Gut Stuff | Dr. Kate Kresge

Digestion and Absorption

Betaine Challenge

You could have the healthiest diet in the world, but this only matters if you actually digest and absorb those foods adequately! Fully digesting food particles to their smallest forms make them less likely to cause immune reactions and more likely to be used as nutrition at the cellular level.

To optimize your digestive capacity, we’ll use digestive enzymes at meals to help provide enough betaine HCL and pancreatic enzymes to accomplish complete digestion of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. We’ll also work on ensuring good mechanical digestion by having you chew your food until it’s liquid before swallowing. We’ll have you stimulate the vagus nerve and increase digestion by taking a moment to smell your food before eating. This will initiate salivary amylase secretion as well as betaine HCL production.

To find your ideal dose of digestive enzymes, try the following.

Betaine HCL (Digestive Enzyme) Challenge

Day 1: Take 1 capsule at the beginning of a large meal.
Day 2: Take 2 capsules at the beginning of a large meal.
Day 3: Take 3 capsules at the beginning of a large mea.
Continue until reaching a maximum of 10 pills per meal.
Stop when
1. You get burning, reflux, or warmth in your stomach, chest or throat. This is harmless.
2. Back down to the previous day’s dose.
3. This is your ideal dose.
Adjusting
1. You’ll need less betaine hcl with smaller meals. Adjust accordingly.
Disclaimer
1. We talked about this in office, but don’t attempt this challenge if you currently have or have ever had gastric ulcers. Keep me posted throughout and let me know if you have questions.

Intestinal Permeability

Glutamine and probiotic support

Glutamine is the main fuel of enterocytes. Unlike every other cell in the body which runs on sugar / ketones, enterocytes use glutamine for their primary source of energy. When we’re trying to heal the gut, it can help to supplement glutamine so that your enterocytes have enough of the substrates they need to function optimally.

1 scoop of Glutashield each night before bed can provide glutamine to your enterocytes, which will help your gastrointestinal tissue to repair each night. Glutashield also contains demulcent herbs, which stimulate the lymphatic tissues in your gut to secrete a healthy amount of protective mucus. It's also helpful to put probiotics in this mix to optimize your microbiome support. If you've been recommended to use probiotic powder, you can also add one scoop of the orthobiotic powder recommended to you via Fullscript to the Glutashield mix. If you haven't been recommended to take this yet, please don't do so until directed. Probiotics used too soon in SIBO treatment can make SIBO worse.

SIBO

FODMAP

Keep in mind the low and high FODMAP checklists as created by Kate Scarlata

https://www.katescarlata.com/lowfodmapdietchecklists
Try to emphasize low fodmap foods and concentrate on limiting your serving sizes of high fodmap foods wherever possible if you’d like to reduce symptoms.
Don’t go crazy about this and don't reference it unless explicitly told by Dr. Kate to follow this guide. If you do reference it, use it as a guide, not a strict list of rules.
If you're working will Ally, Ally will design you a plan that reduces high FODMAP foods while still nourishing you completely.

Candibactin Protocol

Candibactin AR and BR Herbal Treatment Protocol

This formula has been shown to be as effective as Rifaximin and Neomycin in a head to head trial for treating SIBO. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4030608/
In my experience, people who use this formula also have fewer recurrences of SIBO because the antimicrobial herbs also address candida overgrowth in addition to hydrogen and methane producing bacteria.
Order at least 2 bottles of each of these as it can take 2-3 rounds of this protocol to fully resolve SIBO.
Protocol
1. Step 1 (day 1)
  1. Candibactin BR - 1 cap at night.
2. Step 2 (days 2)
  1. Candibactin BR - 1 cap at night, 1 cap in the morning after breakfast.
3. Step 3 (days 3)
  1. Candibactin BR - 1 cap at night, 1 cap in the morning after breakfast
  2. Candibactin AR 1 cap with lunch
4. Step 4 (day 4-6)
  1. Candibactin BR - 1 cap at night, 1 cap in the morning after breakfast
  2. Candibactin AR 1 cap with lunch, 1 cap in the morning after breakfast
  3. Do this for 2 days. If tolerated, move to the next step.
5. Step 5 (day 7)
  1. Candibactin BR - 2 cap at night, 1 cap in the morning after breakfast
  2. Candibactin AR 1 cap with lunch, 1 cap in the morning after breakfast,
6. Step 6 (day 8)
  1. Candibactin BR - 2 cap at night, 1 cap in the morning after breakfast
  2. Candibactin AR 1 cap immediately after each meal (3 times per day).
7. Step 7 (days 9+)
  1. Continue this regimen until first bottles run out.
  2. Reassess symptoms at this point.
  3. If symptoms are still an issue, Dr. Kate will give you more directions.