Reset your gut health habits (without really trying)

Published Nov 3, 2024, 2:00 PM

Gastroenterologist and NYT bestselling author Dr Will Bulseiwicz discusses the critical role the gut microbiome plays in overall health, the connection between the gut and hormonal balance and the potential benefits of supplements in supporting gut health.

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Oh, welcome to Extra Healthy. Thanks for joining us on the Body and Soul podcast. Of course, this is the big sister one too healthy ish from Body and Soul. I am the host of Felicity Harley.

Oh.

I know we talked about gut health a lot on this podcast, but listeners you love it because whenever we drop an episode, yep, the downloads just rise. So we've asked perhaps one of the big guns in gut health from the US to join us today. Gastro entrologist and Your Times best selling author, doctor Will Bolschwitz joins us today aka doctor b. He's here to discuss the critical role the gut microbian plays in overall health, the connection between well your gut and your hormones if you're a woman, and whether diet really is the most important leaver you can pull for better gut health. Plus, of course he's going to talk to us about the potential benefits of supplements in supporting gut health. Full disclosure, he is a founder of a company called thirty eight Terror. Doctor Bay, thank you for joining us on Extra Healthy is today. How about you.

I'm feeling extra Healthyestplicity, It's good to see you.

Yeah, we leave the ish on this podcast. How do you stay extra healthy ish in your life?

That's a great question, you know, here's what I would say. So, first of all, I'm in my mid forties, and it's been a build. You know. I didn't just like wake up one day and adopt a healthy lifestyle, right, It's just been like these little things that I add. So what is the thing that I've added in twenty twenty four that's been really fruitful for me. I started taking a walk in the morning to get exposure to morning sunlight. Right, So typically I'll do this like somewhere in the range of seven thirty to eight thirty. And I have a rock vest, so a rockfest is like a weighted vest. I started off with twenty pounds, so let's see, that would be about I guess like nine kilos, and I started off at that weight. I've moved up. Now. Bear in mind for the listeners at home, I'm quite tall, and I weigh around two hundred pounds, so like probably ninety five kilos, and I moved up to double that. So I'm now up to eighteen kilos forty pounds. Yeah, and I'll take a walk with my wife sometimes with one of our children. We have four kids. And so here's what I found that the morning sunlight. Here are the benefits. It sharpens my mind, It helps me to wake up, It energizes, empowers me in the afternoons, Like my afternoons are much better. I don't feel like I need to take a nap. The little exercise, like I don't count that as my workout for the day. That's like a gentle morning exercise. But that little morning exercise really enhances those things that I just described, which is part of what I love about it, Like I get even more from this time. And then the last thing is that in the evening in essence and the data are very queer by the way to support everything that I'm describing right now, But in essence, by getting morning white exposure, my body knows when it's time to sleep at night, and so I wind down much easier at night and I get better sleep.

Has the rucking Has that changed your well strength? And have you noticed that shifted you work out?

So if I rock and then I go and I do a leg workout on the same day, it can be like it definitely can't affect because that's almost like doing a second workout on the same body parts. The interesting thing about the ruck is and by the way, I actually strongly recommend this for women because it's great as weight based exercise that will fortify the bones, right Like, if you're in your twenties, you're building bone density right now, and you want to build it as much as you can, and when you're past your twenties, you want to preserve bone density as you age, and weight based training does that. I thought it would be only my legs, and it definitely has strengthened my legs, but actually it does an amazing job of strengthening my core and I feel it in my shoulders as well. And one of the things that I've noticed is my posture has improved, so people think I'm taller now, which I'll take it.

Tegnit.

Let's talk about I'd love to talk about rocking because it's just about to explode here as well, but let's talk about gut health. How did you become so passionate about this? I mean, you wrote your book a couple of years ago.

Why the gat, Well, it wasn't. This was not predetermined. So the short answer to your question is that first I got sick and I needed help, and this is what helped me, right, basically, like changing my diet and healing my gut is what fixed my problems. And then I learned a lot from that experience myself. So I brought some of those ideas and what I was learning through science ants into the clinic to treat my patients who have digestive health problems, and I watched them make miraculous recoveries and have miraculous changes, life changes. So it eventually reached a point where the reason why I'm here today speaking with you is is basically that, like I felt compelled to share this story, Like I just thought that, you know, the world needs to hear this because many of these tools are things that every single person could potentially do if they were just empowered with the information to do it. So here I am, let's do it.

