Dr. Angela Scopel-Levick — Gut Testing For Parasites, Dysbiosis, & Leaky Gut

Summary

Join Dr. Angela Scopel-Levick as she dives deep into gut health, focusing specifically on gut testing for parasites, dysbiosis, and leaky gut. The conversation touches on both the 'good' and 'bad' bacteria within our bodies, understanding gut test results, and how to interpret them effectively. Dr. Scopel-Levick and the host discuss strategies for balancing gut flora, the implications of gut microbiome imbalances, and the importance of personalized approaches to treatment for better health outcomes.

Highlights

• Comparing gut bacteria to teenagers at a party helps explain overgrowth problems 😂.
• Dr. Angela emphasizes not needing antibiotics for bacterial overgrowth thanks to natural balancing methods 💊.
• The role gut flora plays extends beyond digestion to hormone production and immune communication 💡.
• Motility and pH balance are crucial factors in maintaining a healthy gut environment 🌊.
• Overgrowths can cause inflammation and discomfort, showcasing the importance of balanced bacteria 📈.
• The gut-brain connection via the vagus nerve shows the intricate communication within our bodies 🤯.
• Parasites can have a variety of symptoms beyond just gut issues, like joint pain or fatigue 😫.
• Leaky gut can be inferred from testing patterns without additional expensive diagnostics 🔬.
• Full-moon parasite cleansing rituals are discussed as part of maintaining gut health 🌕.

Key Takeaways

• Understanding bacteria is crucial: Know your commensal (good) and opportunistic (bad) bacteria 🦠.
• Gut health influences overall well-being: A healthy gut can lead to better mood, energy, and digestion 🌱.
• Testing reveals insights: GI map tests can indicate overgrowths, imbalances, and hint at underlying conditions 🔍.
• Personalized care is key: Each person's gut health treatment needs to be tailored for the best outcomes 🎯.
• Parasites may be lurking: They can cause unexpected symptoms like migraines or joint pain 🐛.
• Focus on environment: Creating a good gut environment is essential for beneficial bacteria to thrive 🌾.
• Continuous learning: Health fields are constantly updating, so stay informed on the latest research 📚.

Overview

In this engaging conversation, Dr. Angela Scopel-Levick and her host explore the intricate world of gut health through a deep dive into gut testing. The discussion mainly focuses on understanding the difference between 'good' and 'bad' bacteria and how they coexist within our bodies. They use relatable analogies like comparing overgrown bacteria to a party full of teenagers to illustrate the chaos that can ensue when these microbes aren't in balance.

Further into the discussion, Dr. Angela offers insights into how GI map tests work to reveal imbalances and potential underlying conditions. The importance of looking beyond the numbers is emphasized, as each test result provides a unique pattern that dictates a personalized treatment plan. With gut health being linked to overall well-being, methods to enhance motility and pH balance are also shared.

Parasites make an appearance as Dr. Angela explains their stealthy nature and the surprising symptoms they cause - from joint pain to migraines. Besides, she tackles common misconceptions about parasites and the misunderstood concept of leaky gut, showing how comprehensive understanding of gut microbiomes can lead to better health outcomes.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction In the introduction, the host welcomes back Dr. Angela Scopo Levic to the conversation. They express excitement about her return to discuss more about gut testing. Previously, they had an interview where they reviewed various markers on the gut test, which piqued great interest, leading to this follow-up conversation.
• 01:00 - 03:30: Focus on Bacteria The chapter titled 'Focus on Bacteria' centers on the importance of gut health and the role of bacteria in maintaining it. Unlike the previous discussion which covered digestion, inflammation, immune markers, and pathogenic bacteria, this chapter emphasizes the significance of understanding both 'good' (commensal) and 'bad' bacteria within the microbiome. The speaker intends to delve deeper into the positive effects of commensal bacteria and their impact on overall wellness, assisting the audience in achieving better health outcomes.
• 03:30 - 06:00: Opportunistic Bacteria and Analogy The chapter discusses the concept of the microbiome, which includes both beneficial bacteria and opportunistic or harmful bacteria. The author introduces an analogy to help explain this concept to the audience: just as teenagers can be seen as annoying when they become too abundant or uncontrollable, the same can be said for these opportunistic bacteria when they overgrow within the human body, despite being normally present and living harmoniously. This overgrowth can lead to various issues, illustrating the delicate balance within the microbiome.
• 06:00 - 13:00: Reviewing GI Map Test The speaker uses an analogy to explain testing for gastrointestinal issues. They compare the presence of bacteria in the gut to having a teenager invite one friend over versus throwing a large party. With just one friend, there's no issue, but if many teenagers come over (similar to having an overgrowth of bacteria), problems arise. The implication is that testing is essential to understanding whether you have a manageable situation or a 'party' that might lead to disturbances like stomach issues.
• 13:00 - 16:00: Symptoms of Bacterial Overgrowth The chapter uses an analogy to explain the symptoms of bacterial overgrowth, comparing it to teenagers causing chaos when they gather in large numbers. It highlights that while teenagers (or bacteria) are not inherently bad, they can become problematic when too many are present, leading to a 'mess' that needs cleaning up.
• 16:00 - 20:00: Commensal Bacteria Overgrowth The chapter discusses the concept of commensal bacteria overgrowth using a metaphor of being tapped on the shoulder. At first, a gentle tap by a person doesn't bother you, but if multiple friends tap you continuously, it becomes overwhelming. This imagery is used to explain how the overgrowth of typically harmless commensal bacteria can become a problem.
