The ecosystem of the gut; microbial and host marker patterns of health and disease

In this webinar, in collaboration with IHCAN, we will look at the ‘dance’ of the gastrointestinal ecosystem and discuss the known microbial and host marker patterns that occur often with common GI disorders such as SIBO, IBD, bile disorders and intestinal permeability.

Gastrointestinal symptoms and disorders can be debilitating and life altering. Often, people are sent away with ‘a clear bill of health’ diagnostically, but are left with symptoms that are hard to manage, and it can be overwhelming deciding how to stage different self-help and lifestyle interventions. Science is moving away from blaming single pathogens for these types of disorders and the research and clinical practice is more focused on overall patterns of digestive function deficiencies, microbial shifts, and declining microbe-host relationships that have been found to play a role in disease progression.

Objectives

• Discuss the gastrointestinal system as an ecosystem
• Discuss the role of the wider systems that impact the gastrointestinal tract – physical structure, polyvagal theory, bile flow and enzymatic production
• Apply ecosystem thinking and microbial patterns to conditions such as IBS, SIBO, IBD and bile insufficiency
• Discuss ways to encourage an ecosystem shift back to a state of eubiosis