If you have been around for a while, you know I started this blog talking about my experience developing rosacea, and acid reflux after I got covid in 2022. The progression was slow, but essentially after I got covid in 2022, I started having gut issues.

It started with a full WEEK of bloating, no matter what I ate. It was painful and I didn’t know what was happening. After about a week it went away and I was able to poop again and actually eat normally. Then a few month later I started getting tiny red pimple like bumps on my cheeks that would come and go.

I thought it was candida, or something along those lines so I talked to my naturopath and he said it sounded like it could be so I went on a candida diet. My skin continued to go back and forth being clear and broken out until about a year later I had a full blown face full of red! My cheeks were burning and I couldn’t wear makeup or calm it down even though I was eating healthy ( or what I thought was healthy). THEN in December of 2023 I started getting heartburn one day at work and I remember telling my friend it was so unusual for me to have it. As the week progressed I was in so much pain, I had radiating burning pain from my right side that ran all the way to may back ribs so I had to leave and go to the ER.

That’s when I got a CT scan and blood testes to see if it was my gallbladder or liver, and it all came back normal. The hooked me up to an IV because I was barely able to drink or eat because I was in pain all day. So they handed me a prescription for Pantoprazole and said I had GERD, and I went home feeling terrible.

THIS IS WHEN IT ALL CHANGED FOR ME.

I began digging so deep into what causes acid reflux, I got acupuncture, I saw my naturopath, I changed my diet a million times, and I gave up coffee for a while. I had been vegetarian for almost 5 years but I had to stop eating soy and dairy due to it giving me flares…so I ended up starting to eat poultry again.

While I did manage to heal myself slowly this way, I was still having skin flare ups and reflux flares if I ate something that my body didn’t like. So I came across a company called Tiny Health that had gut tests to check your gut for everything and even see if you have parasites and inflammation etc.

This was the best decision I could have made. I found out I had an elevated level of a bad bacteria (not a high level, just slightly elevated, I had ZERO akkermansia ( a probiotic that keeps the junctions of your gut lining tight), and I had lack of diversity in my bacteria levels.

When you get a Tiny Health Test, you swab your poop from toilet paper according to a little card that has a graphic of how much to swab. Not too much, not too little. Then you put it in the plastic tube, seal it up and mail it off. It took 3 weeks or so to get my results, and then a month later I had a zoom call with one of their gut experts to talk about my results. You also get a “grade” on your gut health score to compare to others in your age group, and mine was an 83!! I was pleasantly surprised!

After speaking to Jessica ( my gut expert), she said according to how my symptoms came about and the timeline— that my gut was likely damaged from covid, causing leaky gut ( and my egg & fish allergy to form!), and that I wasn’t producing GABA, had no akkermansia, and had an elevated level of a bacteria called Haemophilus parainfluenzae which can cause skin conditions like eczema, and food allergies.

They also give you action plans to help work on the problem which is super cool. They have recommendations for foods to add in your diet, as well as supplements too.

They also provide a breakdown of all of the bacteria and anything that was found in your microbiome.

Based on the recommendations in my action plan, I ordered Layer Origin Akkermansia, increased red foods ( akkermansia feed on polyphenols in red foods. Neat huh?), added cinnamon to all of my sweet meals to kill of that bad bacteria, and added omega 3 to my diet because I hadn’t been taking mine regularly. She recommended I take butyrate as well but I didn’t get that because what I was already buying was so expensive for me, so I just added more beans since they create short chain fatty acids in the gut.

I was also cautioned about consuming anything with carrageenan or emulsifiers like carboxymethylcellulose & polysorbate 80 because these can damage the mucus barrier in the gut.

I got my Tiny Health test in April of this year, and have been implementing all of these things that we in my action plan and I can happily say, I have made great progress. My rosacea is 90% GONE after starting on akkermansia! Also my reflux is way less often and it really only happens if I get to coffee happy and have too much in a week.

I started using Koyah raspberry powder in my oats and yogurt in the morning to boost my red food intake, plus raspberries are a fantastic source of polyphenols. I am still using Layer Origin Akkermansia, and have since started taking their probiotic as well. I am so grateful that tests like these exist so we can really see what is going on in our bodies, and get ANSWERS. Primary care doctors can only help so much, and aren’t trained in specialized areas like the microbiome so it is important we do our own research and be our own advocates.

This is why I got certified in naturopathy and continue to educate myself. I want to help others find relief and get to the bottom of their issues. If you are struggling with gut issues, food sensitivities, rosacea, or even acid reflux, I can highly recommend Tiny Health!

They offer tests for the vaginal microbiome, babies and children, and now they have the adult baseline test which is what I used. The tests retails for $219 as I write this on their website, but when you order a test you get a code to share to hep others save which is super cool.

If you want to try it for yourself and save $40, you can use my code REF-SHAUNA2873.

Order your test here: https://www.tinyhealth.com

If you have any questions about my experience, or want to work with me, please reach out at shauna@realisticwellnessbyshauna.com and I’d love to speak with you.

til next time,

Shauna