#7 Doctor Warns: Gut Health Is More Important Than You Think- With Dr. Christine Bishara

Episode Transcript
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Ricardo Vasquez (00:00):
Welcome to Youthful Aging Secrets Podcast.
I'm your host, Ricardo Vazquez,and today I'm excited to
introduce to you Dr.
Christine Beshara.
She's a board certified internalmedicine physician with over 20
years of experience.
Dr.
Beshara is the founder of FromWithin Medical.
A wellness practice thatemphasizes the powerful

(00:20):
connection between the gut,brain, and immune system.
She's a published researcher whomade a groundbreaking discovery
linking gut health to diseaseseverity, and she's also the
author of The Gut Revolution.
In this episode, you can expectto learn what gut health is and
why it's crucial for overallwell being.
How to test your gut health andwhat signs to look for, proven

(00:42):
strategies to improve your guthealth, the difference between
good and bad bacteria and why itmatters, effective protocols for
gut health, including fasting,what foods to eat and which to
avoid, and the pushback that Dr.
Beshara received from themedical community, despite
publishing groundbreakingresearch on why children weren't
as severely affected as adultsduring the pandemic and so much

(01:05):
more.
I really enjoyed ourconversation and I think you
will too.
Thank you.
Now, before we dive into today'sepisode, I want to quickly tell
you about my free Five HealthHacks newsletter.
It's perfect for busy people whowant to live as healthy as
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(01:27):
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com forward slash subscribe.
Let's get it.
All right, Dr.

(01:47):
Christine Bishara, thank you somuch for being here.
Thanks for having me.
so why don't we start off bytelling us, me, our guests, our
listeners.
what's your background?
What do you do, your specialtyand kind of how you got here?
I'll let you take it away.

Dr Christine Bishara (02:04):
So I'm a medical doctor.
My background is internalmedicine and I love internal
medicine, but I also lovenutrition and gut health even
more.
Dr.
Bishara.
And I didn't really find that Iwas able to discuss that with my
patients.
And I think we all have a giftthat we need to kind of use to

(02:26):
help others and everyone's giftis different.
And I just felt like traditionalmainstream medicine was not
really where my gift of sharingmy passion is.
So I kind of like lefttraditional medicine and then I
opened a wellness and weightloss practice where I focus on
gut health and nutrition andteach my patients to do that.

(02:46):
And it's always really,affirming when they find that
really the simple things arewhat makes them feel healthy.

So how long have you been focused on gut
health?

Officially like six years.
I've been a doctor for.
25 years.
But I've always been talking topeople about nutrition and gut
health

So in your training as a medical doctor,
for example, you said you couldreally talk to your patients
about their gut health.
Is it because you weren'tallowed to, or is it, you just
limited on time when you see apatient that's kind of in and
out?

Yeah.
It's really more about time.
You know, we have to go throughso many different things, you
know, like screenings and thingslike that.
But what I kind of noticed timeand time and again with patients
is I didn't really have time totalk to them about nutrition at
all.
And people were just hungry forthat information and we just
didn't have enough time toaddress all those issues with

(03:43):
the other stuff that we're kindof, required to do.
So, and like I said before, Ithink we're all kind of put on
this earth to share what we'rereally passionate about.
And so I was like, you knowwhat, this isn't really where I
feel like I'm best beingutilized.

Well, I'm happy to hear you have a practice.
You seem like you're verypassionate about, so that's
really awesome.
And we can get more into that.
So I want to, I want to segmentto, I know you have a book
coming out.
So I wanted to get that out andI'm excited.
And I just wanted to know if youcould kind of give me a little
bit of overview as to why youhave the book to begin with, and

(04:18):
what motivated you to do that?

So the book's called the gut revolution
and I purposely picked thatname, because I feel like we
really do need to have arevolution in terms of our
health, in terms of our diet,people are just getting sicker
and sicker.
The cancer rates are higher.
Autoimmune rates are higher andthings as simple as the gut are
what really people need to learnabout.

(04:41):
So the gut revolution, I neverreally thought about writing a
book until after the pandemic.
I was very naive, before COVIDhit, but, what I found during
COVID, early in COVID was thatwe have the best medicine
cabinet in our gut and it'scalled beneficial bacteria.

(05:03):
And there's all these trillionsof organisms living in our gut
that help us and help our immunesystem.
And people aren't aware of that.
And so really the gut revolutionwas born out of the fact that I
need to put gut health and theseorganisms that live inside of us
out there for everyone to seeand everyone to know about
because they are really helpingus a lot with our immune health.

I've heard the term gut microbiome, gut health,
these kinds of things.
What exactly does that evenmean?
What is the gut microbiome

We have these organisms that live within
us, there's trillions of them,there's all these different
species, some are good, some arebad, and the way that I kind of
describe it in the book is,think of them as like employees,
and you're feeding them foodsthat they like to eat because
what they like to eat, thebeneficial ones anyway, produces
amazing byproducts.

(05:55):
they're regulating things likeour brain health, they're
regulating our immune system.
And so depending on what youeat, it feeds either the bad
ones or the good ones.
My book is really to teachpeople about how to feed them
because you're eating fortrillions.
You're not just eating for one.
How to feed them so that theycan produce the best byproducts

(06:15):
for you, which is a healthyimmune system, healthy mental
health, cognitive function, allthese really amazing things.
So we can talk a little bit morespecifically about how they
affect each system.
Like the immune system, forexample.

So you said you were either feeding the good
ones and you're feeding the badones or maybe both.
So I just want to go deeper intothat.
How do we feed the good and thebad, for example?
And maybe some examples of foodor I would imagine alcohol is
probably not the greatest thingor something like that.

So if you think about alcohol, like
rubbing alcohol, right, or handsanitizer has alcohol in it,
right?
So why do we use it?
We like rubber hands to killoff.
Bacteria, right?
To kill off bad bacteria.
Well, when you're drinkingalcohol, it's kind of doing the
same thing in your gut.
You're killing off thesebeneficial microbes and we need
them.
We really need them to help us.
So they like certain foods.

(07:11):
They need certain foods.
did you ever wonder why, certainvegetables have, fibers in them
called inulin?
Maybe you don't know that, butthere's a fiber called inulin,
just one example, in vegetablesthat we can't digest.
Like, we, it just goes out inthe stool.
We're not able to digest it, butguess who benefits from it?
The beneficial gut microbesactually feed on fiber rich

(07:33):
foods like inulin.
Inulin is one of them.
Other ones are resistant starch.
So when we eat foods that havethose, we're literally feeding
them what they need.
So when they take thoseproducts, the fibers, they
produce these byproducts calledpostbiotics.
so you have prebiotics,probiotics, and postbiotics.

