [00:12:29]:
Pylori a number of times, very successfully. So I don't know where you got that information. I'm not saying it's a cakewalk, but it's not. I don't think it's something that is worthy of your stress right now because hey, guess what? Stress is going to make your infections worse, which we'll talk about. So that's right out of the gate what I wanted to say. Also, I'm just so sorry that you're dealing with this. That sounds awful. Ending up in urgent care with severe diarrhea is not cool. So I'm really, really sorry.
Erin Holt [00:13:03]:
I know, it's been a minute since you sent this email. Hopefully you're feeling better. Let's get into everything to do everything that's, that has to do with H. Pylori. If you don't care about H. Pylori, I'm going to be hitting on some other hot topics that you might care about. Things like reflux, GERD yeast, Candida, gastritis. Big stuff.
Erin Holt [00:13:27]:
So it's still worth your attention in my opinion. Anyway, let's talk about what H. Pylori is. It stands for Helicobacter pylori. It's a spiral shaped bacterium that's found in the gastric mucosal, your mucus layer in your tummy. So a really important thing to understand for the sake of this discussion is that the insides of our guts should be really slippery and silky. And if that gets eroded at all, if that lining, that silk blanket, if you will, if that gets eroded at all, it causes massive, massive problems from a pain and symptom standpoint, but also from an immune standpoint because we have so much immunity that lives in that mucosal layer. H.
Erin Holt [00:14:15]:
Pylori causes up to 90% of duodenal ulcers and it causes up to 80% of gastric ulcers. Now an ulcer, many of us know, but in case you don't, it's an open sore and it can be anywhere, external or internal, any surface of the body. And it's either a broken skin or it's a mucous membrane that won't heal. Okay, a gastric ulcer is happening in the stomach lining. So that silk blanket gets a little bit destroyed and a duodenal ulcer is in the duodenum, which is the very first part of your small intestine. You might also hear them referred to as peptic ulcers, which is really a catch all term for ulcers that develop in the stomach, in the lower esophagus or in the small intestine. But basically it's an upper GI issue. Now, for decades, we believe that ulcers were caused by stress.
Erin Holt [00:15:10]:
And you've no doubt heard this before, but most of them are actually being caused by a bacteria lurking in the stomach that's known as H. Pylori. But nobody believed, forever nobody believed that ulcers were an infectious disease. It was always attributed to lifestyle, diet and stress. Here's how it was discovered. This is a really cool story. Barry Marshall is an internist from Australia and he actually infected himself with H. Pylori in order to prove a point.
Erin Holt [00:15:45]:
So he took H. Pylori from the gut of an infected patient, he mixed it in some broth, and he freaking drank it. So sick. All for science. This is all for science, baby. He documented the creation of his own ulcer. So after he consumed the H. Pylori, it did, in fact cause an ulcer.
Erin Holt [00:16:03]:
He documented this, and then he cured the ulcer using antibiotics by killing off the bacteria. In fact, it was, like, so monumental that he and another pathologist, Robin Warren, actually won the Nobel Prize in 2005, the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for this discovery. And this is the reason that I love this story so stinking much. They both challenged the prevailing dogma. They were like, we're not just going to keep doing this because it's the way that it's always been done. We're going to find a new way. And they did. And now everyone accepts.
Erin Holt [00:16:42]:
This is widely accepted. This isn't just functional medicine. This is. Everybody in medicine widely accepts that ulcers are, in fact, caused by the bacteria H. Pylori. Another really big takeaway here is that when we're stressed, there is a link between stress and ulcers. There's no question there.
Erin Holt [00:17:03]:
There's definitely a link. But when we're stressed, GI infections can flare up. That's actually something I'm studying pretty deeply right now. And it's why I tell people when they're like, should I start with the gut? Should I start with Your Hormone Revival? I'm like, start with your hormone revival. Because we do extensive adrenal rehab, this. This comprehensive program before trying to address any gut issues. And it's. So sequence your protocol in that fashion.
Erin Holt [00:17:35]:
So there is this clear link between ulcers and stress, but it's because stress makes you more susceptible to gut infections. Stress lowers. It suppresses your immune system, and so you're less apt to be able to fight things off. And you could also have H. Pylori and other chronic infections living in you, and you can have no symptoms at all. And then you hit a stressful period in your life, and boom, symptoms flare up and it becomes a major problem. Okay, so one of Faith's questions was, why are some people more vulnerable to H. Pylori causing major problems? And I hate to sound like a broken record, but you do have to look at your life stressors.
