Gastrointestinal Disorder Treatment
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic constipation, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) are common gastrointestinal disorders that cause a range of symptoms and affect your quality of life. Rhett Bergeron, MD, and his team at Real Health Medical in Roswell and Stockbridge, Georgia, use functional medicine to help those suffering from gastrointestinal diseases get the answers and treatment they need for a dramatic improvement in health and quality of life. To schedule an appointment, call the office or book online today.
What are gastrointestinal disorders?
Gastrointestinal disorders are conditions that affect your digestive system. The functional medicine experts at Real Health Medical provide answers and dramatic improvements for those suffering from digestive disorders, such as:
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease
- Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)
- Chronic constipation
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
- Chronic intestinal infections
With functional medicine, GI specialists identify and treat the root cause of your disorder to alleviate symptoms and resolve the condition altogether.
What are gastrointestinal disorder symptoms?
The factors or triggers of your gastrointestinal disorder have systemic effects on the body that affect overall health and may not directly involve your digestive system. Symptoms of gastrointestinal disease may include:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Brain fog
- Disrupted sleep
- Decreased energy
- Poor memory
- Abnormal thyroid function
- Muscle weakness
- Headaches
- Neurological dysfunction
If you’re experiencing these symptoms, contact Real Health Medical today.
Why does my stomach hurt?
There are many issues that can cause your stomach to hurt. These include ulcers, diverticulitis, constipation, infections, parasites, and pancreatitis. But the two most common reasons for stomach pain are irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
There are several possible causes of IBS and IBD. These include:
Yeast infection (Candida).
Parasites
Bacteria
Stomach acid allergy (auto-immune)
Food allergies
Environmental Toxins
Lack of digestive enzymes
Changes in beneficial intestinal bacteria
Inflammation
Stress and emotional trauma
What causes gastrointestinal disorders?
Many factors may trigger the development of a chronic gastrointestinal disorder. Some of the most common causes include:
- Diet
- Infection
- Stress (trauma)
- Gut microbiome
- Autoimmune reactions
In most cases, multiple factors are involved in the development of chronic gastrointestinal disorders and cause digestive tract changes, such as:
- Inflammation
- Over-activation of the immune system and autoimmune reactions
- Decreased digestion and absorption
- Decreased serotonin production
The many factors that affect gastrointestinal health may also affect the lining of your digestive tract, leading to a leaky gut.
How common are gastrointestinal infections?
Chronic gastrointestinal infections and parasites are more common than recognized by conventional medicine. These infections are hidden and undetected. Even when correctly diagnosed, you may continue to experience symptoms at some level due to undertreatment.
The most common gastrointestinal infections include:
- Parasites
- Yeast (candida)
- Clostridium difficile (C-diff)
Our gastrointestinal doctors take a unique functional medicine perspective and approach to treat the GI distress our patients experience.
How to treat a gastrointestinal disorder?
Unfortunately, the routine stool testing and tests from endoscopy and colonoscopies are often inadequate due to limited testing – usually indicating only “normal” flora and no parasites. This is the classic example of a false negative report.
Functional Medicine for Digestive Distress
With functional gastrointestinal medicine, our GI specialists and other team members at Real Health Medical use clinical and laboratory testing to accurately identify the underlying triggers of your digestive disorder.
Functional medicine laboratories that specialize in digestive disorders are the KEY to identifying these trigger-infections, measuring the amount of inflammation, and determining the need for specific types of beneficial bacteria or probiotics.
Your digestive disorder tests may reveal:
- Unrecognized food sensitivities or allergies
- Undetected infections (parasites, bacteria, yeast, or mold)
- Imbalance in the healthy bacteria in the intestinal tract
- Deficiencies of digestive enzymes
- Deficiencies in probiotic supporting bacteria
The team also takes into consideration the adverse effects of stress and trauma on the three systems of digestion: the gastrointestinal, immune, and autonomic systems.
Functional Gastrointestinal Disease Treatment Plans
Based on the information collected from your testing, our gastrointestinal specialists will develop an individualized treatment plans that may include:
- Customized diet based on metabolic type and food sensitivity testing
- Elimination and rotational diet (accurate and specific for each patient)
- Intermittent fasting
- High-quality probiotics and digestive support supplements
- Nutritional supplement therapy for leaky gut and GI inflammation
- Intestinal detoxification
- Colonic detoxification therapy
- Liver/gallbladder detoxification
- Digestive enzyme therapy
- Clinical therapies (ozone, intravenous oxidative therapy, ultraviolet blood irradiation)
- Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) to resolve trauma and stress
- Correcting autoimmune conditions
- Combined natural and prescription protocols for yeast, bacterial and parasitic infections
Find relief for your digestive disorders
The functional medicine approach provided by the team at Real Health Medical is scientifically based and clinically effective to restore gastrointestinal health, avoid long-term use of prescription medications, and prevent other related diseases such as cancer, autoimmune diseases, and degenerative conditions.
Talk to a gastrointestinal doctor near you
For comprehensive care for your gastrointestinal disorder, contact Real Health Medical by phone or schedule an appointment online today.
If you are not currently a patient, you can fill out the intake form to get started.