Exclusive Dr. Hyman+ Functional Medicine Deep Dive: Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Mark Hyman
Mar 5, 2024
Mindsip insights from this episode:
Manage stress to prevent leaky gut
Stress releases neurotransmitters that drive inflammation, increase GI motility, and cause bacterial transfer into the mucosa, leading to a 'leaky gut.'.
Address vitamin D deficiency to reduce colitis risk
Low levels of vitamin D are associated with an increased risk of Crohn's surgeries, and in animal models, vitamin D supplementation can resolve colitis.
Embrace farm living and pets to enhance microbiome diversity
Living on a farm, having a larger family, or exposure to pets in early childhood allows for a more diverse microbiome and may decrease your risk for chronic immune diseases.
Avoid NSAIDs to prevent inflammatory bowel disease flares
NSAIDs, a common class of pain relievers, can trigger an inflammatory bowel disease flare in up to a third of patients.
Recognize IBD as a whole-body disease with systemic effects
Inflammatory bowel disease is not confined to the gut and can have extraintestinal manifestations affecting the skin, eyes, joints, kidneys, and liver.
Integrate functional medicine to manage chronic illness
Functional medicine is a model designed to address chronic, complex diseases like IBD, serving as an adjunct to, not a replacement for, conventional medicine which excels in acute care.
Embrace early germ exposure to reduce chronic disease risk
The 'hygiene hypothesis' suggests that a lack of early life exposure to germs may increase the risk of developing chronic immune diseases like IBD.
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