dysbiosis Archives - Sara Gottfried MD

Your internal ecology has everything to do with your health. It is stunning to me that the gut is so smart and complex, yet so vulnerable. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that many lifestyle factors directly impact your gut barrier and can lead to leaky gut, including eating certain foods, drinking too…

When your body is healthy, you have a powerful army that defends you against invading bugs and foreign particles, such as viruses, bacteria, and parasites. That army is your immune system, and it polices your gut and blood stream for anything it deems foreign. Your immune system is a complex network of specialized cells and…

Your top 5 questions about dysbiosis answered

Dysbiosis is an imbalance in your gut flora caused by too few beneficial bacteria and an overgrowth of bad bacteria, yeast, and/or parasites. The more clinical term that relates to the problem is “Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth” (SIBO), and this term refers to the gut flora that crawled backward into the small intestine from the…

“My joints hurt.” “I have this rash…” “I get terrible headaches.” “I think I’m allergic to…” “Am I going bald?” I hear these complaints on a daily basis from my patients, many of whom struggle to keep their conditions under control with medications such as steroids, anti-inflammatories, pain killers, and the like. Most of my…

“I’m nowhere near the finish line,” my patient said during our fifth consultation, sighing vacantly as she stared at the floor. With a waist circumference of 38 inches, triglycerides of 300, and fasting blood sugar of 110, I had diagnosed her with metabolic syndrome at her initial checkup. Over three months and as many follow-ups,…