In this gut-focused episode of PCOS Unfiltered: Nourish, Heal, Thrive, I sit down with functional nutrition practitioner Courtney Cowie to uncover one of the most overlooked root causes of hormone imbalance and stubborn PCOS symptoms—your gut. From her own story of chronic gut pain and frustration with conventional medicine to her discovery of SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) and SIFO (Small Intestinal Fungal Overgrowth), Courtney shares how gut dysfunction can quietly drive bloating, fatigue, cravings, irregular cycles, and inflammation. Together, Courtney and I break down what SIBO and SIFO actually are, how they form, and why they’re so common among women with hormonal imbalances. We connect the dots between gut health, bile quality, nutrient absorption, inflammation, and emotional stress—revealing why healing the gut often unlocks hormonal balance and renewed energy. The conversation also dives deep into the emotional side of healing, from the impact of chronic stress to subconscious beliefs and generational patterns that can influence the body’s ability to thrive. If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing everything right but still feel bloated, tired, or “off,” this episode will give you both hope and direction. You’ll walk away understanding how the gut is not just a digestion center—but the control hub for your metabolism, hormones, and long-term healing.
Our Unwritten event kicked off with a bang last night! Still interested in joining the next two nights so you can start rewriting your story? Click HERE to register for FREE! It's not too late! You are going to receive massive benefit by hearing from any of our speakers. Hope to see you there!
Topics Covered In This Episode:
Quotes to Remember:
Check out all the ways to connect with Courtney here: 👇
Check out Courtney's website
Connect with Courtney on LinkedIn
Join Courtney's facebook group
Subscribe to her YouTube channel
(0:01 - 4:38) Welcome back to PCOS Unfiltered, Nourish, Heal, Thrive. The show where we cut through the noise and talk about what really works when it comes to healing from the inside out. I'm your host, Lindsie, nurse, health coach, and mindful eating advocate, and today's episode is going to open your eyes to a massively overlooked piece of the PCOS puzzle, your gut. We're talking all things SIBO and SIFO, that's small intestinal bacterial and fungal overgrowth, and how they may be fueling your hormone imbalance, inflammation, and stubborn symptoms like floating, fatigue, cravings, or even cycle irregularity. Joining me today is Courtney Cowie, a brilliant functional nutrition practitioner who specializes in uncovering root causes and healing the gut from the inside out. We'll unpack what SIBO and SIFO actually are, how they relate to PCOS and insulin resistance, and what steps you can take to support your gut and your hormones for real lasting change. So if you've ever thought, why do I feel like a hot-blooded mess no matter what I eat? Girl, this episode is for you. But before I go any further, I have something powerful to share with you. This October, I'm hosting a virtual event called Unwritten, Healing Beyond the Diagnosis. And if you're ready to finally go deeper in symptom management, this is for you. You'll hear real stories of healing from women who've been where you are, including Courtney, and learn practical tools that actually work, mind, body, and beyond. Tap the link in the show notes to guide your spot for the last two sessions. You don't have to settle for managing it. It's time to rewrite the story your doctor never told you was possible. As a reminder, the content shared on PCOS Unfiltered is for informational and educational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and guests are not intended to serve as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your diet, exercise, or treatment plan. The information shared is based on personal experience and expert interviews, and is not a substitute for professional medical guidance. Okay, now let's dive in. Hello, hello. Welcome to Courtney. Thank you for joining us. Courtney specializes in IBS, and we're going to specifically be talking about SIBO today. So some of you may not even know SIBO and SIFO, what that is. So we are going to get into all of that, how it kind of ties into hormones and PCOS. But Courtney, you are one of our speakers for the event coming up that starts, it started October 9th. And then yeah, we have the 16th and the 23rd. So you're speaking on the 16th. And there's a reason you're speaking