hello and welcome to episode 4 I hope you're excited for today's episode which is all things inflammation you know inflammation was something that I always thought was like super obvious right if you had a problem you could get it fixed by through some medication but it wasn't until we started filming these incredible doctors and understanding that deep within us are smoldering little signs of information that are perhaps all over our body and you wouldn't maybe think that's inflammation and upon you know all these incredible interviews that we've done and what you're about to learn in this episode it was a massive aha moment for me where I realized it's like oh those little fires all combin together into a massive fire which is a terrible diagnosis later it just doesn't sort of happen overnight that all of a sudden you know you don't just rock up with one of these autoimmune diseases they've been going for a long time within your body until it reaches a critical point yeah that's right you're moving along that inflammation Spectrum until you know you're diagnosed with an autoimmune disease or you have a chronic disease so um this episode you'll be learning about you know what are the signs of inflammation it could be something simple like a a rash just like an annoying little rash you get on your hand you're not sure why it could be some achy joints what are some other classic signs that you've also noticed yeah aches and pains a bit of fatigue a lot of things that people think are like yeah brain fog um like that people shrug off as a part of getting older I mean when these things started showing up for me in my 20s I guess because I was in my 20s I knew something was wrong but it got pretty bad for me before I actually did something about it until I finally was told oh you've got autoimmune problems so don't don't leave it too long like I did so watch this episode um find out what are the warning signs of inflammation gone wrong in your body or what's the gut connection to that how can we you know Leverage The Power of our guts to stop away this runaway inflammation there's much to learn in this episode I really like this one you know I think it's uh what people don't realize is like there's this incredible thing we have within our guts called the microbiome that are just waiting to be armed with the right foods and nutrients to come back and put out and dose these fires a lot of people are watching our series a l the time are going wow head spinning crazy information wow wow wow but then what next you hit this point where you're just like okay I know all this stuff okay how do I actually implement this and and what we just love to highlight today that if you were to choose to own one of our packages particularly the Platinum package you will get access to our specific gas I.E gut autoimmune solution quick action guide and meal plan so that'll give you just a basic like here you go like if we're going to distill all this information down into what you're going to practically going to shop for this is for you and we believe that's going to be an incredible resource because I'm sure that you're watching this and you're thinking you're connecting the dots you know these weird rashes have been around for way too long you know you have that feeling that perhaps that either yourself or a loved one is just on a trajectory that's not going to end well and the good news is is that you have the power within your hands to take control of that and a huge thing of what we do when we team up with the microbiome is to give it the right Fuel and resources so the body can begin that healing process yeah so for those of us who like a plan who like to um be told what are the next steps where do I go to from here our gut autoimmune solution implementation guide is for you it will lay out you've got your meal plan sorted you've got your supplement regime sorted you've got the correct steps to approach each protocol because as you'll learn in our next episode which is all about our elimination Pathways if you do detox or and episode 6 which is which is all about detox doing detox in the wrong order can do more harm than good so this guide has it all sorted for you and that's just one of many things you and there's actually even an inflammation collection so that go click the link below and you will see there's a whole sack of resources that we believe are incredible tools for your healing journey and I think it's time for us to you know take that step back and think wow I think it's almost as if I believe that um a modern medical system is just needs a revolution you know people are starting to catch on people are starting to realize that good medical care comes from the food that you eat um understanding the right protocols the incredible healing power of the plants um that all around us every single day um and it shouldn't be sending people bankrupt this information should be made as freely available as possible but I'm sure you're aware that we're up against it right we're up against um years and years and years decades and decades and Decades of indoctrination and where people just don't know and so if you haven't already we would just encourage you to that by owning the series and by joining