(07:55):
Prebiotics are the actual foodslike in the fiber and vegetables
and plant based foods.
So those are what you're eating.
Probiotics are the actualorganisms, right?
So they're actually eating thoseprebiotics, feeding on them and
then producing these wonderfulbyproducts called postbiotics.
So in order for them to producepostbiotics, we have to feed

(08:15):
them the prebiotics that theylike.
So examples of this are likeinulin rich fibers include foods
like garlic, onion.
Raw onions are cooked, asparagusis very rich in inulin fibers,
artichokes are really rich inthat.
So you have to give a variety ofthese plant based foods that
they like to feed on and thenthey absorb what they can from

(08:38):
there and they make thesepostbiotics.
Now what are postbiotics?
What is that?
They can include vitamins.
They can includeneurotransmitters, they can
include all these byproductsthat really help our body to
remain healthy.
conversely, we can eat foodsthat the harmful bacteria like
to feed on and these areprocessed foods and other not

(09:01):
healthy foods like refinedcarbohydrates, which stay in our
gut for longer periods.
So when we eat too much of thosefoods.
We're feeding the bad bacteriaand when the bad bacteria grow
and thrive and kind of outnumberthe good bacteria, this is where
we start going into healthproblems because if you think
about good bacteria, they'realmost like soldiers kind of on

(09:23):
the front line of your inside ofyour intestines and the more
that die and then the badbacteria kind of replace those
positions, the lining gets weakbecause the bad bacteria don't
really work very, veryefficiently.
And so once the lining gets weakand the inside of your gut it
starts to leak out into yourimmune system.
And, unfortunately your immunesystem's really smart, but it

(09:47):
might be too smart for its owngood because it starts to detect
things that it's never seenbefore, right?
If your, gut is now leakingtoxins that the good bacteria
were helping prevent thatrelease of, then your immune
system starts to say, Hey, I'venever seen this stuff.
What is this?
I need to protect myself.
And this is where we start goinginto autoimmune diseases and

(10:08):
chronic inflammation because ourimmune system is actually too
smart that it will react in away that, protects itself and
that protection means that itincreases inflammation because
inflammation in short term isactually helpful for us.
And once that inflammationstarts, that's the cascade of
all these issues that we have.

Yeah, that's a lot.
I've never heard of, postbiotics before.
So this is the first time.
That's very interesting.
How do they know that we havegood and bad bacteria?
And then also, how do we knowwhat foods?
Feed the good and feed the bad.

Gut science is fairly new, but it's
not that new.
And so we've had, gut analysiswhere we look at the stool of
people.
based on their DNA, we canactually, tell now what strains
of bacteria they have, thenumber of strains, the diversity
of the strains.
And just from research, we knowthat certain bacteria are bad,

(11:02):
like a lot of people have heardof E.
coli.
I mean, that's a normal,bacteria.
It's part of our gut flora, soit's not necessarily bad to
have, but it really kind ofdepends on the ratios.
The ratios are what's reallyimportant.
And so, we've seen just kind offrom all this research that
we've done is a certain, certainstrains of, organisms are
beneficial and certain ones arenot.

(11:23):
And we see that from gutanalysis that we do with, with
patients.
The technology has gotten reallygood now that, we can literally
detect all these strains and,and, and say, you know, these
strains are associated morewith, increased likelihood of
colon cancer, for example, orthese strains may put you more
at risk for inflammatory boweldisease.
And so the technology has gottenreally good.

(11:46):
We just don't know.
everything we need to know aboutthe microbiome.
And I don't know if we everwill, but that's how we find
out.
And then we just look at, youknow, in different studies, we
look at the correlation of, Oh,you know what?
These people have a lot higherlevels of this bad bacteria.
And then we find that thosepeople are actually developing
colon cancer at a higher rate.
For example, conversely, youcould look at children who have

(12:09):
an interesting gut microbiomecomposition because.
their microbiome looks verydifferent from adults and they
have a very high percentage of abeneficial bacteria called
bifidobacterium.
And believe it or not, about 60to 80 percent of their gut is
that one bacteria.
So people do research on that,bacteria.
Why do they, why do kids have somuch of that?

(12:31):
Well, we realized that it's avery potent immune regulator and
it regulates inflammatorypathways and it's very
protective of the immune system.
And so I believe that.
The whole point is you guys likechildren have this one bacteria
much higher levels in adultsbecause it's God's way or
nature's way of kind of ensuringthat their immunity is strong
when they're young and theyhaven't really developed an

(12:52):
adaptive immune system.
And oddly enough, that's whatprotected kids from COVID
severity is this one beneficialbacteria.

So you published, I think you were one
of the first papers that werepublished on the severity of
COVID in relation to childrenand why they didn't.
Get as bad symptoms and even,you know, death, et cetera.

Yeah.
So, you know, it's interestingcause, I live in New York City
and COVID hit New York prettyearly.
And, so my practice, remembereverybody was like, Oh, if
you're non essential, you'reshut down.
So my practice was a wellnessand weight loss practice.
So I was shut down.
my husband's an ICU physicianand he had the opposite effect.
Like they were like, you guysare like front liners, right?
So he was kind of stressed ontothe front line and I, the

(13:41):
opposite effect.
I had a little more time on myend.
So he was, coming home, we weretalking about his patients and
how certain people were gettinglike a lot more sick than
others.
and he was telling me, you know,it's strange because we have
these patients who really don'thave any medical problems, but
they're getting really sick andthe only risk factors they have

(14:03):
is they're overweight.
And so he said, we're tryingthese new medications that are
helping and they're antiinflammatory medications and
they work on specificinflammatory markers?
And I said, yeah, they actuallydo.
It's interleukin six, by theway, is that one inflammatory
marker that kind of drives thatinitial reaction in the body to
COVID.

(14:23):
And so I kind of just startedthinking, well, I wonder why
kids aren't really getting sick.
So we started doing someresearch on children's guts.
And we found that they have veryhigh levels of this bacteria.
But the more we started digging,the more we started linking the
two together is this bacteriaactually down regulates those
specific pathways.
Like why did they get reallysick?
It's because the body respondsin a way where it's hyper

(14:46):
inflammatory and that hyperinflammation is what actually
causes damage and what makesthem even sicker.
And so what we found wasbifidobacterium down regulates
those specific pathways.
So in children when they getCOVID, their body doesn't even
have a chance to mount thisinflammation.
Bifidobacterium immediately downregulate those pathways.

(15:06):
we published a study.
It was the first one and we wereso excited about getting this
out because all the patientsthat we were giving this
treatment protocol to, which ishigh dose probiotics with
bifidobacterium, zinc Andvitamin D, did not lose one
patient.
And I had all these people thatwere, really sick that I treated
them with this protocol and theydid well.

(15:28):
so we wanted to share this studyand nobody wanted to hear about
it.
It was like we were recommendingrat poison as a treatment.