• 20:00 - 24:00: Inflammatory and Autoimmune Related Bacteria This chapter discusses the topic of opportunistic bacteria overgrowth, particularly in the context of inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. It highlights the findings from a GI map test that show excessive growth of bacteria, indicated by numbers in red. The speaker expresses a preference for using the GI map test in their programs to analyze such conditions. The chapter seems to focus on understanding and addressing the implications of these bacterial overgrowths on health.
• 24:00 - 30:00: Fungus and Yeast The chapter 'Fungus and Yeast' focuses on the role of microbes, particularly when they grow excessively and become harmful. It discusses the subcategories of microbial overgrowth including bacterial overgrowth, commensal overgrowth, and their links to inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. The text also hints at a categorization system where microbes can be flagged as 'red' or 'black' depending on their levels, with elevated levels possibly indicating a concern. For example, Staphylococcus aureus is mentioned as elevated but within 'black' levels, while some microbes are undetectable, suggesting a complex system of determining microbial impact on health.
• 30:00 - 40:00: Commensal Healthy Bacteria The chapter discusses the concept of commensal healthy bacteria, emphasizing their role as 'good' microbes essential for maintaining health. It touches on the interpretation of a test that evaluates the presence of beneficial bacteria, distinguishing between commensal overgrowth microbes and dysbiotic bacteria categories. The focus is on understanding these microbes' balances, highlighting that while some bacteria should naturally be present, others categorized as dysbiotic should be minimal or absent.
• 40:00 - 45:00: High and Low Patterns of Bacteria The chapter 'High and Low Patterns of Bacteria' discusses the significance of detecting bacteria that are not supposed to be present, known as commensal bacteria, which ideally should be below detectable limits. Even low levels, such as 1.5 to the power of two, indicate a potential issue, like low stomach acid, as these bacteria thrive when the gut's pH is imbalanced. The text highlights concerns when these levels rise significantly, suggesting a growing overgrowth and imbalance in gut health.
• 45:00 - 54:00: Fila and Commensal Bacteria Discussion The chapter discusses the concept of the power levels of bacteria, emphasizing that certain bacteria, like pomonis arinos, can have significantly higher power levels if conditions are favorable. The importance of maintaining proper pH balance and motility is highlighted, as disruptions can lead to bacteria establishing a stable and potentially problematic environment. The analogy of bacteria likened to teenagers who find an ideal environment and refuse to leave is used to illustrate how bacteria can thrive under certain conditions.
• 54:00 - 58:00: Conclusion on Commensal Bacteria The chapter discusses the topic of commensal bacteria, focusing on the common concern of people thinking they need antibiotics for bacterial overgrowth of species like Staphylococcus or Streptococcus. The speaker reassures the audience that antibiotics are not necessary for these situations. Instead, they emphasize the importance of creating a healthy environment, which can naturally shift the balance of bacteria without the need for antibiotics.
• 58:00 - 76:00: Final Remarks on Parasites The chapter discusses the impact of manipulating commensal bacteria, pH levels, and motility on the body's ability to clear out pathogens. It highlights the pattern of bacterial overgrowth and how a high-pattern overgrowth can trigger various symptoms. The discussion aims to identify the potential symptoms caused by such bacterial imbalances.
• 76:00 - 79:00: Wrap-Up and Contact Information The chapter focuses on the symptoms and feelings associated with inflammation, particularly in the digestive system. People may experience bloating, swelling, and a general feeling of congestion. This is tied to issues with motility and pH levels, leading to sensations such as indigestion or impaired digestion.

Dr. Angela Scopel-Levick — Gut Testing For Parasites, Dysbiosis, & Leaky Gut Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] [Music] welcome back to the conversation I have Dr Angela scopo levic with me again hi welcome hey thanks for having me I'm honored to be here yes zo I had to get you back on again to speak about gut testing so we did this you know interview and we went over all these markers on the gut test and and at the end of it I said I have to have you back we have to to go over even more because
• 00:30 - 01:00 there's just so much to extract from the from gut testing and from supporting our audience and getting well and getting better so today in today's talk what I really want to do is focus on bacteria so the last talk we did you know we focused on the on the digestive markers inflammatory markers immune markers we took a look at pathogenic bacteria um but we we ran out of time to really talk about the good guys and the bad guys right the commensal bacteria are the good guys the microbiome that's what
• 01:00 - 01:30 when people think of my microbiome they're thinking of these good bacteria and there's also these opportunistic what we would call bad bacteria now the interesting thing and and I don't know how you explain this to your audience but I always say this is my analogy tell me what you think okay my analogy is this we have these opportunistic overgrowth bacteria that can occur now they're normally living in the human body and when they overgrow they become irritating so I explain it like this it's like teenagers
• 01:30 - 02:00 so are you ready for this go I think I have a feeling of what you're gonna say go so I'm GNA say this if you have a I'm a mom of a teenager right so if you have a teenager and they invite a friend over and they're hanging out in your living room and they're probably not going to cause any issues they're going to play around on their phones look at Instagram and Tik Tok and you know watch TV go get something to eat but if they call 30 of their friends over now you have a party at your house and they're Rowdy and the neighbors are getting mad because there's noise and they're eating all
• 02:00 - 02:30 your food and they're rough housing and they broke your coffee table and they accidentally punched a hole in the screen they knocked the vase off the shelf and broke it and when they leave you've got a mess to clean up so it's not that teenagers are bad it's when there's a lot of them yes they can get out of control so that's kind of what happens with the opportunist that's how I explain it in my community of what's happening with the opportunistic back what would you add there yes and you know what I would say similar this is how I explain it is imagine me as your friend right beside you all day just
• 02:30 - 03:00 gently tapping on your shoulder and like that doesn't bother you at all but then imagine more of us of your you know a whole circle of your friends around you just tapping you all day it's so similar to what you said and after a while you're just like I can't take one more tap or like I can't take one more teenager so we have the same thought there yeah okay well we have a good um we have a good example of this so let's do this let's have you pull up your screen and let's take a look at that