Okay, let's just just a quick recap of refresh. What is the microbiome and what is its impact on our body?

Yeah, so, the microbiome is a this is the term that we use to describe a community of micro organisms. Micro means that we can't see them with the naked eye. But if in theory we had a microscope we could pull out that microscope and you would see them, and they exist in the world that we live in. They're everywhere. Anything that's alive has a microbiome, but we as humans specifically, they are covering our skin, they're in our mouth, they're in a women's vagina, but they're most concentrated actually inside of our intestines, specifically the colon, which is the large intestine. And in that location you will find thirty eight trillion microbes, mostly bacteria, some fung guy. You may have these things called archaea that are the first life on the planet and they still exist inside of the human microbiome.

I mean, that's mind blowing. It's really cool, isn't it.

Oh, we could talk for ten minutes about them alone. I love them so much. But you may have parasites. And the funny thing is that some of these terms like the way that we were at least the way that I was raised. You know, bacteria are bad, Bacteria cause infections. Parasites are bad. Parasites make you get like skinny and weak and have diarrhea. Well that's the this is not actually universally true. In fact, what we're wearing this new science is teaching us that yes, there are some that are problematic, but actually the vast majority are really really good for us. And that even includes, believe it or not, felicity some of the parasites. So, like an example of this is that there's a parasite that we have that can actually be good for our insulin sensitivity, and the problem is that most people in Africa still carry this parasite, but we, like in the industrial world, in Australia or in the United States, we just don't have it because basically we live a sterile life, a sterile world.

I mean, I mean that even that blows my mind, and I suppose excites me as I'm sure it does with you. As to all the research that is coming out and will come out about what's actually going on down there. How is the modern lifestyle of the Western world then destroying our gut health as opposed to someone who lives in perhaps Africa.

Yeah, well, so the thing that we need to understand is that the environment shapes the organism, all right, and so the gut microbiome living inside of us, it is an ecosystem in the same way that you know, there's like places in Australia where there might be an ecosystem that is like, for example, the Great Barrier reef, or there's an ecosystem that would be more like a forest, right, and there's specific types of plants and animals that live in these places. Well, your gut is an ecosystem for its home for these microbes, and the world that we exist in creates the environment in which they live. The most clear cut of these of this are the choices that we make in terms of our food, because the things that we put into our mouth, chew and swallow ultimately will come into contact with this community of microorganisms and shape them and change them. And you know, and it's an interesting thing. We call our relationship with them symbiotic. And what that means is that we benefit them when we eat food, but they benefit us because they're able to take the nutrients that exist in our food and to unlock things that we would not be able to get access to unless without these microbes. So and an example of that felicity, the classic is fiber dietary fiber, which is found in plant based foods. And we hear how good this is for us, And I'm here to say the reason why this is good for us is because when we consume fiber rich foods, the fiber gets transformed by the microbes, it stops being fiber and it becomes these chemicals called short chain fatty acids that I'm just going to tell you. I've been studying medicine for more than twenty years now, and these are the most anti inflammatory chemicals that I've ever come across. And we get them because our gut microbes are producing them for us. It's the only way for us to get them.

Back to that is food the single most important factor when it comes to gut health, what we feed them, as opposed to stress, exercise, toxins, everything else that's going on as well.

You know, if you if you're going to pin me down, like if a person's going to pin me down and force me to choose just one thing, what is the one thing that I would control in terms of pulling a lever, it would be your diet. And you know, particularly the way that we currently eat is so far removed from the way that our ancestors ate. Not very long ago. We could go back to our grandparents or our great grandparents, and their diet was radically different. And the reason why I say that is that in Australia, my understanding is that forty to fifty percent of the calories that are consumed are ultra processed.

Foods, probably more, I think we're more like maybe more like you are? You around sixty percent? Now in the US?

Did I see that figure the other day?

