Tara Skye Goldin, ND, FABNG

🦋🌸Grab your FREE copy of my book “Heal your Gut, Win at Life!” Link in Bio! www.taraskyegoldin.com

**pdoctor

✨In order to detoxify from environmental toxins or endotoxins produced inside the body, one must have clear pathways to elimination.

✨The primary pathways for toxin elimination in our human bodies are peeing, p**ping and sweating. That is basically it.

💛So when I have a patient recovering from Lyme, I make sure that they are peeing, p**ping and sweating.

💩When I have a patient recovering from mold and mycotoxin exposure, I make sure that they are peeing, p**ping and sweating.

💦When I have a patient showing signs of toxin exposure whether or not they are cognizant of that (medical history, environmental exposure i.e. living near a train derailment or fire that has dumped pollutants into the air and water) I make sure that they are peeing, p**ping and sweating.

🎯So let’s break it down. Everyone ideally should be having a good bowel movement at least once per day.

💦💛Everyone should be drinking plenty of good clean water, - at least 64 oz per day, preferably with some trace minerals in it, to stay hydrated and flush the kidneys.

💦Everyone also should be exercising to sweating several times per week , or sauna-ing several times per week so that they are also eliminating through their skin cells and pores.

💥Without these things happening, the fanciest and most expensive supplements won’t work as well.

🥦Diet should be as organic as possible to eliminate pesticides and herbicide accumulation. I once read a study that measured pesticide and herbicide levels in a family’s blood before and after they ate completely organic for 2 weeks and their serum pesticide levels went way down! After just 2 weeks. So you can improve quickly!

❓❓Do you need to do fancy cleanses with special supplements? No, usually not. Making sure your elimination channels are open and your detox pathways are working us usually enough unless there is something unusual going on like a particular toxic exposure or infection. Sometimes for example we need to support hormonal metabolism by supporting the liver but usually we cleanse on our own. We are designed as humans to cleanse ourselves by peeing p**ping and sweating!

🎯And furthermore, if you aren’t peeing, p**ping and sweating, those fancy supplements won’t work anyhow. So P*e, P**p and Sweat first, then add the detox cleanses and supplements. 💛💩💦 **ping

👀🦋Will I Ever Get to Eat Whatever Foods I Want Again?
👉🏼I get this question a lot

✨Often while on a healing journey patients change up their foods and eliminate certain types of foods from their lives. This may be gluten, sugar, dairy, fermentable carbohydrates, etc. depending upon what is going on for them and what we are treating.

✨Sometimes we restrict for a period of time whole classes of foods.

✨This isn’t of course the end goal, to live with a highly restricted diet.

✨But I often get asked once patients are feeling better when they can go back to “normal”. Well, first define “normal”.

💥If your previous food plan included wine, gluten, refined carbohydrates, and other inflammatory foods, you may never get back to full non-restriction if you want to hold your gains.

💥If you have celiac disease, you may never eat gluten again if you want to remain in a good place that you worked so diligently to get to.

🦋But some foods can be experimented with, and maybe you can have a small amount every 4 days without ill effect, but it may not be good to have something every day all the time,

🦋For instance I have some patients who abstain from garlic and onions while we are treating SIBO, and sometimes they can have it again later, other patients feel better and hold their gains when they stay away from it.

👀💥Pollution Support
👉🏼Important info even if you don’t live near East Palestine, Ohio

⚡️If you follow the news at all you will have read about the train derailment and subsequent fire putting tons of burning toxins into the air in East Palestine, Ohio.

⚡️This happens to be about an hour away from where my son goes to college, so you can bet that I got some great supplements and a high end air purifier to him as quickly as I could.

💥 💥According to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency the primary chemicals that were spilled were Vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate. Also in the mix were benzene, ethyl hexyl acrylate and ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, also known carcinogens.

👉🏼I will break down the main 2 so that you get an idea what has been released.

💥Vinyl chloride
Vinyl chloride is a colorless, odorless gas that is used to make PVC, a form of plastic used in many everyday objects.
However, vinyl chloride is also a known carcinogen and can cause negative impacts depending on the time and amount of exposure. It can cause headaches and nausea, or lead to serious conditions like liver cancer.