U the goodness lover family officially that you make this sort of thing possible because ourselves are just one of the many independent people that are just trying to get this message out and we believe and like I think you would agree that if people had the opportunity if they had the opportunity to understand that they would make changes and that those changes can be life-changing for people they can take someone that's on this path of you know terrible disease their life you know being totally hampered by unnecessary ailments and restore themselves to on a healing pathway which when you think about it is such a precious gift our health is everything it's our greatest resource this is what drives us to do what we do uh and this is something that's just so important our whole team is just so focused around this as well so we just love to thank you for everyone that's joined us already and if you're considering please click that link it would this is what makes it possible for us to continue to do this Mission and thank you for those that have equipped us already so we don't want to take too much more time away from you right now please enjoy episode 4 [Music] [Music] welcome back to the gut autoimmune solution I'm your host Sarah uto in our first three episodes we've delved into the fascinating world of gut health and its profound connection to autoimmune diseases we've explored the intricate system of the microbiome uncovered the dangers of leaky gut syndrome and learned about key nutrients that can help repair and strengthen our gut barrier today we're diving even deeper into a fundamental issue that underlies many chronic health conditions inflammation while acute inflammation is a necessary part of our body's healing process chronic unchecked inflammation can be a silent Destroyer fueling a wide range of health problems including autoimmune diseases in this episode we'll explore the complex world of chronic inflammation and its far-reaching impacts on our health we'll uncover the intricate connection between inflammation and autoimmune conditions and learn how to recognize the science of chronic inflammation in your body we'll also learn about powerful natural strategies to combat inflammation including the role of essential omega-3 fatty acids targeted probiotic approaches and the ancient wisdom of fermented foods our experts will share Cutting Edge research and practical tips you can Implement right away to start cooling the fires of inflammation in your body whether you're dealing with a diagnosed autoimmune condition struggling with unexplained symptoms or you simply want to optimize your health this episode is packed with information that could transform your approach to managing inflammation and supporting your overall well-being get ready to uncover the hidden fire that may be fueling your health challenges and learn how to extinguish it naturally so long before I ever woree a white coat I was wearing a patient gown I started getting sick between 12 and 14 years old now lupus is an autoimmune disease that can attack any organ of your body and after they ran all the tests not only did they confirm that I had lupus but they found out that I also was in kidney failure so the day after that I'm in a kidney biopsy surgery and the day after that I'm sitting in a nephrologist office with my mother and my grandmother who's a holocaust Survivor who came uh here as a refugee to start a new new life that was safe for her family they were both sitting in the office with me at 16 when the nefrologist tells us deadpan that my kidney failure was so severe and so aggressive that unless I did some experimental treatments he expected that I could be dead or on dialysis in six months so you know it was it was such a horrific time to go from yeah I'm achy I don't feel good I have rashes to a death sentence really and this was back when I was 16 we didn't have all the newer treatments we have although even with the newer treatments people aren't really having much better outcomes but at the time they were experimenting with using chemotherapy to intentionally suppress the immune system to try to save my kidneys they didn't know what dosage to use back then they didn't know how long to give it for so I ended up getting increasingly higher doses of chemotherapy for two years straight and finally after 2 years my kidneys went into remission and I was told I was in remission from lupus now with lupus remission doesn't mean that you're healed I actually was still very symptomatic but my kidneys were no longer as bad they were stable I had protein in my urine which they said I always would from the damage I had to my kidneys but I didn't need dialysis and I was able to stop chemotherapy I took medicines for my pain I avoided the sun to try to control the rashes but that is considered a good outcome with autoimmune disease and so that's really how I liveed my life after that but I wanted to do something important in this world and I thought well if I become a doctor I can help teach other patients how to live a life that is Meaningful even if they have chronic disease and I actually stayed in remission through college but in medical school could not control my stress definitely wasn't