Latest / Love Your Gut / Ep. 102: Food Poisoning, SIBO & IBS: It Wasn't "Just Food Poisoning"

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Ep. 102: Food Poisoning, SIBO & IBS: It Wasn't "Just Food Poisoning" · Love Your Gut

• 0:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to the Love Your Gut Podcast.
• 0:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: Heather Finley, registered dietitian and gut health specialist.
• 0:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: I understand the frustration of dealing with GI issues because I've been there and I spent over two decades searching for answers for my own gut issues of constipation, bloating, and stomach pain.
• 0:21
  Dr. Heather Finley: I've dedicated my life to understanding and solving my own gut issues.
• 0:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: And now I'm here to guide you.
• 0:28
  Dr. Heather Finley: On this podcast, I'll help you identify the true root causes of your discomfort.
• 0:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: So you can finally ditch your symptoms for good.
• 0:36
  Dr. Heather Finley: My goal is to empower you with the knowledge and tools you need so that you can love your gut and it will love you right back.
• 0:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: So if you're ready to learn a lot, gain a deeper understanding of your gut and find lasting relief.
• 0:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: You are in the right place.
• 0:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to the love your gut podcast.
• 0:55
  Okay.
• 0:55
  Have you ever said, my stomach has never been the same since I ate X, Y, and Z?
• 1:01
  Maybe you traveled abroad, maybe you were on a cruise.
• 1:05
  Maybe it was just.
• 1:06
  At a barbecue.
• 1:07
  Here's the thing, getting food poisoning does not always have to be international travel.
• 1:14
  I'm thinking about one of our clients who told me very casually at first, I know exactly when my stomach started acting up.
• 1:21
  It was bad watermelon at a 4th of July barbecue, so she was not on a trip abroad.
• 1:26
  It was not street tacos or a hot dog on the New York City sidewalk.
• 1:31
  It was watermelon in somebody's backyard.
• 1:34
  She ate it.
• 1:34
  She didn't think much of it, and within 24 hours, not even 12 hours.
• 1:39
  Cramping running to the bathroom, that terrible food poisoning feeling.
• 1:44
  If you've had food poisoning, you know that it is a traumatic memory ever ingrained into your brain.
• 1:51
  Nobody ever wants to have food poisoning, and once it's over, you literally never forget it.
• 1:56
  You can have a child and forget how painful that experience was going through labor, but you will not forget food poisoning.
• 2:05
  Your body does not protect you from that one.
• 2:07
  So I.
• 2:08
  Want to talk more about food poisoning today because just like this client who ate that watermelon, after that, her stomach was never the same.
• 2:17
  And years later she came to us because she was bloated by 4:00 PM every day.
• 2:22
  She had urgency in the morning.
• 2:24
  Some week she was constipated.
• 2:26
  Other weeks she had loose stool.
• 2:28
  She used to be able to tolerate a wide variety of foods, and her food list just started shrinking, shrinking, shrinking.
• 2:35
  And worst of all, she was getting anxious before meals because she just didn't know what was gonna happen, which is the worst.
• 2:42
  You wanna be able to eat and enjoy food.
• 2:45
  So the wild part is she kept saying, I swear it started with that watermelon and she was right.
• 2:51
  Food poisoning is one of the strongest known triggers for long-term gut dysfunction, not just because of the bacteria, it.
• 2:59
  Itself, but because of what it can do to your gut immune system, the nerves that control gut motility, and even the entire terrain of your gut.
• 3:09
  So this does not have to come from a passport stamp, but it of course can.
• 3:12
  We've seen our fair share, including some recent clients who have come back from honeymoon trips with food poisoning.
• 3:22
  It can come from catering.
• 3:23
  It can come from a holiday barbecue, a restaurant you've eaten at a hundred times.
• 3:27
  But this also is not meant to make you fear eating out or anything like that.
• 3:32
  I wanna share with you on this episode how you can prevent.
• 3:36
  Yourself from getting food poisoning as well.
