Gut Health & Microbiome Testing
NATUROPATHIC SERVICES · NORFOLK ISLAND
Your gut is doing a lot more than digesting your lunch.
The gut is the foundation of almost every system in the body — immune function, hormonal balance, mood, cognition, skin, and energy. Yet gut symptoms are among the most routinely dismissed in conventional healthcare. Bloating, reflux, constipation, food reactions — these are not personality quirks or things you just learn to live with. They are signals worth investigating.
Gut health naturopathy goes beyond symptom management. The goal is to understand what's actually driving your presentation and address it at the root.
The gut-brain connection
The relationship between the gut and the brain is bidirectional and well-established. An inflamed, dysbiotic, or hyperpermeable gut doesn't just cause digestive symptoms — it affects neurotransmitter production, immune signalling, and neurological function. This is increasingly relevant in the context of ADHD, autism spectrum presentations, mood disorders including anxiety and depression, and cognitive function more broadly. If you've been managing a mental health or neurodevelopmental condition without anyone looking at your gut, it's worth asking why.
Gut permeability, inflammation, and autoimmune disease
A hyperpermeable gut — commonly known as leaky gut — allows partially digested food particles, bacterial fragments, and toxins to cross the intestinal barrier and enter systemic circulation. The immune response to this is inflammation. Chronic, low-grade inflammation of this kind is now understood to be a significant driver of autoimmune disease — from Hashimoto's thyroiditis to rheumatoid arthritis, coeliac disease, and beyond. Addressing gut integrity is not a fringe approach — it is foundational to managing autoimmune risk and progression.
Conditions I commonly support:
IBS, bloating, reflux, and digestive discomfort
Food sensitivity identification
Coeliac disease support and management
Hyperpermeable gut (leaky gut) repair
Nutrient deficiencies
Gut-hormone connection
Gut-brain axis support — ADHD, autism, mood disorders, and cognitive function
Autoimmune disease — prevention, management, and gut-based risk reduction
Microba Insight Stool Testing
Standard pathology doesn't look at your microbiome. It can't tell you what's living in your gut, whether your bacterial diversity is compromised, or whether the species present are producing the metabolites your body needs to function well. Microba Insight can.
Microba Insight is a comprehensive microbiome analysis that uses metagenomic sequencing — a significantly more detailed approach than conventional stool testing — to identify the full range of microbial species in your gut, assess their functional capacity, and highlight areas of imbalance or concern. It goes well beyond identifying pathogens. It maps your microbiome in detail, giving us genuinely actionable information to work with.
What Microba Insight assesses:
Microbial diversity — a key marker of overall gut health and resilience
Keystone species — bacteria critical to immune regulation, inflammation control, and gut barrier integrity
Short-chain fatty acid producers — essential for gut lining health, immune function, and mood
Pathogenic and opportunistic organisms
Functional capacity of your microbiome — what your gut bacteria are actually doing, not just what's there
The results inform a targeted, individualised plan — specific dietary changes, prebiotic and probiotic recommendations, and supplement support based on what your microbiome actually needs, not a generic gut health protocol.
This support is available in person on Norfolk Island and via telehealth worldwide.