because you've had your own, you know, personal healing journey, healing story. And now you're helping others do the same. So go ahead and share, you know, a little bit about why you do what you do, and what you do. Oh, well, thanks, Lindsie. Thanks for having me on. So yeah, this could be a very long story. So I'll try to give you the closed version here. But I mean, my story with gut health, I mean, it makes sense, right? This is the area of specialty that I eventually went into, but it goes all the way back to childhood for me. And really, as a kid, I was pretty healthy, super active, like, you know, growing up in the Midwest, we have YMCA's all over the place. And so like, we were always at the Y doing different stuff. And so in some ways, as a kid, it wouldn't have even registered with me that I have health issues, you know, quote, unquote, right. But what was abnormal looking back is I would get these regular stomach aches. I feel like they were maybe once a week, at least once every few weeks. And certainly by the time I was like hitting sixth, seventh, eighth grade, and it could have been coinciding with the onset of puberty, right, because we'll bring in kind of the hormone component to all this. I'm sure that accelerated the problem somewhat, but I would come home from school and feel so bloated and have so much stomach pain. I'd have to lay down on like the couch with a pillow under my stomach. And that pressure was what actually gave me the relief. And it would sometimes take like 20-30 minutes. And usually as a kid, that would do it. And then I'd get up and I'd be okay. So it was weird. Like, it wasn't like I would always go to the bathroom, at least I don't remember that. But I would have this chronic pain issues.
(4:38 - 5:21) And I feel like my parents just wrote that off as some weird idiosyncrasy that was specific to me, right? So, you know, I didn't grow up in a household where functional medicine or holistic health approaches were like, very well known or understood. And so if there were major issues, we would go to the doctor. And so fast forward, like through my teenage years, the same issue kind of continued. And then once I got into my twenties, and I was in college especially, I was a college athlete. I was an athlete all through my teenage years as well. And this is going to kind of evolve in the hormone direction here for a minute, but I was doing lightweight rowing for University of Wisconsin, which was a pretty intense sport.
(5:22 - 7:27) And you know, for people listening that aren't familiar with lightweight rowing, especially, it's similar to wrestling where like, you have women trying to make this weigh-in of 130 pounds or less. And often they're like right on the edge, you know, they'd be really tall and lean and like naturally weigh 134, 135, or you're just really muscular. And so I noticed as I got into that sport, there was very much this culture of like, well, we'd exercise hard, but then going into the weigh-ins and the competitions, they would really calorie cut, like really calorie restrict, right? And with women, as you probably know, Lindsay, from your days as a trainer and being in fitness and stuff, mood dysregulation, oh man, it's just terrible, right? Like all the things that come with it. So, and bad on the body. Like, I don't think at that age, any of us really thought that through because all about the sport and all about performance, but being in that culture, I certainly feel like that played a role in me myself developing more of a tendency towards under eating, over exercising for a period of time. Right. So I wasn't having severe GI dysfunction at this point, but I remember like my, I think it was my second year. I did lightweight rowing. I lost like 15 pounds, which is a lot for me. Cause I'm like just barely five, three, you know, at the time I probably healthy weight was like 118, 120. And I think at my bottom, I was like 103, 104. Right. So it was a lot for just the size I was at and even small compared to like my teammates who are weighing in closer to 130, but that culture, right. Was just really, really challenging. And so, you know, not surprisingly, I ended up dropping my cycle, right. Because of the overtraining, the under eating the extreme weight loss. And it wasn't right at that point in time, but eventually within the next few years, I started to have a lot more severe GI upset. And I feel like that period of high intensity training and messing with my calories and restricting and all of that was a huge piece that set the foundation of weakness.