getting enough sleep I was working 100 hour weeks we didn't have laws against that back then and uh I started getting sick again from lupus this time not in my kidneys but instead I was getting blood clots I was getting double vision from blood clots going into my brain and they diagnosed me with transient es schic attacks which are mini strokes told me I had to take blood thinner for the rest of my life so now I'm injecting myself in the belly every day in my mid 20s just so I don't have a stroke and so that I could finish medical school uh but this was again considered a good outcome but this is how lipus works is that it is chronic and Progressive meaning you have it forever and it continues to get worse and that I found a way to still stay hopeful and stay grateful but it's a very difficult life with chronic disease I wish I could say that somehow all the education I got in the sciences and in medicine gave me the information I needed to change the course of my illness I wish I did genetic research for three years at Carnegie melon I got I graduated with honors from my genetic research in leukemia I went to medical school I was chief resident I learned every lesson they taught me very well but they never taught me anything about the possibility that nutrition diet lifestyle had anything to do with my health so I always like to say we don't die of old old age we die of inflammation inflammation is at the root of every inflammatory disease in the body right now here's the thing when there's chronic inflammation combined with environmental trigger that is one of the biggest drivers of autoimmune disease now most of us hear that word inflammation we like oh inflammation is the bad guy it's the root of all evil but no like inflammation in the short run is actually good for us it heals our body let me give you an example if I get a cut on my finger right and there's a little bit of infection what happens you get red you get pain you get swelling you get some tenderness it becomes hot so what do most of us do we put some Bas cration or some other kind of chemical on it in a Band-Aid right I don't use Bas cration I would use bioactive silver gel right which is a little bit different but nonetheless they'll put Basra on that they'll put a Band-Aid on that they'll come back in a few days and what happens they rip the Band-Aid off and wow my finger's all better the finger's all healed right what healed that finger it's inflammation so inflammation in the short run is essential to heal our body if we don't have an inflammatory response we're dead in the water the problem is is when that inflammation becomes chronic and here's the thing just like we have inflammation on our skin you have inflammation inside your body all right so that same response right the red the hot the pain the swelling that happens in our gut that happens in our body the only problem is is we don't see it if we don't see it we don't know it's there if we don't know it's there we can't treat it and go after it and fix it so if we look at all these diseases it's like there's many different forms of inflammation heart disease is inflammatory cancer is inflammatory diabetes is inflammatory Alzheimer's is inflammatory even things like depression is inflammatory so those are not autoimmune diseases now type one diabetes is autoimmune but type two is not but those are not autoimmune diseases so the inflammation that we get when there's autoimmune disease is a different type of inflammation so what happens is is that the body the immune system makes these Auto antibodies that basically start attacking your own tissue right so again we have these Auto antibodies that are there to design to help us and they start attacking the tissue so literally your body is attacking itself so if that happens in your nerve system that becomes Ms which is multiple sclerosis if that happens in your gut you get celiac disease which happens from an extreme case of gluten sensitivity or you get IBD irritable bowel disease if that happens in your fingers you get psoriatic arthritis or you get ra which is rheumatoid arthritis again if this happens in your thyroid gland and you're noting the uh you notice that you have peroxidase or thyroglobulin antibodies right that is called Hashimoto's disease and again one in five women are getting Hashimoto in today's day and age one in 10 men are getting that how crazy is that it's a very important issue to distinguish between acute inflammation and chronic inflammation acute inflam infation is essential for survival so if we think of what happens if we have trauma like we're involved in an accident we have broken bones we have lacerations the immune system goes into action if we have an invading pathogen a virus a bacteria of of a mold or we have any kind of parasites and so on any invading pathogen our immune system goes into action and this is the acute response but unfortunately due to derangements in our systems when we have aging which we call immunosenescence when we have hormonal imbalances when we have inadequate nutrition poor quality sleep we live not according to our proper rhythms in life the immune system can then go into a state of chronic activation now these immune cells are secreting enzymes