• 03:00 - 03:30 example of opportunistic bacteria overgrowth and let's chat about that can you see that I can okay so what I see here is a whole bunch of crazy overgrowth like all those numbers in the red they mean things are overgrown and you want to talk about so let's talk about this um again we're looking at the GI map test because it's my favorite test to use in all my programs we see here these are over over sorry opportunistic overgrowth
• 03:30 - 04:00 microbes so that's the bad guys when you think about it they overgrow they become bad and then you see subcategories here you've got dbio and overgrowth bacteria commensal overgrowth microbes inflammatory and autoimmune related and commensal inflammatory and autoimmune related let's just have a talk about what this means and let's talk about what it means to be red versus black so you got a number there if we look at the Stafa cacus Arius it's it's it's elevated but it's in the black and then you've got some that are not detectable
• 04:00 - 04:30 at all like no under detectable limits so let's talk about what all this means yeah I love first of all the test like you do because it's so easy to understand like even their titles here you see dis biotic and overgrowth bacteria at the top where my cursor is but then you see sorry about that you see commensal overgrowth microbes here it says commensal in the title which means commensal or good it's another name for good guys right so like there should be some of those guys there but under look at this category under this category of dis biotic there's no
• 04:30 - 05:00 commensal in the title which means they shouldn't be there at all so like you said they should be below detectable limits so seeing them even at a low level like 1.5 to the exponential second means hey I can start detecting that something's going on here maybe some low stomach acid starting you know these guys love to grow out of proportion when the pH of the gut is off so that might tell me it's starting to turn but then when I see these huge overgrowths look at our exponential to the third and look how high goes all the way up to the
• 05:00 - 05:30 fourth power that's an entire power of 10 higher look at this one the pomonis arinos F up to e of the five so that's three powers of 10 higher these guys aren't going to grow this High first of all if you have proper pH balance and you have proper motility but man when those things start start to go Ary these guys make their home like those teenagers they're not leaving right they're not leaving now they're comfortable they have the perfect environment they're going to stick around and really start to make this
• 05:30 - 06:00 their host they're going to love it now let's before we move on let's keep talking about this category because what will happen is my my people in my community will email me frantically like I think I need an antibiotic I have stafilic cacus or streptococus overgrowth like no no no no no you don't need antibiotics to solve this um so instead of well personally when when I look at a test I don't get caught up on each individual bacteria because those can shift pretty quickly when you start to create the healthy environment and
• 06:00 - 06:30 when you start to when you start to influence the the good commensal bacteria when you start to like you said change the pH get motility moving this can your body your immune system can clear this out so I like to look at patterns and when I see this what I'm seeing is wow there's a lot of overgrowth bacteria here you have a p a high pattern and when you have a high pattern like this lots of symptoms can happen so let's talk about the symptoms what might someone feel like with just this top section right here oh
• 06:30 - 07:00 absolutely so number one would be in just they're going to feel inflamed now people will feel symptoms a little bit differently but that's the bloating you know that's the swelling um I have patients that will say I wake up and I feel swollen so I mean they're congested right like we said their motility and their pH is off so they're going to feel congested you know you can even see some um upper GI because these guys are a lot of these guys are in the upper GI so you can have that like indigestion feeling or that you know lack of digestion
• 07:00 - 07:30 people will say oh man I have a ball in my chest after I eat and it's like well I can guess that probably some of these guys are growing here and so in terms of motility let's talk about that so what do we want to do to increase motility and and also what do we want to do to balance pH let's talk about some tips here yeah I mean I go back to the foundational basics in a way when it comes to motility I think a couple key things people can start is like hey just chew your food um because
• 07:30 - 08:00 that helps break down the food and then you've got easier motility going through the GI track and maybe stuff eating you know in the middle of a meeting or behind the computer so there's that mindful eating um so that's slowing down remember your body doesn't digest un let it unless it's in a parasympathetic state which is a rest and digest so teaching them those tricks of like mindful eating chewing your food but then there are some other things when you use um some light you know over the- counters like some ginger like think of those um I think of like those root
• 08:00 - 08:30 herbs that really help with digestion um arti artichoke and ginger those can really help with motility as well um even exercise right uh Laura just you know daily exercise can help get that motility going and then when it comes to pH balance again I go back to like are you eating one like a super inflammatory meal because that inflammatory ingredient could throw off your pH but then the other thing is are you eating too large of a bis of food in one city your body is not set up to digest one
• 08:30 - 09:00 huge Bolis of food um at once so sometimes that pH can then um change when you're doing that and I would say the last thing if we're just talking some Basics would be um Stress Management right stress will change the pH because cortisol increases and then we just don't create cortisol and digest in the same setting so those are like some Basics yeah absolutely what about pooping how do we get people to
• 09:00 - 09:30 poop yes yeah I mean that's going to help too right we want to move keep moving this stuff out through the body and not let it sit there and multiply infestor let's get it moving yeah okay so let's talk about the second little section has two bacteria in it this is the commensal overgrowth microbes let's talk about these two little guys you're talking about the dulfo vibrio and Theo bacteria CA right yep yeah you know it's interesting um these two front if if you know a little bit about the research
• 09:30 - 10:00 they really do represent a lot of the colon Health um and so methanes in general just to give you a little tidbit they grow primarily in the oral cavity and in the colon and so when I see these guys a lot of times not 100% of the time but a lot of times you'll see them with something else going on like an H pylori to where the upper GI you know that low PH Laur and I Lauren and I just talked about that in this this section so you've got low PH potentially here it starts affecting the lower colon so now