In the US, we're sixty percent and sadly, our children it's seventy percent. Oh wow, yes, So, and with each generation it has become worse. And these are foods that ultraprocessed basically means that these are not foods that you could prepare at home. It's not possible for you to do that. It has to involve a food scientist and a laboratory phenomenon where they're putting stuff together using different food additives that frankly usually did not exist one hundred years ago either. And they're you know, they're chemicals that usually are made in some sort of factory and so, and these things they come into contact with our gut microbes, and so I'm concerned about the effect that they're having. So where we are today is we are the most fiber deprived, low fiber generation in the history of mankind. And put that along with the fact that we are forcing these gut microbes to adapt and evolve to new chemicals that exist in ultra processed foods that they have never been bose do before, and so it's a setup for a problem. But you know, at the same time, Flicity, I do want to say, it's not the only lever and there are other things that can be done at the same time, things that can allow you to heal your gut without even lifting a fork. And some of these are the classics. Some of these are the classics like sleep and exercise in these kinds of things. But I just want to mention real quick that the greatest moments in my career as a medical doctor, the moments that I'm most proud of, are not actually when I got a patient to increase their fiber intake. My greatest moments were when I had a patient who was trying to do all these things, they were not getting better, and ultimately what I would discover is that there was something in their life, such as trauma, that was affecting them in a way where even if they weren't fully aware of it, the existence in their subconscious mind was actually triggering their sympathetic nervous system negatively affecting their gut microbiome, and as a result, they were struggling to heal because this was an ongoing issue. And so that is the thing that I want to bring up as well, is that there are some people that really need that they need to heal from trauma or an eating disorder or some sort of other psychological injury.

Will be back after this shortbreak with more from doctor B. What about women's specifically when it comes to menstrual cycles, I mean and perimenopause and menopause, how can they impact the health of you get.

Yeah, So it's interesting. The microbes affect so many facets of our body. They've really integrated themselves to the point that we're dependent.

On them, aren't they?

They really are. But this is also but this is also what happens when you have millions of years of co evolution, right, because we didn't evolve separately and then come together. We were always together, and we were evolving together the whole time, right, And as a result, we grew to trust them. We allow them to regulate and manage really important parts of our body, and this includes with women estrogen I balance. So it turns out that the gut microbiome helps women to maintain the appropriate levels of estrogen in their body. Now, as a woman enters into menopause, which we would call perimenopause, their estrogen production can decline. The responsibility of the gut microbiome is to help to preserve it, and so it actually has enzymes that allow it to and it's called BABA glucuranidase that allows them to transform estrogen that is being excreted by the liver and reabsorb it and bring it back into the system. So it's not just the loss of estrogen that's occurring during menopause and perimenopause, it's simultaneously the body's ability to regulate and balance those hormones through the gut. Women who are in a healthier place in terms of their gut microbiome are less likely to experience the effects of perimenopause and menopause that include a number of different symptoms. I mean there's over twenty five, but like classically like hot flushes would be one of them. Right. So now, actually I work with a company called Zoe and perhaps you've heard our podcast I listened to.

I am a fan of their podcast to it.

Yeah, we're proud of it. We're proud of it.

There before there we go.

Yeah, I have been on their podcast many times, so we're very proud of our podcast. And we also we have a personalized nutrition kit that we sell in the UK and the US, and of course we would love to bring it to Australia one day. But we can still learn from the science that we're doing. And one of the things that we've been doing is studying menopause and we have discovered that the key is dietary quality because when women improve the quality of their diet, and I'll describe what that means in more detail in a moment, when women improve the quality of their diet, they improve their menopause symptoms. And so now what does that mean, Well, improving that the quality of your diet does include adding fiber rich foods those are got microbomb foods. That basically means eating more plants, so fruits, vegetables, whole grain, season nuts, and legoms. But it also means that are fat sources and our protein sources. We are opting for higher quality fat and protein sources. So if we were to think about these things, it's always well, what are you replacing with what So.

Give us some examples, So that's.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So like lowest the protein lowest quality protein source would be processed meats, processed meats with preservatives, canned meats. In the US we call them cold cuts. Do you call them that?

In Australia we like process mates, yeah.

Or like sausages, right, sausages, pepperoni, stuff like this, right, Okay, So that's that to me is like the lower the lowest level. Right. And if we're going to say, like what is the highest level, So we could do plant based proteins. It's not required, but we could do plant based proteins, so that would be like legumes, tofu tempe, things like this. But we could also look at things like seafood, fish, shellfish. Those would be examples of like higher quality sources. If we were to look at fats, so like at the top of the list, I would I would put the high quality plant based fats, So this would be extra virgion oil oil, and it would be avocados or nuts. But we can also look at things like once again from fish and shellfish, there are omega three fats that are anti inflammatory and very good for us. So when we gravitate towards these things, like if you're going to consume something that's fat, like move towards those things when possible. If you're going to use oil, use extra virgin oil, extra virgion oill oil when possible. When we start to make those types of choices, we're improving the quality of our diet. When we improve the quality of our diet, we are rising the tide on our health globally. But I'm here to report that women who are experiencing perimenopause and menopause will see improvement in their symptoms.

