Why all diseases begin in the gut - Dr Iggy Soosay

Dr Iggy Soosay is a GP, former Chairman of the Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine, Lecturer and Member of the RACGP-AIMA working party on Complementary Medicine. Iggy is an Integrative/Functional Medical Doctor with over 35 years, who has led the way in Australia for treating chronic gut related issues. While the treatment of the gut has become the nouveau riche trend in our Instagram feeds over the last few years with Kombucha & Sauerkraut as your trend products, the gut has been treated by people like Iggy for decades. For me, it’s been a long issue in my adult life that I’ve constantly battled within this strange David (me) v Goliath (the gut) in which the gut is easily winning. Iggy refers to Hippocrates, the father of medicine, and his quote “all disease begins in the gut”. I can assure you, that for someone who has constantly dealt with chronic gut issues - that’s what life feels like. The impunity of which your gut can react to anything around you; environment, food, stress - largely dictate my ability to perform at an average level of competence. Fatigue, pain, random autoimmune reactions, and impact on your lifestyle are just some of the features that the gut can hammer onto us long time sufferers. Meeting Iggy has been a relief for me personally. After interviewing him, I took it on board to visit him as a patient. Needless to say, he discovered elements of my history (including regular antibiotics as a child), that no GP would have discovered in a microscopic five minute appointment - as I bounce around aimlessly over the last 5 years, like a ball in a medical “pinball machine” from specialist to GP to specialist.