Is Dr. Gundry and "leaky gut" a scam?

Posted by millerdust @millerdust, Apr 21, 2023

I want to know if Dr. Gundry's program and medicine for "leaky gut" a scam? Lucien

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The actual term for leaky gut is intestinal permeability, which can occur with some diseases. It's not a cause of the myriad symptoms snake oil salespeople and functional medicine doctors claim it is.

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Dr Susan Payrovi is a functional medicine doc at Stanford. This is her bio. She has classes in which some insurances will cover, if you're interested. Bio
Dr. Payrovi is a physician practicing Integrative and Functional Medicine at Stanford’s Center for Integrative Medicine. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at UCLA and completed her medical education at UC San Diego in 2003. She completed a residency in Anesthesiology at USC in 2007. Dr. Payrovi is board certified in Anesthesiology, Hospice and Palliative Medicine, as well as Integrative Medicine. She has additional training in Functional Medicine and acupuncture. Her classes may be found on the Stanford website under integrative health.

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@dahk

Leaky gut is not a scam, but I don't favor Dr. Gundry's approach--$$$$$ and manipulation. A good resource is the IFM, Institute of Functional Medicine website. You can read a lot of material and research for yourself. The IFM trains medical docs in FM. I trained as a coach.

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Excellent advice. It’s the route I took!

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@debkl

The actual term for leaky gut is intestinal permeability, which can occur with some diseases. It's not a cause of the myriad symptoms snake oil salespeople and functional medicine doctors claim it is.

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Yes it is! Leaky gut is real and it can cause SIBO for one. Leaky gut allows a variety of toxins to enter your bloodstream and cause many kinds of symptoms. Functional medicine doctors are not snake oil salespeople. Like any other profession, you need to find an expert in that field. Our typical medical system didn’t help me in the least with leaky gut and my symptoms and kept putting me on prescription meds that treated the symptoms not the cause!

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Re-read the first sentence up there.

Functional medicine relies on useless labs for made-up illnesses which they treat with supplements. They throw supplements at symptoms as well. The "specialty" is not based in rigorous science.

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@debkl

Re-read the first sentence up there.

Functional medicine relies on useless labs for made-up illnesses which they treat with supplements. They throw supplements at symptoms as well. The "specialty" is not based in rigorous science.

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That is not my experience w/ a functional medicine doctor or my training as a coach. Of course, there are some drs who prescribe a lot of supplements just as conventional docs prescribe a lot of medicines, many detrimental to one's health, many hit or miss bc they are aiming to suppress symptoms. My experience is quite different, always looking for natural ways 1st. There are very few excellent doctors in any arena that are good diagnosticians, well-read, curious, and competent. It's very important to find ones that you respect and have what you want/need. Just bc a dr has a label, GI doc, FM doc, or has degrees from prestigious institutions does not make them a good dr. My experience is learn and research all you can, and then choose carefully.

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@debkl

The actual term for leaky gut is intestinal permeability, which can occur with some diseases. It's not a cause of the myriad symptoms snake oil salespeople and functional medicine doctors claim it is.

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I can only speak from my experience. My functional medicine doctor, using traditional lab tests, helped my Sjogerns and osteoporosis more than my rheumatologist did. She used the 4 Rs of gut healing and I am thankful that I chose this path for my healing. I take no prescription drugs, use food and well thought out supplementation to keep my conditions in check. I will always believe that “leaky gut” is real. Science will eventually catch up and prove this. One of my favorite quotes by Hippocrates …
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”

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Intestinal permeability is real.

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@debkl

Re-read the first sentence up there.

Functional medicine relies on useless labs for made-up illnesses which they treat with supplements. They throw supplements at symptoms as well. The "specialty" is not based in rigorous science.

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I have no idea what you’re experience has been. But it seems like you’re painting all functional medicine as bad. That’s not fair. Just as it would be unfair to treat western medicine doctors as all bad.
Every person’s experience is unique and they need to find who and what works for them.

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@clutch

@tabithatwitch,
It sounds, then, like your situation has improved! Because in your initial post you said and sounded quite desperate. So maybe you found something that works for you? And that something isn’t going to make your “bowels dependent”. Psyllium fiber? Please share what’s working!

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Tabithatwitch,
Where did you have your prolapse surgery? Glad it went well. Did they use mesh?

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