Yeah, there was a lot of that going on, People,
podcasts are being banned and tome, it's like the flow of
information should continue toflow and, people need to do
their due diligence and we'renot allowed to have an opinion
but these are legitimate expertslike yourself who are saying,
Hey, look, I'm treating mypatients with this and it's
having success and nobody seemsto be listening.

(16:01):
So that kind of pisses me off,you know?

Yeah.
It's interesting that youmentioned that because, it was
the same thing.
We were like, okay, we foundsomething that.
And we had the science, we had apeer reviewed scientific
published study and theywouldn't even entertain the
opportunity to discuss it.
And it wasn't just me, it wasme, three other colleagues,
scientists and, and doctors.

(16:24):
And, you know, the whole pointof science is to establish a
hypothesis, and go through thosesteps.
And I felt like we weren't ableto do that.
Now, speaking of ivermectin, thedoctor who started using
ivermectin also, was extremelyfrustrated because he was
finding that it was veryeffective.
in his patients and helping themalso cope with COVID.

(16:46):
He was finding the same thing.
But interestingly enough, nowfour years later, we know a lot
more and there are a lot ofstudies coming out on
bifidobacterium that link thedeficiencies.
We've seen a lot of clinicaltrials, but interestingly enough
about ivermectin.
There's a doctor that did astudy on the mechanism of action
of ivermectin in the gut and howit helps with COVID.

(17:07):
we initially thought that thereason why it was helping was it
was also working on these sameinflammatory pathways and
downregulating them.
But the actual, findings in thatstudy was that ivermectin was
increasing bifidobacteriumlevels in the gut, and that's
why it was helping.
So it's a very old medication.
It's used for parasiticinfections, and apparently the
mechanism of action, one of themis to actually get rid of the

(17:29):
parasites, but it's also toincrease the levels and
production of this one bacteriathat we're talking about.
So it all kind of links, it allgoes back to the gut.
and I think we've become asociety where we're more
interested in quick fixes.
Instead of actually digging deepand realizing that our body has
these amazing healing, powersand our gut is very, very

(17:51):
powerful.
So that's my goal.
That's why I wrote the book

I used to be very much as a controversial, or
not controversial, sorry.
conspiracy theories and allthat.
And to the point where I wasn'teven willing to hear the other
side of things.
Now I'm, I think I'm a littlebit more in the middle because
there's a lot of nonsense too,when it comes to conspiracy
theories.
And so the problem is peoplewill use that as an example.
And the moment you have aconspiracy theory, they're like,

(18:17):
oh, you're crazy.
But if you look, it's like,well, it seems to me like a lot
of the influence behind thesedecisions as to whether or not
they, Allow you to publish astudy or even use the
information within it seems tobe profit driven.

I mean, like I said, I was very naive
before 2020 and what I saw.
And then when I talked to otherdoctors and we discussed what
they saw, it's not conspiracytheory.
There was definitely an agendato block any information that
related to a non profitabletreatment.
And, you know, I'm coming outand saying this because our

(18:57):
study was the first one, but itdefinitely wasn't the last one
that links this bacteria to thegut.
In fact, ironically, just afterthe vaccines rolled out, a study
came out.
In China, a big study that waspublished in the British Medical
Journal about, comparingpatients, stool samples in the

(19:18):
ICU versus those who weren't assick.
And those were, the ones in theICU had much higher levels of
bifidobacterium than the rest.
And I find it odd that thatstudy came out after the
vaccines were rolled out.
And you're right.
I mean, the vaccines made a lotof money for a lot of people, a
lot of governments.

(19:39):
And bifidobacterium is free and,I just, I find it odd that not
one single person wanted to knowwhy children didn't get sick.
What, like, isn't anybodycurious as to why they weren't
getting sick?
And there are legitimate studiesthat came out, there's like 20,
25 studies now that actuallylink this bacteria.

(20:00):
And it was published on one ofthe protocols with frontline
critical care workers as atreatment plan.
So, I do find it very odd that,you're right, quick and
profitable fixes, you know,can't hurt to get the quick part
too.

I'm going to be speaking with an immunologist
and her take on, why childrenwere also getting the vaccine,
et cetera, it seems to me likeif, why we're not to turn this
into a whole COVID thing, causethat's not my intention.
But why, do you know whychildren were?
Taking the vaccine anyway, ifthey weren't having negative
outcomes, besides the obvious,oh, they can still be spreaders.

(20:37):
And as a matter of fact,apparently they were spreading
the majority.
I don't know if that's true ornot.
This is what I heard.

Listen I think the public was given
misinformation and they trustedthe authorities who claim to
know science and What theydidn't realize were that a lot
of scientists were beingmuzzled, and the information
that was coming out was theinformation that only they
wanted.
And I, from day one, was adamantabout not giving this vaccine to

(21:05):
children.
I was always someone who said,If your risks of dying from
this, virus are that high, andyou, as a personal, choice for
you after discussing with yourdoctor, want to take it fine.
But there's really no reason forchildren to have gotten this
vaccine.

(21:25):
We don't know long termimplications of MRNA, vaccines,
and they were protectednaturally by their body's immune
system.
And that really did frustrateme.
I don't know why children weregiven the vaccine, but the only
thing I can come up with is thefact that the public was
misinformed.
By whoever needed to get thatinformation out and a lot of

(21:46):
doctors were muzzled and notspeaking about what they saw on
the front lines.

so Bifidobacterium, is that how
it's pronounced?
And how do you know that it'slinked directly to COVID
outcomes?
And I'm sure many others.
And how do we get more of it?

Yeah.
Okay.
So how do we know that it'slinked to Covid outcomes?
so our study was a review studybecause we weren't allowed in
the hospitals to do testing.
So our study, even though it wasthe first one, it was just a
review study of bifidobacteriumand an establishment of
hypotheses that, hey, childrenhave a lot more of this.
It seems to work on the samepathways.
The whole science of it isreally making sense.

(22:28):
Let's get people probiotics withbifidobacterium, right?
how do we know?
Well, there've been a lot ofstudies since then, clinical
studies, studies that have shownthat people with deficiencies
don't do as well.
a big study out of Italy by agastroenterologist who also is
like a gut microbiome expert.
he had a study where he gave oneset of, control patients, the

(22:51):
standard protocol for COVIDtreatment.
He gave the other set, theprobiotic high dose probiotics,
including Bifido.
he found that his probioticgroup did eight times better.
And respiratory wise and othersymptom wise, than the control
group that was just given thestandard treatment protocol.
That study was out.
We have numerous studies thatshow this, and it's a cause and

(23:13):
effect, right?
They found that theirbifidobacterium levels are
higher than the non centenarianelderly population.
So what does that mean?
It means if you're unhealthy inyour 60s and we look at your
gut, you may not have anybifidobacterium or very little,
but if you're healthy and welook at your gut and you're a
hundred years old, you're goingto probably have a lot more
bifidobacterium in your gut.

