What my GI MAP revealed about my Gut Health
The year 2023 was a very unfortunate year for my poor gut. Over the course of just 6 months (January -June), I had to take antibiotics on 4 separate occasions. During this time we were also going through a very stressful season with the loss of our second pregnancy at 17 weeks while being displaced from our new home for renovations as we needed to get out of our old home due to toxic mold.
From January until June, I began to notice a slow decline in my digestive health which included an increase in symptoms like:
Loose stools, especially after meals that contained dairy
Urgency with stools
Visible undigested food in my stool (despite focusing on “easy to digest” foods)
The appearance of sesame seed like objects in my stool despite not eating seeds in my diet (hint: these weren’t seeds)
I also noticed a big increase in headache frequency and intensity - not quite migraine level but things were getting close.
Compared to my digestion in the past in which I had all sorts of food sensitivities, debilitating stomach cramps, constipation, bloating, and gas these symptoms didn’t seem all that bad. I simply started taking some supplements to support digestive function (aka - stomach acid, enzyme, bile support) alongside consuming gut healing foods and taking probiotics to balance things out as I knew the negative impact that antibiotics can have on the gut and microbiome.
Despite supporting my digestion with these things, nothing changed. During the summer of 2023 I decided to run some extensive blood work to get a big overview of all aspects of my health including nutrient status, inflammation, immune health, blood sugar, thyroid health and more. Finally after much deliberation, I decided it best to run a GI Map to get a closer look at what all was going on in digestion because things weren’t looking great through bloodwork.
What was revealed on my GI Map was invaluable information on just how much support my gut truly needed after that season of stress, mold exposure, and multiple rounds of antibiotics.
Brief GI Map Overview
Before we dive into my results, let’s take a look at exactly what the GI Map tells you about your gut health. The GI Map gives you deeper insight into several areas of your gut including:
The presence of various pathogens including H Pylori
The balance and population of your beneficial bacteria and microbiome
The presence of a variety of overgrowth bacteria, yeast, and a handful of parasites
An overview on intestinal health markers including immune status, liver stress, enzyme and bile production, inflammation, and gluten sensitivity.
Looking at these sections both individually but also as a whole can give you detailed insight into your individual symptoms and what you need to do to truly rebalance and heal digestion. Oftentimes, the GI Map can give you a clear roadmap to finally resolving your gut issues for good.
My Results
H. Pylori
Let’s first talk about H Pylori! This is a bacteria that lives in very small amounts in the stomach and only becomes an issue when it overgrows. When H Pylori becomes too high it not only decreases the acidity of the stomach by damaging the cells in the stomach lining but it will also begin to contribute to symptoms like heartburn, acid reflux, burping, and hiccuping. Conditions like GERD and gastritis can also be common results of an H Pylori infection. We can become infected with H Pylori from an outside source or we can see a slow increase in this pathogen when there is low stomach acidity present.
On my test, this is showing as present but not yet over the lab limit. I also had no symptoms of H pylori and was able to tolerate a pretty high dose of betaine HCL already. So this tells me that I likely have low stomach acid which is creating an environment that allows H Pylori to grow. The lower the stomach acidity, the more likely H Pylori is able to grow and increase in numbers. This can also be connected to a possible parasitic infection in some.
Beneficial or Commensal Bacteria
Here we get a good look at your beneficial or “commensal” bacteria - these are the bacteria that we WANT to see in balanced, health amounts as this would indicate a strong and healthy microbiome.
As you can see from mine, things are looking pretty depleted. This would be as expected given I had taken 4 rounds of antibiotics in the previous months. However, each of these bacteria can also give you deeper insight into what is going on in the gut. Here are just a few of my key take aways from this section:
Escherichia spp., Lactobacillus spp., Enterobacter spp., and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii were all either low or actually lab low (indicated in red). These specific bacteria are important for the overall microbiome balance but can also indicate that the health of my gut lining, or the mucosal lining, is very irritated or damaged. Faecalibacterium prausnitzii is an important producer of butyrate which can help to nourish the cells of the gut lining. While yes, my microbiome is looking low, the bacteria imbalance pattern is also telling me that the health of my gut lining is probably not in good shape.
