Your instruction handbook for how to navigate the ups & downs of gut healing.
First off, just know that a flare-up does NOT mean you’re regressing or going back to square one. Especially if you were noticing progress before, this usually means that there’s 1–2 things that have shifted recently that are contributing to your change in symptoms.
Ask yourself…
The MOST common culprits are usually:
Herbal antimicrobials (you may be experiencing temporary die-off)
Probiotics (sometimes there’s a 1 week adjustment period, other times you may just need to try a different one)
Prebiotics/Fiber Powders (usually this means you need to start with a much smaller dose so your microbiome can adjust)
You can definitely have reactions to other supplements in the plan, but the best & easiest way to be sure is by pausing all supplements for 3–5 days (or at least the ones you’ve recently introduced) and see if your symptoms improve.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell which supplement is doing what when you’re taking so many at once. However, if you feel like your symptoms start to regress after discontinuing any product, I would reintroduce that supplement and see if things improve again. If they do, that’s a sign you probably want to continue taking that product until you fully resolve your symptoms.
If this is the case, don’t stress. It’s hard to know every little ingredient that’s used when you eat at a restaurant or an event, and maybe there was just something in there that didn’t agree with you. If you’ve been working on reintroducing foods, it’s also very possible you may have just gone too fast and added more fiber than what your gut microbiome was ready for.
When it comes to adding prebiotics & fiber back in, it’s easy to get impatient with the process and try to increase the serving size of foods as fast as possible — but at the end of the day, you can only go as fast as what your gut is ready for. Reseeding your microbiome can take a number of months, and for some people, it can take a whole month to titrate to the full serving of a single food.
If you feel this is the case, I would recommend going back to Low FODMAP for the next week, and keeping your meals extremely simple. Reduce your fiber intake temporarily, and ensure you are cooking all vegetables and plants extremely well so they are easier to break down and digest.
This can be a BIG contributor to increased bloating for people, especially if you are waking up in the morning already bloated before eating anything. If you’re not having DAILY bowel movements, this is one of the first things I would work to address to improve your symptoms.
First, do the Transit Time Test to measure how long it’s taking for food to travel through your digestive tract.
If you were feeling really good before, you may be able to get back to where you were by simply increasing your motility agents like Mag07, Iberogast, Ginger Extract, etc…
If this doesn’t help and your transit time is 36+ hours, you should consider doing a one time “clear out” to help eliminate any backed up stool from the colon. (Only if you haven’t done one recently.)
Just know that during your Luteal phase (the 1–2 weeks before your period), Progesterone is much higher than any other time in your cycle. Progesterone is a great hormone, but it can also really slow down motility and contribute to constipation.
It is VERY common for women to experience worsening GI symptoms before their period for this reason.
With this in mind, I would suggest increasing your motility support with the different strategies from the Constipation Relief Protocol, and implementing other standard practices like eating dinner at least 3–4 hours before bed, and going for a 10–20 minute walk after dinner (each meal if possible).
People DRASTICALLY underestimate how important pre-meal rituals are when it comes to optimizing digestion. We all live incredibly busy lives, and it’s really easy to forget to do these things — but if you are scrolling on your phone while eating, slouching or hunching over vs. sitting upright, lying down immediately after eating vs. going for a short walk, then make no mistake… your digestion is not going to be optimal and you’ll probably experience symptoms afterwards.
Below are a list of supplements that can help to provide rapid relief if you ever experience a flare-up of your symptoms. These may not all be “root cause fixes”, but sometimes it helps to have some tools that can bring you back to baseline as soon as possible so you can keep moving forward with the deeper healing.