• 10:00 - 10:30 you see these guys in the upper GI starting to really like cause havoc in the lower GI that's what that methane family like can can kind of represent and a lot of times when it's high you can see that motility um change in patients and so we want these to be less than detectable limit or is it okay for it to be a low number what would you say they are commensal unless they're overgrown so they should be there at a value really when they start to get up to e to the eight e and above we kind of
• 10:30 - 11:00 take that Second Glance of like hey something is going on here maybe they're being fed from something um you know higher up in the GI track so that tells us look higher up see what's going on what lack of digestion is going on higher up okay so let's look at the inflammator and autoimmune related bacteria now these they are not part of the commensal so they I mean they well in terms of the healthy commensal so I mean these are in us right I always say the pathogenic section at the top should never be in the human body and these you
• 11:00 - 11:30 know they live in the human body and when they overgrow they're irritating so think of those teenagers but these guys here should be less than detectable limit so let's talk about inflammatory autoimmune bacteria yeah I mean the title kind of outlines it for you they these guys are like the inflammatory beasts of all inflammatory beasts meaning that they can be so inflammatory that they can trigger systemic inflammation think about those patients they're like oh every joint aches you know from the wrists to the knees to the elbows to the ankles it's like okay these guys can cause that SU iic inflammatory reaction they also can be
• 11:30 - 12:00 linked to like some kind of histamine pattern um to where you might see more of like that sinus allergy you know headachy type of person um but these when they are overgrown are very systemic and can cause other big symptoms that people have yes and even when I see these in the black I don't like it like red or black number we don't want these to be there not at all if you could scroll up just a tiny bit more so we can look at the commensal in Lan autoimmune related bacteria there we
• 12:00 - 12:30 go um okay so let's talk about that last category there right above fungus and yeast yeah so these guys again so you have what we just talked about was the inflammatory and autoimmune which you don't want them there at all um below detectable limits but then these guys are commensal inflammatory so just to point out and this is kind of a topic that people may not realize esteria for example it is eoli and there is good eoli that we all need in order to function actually the way the body was
• 12:30 - 13:00 meant to function so like eera for example it's commensal which means it should be there but now look at it all the way up to e to the 10 so now we now that it's high it's like oh man we've got way too much we we've got inflammation happening here and that really tells us a lot about the gut lining um here you know in particular yep so we want these to be as low as possible these uh these guys if they're a little bit if there's a if it's below the um if it's like so we see
• 13:00 - 13:30 here you've got one in the red the the aseria the E eoli the ecoli by the way on the pathogenic page on page one should never be in the human body that one um so this one's way too high but what would you say about the other three markers I would say where they are if we're looking at this particular test they're actually right they're right where they need to be I could be picky and say maybe that entro actor is just starting to creep up there um but the fusobacterium is right where it needs to be the pratella they are commensal in that level so we do want them but when
• 13:30 - 14:00 they start to get high what I love about this page let's just for a second say Fuso bacterium was elevated like let's say it was up to eight of the 10 because I've seen it before what's so interesting is the patient I'll be like hey have you do something in your oral cavity going on like some kind of dental maybe gum disease or you know uh root something that you haven't with the dentist quite taken care of and like seven times out of 10 they're like how did you know that and you and I talked about at the first test sometimes you can look at these and be like I can tell you exactly what's going on with you
• 14:00 - 14:30 right fusobacterium speaks so heavily of the oral cavity that man when this one is high we go back to some of those basics of like are you taking care of your your oral hygiene remember everything you swallow gets into the gut right so what a big marker that that is for us to have yeah and if that's high and and you've been seeing the dentist regularly maybe it's time to go see a biologic dentist because you may have a lowgrade infection going on in your mouth you may have a cavitation not to be confused with a cavity you you could
• 14:30 - 15:00 have some gum disease going on or some hidden bacteria and you know nobody gets that cleaned up better than biologic Dentistry which is pretty amazing yeah um okay so let's just talk real quick about fungus and yeast I don't think we touched this on the last time um and I think this is an important to talk about because more often than not you're going to see a less than detectable limit on fungus and yeast and I always say two things I always say number one fungus is really sticky like Spider-Man to the edges of your uh colon and it may not be
• 15:00 - 15:30 excreted on the day that you take a sample of this test it just may be in you and the other thing is it can be degraded with the preservative in the test tube right like there has to be a little bit of preservative in that sample when we send it you know through the mail to the lab and candida if there's not enough there you know to really uh survive the preservative we might not see it yeah yeah so we we will see this High um not always it's yeah because some P patients will say like I know I have yeast I see it on my you
• 15:30 - 16:00 know my toenails I've got the thres on the tongue um or I've got even like vaginal yeast you know if it's a female and it's like candida can live on a superficial level where you're seeing it you know so clearly but we're talking about in the gut level so in that small intestine and we're looking for like that huge overgrowth um so you will see it high on test but this is so amazing when you see this marker High it is so awesome to be able to say to a patient I bet you're not metabolizing carbohydrates like when do your symptoms
• 16:00 - 16:30 come up the most and it could be they'll be like oh after yeah heavy carb meal and then educating them like candida is going to ferment those carbohydrates I mean that has a huge deal to do with your carbohydrate metabolism what a better tool to have Laura when you're like I can tell you carbs are causing you a problem um and we need to absolutely yeah absolutely so I this is a good opportunity to talk a little bit about my take on candida and how we approach it in our community so um so yes if you have candida here which This
• 16:30 - 17:00 Test shows it's less than detectable limit but we see plenty of people with candida or other forms of fungus and yeast so is it important to cut down on those carbohydrates um and sugars yes but I would also add we need to investigate what the underlying root cause is of why your immune system has invited this in and allowed it to be there in the first place and so this is where it's really important to work with a practitioner who's looking for heavy metals radioactive elements because we know candida likes to live in Community with those things and the way I explain
