Troubleshooting the fungal protocol — gut motility

What if I told you that your phone is the cause of your gut motility issues and may be part of the reason you can’t get rid of your dysbiosis and candida? Would you believe me? You probably will after reading this

The interplay between circadian rhythms and gut motility is critical to understand. Many STILL do not realize how important this is. In fact, it’s so important that it could very well be the entire reason the fungal protocol hasn’t worked — or at least hasn’t worked as well as you had hoped — for your gut issues.

Proper motility prevents pathogens from fermenting food, and it also removes the toxic waste they proliferate in order to sequester. For example, candida loves heavy metals

Circadian rhythms are our intrinsic biological processes that follow a roughly 24-hour cycle. They influence almost all major physiological functions, including metabolism, hormone secretion, and gut motility.

They tell your body what to do, how to do it and most importantly WHEN to do it. This is why most people take a shit first thing in the morning. Consistently taking a dump at night is a good sign the periodicity of your internal biological ‘clocks’ are broken. So is constipation.

Different tissues in the body have their own circadian clocks which are local oscillators that regulate bio rhythms. Those clocks are synchronized by the master clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the brain. Which is basically coordinated timing across the body. That synchronization will beinfluenced by external cues like light and temperature, and the timing of food.

distinct local clocks (like the gut clock that relates to motility and the enteric nervous system) allows each tissue to optimize its own timing for various processes like metabolism, repair, hormone release etc. that specialization enhances overall physiological adaptability, and this is what we mean when we refer to our biology as a ‘nested hierarchy’ of coordinated individual systems and behaviors.

Circadian rhythms and gut motility

Gut motility, which includes peristaltic movements and gastric emptying, is regulated by a complex interplay of neural, hormonal, and muscular mechanisms. Some great research has shown that gut motility follows a strong circadian rhythm (is that really surprising?), characterized by reduced activity during nighttime and peak activity during the day.

The enteric nervous system orchestrates gut motility through a network of neurons in the gastrointestinal tract. The ENS is influenced by the CNS, which receives signals about the time of day and modulates gut activity accordingly.

Hormones such as melatonin, which peaks during the night, have been shown to influence gut motility as well.

What suppresses melatonin? BLUE light from your screens

What INCREASES subcellular melatonin and pineal glad melatonin release at night? Exposure to bright sunlight during the DAY, and a complete lack of exposure to light at night.

Genes that regulate circadian rhythms, such like Clock and Bmal1 are expressed in gut tissues. These genes influence the rhythmic patterns of motility by regulating the expression of neurotransmitters and hormones involved in digestion. Conversely, colonic motility is minimal during sleep, which is thought to facilitate a state of rest and energy conservation.

Motility and microbial populations

The circadian regulation of gut motility has significant implications for the gut microbiome, particularly in how microbial populations interact with food substrates.

When gut motility is optimal, food moves through the digestive tract at a steady pace, which allows for efficient absorption of nutrients and preventing excessive fermentation by pathogenic microbes.

Nature has ingeniously developed an intrinsic timing mechanism (regulated via the circadian clock, controlled by exposure to light through the eye) that optimally regulates gastric emptying. This perfect periodicity facilitates healthy bacterial fermentation by beneficial, opportunistic microbes but also creates conditions that hinder the fermentation of food by certain pathogenic species. Somepathogens need longer to ferment certain foods, and good, periodic motility dissuades this.

It’s nature’s mechanism for starving out bad bugs

A healthy gut microbiome relies on a balanced ecosystem where different microbial species compete for resources. Circadian rhythms that promote optimal gut motility will obviously help maintain this balance by limiting the time available for opportunistic microbes to ferment undigested food. When motility decreases, the balance can shift, favoring the growth of certain species, such as candida and SIBO.

The interplay between circadian rhythms, gut motility, and microbial health is a big component related to the importance of maintaining a consistent daily routine. Disruptions to circadian rhythms, such as irregular sleep patterns, night shift work,

exposure to blue light through screens, lack of sun during the day WILL ultimately lead to impaired gut motility

Practical take aways

Here’s some things you need to be doing to improve your motility

1. limit exposure to artificial light at night. Wear blue light blocking glasses (I recommend the twilights from TrueDark) especially if using phone or watching TV, using laptop etc

2. Remove the sources of exposure — turn off overhead lights, and only use dim, ambient red light to light your house at night. I don’t care if you think it’s weird. I also don’t care what your partner or family thinks either.

3. Set color filters on your phone to make your screen red (if you have an iPhone) and use iris blue blocking software for laptops (exposure to blue light on the skin is also a problem, even with blue blocking eyewear

4. Get a minimum of 20min direct morning sunlight in your eyes to set your circadian clock. Do this before turning on any artificial light in the morning (you can use your red lights)The more the better. If you can’t do this, use a red light therapy device and shine it near face in the morning, see the red light therapy buyers guide

5. Use black out shades or other methods at night. Room should be pitch black. Cover all electronic devices emitting light. A great method to wake up in the morning is to set a red light therapy device to a timer switch, and have it shine at you in the morning. Especially if you’re using black out shades.

6. Eat your first and last meal at the same time everyday. You can occasionally break this rule on weekends, but try to keep it mostly consistent during your normal work week. I like to eat 2 hours after waking, usually around 9. Finish eating as the sun sets, ideally 3-4 hours before sleeping

7. Go to sleep consistently at the same time every night, ideally 3-4 hours after sunset. No later that 11.

8. Get 7-8 hours of consistent sleep.

9. Once you’re doing the above, you can try some supplements and ‘functional’ foods to improve motility as well. I really like ground ginger root in smoothies, and TUDCA (2-3 months while on the fungal protocol at 500mg daily, taken in the morning with other supplements) is a great way to improve bile flow and ‘repair’ gastric emptying. But it HAS to be done with all of the above suggestions.

10. Fiber — fiber also plays another big role in gut motility. Read the article on ‘best fibers to eat on the fungal protocol’ for more on this. HMO’s and peels are really good ones for improving motility while selectively feeding beneficial microbes.

11. Consider supplements with microbiome labs Zenbiome duel. It contains the strain in the Just Calm probiotic for stress, but also another one that reduces inflammation in the enteric nervous system. This will improve motility via gut-brain axis. These strains also regular the CR