EP. 25: Hack Your Health
My niece is starting medical school in a couple of weeks and she recently watched the Netflix documentary “Hack Your Gut Health: The Secrets of Your Gut”. She asked me to watch it and share my thoughts with her from a functional medicine and nutrition standpoint.
Though I do highly recommend checking the funding source of any documentary in order to spot an agenda, I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It is promoting an author’s book, but I actually plan to order a copy to have on hand and may refer patients to it, too.
Fun fact: If you’re lacking a certain strain of bacteria in your gut there’s research that suggests you’re more likely to become obese. Our gut is truly our second brain. A healthy gut means a more balanced weight and balanced hormones. Toxins are more often than not a contributor to bad gut bacteria. Chronic antibiotic use can also lead to an unhealthy gut. I loved how this documentary reiterated that we all need to eat seasonally and eat clean for a healthy gut.
There was some interesting research and a specific study shared that I feel may need to look into - in other words, the verdict is still out, for me. Overall, I enjoyed this documentary and I support a lot of the author’s findings. I think you should check it out and let me know your thoughts!
Show Notes
0:00:00
My niece had recommended that I watch a Netflix documentary on gut health. She is starting medical school in a couple weeks and she was curious on my thoughts from a functional nutrition perspective. So I watched it and I want to share what I think with you guys. So it's a really good documentary. If you haven't checked it out, I do really recommend it. You know Netflix a lot of them always have a hidden agenda. This one the author or the
0:00:38
main doctor is promoting her book. However, it's phenomenal and I'll probably order the book to have on hand and also refer patients to. So it's Dr. Enders, she is a very young GI doc out of Europe. So she was trying to figure out what the root cause of gut stuff is, right?
0:01:05
IBS, any inflammatory issues, you see diverticulitis, diverticulosis, depression, all of that can be linked to the gut. So one thing that I really enjoyed that she said was that probiotics are important and we know this. I always recommend probiotics for the most part to my patients. So the gut is the second brain and she affirms that. We've known this for years so I did appreciate that about her.
0:01:38
And she did reaffirm that the immune system is located 80% in the gut. So if you do not have a good gut health, you're gonna have a crappy immune system. So again, more reason to eat clean, as clean as we can, watch the toxins, have good supplements to nourish
0:02:01
like probiotics and glutamine. She stated that food can either cure or poison you. Right? Of course, we know this. If you checked out the glyphosate podcast, we talk all about how glyphosates are poisoning us. We can't completely eliminate them. But if we can at least minimize our exposure, that is, of course, ideal. And then everything we put in our mouth will either make us healthier or make us more sick and I try to educate my almost four-year-old on this on a daily basis. If he says mommy why can't I have fruit
0:02:43
snacks you know like Scooby-Doo fruit snacks or cocomelon fruit snacks I say buddy it'll make you sick it's not good for you it'll make you feel yucky. So it's important to kind of educate our loved ones and as moms we have a lot of buying power in the house. So it starts with you and I don't mean to completely clean out the pantry or clean out the fridge. Use what you've got. Start doing little swaps at a time and I'll make sure that I share my grocery shopping list with you guys as well.
0:03:15
You see what I order on Thrive Market, but I'll also share my shopping list. So I really like that, that she said food can either cure you or poison you. She also said that the gut, you know, the saying, the gut feeling, is really true.
