The majority of our gut microbiota is located in our large intestine. In this section of our GI tract, a diverse and unique ecosystem resides. This ecosystem is completely unique to you but can be manipulated by a number of factors. To name just a few;

• Early life exposures to things like breast milk,  formula, other kids, nature, 

• Lifestyle factors like exercise and sleep

• Diets low in colonic friendly foods;

  • high protein diets without colonic friendly foods e.g. carnivore

  • high fat diets without colonic friendly foods e.g. keto

  • high refined carbohydrate diets

  • Limited food diets i.e. only exposing yourself to a limited amount of foods e.g. chicken, rice and broccoli for multiple meals a week.

• Medications (e.g. antibiotics, antacids, painkillers, chemotherapy, radiation etc.) 

• Environmental toxins (e.g. pesticides, persistent organic pollutants etc.) 

• Stress

You can think of our gut ecosystem in a similar way to a rainforest’s ecosystem or a marine ecosystem or whatever you would see in the wild/nature. A well functioning ecosystem thrives on diversity. It needs multiple animals living in it to keep populations in check, a diverse amount of food sources to feed all the species and a safe and thriving environment that can house everything and keep it safe from outside influence. When one of these area’s break down, the whole ecosystem starts to falter. If we use the example of “over-logging” where tree’s are removed from the environment. You then have less bugs, birds and other animals living in this area. This decrease in diversity through the removal of animal populations and vegetation now allows other animals and vegetation to flourish. Sometimes this works out but more often than not this results in an imbalance and the overgrowth of more invasive species and vegetation. This delicate balance, which would normally have been kept in check by the richness of the previous ecosystem, is exactly what happens in our gut ecosystem through some of the reasons mentioned above. This imbalance is known as a “dysbiosis”

Once a dysbiosis has been established, our gut health and systemic health can be negatively affected. We can see the overgrowth of pathogenic and pathobiont species, a decrease of nurturing and health promoting species and their metabolites. This then results in the breakdown of the surrounding “environment”. This could be intestinal hyperpermeability (leaky gut) or further damage to the GI tract. Hyperpermeability, will also allow the toxic by-products (endotoxins/LPS) released from pathobiont species to easily cross the lumen and into the systemic circulation causing systemic issues. Down the line we then are much more susceptible to states of disease.

Re-balancing the microbiota and healing the gut looks different for everyone depending on their ecosystem, symptoms and lifestyle. It requires a trained eye to see what needs to be done but it is very possible and always worth doing!