The Stomach Solution

Somewhere along the way, the internet decided that everyone has a parasite, and that a parasite is behind everything from bloating after meals to waking up in the middle of the night to itchy, dry skin. The answer always seems to be an expensive cleanse. Yet, in the five years I've been doing this work, I've done exactly one parasite protocol with one client.

In this hot take episode, I'm breaking down my thoughts on parasites and what you actually need to do in order to resolve your symptoms.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• Why a parasite feels like such a believable answer when nothing else has worked (and how social media blew it way out of proportion)

• What those long, stringy things people post from the toilet really are, and how parasite cleanse supplements can end up causing them

• What I've actually seen show up on GI-MAPs in all my years of reading them, and how I handle single-celled parasites like Blastocystis hominis when they do show up

• The gut issues I usually find instead, and why a cleanse can make a depleted microbiome even worse

Links & Resources Mentioned:

• Take the Stomach Healing Roadblocks Quiz: https://quiz.theguthealingninja.com/

Follow and Connect with Me:

📺 Watch the podcast on YouTube: @theguthealingninja
📸 Follow me on Instagram: @theguthealingninja
🌐 Visit my website and blog: theguthealingninja.com

More testing does not automatically mean more healing. I see so many people who have already spent thousands of dollars on labs and they still have no idea what to do next. Years ago, on my own gut healing journey, that was me too.

Today I'm walking through the four labs I keep ordering again and again with clients right now. For each one, I share what it shows us and a real example of what it found for a client. I also explain why I never look at any of these labs on its own.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• Why I add zonulin and Stool OMX to the GI-MAP, and what bile acids and short-chain fatty acids tell me about your gut lining and digestion

• How the microbial OAT catches yeast that a stool test can miss (my favorite practitioner hack)

• The thyroid and nutrient pattern behind one postpartum client's bloating and hair loss, and what changed in just six weeks

• How the MRT food sensitivity test is different from the ones that flag 40-plus foods, and what it found for a client who was only eating about five foods

Links & Resources Mentioned:

• Episode 89, Your Thyroid Labs Are "Normal" But You Still Feel Awful (The Gut-Thyroid Connection)

• Apply to work with me 1:1

Follow and Connect with Me:

📺 Watch the podcast on YouTube: @theguthealingninja
📸 Follow me on Instagram: @theguthealingninja
🌐 Visit my website and blog: theguthealingninja.com

If your doctor checked your thyroid and said it's fine, but you're still exhausted, bloated, constipated, and just feeling off, you're not imagining it. Most of the people I work with have a normal TSH and T4 on paper, and a very different story once we run the full thyroid panel.

Today we're getting into the gut-thyroid connection. I'm walking through what your doctor is actually testing, why your thyroid hormone can get stuck in a form your body can't use, and how your gut and your thyroid end up slowing each other down. Then I share the four steps I take with clients to break that loop.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• What TSH actually measures (and why it can look perfectly normal while your thyroid is struggling)

• How T4 can turn into reverse T3, the inactive form that acts like the brakes on your metabolism

• Why low stomach acid, H. pylori, SIBO, and gut inflammation can slow your thyroid down, even when your thyroid itself isn't the problem

• How a sluggish thyroid can show up as constipation, bloating, and reflux that doesn't seem to follow any food pattern

• The four steps I take with clients, starting with the full thyroid panel you should ask for (and why ordering a dozen thyroid supplements off Amazon isn't one of them)

How to Work Together:

I'm opening a new, lower-investment coaching package that looks at your thyroid labs and nutrient status. There's no signup page yet, so reach out directly and we'll chat:

• Email me: jess@theguthealingninja.com

• DM me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theguthealingninja

• Apply for 1:1 coaching (every 1:1 client gets thyroid labs): https://heal.theguthealingninja.com/apply

Follow and Connect with Me:

📺 Watch the podcast on YouTube: @theguthealingninja
📸 Follow me on Instagram: @theguthealingninja
🌐 Visit my website and blog: theguthealingninja.com

Almost a year ago, I started sharing my own gut healing journey with you in real time, without knowing how it would end. Today I get to tell you it ended really, really well. The bloating, gas, and constipation are gone, my 2pm energy crash is gone, and my hair is growing back.

In this final episode of the series, I'm recapping where I started, the acupuncture that finally got me past a plateau, and the last two labs I promised you: a whole-genome sequencing stool test I did not love, and a genetics report that explained my gallstone.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

What I was dealing with this time last year, and how I feel now (probably the best I have felt in my adult life)

The type of acupuncture that helped me (and why it was nothing like the acupuncture I tried 10 years ago)

What a BiomeFX shotgun metagenomic stool test shows you, and why the GI-MAP is still my gold standard

How a 23andMe raw data file and StrateGene uncovered a slow PEMT gene, and what that has to do with bile flow and gallstones

The mindset that mattered more than any lab or supplement on this whole journey

Links & Resources Mentioned:

23andMe Genetic Testing

StrateGene genetic interpretation software

Dirty Genes by Ben Lynch

Apply to work with me 1:1

Previous Episodes in this Series:

#49: Healing My Gut in Real Time: Symptoms, Stress, and First Steps (Part 1)

#53: Healing My Gut in Real Time: GI-MAP Results, My Protocol, and a Big Pivot (Part 2)

#60: Healing My Gut in Real Time: Dead Ends Lead to the Best Actions and a Buc-ee's Bathroom Fan (Part 3)

#80: Healing My Gut in Real Time: Mold Success, Thyroid Surprises, and More Gallbladder Drama (Part 4)

Follow and Connect with Me:

📺 Watch the podcast on YouTube: @theguthealingninja
📸 Follow me on Instagram: @theguthealingninja
🌐 Visit my website and blog: theguthealingninja.com

Right now I have at least six clients whose GI-MAP results look almost identical. They all have low levels of H pylori and low levels of beneficial bacteria, plus symptoms that won't quit no matter how many times they've treated the infection.

In this episode, I'm walking through what I'm seeing in practice, why treating H pylori over and over without rebuilding your microbiome keeps so many people stuck, and what we're doing instead that's helping these clients feel better.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

How to spot this pattern on your own GI-MAP, from the H pylori number that isn't flagged in red to the bacterial phyla section at the bottom of the page

Why a depleted microbiome is what lets H pylori move in (and keep coming back) in the first place

What I mean by gut resilience, and why each round of H pylori treatment can leave your microbiome a little more depleted

The three things I'm doing with these clients instead of another H pylori protocol, including how much fiber to aim for and the two supplements I use most

What happened when one client with intense LPR switched from two months of H pylori treatment to rebuilding his microbiome

Links & Resources Mentioned:

Just Thrive Probiotic: https://justthrivehealth.com/NINJAJT?q=probiotic

Just Thrive Daily Gut Detox: https://justthrivehealth.com/NINJAJT?q=igg-ultimate

Episode 86, How Anxiety Destroys Your Gut Health: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/86-how-anxiety-destroys-your-gut-health-and-5-ways-to/id1780654662?i=1000790904252

HeartMath HRV biofeedback tool: https://www.inflektioncdn.com/2391JZXJ/3B8HKJ/?uid=639

Vagustim vagus nerve stimulation device: https://vagustim.io/products/vagustim-v2-vagus-nerve-stimulation-device?sca_ref=10692375.3MwJGlOUQzDfRGTs

Apply to work with me 1:1: https://heal.theguthealingninja.com/apply

Follow and Connect with Me:

📺 Watch the podcast on YouTube: @theguthealingninja
📸 Follow me on Instagram: @theguthealingninja
🌐 Visit my website and blog: theguthealingninja.com