(7:28 - 10:48) And then I went and studied abroad and like places like Japan and Belgium and got exposed to different foods, which it was great at the time, but obviously opens the door for potential parasites and God knows what, right. And then the stress of all that life change and, you know, who knows what it was, probably maybe me just hitting a point in my twenties where my body was just a little bit old enough now to have more breakdown. I started to, by my mid twenties, have these bouts of like loose stool and urgency. I was still having the ongoing stomach aches and cramping as well, but this like bowel irregularity piece was like for the first time kind of happening. And I never like linking back, I don't remember having an acute food poisoning or, you know, what I suspected as a parasite exposure, but I'm sure there were probably some things there that I didn't realize, right. Like, and there's no way to go back that far in time to like validate that, but some things, some things in combinations at the stage for that whole breakdown that was to follow. And for the rest of my twenties, it would kind of ebb and flow. I'd have periods of time where it was worse periods of time where it was better. And then, um, I actually went over to Japan as a graduate student in my late twenties, came back after I graduated graduate school and was still having some GI dysfunction. Now that's another story too. I won't go too deep into that, but when I got back to the States, it was bad enough. And I was scared enough. I finally went into a GI doc for the first time. And I was like 29 years old at this point. And the doctor decided to do a full workup, full endoscopy, colonoscopy, the whole nine yards. She even did like barium swallow and some other more rare testing and stuff on me. But what is interesting, Lindsie is in all of this, I don't ever remember her checking me for either carrying the celiac genes. She probably did check for like, um, it through the upper endoscopy for villi damage, which is kind of your classic gold standard for celiac disease diagnosis. But she, she didn't check the genetics and never coming out of any of this. Did she ever make mention of like, you should avoid wheat. Right. So she did all these workups, nothing abnormal was found, right. Not uncommon with IBS sent home with like a recommendation for a line probiotic. I don't even know if they make that anymore. I did that for a while, but you know, and interestingly, I think I was still in that phase of like, things would kind of naturally get better and then they kind of backslide. And so after that, I just remember things getting to a more normal place for a while. And it really wasn't until my early thirties, a few years later that things really broke down again, but like much more majorly. And I think it was just this accumulation of more life stressors, like later on in those next few years that followed a lot of what happened was more emotional, mental stress, things like I ended up separating from my first husband. I had had my first child. I was a newly single mom. I had retrained as a bodywork therapist and was trying to build a business for the first time. And I think all of those stressors really compounded to, to basically set the stage even more for like major GI disruption. And then on top of that, like, you know, I wasn't aware of what to do to help myself from a dietary standpoint.
(10:48 - 11:16) So things just kind of blew up again on me in my early thirties. And, um, and this time it was really bad. Like I remember running to the bathroom like eight, nine, 10 times a day and day after day after day and like getting majorly afraid. Yeah. Yeah. And it even went in to ask the GI doc, like the same GI doc I saw years ago, I was like, I'm back, you know? And, and I didn't particularly love her the first time around, but the second time around was a terrible experience.
(11:16 - 16:40) Like, and I think this is also so common for a lot of women who go in and struggle with these issues is when you've been through the rounds of all this testing and then they find nothing wrong, it can often frustrate the doctors too, because they have nothing to offer you. And in worst case scenarios like this happened for me, the doctor will visibly get upset and almost imply it's in your head or it's because of your stress or something like that. And so I remember walking out of her office really upset because she really had nothing to offer me. And she was just like, I think you need to see a dietitian. And I might've even been at the point where I was already starting my nutrition therapy