Trust Your Gut

By Demi FairAlternative Health Health & Fitness Nutrition Mental Health

Trust Your Gut episodes

November 0478. What the Gut Healing Industry Gets Wrong About IBS
In this episode of my series The Gut Healing Industry Has Let You Down, I’m zooming out to the bigger picture: why so many people with IBS feel stuck, why it isn’t their fault, and what’s been missing from the way gut issues are treated.
I walk through the research on just how let down people with IBS are. In one study of over 2,700 people, about half had to describe their symptoms to their doctor more than 10 times before getting a diagnosis, and only 21% were satisfied with their treatment. Meanwhile there are more gut health products, protocols and information than ever, and people with IBS are missing more work than they were ten years ago.
I also share why I believe IBS isn’t all in your head, but probably in between your head and your gut. IBS has officially been classified as a disorder of gut-brain interaction for about a decade, yet more than half of people with IBS say the gut-brain connection was never even discussed in their care.
In this episode, we cover:
The invisible mental load of living with IBS
Why conventional medicine often leaves people with IBS with nothing but fiber and laxatives
How functional medicine can become the same symptom-management cycle with a more natural label
Why more products, more protocols and more information haven’t helped people feel better
Why “just manage your stress” falls short
How treating the mind and body separately leaves a huge gap in IBS care
What’s been missing, and the approach that finally helped me after nearly two decades

Join the free masterclass: Discover the Missing Piece to Break Free from the IBS-Stress Cycle
Take the free quiz: Gut Issues? Find Out If Your Nervous System Is The Cause!
Want to talk about getting support? Book a free clarity call!
Find out more about my program: Gut-Brain Healing Toolkit

If this resonated with you, be sure to let me know over on:
Instagram: @trustyourgut.health
To find out more: www.trustyourguthealth.com
Please SUBSCRIBE, leave a review, and share this podcast with anyone you think may benefit! Thank you!
34 min
October 2177. The Trust About Gut Testing
Spent hundreds of dollars on a food sensitivity test, a SIBO breath test or a GI-MAP, followed the protocol perfectly, and your symptoms still run your life? This episode is for you.
In the first episode of my new series, The Gut Healing Industry Has Let You Down, I’m breaking down the three tests I hear about most from clients: food sensitivity tests, SIBO breath tests and stool tests. We look at what the research actually says about how accurate they are, including a study where the same stool sample sent to seven different companies came back with completely different results. I also share my own story of testing “positive” for severe dysbiosis years after I was completely symptom-free, and what that taught me about chasing test results.
Then we get into what none of these tests can measure: how your nervous system and your gut talk to each other. I walk you through two fascinating studies showing that people with IBS make the same amount of gas from the same foods as people without IBS. The difference is how much their gut feels it, and why that changes everything about how you approach healing.
In this episode, we cover:
Why food sensitivity tests often flag the foods you eat most, and whether you should retest
How your gut’s speed can give you a false SIBO result in either direction
What a stool test is really measuring when you scoop that sample into the cup
Visceral hypersensitivity, and why your symptoms may have more to do with your gut’s sensitivity than the food itself
The tests that are worth doing

Join the free masterclass: Discover the Missing Piece to Break Free from the IBS-Stress Cycle
Take the free quiz: Gut Issues? Find Out If Your Nervous System Is The Cause!
Want to talk about getting support? Book a free clarity call!
Find out more about my program: Gut-Brain Healing Toolkit

If this resonated with you, be sure to let me know over on:
Instagram: @trustyourgut.health
To find out more: www.trustyourguthealth.com
Please SUBSCRIBE, leave a review, and share this podcast with anyone you think may benefit! Thank you!
58 min
October 1476. He Broke Up With Me Over My Food Restrictions
Yep, an ex broke up with me on a bus to Berlin and said one of the reasons was my food restrictions. That was the biggest gut punch. For nearly two decades, I had been the one navigating all of my food restrictions, never wanting it to be a burden to others, and in that moment my deepest fear came true.
Years later, I've reintroduced every food I avoided for almost two decades, including dairy and gluten. I recently spent three weeks in Italy, traveling in a van through the Dolomites with no kitchen, and ate gluten and dairy at almost every meal. In this episode, I share what that was like, what happened when the food fear showed up, and why a short safe food list is about more than the food on it.
In this episode, I'm talking about:
What it was like to eat gluten and dairy at almost every meal in Italy after nearly two decades of restriction
How the food fear still showed up, and why it didn't run the show
How to tell the difference between a no that comes from fear and a no that comes from your body's preference
The study that shows why the sensitivity often lives in your gut's nerves, not just in the food
Why your nervous system may have learned that anything outside your safe list means danger
Why "eat a little and see" so often fails, and the order I use to reintroduce foods

Join the free masterclass: Discover the Missing Piece to Break Free from the IBS-Stress Cycle
Take the free quiz: Gut Issues? Find Out If Your Nervous System Is The Cause!
Want to talk about getting support? Book a free clarity call!
Find out more about my program: Gut-Brain Healing Toolkit

