The 3 most common patterns of gut dysbiosis (imbalances)
There are 3 common patterns of dysbiosis, or gut flora imbalances, that regularly turn up in gut stool testing.
They are…
Insufficiency
Inflammatory
Digestive dysfunction
You could have one, or two, or all three occurring in your gut at one time.
Each pattern has specific markers or characteristics in particular combinations, and each one needs to be addressed differently.
Markers include overgrowths of certain opportunistic bacteria, a lack of whole kingdoms of beneficial gut bacteria, infections of pathogenic bacteria, a stomach infection, low gut immunity, intestinal permeability, yeast or parasitic infections, or gut inflammation.
Take the Digestive Dysfunction pattern.
Due to low stomach acid (hypochlorhydria), insufficient bile acids, poor digestion (low pancreatic or brush border enzymes), compromised absorption, or poor motility (gut muscle contractions), imbalances can result in the microbiome, leading to overgrowths of particular bacterial species.
Symptoms might include gas and bloating, constipation or diarrhoea, heartburn, food sensitivities, SIBO and more.
Many people would automatically do an eradication protocol for this. Kill off that bad stuff.
But should you? Not necessarily.
If certain infections showed up, yes. But if not, you would focus instead on building up good bacteria, supporting gut immunity, correcting low stomach and enzyme and bile acid levels, promoting better gut motility and so on. Diet and lifestyle are a critical parts of this process.
And what if you had two or three patterns show up at once, which is not uncommon?
You would deal with each of them, ensuring your actions didn’t cause more problems. For example, while you may need to kill off a yeast infection, you don’t want to eradicate your beneficial bacteria.