Kind: captions
Language: en
so a lot of folks are there scrolling on
Instagram at night getting completely
overstimulated by the blue light and
that's bringing up all of these feelings
of like unworthiness like resentment you
know our memories start going that is a
big reason why like nighttime is an
issue especially when we're on our
phones because it's opening up this
gateway to our limbic system if you were
subject to abuse or trauma or grew up in
an alcoholic or or addicted household
you are more likely than someone who
didn't have those things to develop not
only all a chronic digestive disorders
like IBS and inflammatory bowel disease
and these types of things but you also
are at greater risk for multiple
different types of cancer in
cardiovascular disease in
neurodegenerative disease all of those
things so it's not just like gut stuff
right it's heart stuff it's brain stuff
it's circulation stuff so basically like
having these things set you up early in
childhood heavily influences future risk
so it's not just like all in your head
like all in your head that actually
creates like physical changes and
outcomes and risk for your life
everybody welcome to health theory
today's guest is dr. Gillian Tita she's
the author of the book natural solutions
for digestive health and she's a widely
recognized expert on all things
digestion she's written on the topic for
or been featured by countless
prestigious outlets including dr. oz
online parade Publishers Weekly and on
fitness she's also a former figure
competitor and sought-after speaker who
lectures extensively around the country
and where I want to start is exactly
what the figure competitor stuff that's
so intense and normally completely
devastates people's digestion like
seeing the number of people that just
get mulched up inside from that yes what
was that experience like what drew you
to that might actually was my
sister-in-law Jill Coleman who was like
Jillian you would you have a wonderful
body you would be a fabulous figure
competitor let's do it and so I really
jumped into it having no prior
experience and so started with the meal
plan and the exercise plan and I think
that I might be an exception because I
really never struggled with my gut
health during competition like during
getting getting ready like the prep all
of those things I think with my medical
background that I could approach it with
a more grounded perspective in terms of
nutrition like I always made sure to get
my vegetables I avoided a lot of the
mental and emotional traps that I see a
lot of competitors fall into where they
become you know they become food
obsessed you know about that and that
all-or-nothing mentality so when you're
you know if for your listeners I don't
know when you're getting ready for a
show
it is weeks and weeks and months of
months of eating like boiled chicken
breast you know this and like broccoli
that's like in a baggie you know and
you're eating constantly you're eating
multiple times of day very very bland
food and before you know it you're like
fantasizing about like a bacon
cheeseburger like you would rather eat a
bacon cheeseburger then like have sex
with someone you know it's like it
becomes like that like to that level and
so then a lot of competitors like
they'll finish their show and then now
what a lot of it like they don't know
how to eat they don't know what to do
with themselves they're at the grocery
store and they're like well do I just
get chicken breasts and then they have
that like first taste they go get there
they're like celebratory meal of that
bacon cheeseburger and fries and then
it's just off to the off to the races
and before they know it you know they
put on 30 pounds in six weeks
was that something that you consciously
avoided like saying that you didn't fall
into the mental traps shows already a
level of awareness that I think a lot of
people don't see that coming
yeah or they're competing because there
is emotional issues already and getting
that ideal physique becomes a way to
combat either negative self-image or
whatever yeah yeah how did you the
latter was not true for me so I didn't
feel like I had something to prove and
for whatever reason this might just be
my own diet my own like naivety is that
I didn't I was never extremely body self
conscious and we could maybe get into
like you know the there's a lot of like
privilege that goes with that but they'd
had never that had never occurred to me
to like obsess about my body so I think
part of it was just dumb luck and part
of it was I knew how to eat for my body
and I knew what I liked and I also knew
that if I did like want some foods that
were like off the diet plan that it
wasn't going to get things off track
again I proved that to myself over and
over and over again so really it's I
guess that's a very long way to say I
trusted myself right talk to me about
learning to trust yourself talk to me
about learning to eat for your body like
how do people go through that discovery
process I think I've worn a glucose
monitor mm-hmm which I found really
enlightening in terms of how things
impact me versus how they impact my wife
was also wearing one and seeing like the
massive disparity and how we responded
to things but I think most people don't
really know what's affecting them so
yeah how did you get that knowledge I
think the first piece is you absolutely
have to have self-awareness both of like
your conscious thoughts that you're
thinking and then also the intrinsic
cues that your body is presenting or