• 3:38
  So if two people eat the same watermelon or the same food and only one develops symptoms, or maybe you have this narrative of I'm the only one who ever gets the food poisoning, or I'm always the one that's susceptible, there is a reason why.
• 3:55
  And we have to talk about terrain because food poisoning is not just the exposure of the food poisoning.
• 4:02
  It's how vulnerable your system is, and that vulnerability in your gut is very layered.
• 4:10
  So I wanna give you an analogy here, and I've given this analogy before, so if you've listened to any other episodes, you've probably heard this, but you can imagine your gut like a target parking lot.
• 4:21
  So here in Dallas-Fort Worth where I am, we have massive target parking lots, like thousands of spots.
• 4:28
  That's your gut.
• 4:29
  When the parking lot is full, there's cars parked.
• 4:33
  It's organized, there's security cameras.
• 4:36
  It's actually hard for a random car to just speed in and take over.
• 4:40
  There can't be a target parking lot party.
• 4:43
  The high schoolers can't come and have a party in the parking lot.
• 4:47
  But if that parking lot is half empty, there is room for a parking lot party.
• 4:52
  And it's much easier for something to slip in and cause chaos, and that's exactly what can happen in your gut.
• 4:58
  So let's talk about what can create this vulnerability.
• 5:03
  Okay.
• 5:03
  The first thing is stomach acid.
• 5:05
  So stomach acid is your front gate.
• 5:08
  It's not just important for breaking down protein.
• 5:12
  It also is sterilizing.
• 5:14
  So when stomach acid is strong, many pathogens can't survive that acidic environment, so they're neutralized before they ever reach the small intestine.
• 5:24
  But when your stomach acid is low, that gait is wide open and low.
• 5:29
  Stomach acid is.
• 5:30
  So common with the women and men that we work with.
• 5:34
  Chronic stress, lower stomach acid, undereating, lower stomach acid, low sodium intake, because sodium is required to make hydrochloric acid, hypothyroidism slows production.
• 5:46
  PPI use h pylori, so if you don't have adequate stomach acid, your first line of defense is not adequate.
• 5:56
  So that can be step one.
• 5:58
  Now, let's go a little deeper into the gut.
• 6:00
  Inside your gut lining is something called secretary IGA.
• 6:04
  You can think of this like your internal security system, secretary, IGA, binds to pathogens, it neutralizes them and it prevents them from attaching to your gut lining.
• 6:16
  Amazing, right?
• 6:17
  It is one of the other most important first line immune defenses.
• 6:22
  So here's the problem again.
• 6:24
  Chronic stress, lower secretary, IGA.
• 6:27
  Sleep deprivation over training.
• 6:29
  Undereating negative self-talk.
• 6:33
  Low vitamin A intake, undereating in general.
• 6:37
  So now let's imagine your front gate is weak.
• 6:40
  The security cameras are offline.
• 6:43
  That food has a much easier time causing damage.
• 6:48
  We also can't talk about this without talking about sleep.
• 6:51
  When you are sleep deprived, this impacts stress hormones.
• 6:56
  This decreases stomach acid.
• 6:58
  Like I mentioned, it impacts secretory IGA, that gut barrier.
• 7:03
  Integrity weakens.
• 7:04
  It shifts microbial diversity in your gut and your motility becomes less coordinated.
• 7:10
  So sleep is when your gut repairs.
• 7:12
  It's when your immune system recalibrates.
• 7:15
  It's when inflammation resolves.
• 7:18
  And it's also when your nervous system shifts into a rest and digest parasympathetic mode.
• 7:24
  So if you are running on five hours of broken sleep, I know we have a lot of postpartum moms that live here.
• 7:31
  Or that listen here, not live.
• 7:33
  That doesn't mean that you're doomed to get food poisoning if you're sleeping five hours.
• 7:38
  It just means you need to be more diligent about the other things.
• 7:41
  Supporting your minerals, supporting your secretary, IGA, supporting your stomach acid, supporting your stress as much as you can.
• 7:49
  The next thing I wanna talk about related to this is minerals.
• 7:52
  Because minerals are just the infrastructure.
