Dr. Lieberman: Dysbiosis is actually an imbalance of all the microbiological flora of the gut, not just a yeast overgrowth. Dysbiosis produces a permeability dysfunction so that things that should remain in the G.I. tract are now getting through the wall in bigger pieces. Bigger pieces are more antigenic, meaning they are capable of producing an immunologic response, especially an allergic response. That’s how we think the mechanism of food sensitivity is being created. The more antigens from a permeable gut enter the circulation, the more immune response would be initiated. A permeable gut, which can be caused by dysbiosis, does make the problem of food allergy much worse. In addition, once the antigen enters the circulatory system, it’s carried to all the organs of the body and comes into contact with those elements of the immune system called lymphocytes. If the antigen triggers lymphocytes and immune response in the lung, it might set off asthma. If the antigen triggers an immune response from the lymphocytes in the Peyer’s Patches of the G.I. tract, it might trigger diarrhea. It usually takes a combination of insults for the organ to react, so that is why we say in Environmental Medicine, “The previously injured organ becomes the target of the allergic response.” Depending upon a person’s family history and medical history, any organ might be the target and produce adverse symptoms. But what is important here for our discussion is that if yeast is a root cause of gut permeability or food allergy or other symptoms, we can confirm the presence of the yeast through Shaw’s test for the metabolites of yeast and bacteria. Now we don’t have to be defensive in trying to present this whole yeast connection concept to the scientific community.