education. So I was like, is she crazy? This is not just food-based. Like I already eat pretty well. I had started to make quite a few changes with my diet. So that was what really for me was the big, um, jumping off point into the holistic health world and just deciding like conventional medicine is not going to figure this out. I'm wasting my time. This is bad enough. I need to get some answers. And so that was essentially what started me on the path. And even though I started with, um, the nutrition therapy association program to become a nutrition therapy practitioner, I also then started seeking out different functionally trained and nutrition, nutritionally trained practitioners to work with myself. And every single person was helpful and gave me a piece that got me the next part of the way down the path. But what was really interesting was thinking back, like the journey was actually much more complex than I would have thought. And as I went down that road, I ended up uncovering, I had, you know, toxic exposure and, you know, carried the genes for mold susceptibility and had been living in a moldy home, probably multiple moldy residents, just lots of crazy stuff that even today, if I were to work with a client like myself, that would be considered much more complex, you know, type of IBS situation than just your standard, Oh, you've got some gut dysbiosis or bacterial imbalances and food sensitivity issues. We can totally remedy that. Right. So, so it was interesting, but it really propelled me then to go further and further and further and really understand all of these factors that can influence IBS deeper and deeper because I had to go through them myself. And so in that process where I initially started was trying to understand SIBO as a condition, right. Because that was something I was aware, kept recurring. And in some cases I would either take rifaximin, which is one of the classically prescribed antibiotics for it and totally not respond. Right. And it's like, well, why is that not working? And then, you know, I could not figure out like, why do I always have it? And is it not clearing? And so that launched me into Alison Seebecker SIBO pro course, which she was newly creating at the time. And it was a great training and, and really gave me a good understanding, but realizing that was actually just the stepping stone that took me to, you know, next was like the mold toxicity and then eventually Lyme disease and tick-borne illness. So it was really just interesting to kind of see that whole thing play out. But long story short, yes, it sent me down a path. I ended up acquiring a lot of training and knowledge about all of these things, and then really getting into functional testing and trying to assess for various different root causes that could be at the root of IBS and IBD cases. So yeah. But no, I, I mean, I appreciate you sharing that because I do feel like so many women and especially women with PCOS, they do. I mean, just even in general with traditional medicine, I mean, you brought up a good point because the frustrated too, because they're just not trained to really go for the root cause, you know, of a condition or of the symptoms that you're having. And so, yeah, they get frustrated. You get frustrated. They kind of brush you off. They say you need to see, you know, yeah, some other, you know, a dietician or maybe even like a psychiatrist or something like that, because like you mentioned, yeah, they start thinking, is it all in your head? They're just kind of trained for that band-aid solution, unfortunately. And so, yeah, I mean, I feel like so many women can relate in some form to your story. So I really appreciate you sharing that. So kind of diving in now more to SIBO and SIFO. Can you just, yeah, explain more as to what that is and kind of how they differ a little bit? Yeah, absolutely. So SIBO stands for small intestinal bacteria overgrowth. SIFO is small intestinal fungal overgrowth. And what's so interesting about both of those conditions is they often coexist and we don't always know if SIFO is present, particularly fungal overgrowth in the small intestine. There are definitely ways to assess for whether or not somebody's got a fungal load in the GI system or systemically. However, there are definitely gold standard ways to assess for SIBO. And believe it or not, Lindsie, the gold, gold standard is upper endoscopy, looking at sampling of bacterial overgrowth in the GI. However, the lactulose breath test is really considered, in today's standards, the functional gold standard for checking for SIBO. And without an invasive procedure, yeah.