Erin Holt [00:18:21]:
Are you putting yourself at a greater risk for any GI pathogens simply because you're under a lot of life stress? So that's the first thing to consider. Other causes of ulcers. So we know that H. Pylori is responsible for the majority of ulcers. But you can have an ulcer without H. Pylori. The most common reasons are medication, particularly NSAIDs, non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs. So this would be aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen.
Erin Holt [00:18:53]:
That is the second leading cause of peptic ulcers after H. Pylori. Because NSAIDs irritate and they damage your stomach lining and your intestinal lining. And that is like a pretty profound link. That's not like a maybe, that is like why you shouldn't lean on NSAIDs. Once in a blue moon, like if you have like one day in your female cycle where you're like, I have these cramps, I take an Advil, it's fine, that's cool. But if you're popping them like several times a week, that is, I mean, that will cause direct damage to your gut. It might not be an ulcer, it might be more down lower in the, in the intestines, but it does cause severe damage.
Erin Holt [00:19:33]:
Other medications that can increase your risk for ulcers include osteoporosis medications, anticoagulants like Coumadin, SSRIs, and then certain chemotherapy medications. I'm certainly not suggesting you don't take these medications. I'm just saying be aware of the side effects of these medications. So who is at risk of H. Pylori? To dive into Faith's question just a little bit deeper, half to two thirds of the world's population actually has H. Pylori. It's just living in them. Even if they might be asymptomatic, so they might have absolutely no GI upset, but they've just got this little critter living in their tummies.
Erin Holt [00:20:15]:
The prevalence does increase with age, maybe because as we age, our stomach acid decreases. And that's another massive risk factor for H. Pylori. If you have low stomach acid hypochloridia or you take acid blocking drugs because that's going to suppress your acid production, obviously. An initial infection with H. Pylori really can only take place when the acidity level in the stomach is low. So what happens is we have low stomach acid, which causes heartburn, and then we take acid suppressing drugs which can put us at greater risk for H. Pylori infection.
Erin Holt [00:20:53]:
We get infected. That further reduces the stomach acid, leading to chronic heartburn and gerd. So it can become this like little bit of a vicious cycle. And it's quite tricky because that H. Pylori suppresses the stomach acid secretion. Right. That's really how it survives. H.
Erin Holt [00:21:13]:
Pylori is kind of a little bit sneaky. It can survive in the stomach. Remember that we need stomach acid, we need that acidic environment in order to keep pathogens at bay. So anything that comes in contact with the stomach acid, any pathogen, should ideally be killed off, if we're making enough stomach acid, if we're doing anything to suppress that stomach acid, we're going to be at greater risk for all types of gut infections. So H. Pylori is allowed to survive in that low acidity environment. And even if your H.
Erin Holt [00:21:45]:
Pylori is asymptomatic, treating it does help to increase stomach acid in those with hypochloridia. So if the host, meaning the human, has low stomach acid or if they have low immunity or suppressed immunity, those seem to be very important factors determining H. Pylori's colonization and pathogenesis. So is H. Pylori going to colonize and is it going to cause disease? Is it going to cause illness? And remember, the immune system is so important, and stress suppresses immunity, so it's going to make you more apt to get an infection. And chronic stress also reduces stomach acid. Right. So stress is doing a number to us.
Erin Holt [00:22:36]:
All right, how do you get it and how is H. Pylori transmitted? It usually enters the body through uncooked food, be it raw eggs, uncooked chicken, stuff like that. It's transmitted orally, so a third of cases are transmitted through saliva. So if you're, you know, kissing is one way to transmit it. We have to really pay attention to oral health. And this is true for H. Pylori, but it's true for a lot of other gut bacteria. The mouth can be a reservoir for pathogenic bacteria.
Erin Holt [00:23:11]:
And if you have mouth issues, it's kind of like the whole system stays broken because you will literally swallow the infection and it can go down into the gut. And so you could do gut protocol after gut protocol, and they might not take hold because you continue to harbor the infection in your mouth. So if there's a good product, biocidin, they make a toothpaste and a rinse or any type of antimicrobial rinse that's not, you know, like, not something you're going to find at a cvs, but something you're going to find at a health food store that has, that uses some plant medicine. That could be something to do. I would also, if you, if you have known oral issues, schedule an appointment with a biological dentist. Maybe consider ozone therapy. This is not my area of expertise.