0:03:32
The gut is related to the brain, it's part of the immune system. So I did like quite a bit of what she said. She had some really cute graphics on the gut microbiome. So this was a really good documentary. I would say for preteens on the way up, they have little cartoons that explain how the microbes work in the gut. So I really like that. And she said of course if you have a healthy gut you have less autoimmune,
0:04:07
we know that, more balanced weight, more balanced hormones, things we've all known for years and I've been saying. There have been really good studies showing that if you're lacking a certain strain of bacteria you're more likely to be overweight and obese. So again, really important to take care of your gut. Things in modern society that can contribute to poor gut health, and I'm surprised we said some of this, but again it's based out of a European approach and they're a little
0:04:41
bit more open-minded than we are in the States. So things that can compromise gut health, C-sections. I was a C-section baby, my firstborn's a C-section, which is why I immediately started him on probiotics. And I'm a firm believer, I was not breastfed for more than four weeks. And in the 80s, they had crappy formula. So I'm a firm believer that's why I was on antibiotics as a kid,
0:05:08
and I have two autoimmunes now. So C-sections, baby formula, right? It's certainly come a long way. Even since my son was born, it's come a long way. And again, check out the podcast on baby formula. Good, better, and best options with that.
0:05:27
Processed food, we know this. I've talked about this. You guys know this. Stress, fast-paced modern society. We're always on our phones, we're on our tablet, we're rushing the kids here, there, we have meetings, we have zooms. We never get down time. And I was just talking to a patient about this the other day that we actually feel guilty
0:05:48
for taking vacations. What's up with that? We need vacations not only for mental, but physical health. So please make sure that you take vacations either by yourself if you need that or and with the family ideally right manage that stress meditate pray whatever your avenue for stress management is please take advantage of that. Toxins if you looked at the podcast on glyphosates we talk all about toxins and of course like the makeup bag dump, all of that covers the toxins that we're exposed to, that we know of, right?
0:06:30
Of course there's some in the air, in the water, but things that we put on our skin, some of our clothes can leach plastic, tampons if they're not clean, all of that can affect our health and our gut. Sanitation, right? washing our hands, always using hand sanitizer, having sterile environment.
0:06:53
I clean with Blue Land products and vinegar. That's all I have. And Borax, I have Borax in my laundry room if I need it as a booster. That's all I have. I do not believe in hand sanitizer.
0:07:08
I'll use some at the office real quick if I have a patient that's sick and they come in. And I make sure that it's a clean hand sanitizer at that. So having a super clean house, we know for sure can promote more antibiotic use and shicker kids than having kids play outside, walk barefoot, eat dirt, eat sand, all of that. Still wash your hands, but be sensible about it.
0:07:40
And then antibiotics, right? We know chronic antibiotic use can lead to a plethora of health issues. And even in Europe, they're promoting to not give antibiotics as first round therapies, to do other healing modalities,
0:07:54
some natural therapies, watch and wait, and just kind of see how it goes. So I did really appreciate that. She emphasized as well in the documentary, having the importance of diversity in food. It's what God gave us, right? Eat seasonally, eat clean. There's reasons why certain
0:08:15
things grow in your area for certain times of the year. You need to stock up on the antioxidants in the summer, all the berries, all the fresh fruit, all the vegetables. In the winter, we have the hearty stuff, right? The squash, the potatoes, all of that. So you wanna kinda vary your diet
0:08:36
according to the season, if you can. And then watch sugar. She emphasized this, and again, no surprise. Sugar is not only genetically modified, but tears up the gut, is very toxic for certain strains of good bacteria.
0:08:52
What I did appreciate is that she also said that diet changes should be a lifestyle approach. I just had a patient ask me the other day about, I recommended eating cleaner, right? And she said, I need a diet to follow. And I struggled with that because it's common sense,
0:09:16
but we're so ingrained to count carbs, count calories, to follow something, that we lose that innate ability to think, okay, I can eat this or I shouldn't eat that, and just to kind of have variety. So make sure that you make everything a lifestyle approach. Fruit, unlimited.
0:09:37
Follow the Dirty Dozen, the clean 15. Vegetables, same thing, dirty dozen, clean 15. Eat as much as you want. Meat should be all grass-fed and wild ideally. Sugar, from what God gave us. Molasses, maple syrup, honey, and grain. Clean, clean grain, quinoa, oats, corn if it's a non-GMO, organic. So just common sense, right? And she emphasized that diets don't work.