💥Butyl acrylate
Butyl acrylate is a colorless liquid with a fruit-like odor. It is used in the making of polymers, resins and paints.
Exposure can lead to irritation of the nose and eyes, nausea, vomiting and allergic reactions, according to the New Jersey Department of Health. Repeated exposure can cause lung cancer.
According to the EPA's disclosure about the train's cargo, an entire load of Butyl acrylate was lost in the crash to spills and fire.

⚡️While those of us west of the spill may think we are safe from any fallout to our air and water, the truth is that there are tons of chemicals being released into the atmosphere and we are all getting exposure.

💥It is important to be proactive and protect yourselves and your family from all of the chemicals in our environment these days.

https://us.fullscript.com/protocols/tgoldin-dr-tara-s-smoke-stack

👀🎈Bloating
👉🏼What to do when your belly feels inflated


🎈Many of my patients complain of gas and bloating as a symptom of SIBO and IBS.

🎈While making some adustments to food and especially reducing Fermentable Carbohydrates can help, there are times when it happens and you need a good rescue strategy.

1. Ginger – ginger helps the motility and also nausea. It can help to move gas through your system.
2. Mint – mint can also stimulate the gall bladder to release bile which aids digestion. Can also be useful for gas and bloating, but would caution using this with peptic ulcer disease.
3. Activated Charcoal- this is used as a binder to remove toxins so helpful for food poisoning sometimes, and it also absorbs gas so may help with bloating.
4. Digestive enzymes – these can also help break down foods so aids in transit.
5. Fennel Seeds– fennel seeds also are “carminative” and can help move gas through and relieve bloating.

🎈 🎈For a really bad episode you may also consider a heating pad.

There’s a fungus among-us

How to reintroduce foods successfully

How to successfully widen your diet after SIBO treatment

🥶We have had a LOOOONG period of cold and gray here in Colorado which is highly unusual. While we do of course have a real winter, usually we experience several 60 degrees and sunny days even in January, and this winter, for the first time in 20 years, we have not.

☁️Seasonal Affective Disorder is very real and especially this year I have personally had to dig deeper into my toolbox to keep mood and energy elevated and I also share this with my patients who may be struggling.

💥🌅Here are my Winter Success Hacks!
1. ✨Exercise outdoors – I cannot stress this enough. Today as I write this it is -7F outside but even so I bundle up and take a 45-90 minute walk. Or a ski, or a hike. I also get my steps in and I shoot for 10K per day personally. When the weather forbids it I head out to the gym or do an indoor home workout.
2. ✨Get natural light into your eyeballs. Gazing into the horizon through your window in the morning will help to support your natural circadian rhythm and support healthy cortisol levels. It is also mood enhancing. Try and avoid looking at your phone first thing in the morning.
3. ✨Eat plenty of protein and strength train.Building muscle mass will help support your mitochondria which is super important for energy production.
4. ✨Eat healthy fats such as avocado, grass fed beef, wild caught salmon, grass fed butter, coconut and olive oil. If cooking with oil avoid seed oils as they are inflammatory and will also promote pain as well as negatively affect your mood. On the bright side consuming the healthy fats will quell inflammation and support great neurotransmitter balance and will support a good stable mood.
5. ✨Use a mood light for 30 minutes in the morning if you don’t have good access to natural light. Verilux Happy Light is a good one.
6. ✨Optimize Vitamin D3 levels. Vitamin D is produced naturally by sunlight, but the truth is you need to be outside in the sun for 20 minutes per day year round naked and with no sunscreen to have optimal serum levels. I shoot for 60-90 ng/ml on blood test results and any lower recommend supplementing.
7. ✨Sleep – practice good sleep hygiene and do what you need to support a good solid deep sleep.
8. ✨Watch your carb and sugar intake! These are tempting when the weather is cold and overcast, as they will temporarily boost serotonin and mood, but they disrupt health insulin levels and can cause fatigue, weight gain and inflammation as well as a low mood after the initial serotonin boost has worn off.

You need one for a proper diagnosis

A patient success story!

👀🦋🌸🌼Digestive Health and Your Biological Terrain
👉🏼If the Gut ain’t happy, Nobody’s happy!

✨I am biased, and after 32 years of practice, 15 or so of those years as a generalist naturopathic doctor before I specialized, I knew that once I fixed a patient’s digestive system, the rest of their health issues usually improved.

✨Also call me biased since I have had my own personal experiences with poor gut heath as a child, but I naturally focused there and as time went on, honed in more and more on working on the digestion to also get at inflammation, pain, mood issues, sleep issues, fatigue, hormonal balance, nutrient absorption etc. etc. etc.

