The anamnesis (medical history) represents an important component in the diagnosis of dysbiosis (imbalance of the intestinal flora).
Family history
- Are there any diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (e.g. food intolerances) in your family that are common?
Social history
- Is there any evidence of psychosocial stress or strain due to your family situation?
Current medical history/systemic history (somatic and psychological complaints).
- Do you often suffer from a bloated abdomen?
- Do you often have a feeling of fullness?
- Do you suffer from fatigue, tiredness or headaches?
- Do you often feel nauseous?
- Do you have frequent changes in stool frequency (e.g., diarrhea, constipation)?
Vegetative anamnesis including nutritional anamnesis.
- Have you lost body weight?
- Do you like to eat sweet (mono- and disaccharides; especially sucrose/household sugar) and white flour products?
- Have you noticed any changes in bowel movements (frequency, quantity, color, texture)?
- Do you like to drink coffee, black and green tea? If so, how many cups per day?
- Do you drink other or additional caffeinated beverages? If so, how much of each?
- Do you smoke? If yes, how many cigarettes, cigars or pipes per day?
- Do you drink alcohol? If yes, what drink(s) and how many glasses per day?
- Do you use drugs? If yes, what drugs and how often per day or per week?
Self history incl. medication history.
- Pre-existing conditions (gastrointestinal diseases, food intolerances).
- Operations
- Allergies
Medications
- Analgesics/non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
- Anti-infectives against viruses, fungi or parasites
- Antibiotics (broad spectrum of activity reduces microbial diversity)Note: The broader the spectrum of activity and the longer the duration of therapy, the greater the microbiome damage!
- The frequent or long-term treatment of premature infants with antibiotics led to a strong disturbance of the intestinal flora: fewer “healthy” bacterial groups such as Bifidobacteriaceae (the only bacterial family in the order of Bifidobacteriales) and more frequently “unhealthy” species such as Proteobacteria (= “microbiotic scar”) were found in a follow-up examination at the age of 21 months.
- The bacterial flora is largely regenerated within 30 to 90 days after drug treatment, but it changes their interplay with fungi, which also colonize the intestine.
- Antidepressants – atypical antipsychotics.
- Antihistamines
- Beta blockers
- Benzodiazepines
- Corticoids (cortisol)
- Gold (bactericidal)
- Laxatives (osmotic laxatives).
- Metformin
- Ovulation inhibitor
- Proton pump inhibitors (proton pump inhibitors, PPI; acid blockers) (due toblocked gastric acid production).
- Statins
- Cytostatics
- Et al.
Notice: Antibiotics are not the only agents that kill intestinal bacteria; of more than 1,000 approved agents, one in four alters the composition of intestinal flora.
X-rays
- Radiotherapy (radiotherapy, radiatio).
Environmental pollution – intoxications
- Heavy metals (mercury, lead, etc.) [through diet].