Erin Holt [00:24:00]:
We've talked about oral health a couple times on the show. I did interview my friend. She's a biological dentist. Kristen Graham. So you can check out that episode, but you basically want to make sure everything's cleaned up in the mouth. It's also important to screen your spouse or your partner and make sure that they're not a carrier so you don't pass it back and forth. Some practitioners really like to treat the whole family.
Erin Holt [00:24:25]:
There's a story that one of my teachers tells. It's quite funny. A man came in, he had H. Pylori. They treated him. He got infected again. They're like, all right, we'll treat you again.
Erin Holt [00:24:42]:
We'll treat the whole family this time. We're gonna treat the wife, we're gonna treat the kids. They all were treated. They all have negative retests. The guy got it again. Like, what the hell's going on? Turns out he had a freaking mistress that was reinfecting him and his family. So don't cheat on your spouse, number one. Number two, get your mouth checked.
Erin Holt [00:25:03]:
Some symptoms of H. Pylori. So how do you know if you have it? First of all, a lot of gut infection symptoms can overlap each other, so it's not really good just to go on symptoms. You also want to get tested, and we'll talk about how to do that a little later on. But some symptoms of H. Pylori is upper abdomen pain, indigestion, belching, burping, gastritis, which is the inflammation of the stomach lining. I'll talk about that in a little bit. Because gastritis often goes hands in hand with H.
Erin Holt [00:25:36]:
Pylori. Obviously, if you have been diagnosed with a duodenal or a peptic ulcer, you want to get screened for H. Pylori. Constipation, nausea, morning nausea. So waking up in the morning feeling like you got a vom or actually having to vom. Ongoing need for digestive support. Heartburn. Gerd, which stands for gastroesophageal reflux disease.
Erin Holt [00:26:01]:
It's a digestive disorder that affects the lower esophageal sphincter, the little muscle that's between the esophagus and your stomach. So H. Pylori's preferred niche is really in the stomach, in the upper GI. So most of the symptoms are going to be from your tummy up. A big one is feeling like you're bloated shortly after you eat and when it comes to bloating, a good rule to keep in mind about any type of bloating or indigestion. If you experience symptoms within 45 minutes of eating, it's probably a stomach issue or upper GI. If you experience indigestion or digestive discomfort or bloating an hour, two hours, three hours after eating, it's usually a lower GI problem. So you have to think about how food is moving through the through the GI tract.
Erin Holt [00:26:53]:
Some problems and risks associated with H. Pylori this is another one of Faith's questions. And there are some severe risks. No doub. Infected people have a two to six fold increased risk of developing gastric cancer and also a certain type of lymphoma, mucosal associated lymphoid type, or MALT. When we compare them with people who are not infected with H. Pylori. One of my mentors, Dr. Dan Kalish, says if you're not doing the testing, you're really doing a huge disservice that that pain is there for a reason.
Erin Holt [00:27:28]:
So if you're having this ongoing stomach pain, you can sometimes relieve symptoms with by taking hydrochloric acid or taking enzymes or taking probiotics, or even taking over the counter stuff, you can minimize those symptoms. But if there's an underlying infection, you really need to know that so you can go ahead and treat the infection. Not everybody with H. Pylori will develop an ulcer, but everyone with H. Pylori will end up with stomach inflammation. And stomach inflammation is a pretty big deal because we know that inflammation is at the root of so many chronic conditions. And if we have the opportunity to address an infection that's causing inflammation, it's a really good idea to move forward on that and do that. H.
Erin Holt [00:28:15]:
Pylori causes that damage to the stomach lining. It also reduces stomach acid production, which we also talked about. And for these reasons, it can change the gut environment. And when we change the gut environment unfavorably, it can lead to all kinds of overgrowths in the lower gi. It can lead to SIBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, and it can lead to stuff going on in the large intestine. Faith tested positive for Campylobacter, which is a gram negative bacteria, and that can definitely be the downstream effect of an H. Pylori infection. These bacteria can also manipulate the human immune system to survive in the mucosal lining of the stomach, that silky blanket.
