#104: What Is The Gut Microbiome and Why Is It Important?

Hey beautiful, it's Dr. Tabatha.

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Hi, I'm Dr. Tabatha, the Gutsy Gynecologist. I'm a triple board-certified OB-GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. After caring for thousands of women, I've come to realize that your gut health determines your gyn health and your overall And it's a super gutsy thing for me to go against conventional gynecology practice to bring you the truth. No more Band-Aid medicine, ladies.

We're talking root cause resolution on this show.

So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. And I want to be your gutsy gynecologist. So welcome. Hi, Dr. Tabatha. All right, ladies. So many of you want to know, what about my gut microbiome? What is the best thing to support that? So your gut microbiome is literally made up of trillions of different bacteria, some viruses, some fungi, which are yeast, some parasites, hopefully not worms, but they can live there as well. And you really want an ecosystem That's symbiotic. So it's living inside of you and you guys are working together to maintain health and balance of your body. So we have microbiomes all over our body. We have a skin microbiome, we have respiratory microbiome, we have a gut microbiome, we have a vaginal microbiome. We're now realizing that there's a microbiome of our breast tissue. So like, we are still learning and understanding all of this stuff, but We definitely know that the gut microbiome runs the show when it comes to our health. And what we realize is there is more bacterial DNA in our entire body than human DNA. That's right. We're more of our microbiome than we are of our own self as a human. So that's a really amazing fact. And it weighs a couple pounds. So it's pretty— Strong, amazing stuff. So even though microscopically you can't see the one bacteria by itself without a microscope, it's microscopic, collectively it amasses to quite a bit. So it is running the show, and it's important what's living in there. And one of the big ideas is that you want diversity, so you want multiple different types of species of bacteria living in there. In balanced levels. And so that will look like, you know, having harmony. You know, our gut microbiome develops— they're now thinking before birth. They used to think that fetuses were sterile and there was no bacteria in their guts until after delivery. There now is new research that things are being transferred through the placenta. But the most of the colonization, or the way bacteria gets put on and into your body and starts to grow and live there, that's called colonization, that usually happens through a vaginal delivery. And so it's really important that your mother has a healthy vagina when you're born and a healthy gut, because those 2 microbiomes are very much related and impact each other. Amy And so, as soon as you are born through the vaginal canal, you are inoculated with different lactobacillus, bifidobacterium, and things like that, a little yeast. And then you start nursing or breastfeeding, you're getting the skin bacteria that's on your mother's breast, you're getting what's through the breast milk, you're starting to touch the environment and put your hands in your mouth, and you're starting to pick up. bacteria in that way, and you're creating your microbiome that's probably gonna coexist with you the rest of your life. But things impact that. We know taking antibiotics can not only kill off the good guys, but it can wipe out a good, healthy microbiome. And if you're healthy enough at baseline and it was a one-time situation, Those usually can come back online and repopulate. There is evidence that you're never the same again after a course of antibiotics, but the majority of the research looks like that you do have the ability to get back to where you were after that. The issue comes in with you're not only being exposed to one dose of antibiotics, but A lot of people are exposed to multiple doses of antibiotics throughout their life. They're also exposed to other things that are killing off the bacteria. Alcohol kills the bacteria in your gut. Chronic cortisol production from stress kills the bacteria in your gut. Certain foods kill the bacteria in our gut. So a lot is going on to create this dysbiosis, this imbalance of what's living and what's running the show. You don't want to a dictatorship in your gut, but that sometimes happens. I will, you know, often see patients where there's a species of yeast running the show, um, different species of Candida. Candida is the same word for yeast or fungi. And if they're running the show, it's a dictatorship and it's no longer symbiotic, then you can't digest your food appropriately. You cannot absorb your vitamins and minerals appropriately. You cannot make your Neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine and all those feel-good balancing mood stabilizing neurotransmitters that your brain needs to feel healthy. It impacts so many things, and here's one of the craziest things that I think is God made this enzyme that is produced by bacteria called beta glucuronidase. So certain bacteria called or a stromalome, will make this enzyme beta-glucuronidase. And beta-glucuronidase will cause us to reactivate estrogens that were previously deactivated and were in your stool to be, you know, leaving for evacuation. They will cause that estrogen to be reactivated and reabsorbed. And so the bacteria in your gut can shift your hormone levels. They can affect how much estrogen you have circulating. I think that is amazing. And it's just the tip of the iceberg what we are now starting to understand about how our systems are all interconnected and relate to one another. And so the fact that bad bacteria in your gut can cause estrogen dominance and hormone imbalance is like, oh my gosh, that's really eye-opening. I need to get control of my gut health. I need to get these bacteria back into balance. So it's never about just taking hormones or, you know, dealing with heavy periods by having an ablation or using an IUD or, you know, taking some medicine for your PMS symptoms. It's trying to figure out why are your hormones imbalanced and causing all of these symptoms? And it often stems from the gut. So one of my favorite blends of probiotics are Lactobacillus with Bifidobacterium in different species and Saccharomyces boulardii. That is actually a yeast, but it's a type of yeast that keeps bad yeast under control. And so it's actually beneficial to prevent yeast overgrowth, which a lot of us women suffer from, recurrent yeast infections. And so that is why I've created BioTame and BioLift. So BioLift is the probiotic of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and Saccharomyces boulardii. It's a nice combination of beneficial Probiotic bacteria that's going to keep you in balance. I created BioTame because sometimes you need to kill off stuff before you try to replace and balance. And so it's really important to kind of know, like, do I have symptoms of overgrowth, which usually looks like bloating, constipation, diarrhea? Eczema, headaches, that kind of thing. You can usually tell if you have some bacterial overgrowth in your gut, and then you need some Biotame to tame those bacteria down, tame those yeast down, and then you want to support your good healthy bacteria. So I hope that helped you understand things a little bit better. Please let me know what else you want to hear about, what You're struggling with, what symptoms you are having, because symptoms are a message from the body that something's out of balance. And I guarantee we can figure out what's triggering it, what's causing the imbalance, and we can get you back into balance. So that is the key. Don't cover up your symptoms. With pills and surgeries. Figure out what is causing those symptoms. What is your body trying to tell you? Help get in tune with your body and listen. So I hope this was helpful. Please share it with every woman you know because I really want to get the word out that if you want to be healthy and not have GYN problems, not have hormone issues, all of that, you really do have to look at your other systems. And your gut is a huge one of those symptoms. that are really running the show. So I hope you found this helpful. If you did, I'd be super honored if you'd hit the subscribe button, leave me a 5-star review. That would just make my week. So thank you so much. Go out, have an amazing kick-ass week, and I will see you again soon.