💥6 Reasons why Fixing your Digestion will Help your Overall Health
1. You will improve nutrient absorption, so will get more “bang out of your buck” when you eat real clean food. If your gut is compromised, you will not be absorbing the raw materials needed to produce energy production, or support other vital biochemical pathways.
2. You will be less inflamed. If you suffer from chronic pain, it may be that your digestion is a key component and you are producing more inflammatory compounds or stoking the fires of autoimmunity.
3. Brain fog, fatigue and slow thinking is often a byproduct of poor digestion. Your gut is your second brain, producing inflammatory compounds if unbalanced that will affect your neurotransmitters and not in a good way!
4. Sleep- if the neurotransmitters are out of balance because of something off with your digestion, it will impact the quantity and quality of your sleep.
5. Stress- if your gut is affecting your moods, it will also impact cortisol production which impacts stress levels, which impacts sleep (see above).
6. Hormonal Balance – if you aren’t absorbing basic nutrients – proteins, fats and vitamins, you cannot produce adequate amounts of hormones on your own. Add in menopause, andropause, extra stress and you are more likely to be a hormonal mess and experience period problems, low libido, a rough menopause, andropause, and mood/energy instability.

💥 💥If you would like support getting to the root of your digestive issues, constipation, diarrhea, bloating, pain, etc. DM me!

It can be scary to widen your diet when you have been on a restrictive diet for a long time

👀🎯The Best Food Plans for SIBO/IBS
👉🏼There are vast differences!

💫Patients with IBS/SIBO are often confused as to which foods to eat and which to avoid. They may receive conflicting information from different practitioners, family and friends about what flares symptoms, what is sustainable and what will bring them back to health.

💫Many of the prescribed food plans, such as the Low FODMAPS are so restrictive that patients find it not very sustainable. And then I have seen patients come to me from elsewhere so afraid to eat that they have whittled their diet down to 5 foods.

👉🏼This is not healthy or sustainable. If one shrinks their microbiome that much they will have increased health problems down the road and it may even cause their gut microbiome to become even more unbalanced. Not to mention the fact that an overly restrictive diet can interfere with the antimicrobial’s action.

💫I have found through clinical experience that it is important to make good choices during SIBO/IBS treatment and not take an “anything goes” approach because too many fermentable carbohydrates can flare symptoms. And it’s also important not to overly restrict since that is damaging to the microbiome.

💥I have found that many of my patients do well on the Biphasic Diet that Dr. Nirala Jacobi and Rebecca Coombs created. Biphasic 1 early on which can be modified depending upon patient’s needs, and Biphasic 2 during antimicrobial treatment as well as maintenance as a template to build upon.

💥I also sometimes use the SCD Diet (Specific Carbohydrate Diet), which has a lot of the same elements of the Biphasic, but is designed more for Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s Disease (Inflammatory Bowel Disease).

👉🏼The point is, any therapeutic food plan needs to be sustainable and these 2 food plans for most people are able to be utilized longterm with no ill effect on the microbiome.

🎉🎉🎉I’m not into New Year Resolutions
👉🏼Because we all know they don’t last!

🦋If anyone asks me what my New Year Resolutions are, I would have to tell them that I don’t have any.

🦋Not that I am not striving to improve myself, not that I don’t set intentions, but the idea that I will magically change who and what I am at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve is ludicrous.

💥I am setting an intention to make Progress. Not to be Perfect!

🎯Too many people abandon their longterm goals when things get tricky or challenging or they have a setback. Often meeting goals is a SLOG and a day by day experience. There WILL be bad days and days where we all fall short. Keep the intention alive and forget “all or nothing”.

✨Last year I accomplished a lot of what I set out to do.
1. I became Board Certified in my specialty of Naturopathic Gastroenterology! That was HUGE. It took a concerted effort and each step of the way I made sure I would be mentally OK if I didn’t meet my goal. I practiced non-attachment but put in a LOT of effort. I made DAILY efforts to meet my goal and goal was met! (Yay!)
2. I became a (little) more active on Social Media – I still have a (long) way to go until I am satisfied, but putting myself out there when I am an extreme introvert was a beginning!
3. I created a new offering, The SIBO Journey Guide for those who are struggling with IBS/SIBO and can’t or aren’t ready yet to work with me 1 on 1.
4. We got our son through his first year of college and midway through his second year – again HUGE!
5. I started counting my steps and upped my strength training. And I saw that I was not being nearly as active as I needed to be!
6. I was in bed asleep by 10PM on New Year’s Eve per usual!