Akkermansia muciniphila came back as “less than the detectable limit” which is not a great sign for my gut. While this microbe also supports the health of the gut lining (surprise surprise), it is very important for supporting the health of other microbes in the gut and is very involved in the health of the immune system. When low, this is typically a sign of intestinal permeability or “leaky gut”. Usually when this bacteria is very high or very low, I begin looking for some kind of immune stress going on in the gut or body as a whole. This was also a sign that I needed to increase my intake of fiber and polyphenol rich foods.
Also under this section, there is a category called Bacterial Phyla. This may take you back to middle school science class where you learned about Taxonomic rank including Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genius, Species. I typically describe these as two major umbrella categories that populate the human GI tract. All the commensal bacteria above will fall into one of these two phylas. The balance of one or both can give you insight into the health of your microbiome, your gut lining, your metabolism, and your diet. The balance of the phylas can also help you determine what type of probiotic may be more beneficial for restoring balance to your individual gut microbiome.
For me, both phylas are bottomed out and indicate that my microbiome is in need of desperate support. Again, this doesn’t surprise me after all those antibiotics!
Overgrowth Bacteria
In this section you will see a variety of overgrowth bacteria that can oftentimes correlate very much with your symptoms. What types of bacteria are present can also tell you more about the health of your gut lining, how well you are breaking down your food (or not) and oftentimes your immune system functions as well. Some of these bacteria will be more prone to producing toxins which can increase digestive symptoms including histamine type reactions.
This area of my GI Map actually came back very clean which means overgrowth bacteria was not a major concern. The few bacterias that were present, specifically Bacillus spp and Enterococcus faecalis are both related to low digestive function like low stomach acidity and enzyme production which correlates with what I assume based on the presence of H Pylori.
Note: All the species listed under the commensal inflammatory & autoimmune-related bacteria will come back as present. These bacteria only become overgrowth bacteria when they are over the lab limit.
Parasites
Parasites are one of the more tricky infections to locate because they are hard to pick up on stool tests. However what parasites are very good at is leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that point to their presence.
This is why I also like to run a Complete Metabolic Panel and CBC with Differential blood panel alongside a GI Map for those I expect parasites. My blood work definitely pointed towards there being a parasitic infection present.
In addition to bloodwork, there are several signs on a GI Map that can point towards the presences of parasites including a very low microbiome, the presence of H pylori, and several markers that we will talk through in the final section of the GI Map.
Intestinal Health Markers
This is my FAVORITE section of the GI Map! It gives us SO MUCH information about your digestion as a whole in a way that no other test does.
Digestion
Starting with the digestive markers of Steatocrit and Elastase-1. These markers indicate whether you're breaking down fat well (steatocrit) and are producing adequate digestive enzymes and stomach acidity (elastase-1). Typically one or both of these are not looking great on the majority of GI Map tests. Because of my symptoms, I was convinced that I needed to support fat digestion, however this test revealed a very different picture in that my fat digestion was very much optimal! My stomach acidity and digestive enzyme output on the other hand could have been better. Ideally we see that number above 750.
GI Markers
β-Glucuronidase is an amazing marker, especially if you are dealing with hormonal concerns like estrogen dominance.
This marker indicates your liver's ability to go through Phase II detox which is very important for estrogen detox. If the liver is stressed out, we typically see this marker begin to elevate. Things like dysbiosis and environmental toxins (especially mold) can really cause this marker to increase. Based on my history of recent mold exposure, I am surprised this marker was in a good range!
Occult Blood will indicate the presence of blood in the stool and can give you insight into if there is significant damage or bleeding in the GI tract - thank goodness nothing showed up for me!
Immune Response
And now for the Immune Response! This was a BIG section for me.