Erin Holt [00:29:03]:
They can just kind of hang out there and evade the immune system and it suppresses. This little bug can actually suppress our natural immunity. And when our immunity is stressed or suppressed, it's going to increase the risk of other infections, it's going to increase the risk of cancer, right? So it's a pretty big deal once it starts to bed down in our bodies. So they can survive. They're stealthy little guys, right? They can survive, they can colonize, and they can continue to cause tissue damage over many decades. And so it's causing this inflammation in the stomach, which we know is a problem that in and of itself is actually strongly linked to gastric cancer. And the ecosystem of gastritis often contains a lot of candida or yeast, other types of pathogenic bacteria. So if you have gastritis, if you have inflammation of the stomach lining, then you, you definitely want to be checked out for H. Pylori, you want to be checked out for other type of bacteria, you want to do a stool test, you want to try to catch some yeast to see what is, what is going on in that, that broken down system.
Erin Holt [00:30:19]:
There is a very strong link between H. Pylori and candida or other types of fungus. People with H. Pylori were shown to have an increased abundance of candida and fungal overgrowth. And this is one of the ways, I was saying earlier that H. Pylori can sort of evade the immune system. One of the ways that it does this is by hanging out and hiding out in yeast vacuoles.
Erin Holt [00:30:46]:
So we want to make sure we're addressing the yeast component when we're going after the H. Pylori as well. So along with the H. Pylori diagnosis, you also want to think about whether you're showcasing signs of fungal overgrowth. Then we have some obvious signs of a yeast overgrowth. Things like thrush, excuse me, thrush, not thrust. Thrush, vaginal yeast infections and athletes foot. But then we have some less obvious signs that might surprise you a little bit. Acne, eczema, psoriasis, asthma, seasonal allergies, hay fever, sinusitis.
Erin Holt [00:31:24]:
Am I saying that right? Inflammation of the sinuses, ear infections, migraines, foggy brain. That's a big one for Candida. Foggy brain. Weight gain, like random bizarro weight gain. And then any history of long term antibiotic use. When we take antibiotics, we kill off the good, the bad guys. We also kill off the good guys. And when the good guys are suppressed, yeast can really overgrow.
Erin Holt [00:31:51]:
Now testing for yeast is a little bit tricky. It doesn't always show up on stool tests. It's pretty hard to catch, in fact. So if you're showcasing any of those signs, you do want to throw some antifungal into the mix or have your practitioner create a protocol that addresses the yeast overgrowth. There's also a link between H. Pylori and SIBO. And just as a heads up, SIBO is huge. SIBO.
Erin Holt [00:32:21]:
I hear about it all the time. I see it clinically all the time. It's going to be a big part of my gut broke program. And you will get access to the SIBO breath test. And here's why I'm saying this loud and clear. I am finding it increasingly harder to get proper testing done through GI doctors. In fact, I stop sending my clients because it was such a time suck. They'd have to make the appointment with the specialist.
Erin Holt [00:32:45]:
They'd have to get, you know, get the referral. They'd have to pay for the specialist appointment. And then they were overwhelmingly disappointed when the GI doctor would say, I'm not running that test for you. So it's worth like, I think it's like a $200 test. It's worth honestly saving your time, your frustration and your money and just getting that test done through this program. I had one client tell me that after waiting for two months to see her GI, her gastroenterologist, he says to her, I'm going to tell you what I tell all of my patients. The B in SIBO stands for bogus. So just another male doctor telling a female that her experience isn't real.
Erin Holt [00:33:27]:
Love it, gotta love it. I'm here to say that shit is real. So I will test you for it. We also want to know what we're working with before we start treatment. Right. We episode 81 I talked about why you need to stop self treating your gut. And I feel like with SIBO, more so than anything else, I see a lot of self diagnosis in home treatment. There's a lot of blogs out there with people talking about how they healed their SIBO, which is great that people out there are willing to share what worked for them.
Erin Holt [00:34:00]:
But you have to understand that there are different types of SIBO in the way that you approach treatment is going to be pretty different. There really is no one SIBO protocol. As frustrating as that is, what worked for one person might not work for you. And there's also a very high recurrence rate with SIBO. So you want to make sure that you're addressing the underlying issue of why you got SIBO in the first place. That is so, so stinking important. Elevated. I'm not even going to say that.
Erin Holt [00:34:36]:
I'm just getting too far into the weeds and I got to stay on, stay on task here. We can talk about SIBO in a different episode. Send me all your SIBO questions, I'll dive into it for sure. Okay, so testing for H. Pylori, how do we test for it? The gold standard is a biopsy, so that's obviously extremely invasive. Right? But that is considered the gold standard. There are also blood antibodies, so antibodies that you can look for on a blood test. IgG, IgM and IgA, different types of antibodies.
