Your Gut Affects More Than Your Digestion

Aug 25

The Health Roadmap — Factor #1: Digestive Health

One thing I certainly wish I knew sooner was just how integral our digestive functioning is to our overall health.

The importance of “gut health” has really entered the zeitgeist over the last several years. But how much of it is hype—and how much of it is actually true?

The truth of the matter is, your digestive system does far more than simply process the food you eat.

You can think of your digestive tract like your body’s central headquarters. It interacts with your immune system, nervous system, nutrient status, hormones, microbiome, and inflammatory pathways throughout the body. When something isn't functioning properly in the digestive system, the symptoms don't necessarily stay in the gut.

Signs that your digestion is not functioning properly can show up as bloating, reflux, constipation, diarrhea, fatigue, brain fog, skin issues, joint pain, mood changes, and more.

Your symptoms aren't random. They're information.

And I learned that firsthand.

My Personal Story

Looking back at my childhood, the signs were always there.

I would get terrible stomach aches when we ate out. Sometimes I would throw up after restaurant meals. My mom assumed it was from eating too much or that “outside food” didn't agree with my stomach.

Overtime, the obvious digestive symptoms became less frequent.

But they were replaced by something else: fatigue and debilitating brain fog.

As a teenager, I felt tired constantly. I needed to nap almost every day regardless of how much I slept the night before.

And the brain fog was unlike anything I knew how to explain.

I remember feeling like there was a haze sitting right between my eyebrows. I could function, go to school, study, exercise, and live my life… but I never felt completely present.

I had no idea why.

And never once did it occur to me that something I was eating could be contributing to how I felt.

I made it through college largely sponsored by caffeine and naps. But as medical school approached, the thought of continuing to feel this way became a little terrifying.

I couldn't imagine getting through the demands of medical school feeling chronically exhausted.

So, out of sheer survival more than anything, I decided I needed to figure out what was actually going on.

When Everything Looks “Normal”

At that point, I sought out help for my fatigue and went to the doctor.

We ran the standard tests. I wasn't anemic. There wasn't an obvious infection. My thyroid wasn't explaining it.

Everything looked relatively normal. The doctors told me I was fine and sent me on my way.

Except I didn't feel fine or normal.

There is something incredibly frustrating about knowing that something feels wrong in your body while repeatedly being told that your testing looks fine.

Eventually, I went to see a naturopathic doctor hoping they might have an alternative solution.

We looked deeper. We checked hormones and nutrient deficiencies. I tried herbal medicines and supplements.

I wanted so badly for something to work.

But after months of trying different things, nothing really changed in a meaningful way.

And then, almost like an answer to my prayers, something happened during my first quarter of naturopathic medical school.

The Food That Changed Everything

One of my professors taught us about food intolerance testing and gave our class the opportunity to have our own testing done through his clinic.

A group of us decided to do it.

My result came back:

Potato.

Potato?!

It seemed completely random.

And worse, potato was everywhere in my diet.

But the scientist in me was curious.

What would happen if I actually removed it?

So I did.

And within about three days, it felt like someone had lifted a veil.

My clarity came back.

The haze between my eyes disappeared.

The fatigue that had forced me to nap almost every day for years suddenly wasn't there.

My battery felt full again.

I could sit in class, study, go about my day, and actually feel present.

Of course, I questioned it.

Was this real? Was it coincidence? Was it placebo?

So eventually, I tested it.

I'd eat potato again—a side of fries, for example—and wait.

Within about 24 hours, the grogginess would return. That familiar foggy sensation between my eyes would come back.

I'd remove potato again, and within a few days, my energy and clarity would return.

That experience completely changed the way I understood digestive health—and eventually, the way I practiced medicine.

So What Does Digestion Have to Do With the Rest of the Body?

Digestion isn't simply about whether you have a stomach ache after eating.

From the moment you eat something, your body has an enormous job to do.

Food needs to be mechanically and chemically broken down, nutrients need to be absorbed, microbes interact with what remains, waste needs to move through the gastrointestinal tract, and the immune system is constantly interacting with this environment.

Our intestinal microbiome also metabolizes components of our food.

Fermentation itself is completely normal—and beneficial fermentation can produce compounds such as short-chain fatty acids that help support intestinal health.

But when digestion, intestinal motility, or the balance of microorganisms in the gut becomes disrupted, the entire ecosystem can change (for the worse).

Excessive fermentation can contribute to gas, bloating, abdominal discomfort, and altered bowel movements. Certain microbial components and metabolites can also interact with the intestinal lining and immune system.

And because the digestive system is connected to so many other systems in the body, digestive dysfunction doesn't always announce itself with digestive symptoms alone.

For me it was chronic fatigue.

For some people, the clue may be bloating or constipation.

For someone else, it may be depression.

That's why I don't believe we should look at symptoms as isolated problems.

We have to ask:

What is the body trying to tell us?

Your Symptoms Are Information

This is one of the biggest shifts that naturopathic medicine gave me—first as a patient and eventually as a doctor.

Instead of immediately asking:

“How do we get rid of this symptom?”

I became much more interested in asking:

“Why is this symptom happening in the first place?”

That question changed everything for me.

The last several years of continually asking that same question eventually enabled me to start noticing common patterns in the root cause.

Whether someone came to me with digestive issues, hormonal symptoms, hot flashes, fatigue, brain fog, or changes in their mood, I kept finding myself coming back to similar underlying causes.

At first, I wanted to create a framework to organize how I would approach each case in my practice. But over time, I realized it could also help patients understand the bigger picture—why we were investigating what we were investigating, and how each piece connected to their overall health.

In this day and age every health guru and influencer seems to have the right answers when it comes to health and wellness- but very few are asking the right questions.

Getting to the root of chronic symptoms shouldn't feel like haphazardly ordering a bunch tests and supplements, and hoping something sticks. There should be a thoughtful, systematic way of asking: What areas of the body need our attention, and where might we be missing something?

So I began organizing the way I think about health into seven major areas that I believe need to be investigated when working toward optimal health. This has become the framework that I now call The Health Roadmap.

These are the 7 areas I come back to again and again when I'm trying to understand the bigger picture behind someone's symptoms. This framework gives us an organized place to start investigating in order to get real answers.

And over the next several weeks, I'm going to walk you through all seven factors in the Health Roadmap, in order, so you can begin to understand this framework for yourself.

We're starting here with Factor #1: Digestive Health.