Gut Feelings: The Microbiome-Disease Connection

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Ever wondered why you can't shake that chronic health issue despite trying everything? The answer might be swimming in your gut right now. Your microbiome—that complex ecosystem of bacteria, viruses, fungi and more—isn't just handling digestion; it's a mission control center for your entire body's health.

When your gut exists in what scientists call "eubiosis" (a beautiful balance of diverse microorganisms), you feel great. But when dysbiosis strikes and that balance tips, the effects cascade throughout your body. This imbalance doesn't just cause digestive discomfort—it can trigger everything from skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis to autoimmune disorders, depression, and even cardiovascular disease.

The modern diet's lack of nutrient density has made achieving optimal gut health increasingly difficult. Our ancestors enjoyed diverse, fiber-rich foods that naturally supported their microbiomes, while many of us now require supplementation with probiotics, prebiotics, and targeted nutrients to restore what's missing. Those magical short-chain fatty acids like butyrate—produced by healthy gut bacteria—provide anti-inflammatory benefits that can heal the gut barrier, reduce systemic inflammation, and potentially improve conditions from endometriosis to brain fog.

What makes this understanding so revolutionary is recognizing the interconnectedness of body systems. When your gut health improves, your skin clears, your mood stabilizes, and your inflammatory markers drop. This isn't alternative medicine—it's the cutting edge of medical science. You might not eliminate every medication, but as someone who's personally managed endometriosis through gut health optimization, I can testify that addressing the root cause can dramatically reduce symptoms and medication dependency. Ready to transform your health from the inside out? Start by nourishing the trillions of tiny allies in your gut microbiome.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:26):
so I'm recording on another platform.
So, thinking about the gutbiome and what intestinal
dysbiosis is, um, think aboutyou're taking out the weeds,
you're gonna seed some thingsand you're gonna feed certain
things.
Now in the gut we have, themicrobiome is comprised of a
collection of bacteria.

(00:47):
So all of these, when it's in anice beautiful all of these,
when it's in a nice beautifulhomeostatic state, when it's in
a nice beautiful area, you'regoing to have great bacteria,
you're going to have archaea,you're going to have viruses,
fungi, protists, and it's goingto be so nicely wrapped into
like a little bow, and your bodywill be like oh, I feel great.
The problem is this ecosystem.

(01:07):
When it becomes altered, youknow then it, you know it's not
great.
So, like that, they call iteubiosis or I would call it
utopia of a.
You know, insides Everything isnicely diverse, everything is
beautiful, and that's when youdon't have as much illness.
But when you have a dysbiosisor imbalance, there's a
diversity problem and theircommunity has been altered.

(01:31):
So you just don't have theright amount of things.
And we talked about what werethe things that may have caused
it.
But things that are helpful forit or that are in the actual
microbiome are probiotics, andprobiotics are live
microorganisms.
Um, there's different onesLactobacillus is pretty big Um,

(01:52):
acidophilus you'll hear those,and there's so many um that are
there.
And then there's prebiotics,which are non-digestible foods
that are used such to help, um,get through the body.
Now, things such as such astypical fibrous foods.
Now there's symbiotics, andsymbiotics are both probiotics

(02:14):
and prebiotics.
Then there's postbiotics.
Those are compounds in themicroorganisms that are
fermented metabolites, things ofthe health benefit, the host
itself.
Thanks for just joining in.
I appreciate you.
Now, how do you get all thedeficients Like?
How do you get it to be mostlydifferent species?

(02:37):
Most of the time, what you putin your body should give you a
microdiversity.
The problem we have is a lot ofthe foods are not nutrient
dense.
So most of us, including myself, I have to have a green pack of
something, of some sort ofgreens, in my diet, I have to
put collagen, I put vitamins andI have to add it in.

(02:58):
Now, unfortunately, most of thetime, we don't have the amount
of quality diversity and itneeds to be added back into our
diet, and that is why a lot ofgut microbiome issues come up
for people, because it isactually so much higher than it
used to be.
And most people are like, oh,that's why we have all these
illnesses.
We have these illnesses becausethere's just there's such a

(03:22):
degrade over time.
And granted, of course there'sother illnesses, like acute
illnesses that we will fix, likewhen I have to go and suture
someone's finger.
I have to suture someone'sfinger, that's an acute issue.
They're having a heart attack.
We have to treat that.
They're having some sort ofailment.
But when we're talking aboutthese chronic issues, some of
them can actually be addressedin a nutrient and a microbiome.