Erin Holt [00:35:08]:
The tricky thing about this is that antibodies rise at different times post exposure. So this isn't the most reliable because you can get false negatives and false positives. So you can have H. Pylori, but your antibody production might be low, so it might not show up on a blood test. Or you could have been infected years ago, you could have been treated for it, but you still have circulating antibodies. So not the best. I wouldn't use this as the only way to diagnose it. It could work in conjunction with other tests.
Erin Holt [00:35:39]:
There's also a stool antigen. So you do a stool test and they're looking for a fragment of the organism itself and if it's positive, it's an active infection. If you get a positive stool antigen, H. Pylori, you have it. There's no false positives there, but there can be false negatives because it can be missed. They might not catch it in the stool. Then we have a breath test. It's a urea.
Erin Holt [00:36:06]:
Urease. What is it? Urea, breath test. And that can find an acute infection, but it can miss a chronic infection. And then we have salivary antibodies which have kind of been discredited, so don't use those. What I use clinically is the GI Map, Good old trusty GI Map which looks for H. Pylori as well as eight different virulence genes. And it's using PCR DNA, so it's polymerase chain reaction. I think that's what PCR stands for.
Erin Holt [00:36:39]:
So we're looking for the DNA of the organism. So it's a much more sensitive test and it has shown sensitivity and specificity, reaching the diagnostic gold standard of the endoscopy with the biopsy and the breath test combined. So it's a pretty accurate, non invasive way to test for H. Pylori. And those virulence factors that it also looks at represent potential for H. Pylori strain to create pathology, to actually create disease, which is really good information for a clinician to have before determining how they want to treat H. Pylori. If they want to treat H.
Erin Holt [00:37:20]:
Pylori, how aggressive they need to be. All of that provides a lot of good clinical, clinical stuff, data. So as far as treatment goes, obviously I'm going to talk a little bit about how conventional treatment goes down. There are natural options for sure, and that's what I use in my practice with good success. I don't feel comfortable telling you on the podcast exactly how to treat your infection. I feel like that's really, really irresponsible of me because it's always one of those situations where it depends and how I approach it with one client is going to be different than how I approach it with another client. There's a lot of factors involved. So I think it's a little reckless of me, quite frankly, to sit here and just be like, oh just do this or just buy this supplement or all you need to take is this because it's just not the full picture.
Erin Holt [00:38:18]:
And as much as I want to give you guys as much information as possible, I also want to be reserved with how much information I give at the same time, if that makes any sense. Just because I don't, you know, I just cautioned against home treatment for gut issues. I don't want to then have a crop of people trying to treat their H. Pylori or being like, I think I have those symptoms. I'm going to take these antibiotics, you know, like, I just, I don't want to, don't want to do that. Anyway, conventional treatment, it's usually treated with antibiotics, at least two different antibiotics at once. So remember that antibiotic cocktail that I talked about in episode 78, how to eat for true gut health and how much like an atom bomb they are to the gut, the more of a cocktail you put in your gut, the more you're going to kill off and the longer lasting effect, negative effects you're going to have. You're usually on them for two weeks.
Erin Holt [00:39:15]:
They're pretty heavy duty. And in conjunction with antibiotics, your doctor will probably also recommend an acid suppressing drug which we know might make you feel better short term, but long term creates a lot of problems. So there are alternative treatment options. Doing a course of botanicals for 60 to 90 days. Now Faith is working with a naturopath, so, so I'm going to talk through some things that she should talk about with her practitioner and should really be on her practitioner's radar and so she can enter into an informed conversation with her practitioner. But again, I am not giving any overt medical advice here. Mastic gum is pretty great. That's pretty well known to be effective for H.
Erin Holt [00:40:00]:
Pylori. And you can also, some people will take it long term to prevent recurrence. So the H. Pylori doesn't come back. But here's, here's the deal. You can't go in gangbusters. That's a term from one of my mentors, Jessica Flanagan.
Erin Holt [00:40:18]:
She says that all the time. And I always giggle because it's like, so weird. It's still a weird thing to say, but now I say it. You can't go in gangbusters with H. Pylori because if gastritis is present, you have to deal with the gastritis first. So we talked a little bit about gastritis already, but it's when the membranes that are lining the stomach wall start to get irritated or damaged and then they become inflamed. So the slippery silky blanket that's supposed to be laid down on the tummy starts to erode away. And this mucosal layer is really built to protect the stomach from acid and from bacteria and from pathogens.