(16:40 - 20:07) Yes, less invasive, much more accessible. Obviously, GI doctors can run these tests as well as functionally trained practitioners, so that's a good thing. Just in terms of, I guess, before we get into the testing, just to explain kind of like really what is small intestinal bacteria overgrowth, like why is that a problem, right? So it's generally thought that we should have few to no bacteria colonizing the small intestine. It's supposed to be more a sterile area of our digestive tract because it's the organ of the digestive system that's responsible for nutrient uptake and absorption. And so if you think about it, the body's designed to have these little, you know, they're called villi. I describe them like hair-like projections that stick off the small intestine. They grab the food particles. Imagine if you've got a bunch of bacteria hanging out and they're having a party and like crowding out that space. First of all, they're going to get those food particles and eat them and ferment them before your body's actually going to be able to uptake them and absorb them. And that's the biggest problem that actually we see with SIBO that can then lead to all these downstream symptoms and problems in the body. So in a normal healthy GI, we definitely want to see bacteria in the colon. And then that in and of itself is a whole other topic we could go into, but there's definitely a balance there too, right? Like, you know, it's kind of like a neighborhood. You're never going to have entirely good people or good bugs in there, but generally you want to see a balance of more so the good players and the good guys in the right amounts. And that can help to kind of hold the not so good guys in check. So with SIBO, what's thought is that these bacteria actually can overpopulate in the small intestine for a number of reasons. They can either, you know, migrate up from the large intestine. Some thinking around that is that there could be cases where the ileocecal valve, which is kind of this little flap that closes between the small and large intestine, can get stuck open and then that can allow these bugs to kind of migrate up. I think a lot of it actually is more so the environment itself becomes very conducive for bacteria to want to go up there. And you know, whether the ileocecal valve is open or not, I think it's a little bit less relevant. I can move easily in the GI system. So if they sense and determine the small intestine is hospitable for them to thrive and grow, and there's a lot of undigested food in there, why wouldn't they go up there? Right. So, so that's one theory. And then the other direction down is also a possibility. And I see this all the time when I do functional stool testing on clients where if they're not breaking their food down, meaning they're not producing enough stomach acid, enough digestive enzymes, or they have really poor quality bile, that can also allow for undigested food particles to make it into the small intestine and again, become this perfect breeding ground for bacterial overgrowth. And so it can kind of happen, you know, from both directions, if you will. And then the other, you know, big thing that's really been researched and found to be relational to SIBO is this, this mechanism in the small intestine called the migrating motor complex, which is essentially this peristaltic wave-like action that your body naturally does between meals. It actually kicks in every 90 minutes, assuming you're fasting.
(20:08 - 21:02) And it's, it's meant to be kind of a natural housekeeping action that sweeps debris through the small intestine and keeps things moving through like it should. And that migrating motor complex, or MMC as it's called, can get damaged, particularly in cases of like food poisoning. So if you've had exposures to certain foodborne bad bacteria, right, that can then take over and create issues, it can cause the immune system to, I think what it's sort of looked at is like a quasi autoimmune type thing where the immune system has to go in and, you know, gets very activated and tries to deal with this problem. But in doing that, it's kind of like the friendly fire where the MMC gets damaged. And now we've got this inhibition of that MMC to work properly. And without that working and kind of doing that housekeeping wave cleansing action, that can allow again, the small intestine become kind of like the stagnant area for bacteria to breed and ferment.
(21:03 - 21:30) And so those are probably like the top three most common potential underlying reasons that, that lead to SIBO. So yeah. Yeah. So what are some symptoms or what, you know, what could somebody possibly be seeing or experiencing if they're dealing with that? Yeah. So bloating is probably the most common one, um, altered bowel movements, whether that's constipation or diarrhea. Right.
(21:30 - 22:35) Um, and along with the bloating, I would say cramping could be a symptom as well. And then fatigue tends to be a pretty common one amongst the whole population. As you know, like so many people with just chronic inflammatory disorders have fatigue as like one of their main complaints, but this is the crazy thing, Lindsie, like it's thought that up to 80% of all people struggling with autoimmune disease in general, and this could be things like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, like non gut specific conditions actually have SIBO underlying them, even though they might have minimal to no GI symptomology. So that's the crazy part about this is that it's much more common than you would think. And even if you don't have ongoing GI symptoms to make you think something's wrong there, you could still have it as a part of your overall chronic inflammatory issue you're struggling with. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That's where, yeah. I mean, I, myself, that was, that was when I started learning about the gut with my own journey and how that, yeah, played a, played a role in what I was experiencing.
(22:35 - 22:54) Um, so, I mean, you kind of touched on it just a very little bit there, but how is this connected to hormonal balance, you know, and this specifically maybe women with PCOS, um, or just, you know, women with hormones in general. Yeah, absolutely. So a couple of things come to mind.