Secretory IgA gives us insight into the health of your immune system that lives within the gut. Ideally we want to see this nice and balanced. Too low means your immune system is very depleted and in need of support while too high means that your immune system is very heightened and likely actively fighting off an infection. Considering my numbers were “>6000” (meaning this test couldn't even measure the actual amount they were so high…) my immune system is clearly stressed out and in the midst of some kind of world ending battle. Considering that there were not a significant number of overgrowth bacterias or pathogens present, this was a pretty big indicator that there were likely parasites causing this level of immune reaction.
Anti-gliadin IgA indicates your immune’s response to gluten (aka a gluten sensitivity, but not an allergy). Considering that I had been eating gluten all the time and had never noticed common symptoms of intolerance like brain fog, gas, bloating, or stomach pain after gluten-containing meals, this one took me by complete surprise! Come to find out - this was a HUGE trigger for my headaches. After cutting gluten out over the last 8 months, I have experienced just 2 headaches - a drastic difference from the at least one headache a week frequency that I was noticing over the summer of 2023.
Lastly, there is the Eosinophil Activation Protein. This is a marker that I have only seen elevated on my GI Map and typically correlates with lots of food sensitivities due to leaky gut and/or a parasitic infection. It can also correlate with respiratory conditions like asthma.
Given the many signs of poor mucosal health and signs of parasites, as well as experiencing the return of my childhood asthma while living in a moldy house for 5 years, it makes sense why this would be elevated on my GI Map.
Inflammation
This last marker is primarily a marker for gut inflammation. Those with Inflammatory Bowel Disease will typically see this marker above the lab limit. For me, this marker is elevating but is not yet high so this lets me know, yes there is some significant GI inflammation that needs to be addressed but it is thankfully not likely to the point of a disease state. For most people I want to see this marker as LOW as possible. So even though my results are still “in the green”, I want to see them lower.
How Did Digestion Get Here?
Before I wrap up my results, there is one last question that we HAVE to assess to get the full picture of digestion and that is “How did your digestion get to this point?”.
It is not enough to simply go through an eradication and gut healing protocol and not ask yourself how you got there in the first place. Things like diet, lifestyle, stress, and toxic exposures are some of the most common root causes of digestive issues. While yes, things like bacterial overgrowth, parasites, and yeast overgrowths can be a root cause to your symptoms, there is a layer deeper than this.
If you ignore the root cause of what got you to this place of imbalance in the first place you can do all the gut healing protocols you want but you will likely find yourself right back where you start in a few month or years.
So before just jumping into a healing protocol, you HAVE to assess the foundations of diet, lifestyle, stress, and toxins if you really want to get the most out of your healing journey. .
My GI Map Summary
My GI Map results honestly surprised me because I thought, based on symptoms alone, that I just needed to support digestion and take some probiotics after a stressful season and lots of antibiotics. However, my GI Map revealed SO MUCH MORE.
Following my test here are the main areas that I focused on to restore balance:
Supported digestive function with Betaine HCL and Digestive Enzymes (customized to me based on digestive health markers)
Followed a parasite eradication protocol
Incorporated lots of gut soothing herbs and immune support
Took a spore based probiotic to support the replenishing of my microbiome
Removed gluten from my diet (still on going), Plan to trial adding that back in in the future but not ready for that yet
Increased intake of bone broth and collagen
Incorporated Stewed Apples to feed beneficial bacteria in the gut and help them grow
After going through my gut healing protocol my digestion is completely back to normal. I also experience less brain fog and have more energy than I did before (an added bonus!. After going gluten free, I noticed a drastic decrease in headaches and have decided to remain gluten free until I am able to rerun a GI Map to assess my Anti-Gliadin IgA marker again. The headaches are just not worth it to me right now to “test it out” by trial and error that could of course be a fine option.
Ready to Create your Roadmap to Healing?
If you are tired of trying to heal your gut on your own and are ready to create your unique roadmap to healing, let’s talk! You can schedule a Discovery Call today to discuss if working together is right for you! In the meantime, you can also check out my Health Gut Guide that walks through all the foundations of optimizng your gut health inside the Flourish Fit App.