✨My intentions for next year are to:
1. Continue on my personal health plan – food, exercise, peace etc.
2. Continue to offer and grow my services and focus on my specialty.
3. Continue to create a loving and nurturing home.
4. Get better with Social Media and Content Creation to grow and serve my community.
5. Definitely I don’t intend to push so hard as last year (i.e. Board Certification and Exam), but to lean into the knowledge I have and continue to learn and continue to serve my community.

👀💥Be a Biohacker!
👉🏼What biohacking is and why you should care

💫Most of my patients fall into a few categories. Since I am a digestive health specialist, the vast majority of my patients suffer from digestive and p**p problems. I also see a lot of patients wanting support with hormonal balancing and weight loss.

💫But what often comes up in our work together is the desire and need to “Biohack” or to manipulate their metabolism and biochemistry with nutritional adjustments and targeted supplements to improve overall health and support anti-aging.

💫One thing that we like to biohack for better health is to reverse Metabolic Syndrome, Prediabetes, and Cardiovascular susceptibilities which in themselves are anti-aging.

💫This is primarily done through adjusting nutrition. More lean clean animal protein and less inflammatory carbohydrates. The telltale sign that someone is eating too many carbohydrates is elevated Triglycerides on a Lipid Panel and/or a Hemoglobin A1C bloodtest level of 5.7 and above.

💥A Hemoglobin A1C of above 5.7 can signify pre-diabetes and even Type 2 diabetes if it is higher than 6.4. (Type 1 Diabetes is autoimmune and a bit more complex to treat)

💥 💥 The good news is that by changing your diet, building muscle mass and lowering your mean blood sugar, you can biohack your way right off of the “Type 2 diabetes train”.

🎯Another thing I like to offer my patients is to run a test called the Metabolomix. This is a comprehensive nutritional panel that looks at nutrient levels, where in biochemical pathway the metabolism and energy production is getting “gummed up” or backed up and which nutritional cofactors may need to be enhanced to move things along to create more energy.

🦋The Metabolomix samples can be taken at home and requires a first morning urine and a bloodspot test (not a blood draw so super easy for telehealth patients to do this as well!).

🦋 🦋If you are interested to know more about this for yourself to put yourself in the best position for optimal aging and energy, please reach out!

✨2/3 of SIBO/IBS Patients will have a Recurrance!
👉🏼That is a jarring statistic

🌟If you have suffered the symptoms of SIBO/IBS and treated it, you might be a bit disappointed that the statistics are that 2/3 of patients will relapse.

🌟While this may seem like a lot, keep in mind that the majority of SIBO/IBS patients are only treated with Western Medicine, which has only a few treatment options, and not great ones at that.

🌟Their main drug of choice is Rifaximin, or Xyfaxin, and maybe, if your doctor has studied this condition a little bit, some Neomycin for Methane dominant cases.

🌟This works sometimes – 1/3 of the time exactly, but even when it does work, and even when you are recommended the low FODMAPS diet, the treatment is likely incomplete.

🌟My typical patient is one where they have seen a doctor for their SIBO/IBS, treated for 2 weeks with Rifaximin/Xyfaxin, and then left twisting in the wind. Then they have recurrences and feel as if they are back to square one!

👉🏼The Root Cause of their condition is not explored or worked with so they are highly susceptible to a relapse.

👉🏼The dietary advice, if they are given any at all, is way too restrictive and unsustainable.

👉🏼They aren’t given a prokinetic to work with motility or to prevent recurrence.

💥Even if someone does see a well-meaning holistic practitioner, they often aren’t well versed in the nuances of treating this condition, and are often left with an incomplete treatment plan which can set them up for a recurrence.

💥And in severe complex cases, recurrences still occur but we can manage them better and lessen the severity and frequency of any recurrences. (Hint: The answer is NOT more Rifaximan!)

🎯If you have a complex or recurring case of SIBO/IBS and want support, reach out to me to see if we are a good fit!

👀✨🦴 “Later” comes around sooner than you think!
Healthy Digestion = Healthy bones!

