69. The Microbiome & Disease: Autoimmunity, Heart Health, and Hormones with Araceli Benavides, CNS

How do the microbes in our gut impact autoimmunity, hormones, cardiovascular health, and inflammation? What can be done to bring our gut back into balance for long term health? Today’s guest is one of our integrative and functional nutritionists, Araceli Benavides. Araceli is an Institute for Functional Medicine certified practitioner who works with her patients to get to the root cause of conditions including autoimmunity, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, dysbiosis and more. We hope you enjoy this conversation about how our gut microbiome is connected to chronic diseases and how Araceli works with her patients to identify root causes of autoimmunity, hormone imbalance, and inflammatory diseases. Timestamps: 0:00 - Introductions 2:58 - What is the microbiome and why is it important? 3:41 - How does microbiome impact disease? 5:13 - Symptoms that can be connected to the microbiome 6:15 - What is leaky gut? 8:20 - What is functional gut testing? 10:11 - Evaluation of gut health without testing 11:11 - How common is leaky gut? 12:49 - Connections to cardiovascular disease 14:17 - Connections to cancer 15:28 - Connections to Autoimmunity 17:15 - Connections to mood disorders 20:11 - Pathogenic bacteria and disease 21:19 - Diet and supplements for gut health 24:30 - Vagus nerve and gut health 26:54 - Top foods for gut health 29:08 - Food bacteria and why they are helpful for gut health 32:55 - Retesting for gut health 37:51 - One thing under $20 that has helped Araceli’s health