Questions & Answers

The Natural Approach To Gut Health

I often get asked by people, “Why is the natural way better for treating candida, SIBO, or IBS, better than the pharmaceutical, evidence-based way?

There are many reasons why the natural way is better.

One of the most important reasons why the natural way is a better way is because you got less chance of destroying the microbiome using a natural treatment then you would using a pharmaceutical option.

Medicine has only just woken up to how important bacteria in the gut are.

Is wasn’t all that long ago when I was a kid that everything was about destroying bacteria.

When I was a kid, no doctor ever made a call for a probiotic.
Everything was antibiotics and it still is to this day to a considerable degree.

To my mind, any drug that is “anti-“is not going to have natural effectiveness in your gut. It’s going to damage it instead.

The non-natural way is always pharmaceutical.

And when medical practitioners do talk about diet, they are only paying lip service to it. They don’t talk about the importance of prebiotic foods.
All you’re told is to eat a healthy diet, whatever that means, or go to the dietician.

The natural approach to gut health is the superior method because a) we’re not using any chemical concoctions that will kill the beneficial microbiome, and b) we’re not putting chemicals into your body that can cause side effects.

You would not believe the amount of time I’ve spent in my career trying to help people recover from drug side effects. I probably have spent at least 50% of my time doing that for clients.

For example, I recently saw a 20-year-old man who came in with sever years of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. During those seven years, he has been taking methylphenidate for ADHD. This medication caused increasing GI side effects over the years to the point that he was vomiting five or six times a day by the time he came to see me.

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This poor young man was at risk of losing his apprenticeship. His doctor couldn’t find any reason for the vomiting. But it was obvious to me, it was the flipping drug he was on. I’m taking him off the medication and clean up his GI tract. I’m guessing that in about six weeks, his GI symptoms will have cleared up.

That case is just one example of why I’m not interested in pharmaceutical intervention for gut issues – or just about any kind of long-term health issue.

When you come to see a naturopath like myself, we’ll never tell you that side effects from drugs are all in your head. Further, naturopathic treatments don’t induce side effects. They might induce strong healing responses, but that is different than side effects.

I also don’t like pharmaceuticals because, in my experience, people get stuck on them for years, whether they still need them or not. To me, that’s crazy.

When I treat clients, the idea is to get them well as quickly as possible and then transition off the program. Then, let their body build up on its own steam. Let the beneficial microbes flourish.

Natural treatments for GI problems are effective and make the patients happier over the long term.

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