Erin Holt [00:41:03]:
So the longer this goes on, the more damage that can occur. This will lead to stomach ulcers. This can potentially lead to gastric cancer. And there's two types of gastritis, acute and chronic. Acute is. You'll have some noticeable symptoms. Chronic. If this has been going on for a long time, you might not even notice it anymore.
Erin Holt [00:41:23]:
Some symptoms of acute gastritis are stomach pain, feeling really full, heartburn, nausea, sometimes vomiting, belching, lack of appetite, or a bloated stomach. Now, all of these symptoms also could be SIBO symptoms, right? So this is the importance of getting tested for different types of things. But if you have those symptoms alongside a positive H. Pylori test, you need to deal with the gastritis first. You have to. So if there's any type of active infection, or, excuse me, active heartburn, if you know you have an ulcer, the treatment is going to look different than if you have H. Pylori without any of those symptoms. You have to reinstate that silky blanket, that lining of the stomach.
Erin Holt [00:42:13]:
You have to fix the gastritis before adding in antimicrobials to kill off the H. Pylori, because those antimicrobials are very caustic to the mucosal layer. And if the mucosal layer is already banged up, you don't want to just keep doing more and more damage. It might kill off the H. Pylori, but you're going to be at a much greater risk of the infection and other infections coming back. Okay. And then I would always say do a follow up test.
Erin Holt [00:42:43]:
So you do a test, you do the treatment, and then you do another test to make sure the infection has cleared. Okay, next question. Hi, Erin, you've talked about treating the gut with oils and essential oils. Have you ever researched or talked about treating the gut microbiome with CBD oil? I'm not sure if there's info on the effects, positive or negative of CBD on bacterial overgrowth, so I thought I'd ask. Thanks for all you do and all the information you provide. Jen Spause.
Erin Holt [00:43:18]:
Shoot. She even told me how to say this on Instagram. I think she said S with a pause. Pause with an S. Spause. Anyway, Jen, I got you. All right. So Jen's a question asker.
Erin Holt [00:43:28]:
Jen throws a lot of questions my way. So I know her brain is working overtime when it comes to gut health. So I have talked about using, or really more specifically not using essential oils to treat the gut. The reason that we would be talking about this is because essential oils have antimicrobial properties and if there's any pathogenic overgrowth in our lower GI or upper GI, we have to treat them with antimicrobials. Antimicrobials kill bacteria, so that's kind of that connection. Now, CBD is just because it's an oil does not mean it's going to have those same effects. CBD isn't necessarily going to modulate the microbiome, but it can have some effect on the digestion and the digestive tract for a number of different reasons. So that's why I plucked this question, because I think it's a kind of a cool one to unpack.
Erin Holt [00:44:29]:
And I get so many questions about CBD and I thought this was interesting since we're talking about the gut anyway. So I do want to give you a quick debrief on CBD. You really, really, really want to be careful with sourcing. You want to know where the CBD is coming from. You want to be using a full spectrum hemp oil rather than CBD isolates. So I'm going to talk about the cool interplay between CBD and the gut, but with the disclaimer that you're choosing a well sourced CBD. And the one that I recommend is Coyote River Hemp Company. They're awesome.
Erin Holt [00:45:12]:
It's what I use personally. It's what I use clinically. It's the one that I recommend if you follow my Instagram stories you just saw a couple of days ago. I showed, I showed how I take it because people are like, how the heck do you take that stuff? I use the dropper and the Coyote river bottles come with like a little drop, a gauge, so you know exactly how much you're getting. Which is another thing. You really want to be careful with dosing and be mindful of using the appropriate dose. So I use that and I just put it right underneath my tongue.
Erin Holt [00:45:47]:
If you're going to check out CBD, use Coyote River Hemp Co. And save 10% by using my discount code, funk10. FUNK10 at goodandcompany.co. You'll save 10% off of your entire order and it's free shipping on orders that are $75 or more. Okay, now another question that I get. Is CBD going to make you high? And the answer is no, CBD is not psychoactive. That's THC. THC is known for its psychoactive effects, right? That high feeling. CBD and THC both come from the cannabis plant, but they have different properties.