(22:54 - 33:27) I mean, first would be just the, the male absorption and, um, you know, just vitamin mineral deficiencies that can come with SIBO, right. Either because a small intestine can absorb properly because of all this bacterial overgrowth or secondary to things like low stomach acid and low pancreatic enzyme output, which will also impact and make it less likely for the body to cleave minerals and absorb vitamins properly. So without having those building blocks or ends, you know, vitamins actually help to support a lot of enzymatic processes in the body. So that can really drive, um, whether it's hormone irregularities or insulin resistance issues, metabolic dysregulation, because it's like you're eating food, but you're not able to capture 100% of the nutrition from that. So over time, ironically, the brain will almost start to sense it's like the body is getting malnourished over and over again, because there isn't this like, you know, good uptake of nutrition from the food. And this is what can start to set the stage then for body wide, um, breakdown because there just isn't enough, like good nutrition coming through the GI. So that's, that's one thing I think of. And then the other thing that is just interesting, I think with both hormones and SIBO is, and you probably see this in your practice as well. Like a lot of women, especially of the era that went through like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig and those little fat eras, they really struggled with like liver gallbladder health issues because low fat diets set the stage for bile quality issues. Right. And if you, if you think about it, the liver produces this digestive fluid called bile, which is stored in the gallbladder if you have one, and it's very much needed to help break down fats into fatty acids. It's like kind of cleaves these fats into fatty acids, like your dishwashing detergent, you know, breaks down grease on dishes and the fatty acids are exactly what are needed for hormones, right. For building hormones of all types. And so, you know, I've seen time and time again, where women with bile quality issues almost always have some sort of hormone imbalance secondary to that, whether it's low sex hormones or if there's metabolic dysregulation, they might have like low testosterone and low estrogen, but they're low testosterone, low progesterone, but then they're like estrogen is good or even dominant, right. Because of the whole insulin resistance, estrogen dominance thing. But the interesting thing is that bile quality can also play a role in SIBO too. So if somebody's got low bile production or really crappy bile that isn't being, you know, released properly to help digest that fat, that rancidified undigested fat can then also set the stage for SIBO to happen in the small intestine too. So it can sometimes kind of just come hand in hand with the hormone disruption as this like deeper secondary problem to like bile quality issues. And so that's very interesting. And I think sometimes women don't realize that there is a very strong gut component that can explain, you know, what's going on with them hormonally. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, one thing I talk about, you know, whether it's my program, I mean, I've talked about it, I feel like on the podcast, I think, you know, is that we in general as a society, I think are a lot of times overfed and undernourished and that's playing into, you know, so, so many of these things. And that's, I feel like too, we've talked about it with some of the overlap with some of these conditions, you know, and that type of thing too. It definitely affects, yeah, all of that. And so, so we know inflammation is a huge part of PCOS and yeah, how does SIBO and SIFO contribute to that as well? Yeah. So, I mean, again, if you think about just what is SIBO or SIFO at its root, it is an inflammatory condition, right? Like, and I feel like there's just a lot of chicken and egg to this whole situation, right? Just as it is in PCOS or IBS. It's like, there's something not working right in the body, especially in the gut as a whole environment that's conducive towards allowing the SIBO overgrowth. So it can be kind of hard sometimes trying to piecemeal, like what were the specific things that led to this problem? Sometimes you can get those clues and you can work backwards and try to remedy those things, but sometimes it's just the, like the entire like milieu of the body too. And, and that could even go back to like, how is this person's lifestyle? Are they getting enough sleep? Obviously diet is a big, big piece of it too, but even things like, you know, did they deal with traumatic episodes or issues in childhood? Is there like a lot of negative thought patterns? Those aren't necessarily things we can directly go in and work on necessarily as like health coaches, but being able to at least assess for and, and get a sense around those things and be able to kind of offer that back to the client as like a, what do you think? And this could be a piece for you, I think is still huge because sometimes what we're trying to do is actually just support that person holistically to get their entire body working in a way that's just more conducive of health and, and like of life and energy movement, right. And in a very