which are damaging our own tissues if it's activated in the brain we have neuroinflammation which can cause cognitive and mood problems if it's in the vascular system that's what causes damage to the internal lining of our vessels Our arteries which we call the intima which then is a precursor to developing vascular disease so when we have chronic inflammation it's incredibly harmful versus acute inflammation which is life saving so our goal in functional medicine is very much to control the immune system so that we dampen down the response so we don't have chronic inflammation which is really what underlies most of the chronic diseases that we're now dealing with in such prolific numbers whenever you're dealing with any chronic inflammation that's going to cause a pretty massive burden on the rest of the organs to function including the immune system and when the immune system has to focus on that inflammation it kind of is easier to get confused it just gives it a higher burden the other side of that coin is when you have autoimmune disease you're much more likely to get chronically inflamed so inflammation can both cause autoimmune disease and also inflammation can be caused by autoimmune disease the most common kind of patient we have coming in here is a late middle-aged kind of person a person who is pasted the age of 50 into the 50s and has entered what I call the period of morbidity when I think about patients and people and as they go through life there's the first half of life and the second half of life and it's not necessarily numerically half but the first half is before 50 and that's when all of the food you've eaten during the first Decades of your life four four decades or so of your life or five decades uh depending on what you've eaten and for most of us it is you know an omnivorous not such a good diet it can uh cause the inflammation that a lot of us go to doctors with in the 50s by the time you get the 50s that inflammation in its mild form is seen as lack of energy you know just exhaustion just aches and pains you know the the 30y olds they don't wake up every morning or go up the stairs you know my knee is creaking I AG just this hurts me that hurts me but a lot of people in their 50s have that because of the accumulation of inflammation that their diet has brought to them over the decade by the way morbidity means sickness so in the 50s is that period of morbidity because that's when all the sicknesses start to come in their mild forms like I'm just tired or I'm achy or in more severe forms like I just collapse and I'm dead because of sudden death because of a sudden heart attack or I have breast cancer or oh my God my A1C is 8.0 last year year I didn't have diabetes and now I do I have high blood pressure it was never high before all of these are inflammation driven problems that occur during most often during the period of morbidity after 50 the problem is however when that system that amplifies the markers of inflammation the mediators of inflammation is chronically activated it threatens the health of the entire human body including the brain cardiovascular system risk for cancer you name it diabetes obesity and as such we've got to ask ourselves well what is it that we are doing that's amping up inflammation and so many of our lifestyle choices are influential as it relates to the set point in an individual of his or her inflammation meaning that level that they pretty well carry around sleep is critically important the amount and quality of an individual sleep stress certainly important nature exposure or lack thereof diet and the the state of health of the gut M microbiome really influential as it relates to inflammation when inflammation is chronically elevated it's really quite threatening to virtually the entire body in my area we look at the literature and that relates to the threat chronic inflammation poses to the brain we understand for example that our most pervasive chronic neurological degenerative conditions are at their core inflammatory conditions so when I indicate for example that changes in the gut bacteria are influential as it relates to this mechanism of inflammation and that affects the brain you begin to develop a sense that while we could connect these dots and kind of gain the understanding that what is going on in the gut through this mechanism of inflammation May well play out in terms of threatening the brain and yes it does so that's why you know we've had such interest then in the going on related to the health of the gut the functionality the distribution the diversity of the gut bacteria and the various metabolites that they create as it relates to creating various chemicals that are important for General Health and brain health but also how the balance and functionality of our gut bacteria relate to inflammation again a process that when it's chronically activated can be very threatening to brain health inflammation is supposed to go up and then be cleared that's part of our immune system is to clear it if those B cells and T cells are responding and replicating it uses up energy so we get fatigue it traps iron so we get iron deficiency so it can cause fevers because these cyto kindes warm us up that's what cyto