showing you you know your your levels of
hunger how your mood is what's your
level of irritation like are you craving
sugar are you craving salt are you
craving of alcohol or what have you so
the first layer is this piece of
self-awareness you sort of like assess
that you assess your current nutrition
and what you're doing maybe you make
tweaks maybe you notice like you are
eating a lot of sugar there does have to
be some level of accountability in
tournament by accountability I mean like
let's take stock let's talk take stock
of what we're doing and if something is
not working first we have this layer of
self-awareness and then we have to begin
to experiment like we have to be
open-minded enough to begin to sort of
experiment and tweak and change things
around incorporate some changes and then
adjust from there what are you
monitoring are you writing things down
are you testing blood sugar yep so I
think at first it's an the easiest thing
for people to do is to write things down
to write down the foods that you're
eating maybe the time that you're eating
them the amounts that you're eating and
how that you're making them feel so a
very like mechanistic way to go about it
as like looking at macros right like
just doing it that way and seeing which
what are the foods that bring me extreme
satiation and which are the ones that
actually are gonna increase my cravings
and would put me on like a bender so for
me if I have like a handful of roasted
almonds Tom they're delicious I love
them but if I eat almonds I'm gonna eat
like all the almonds and then I'm gonna
go back to like the the kitchen cabinet
and like eat everything that's in the
house it is a food that's going to
accelerate an exacerbate like it's going
to increase my frequency of eating and
my cravings whereas something like
salami or cheese or even like a glass of
wine that is going to be extremely
satisfying for me so neither of these
foods maybe are like perfect or gonna be
like on the figure competitor diet but
they are like a they're like a break
safe against going overboard so it's
really about just like balancing those
extremes and like becoming more moderate
in the middle mmm
interesting a notion of like a gateway
food that like really draws you in I
don't have an addictive personality so
that isn't something that I've really
ever struggled with but seeing the way
people like I can't have excess in the
house how do you work with your clients
do you get them to write down
problematic foods do you advise them not
to have it in the foods do you do you
are there certain things that are like a
brake system for most people like so
those brakes like they're highly
individual so for you like almonds might
not do that to you like almonds might be
that like buffer against the binge or
what have you so people mostly come to
me for digestive stuff right so what we
do is we sit down and when someone's
meeting me for the first time and I'm
eating then we're talking for like an
hour and not only are we talking about
what they are eating we're also talking
about some of their mental and emotional
stressors because to your point you
mentioned an addictive personality
I do think like in the figure competitor
world bodybuilding world I think that a
lot of folks with these types of
personalities use that profession as a
way to manage their mental and emotional
like dysfunction you are able to 100%
like control your food with the reason
of like oh I have this really
prestigious goal I need to get down to
like X amount of body fat I need to like
you know look this certain way in the
bikini I need to become a pro I need to
do this I need to do that when I got my
pro card I retired it was my last show
really interesting why I was just
finished I just knew that I was finished
what does it take to build a physique
like that like what are the dietary
things that you would focus on is it
protein intake is you hear a lot of math
around protein like I've heard up to two
or with some people up to three grams of
protein per pound of lean body mass I
mean like some pretty staggering numbers
what what did it really take so for me
it took time and consistency I wasn't as
technical with my macros and my calories
and tracking everything I was making
sure that I was eating like a serving of
protein with every single meal so I did
about one
to one and a half grams per my total
body weight and I did better and I still
do better even to this day with slightly
lower carbohydrate intake for show
competition it is like for me at least
my diet was lower fat lower carb high
protein I guess was like the bottom line
of it and ultimately that is not
sustainable it's not sustainable and
it's not good it's not healthy so I want
to be very clear that I'm like not
advocating anybody do a show like at all
it's just it was a time in my life that
was a lot of fun and like I learned I
learned a lot about people I learned a
lot about like those stories that we
tell ourselves cuz it's a perfect
metaphor right like oh if I just like
look a certain way I can get the trophy
you know like if I just look have this
certain physique then it'll be good
enough and what's going on like behind
the scenes they're like what like why do
you have that story but for me it wasn't
I wasn't as like emotionally involved at
that level I want to go back to what you
said about when you first meet a patient
what you're asking them what are you
guys talking about what are the like do
you have a standard checklist of things
you begin to ask people when we come in