(23:34):
And we're seeing a lot ofstudies related to that.
So, can we know for 100 percentfor sure?
No, but in science, nothing isever 100%, but we can establish
cause and effect by doingdifferent studies and looking at
patients guts and seeing, youknow, what these people didn't
do really well.
There's a reason.
Kids did really well.
There's a reason.

(23:54):
how do we increasebifidobacterium?
Well, number one, we have tochange our diet because
bifidobacterium are one ofthose, microbes in our gut that
love fiber.
They do really good things withfiber.
So I'm not saying you can go ahundred percent plant based,
but, what I recommend is a largepredominant of your meals to be

(24:16):
plant based and then everythingelse other.
So I usually say 70, 30.
70 percent of your meals shouldbe plant based and should be
specifically foods that bifidolove to feed on.
And those foods are, you know,we talked about earlier, but
then you also want to feed yourgut with probiotic rich foods.

(24:36):
So what does probiotic richfoods means?
It means foods that already havethese bacteria in them.
and bifido is not the onlybeneficial one.
It's a big one.
It's my favorite.
All right.
But other ones that we've seenare lactobacillus is a really
good one too.
and these two, most of these arepresent in, in, in good numbers
in foods like yogurt and keeferand fermented foods like

(24:59):
sauerkraut, for example.
kimchi, all of those foods, kindof kill two birds with one stone
because they're prebiotics likesauerkraut and kimchi, for
example.
They're prebiotics, right?
They have the fibers, theplant-based fibers, but they
also have probiotics.
So we call that symbioticsbecause they have both.
And those are also good ways toincrease bifidobacterium levels.

How do we test, I know you said stool, right?
Is there a specific test?
I'm in Canada.
So, for myself, I want to dothis.
How would I test, mybifidobacterium levels or get a
kind of an idea so I can knowwhat's my base?

Yeah.
and some people they're reallyresistant, especially if they
have like zero Bifido in theirgut.
But they're a little bitresistant in the beginning to
get.
a repopulation ofbifidobacterium.
but what I've seen is the foodsand very high dose probiotics in
certain people, can helpincrease the levels.

(25:53):
What I check is there areseveral labs that do it.
the one that I use mostly is avibrant labs.
it's called the gut zoomer.
there's also, GI effects, doesit as well.
There are a few other, labs thatdo it.
I do virtual exams, so when Isee my patients, I order
whatever the test that I feel isbest for them.
And then they get the stool testat home, the kit, and then they

(26:17):
put a sample in the kit and thenwe send it to the lab and then
the lab evaluates it and thenbased on the findings, because
they're looking at your DNA,based on the findings, they tell
you what you have less of, whatyou have more of, and then we
strategize.
How we can work on increasinglevels.

That's really interesting.
do you find that people thatstart to improve, their
population of bifidobacteriumhave other things that change in
their life?
So for example, is there lessfrequent viruses, cold skin
conditions, et cetera?
Like what would you say is thebiggest change that people have

(26:55):
when they maybe just made thatone change as far as any more
probiotic to their diet andpostbiotic?

Yeah.
And that's an interesting topicbecause we do know that patients
who have higher BMI is usuallyhave lower bifidobacterium
levels.
and so a lot of people areoverweight, but also people with
just fatigue and bloating andsymptoms like constipation,
usually also have lowerbifidobacterium levels.
People who are chronicallyinflamed, diabetics, people with

(27:25):
heart disease.
And so how do we reverse that?
We reverse it with changing yourdiet.
And I have seen patientsdramatically improve, symptom
wise, but also just their energylevels.
And oddly enough, we're now alsostarting to see that,
Bifidobacterium along withanother, beneficial bacteria
called Lactobacillus areactually probably responsible

(27:46):
for a majority of the serotoninthat we produce in our body.
And, again, when people changetheir diet, they're not only
feeling physically better, butthey're mentally, just feeling
just more uplifted becausethey're eating foods that are
feeding the bacteria that makeneurotransmitters like
serotonin.
And so there's this indirect,you know, step approach where

(28:08):
we're seeing the effects.
I'm actually an example ofsomebody who changed my
microbiome.
I was, obese when I was youngerand I had really bad eczema.
Acne, and just chronic IBSconstipation, symptoms.
And it wasn't until I reallychanged my gut that the symptoms
started to go away.

(28:29):
So it was just more of like,huh, I feel so much healthier
and I have more energy now Ifeel like than I did when I was
younger because I've changed mygut.
And I recently also did a gutmicrobiome analysis and I found
higher levels of bifidobacteriumI always wonder if I even had
that.
lower levels when I was younger,but another interesting bacteria
that's found, more commonly inthinner individuals than

(28:51):
overweight individuals isanother beneficial one that we
know is called acromantia.
So acromantia andbifidobacterium, when they're
very low, usually it's in peoplewho are overweight.
So we look at these bacteria andwe kind of correlate with, what
we see clinically But the beautyis that we are able to reverse
this and I've seen patients wholose weight by eating the proper

(29:14):
diet Actually reverse theirratios in their gut which is
really promising and reallyamazing to see and they feel
really good, too

Yeah, that's crazy.
So people lose weight becauseUltimately, they're in a caloric
deficit and I'm just curiousBecause I know people who have
done this because I've been likethe whole bodybuilding space and
I love fitness.
I've always been into it.
I've actually seen people wholose weight eating junk food

(29:42):
this is rare, by the way, andI'm not encouraging anyone to do
it.
But they did it just to prove apoint about, caloric intake, et
cetera.
And so they were losing weight,but they felt like shit.
Because they were eating crapfood.
So it was like a calories andcalories out.
But they're like, man, I feellike shit.
Like it's about the calories,but I don't know.
There's people that do it theright way.

(30:03):
And she will do it the wrongway.
The right way is eating healthy,you know, increasing fiber, et
cetera.
Is it the act of losing weight?
Is it in and of itself that canincrease the beneficial bacteria
or is it the actual feedingthese organisms what they want?
Or is it both?

(30:24):
Like, can I eat like shit andlose weight?
And as a result, that will stillcome up.
Is there a benefit to loseweight in and of itself is what
I'm trying to ask

No, no, they're really good questions.
And so I would say I'm going toanswer that based on what we're
seeing short term and what we'reseeing long term.
So short term, yes.
Any caloric deficit, you'regoing to lose the weight.
I mean, you know, calories docount regardless.
And so you're definitely goingto lose the weight with a
caloric deficit, but what'sgoing to happen is those people
have a much higher incidence ofnumber one, not staying on the

(30:59):
diet because it's not reallysustainable, because you know,
at some point that marketrestriction of calories is just
going to catch up with you.
But you're also, after a while,your gut catches up with you.
So you see all these people thatate crap, right?
When they were younger andthey're like, Oh, I have a great
metabolism.
And then you see them, you know,30 years later and they're

(31:20):
obese, right?
So some people are genetically alittle bit more blessed that
they could probably handle alittle bit longer, but in the
end, it all boils down to whatyou're feeding your gut.
And so you might get away withthe caloric restriction for a
while.
And I know I'm going to be alittle controversial on this,
but I'll explain why is, ifyou're doing keto and like very
high carnivore, you're going todo really well for a while.

