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  4. Do you get patients who present with issues like pain or sexual dysfunction, hearing loss, etc.? And, if so, do you still run gut-related labs, or no?

Do you get patients who present with issues like pain or sexual dysfunction, hearing loss, etc.? And, if so, do you still run gut-related labs, or no?

Amy Nett: Here we go. Sandy [asks], “Do you get patients who present with issues like pain or sexual dysfunction, hearing loss, etc.? And, if so, do you still run gut-related labs, or no?”

Yes, definitely get patients with all of those. Hearing loss, I don’t, actually. I don’t get patients coming with a primary complaint of hearing loss. I do get tinnitus or occasional vertigo, BPPV [benign paroxysmal positional vertigo], and I generally do still run gut-related labs. [For] pain, in particular, I am going to run gut-related labs. Pain, you have to really start thinking about the terminology. We’re changing on this, but sort of the mind/body connection, and I certainly do think that having gut microbial imbalances or leaky gut can contribute to inflammation, and that inflammation can contribute to pain [and] sexual dysfunction. If this is [in] men, you need to think about the cardiovascular system. Again, absolutely inflammation is going to play a role in cardiovascular, the vascular system in particular, so definitely.

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