kindes from these B cells t- cells inflammation cyto kindes are the molecules that are communicating with our immune system and and bringing in the Army these cyto kindes are saying more army more army and we feel it as a fever we feel it as body aches or muscle aches or fatigue and anyone who's had inflammation uh or autoimmune disease knows that deep painful fatigue that you just can't do anything it's more than any fatigue you've ever heard of that is because you have these cyto kindes that are suppressing your mitochondria that are causing you to be tired so fatigue is like a Hallmark of inflammation low grade fevers will happen people will feel that I've had that you get this shivers this there you're like or fever you might get achy so it feels like the flu right the flu is the same thing you have a virus the flu and your body gets those flu like symptoms that's your immune system those are your cyto kindes so that can happen with just inflammation or autoimmunity without having a flu there you might not think as clearly your gut might be upset you get joint pains um all of this can happen just with inflammation and it can progress into autoimmunity where you actually start attacking yourself all those antibodies now start attacking your own cells the symptoms are could be really generic just like any of these things it could be fatigue you just don't have the energy you used to it could be joint pain all of a sudden for some reason every time you wake up you just hurt the joint pain might travel it might be your knees today but your hips tomorrow that's a pretty big sign it could be that you just don't have your reserves stuff that you used to have no problems doing all of a sudden now seem like a big lift those are kind of the things that can sneak up on you you know it's it's very easy to say oh it's because I'm getting older because of got I was sick but if it continues to go on for months on end now this is your new normal and you don't really want that to be your new normal one of the things that can cause inflammation the symptoms are really really Broad and you can't really pin them down sometimes it could be chronic fatigue or random pains that come and go the only time I even heard about diet at all was people with diabetes maybe shouldn't have sugar and people with heart disease maybe shouldn't have butter but that was it and so I never had any inkling or intuition that there was a better way besides just trying to enjoy my life as much as I could with my illness so things changed for me purely by by luck I fell in love I fell in love with Thomas tadlock who is a brilliant man and the kindest sweetest man ever in the world and when we met we fell in love really quickly and when we had met I was only two months away from moving to California to go start my residency at UCLA Harbor so we fell in love really quickly and within a month's time we were already talking about marriage and I had to break it down to this beautiful amazing man that I have this disease where I can't have your children I was told pregnancy could be lethal for me even if I could possibly have a kid they might have heart block or something so I can't have children and I'm not going to live a long life you're going to end up taking care of me when I become disabled maybe in the next few years I was on the perfect diet to be overweight and sick it's called hospital food hospital food is great for hospit Hospital business okay it'll make you fat it'll make you sick and that's what I was eating every day and the white coat covers all the lumps and bumps so what happened was my husband's obsession is with metabolism he originally was a computer scientist and then he became really obsessed with Fitness and when he became obsessed with Fitness he decided to get his master's degree in Fitness so he had become very well known as a fat loss expert you know he was working with people from MTV where they'd say hey this guy needs a six-pack in 3 weeks he could do it by optimizing their diet and their Fitness so when we were going to get married I said I want to look like someone who's on MTV I want to look that good will you put me on a program so at the time the diet he was using was very high in raw cruciferous vegetables which we still use and high in omega-3 fats high amounts of water intake all the vegetables I went from a size 11 to a size three in 3 months I was totally ripped but even more exciting was for the first time since I was 16 or maybe even 14 I didn't have any pain I didn't have any headaches I had tons of energy I was now an intern working 30 hour shifts multiple days a week at the hospital but I had so much energy I could go to the gym after working a 30-hour shift which is weird if you don't have Lupus but I just felt amazing and when I went to the doctor I had a new doctor because my previous one retired and so there was actually a few month gap between me getting lab tests which was unusual for me I usually got them every month they watched me very Clos closely but between one retiring and getting a new one there's about a 3-month gap during this time that I was in training and eating well and when I went to get the labs right before my wedding the rheumatologist came to me really