0:10:15
We know this. There's a reason why Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig and all of these, Noom and all of this has been out. It's successful. It's a huge money maker, right? You buy my food, I tell you how to eat, we have weigh-ins.
0:10:30
I don't give you the life skills to change how you eat because I wanna keep you on the hook. I wanna keep you coming back to my program. Doesn't make sense. They don't do that over in Europe. The other thing I really enjoyed her emphasizing
0:10:42
is to not count macros and count calories. And I know I just said that about my patient wanting to count things. So she also had some different professors and experts on the documentary. And what I really enjoyed about it too
0:11:02
is she had an expert from Ireland. And my husband and I were in Ireland, probably been about six or seven years ago now. And he was going through a market in Cork. And you can just see, when we were over there everything was so fresh and so clean and there's really no fast food. It's healthier fast food. So that was really neat to kind of see
0:11:26
that again. She did emphasize that the microbiome in the gut will dictate taste. So certain bacteria can make you crave certain things and we know this with sugar, but also chemicals in the brain and chemicals in our food. So that's why there's a lot of MSG in food to keep you coming back. It's like the what they call the Dorito effect and there's a whole book on this making you addicted to food. A lot of fast-food companies do it. That's why people say when they can't get enough of something, they literally are chemically addicted to that food. So it was nice to
0:12:08
hear a MD say that. She did also say, which I agree with a thousand percent, that if you're craving something, a lot of times you're deficient in it. And we know this. Women will crave magnesium around their period, or I'm sorry, will crave chocolates around their period because of the magnesium deficiency. You've followed me with my pregnancy. I craved milk because I was low in calcium,
0:12:34
so I upped my calcium and that took care of that craving. If you're craving chips, the salt, a lot of times you're low in salt, which again, I like to use the electrolyte, the Elements or the Liquid IV, those are great ones. The element is really cool because they say to stay salty, that's their catch line and you
0:12:59
can kind of vary the saltiness level. It has sodium, potassium and magnesium in it. So I appreciated that she emphasized that as well. We make about 80% of the serotonin in the gut. So not only is most of our immune system in the gut, but our happy hormone, right? So many of us are on antidepressants. Why don't we start looking at the gut for that? And diet.
0:13:25
I have so many patients that are on more than one medication for anxiety or sleep or depression, and it still doesn't work. Why? Because it doesn't fix the root of the issue. She did emphasize that having the lack of sunlight is an issue for gut health, as well as not exercising.
0:13:45
Right, you gotta take care of that mind, body, spirit. You gotta get moving, you gotta walk, swim, do yoga, bicycle, whatever is your jam. And the other thing which I thought was really interesting that they're kinda testing the waters on, something called fecal transplants. So they followed about four different individuals in this documentary and
0:14:12
discussed their strains of bacteria with certain conditions. And there's a huge study going on, I think in California, where they're using poop samples to to analyze the poop to see the connection between diagnoses or pathologies. So, you know, based on your poop, you might have more depression or you might be more likely to have an autoimmune.
0:14:36
So there's this one woman who first got her fecal sample from her brother and used that to transplant into her gut colony. And because of the same bacteria that he had, he had really bad acne, she started to get really bad acne. So the second time she used her boyfriend's fecal matter
0:15:03
to transplant into her own, and the jury's still out, the documentary ended. To me, common sense, right? We shouldn't have to transplant poop to get certain strains of bacteria in a certain people. Right, we're all individualistic for a good reason.
0:15:18
And that's all influenced by diet and genetics. So I'm not a huge fan of fecal transplants. Gotta wait and see what the research shows more on that. But that was just really interesting, the way they approached that subject. So that's my thoughts on the Gut-Duck documentary on Netflix. I'd love to hear
0:15:42
your thoughts, so if you want to share in the comments or DM me your perspective. If you haven't watched it, I do recommend it and I like I said I think I'll probably order Dr. Ender's book and learn more about her research. So it gives you something to look at this summer.
Transcribed with Cockatoo