first I basically start with what's the
current problem in all of the um you
know the attributes around that so
what's going on how long has it been
going on
where is it going on what makes it
better what makes it worse kind of
getting the lay of the current symptom
picture and then that's often a segue
into their nutrition and what they're
eating
if we don't segue into that will often
segue into a story about some emotional
thing that happened a death or a loss or
a divorce or whatever I can't tell you
how many people come into me and say
like everything was fine until I got
breast cancer or until my husband left
me and then everything like follows from
that then so we'll go into nutrition and
then I ask very explicit questions about
bowel movements I ask questions about
sleep and their exercise in their
movement and then I want to know like
what fills their cup like what gives
them part like what gives them purpose
what are they working for like what's
their art
what's their creation all of those
things and then from there you can get
just a just a ton of information about
people's inner motivations and what's
going to help them implement the
suggestions that I'm going to be making
this is the thing that I found most
interesting in researching you is how
often your answers came back to
something mental so that was really
powerful and it certainly has been my
experience in working with Lisa on this
so my wife has massive digestive issues
and it's been struggling for years and
has made a massive amount of progress
but every time we have a setback it's
around stress like four four and it's
crazy how it like if you were just
looking from the outside it seems like
her mental state makes her have
reactions to specific foods that
wouldn't have three days before that
bothered her and so that's super
fascinating so walk me through what are
some of the things like what are common
things that people struggle with
mentally and which came first was it the
mental disturbance that then caused the
sensitivity or was it the sensitivity
and obviously a lot of the
neurotransmitters starting in the gut is
that what comes first
so sometimes it's just physical you go
to India you get a parasite and you're
messed up for a while but sometimes it
is stemming from these deeper more
nuanced layers and I think at the core
everyone's a little bit different but it
all does boil down to some some self
narrative of not being good enough or
failing yourself or others or wanting
love that for whatever reason you're not
able to deliver yourself and these are
kind of very deep heartfelt like common
human experiences and it all revolves
around that whether it's around you know
performance like I'm a workaholic and
it's because I'm trying to provide for
my family and like or it's you're
looking for acceptance or you're looking
for a trophy for like standing like on
stage and a bikini like it's all comes
back to these little roots of in some
way feeling inadequate or
worthy what have you come across that
explains the physiology yes so I love so
this is great so here we go so you've
heard of the gut brain connection right
for sure so we have our enteric nervous
system which is the second brain which
is like that vast network of nerve cells
that is all throughout the GI tract
right base of the the base of the
esophagus all through the intestines
small large all the organs terminating
in the rectum your second brain is
managing and monitoring all aspects of
digestion everything and it regulates
your motility so how frequently you are
pooping it operates independently from
the central nervous system which is our
brain in our spinal cord but it has a
relationship so the two are in this very
intimate like second-by-second bimodal
feedback relationship where the
stimulation and information that's
coming from our central nervous system
is communicated to the enteric and
vice-versa so your question of like is
that the chicken or the egg like what
comes first it can really depend if
we're talking at list Olek let's go on
the central nervous system angle our
central nervous system we have the
autonomic nervous system which is
fight-or-flight and rest and digest and
those two are supposed to be like back
and forth right like a seesaw like we
need both in things like chronic stress
and trauma and abuse and like over
dieting and under sleeping for like you
know for years or whatever you can get
sympathetic over dominance which I give
this example a lot but if you are
likening to your autonomic nervous
system - like a seesaw you want to
little kids on the seesaw so they can go
back and forth in sympathetic over
dominance it's like you have an elephant
on one end of the seesaw and a little
chihuahua on the other so you get stuck
that overdrive Prime's your limbic
system to view everything as not safe
then there's other layers of the limbic
system so your limbic system is
filtering all of your sensory inputs
it's kind of managing your memories and
your emotions and if you're in this
state of
sympathetic over dominance even like
bright lights could trigger your limbic
system to say like this isn't safe and
then your limbic system activates your
sympathetic nervous system your
sympathetic nervous system is the word
suppression is not the right the exact
technical term but it dis functionally
influences the enteric nervous system
where maybe your stomach acid production
goes down or like you're losing your
ability produced I just have enzymes and
things kind of like grind to a halt you
know your gut slows down right some
