A Full Worked Gut Case, Start to Finish
One case, both tools, no pre-sorting
Lesson 2.5 · Page 1
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Learning objective: Apply the full HSI six-stage gut-restoration sequence (Identify → Investigate → Reduce burden → Rebuild → Reintroduce → Reinforce) to a realistic case from initial history through to a plan and a reassessment point, integrating testing decisions and the HSI Method from Module 1.
“Marcus's joint stiffness has nothing to do with his gut — or does it?”
Before reading his case, what would make you consider a connection, and what would make you dismiss one?
Watch alongside this lesson
Gut Expert: Eating these 3 foods could improve your mental health
Big Think — Tim Spector
How gut microbes influence the brain and mood — context for why Marcus's stress and his gut symptoms can't be treated as separate problems.
Lesson 2.4 introduced the six-stage sequence and a short worked example. This lesson works through one case in full, deliberately connecting it back to the HSI Method from Module 1 (Lesson 1.5) — because a real gut case doesn't arrive pre-sorted into "gut" and "everything else"; the Method and the sequence are meant to be used together, not as separate mini-curricula.
Key Points
- Real gut cases don’t arrive pre-sorted into “gut” and “everything else”.
- History alone surfaced three plausible drivers: antibiotics, low diversity, rising alcohol.
- One targeted test (SIBO breath test), not an untargeted panel.
- Some burdens are worth removing regardless of the test result.
- Marcus’s wine was a stress-coping behaviour — the gut plan only holds if that driver is addressed.
- Persistent joint stiffness is a referral point, not an assumption.
- The six stages loosely parallel the five Method steps — if a gut case never reaches Regimen, Mind or Connection & Purpose, ask what’s missing.