• 17:00 - 17:30 it is your immune system does this your immune system goes hey candida come here you're super annoying and you're going to cause all kinds of problems when I eat carbohydrates and sugar but you're actually less offensive than this Mercury over here and I really need you to help degrade some of that mercury for me so that my brain doesn't get sick so in exchange for you handling the Mercury I'm going to let you live here and I'm not going to kill you so that's kind of how we how we approach it in my community is yes decrease the carbs yes take some um
• 17:30 - 18:00 botanical and and um supplements to help lower this but also investigate for for Metals radioactive elements toxins absolutely I've seen this link to resistant mold so you are on your mindset spot on yeah we check for mold too exactly okay so I think this is good here if you wna um what we can do stop sharing your screen we can talk about the the good guys now so what we want to talk about is the commensal healthy bacteria the one ones that we think
• 18:00 - 18:30 about that have a job of not just just digesting our food but making hormones and making neurotransmitters and communicating with our mitochondria communicating with our immune system and we think about the gut brain axis via the Vega nerve Vegas nerve and the communication that goes there so your your commensal good bacteria are responsible for so much more than just extracting nutrients out of food and so yeah so this part of the test is really fun and so let's show them patterns so
• 18:30 - 19:00 what I want to show is a low high and and mixed pattern and let's talk about what one might experience with each of these patterns so I think you've got the you've got a good uh low one to show and a good high and I've got a good mixed one to show okay so why don't you help us first identify what how we know this is a low pattern how what do you do in your brain to figure this out yeah I mean again this test just lays it out so amazing
• 19:00 - 19:30 for you but if you're if you know you don't have to know anything about these guys just to look at this pattern and see most of them are trending to the left right and so that that alone right there off the bat tells you okay this patient is kind of suffering from this lowend um bacteria but what I even tell some of my own clinicians when I coach them is take an overall look at those Fila at the bottom your Fila is basically representing 90% of your good bacteria so on this patient if you were
• 19:30 - 20:00 to look at this you would say man this patient is insufficient with 90% of their good bacteria that's that's a huge loss yes so real quick discuss the difference between Fila so we see bacteroides and fices bacterial Fila there and then above that we've got all these commensal bacteria so explain the difference between the commensal bacteria and this PHA yeah the way I like to explain it is if we were to really list out all of the
• 20:00 - 20:30 commensal um as a company man the pages would be endless there are so many bacteria in the human body and so what we do is pick up the most researched and clinically applicable um bacteria that that people are looking like lactobacillus bifido those have huge um markers in research for how they can improve you know our metabolic system and our vegus nerve and you know that brain connect that brain gut connection that you talked about even our pH balance like we know that from research
• 20:30 - 21:00 with those guys so as a company we picked out the ones that can really be represented the most from research and clinicians can do something the next day in their office about but then the Fila basically takes okay of all these known bacteria these good bacteria we can categorize them into these two groups these Fila that represent the majority of what you're seeing above the commensal and so I kind of explained the Fila I think an easy way um to kind of understand it is bacteroidetes kind of
• 21:00 - 21:30 gives you some insight on how you are breaking down um like protein you can think of like the amino acids that are needed in your body to really you know help with your metabolism and then for Mikes you can think of how is the body really breaking down those those carbohydrates and some of that could be like the fibrous carbs as well and that's kind of like your first line of um maybe explaining them but when you get that concept you can really see like for example this patient in general
• 21:30 - 22:00 they're either not eating enough right of that diversity of like eating the rainbow or there's something going on where they're not getting into that rest and digest state so even if they're eating them they're not absorbing those nutrients and breaking it down and so what might somebody's symptoms be with this type of when and I just want to make sure everything's clear shifted to the left so I always say if you draw a line right down the middle here and all those markers kind of hang out on the left of that line that's a shift to the left if all of your markers hang out on
• 22:00 - 22:30 the other side which we'll show in a minute that's a shift to the right and so the right is an overgrowth the left is an undergrowth what might this person be uh feeling what might their symptoms be I would say one could be fatigue given that they're not they're Mal they're Mal um nourished they're not really absorbing those nutrients but another one is this is so common with like that leaky gut appearance that people kind of hear that term leaky gut so often because when these guys are low man that barrier of like defense to kind of protect against what's coming in can
• 22:30 - 23:00 really cause you to be more responsive to Foods so isn't it interesting how a lot of people will come to us and be like I've eliminated the gluten and the dairy I just don't see a difference in my symptoms and it's really because that wasn't the main reason like what really was at the root of that is you didn't have those good bacteria that those good commensal helping you with metabolism so let's talk about some of the individual and then some of the things we can do to support this because you people are listening right now may
• 23:00 - 23:30 have heard well you can change the commensal profile within 24 hours like it's it could be a couple of meals or a meal and you can start shifting this right so it can shift pretty rapidly it can also go right back to back into the into the tank here pretty rapidly but yeah I think I like a like building a strong lifestyle of good habits right that really pays but you're right you could change this in a meal um that's the beauty of the gut um but if you you want me to run through a couple of these
• 23:30 - 24:00 um individ yeah let's talk about a couple and you know there's a few of these that people always have questions about that come up so you know there's the reason that these are pulled out individually from the Fila is because as you said there's enough research on these particular bacteria to actually talk about them um and and and also I would preface this by saying we're constantly doing research to prove or disprove what we think we already know and what we knew 20 years ago and what we know today has completely shifted and I promise you in 5 years we're going to