• 7:54
  Zinc is gonna support stomach acid production and immune signaling.
• 7:58
  Copper is gonna support immune regulation and iron transport.
• 8:03
  Sodium is required to produce hydrochloric acid.
• 8:06
  Magnesium helps with that gut motility and nervous system balance.
• 8:10
  Potassium also helps there as well, so when somebody's minerals are depleted, digestion will slow down.
• 8:16
  This immune signaling will become less coordinated and that inflammatory response can become more exaggerated.
• 8:23
  Mineral depletion is very common in women who have been pregnant, breastfeeding, stressed, long-term GI issues, and lack of absorption.
• 8:33
  Women who restrict calories overtrain under eat, so again, two people can eat the same food.
• 8:39
  One has robust.
• 8:41
  Stomach acid robust.
• 8:43
  IGA.
• 8:43
  Good sleep mineral sufficiency, diversity in their microbes.
• 8:47
  The other one is stressed under fed, mineral depleted, running on caffeine.
• 8:52
  Who's gonna get food poisoning?
• 8:54
  Very, very different outcomes here.
• 8:56
  The last piece that I wanna talk about is your microbiome.
• 9:01
  So these are the actual cars in the parking lot.
• 9:03
  A diverse microbiome creates colonization resistance.
• 9:08
  So if that parking lot is full.
• 9:12
  It's really hard for invaders to park.
• 9:14
  If you've taken antibiotics recently, dieted heavily, you've been on repeated SIBO protocols or antimicrobial protocols, maybe you don't tolerate fiber very well.
• 9:26
  Have restrictive eating patterns.
• 9:28
  That lot might already be half empty, which makes that invasion easier.
• 9:33
  And this is what I want you to hear is that.
• 9:35
  Food poisoning doesn't mean you failed.
• 9:38
  It's just, it's not because you ordered the wrong thing.
• 9:41
  It's not even because you shouldn't have traveled.
• 9:44
  It's just because your system was vulnerable.
• 9:46
  And the good news is once we understand where the terrain of your gut is breaking down, we can stop just trying to kill bacteria and we can actually build up your resilience.
• 9:57
  So you're not always the girl with the stomach ache or the one who always gets food poisoning.
• 10:03
  The part that most people never get told is that research shows us that a large percentage of IBS starts after food poisoning.
• 10:12
  It's called post-infectious IBS.
• 10:14
  So that means you had an infection, you recovered.
• 10:17
  But your gut never really went back to normal.
• 10:19
  And here's why.
• 10:21
  When you eat something that's contaminated, some bacteria include Camp Lo backer, salmonella, e coli, Ella, your body jumps into action to fight this.
• 10:30
  So that's where the diarrhea, cramping, vomiting, et cetera, maybe that miserable 12 to 72 hour stretch.
• 10:38
  That's just your immune system doing its job.
• 10:40
  So.
• 10:41
  So that's normal.
• 10:43
  Here's where it gets interesting is when your body is fighting those bacteria, it actually makes antibodies.
• 10:49
  So these antibodies are like these little tiny soldiers they're trained to recognize and attack invaders, and sometimes those soldiers get a little bit confused.
• 10:58
  So some of the bacteria looks similar to a protein in your gut called vin killin.
• 11:05
  And Cullin helps your gut muscles contract in a coordinated way.
• 11:10
  So it's like the wiring system that tells your intestines when to move.
• 11:14
  So in some people, the antibodies accidentally attack both bacteria.
• 11:20
  And Cullin, this is called cross reaction.
• 11:23
  So when Cullin gets damaged, the gut doesn't move in the same way.
• 11:28
  So what I'm getting at here, if you're like I did not sign up for the science lesson today, is that your small intestine has something called the migrating motor complex.
• 11:38
  And this is basically your guts cleanup crew.
• 11:41
  So between meals, this.
• 11:43
  Sweeps out leftover food and bacteria, and if that wave gets weaker, things sit, they stagnate.
• 11:52
  That's where SIBO and IBS can begin.
• 11:54
  So simply put, food poisoning is not just.
