What's Fungi Got To Do With Gut Health? - #40

Health begins in the gut. If you’re a gardener, then you know that healthy soil is crucial to growing healthy plants. Think of your microbiome as the garden from which your overall health grows.


The microbiome is the community of microorganisms, including fungi (the mycobiome), bacteria and viruses, that exist in our digestive tract, skin, mouth, and vagina. These microorganisms change in response to a host of environmental factors, such as stress, exercise, diet, medication, toxins, and other exposures.

I would say that over 90% of the people that I work with experience some level of GI distress. Initially, they may come to me for weight loss, hair loss, low energy, or a diagnosis of an autoimmune disease, but, low and behold, it always circles back to their gut health. When our gut is inflamed, due to chronic stress, autoimmune diseases, poor diet, food sensitivities, and taking medications, especially antibiotics, we experience negative health consequences. Health consequences could look like skin disorders, such as acne or psoriasis, chronic fatigue, migraines, brain fog, weight gain, mood disorders, and acid reflux. Some negative health conditions not talked about as much when it comes to gut health are erectile dysfunction, hair loss, and asthma. Think about it, if our gut is inflamed, and we are eating an optimal diet full of bioavailable nutrients, our gut cannot properly digest, break down, and absorb the nutrients. If we don’t absorb and utilize nutrients, we can’t make ATP, our energy currency, inside our cells. How is our body going to perform all of the biochemical functions necessary to sustain optimal life if we don’t have enough energy? Our body’s job is to keep us in a state of homeostasis and when it’s not, certain decisions have to be made. We don’t need hair to survive, and growing hair requires nutrients and energy.

 A healthy gut is imperative for good health and most people have no idea how to make that happen for themselves. Our microbiome directs how we look, feel and think.

Afif Ghannoum is co-founder of the first total microbiome company, BIOHM Health, where he has commercialized consumer probiotics and microbiome testing kits that target the dual role that fungi and bacteria play in the digestive tract. He co-founded BIOHM with his father, Dr. Mahmoud Ghannoum, who is one of the world’s leading minds in medical mycology.

 A biotechnology attorney by training, Afif has turned his biotechnology innovations into consumer products that have sold in more than 27,000 retail locations in the United States. He has also licensed technology to a global pharmaceutical company that is now sold in more than 100,000 retail locations.

Find Biohm Health here:

website: https://www.biohmhealth.com/

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Take their online gut quiz: https://www.guttesting.com/

 

Medical Disclaimer:

By listening to this podcast, you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice or for making any lifestyle changes to treat any medical condition in either yourself or others. Consult your own physician for any medical issues that you may be having.  This entire disclaimer also applies to any of my guests on my podcast.

Kristin Smith