QFM Blog

Leaky gut, also known as intestinal hyperpermeability, has been a growing interest in the healthcare field recently due to its association with autoimmune diseases such as Celiac Disease, Crohn’s, Type 1 Diabetes, and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis to name a few. When healthy, our intestinal gut lining stays relatively intact with the help of seals known as tight junctions that allow very specific things to pass through from our gastrointestinal tract to the bloodstream. However certain insults suc...

Many believe that a hormone imbalance from menopause causes stress, but more often, it’s quite the opposite. As you enter menopause, your imbalances are amplified. One of the biggest influences on troublesome menopausal symptoms is the health of your adrenal glands and HPA axis, which regulate our stress levels by controlling the stress hormone known as cortisol. A common misconception is that menopausal symptoms stem from falling estradiol (aka estrogen) le...

Your body is designed with a built-in firewall to protect you from viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens. That firewall is your mucosal immunity, the health of which can be tested by doing a comprehensive stool analysis and measuring secretory IgA (SigA). One of the greatest forces to lower Secretory IgA and weaken our mucosal immunity is chronic stress. This is because, according to research here, here and here, stress disrupts normal cortisol production, and cortisol regulates SigA. B...