confused and he had a medical student with him and he said to the medical student this woman alleges to have Lupus but look at these Labs it's not here so we kind of all joked around about that that nobody you know wants lupus and he said don't worry I've seen your chart your chart shows that you've been sick a long time it's probably a lab error because you know this is not this is not typical and so he said enjoy your wedding come back we'll test again I enjoy my wedding I came back still negative for Lupus now also my blood clot antibodies are gone my high cholesterol that I'd had since I was 21 and I was told it nothing to do with my diet it was just genetic nothing to do with all the cheese I ate my cholesterol was 156 um everything about my lab test was gorgeous and nothing in my labs indicated I had a disease nothing about how I felt indicated I had a disease now this next month that'll be 16 years ago and I've never had a relapse of Lupus I've had two beautiful children and never had a relapse so over the past decade I've worked with thousands of people and helped them reverse not only lupus but rheumatoid arthritis multiple sclerosis mixed connective tissue diseases as well as things like diabetes and heart disease by helping them understand how to feed their cells so that their cells can repair themselves we have just explored the complex world of chronic inflammation and its profound impact on our health from its role in autoimmune diseases to its effects on our brain our heart and overall well-being it's clear that unchecked inflammation could be a silent destroyer in our bodies if chronic inflammation is at the root of so many health issues how can we effectively combat it coming up we'll explore one of Nature's Most Powerful anti-inflammatory tools this group of essential nutrients has been shown to have remarkable effects on red ucing inflammation supporting brain health and even potentially reversing autoimmune conditions so stay tuned as we dive into the science behind these nutrients and learn how you can utilize them to support your health and turn the tide on chronic inflammation sub fats are essential for you for you to have proper functioning of your body so the one that I focus on the most is omega-3 fatty acids now in nature we wouldn't have to focus on this because even leafy greens have some level of omega-3 fatty acids in them it's just a very low dose now the reason why it's important is because our anti-inflammatory immune system is created out of omega-3 fatty acids our inflammatory immune system which rears its head up when you get an infection or get an injury but it's supposed to then go back to sleep that is made of omega-6 fatty acids now Omega-3s aren't just there to create your anti-inflammatory immune system they're also an essential part of the m membranes of your neurons so that's important for your brain function for your memory all right and they're also an integral part of all of your cell membranes so your cells have these membranes around them that are made of fats in order to make your cells waterproof right if your cells didn't have this phospholipid membrane then they would dissolve and we would be a lump of water okay so they have these membranes with fats in them now Omega-3s are supposed to be in those membranes to make the cell flexible so it can receive signals and it can eliminate toxins if you don't have enough omega-3 your body's going to use its closest you know thing it can find which is Omega 6 but that makes very stiff cell membranes which means that communication often bounces off those cells and toxins get trapped inside this is how you create chronic illness again chronic illness is something we've created so when people eat high doses of Omega-3 those quickly incorporate into your cell membranes and people will release those toxins that have been stored forever their body will be able to communicate very well from cell to cell and that's what increases your metabolic rate and now your neurons are functioning better and you have an anti-inflammatory immune system and it's very easy to do you can literally throw a handful of flax Oria into a green smoothie and uh you won't even notice it one of the studies I really like to talk about is a study with moms and um and they're babies they're newborn babies born into the niku um the neonatal Intensive Care Unit and because of health problems they had to be separated from their moms and go into the ncu and that separation from the mom that was the model for the trauma um and so they looked at these infants these newborns uh microbiome and they saw the typical shift that we see from stress toxins we see that typical derangement so there's um in times where we are balanced and having more resilience we see a gut microbiome composition that's more beneficial to our health versus when we um encounter a lot of toxins encounter a lot of stress um encounter trauma in our life that doesn't get resolved we see that microbiome shift into something more harmful for our biology for our body and what this study showed was that these uh niku babies had everything you would expect all of the that derangement in the gut microbiome the increase in inflammation all of that stuff the researchers