• 11:59
  Because of the bacteria actually disrupts the nerves and the signals that tell your gut how to move because of mencullin.
• 12:07
  So after the infection is gone, that is why you're now bloated, gassy, constipated, or having these bouts of switching between constipation and diarrhea.
• 12:20
  And that's why you can often hear, I recovered, but my stomach has just never been the same.
• 12:26
  So for many people, SIBO doesn't start with random bloating.
• 12:30
  It starts with an infection.
• 12:32
  That changed actually how their gut moves.
• 12:35
  So the part that makes so many women.
• 12:38
  Tear up in consults is like, I don't understand, like why did one day like totally change everything for me?
• 12:47
  For many people, when the infection ends, the disruption doesn't, and after food poisoning, things can be impaired.
• 12:55
  The microbiome can lose diversity.
• 12:58
  Bile flow can decrease.
• 12:59
  Your nervous system stays hyper alert.
• 13:02
  Your stomach acid is affected and that system that keeps things moving is weakened.
• 13:08
  So most people don't know that this is actually fixable, but they try and they try to fix it in the wrong ways.
• 13:17
  They cut out more foods, they remove dairy, FODMAPs, raw veggies, fruit.
• 13:23
  They take herbals, they do SIBO protocols, they take supplements, binders, whatever, and probably get temporary relief.
• 13:32
  But if motility and nerve support is not restored, if stomach acid isn't supported, if bile flow isn't addressed, if minerals aren't rebuilt, if your nervous system isn't supported, that foundation never really stabilizes.
• 13:47
  Which is why you can cycle where you're getting better, then you're not, then you're worse, then you're better for years.
• 13:55
  And that is where food poisoning can just feel like this turning point because it didn't just in introduce bacteria, it disrupted the whole coordination of your gut.
• 14:05
  So we together.
• 14:07
  I wanna talk to you about what to do during acute food poisoning.
• 14:12
  First, if you're in the middle, your body and your job is not to aggressively fix everything.
• 14:18
  Right now.
• 14:18
  Your bo, your job is to support your body while it clears the infection.
• 14:23
  So you can hydrate, you can use electrolytes, especially sodium and potassium if minerals drop.
• 14:30
  Too low.
• 14:31
  That's when fatigue can come on board.
• 14:33
  So lots of coconut water and sea salt.
• 14:36
  I have a mineral guide you can download that.
• 14:39
  I also love to bring on immunoglobulins to help bind to those bacterial endotoxins so that when bacteria die your body can bind to those endotoxins that are.
• 14:50
  Worsening inflammation.
• 14:52
  Those immunoglobulins are gonna act a little bit like a sponge and help neutralize those fragments.
• 14:58
  They can calm down symptoms.
• 15:00
  You can also use binders like activated charcoal.
• 15:04
  Timing can be really important here.
• 15:06
  You wanna use this away from other food and supplements.
• 15:09
  They can actually reduce toxin burden.
• 15:12
  And so you could use that just temporarily.
• 15:15
  You can also use probiotics like croces.
• 15:19
  This is the most studied.
• 15:21
  It can help reduce the duration.
• 15:23
  Lactobacillus Renos, GG has some research supporting immune modulation.
• 15:28
  Certain soil-based strains can help You don't necessarily need to.
• 15:32
  Mega dose, gentle support.
• 15:34
  And then one of my most.
• 15:35
  Favorite things to support is the nerves of the migrating motor complex.
• 15:40
  We love lion's mane.
• 15:42
  You definitely want to get the fruiting body, not the mycelium of lion's mane.
• 15:47
  Lion's mane is a mushroom.
• 15:49
  But Lions, Maine help support nerves of the migrating motor complex.
• 15:54
  So this can be a great tool that you can use.
• 15:56
  Once that flare starts to calm down, you can use it during the flare as well.
• 16:01
  And then you can use gentle motility support after an acute phase.
• 16:06
  Once the diarrhea settles, ginger can be really great for nausea.
• 16:10
  Ginger tea just to kind of keep things moving.