If this resonated with you, be sure to let me know over on:
Instagram: @trustyourgut.health
To find out more: www.trustyourguthealth.com
Please SUBSCRIBE, leave a review, and share this podcast with anyone you think may benefit! Thank you!
30 min
September 1375. Is Nervous System Regulation Enough to Heal Your Gut?
Is nervous system work enough on its own to heal your gut? I get some version of this question all the time, and today I'm answering it directly.
The honest answer is: it depends. Nervous system regulation is always the foundation, and for a lot of the people I work with, it's the missing piece that makes everything else finally click. But when chronic stress or dysregulation has been running the show for a long time, it can also weaken stomach acid, enzymes, and bile production, affect your gut lining, and open the door to imbalances like SIBO or dysbiosis. At that point, regulation alone may not be enough to undo what's already happened physically.
In this episode, I walk through both sides: why nervous system work is non-negotiable, what it can heal on its own, and how I figure out when someone also needs direct support for the digestive process itself, and in what order.
In this episode, I'm talking about:
Why nervous system regulation is foundational, and when it can be enough on its own
How chronic stress and dysregulation physically affect stomach acid, enzymes, bile, and your microbiome
The two layers of nervous system patterns I look for: lifelong background patterns, and patterns that formed around your symptoms
How I assess what's happening in the digestive river without running tests
Why the order you address things in matters as much as what you address

Join the free masterclass: Discover the Missing Piece to Break Free from the IBS-Stress Cycle
Take the free quiz: Gut Issues? Find Out If Your Nervous System Is The Cause!
Want to talk about getting support? Book a free clarity call!
Find out more about my program: Gut-Brain Healing Toolkit

If this resonated with you, be sure to let me know over on:
Instagram: @trustyourgut.health
To find out more: www.trustyourguthealth.com
Please SUBSCRIBE, leave a review, and share this podcast with anyone you think may benefit! Thank you!
34 min
August 19 74. My Recent Flare and the One Thing That Made It Go Away
In the last episode, I talked about new gut symptoms that flared up after six years of being symptom-free, due to a spinal fluid leak, real physiological stress on my whole nervous system.
Quick update: my symptoms have resolved, after seven weeks!
There's one main thing I did to navigate these symptoms that I know made all the difference and helped me move through this flare quickly.
I want to share that with you, then walk you through a step-by-step process and tool you can use the next time you have a symptom flare, so it can support you in moving through it quickly too.

Join the free masterclass: Discover the Missing Piece to Break Free from the IBS-Stress Cycle
Take the free quiz: Gut Issues? Find Out If Your Nervous System Is The Cause!
Want to talk about getting support? Book a free clarity call!
Find out more about my program: Gut-Brain Healing Toolkit

If this resonated with you, be sure to let me know over on:
Instagram: @trustyourgut.health
To find out more: www.trustyourguthealth.com
Please SUBSCRIBE, leave a review, and share this podcast with anyone you think may benefit! Thank you!
32 min
July 14 73. Six Years Symptom-Free. Then This Happened.
30 years of struggling with gut symptoms. Six years completely free of them. And then a month or so ago, they came back.

But not the same symptoms, and I already knew why.
A few months ago I had a spinal fluid leak which was real physical stress on my whole nervous system. That’s when my digestion started talking again. Different pattern than my old one, which told me immediately: this isn’t old IBS resurfacing.
It’s my nervous system responding to something real that just happened to my body.

So in this episode I’m walking you through exactly what happened, what I’ve learned watching my own body move through this in real time, what is different about how I approach gut symptoms now, and how I’m applying my own framework to myself — because I know what’s going on, I know what I’m doing about it, and I’m confident I’ll be back to fully symptom-free soon.

Join the free masterclass: Discover the Missing Piece to Break Free from the IBS-Stress Cycle
Take the free quiz: Gut Issues? Find Out If Your Nervous System Is The Cause!
Want to talk about getting support? Book a free clarity call!
Find out more about my program: Gut-Brain Healing Toolkit

If this resonated with you, be sure to let me know over on:
Instagram: @trustyourgut.health
To find out more: www.trustyourguthealth.com
Please SUBSCRIBE, leave a review, and share this podcast with anyone you think may benefit! Thank you!
36 min
July 0772. No One Is Going To Heal You
Here's the thing: free content was never supposed to give you a diagnosis. It's not supposed to. It can educate, it can shift your perspective, it can hand you a new lens to see your own body through — but it can't individualize itself to you. It doesn't know your history, your nervous system, your story.
I spent years chasing that anyway. Broke, hungry for answers, bouncing from one naturopath to a stack of Google tabs to another forum thread, trying to piece together my own diagnosis from free information. It didn't heal me. It just left me more overwhelmed and more confused.
In this episode, I'm talking about:
Why content (mine included) is built to inspire and educate, not have all the answers
The overload loop I see in so many people (and used to live in myself): more searching, more information, less clarity
What real support actually looks like — not "here's your answer," but "here's what I see, here's the framework, here's the work to actually understand your own body"
Why "you can't do it alone" and "no one is going to heal you" are both true at the same time