🦴One of the worst things about SIBO and IBS is that the bacterial overgrowth damages the microvilli of the small intestine which causes malabsorption of nutrients. .

🦴The microvilli of the small intestine are crucial for absorption of nutrients which includes proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals.

🦴A very important mineral that contributes to bone health is, of course, Calcium. We also need Vitamin D to metabolize Calcium and for it to go into your bones.

🦴While weight bearing exercise and proper hormonal support (meaning estrogens) will help to support bone health, none of that will matter if you aren’t absorbing Calcium through your digestive tract.

🦴You are still at risk of developing osteopenia and osteoporosis as you age. This goes for both men AND women, but more so for women!

🦴The earlier you can get a baseline DEXA bone scan to assess your risk for osteoporosis the better. In the United States most insurances won’t pay for one until you are 65, which for many people IS TOO LATE! If you pay out of pocket some imaging places only charge $50.00 so I highly recommend moving forward on that.

🦴So what can you do for prevention? (Because you will be a senior citizen before you know it! The years fly by quickly!) Well of course weight bearing exercise, quitting smoking and drinking, optimizing hormones, as well as making sure your digestion and absorption is ON POINT! And taking a good source of Calcium (I like MCHC), Vitamin D3 and Vitamin K2. Because you could be taking the BEST vitamins, but if your digestion isn’t working, you won’t be absorbing it!

💥And those biphosphonate drugs that you see ads for on TV BUILD BRITTLE BONE! So you are STILL at the same or WORSE risk of a fracture by taking those drugs. They are not the cure for osteoporosis that they appear to be!

🦴And none of us want to have a collapsed spine or to be dealing with fractures and injuries to our bones from a minor bump when we are older. Nothing causes a decline in elder health quicker than a broken hip!

✨🦴So stay healthy and strong by optimizing your digestion and supporting your bone health. Because aging is relentless and you will be there before you know it!

🦃🍲Turkey Bone Broth!

🍲If you have a turkey carcass today, make broth!
Bone broth can be very beneficial for many people because it contains collagen, which can help deliver concentrated nutrition to the GI track.

🍲Bone broth also contains immunoglobins which can be great for supporting your resilience -especially since it appears we are heading into a rough flu season this year.

🍲The collagens in turkey bone broth are also supportive in getting nutrition to your skin, your bones and to help heal any intestinal permeability.

💥One caveat – if you have SIBO, don’t simmer the soup for more than 2-3 hours because the glycosaminoglycans (that’s a mouthful!) can read as a fermentable carbohydrate for some people and exacerbate symptoms. Same if you have histamine issues (rashes, hives, inflammation).

💥💥Otherwise, you can simmer for several hours – I usually go about 10-12, though some people simmer for 48-72 hours to get the maximal amount of collagens and immunoglobins from the turkey bones.

🍲If you are not sure how you tolerate bone broth, try a bit and see! Most people tolerate it well, but since I specialize in SIBO and IBS, I see a lot of complex patients so mentioned the complications here.

🦃Happy Day After Thanksgiving!

🍄Fungal Overgrowth of the Small and Large Intestine
👉🏼Bacteria aren’t the only players here!

🍄Back in the 1990’s when I was newer to practicing Candida was all the rage. EVERYONE who had problems with their digestion it seemed had “Candida” and went on a “Candida Diet”.

🍄Most of them were self-treating with hits and misses. Once we got them proper testing we often saw that it actually was not Candidiasis but another imbalance with the microbiome and could successfully treat them.

⚡️Years later with improvements in lab and functional medicine testing we have come full circle and are now finding that many of our patients have SIFO and LIFO (Small Intestinal Fungal Overgrowth, Large Intestinal Fungal Overgrowth).

🍄While there is no test to differentiate SIFO from LIFO (no breath tests show SIFO) an Organic Acid Test on the patient’s urine can show markers that determine yeast overgrowth in the body, so if I find it I treat for it.

🍄If I suspect the patient has been exposed to mold and mycotoxins I like to run a urine Mycotoxin test. Then we are looking at possible remediation of their home as well.

🍄Also, along with sugars and starches and alcohol, I have patients avoid coffee and corn, which are some of foods that contain the highest amounts of fungal contamination and mold.

🍄So, this is to say that chronic gas and bloating and IBS is not ALWAYS SIBO or LIBO, it MAY be SIFO or LiFO so important to check for fungal overgrowth as this will inform the treatment plan!