people get constipated some people get
diarrhea some people get both some
people develop IBS so from that way
whether it's a memory that's triggering
you or a sensory input that's triggering
you or just this like grind of stress
that can be enough to create sympathetic
over dominance we call this dysautonomia
I'm sure you've heard that term and then
decide no Mia no Mia so dis autonomia
underpins IBS which is irritable bowel
syndrome inflammatory bowel disease
menopause anxiety most like function
what we call like a functional
gastrointestinal disorder which is be
like you're chronically constipated but
we actually can't find why we're seeing
that the roots of these are imbalance in
the enteric nervous system which are is
coming from dysautonomia so it's
fascinating so that's like that and
coming this way but then say you're
having digestive distress
you're uncomfortable because your gut is
full of gas you know and all of your
pain receptors are firing like mad then
that feeds back up to your central
nervous system and you're anxious or
you're irritable for no real reason so
it goes both ways what the hell did we
do yeah yeah it's a great question so
this is like the final frontier not just
in like digestive distress but I think
in many chronic conditions and disorders
so ones that are not necessarily caused
by like a physical event you know it's
not a parasite like you didn't break
your arm like I think even you know
cardio
to their disease all has roots in
mindset work and undoing in
deconstructing these unhelpful stories
that we have about being on where they
are like not good enough or those types
of things however before we just jump
into that there's practical things that
we can do I call this distressing your
gut right I even have like a pearl like
an Academy about it how do we distress
our guts so on the practical perspective
there's a couple tools that I like and
we were chatting about one of them
earlier which is the daily walk going
for a nice slow stroll preferably in
nature you know Japan is doing a ton of
research into this they have a beautiful
name for it it's called shinrin yoku
means forest bathing and what they're
finding is that walking in nature helps
to balance the sympathetic and
parasympathetic nervous systems and
buffer the brain against the deleterious
effects of cortisol so cortisol itself
like inherently is not bad right like
any other hormone is just not bad in
excessive of course it can be but going
for that walk is unbelievable helping to
de-stress I often tell my clients like
if you go for a walk every day in a year
you'll change your life just that
nothing else no dietary tricks like you
know nothing else just go for that walk
so interesting so this reminds me of
grounding so where you go outside you
take your shoes and socks off and you
stand on earth already I'm not cement
yet not yet like legit on the ground do
you think something like that is playing
out when you're forest bathing or is it
literally just it's pretty and you're
walking slowly I think there could
definitely be a component of that but
when we think about like the physical
processes that happen when we walk as
well what's going on like our blood is
circulating right so more blood is being
delivered to our brains more blood is
being delivered to our muscles right so
we're delivering oxygen we're delivering
nutrients we're delivering sugar we're
taking away you know carbon
and lactic acid and all the like junk so
you're increasing that whole process but
also you know from real evolutionary
perspective like our bodies were made to
walk like we were made to move and in
terms of like digestive distress
I'll tell folks movement equals movement
so one of the best interventions for
constipation is walking because you know
what do we do now that we we mostly like
sit around all day like many of us sit
around all day with terrible posture
eating food out of vending machines
there's an enormous disconnect between
our bodies and like our lifestyle and so
the walk helps bring that back in we can
take the walk step further and turn it
into almost like a meditation a walking
meditation or just simply an exercise
and mindfulness so I might coach people
who are open to it and I don't always
start with us who are like super
overwhelmed but when you're walking you
know feel the Sun and the air and the
wind on your skin really listen to the
sounds that are going on around you
instead of like whatever committee is in
your head and like the list right look
at what is directly in front of you life
is another person is it a trees that
birds and just really experience that at
like a microsecond to microsecond level
and when you might find your mind like
wandering like galloping away as it's
going to you just bring it back so you
can take the walk step for like a step
further and this helps cultivate
self-awareness not just like awareness
of thoughts but also awareness of body
which if we're looking to improve our
quality of life again like coming back
to that peasley you have to have some
level of self-awareness at that mental
emotional and physical level all so I
think it's a wonderful way that we can
get into a person from multiple
different doors next is sleep and I take
sleep very very seriously with my
clients again because a lot of them are
completely overwhelmed and are just
scrolling on Instagram into like 2:00 in
the morning you know looking at things
that are stressing themselves out or
worse they're like looking at the news
right and so
creating real boundaries around your