• 24:00 - 24:30 be saying something different maybe even next week we're going to be seeing something different so I try not to get too caught up in all the individual kind of conversation around each bacteria but I think there's it's worth talking about a few of these here yeah I can definitely hit upon a couple um something I I would say is lactobacillus because everyone knows of lactobacillus it's probably in most of the overthe counter probiotics what I love about lactobacillus when I see it is it definitely can tell us something about the pH lactobacillus is going to work in
• 24:30 - 25:00 our favor to bring ph up to the level of like op being optimal and so when you see it low that could be a sign right off the bat of like hey this person is struggling with their pH a little bit here because it's low so we want this guy definitely in the in the middle because that does represent a little bit of pH balance there um another one I would say that a lot of people talk about is this acromania and there is so yeah there's so much to say about it I would say some key key facts would be when it is high
• 25:00 - 25:30 we can jump to that for a second and say when it's high it is known to chase inflammation which is actually what a a great innate um you know part of our body to say that hey we have something that's going to chase inflammation when it's there so when it's high it could tell me like okay this P this patient's inflamed and the body is trying to do its job it's innate job of bringing that inflammation down so it's chasing inflammation now on this case when it's below detectable limits acromania and I
• 25:30 - 26:00 would even say fali bacteria we could talk about both they remind me a lot of just like they're princesses they they'll come to the party when the party is just how they want it right so acrania fical they're only really going to show up when inflammation is low so this might tell you like even the fical on this particular patient it's trending down it's not all the way down but it's just starting to Trend left it could tell us that there is definitely maybe
• 26:00 - 26:30 inflammation that's been there chronically so let's say that like this patient's a little bit more chronic in nature and so that's the other beauty is we can see this acute inflammatory response if acromania was high or this chronic um inflammatory response where now it's just gone it's not even dressed for the party it's not even getting ready at home to go to the party um but it also tells you something about again carbohydrate metabolism acromania is such a big player when when when you're talking about blood sugar regulation and
• 26:30 - 27:00 carbohydrate digestion so look at all this information we can take away from just like one of those markers but then you look at the whole Trend and then fical bacterium that's going to be a huge Keystone bacteria in your colon if you don't have fcal I'd see if there was one that I had to pick like my favorite I would say fcal bacterium I would want to make sure that it is in a good value because it is so protective of the colon it is a short chain fatty acid producer
• 27:00 - 27:30 which just really is like our protector when it comes to colon Health okay so let's talk about how to get acromania and I can never say it felo how do you say ital bacterium I always say it wrong theal bacterium yeah how do how do you get those two to rise up yeah I think that's a great question so with these guys you kind of need the you need a lot of things um taking just so we know polyphenols um they are like a
• 27:30 - 28:00 Prebiotic to acromania um and so a Prebiotic if you guys aren't familiar like it's going to basically feed or help the probiotic colonize so you could take the probiotic there is one on the market called acromania but you also kind of need to feed that with polyphenols but yet again acromania loves everything to be pristine so it needs a really good muin layer which is a part of your gut lining so you've got to work with maybe some
• 28:00 - 28:30 you know um meltic herbs um and just keeping inflammation down for all of it to take and then fical bacterium responds so well to a short chain fatty acid like beate um but also a fiber like resistant starch fiber so you can take berate as a supplement and again maybe feed it in the diet with resistant starch fiber all while making sure the inflammation is staying at Bay I think the really important thing for our viewers and listeners to to really take
• 28:30 - 29:00 away here is this isn't about just if you have a low acromania this is not about taking an acromania probiotic that's not going to solve your problem it's like if you think about habitats for animals if you take a fish out of its habitat and try to put it on dry land it's not you could keep throwing fish there well there's no fish on dry land I'm just going to keep putting them there right what's going to happen they're not going to thrive they need they need water right they they they have to have that and I know that's kind of a of a you know funny example but I
• 29:00 - 29:30 mean you could think of other animals as well if you take a if you take a a tiger out of its you know habitat and put it in a different one it might starve because the right food source isn't there it just doesn't have what it needs it's not going to survive in an urban you know City it needs to be able to hunt to get food so it's just like the environment matters and so it's more than just taking a probiotic you have to build up the environment the terrain of the gut and that Tak time right yeah it
• 29:30 - 30:00 takes time it's not an overnight um you might be able to ship these bacteria overnight for a short period of time but they'll fizzle back out if you aren't solving for the environment um something about acromania I think is worth saying because this comes up all the time in my community there's been some research papers come out um linking potentially AC high acromania with multiple sclerosis I want to say you know this is not causitive we don't know ex it does not is non diagnostic for and is not causitive for we do not know why
• 30:00 - 30:30 acromania high with Ms or if it's even a true link so there's a lot more research that needs to happen but I've actually had people freak out like my acromania is high I have MS like no no no no no no we cannot make that link well and if I can comment too if you think about a um diagnosis or condition I should say like Ms it's an inflammatory condition and remember acromania does Chase inflammation so at the lowest um I would say concept of this is it's it's chasing
• 30:30 - 31:00 inflammation in an inflammatory condition it makes sense but like you said there's so much that yet we don't quite know um but even maybe for someone to digest that might give them like this okay yeah and it's also possible I would say to have a low acromania or a normal acromania with tremendous inflammation in the body the opposite is also possible so again we can't say oh your acromania is normal you don't have inflammation right we can't say that either um okay so let's see anything