gave them a couple days of omega-3 fatty acids in their breast milk um you know the bottles of breast milk that they were being given in the ncu because they were separated from their moms that supplementation of omega-3 fatty acids completely reversed the gut microbiome derangement and I'm just going to say that again because it's powerful that two days of supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids for these niku babies who had been traumatized by birth and healthiest shes and being separated it completely reverse that derangement just a little bit of Omega-3 fatty acids omega-3 fatty acids are powerful anti-inflammatories they are critical for bringing down blood pressure and overall cardiovascular health they're linked to in decreased risk of dementia and all the forms of Alzheimer's uh Omega-3s are super super healthy compounds and it's critical to have them in the right balance so a lot of people in the modern world are getting about 16 parts of omega-6 Sy one part of Omega-3s and ideally you want to be closer to somewhere between 1: one to 4: one so Bringing Down the Omega 6es is critical as well as bringing up the Omega-3s to get yourself into the right balance now omega-3 fatty acids are found in plant kingdom they're found in h nuts and seeds and particularly flax seeds and chia seeds are amazing sources there's also a lesser amount in walnuts and hemp seeds they're also found of course in fish those are the main main sources in the human diet uh that I just named and then there's lesser amounts in canola oil and a few other places there's two main types of omega-3 fatty acids there's what's called short chain Omega-3s and longchain Omega-3s so the short chain om Omega-3s are ala and that's the type that is found in flax seeds and chia seeds and and hemp seeds and walnuts and your body can convert short train into lung chain lung chain Omega-3s are really critical for brain health and cardiovascular health your brain is largely made up of DHA which is one of the two main longchain Omega-3s EPA and DHA so you want to get plenty of these your body can convert it'll turn ala into EPA and DHA but not everybody does so efficiently there's been some studies coming out recently showing that vegans or really anybody who doesn't eat fish could be deficient have low levels of DHA in their blood tests even if they're consuming large amounts of ala as many vegans are because they're eating their flax seeds and chia seeds and walnuts and hemp seeds so that conversion is important one of the things that brings down conversion levels is Omega 6es it seems that they interfere with the pathway so having your Omega 6es low enough your ala high enough can absolutely help a lot and it may also be by the way that turmeric helps with the conversion process there's some research on that that is fascinating but it could also be beneficial in fact it very likely is also beneficial to have some Direct forms of longchain Omega-3s coming into your body so the ways you can do that are some people eat fish uh low mercury high-fat fish especially things like sardines or mackerel or salmon but other folks are very concerned about the ethical impacts of fish and the environmental impacts of fish then that may not be the best solution and then we start to look towards algae which is where the fish get it from so algae turns out to be a great source of DHA and EPA long chain Omega-3s there are algae based supplements most people don't like to eat algae By The Spoonful but there are algae based supplements that distill this and capture it for you and they are free of the heavy metals and the Mercury toxicity that's often found in fish oils and one more tip that just came out in recent studies is it turns out that the particular form of ala that is in hemp seeds is a little bit further along in the conversion chain it's got some DPA in there as well which turns out to be more readily converted to the longchain EPA and DHA that you want so hemp seeds may be extra helpful in this regard so if you're wanting to incorporate more Omega-3s into your diet from plant sources here's some tips with flax and chia seeds which were are the absolute most potent sources you can grind them up in a coffee grinder put that sort of powder or meal in a bag or container in the fridge and then just add a tablespoon or two to your diet every day you can put it on oatmeal you can put it in casseres you can add it to pasta and it's simple and benign and you're getting some added fiber and proteins too by the way in fact flax seeds in particular have forms of fiber that are super super healthy for the human body with walnuts well they're good on just about everything you can add spices and sauté them you can soak them in water overnight and then and then add some different spices to them and roast them you can uh chop them up and put them in salads hemp seeds are good in just about everything too everything from salad dressing to sauces to adding them on top of a stir fry to adding them to oatmeal I think hemp seeds are absolutely delicious so those are some great tips just have at it make friends with all of these foods and just add them to lots of other things and you'll just be boosting the nutrient quality