sleep-wake cycle and creating a bedroom
that you actually want to sleep in right
so ideal sleeping conditions for humans
are the room is dark and it's maybe on
the cooler side you don't want to feel
hot or sweaty at all like you want to be
very very comfortable in bed and then
you don't want anything like stressful
around your bedroom like I don't know
unpaid bills or like unfinished products
like you know projects like things that
are going to keep your mind hooked on
them and if people a lot of people are
there light sleepers you know so any
little thing will wake them up you know
that maybe there are parents and like
their constant they're just trained to
like listen to their children so I'll
often tell people to like get a white
noise app or like an air filter or a fan
that will put out white noise so that
their brain can disengage from being
hyper-vigilant
you know listening for like the kids or
like the person that's breaking into
their house or whatever yeah only you
could sleep through that so that's
really interesting I think that sleep is
something that's really underutilized
but I've never heard anybody talk about
the bills and unfinished projects and I
think that's really really fascinating
do you talk at all about blue light or
so what are your recommendations around
that so and it that's actually a great
little like segue because say someone is
not really actually willing to put down
their phone yet right like they don't
they're not quite there yet they can put
their phone on night mode where when the
Sun sets it the blue light is removed or
you could get blue light blocking
glasses you know on Amazon for I don't
know 15 bucks like they're very very
inexpensive and what that does is that
reduces the stimulation of your brain in
terms of the blue light so blue blue
light can decrease your melatonin
production which of course is
responsible for our circadian rhythm
which is like the sleep/wake cycle but
what we're seeing also is that it's also
highly stimulating in a negative way to
the limbic system
and again that limbic system is what's
guarding like our sensory input which
makes sense right it's a visual input
and then emotions and memories and
things like that
so a lot of folks are there scrolling on
Instagram at night getting completely
overstimulated by the blue light and
that's bringing up all of these feelings
of like unworthiness like resentment you
know our memories start going that is a
big reason why like nighttime is an
issue especially when we're on our
phones because it's opening up this
gateway to our limbic system yeah it's
really interesting I've often felt that
there's a part of my brain that's like
shut off at night I'm like there are
things that in the middle of the night
if I wake up that I will think about
that a loop in my mind I'll be unable to
sleep but I know as soon as the Sun
comes up I'm not it won't bother me I
can think about it in the same way I
could even like really focus my time and
energy on it but it's not gonna bother
me in the way that it bothers me at
night I'm guessing there's something
that they're probably really is either a
different neuro chemistry going on or
that there really is a part of your
brain that in the sleep cycle begins to
shut down or is impacted by the
melatonin or whatever the things that
help you sleep that's at least
experientially how it feels the other
part I think is in daylight when I'm not
supposed to be in bed I have the most
powerful thing in my disposal which is
action and we're just thinking of today
for some reason this morning thinking
about how action really does cure all
anxiety like if you're the unfinished
project is sitting there it's niggling
at you but if you just go work do it
yeah yeah if you take even 15 minutes
and make progress on it there's
something in the brain that goes okay
we've made progress on that thing and
begins to alleviate which is really
powerful so once we've taken care of
the the stuff that we just went through
give a quick breakdown of like story how
you begin to help people get out of that
and then I want to talk about what we
can be eating or what we should avoid
eating I think again it comes back to
self awareness the very first piece in
deconstructing the story is it's
acknowledging that there is a story that
might not be serving us it's all
like you know when you're an alcoholic
you have to actually admit that you're
an alcoholic like what with these
stories with these like unhelpful
thought patterns we have to admit that
there is something that is going on that
is not helpful for us and people have
really traumatic things happen to them
so if you were raped when you were a
child like obviously like that is not
your fault that is not a story that you
are telling yourself but you might be
telling yourself a story about who you
are as a person now because of that
experience and now you have a
responsibility to yourself if you want
to be fully engaged in your life and be
like whether it's happier or more
peaceful or like more at ease or more
develop more self-confidence to like
overcome challenges and obstacles so
that you can just like engage with the
world more and like make a positive
difference you have to begin to take
responsibility for how you're going to
move forward so awareness of the story
identifying the story and then there's a
couple other different tools like
identifying your role in your own story
giving other people that might be
featured in your story the benefit of
the doubt that they're doing the best