Erin Holt [00:46:29]:
CBD is not a recreational drug and it doesn't give you those psychoactive effects that THC does. Which is a sweet relief for me because pot makes me a psychopath. So I'm all set with THC. I'm good. But CBD I can really get behind now how it works and how it has some cool effects on the body. Your body has something called the endocannabinoid system, which basically tries to maintain balance and homeostasis within the body. And how many of us want more balance and more homeostasis? I literally have my hand up in the air. So hemp based cannabinoids interact with that system, that endocannabinoid system, improving communication and coordination between cells.
Erin Holt [00:47:15]:
So there are certain conditions that CBD can be used for. Chronic pain is a huge one. Insomnia, anxiety. I've talked about how I use CBD for anxiety. PTSD, diabetes, skin issues, MS, Alzheimer's, neuroinflammation, epilepsy. Did I say that one already? So it has some far reaching effects. And that's actually one of the criticisms. Because CBD is so much more popular now, there's of course a lot of trash talking that comes with it.
Erin Holt [00:47:50]:
And one thing that I, that I've heard is that people critique it for being touted as a panacea. Like this is the thing to cure everything any Complaint can be fixed by CBD, but there are reasons why it works for all of those conditions that I just mentioned. And one of the main ones is that CBD lowers inflammation. And we know that inflammation is at the root of most, if not all disease and many, many symptoms. So if we can find something to lower inflammation in the body, it's going to have far reaching effects. The body, the parts of the body don't just work in isolation. They're all interconnected, they're all communicating with one another.
Erin Holt [00:48:33]:
Keep in mind, and so cannabinoids in CBD can help to suppress the immune system inflammatory signals. Now, ideally, we make enough endocannabinoids in our own bodies, but if we don't make enough to squash the inflammation, we can make use of exogenous cannabinoids from outside sources like CBD. So CBD lowers inflammation by suppressing inflammatory pathways, stimulating the production of immune regulatory cells and managing our pain perception. So to come full circle and answer Jen's question, for all of these reasons, I think it would be a really great tool for anyone that has IBS, especially if they've got that visceral hypersensitivity that can go along with IBS, because it can help the brain turn off that pain cascade. I use it for chronic pain as well. It's really, really helpful. And you could use it concurrently with a kill protocol. CBD itself isn't going to kill off all the pathogenic bugs, but it's going to reduce inflammation in the gut and systemically.
Erin Holt [00:49:51]:
So any type of intervention you do is going to have a better chance of working. If we can lower inflammation, we're going to be more receptive to killing off pathogens in the gut. So that is something to consider. And then on top of that, the endocannabinoid system actually affects the digestive system by regulating motility. I've talked about motility a bunch on the show and I even have an entire episode dedicated to it. So that's how quickly or how slowly food moves through your digestive tract, which is very, very, very important. There's like a sweet spot in there. If things are moving too fast, it causes problems, and if things are moving too slow, it causes problems.
Erin Holt [00:50:36]:
So we want that balance, that homeostasis, right? And it can also smooth out communication between the gut and the brain. Now, the gut brain axis is massively important when it comes to gut health. They're constantly communicating back and forth to one another. And so if that communication system is off, we're going to see a lot of digestive problems, we're going to see a lot of gut problems. But if that communication system, that gut-brain axis is on track, then we're going to see, we're going to see better resolution of GI symptoms. I will say that we could address the gut all we want with kill protocols and gut healing protocols, but if we're not addressing the gut-brain axis, it's really hard to truly quote, unquote, heal the gut. So this is another tool that can really help with that communication. So something to consider again, it's not going to be something you use to replace essential oils.
Erin Holt [00:51:39]:
And I'm going to continue to caution people against self treating their guts. Don't just assume you have infection, get tested for an infection. If you have chronic ongoing GI issues, it is money well spent to get the appropriate test. Stop throwing things down your mouth and hoping that it's going to heal your gut. Sometimes you get lucky and it works. I tend to not see the lucky folks in my clinical practice though. All right. And if you want to learn more about the gut-brain access again, I'll be talking about that at Align Saturday, March 21st in Portsmouth.
Erin Holt [00:52:16]:
All information will be in the show notes. I would love to see some of you guys there. It's always fun to meet people IRLl and you know, I'm going to be doing a Q and A so we can just geek out and talk about all this fun stuff. All right, you guys, I did it. I'm so impressed with myself that I really, really burned through this episode and now I can go pick up my daughter on time. I will check y'all next week. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast. If you'd like to submit a question to the show, fill out the contact form@erinholthealth.com if you like what you hear,
Erin Holt [00:52:54]:
Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review in iTunes. Take care of you.