(31:44):
But at the end of the day, ifyou're not eating plants, you're
really doing a number on yourgut and you're going to mess up
your gut.
so yes, caloric restrictionmatters, but if you're eating
crap, you're not going to helpyour bacteria produce all these
things that we talked about.
So why not eat like every oncein a while you can have that

(32:05):
thing that you, you know,shouldn't be eating every day.
It's okay.
Like I am not about restrictinganything.
I'm just about building habits.
And the habits that I want youto build are number one, you
have to feed those guys whatthey want, and then you can eat
what you want, but not as often.
I also want to talk a little bitabout giving your gut rest, by
doing intermittent fasting.

(32:26):
Because another thing that Ithink a lot of people.
have this misinformation aboutis intermittent fasting equals
starvation.
And it's not like that at all.
It's actually tapping into yourbody's natural processes that
help with detoxification.
so I'd love to talk aboutfasting, but yes, to answer your
question in the short term,yeah, you're going to lose the

(32:47):
weight, but you're much higher,you know, much more likely to.
Cool.
Gain the weight back andeventually your gut will look, I
hate to say it.
Shit, literally, but yeah,exactly.
so you're, you're really kind oflike trying to eat long term to
establish habits and notrestricting anything.
You don't have to restrictanything.

(33:08):
I mean, food on this earth ismade for you to enjoy it.
We just have to be disciplinedand eat everything in
moderation.
More importantly, feed our guysin their gut what they want to
eat because they're the onesthat are doing all the work.

Yeah, I want to get into intermittent fasting
too, but before we do that, somy father passed away last year.
And he died of complications, ofParkinson's.
Okay.
So he, it's hard to say he diedbecause of Parkinson's, but he,
you know, it's, it's what ledhim down that path.
And ultimately he had a lot ofissues and then he, he got COVID

(33:44):
in the hospital and, herecovered from COVID, but then
it, it just completely destroyedhim.
so my father was a vegetarian.
Yeah.
He was one of those people thathe, while he was a vegetarian,
he, in my opinion, he didn't eata very balanced vegetarian diet.

(34:07):
so, he probably had a very highcarb.
Diet, a lot of pastas.
And so he did eat a lot ofplants though, but I don't think
he got enough protein either.
And I just wanted to know if, ifin your practice and your
experience, if there's also aconnection with protein, variety
in our macronutrients and anyconnections with

(34:30):
bifidobacterium.
And because you mentionedneurotransmitters, which I know
dopamine is a neurotransmitter,right?
Just for my own personal, youknow, solve this mystery, these
neurologists were very unhelpfulfor the most, I think some of
them meant very well, but just,I just wasn't getting the
answers

and I think partly it's not because.
They just, they don't want tohelp.
It's because they just probablydon't really know a lot of
information on the gutmicrobiome.
you know, a lot of my colleaguesmean well and they're very
smart.
but we just don't know enoughabout the gut microbiome.
And then unfortunately I alsoblame the system and not
teaching us enough aboutnutrition.
so, you know, yes.

(35:11):
And that's actually another goodpoint that you bring up is
vegan, vegan and vegetariandiets don't necessarily equal
health, healthy diets.
It's really what you're eating,right?
So you mentioned refinedcarbohydrates that he was eating
a lot of.
And what happens with those isbecause they don't have fiber,
and we mentioned before is thatwe can't digest fiber, right?

(35:33):
So fiber goes into our system.
Beneficial microbes get whatthey need from those plant based
sources which are antioxidantsand the fiber sources to make
things.
And then the fiber, whatever'sleft of it, has a faster transit
out of our body, right?
Because we can't absorb it.
So it just bulks up in the stooland we release it in the stool.

(35:54):
unfortunately people who are onvegetarian or vegan diets and
have a higher, consumption ofrefined carbs like pastas and
breads and things like that.
Those are not exiting our bodyas quickly as if our plant based
sources are more predominant,and they actually cause
bacterial overgrowth, and theyfeed harmful bacteria.

(36:15):
So when they feed harmfulbacteria, the lining of the gut
starts to weaken and they startto develop inflammation.
And we now know that Parkinson'spatients, along with Alzheimer's
patients, do have dysbiosis.
They have an imbalance in theirgut.
So, I wonder if, for example,with your dad, even though he
was eating plant based, maybethe beneficial bacteria in his

(36:36):
gut were outnumbered by theharmful bacteria.
I can share also that my fatherpassed away, a couple of years
ago from Alzheimer's dementia.
he was also a pretty healthyeater, but he had some other
risk factors that maybeincreased his risk.
But we do know that both ofthese conditions, what happens
is the gut and the braincommunicate and the gut sends

(36:56):
signals to the brain, but italso sends inflammatory signals
into the brain.
And if your gut is inflamed,those signals are actually,
inflammatory signals areactually depositing in your
brain and they're affecting.
cognitive function, but anincreasing risk of these
conditions.
So interesting enough, there's alot of research coming out now
on Parkinson's and Alzheimer'sand they're finding, gut

(37:17):
dysbiosis may be, one of themain risk factors for
development.

Another thing that really pissed me off is not
once did they, Interview myfather, not once did any
independent research and nobody,they never did questionnaires
about what he was eating, noteating.
They never wanted to do stoolsamples.
I never looked at like, theylooked at basic stuff.
The, they wanted to do MRIs.
He didn't want it.
I told him you should do it likejust for the sake of let's see

(37:44):
what's going on.
Maybe it's not hard becausethere's could have been
something else, but the longstory short is why, why this is
Canada.
Why are we not collecting thisdata to at least assess it with,
millions of other people and,and not, you know, with AI now
you can correlate, Hey, allthese people are low in vitamin

(38:08):
D or all these people are low inthis bacterium, or they have
this type of stool and they canget a lot of insight.
I mean, it's like, are youtrying to find it?
Cause I know there's a lot ofpeople that are trying to find
it.
Like the Michael J.
Fox foundation, they do a lot ofgreat work, but.
It just seems to me like themainstream establishment, they
have no interest and notindividual doctors or

(38:31):
neurologists because they'regreat.
Most of them are verycompassionate people and I felt
like they really cared just theinstitutions that educate them,
et cetera.
it's a touchy subject because Iused to get upset.
Like, why are you, nobody'sfucking asking what he's eating.
Like, why does this not matter?
How does this not matter?