• 16:14
  So during acute food poisoning, we're supporting hydration, we're supporting minerals, we're supporting the immune system, toxin binding.
• 16:21
  And then once things are stable, we wanna keep things moving and start addressing the nerve damage, et cetera.
• 16:30
  So if you're listening and thinking, okay, but this happened years ago, what do I do?
• 16:35
  I am not supporting an acute phase of food poisoning.
• 16:40
  That's where we can shift from an infection to actually supporting function, because the goal is not to just keep killing things in your gut.
• 16:48
  The goal is actually to restore movement.
• 16:52
  And create resilience in your gut.
• 16:55
  When symptoms continue after food poisoning, it usually means that you need some support.
• 17:00
  And when we identify what system that is, we can be a lot more strategic.
• 17:05
  So we're gonna look at things like stomach acid production, motility, your migrating motor complex mineral status, bile flow, your microbiome balance, nervous system regulation.
• 17:17
  Digestion is coordinated.
• 17:18
  And when one piece is off, that whole rhythm changes.
• 17:22
  And that's where comprehensive stool testing like the GI Map becomes incredibly helpful.
• 17:27
  Not because it's just this trendy thing, but because clarity helps us to have confidence.
• 17:32
  I'll show you what I mean.
• 17:34
  We had another client who came to us after her honeymoon.
• 17:36
  She went to Bali, she got food poisoning.
• 17:39
  She messaged me and said, I have Bali belly.
• 17:42
  She had gotten food poisoning while they were traveling and that acute phase passed, but couple months after.
• 17:50
  She was like distended so bad every evening by 5:00 PM She's like, I look nine months pregnant.
• 17:57
  So we did some testing.
• 17:59
  The GI map identified the exact pathogen she picked up, and what that meant for her was we could build a protocol specifically for her gut, not a generic one.
• 18:10
  The real value there was her digestion could actually.
• 18:14
  Work again, we address that organism as well as some of the downstream effects that that caused.
• 18:20
  We supported motility.
• 18:22
  We rebuilt her immune resilience.
• 18:24
  We optimized bile flow, and within a few months her evening distension was resolved.
• 18:30
  She stopped planning her outfits around her bloating.
• 18:32
  She stopped thinking about her gut all day.
• 18:35
  And here's the bigger picture.
• 18:36
  It wasn't just about removing that pathogen.
• 18:39
  It was about restoring function to the whole gut.
• 18:42
  Her stomach acid, her motility, her minerals, helping her nervous system to feel safe again.
• 18:48
  The gut can become resilient again.
• 18:50
  So if this happened to you years ago and you don't feel like yourself, there is a reason, and the good news is there's a path forward.
• 18:58
  You can have digestion that feels calm and predictable all day.
• 19:03
  This is exactly how you were designed and that is what we are working towards.
• 19:08
  So if your gut changed after food poisoning, what you need to hear is it was real.
• 19:13
  It had a mechanism and it's workable.
• 19:17
  It's it likely disrupted your motility, it maybe altered your microbiome immune signaling, et cetera.
• 19:23
  We can recalibrate those.
• 19:25
  Systems.
• 19:26
  Once we identify what changed, support it directly.
• 19:30
  We don't wanna just keep throwing things at you.
• 19:33
  We wanna actually see what's going on because when your gut moves well, it digests well and regulates well.
• 19:41
  Your bloating will settle, your urgency will improve.
• 19:44
  Constipation becomes more predictable or goes away.
• 19:48
  Food doesn't feel so scary anymore, and then you've built a resilient system that is not as prone to food poisoning.
• 19:58
  So that's what we're after.
• 20:00
  If this episode connected dots for you, I'm really glad you're here.
• 20:04
  Thank you for listening for sharing the show and caring about understanding your body at a deeper level.
• 20:10
  If you're interested in working with us on one-on-one, I'll have information in the show notes about that you can apply.
• 20:17
  We can jump on a call, chat through all the things, and I will see you on the next episode of the Love Your Gut podcast next week.
• 20:25
  Thanks for joining.