• 31:00 - 31:30 else oh ratio we didn't talk about the uh for forties bacteroides ratio so talk about that yeah I mean the ratio it's I would say it's I'd love to hear you I would say I'd love to hear your comment about it um it's kind of a little bit Hit or Miss in the sense of like even this I would I would say there's you see the Fila are low so you know the ratio is falling it follows that pattern of its trend in down with the other Fila here in like this low
• 31:30 - 32:00 normal range but I've also seen the ratio not quite fit the whole picture of the Fila and that is because I think also just remembering like you said each meal when you eat a meal these bacteria are bloomed with each meal so we might see the ratio actually not quite fit like the same pattern because it can change with each meal and you're looking at a ratio versus like longstanding bacteria like where they've been over the course of a few months to years
• 32:00 - 32:30 right so I don't always go by the ratio if I'm just being quite honest with you I really put so much weight in the Fila themselves but I'd love to hear your thoughts on that as well same same I don't get super excited about the ratio because it can fluctuate you know there's some research out there about ratio and obesity I mean if you want to talk about that a little bit um I mean this has been ongoing study but again you can see normal ratios in obese people and abnor ratios in skinny people
• 32:30 - 33:00 so what are your thoughts on that yeah I think that you're right there is quite I mean if you look at the research you're going to see it align with that concept of obesity um but I don't always see it fit the bill so I would say put more weight in the Fila separate Fila themselves um but typically I will say bottom of the line you may you will typically see it follow like if all the Fila are low which this when this person they were you'll see that that ratio kind of fall and if the Fila are high
• 33:00 - 33:30 you'll see that that ratio kind of trend high but when the Fila are kind of in the middle it just doesn't always fit the bill yeah yeah exactly okay so I think we're clear on the commensal Keystone bacteria they're super important and we need to support the terrain let's look at an overgrowth pattern you've got a good overgrowth pattern and I've got a mixed pattern me go um and we could talk a little bit about why and what that means when we see overgrowth and what the what the person may be experiencing when they
• 33:30 - 34:00 have that oh good there it is yeah look at that so if we draw a line right down the middle here you're going to see that on the individual bacteria they kind of trend a lot of them Trend High a lot of them do I would if I pick like what would this be overall I would say this is more of a high so yep so you have the aeria the lactobacillus um High and the acrania is trending towards high so we just learned that that can mean chases inflammation
• 34:00 - 34:30 so inflammation going on the body potentially um what are other symptoms people might experience when they have a high pattern yeah this is your typical I feel bloated um I just feel swollen um I feel like you know these are this can range but um a lot of times you will see these be a mix of constipation and diarrhea because it could be diarrhea um depending on their diet um or it could be constipation depending if there's
• 34:30 - 35:00 something else growing with it so you kind of see that mixed pattern of constipation or diarrhea but for sure bloated you know um I would even say that upper GI like indigestion that heartburn that could this can definitely follow okay um and then let's take a look um at mixed so if you stop sharing your screen I'll share mine okay so here we have a mixed pattern so if we to draw a line right down the middle here we're going to see
• 35:00 - 35:30 some of these bacteria fall to the left which is low and we've got a few falling over here higher and when we look at the Fila we've got one low and one normal so interesting let's talk about what this person might be experiencing yeah I mean this is I would say the symptoms could really vary what's interesting is you can have more than like you said one pattern this is what we would call mix but I would say overall if I even
• 35:30 - 36:00 looking at this had to guess when you see again acromania being high we would say maybe there is some inflammation there with enterobacter also trending high I would think some inflammation maybe around the gut lining um as well so now I'm starting to get into a little bit more detailed like okay maybe this gut lining is high maybe I'll see a zulin that's high with it um or may like this um gut lining is inflamed so maybe I'll see a hulin with it too but then when I see this EST IA low that could tell me that not only is their gut
• 36:00 - 36:30 lining maybe inflamed but are they even getting enough of the like needed nutrients to build a strong healthy gut lining so you can have a mix of both of those but really I would say if I had to take one thing home I'd be looking at this patient's gut lining you know what's going on there absolutely so a lot of different um topics that we've just covered here um I'm gonna I'm gonna have us wrap it up here in just a moment I mean this has
• 36:30 - 37:00 been incredible we've essentially through these two episodes here we've just completely covered the entire you know GI map test and unpacked it for people which hopefully they're finding this very valuable and getting excited about the idea of getting gut testing because as you see as we've demonstrated what we see on the test really does dictate what you need to do to solve the problem and what one person needs is probably not what you person a needs is not necessarily what person B needs and
• 37:00 - 37:30 I like to think about being able to curate and tailor somebody's healing experience exactly to their body what would you say I think that's the benefit of using the GI map in general you know it really when I coach a clinician through the GI map I'm like you basically have such an IND there is no just one protocol for this you get to individualize it so amazingly to the person's needs absolutely absolutely so so Angelica I have one more really important question um and
• 37:30 - 38:00 it's about leaky gut because people always ask me how do I know if I have leaky gut and in my personal practice I don't run zulin on people because it's an added expense for them that may not change oftentimes not change the um outcome of what we're going to do and that's because aulin can be falsely high or falsely low and if you have a false low zulin meaning it's normal this could
• 38:00 - 38:30 make people think oh I don't have to do the gut repairing work because everything's fine and so I find it's better for me to leave that off and to just look at patterns on the test to determine if there's leaky gut so could you explain how can we know as clinicians that leaky gut is there by looking at the commensal the inflammatory markers the all of the digestive markers the uh bacteria the parasites all of that absolutely you
• 38:30 - 39:00 know um just to speak on that too I coach a lot of like beginner clinicians who are using the GI map that is really who I think the zulin suits because it's until you've learned and done enough of these which you have to see like oh this is more chronic or acute so that deeper interpretation really you don't always need those additional add-ons and I would agree with your concept of when you speak of a leaky gut you think about what causes that it could be that low commensal pattern that we just saw where they were all insufficient if those guys are insufficient your gut lining is