I honestly don't understand why nutrition
is not at the forefront ofmedicine because it is the
biggest factor.
Our gut is the biggest factor.
And again, another reason why Iwrote my book is I really want.
people, lay people to understandthe role their gut plays.
But I also want doctors to readthis book and understand how
important it is because I didn'treally know this information

(39:15):
either.
I wasn't taught this informationin medical school I was really
interested in the gut and how itaffected me as an obese teenager
who felt crappy.
physically and mentally and howchanging my gut made such a big
difference for me.
And that's why I was interestedin, and I learned so much, but
most physicians are not taughtany of this.
and we're definitely not taughtit.

(39:35):
It was in medical school.
We're not taught this inresidency.
I mean, some positions go on todo like a nutritional, you know,
education, additional, educationor, you know, more training,
but.
We just need to get educationand information out there for
people to really understand thehuge role that the gut does

(39:55):
play.
and you know, I ask that youshare the book with everyone
that you know, because I think,it's a lot simpler to heal than
people think it is.
you know, and I write in thebook, your body is the best
doctor.
And I really believe that itjust doesn't have the
credentials.
But it'll tell you symptoms,it'll tell you different things.
And if you know what to lookfor, right?

(40:17):
I mean, we have like parentingbooks, we have books about
everything, right?
Babies cry and we don't know whythey cry, but you know, based on
research, we figure out what,you know, their needs are.
Well, your body also has needsand it cries for help too.
we just don't understand whatthe symptoms are, but I think
just from educating people aboutthe gut, I hope that in five

(40:40):
years, we're having aconversation where the gut is
really the sole focus of alltreatment instead of, other
things I'm not opposed tomedications, but I believe they
should be last resort.

I totally agree with you.
So we're cutting close on timeand I do have a list of
questions I prepared that I wantto make sure we get through.
So I'm going to focus on thoseif that's okay.
Starting with number one,fasting.
So what is fasting?
Is it good?
Is it bad?
Why?
And also, what do you recommendas far as gut health, etc?

Yeah, I'll, I'll try it.
I'll try to make that short.
What kind of fasting were youdoing?
Uh, yeah,
so I was primarily doing more solike the 16/8.
So I was eating at an eight hourwindow, typically between one
and nine or 12 to eight.
but occasionally I would do likea 24 hour fast every week, every
two weeks I would just be like,one day I'd wake up on a Sunday
and I'd say, you know, I'm notgonna eat today.

(41:35):
I didn't really have a specificthing.
now I'm on a hyper, hypertrophicphase at the gym.
I'm trying to gain a lot ofweight.
I just can't fit in the amountof calories I need in eight
hours.
Cause then I'm likeoverstuffing.
So it's just a phase for nextfew months, but I'll probably go
back to that like 16, eight,unless you tell me, don't do
that.
Oh, that's my favorite one.
A 16, eight or 18, six.

(41:55):
and how did you feel when youwere fasting?
I'm interviewing you.
Honestly, I don't notice much ofa difference because I noticed
that my calories are pretty muchthe same.
And so I think I maintained mycaloric needs or I was slightly
at a deficit because I have apretty low body fat percentage.
So to be very honest, I think ifI didn't eat during my workouts,

(42:18):
which is primarily how itstarted, I always felt my
workouts were much better.
And I also didn't feel thatafternoon fog where I felt like
I was going to crash.
That's about it.
Everything else seemed to be thesame for me personally.
But again, my lifestyle is I tryto eat pretty healthy in
general.
fasting does not mean starving.

(42:39):
It doesn't mean restricting yourcalories significantly.
it does mean if you want to loseweight, you can restrict your
calories a little bit, becausecaloric intake does matter.
but it's not restricting themtoo much and the reason why you
don't want to restrict too muchis you generate a stress
response from your body becauseyour body is always in survival

(43:02):
mode and if you restrict toomuch and you fast for too long,
your body thinks that you are indanger and so it holds on to
fat.
And it releases stressresponders like cortisol and if
they're released chronically,then your body's going to go
into kind of survival and faststorage mode.

(43:22):
in women, this is where a lot ofmisinformation happens is they
could have a problem with theirfertility if they're restricting
too much and fasting for toolong.
However, if done right, fastingis good for 99 percent of
individuals.
the only person that shouldn'tbe fasting is somebody who's, a

(43:45):
very poorly controlled diabeticand on insulin and their blood
glucose levels tends to drop, orjust be affected.
very thin individuals or peoplewith, eating disorders should
not be fasting.
Everyone else, I think fastingis really, it's part of your
natural being.
you know, if you look back atour ancestors.
And this is actually where wekind of base also like healthy

(44:06):
eating.
if you look back at ourancestors, they didn't have
access to the grocery store on aregular basis and they didn't
have a fridge full of food.
They hunted and they gatheredand they hunted animals and they
ate them.
But that didn't happen all thetime.
That happened very infrequently.

(44:27):
But what they ate mostly waswhat they found in nature and
they gathered.
plants off of trees, berries,things like that.
And so, they didn't eat all day,they practice intermittent
fasting, inadvertently.
And so, my reasoning for fastingis because of the internal
mechanisms that happen in yourbody.

(44:49):
as a result of giving your guttime of rest, right?
So what are you doing when youfast?
You're giving your gut time ofrest to process other functions.
So we talked about the guthaving a big role in the immune
system, producingneurotransmitters.
So if you're constantly eating,what are you doing?
Your body's constantly,processing the food.
Your gut is constantly digestingand it's not doing the other

(45:12):
functions that are important forour body.
And so this is why I loveintermittent fasting because
when you do fast, you give yourbody and your gut the nutrition
it needs during a certain timeperiod.
And then during the times whenyou're not fasting is you're
giving your body that time to doother functions, right?
So what are the other functions?
So, it's processing, right?

(45:35):
Of different things.
It's production ofneurotransmitters, but we also
sometimes want to, lighten theload on our liver, and burn fat
because burning fat producesketones and a lot of people love
ketosis, but why does ketosisfeel so great?
It's because ketones really helpto fuel our cells and our brain

(45:55):
in a much better capacity thanexternal glucose does.
So when we fast, and I can kindof go into it, do you want the
details?

Of course I want the details.
I'll simplify them.
So you eat, right?

You're eating.
What happens?
Your body extracts that glucosefrom whatever you eat and it
utilizes it.
It transports it to cells.
We can't utilize glucose in thecells without insulin.
So insulin is like ourtransporter.
It helps to get that glucoseinto the cells, right?
So when we don't eat.

(46:30):
Okay, so say you've gone three,four hours and you haven't
eaten, and you kind of feel likea little bit hungry, right?
Like you get a little nudge toeat.
That nudge is actually not, weneed to eat, like you're going
to die if you don't eat.
That nudge is your insulinlevels dropping because insulin
only comes out when food isneeded to be transported.
So the drop in insulin is whatcauses you to be hungry because

(46:51):
your body is kind of trying torely on external sources of
glucose Okay.
And if you're feeding it, it'seasy work for your body.
You eat, it extracts theglucose, transports the cells,
insulin helps with that,everything's good.
But our body is made for harderand more amazing things.
So when you don't eat, fourhours in, your insulin levels
drop, okay?