general way, but I think with SIBO being there in the gut, it certainly is going to make it much harder to achieve hormonal balance. If you've got all of this bacteria overgrowing, that steely nutrients, you know, causing the immune system to dysregulate, which almost always happens, certainly can drive things like leaky gut, which you've probably spoken about, I'm sure on your podcast, Lindsie, right. Where, you know, once you've got leaky gut, you've got stuff leaking out of the gut, whether that's food particles or bacterial toxins, and that can start to provoke the immune system all over the body and then lead to hormonal imbalances or, you know, even endocrine autoimmune diseases, whatnot, just depending on what the person's genetic potential is, you know, the other things impacting their health. So, so yeah, I definitely think there's a huge like overlap. Just once you have one chronic inflammatory issue, it makes it so easy for these other things to take up residence as well. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like we've talked about it. You've mentioned a few times. I want to see, what would you say is the root, like the actual, actual root cause? Yeah. I'm based on what you're, what you've said a few times. I'm like thinking, okay, yeah. So what would you say is the root cause a lot of the times that you see? The root root, I think almost always there's some degree of digestive weakness. Like that's almost always a piece of it. And I think, again, it's not like we can just say it's, it's this and not that, but I do think that what goes along with it, when you look at statistically how many people with autoimmune conditions have it, it's also just like inflammation, right? Like just this system-wide tendency of this person to have autoimmune activity, to have immune dysregulation. That's really what inflammation is. It's the immune system creating friendly fire in the body or going in to try to repair things. But in a way that there's a lot of breakdown happening, right. And repair needed. So, you know, that, that's where the deeper questionable, like what's causing that has to be asked. That's, I was just going to ask, that was my follow-up question. Yeah. Because I feel like we've mentioned stress a few times and I feel like that plays a big role. I know, I feel like I see it, you know, as well with a lot of clients. I mean, people I talk to personal experience, you know, that's where that stress really, really comes in. So yeah, I don't know if you're seeing a lot of that as well. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So it's interesting because with the stress component, I actually feel, and this is kind of even just things I've discovered through my own journey of trying to get to the root of, okay, what might it be? You know, I've optimized my sleep. I've done all these things, right. Because you can kind of, as a health coach, give clients like some guidelines and frameworks to work from it. You know, you're always going to get those people that swear up and down. They're doing everything right. Like they're, they're sleeping eight hours a night. They're doing the wind down routine at bed and stuff. And they're still struggling. And so I actually really have come to appreciate, especially in the last few years as I've gone down the rabbit hole and myself, just engage with different tools for, you know, working on say childhood trauma issues or mindset issues, that type of thing. And it's really interesting because there's like, most of us are pretty high functioning individuals in the world. And I think most people that are seeking these types of solutions are pretty high functioning individuals, but there's no real baseline for like normal, Lindsay, right? Like there's, well, there's normal and there's optimal, right. But how many people walking around had optimal early child experiences or growing up experiences? Like, where's the baseline for that? Right. And I think it kind of gets down to this level of just depending on, you know, your, your family context, you know, and a lot of this stuff also gets inherited and passed down generation to generation. If there was any hardship, even generations back that created distorted or negative or not health serving or love, like love oriented thinking, I don't know how to say this in another way, like thinking that can create dysfunction at the level of mind sooner or later that is going to show up physically in the body. Right. And then that's where every unique person sort of genetic blueprint can get activated maladaptively based on some of these psychological, emotional stressors. And that's pretty deep work potentially for people to do. And I think what motivates a person to go there really comes down to how, how fast and how easily they're getting results working from just supporting the physical body. And for some people, it's a lot easier to do that. Right. But I would argue that for most people sooner or later, they do have to do some work on the emotional psyche piece of things too, to actually maintain good health results because you can't really separate out the two. So I think like mentioning that in the context of stress could be helpful because I think a lot of us feel like we've got kind of quote unquote stresses this nebulous cloud hanging around us.
