How to Help Patients Refine a Concept of Gut Health: Two Perspectives, One View

Patient Care recently spoke with rheumatologist Anthony Padula, MD, and neurologist Ilene Ruhoy, MD, PhD, about guiding patients who are interested in optimizing the health of their own gut microbiome.

The specialists, who both incorporate gut balance in their comprehensive approach to patient care, point out that patients have already done a good deal of legwork and experimentation with probiotics and other supplements to help "fix" a problem when they raise the topic.

What they need most, both say, is guidance--first to appreciate that, outside of strain-specific support for problems such as antibiotic-induced gut dysbiosis, restoring gut health is multifactorial and takes time and effort. Second, they need guidance in learning how to listen to and interpret their bodies' needs, because the body does speak. Here's what they had to say.

Anthony Padula, MD, is in private practice at the Northern California Arthritis Center in Walnut Creek, CA. Ilene Ruhoy, MD, PhD is a neurologist and founder of the Center for Healing Neurology in Seattle, Washington.

More from the Patient Care conversation with Drs Padula and Ruhoy:

Neurology, Rheumatology and the Gut Microbiome: Two Specialists Discuss