(47:12):
So that drop in insulin kind ofmakes you a little hungry
because your body's trying tofigure out what the next step
is.
Are you going to eat and feed meor am I, am I going to have to
like, you know, tap into thenext thing that I need to do.
So when insulin levels drop, youget hungry, and then if you
don't eat, then your insulinlevels drop so much that your
glucagon levels, which isanother hormone, increase.

(47:33):
So it's almost like a switch foryour body, that hunger.
And that switch for your bodyto, to switch into the secondary
mode, which I call plan B.
So plan A is eating.
Plan B is your body now needs tofigure out glucose sources for
your cells.
So what is it going to do?
it actually has stored glucosein the liver, believe it or not,

(47:53):
it's always ready for backup.
So, that stored glucose in theliver is called glycogen.
And we have about a thousand totwelve hundred calories of
stored glycogen in our liver.
And so the next step is our bodygoes to the liver, breaks down
that glycogen, uses thatglycogen as glucose source,
because glycogen breaks downinto glucose and it gets

(48:15):
transported to the cells.
So it's great, right?
You're utilizing glycogen,you're letting your body burn
that fuel and it's fuelingcells.
So now you've depleted your bodyof external glucose and you've
depleted your body of internalglycogen.
And now you haven't eaten.
So this process of glycogenburning usually ends around 10
hours, 10 to 12 hours of noteating, right?

(48:37):
So then after that, and somepeople can take a little bit
longer, like 14 hours.
After about 14 hours or so, yourbody still needs to fuel cells
and it doesn't know what to dobecause you're not feeding it
and it ran out of glycogen.
So now it taps into fat cells.
So it goes to fat and it startsto burn fat cells and everybody
knows ketosis, right?

(48:59):
And so fat cells turn intoketones and then it starts
applying cells with ketones.
And ketones, in my opinion, on avery, pure form of fuel.
if you think about when you,fuel your car with regular
unleaded versus premium becausethe premium helps your car run a
little bit better.
ketones help your body runbetter than external sources of

(49:21):
glucose.
So now you're fueling your bodyon ketosis, right?
It's great.
Your cells are happy.
Ketosis for the brain is amazingand everybody's happy and this
is happening around 16 hoursyou're burning fat.
So between 16 and 18 hoursyou're starting to burn fat,
which is great, right?
A lot of people want that.
Now, what happens, if you fast alittle bit longer?

(49:44):
So now your body's really like,I don't know, I don't know what
to do, right?
And so it starts to assess thesituation, and I'll give you an
example, I always give anexample of, when your phone
battery's dying.
What do you do with your phone?
You put it in low battery mode,right?
Like if you're out and you don'thave a charger and so your body

(50:04):
does the same thing, it putsitself in low battery mode
because now it's seeing thatyour consumption of food is
really low.
It's burning, you know, fat andit's trying to get fuel.
And so what it starts to do isit now starts to put itself in
low battery mode and it startsto look at all the cells in
front of it.
And it's saying, you know what,this cell is getting a little

(50:26):
bit old and I'm not sure if Ineed it and it's getting a
little dysfunctional, I'm goingto get rid of that cell.
I'm going to kill it.
And so it reserves the energyfor only the really good healthy
cells.
And that process is calledautophagy.
And what autophagy does is itactually helps our immune system
and it helps our health becausenow we're getting rid of these
old dysfunctional cells and someof them may have been cancerous

(50:47):
cells or inflammatory cells.
And so when you're In autophagy,you're getting rid of the
dysfunctional cells prematurely,but it's really good for your
body.
And that usually kicks in ataround 20 hours.
So what I usually do is I do 16to 18 hour fasts, so that I'm at
least kicking into that fatburning mode and at least that
kind of lighten the load on myliver by burning the glycogen.

(51:09):
But I don't fast 20 to 24 hoursall the time.
I only do it like once a monthor so, cause I want that
autophagy every once in a while.
That's all.
But as a lifestyle, 16, eight isreally good because you're
tapping into those secondersmechanisms, but you're not
completely giving your bodythat, right.

So you were mentioning autophagy and the
benefits of it, basicallygetting the body starts getting
rid of dead cells or old cells,perhaps cancer cells, et cetera.
And so another question I hadwith respect to autophagy,
because it recently just came tomy attention.
I follow, Dr.
Lane Norton, if you're familiarwith him an expert in nutrition.

(51:54):
he actually is not a proponentof fasting.
He says, it's great if it's atool that you'd like to use for
some people, it makes you feelmental clarity, et cetera.
But he says, there's nothingthat fasting does that you can't
do on a caloric restricted diet.
He says that the same benefitscome from being in a caloric
deficit, which includesautophagy, but he says, if it is

(52:16):
Helpful for people to just Eatin a shorter window, makes it
more manageable, good for mentalfog, at least this finds it, but
he just feels like it's overlyhyped up

and
that the real magic is being ina caloric deficit.
So, but I'm just wondering whatyour take on that is.
I don't know if I agree or not,but I know enough to really
argue.
Well, there's two ways of inducing the
benefits that we talk about theautophagy and he's right about
caloric restriction.
If your body's not gettingenough fuel externally, it's

(52:46):
going to tap into thosesecondary, mechanisms.
Yes, he's right in that caloricrestriction does help you tap
in.
to other sources of fuel thatyour body has.
But unfortunately what I find aproblem is, most people can't
sustain, caloric restriction fortoo long.
Some people are very disciplinedin that, but the majority of
people cannot sustain a markedcaloric, restriction for very

(53:10):
long.
And so this is why you havefasting is because fasting for
me tells someone who'sinterested is you can eat.
kind of what you want.
I mean, you want to eatobviously healthy, but you don't
have to necessarily restrictyour calories dramatically in

(53:30):
order for you to tap intoglycogenolysis, which is that
burning of glycogen and ketosis,which is that burning effect,
right?
Gluconeogenesis.
So what he's saying is correct.
I just find that, fasting is aneasier way for people to
actually get those benefits.
But yes, caloric restriction isdoing the same thing.

(53:50):
Your body is restricted fromexternal sources of fuel and it
needs to tap into internalsources.
So both get to the same endpoint.
As they say, there's severalways to climb a mountain, it's
basically the same thing.
I like fasting because also,you're giving your gut that time
of rest to do other functions.

I love it too, personally, even just for the
mental discipline factor ofsomething difficult, you know,
essentially taking control of mybody and saying, no, right now
we're going to, we're going torest like a little toddler.
That means the discipline.
I think there's many benefitsbeyond autophagy personally.