that they can
meaning what so this was somebody that's
my parents did a bad job they were
poorly yet yeah bottom line is that your
parents with the tools that they had at
their disposal at that time at that
second are doing the best that they can
what I think it does is it levels the
playing field that we are all imperfect
human beings that are doing the best
that we can okay so we we're changing
our own story we're finding our role in
it we're reassigning a new role to
people that play a part in our story do
you help people construct a new
narrative is it around empowerment like
what's the core of that new narrative
the core of the new narrative I this
might sound like not what you're
expecting is cultivating boundaries and
clear communication like really saying
what you mean and what you want and what
you need and not trying to manage the
emotions of others and trusting yourself
in
to actually be able to like state your
preferences draw those boundaries and
tell people how you feel I feel like men
and women are both socialized in
different ways to not trust ourselves
and so part of the work then becomes
learning how to trust yourself again and
part of that is communicating what
you're actually like desiring thinking
feeling and wanting in being willing to
experience their emotional reaction to
that and also trusting that they can
handle their emotional reaction and that
they can handle your emotions as well
it's really interesting that you know
all of this started from a conversation
about the enteric nervous system and but
it's it seems very right and very true
and certainly very accurate to like
though the one thing that anybody that
thinks that this is disconnected need
only ask themselves is have you ever had
diarrhea because you were nervous yeah
and it's like once you realize oh
yeah like I've had that trigger just
thinking about something or having
something stressful that I have to face
yeah gives me an upset stomach like it's
really interesting it is it well and
think about like when your foot when
you're falling in love like think about
when you are when you like meet that
person right and like you're meeting up
and like that that like soaring feeling
in your gut
it's inch it's intuitive right or when
you get the bad news like how that feels
like that like clenched in your gut but
even beyond that we can look at the fact
that when we crunch all the numbers if
you are someone who as a child had you
know how to high aces score so aces is
adverse childhood events score if you
were subject to abuse or trauma or grew
up in an alcoholic or or addicted
household you are more likely than
someone who didn't have those things to
develop not only all a chronic digestive
disorders like IBS and inflammatory
bowel disease and these types of things
but you also are at greater risk for
multiple different types of cancer and
cardiovascular disease and
neurodegenerative disease all of those
things so it's not just like gut stuff
right it's heart stuff it's brain stuff
it's circulation stuff so basically like
having these things set you up early in
childhood heavily influences future risk
so it's not just like all in your head
like all in your head that actually
creates like physical changes and
outcomes and risk for your life
yeah there's a book called the brain
that changes itself which is a pretty
fascinating look at how we have this
organ that merely by thinking about
something new can actually change its
physical structures which is already
fascinating yes and so understanding
that we have this profound ability to
change our the and the physical
structures of your brain knowing that
that echoes in the body knowing that the
microbiome is sort of like this
colonization inside of you of something
that isn't technically you it's not
human right it's so how do we one how do
we understand that but you just give
people a little bit of frame of
reference around what the microbiome is
exactly and then how do we if we can use
a garden metaphor like how do we grow
the right things how do we plant the
right things how do we sustain them I
love those too because there's actually
a hugely intimate connection between the
microbiome and the second brain so the
microbiome is a term for a V colony of
bacteria that live reside in the large
intestine we also have a microbiome on
our skin in an our mucous membranes in
our genitourinary tract and like in our
scalp the one the microbiome in the gut
they number between one trillion and 10
trillion cells so humans are we humans
each of us has about a trillion cells so
we are at least as much bacterial as we
are human if we took all the bacteria
out of like an inch and a half of your
large intestine more bacteria live there
than all humans that have ever lived
since the dawn of our species
collectively they weigh about three or
four pounds right so this is like organ
size and they are represented by
thousands of different species and
strains
and you use the word ecosystem and I
love that because it is the microbiome
is very much an ecosystem and like an
ecosystem on earth diversity is like the
buffer against ruin right so you want
your gut to have a lot of different
species because if I don't know you get
a pathogen or you take antibiotics like
that's gonna wipe some of your guys out
so you want other guys to be able to
take over it's just like if you you know
you have a garden but you're only
growing lettuce say we'll say the slugs
move in right you're gonna lose your
whole garden but if you were growing
lettuce and carrots and blueberries and