(33:27 - 37:52) And we do, but so much of it is also just coming from our own inner perception of life and what we should and shouldn't be doing. And these conversations we're having with ourselves all the time as well. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I do. I talk about that. You know, a little bit in my, in my program, somebody introduced me to, I've actually done a podcast with him to German new medicine. Yes. That's an amazing. Yes. Yes. And so, I mean, you can go really deep with that, of course, too, which I'm not the expert. That's why I talked to him about it. But he's also big on, you know, subconscious beliefs and healing and traumas, you know, past traumas. He's actually a hypnotherapist. And I've done a few rapid transformation therapy sessions with him and definitely recommend for anybody that's still on a healing journey, because like you said, there is definitely that tie. And you even mentioned the genetic component as well, too, because I don't know about you. We haven't really fully talked about this, but I mean, yeah. Genetics play a role, but it's a small role a lot of times. And like you kind of mentioned, they, they have to be activated, you know? And so that's one thing like I've learned recently as well. I'm like, okay, what's activating this gene now? You know, because again, you think like, everything's great. I feel fine. This is like the best I've probably felt in years, you know, but there's still something that could be activating that gene. So yeah. Do you do like gene testing as well? I'm assuming in your practice. I can do it, Lindsay, but I haven't done a lot of it just because I feel like it gets too into the weeds and it can sometimes take the focus too much off of the mind-body healing work in my opinion to the exclusion of focusing overly on genes. Like certain things like MTHFR genetic testing, or it doesn't even have to be genetic testing, but certain lab tests I run will give an indication of whether or not that, that snip is present and if it's functioning at capacity or low. Yes. If I see signs that this person is a, like a low methylator, do I want to support them with extra vitamin B12 and folate? For sure. I will do that. Right. But I think it can be, and I've, I've seen actually clients come to me with like extensive focus they've had on genetic testing with other practitioners and then super confused because they're like, did all this genetic testing and I have, and, and the practitioner didn't really have a plan to do like, you know, what are you doing? It's like, yeah, it's not actionable really. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I've, I've, my, my GYN has recommended me getting some genetic testing for some cancers that run in my family, but I'm like, but what am I going to do with that information? You know, I'm like, I feel like I'm doing a lot of the right things. Like, you know, I know how to take care of myself. Unfortunately, she kind of said, well, it's not about taking care of yourself, but anyways, but you know, but yeah, I'm like, okay, you know, what am I going to do with that information? I have had a few like genetic tests done recently that have given us some more answers, but that's been after like five years, you know, of like really doing some deep dive and some things and some things have changed. So yeah, I completely agree. I mean, it's definitely, you have to think, what do you, what are you doing with that information? Right. What is it changing? Because ultimately you really still have to look at the big picture and not focus on. Yeah. Wow. How eyeopening was that? Gut health is often the missing piece when it comes to healing PCOS from the root. And today's conversation with Courtney should light on how SIBO and CFO could be secretly sabotaging your progress. Even when you're doing all the right thing. If this episode struck a chord or made you think, wow, this might be me. Don't ignore that inner nudge. If you want to learn more from Courtney, check out all her info in the show notes to get her tips, resources, and programs. Healing your gut can be the key to finally unlocking balanced hormone, better energy, and the body that actually works with you, not against you. If today's episode spoke to you, just imagine what's waiting for you inside Unwritten. This event is raw, real, and so full of hope. The speakers who get it, tools that help, and a community that truly understands.
(37:53 - 37:58) Click the link in the show notes to join us. Your story is not over. It's just Unwritten.
(37:59 - 38:10) Thanks again for tuning into another episode of PCOS Unfiltered. I'll see you next time when we continue exploring real strategies for healing, nourishing, and thriving from the inside out.