What about supplements, I mean, you've got a brand with Simon Hill thirty eight Terra. How does this fit because obviously, yeah, you're an expert your food first, and so when should we be relying on the supplements.

Yeah, So I actually see these as complementary things, not competitive things. So the way that I approach this, and at first, let me say that the reason why I started a supplement company is after taking care of thousands of patients and seeing the impact that it makes in their life and their health, yet simultaneously feeling very strongly that we could do better, that I could formulate supplements that are more in line with the state of the art science that we currently have, not what we knew forty years ago. And also third party tested like extensively so that we know with absolute certainty that they're pure and they're clean. So that was my motivation. But the way that I approach it is like this, every single one of us we should attempt to eat the highest quality diet that we can eat. No one's perfect. Like I sit here and I bash ultra processed foods, but I promise you at some point today I did consume so much for processed foods. We are yeah, no, I mean it's so I'm not zero percion human.

No one's holier than now.

We're human. We're human. We're trying to improve the quality of our diet, right, and we're going to do our best. So but sometimes you have the cake too. That's okay, you do your best when it comes to your diet. The role of the supplements is to take it a step further, to add things that perhaps could be missing or inadequate in your diet, or to add things that are going to allow you to address specific issues that you're targeting. So, as an example, if we look at fiber. Ninety five percent of Americans are deficient in fiber. It's slightly better in Australia, but I believe that the number is about eighty eight percent are deficient in Australia. So still very high or resistant starch. So it turns out that resistant starch, I guess me, let me define resistance start real quick. You know, when you eat a potato or you eat a banana, there's a starchy element to those foods. There's some natural forms of starch that exist in nature that our body is not capable of digesting. And because we can't digest them, they actually are able to pass all the way through our intestines and arrive in the colon where the gut microbes live, and in that place they will get processed by the microbes. So we call them resistant starch, and they end up behaving and functioning very very similar to fiber. But the difference is it seems that they really produce these anti inflammatory chemicals, short chain fatty acids in an even more powerful way than we get from fiber. Yeah, so it just seems like it's easier for the microbes to produce these short chain fatty acids from resistant starch. So anyway, the point is that we should probably be getting somewhere in the range of sixteen rams of resistance starch per day, and the average person is getting around four. Wow, so we have these deficiencies that exist. Thirty eight terra our supplement is called thirty eight terra daily microbiome nutrition. It's a prebodic supplement, which means that it's intended to feed the gut microbes. And what it does and what makes it state of the art in terms of the microboomb science, is that we're bringing together different types of prebodics, fiber resistance starch, and also polyphenols. Polyfenols are what are responsible for making different plants different colors, and they actually synergize together to help to have an effect on the gut microbiome and to produce the short chain fatty acids that we're looking for. So who is it for, Well, it depends. There are many potential reasons that a person might take it. But if I were to really distill it down, this is targeting the gut microbiome. It's helping to heal and support the gut microbiome and the result of that is going to be for most people who have digestive health problems improvement of those digestive health problems. But there's other conditions that also are related to the microbiome, like we talked about menopause. We haven't studied our product in menopause, but I would fully expect that this could be contributing to improvement of those types of symptoms.

We're well done and I'm creating a great product, doctor BA, And thank you so much for joining us.

On Next to Healthy.

Thank you for licity.

Well you have an answer. What you eat.

Your diet is actually the single biggest lever you can pull for better gut health. So I hope this has inspired you to well step away from the processed food and step towards the fruit basket. Anyway, I hope you did enjoy this chat. I certainly joined interviewing doctor. Will make sure you follow him on social media.

Of course.

I will lab a link to all of his stuff, his company, his supplements, et cetera, et cetera. In the show notes anything else said to Body and Soul dot com dot you follow us on socials. Grab our print edition which is out your local Sunday paper and until tomorrow stays for healthy