had an apple tree like the slugs aren't
gonna make you lose everything you have
that diversity in there to buffer
against negative consequence so what
we're learning is that it does
everything from helping us humanize the
food we eat so we eat a lot of plants
right so humanized means our bacteria
help take plant nutrients and plant
pieces you know to be extremely
simplistic and manipulate them so that
they can be absorbed and utilized by our
human cells so it's almost like a
conduit or like their alchemical it's
like they're creating this alchemy that
allows us to actually derive the
nutrition from the foods that we're
eating the microbiome also helps
manufacture certain vitamins in like
sort of sub vitamins and it also helps
with blood pressure and blood lipids and
our waistline and it helps talk to our
immune system so that our immune system
doesn't become overstimulated or too
lazy it talks with our enteric nervous
system to help promote optimal motility
it recycles reduces detoxifies a number
of different hormones it activates
certain hormones I mean what have I met
like there's there's virtually no corner
of our body that our microbiome doesn't
touch
taking if people have eczema you know
like skin rashes dermatitis acne
probiotics can help with that
you have environmental allergies
probiotics can help with that how do we
know the which ones to use so like as
Lisa went through this that was where we
first started we found that actually
some probiotics were upsetting her
something even more we found others seem
to do absolutely nothing we worked with
somebody who created a custom one for
her yeah okay
so I want probiotics to be a silver
bullet they have not been so far for
Lisa anyway how do we know what
probiotics tatin yeah can we expect I
can give some general rules or around
that and just for for people who are
listening probiotics are like the
supplemental form of beneficial bacteria
you're literally eating bacteria you're
literally eating bacteria and they are
not a silver bullet so I want to be very
like clear about that because there is
much more to how the microbiome manages
itself and operates and executes than
just by like externally taking in a
bunch of probiotics but for like general
ground rules what I would say when we're
looking for a probiotic is you want to
get a probiotic that mimics like general
healthy human gut flora as much as
possible so I tell folks you want to be
looking for a probiotic that is very
rich in lactobacillus and
Bifidobacterium strain but like multiple
different strains and that is free from
corn soy and milk a major reason why
people react poorly to probiotics is
because they're grown in like a milk
medium and they're actually sensitive to
Dairy so you want to make sure that
you're getting hypoallergenic probiotics
let's say that on the bottle yes okay
you want to you want one that at least
says corn soy and dairy free another
thing that you want to look out for is a
lot of probiotics try to be everything
so they're like a probiotic and a
prebiotic so they're made with things
like you know inulin and something
called fos fructooligosaccharides well
those those two
things those prebiotics for some folks
especially if I already have a disrupted
microbiome those are - map foods and
that can be gas producing and promoting
in itself so it's like you're not
actually reacting to the bacteria you're
reacting to all the things that are
added to it right and then another thing
that we want to look out for is you want
to make sure that you're getting one
that is like a moderately high dose like
between twenty and a hundred billion
right and you want to get one that has
lots of strains so you want to have a
high strain you want to have high strain
counts high CFU counts colony forming
unit counts one that mimics the human
microbiome and one that is free of milk
corn soy and tons of like
oligosaccharides and with also with
probiotics I like folks to get like just
a probiotic like don't get a probiotic
in an enzyme and a multivitamin like
doing all the things like just get the
probiotic there are strategies however
to your point with Lisa to improve the
microbiome without without probiotics
with more about fecal microbial
transplants so this this is something
that I think in ten years is gonna have
much wider application than it does now
so currently research supports FM t for
folks that have had seed of like chronic
c diff and they can't get rid of it
Clostridium difficile which is something
that is induced by antibiotics it's
essentially like an antibiotic
associated diarrhea but this you know c
diff can can kill people right so it can
you know it's it's extremely serious I
have worked with some people that have
had FM t for maybe like IBS or
inflammatory bowel disease so I think
it's very exciting and I do think that
if all other things have been exhausted
that that should be that should be on
the table interesting do you think that
you need to sort of clear the path with
aggressive antibiotics for the FMT to
work can FM t just be additive to where
you are today like what does that
protocol look like well someone that is
a candidate for FM t is definitely gonna
have a stool test and like see who's
around right like what like if there's
if there's frame
pathogens on board or if it's just an
overgrowth of what we call it commensal
bacteria I refer to them kind of like as
frenemies so it depends on who's around
like how they act they can be beneficial
or not so I wouldn't I'm not willing to