(03:47):
So that's kind of that Indigestion.
What do you do with digestionand how does that work?
What does the body need todigest?
A lot of nutrients like vitaminK, vitamin B, folate, b12,

(04:12):
metabolism with the bile acids,metabolism in the liver, and
we're just trying to, like youknow, maintain that gut barrier,
right?
Um, and how does that work?
Now, key metabolites when itcomes to function in the body um
, you'll hear about short chainfatty acids.
I say that a couple timesbutyrate, acetate, propionate.
When you'll hear someone say toyou what's butyrate, acetate,
propionate, when you'll hearsomeone say to you what's
butyrate, that's like the energysource that causes.
It's like anti-inflammatory, itwill enhance the gut's biome

(04:34):
and its microbiome.
So when I ask people to do somegreens or I'm pleased to meet
you, usually that's because I'mtrying to have them signal
anti-inflammatory response inthe body.
There's called propionate, whichis probably absorbed and
metabolized by the liver.
That's why the liver has over200 plus functions.

(04:54):
Maybe I'd say 300 plusfunctions and I can't even name
all of them.
But it's so important and if weblock the liver from doing the
jobs that it's supposed to bedoing glucose metabolism storage
, there's an endless amount.
And I will talk just onelecture on the liver alone,

(05:15):
because it is such a profoundorgan that we just don't give it
enough credit for uh and longterm we just, you know, we just
like kind of abuse it so itdoesn't get the right amount of
vitamins, um, and then thisimpairment overall, can you know
, talk messes with your gutdysfunction and that
malabsorption and maldigestion.

(05:36):
Just over time it really can doa number on you.
The leaky gut can be improvedlong term when you have the
right amount of um.
You know they call thebutyrates or short chain fatty
acids, and we get back thequality amounts of microbiome in
there and we decrease theamount of inflammatory responses

(05:57):
.
So is it possible?
Yes.
Now other things that causedysbiosis, and I'll talk another
huge lecture on hyperinsulemia.
Hyperinsulemia I'm going to goover that tomorrow, that
tomorrow, hyperinsulinia has todo with type 2 diabetes, insulin
resistance, obesity, nafld,which is um, the non-steroidic

(06:18):
fatty liver disease like I wassaying about the liver being so
important.
Hydrogen how are you nice tomeet you, um and how it can
alter the body.
So where you can get, ifnothing else you get out of this
is why are these?
Why is the malabsorption andwhy is the gut so important?
When you start decreasing themalabsorption and the body from

(06:41):
doing what it needs to do andthere is a dysregulation within
the immune system and thischronic systemic inflammation is
then triggered because itdoesn't have the right amount of
beautiful microbiome of thingsit's, you know.
Those junctions are impaired,the immune system is triggered

(07:01):
and this is when you have thisexasperation of illnesses.
Now, everyone in some way hassome sort of genetic markers.
Now it's just a matter ofwhat's going to be triggered.
Is it rheumatoid arthritis?
Is it lupus?
Is it Hashimoto's, thyroiditis,some MS?
Is it IBD?
That does not mean that youdon't need medications for these
things.
No, that's not what I'm saying.
What it means is, if you havesome sort of understanding of

(07:23):
what's underlying you may be,you may be able to improve and
manage this better.
That's why I'm talking aboutchronic management illnesses,
not trying to.
You can.
You can put a lot of these intoremission or or decrease them
significantly or need lessmedication.
That's the, that's the, thegoals.

(07:44):
When I try to see and work withindividuals and have less brain
fog, have more cognitiveinability, and when you
understand some of the reasonswhy things happen, especially
with hyperinsulemia and the foodintake, I think that becomes a
big factor when you realize whatyou're putting into your body

(08:06):
and exposing yourself to toxins,allergens like of that nature.
It can also alter your hormones.
Um, a big one when I was withmy endometriosis.
It's called estroblomi and it'sa gut microbiome metabolizes
estrogen.
I had an excess of estrogen inmy gut because I had a dysbiosis

(08:28):
and I had an irregularity thereand I didn't have it removed
and due to that that caused aninflammatory trigger of my
endometriosis right, so that inturn was triggered on someone.
Also could be triggered oneczema.
Maybe they ate or ingested orwere exposed to something that

(08:50):
caused them inflammation.
The skin will kind of show youthings that you know psoriasis,
eczema, rosacea, those are gutskin problems.
Those are not just topical.
You see someone with some, Ican tell you.
If I see your skin I can tellyou you have X, y, z, not

(09:13):
everything, but I can tell a lotof illnesses that people have
by looking at their skin.
Um, a lot of things here thatum, lipomas, um skin tags, uh,
fading, dark skin discoloration,genetic components, like that
doesn't mean it's a bad thing.
It just means that, like theskin can, like, usually that's a

(09:36):
um long-term problem.
Like right now, I mean this issilly.
But this is sunburn.
Right, I have sunburn because Iwas in the sun.
That's topical, it's acute.
If I didn't fix this long-termand I was out in the sun long,
long time, I'd eventually getcancer.

