Diagnosing and Treating Digestive Disorders

Featuring Dr. Kaleigh Anstett, BSc., ND, Naturopathic Doctor, A Naturopathic Approach to Diagnosing and Treating Digestive Disorders

Duration: 2 minutes, 3 seconds

Naturopathic doctors see a variety of digestive conditions in practice.

Patients will often come in complaining of GERD or esophageal reflux disease. They’ll often also have bloating after eating, a lot of dysbiosis or cramping pain after eating certain foods. We’ll also see a lot of constipation and diarrhea, IVS-like symptoms where patients are unable to perform normal activities of daily living due to these digestive concerns.

Naturopathic doctors are known for treating the whole person. So, we will look at your diet and your lifestyle, your mind, body, your physical health in addition to your mental and emotional well-being in terms of finding a solution that works for the patient.

So whether it’s GERD associated with low acid, for example, versus high acid. Zinc can be a really important part of treatment. We want to understand why that valve isn’t closing. We’ll make suggestions with respect to changing diet, etc.

When it comes to bloating and cramping pains after eating, we like to identify foods that are contributing to the discomfort, oftentimes, sugar being a major culprit. So, patients are finding not – staying away from refined grains and other complex carbohydrates or removing these foods from their diet either entirely or just incorporating just a small amount really helps with their symptoms there.

Again, it depends on the patient. And we often will design very specific treatment plans in terms of supplements and dietary change to help with these symptoms. Lab tests, of course, play a big role in diagnosing digestive issues. So, we would look at systemic levels of inflammation. We can also measure hydrogen and methane on the breath to determine if there are any microorganisms contributing to these symptoms.

If you’re experiencing digestive issues of any kind and you’d like to learn more about what’s causing these symptoms, see your local naturopathic doctor.

Presenter: Dr. Kaleigh Anstett, Naturopathic Doctor, Victoria, BC

Local Practitioners: Naturopathic Doctor