• 39:00 - 39:30 suffering because those commensal I think we think of them as just like oh my good bacteria but we don't understand how much of a role they play into your overall barrier gut lining and gut functioning so you can have a leaky gut just seeing that those guys are low and then if you have a lot of overgrowth think of when we talked on page three about those inflammatory overgrowths that high level of inflammation you're going to have a leaky gut that comes along with that
• 39:30 - 40:00 because you just can't heal healing does not take place in an inflammatory environment and then when there's pathogens and parasites it's the same concept those guys can really throw like that zulin marker kind of all over the place too so I agree with you exactly how you're running the test and I think that there are so many other markers that we can kind of draw from to see that big picture of the health of the gut and the gut lining absolutely absolutely you know if we have time do you have time to talk parasites for a moment I just realized we wanted to talk
• 40:00 - 40:30 parasites and do you have a few minutes more are we good I do I do and I actually think I have one saved um yes yes we had a good example with blasto cytis so I wanted to talk about parasites real quick because we do an awful lot of parasite cleansing in my community it's a big thing we we uh we totally parasite cleanse together we do full moons together we have lots of people that pass parasites that never saw anything on their test but I wanted to talk about this in particular because
• 40:30 - 41:00 this little guy here blastocysts and we'll get into what it is and what people might feel with it but I want our audience to note that right above there the category of this parasite is a protozoa so a protozoa is not visible to the naked eye it is a microscopic organism you'd have to have a microscope to see it and so if you have protool parasite infections and we're clearing them out of you you're never going to see them I think people get so bummed like I don't see where's the worms right
• 41:00 - 41:30 it doesn't mean that parasites aren't there and the other disclaimer I will have is that when we're got testing there's hundreds of species of parasites that can be in the human body at any given time and all over the human body they can be in the sinuses they can be in the lungs they can be in your pancreas they can be in your bloodstream they can be you know not just the gut and so this is a glimpse of some of the most common gut parasites but it's not a full picture of every parasite known to
• 41:30 - 42:00 man nor every parasite known to the human gut so it's again like how can you know the test tests for the things that are you know most worrisome most prominent the ones we see the most I mean I I'll just explain like strules is not something we see here this is a really bad parasite that causes people a lot of problems but we're not going to test for it on this gut test um but let's talk about blasto for a second we call blasto yeah I mean I would say um of the ones that stand out in this category for me would be Deeba fragilis
• 42:00 - 42:30 and blastos as hominus not that the other ones are not important but just the knowing that these guys are so stealth um they love to make their home meeting that usually when they're here and it's interesting I'll say to you know my patient I'm not ignoring that this guy is here but I actually want to go deeper as to why is this guy here because especially this case you guys see this is all the way up to the exponential six our reference range ends at the exponential third so that's three
• 42:30 - 43:00 powers of 10 higher I would want to know more so than like hey let's jump on that parasite cleanse right away let's go back like we did in the beginning with this test and see what your pH is like see what your motility like is like see what that e ecosystem is that's breeding this guy to stay and linger and really build himself a home here but blasto and i' say d to me but they are just very stealth and they can live within the biofilms of other other uh bacteria and and um um fungi like candida and H
• 43:00 - 43:30 pylori so a lot of times you'll even see these guys amongst a group of other overgrowth because they just love to work together and build that home um but typically these guys are going to take a little bit of work to get them out of there um and like you said we have a lot of people that will call in and be like I saw the parasite but really A lot of the parasite testing Labs will tell you like that was a mucus strand or you know that that wasn't what you thought it was it's it's actually not not that common I think to see a parasite as much as we think we see them um but yeah this is a
• 43:30 - 44:00 great category on the test absolutely and um so let's talk about what people might feel like because blasto is also you said it's one of those stealthy ones it's also you might not have gut symptoms at all your symptom might be joint pain or your symptom might be migraine headaches or your symptoms like so let's talk about what some people could feel like with these parasites yeah I actually see a lot more of the gut um symptoms like you said a big one is joint pain all over joint pain um even some changes in the joints
• 44:00 - 44:30 themselves I've seen people develop like not a nodule but like this little you know pus filled um cyst around the joint um I mean so heavily affects the joints I would say headaches and chronic fatigue are probably some of the main symptoms I hear um and see with these parasites absolutely so um okay I think we're good on this section we can we can stop sharing and and wrap up here thanks for taking an extra few minutes to go over parasites I mean it's like everybody's favorite topic right
• 44:30 - 45:00 whenever I do parasite classes um it's really fun whenever you do parasite cleansing tomorrow by the way marks the for me uh parasite cleansing day one for me I'm doing a 7-Day full moon parasite cleanse starting tomorrow so I'm yeah we'll see what we should see most of the time it's a you know you're you're kind of get a little bit more anxious and a little bit more emotional because definitely when you're killing parasites they're trying to survive and they send signals to your brain to stop what you're doing because it's hurting them yes I'm prepared for
• 45:00 - 45:30 that I'll warn everybody in my house if I'm a little edgy that's why anyhow any final words for our audience as we wrap up today oh I just had such a good time going over this I hope it was so helpful and educational for yall it was it was so again you know Dr Angela scopel is from diagnostic Solutions this is my favorite gut test the gut test that we run in all of our programs and um you'll be able to find diagnostic Solutions um on the pages
• 45:30 - 46:00 where you're viewing this video and definitely contact my team and me if you want to learn more about how to get this we have lots of options for people to get gut testing this is a gut test that you need a practitioner to run so if you're already working with a practitioner definitely ask them for it if you'd like to have this test they should be able to order it for you as well okay thank you so much and until next time everyone take good care bye now [Music]