(54:30):
I do like to do it from time totime as well and make it part of
my practice.
How do you know if you have gutissues,

there's the obvious, not so obvious,
bloating, constipation,diarrhea, just upset stomach,
right?
Those are obvious gut related,symptoms.
Not so obvious, is, skin issues.
eczema, acne, sometimes thosewill show up if you have gut
issues.
New food intolerances areanother big one.
So if you weren't allergic tonuts and all of a sudden you're
allergic to nuts, that mightindicate that your gut lining is

(55:00):
starting to get a little weakerand your immune system's
responding.
In a way that it shouldn'tnecessarily respond so hyper
reactive.
another thing that might not beso obvious is weight gain.
because again, if your gut isnot healthy, you're not
absorbing the nutrientsappropriately.
and you're not able to makethose postbiotics that the gut

(55:20):
microbes make.
And one of those postbiotics is,satiety signals.
And satiety, peptides, PYY isone of them, that send signals
to your brain and indicate thatyou're satisfied.
So that's another reason why youmight have weight gain if you
have issues.
those are kind of the three bigones that I would say, I see the
most often the weight gain,skin, and, new food
intolerances.

(55:41):
Another one, which, we didn'tknow until four years ago, or at
least most people didn't knowis, the way your immune system
reacts to certain things.
So some people react to COVIDreally badly, and they probably
had a really unhealthy gut as aresult, and some people didn't.

about thirst signal?
Is that related to the gut or isthat a completely different
mechanism?

Are you hydrating enough throughout the
day?
I drink this thing at least oncea day, which holds about eight
cups of water.
And I also have a lot of waterrich foods, but I have gone a
full eight to 10 hours withoutSo, yeah.
Water and I have no thirstsignal.
Well, that indicates that your body's well

(56:20):
hydrated.
Your body only goes into thirstwhen it's really, really
dehydrated.
So, yeah.
So if you're maintaining,enough, fluid intake, I rarely
get thirsty too, because I'malways drinking.
Yeah.
so thirst is not a good sign.
It means that your body has goneto that other side.
Uh, my pee is
somewhat clear.
Too much information.
Look at your pee and it's like, it

(56:41):
should be like a light yellowlemonade kind of color

What are the top things people should stop
doing immediately to improvetheir gut health?

stop eating all day.
it's not good for your gut toeat all day.
Stop eating out all the time.
Stuff they put in food inrestaurants and, and, and all
the other fast food places, buteven like, you know, fancy
restaurants, there's a reason ittastes really good.
There's, there's a lot of, a lotof heavy stuff being put in

(57:10):
there.
Heavy cream.
I'm not opposed to heavy cream,but you don't know how much
heavy cream is going in there.
You don't know how much butteris going in there.
And so yes, they're fine andbutter is healthy, but calories
do count.
And if you're eating out all thetime and you're eating really
rich foods.
You know, you're going to begaining weight.
So that's one, stop drinkingsugary foods or drinks.

(57:36):
because that's another one,unnecessary calories, sugary
drinks are really bad for youtoo.
So those are the big ones.

Awesome.
And what about stuff likedigestive enzymes?
And also it's a separatequestion, but kombucha, you talk
about fermented food.
What do you think about kombuchaand digestive enzymes?

digestive enzymes.
I don't think everybody needsthem.
It really depends on what'sgoing on with you.
I hate to blanket recommendeverything.
I don't even blanket recommendprobiotics to be honest, because
taking them on a regular basisis also not good because then
you kind of lose that diversityfrom food.
People rely on that sameprobiotic strain every day.
I don't blanket recommendanything except eating healthy

(58:19):
because food is really the bestsource.
kombucha, there's nothing wrongwith every once in a while, but
it does have, you know, sugar,and it has calories, so nothing
wrong with it, but, don't thinkkombucha is going to be your
daily probiotic and then you'regood to go.

Sorry, but you're saying kombucha's okay
though, it's not a bad thing,correct?

I mean, if you're gonna have the, like, the
sweet drink, have the kombuchaover the, you know, the orange
juice or the grape juice

my girl actually makes the kombucha, so
she just makes it with thescoby, mushroom, whatever, and
then she does her whole process,and then she'll make the eggs a
different fruit.
or ginger.
That's it.
She doesn't add pretty much orvery little.
I think she has to add brownsugar for this.

have a little fear because that's what
the bacteria feed on.
So I'll have like one bottle aday, maybe 15 times out of the
month.
Cause I just love the way ittastes.
Yeah.
There's a lot of commercialkombuchas that have a lot of
added sugar.
Cause everybody wants to get ahealth kick, but you know, the
marketers are trying to getpeople to drink it and they're
putting a lot more sugar thanthere should be.
Coffee.
Good or bad?

(59:20):
I like my coffee.
everything moderation.
So okay.

Well, I want to respect your time and you have
to go, which sucks because Ihave so many more questions to
ask you.
Is there anything else that Ihave missed that perhaps you
wanted to touch on?
I think people should be awareof what's going on with their
digestive system.
you mentioned some resources forthem potentially checking the
levels of the good bacteria andwhat they can do as far as

(59:48):
fermented foods for theprebiotics, probiotics, and the
postbiotics.
And is there anything elsebesides your book, which we'll
probably go into much moredetail.
I will be telling everybodyabout it as well.

Dr Christine Bishara (01:00:04):
Thank you.
I mean, there's so much in thebook that should be also kind of
explored.
But if I had one last thing tosay, here is vitamin D,
everybody should get theirvitamin D level and everybody
should supplement if needed.
And a little bit of time in thesun is not going to kill you.
I mean, I'm a proponent ofsunscreen, but I'm also a
proponent of sitting in the sunand getting a little bit of that

(01:00:25):
vitamin D from the sun.

Ricardo Vasquez (01:00:28):
Yeah.
I've heard like vitamin K orsomething if I miss it or should
I say, is it required or is thisvitamin D okay?

I don't like to blanket, recommend
vitamin K because some peoplehave, clotting issues and
they're on blood thinners thatvitamin K could interfere with.
So, yes, it's good to takevitamin K with vitamin D to help
prevent calcification in thearteries, but I don't blanket
recommend vitamin K with D.
I have to really see the personand know what their history is.

Ricardo Vasquez (01:00:55):
Okay.
Dr.
Christine Bishara, please tellus where we can find you.

I guess everybody's on, I'm in a lot of
platforms, but I guesseverybody's on Instagram these
days.
So it's easier there.
I post a lot of good videos, Dr.
Christine B, doctor spelled out.
So D O C T O R.
And then my name, Christine B.
Thank you.
Probably,
probably the big one.
And your book is called whatagain?
The Gut Revolution.

(01:01:20):
Thank you so much.
Sounds good.
Thank you
for being here.
I appreciate you.

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