(09:57):
So that if you're not going tofix the chronic problem at hand,
then you will.
It will progressively get worseNow if you don't fix the gut
biome issues and keep bringingthose triggers and they will
connect and become a dysfunctionand then it will.
It will come out.
But if you don't fix the gutbiome issues and keep bringing
those triggers and they willconnect and become a dysfunction
and then it will come out.
But if you get to the rootcause not necessarily the root
cause but if you start to learnto manage some of these things,
you're going to become freer.
I'm telling you, I promise you,if you learn some of it, you

(10:19):
will be able to fix just even asmall portion of some of your
illness.
Like you could literally takeone less pill, one less.
If you notice, one thingtriggers it, one thing doesn't.
For me, I don't drink anymorebecause I want my liver to be
the best that it can be.
The most I do is coffee yeah, Idefinitely do, that's probably
my advice and I try to reallytry to sleep and have some more.

(10:42):
My lifestyle management that'simportant for me and then I work
on my cortisol levels, high andlow, making sure that they're
in balance and microbiome wise.
I do take, like I said, I takemy, my supplements, whether it's
digestive enzymes, greens, andmy nutritional needs so that I
don't have malabsorption issues.
On that note, I hope that was afun topic.

(11:05):
I know that it's a lot.
The gut and brain access can besignificant and can be a lot,
but I can go over a little bitmore here.
So let's think of it like yoursystem has an inflammatory
cascade.
It's altered, the how do I putthis?

(11:30):
It's altered.
Your system has an inflammatorycascade.
It's altered a chronicinflammatory response, that
response they call it asmeta-inflammation.
You know, the gut biome isaltered.
That has then altered yourcirculation within the body.
That then has, you know,disrupted what nutrients you can

(11:54):
get in, which then in turn hasdisrupted the immune system,
which then can make it either goover an abundance autoimmune
system or under.
So if it's underactive, it'snot help fighting off a certain
disease for you.
So if it's underactive, it'snot help fighting off a certain
disease for you.
If it's overreactive, usuallyit's more like rashes and like a
rheumatoid arthritis or like apain, pain or it's going.

(12:15):
It's underactive and it's notfighting off the things that you
need to fight off Things thatcome up that people ask again,
like the gut-brain connection,psychiatric disorders.
Now, some psychiatric disorderscan cause brain fog, you know,
depression, anxiety, and signalthe biggest nerve from altering.

(12:37):
Now that doesn't mean that somethings are going to come up and
you know they're minor and youcan improve some psychiatric
disorders with depression andanxiety.
You can improve some of themwithout medications.
But it also lets you know,though, too, why certain
medications do work.

(12:57):
So some antidepressants andanxiety medications improve your
IBS or inflammatory responses,because there is a connection
there, but that still doesn'tfix necessarily underlying
illnesses due to.
Usually it's because there is adisconnect in the microbiome

(13:19):
and there's the serotonin uptake.
There's usually some sort ofneurotransmitter that is not
being produced or overproducedin the brain and in the gut, and
because of that that's whythose medications are
additionally needed.
But if you don't work on whatyou put into your body and work
on your stressors, themedications are going to not

(13:39):
always fix everything.
So that's where I come in totell you that it you know it's
not a one size fits all Otherthings that are.
They come into play with thewell, the gut biome affects all
systems.
I think that's.
The other thing I need peopleto understand is that when your
gut is is messed up, and yourgut, brain, like all systems,

(14:00):
can be affected and it's notjust like a one thing, and I
think the hardest part in themedical field that I have is
that it is connected.
Not everybody thinks of it likethat, because we have separate,
separate doctors for separatethings.
They're not always talking andthey're like well, here's your
medication for this, here's yourmedication for that.

(14:20):
Okay, I'm going to take care ofthis part, and that's just
frustrating.
That's all.
That's the only things thatbother me, because you know
they're linked.
It's inflammatory responses arelinked, you know, with
cardiovascular disease.
It's not usually actually thedysphilippeia like the high
cholesterol.
It's usually influenced becausethe gut health is wrong.
Your cholesterol has beenaltered, your stress levels are

(14:42):
altered, your food intake isaltered, things of that nature.
Again, skin issues conditionsare reflected with gut skin
access.
The barrier has beendeteriorated, the inflammatory
responses increase and thenthere's a balance, a disbalance
there.
So you know, therefore, liketheir connection here is all in
turn long-term will causechronic illness.

(15:04):
So I hope that was interestingfor you today.
I am getting off now, but I'mreally glad that you joined in.
I appreciate you.
Connect with me at any time.
You guys are really sweet.
I think it's really nice.
So thank you again and I willbe on tomorrow talking about

(15:24):
hyperinsulinia and a coupleother topics.
Talk with you soon.
Okay, god bless, I mightactually not get off, but I'm
just going to put on music.
So that's what I'm going to doright now.