make a blanket statement like everybody
needs to like wipe them all out with
antibiotics or just like go for it it
would really depend on like the level of
pathogenicity and also did we get to the
spot because we've taken already ten
rounds of antibiotics like maybe we
should give a break and like really try
to build up the microbiome with
nutrition and maybe use much gentler
anti microbial work which for some folks
is as easy as like building up what I
call the digestive fire which is our
stomach acid and our enzyme and our
enzymes and our bile because all of
those are antimicrobial and sprucing up
like the lining of the gut and
decreasing inflammation all of those
things first and then doing fmt but if
you have like a frank pathogen in there
and yeah I would do a killing protocol
first absolutely talk to me about
stoking the digestive fires how do you
do that mm-hmm so a supplemental way is
you take a digestive enzyme with meals
right I mean you just do that actually
kick-start things though for you or will
you be will you have to take the
digestive enzymes all the time in my
clinical experience it acts more like a
jumpstart so we have our enzyme status
and then we have stomach acid stomach
acid energetically is very expensive to
make because it's pH is only one or two
and our pH is 7 right so it takes a lot
of work and energy and cellular cellular
energy for our body to make enough
stomach acid to break down our protein
you know break down whatever else is
around and be at high enough levels to
serve as an antimicrobial and a
substance that helps promote optimal
motility but in the presence of
supplemental stomach acid because we're
built on feedback loops that can wake
the stomach up if you don't want to take
enzymes
you don't want to take acid there are
some things that you can do to build
your digestive fire on the enzyme level
having vegetables or fruits or whatever
that you harvest out of your garden like
eating raw foods contain like beneficial
bacteria right fermented foods are gonna
contain that official bacteria we
haven't even talked about that so
fermented foods are ones that have been
inoculated with bacteria the bacteria
eat the sugar in there you know what
have you and create something different
like yogurt or kombucha or kimchi those
are all ways to bring up bacteria and
they also contain enzymes a food like
pineapple is rich in enzymes so these
are all things that can help bring up
enzymes on the acid front Pro eating a
little bit of protein consistently every
single day will actually help increase
stomach acid production again because
it's built on a feedback loop right so
if you're a vegetarian you're only
eating beans and rice your body is like
oh we don't need that much fire that
much power to break these things down
that's often why vegetarians if they're
like deciding to get back into meat
again they have like I don't know a
chicken breast like that's gonna really
mess them up because they don't have the
ability like they don't have enough on
board yet so you want to be more graded
and sort of like slowly taper up one
more food type that really can stimulate
not only like enzyme and acid production
but also bowel flow is bitter foods I
know that you eat dandelion yeah
dandelion is so good uh-huh do you know
how I do it I chop it up and I cook it
in olive oil with like a little bit of
garlic and some salt and I slow cook it
and it like falls apart it's glorious
and when you cook it that way it's not
as bitter because I've had it raw on
accident and and it's horrifying yeah so
is it yeah it takes the edges off the
bitterness for sure it's more like melt
in your mouth but you still get them you
still get the benefits and what is what
is the bitterness doing it's
jump-starting what so the bitterness
will help increase your enzymatic output
and it's also gonna help with bile flow
this is gonna help get your bile flowing
as well
it's very interesting so for me one of
the most interesting things to come
around in a long time is FM t I'm super
fascinated to watch that grow and
develop what's the most interesting
thing that's sort of new on the cutting
edge of digestive research right now
it's microbiome based I think that we're
gonna be able to in mmm you know ten to
thirty years analyze someone's
microbiome you up right and know its
biggest but but it's coming and you are
gonna get at a very fine level that's
very custom tuned by like probiotic for
you that's going to be able to correct
whatever's going on whether it's like
modulating inflammation or like filling
those diversity gaps or you know
balancing the immune system decreasing
autoimmunity breaking up plaques in your
arteries those types of things I think
the microbiome is really like where it's
where it's headed and so I'm extremely
excited about that Wow yes yes good
answer all right where can people find
your book well they can find it on
Amazon in Barnes & Noble and it's also
I'm have it linked on my website jyllian
t-dot-com if people were only gonna make
one change what's the one change they
could make that would have the biggest
impact on their health go for their walk
wow that's so interesting and be nice to
yourself those are fascinating answers
that ring very true to me I'm super
super impressed with the way that you go
down that path so thank you very much
for that I think that's really
interesting guys I think it's good
advice go for the walk be kind to
yourself getting control of that story
is huge it maybe chew your food - all
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