Join the free masterclass: Discover the Missing Piece to Break Free from the IBS-Stress Cycle
Take the free quiz: Gut Issues? Find Out If Your Nervous System Is The Cause!
Want to talk about getting support? Book a free clarity call!
Find out more about my program: Gut-Brain Healing Toolkit

If this resonated with you, be sure to let me know over on:
Instagram: @trustyourgut.health
To find out more: www.trustyourguthealth.com
Please SUBSCRIBE, leave a review, and share this podcast with anyone you think may benefit! Thank you!
26 min
April 1471. Why I Still Had Severe Dysbiosis After Healing My IBS (And What That Taught Me)
What if your stool test results aren't actually your root cause? In this episode, I share a pivotal moment in my own 30-year healing journey — the day I retested my microbiome after becoming completely symptom-free, only to find I still had severe dysbiosis. What that result revealed changed everything about how I understand gut health.
I break down why chasing bacteria, cycling through elimination diets, and obsessing over lab results can keep you stuck, and what it actually means to heal upstream. Using the river metaphor at the core of my framework, I explain how your nervous system, not your microbiome, sets the conditions for everything downstream.
In this episode:
Why my microbiome looked the same after healing as it did when I was suffering
The difference between temporary symptom control and true healing
How a dysbiotic microbiome is often a downstream consequence, not the root cause
Why your body's ecosystem is far more resilient than any lab report suggests
What it actually takes to restore the conditions for lasting gut health

Join my free masterclass: Discover the Missing Piece to Break Free from the IBS-Stress Cycle
Take my free quiz: Gut Issues? Find Out If Your Nervous System Is The Cause!
Want to talk about working together? Book a free clarity call!
Find out more about my program: Gut-Brain Healing Toolkit

If this resonated with you, be sure to let me know over on:
Instagram: @trustyourgut.health
To find out more: www.trustyourguthealth.com
Please SUBSCRIBE, leave a review, and share this podcast with anyone you think may benefit! Thank you!
12 min
March 2470. Your Gut Doesn't Just Digest Food... It Digests Your Life
if you’re dealing with the IBS-stress cycle, there’s one thing I want you to understand:
Your gut doesn’t just digest food. It digests your entire life experience.
In this episode, I break down why focusing only on food, supplements, or the microbiome often keeps people stuck in the symptom-stress cycle… and what’s actually missing from that approach.
We talk about:
Why it’s a mistake to treat the gut in isolation
The role of the enteric nervous system (your “second brain”)
How your gut processes stress, emotions, and life experiences
The connection between your gut, nervous system, and mental health
Why symptoms like IBS are often psychosomatic (mind-body), not just physical
The deeper questions to ask when you feel stuck in cycles of restriction, protocols, and frustration
If you’ve tried all the “right” things and still aren’t getting better… this episode will likely shift how you see your healing.

Related Episode: 2. What Does It Really Mean To Trust Your Gut?
Join the free masterclass: Discover the Missing Piece to Break Free from the IBS-Stress Cycle
Want to talk about working together? Book a free clarity call!
Take the free quiz: Gut Issues? Find Out If Your Nervous System Is The Cause!
If this resonated with you, be sure to let me know over on:
Instagram: @trustyourgut.health
To find out more: www.trustyourguthealth.com
Please SUBSCRIBE, leave a review, and share this podcast with anyone you think may benefit! Thank you!
20 min
March 27, 2025 69. Healing Your Relationship with Food Through the Nervous System with Ashlyn Burnett
If you’ve ever found yourself stuck in a binge-restrict cycle, feeling anxious or fearful around food choices, experiencing disordered eating, or constantly trying to control your body, this episode is for you. I’m joined by Ashlyn from Heart-Led Wellness, a food freedom and nervous system coach who helps women heal these patterns by addressing the deeper root: nervous system dysregulation. We talk about how body image struggles and food fears often stem from the same chronic stress responses that drive gut issues, anxiety, and perfectionism. This conversation offers a compassionate lens on healing your relationship with food—and finding more peace in your body.

Connect with Ashlyn:
Free Root Cause Identifier Quiz
1-1 Coaching
Heart Led Eating
Instagram @heart.led.wellness

More from Demi:
Join the masterclass: Discover the Missing Piece to Break Free from the IBS-Stress Cycle
Find out more about my program, Gut-Brain Healing Toolkit.
Want to talk about working together? Book a free clarity call!
Take the free quiz: Gut Issues? Find Out If Your Nervous System Is The Cause!
If this resonated with you, be sure to let me know over on:
Instagram: @trustyourgut.health
TikTok: @trustyourgut.health
Email: [email protected]
To find out more: www.trustyourguthealth.com
Please SUBSCRIBE, leave a review, and share this podcast with anyone you think may benefit! Thank you!
58 min

About Trust Your Gut

From the publisher's feed

Trust Your Gut, hosted by Demi Fair, dives into the world of the mind-body connection. We explore the emerging science of the gut-brain axis and microbiome, while harnessing the power of intuition and connection to spirit. We dig into nervous system health and trauma, understanding how this is a key piece in our gut-brain and overall health imbalances, and learn new resources for building resilience.

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Trust Your Gut

Trust Your Gut episodes

About Trust Your Gut