of your diet every time you do then we're also looking at the ratio of omega-6 fats that kill and dry up inflammation in your in your brain and body compared to the Omega-3s right um so we're testing that so it's the average is 25 to one now I've seen 30 to1 I've seen 50 to one I've seen 88 to one and the girl that had the 88 to one she was in high school this was back when I was in New York City and she came down to see me and I did a whole consult with her we started working on getting the sugar down and improving her diet got to start there but I tested her omega-3 Omega 6 ratio and she had the highest ratio I've ever seen of any client and by the way I've done thousands of these and she was in high school she came into me from Connecticut she had an 88 to1 ratio that means that she had 88 times more of these of these pro-inflammatory fats that kill us and that rot and rust our brain and what was her number one symptom depression why was she so depressed and by the way she was on five different drugs many of those for the depression why was she so depressed because she had this massive imbalance of the ratio I just told you and the Omega sixes were basically inflaming her brain rotting it and rusting it from the inside out because you have to understand is that your brain is 60% fat and when it's 60% fat it's going to compete those Omega-3s and Omega sixes they're going to compete for the same enzymes one of those enzymes is something called Delta 6 desaturates right and when you have 25 or 50 or 88 times more of those Omega sixes they're going to win out for those enzymes 100% of the time and what happens is this massive imbalance takes over so what I did was I put her on a high dose omega-3 diet I think I put her on like five or six grams maybe it was even higher than that I can't remember a while ago and literally within 4 months her Depression was gone I retested her her number was about 8 or 9 to one I can't remember but it was under 10 to1 we kept on going I lowered the dose a little bit and then when we tested her again in 3 months she was about 2 to one got her down to where she was off of every medication her diet was improved but most important her Depression was gone she saw I would say about eight or nine or 10 specialists in New York City before she came to me what did I do differently I just looked outside the box or made that box bigger and I just started testing her body to say okay what is out of balance so one of the most important things lowering inflammation is not just looking at the gut self pathogens but looking at that important ratio the omega-3 to omega-6 diet and increasing the omega-3 fats in our body is so critical to downregulate inflammation not just in the heart and the cardiovascular system but the brain and it's amazing how that helps people heal from all these different cognitive issues that we're finding so I look for something that has EPA and DHA I like it to have either equal or slightly more EPA because DHA is a little easier to get but either equal or slightly more EPA some of them just have a tint of EPA and a lot more DHA and the EPA is the one that has more impact on the inflammatory Pathways the DHA has a lot of impact on brain health and on blood sugar balance so that's what I look for I look for one that's clean I don't want one that got other oils in there like you know soybean oil or some other not healthy oils in there um the pure it is the better it is so the EPA DHA and they usually have at least something as a carrier oil although I think there's one that doesn't have any but you want that to be olive oil or could be coconut oil unless you're sensitive to that but only a little bit and that's the last ingredient some of them will have vitamin e in them which is a antioxidant and it protects the oil that that's okay but you then you want to know is it alphaa for all or is it mixed taka for alls which gets a little iffy but there's some out there there's some out there that meet my criteria and you just have to look and there's always new ones coming out so it's checking you can also get algae and there's some algae powders that you can get and add to your smoothies or add to your drinks or I make ice cream a lot so plant-based ice cream and I include the algae powders in there um so they're prettyy and they're bright and they have a lot of the Omega-3s but look for the amounts so as far as amounts most of them are around 350 350 of each or somewhere in that range it might be 350 of one and 250 of the other very rare to get them really high dose even in fish oils it's very rare to get them really high dose you usually have to take multiple I personally like liquid I don't like the capsules because think about it if you're going to need to take three to six of these because you can't get it all in you know how much can you get in a capsule right there's the capsules which make sure it's not gelatin if you're plant-based but that's a a lot of extra stuff your body has to deal with so I like liquids I think the liquids are the better absorbed and better utilized omega-3 fatty acids are more than just a trendy supplement they're key players in our body's fight against inflammation and autoimmune dysfunction our experts have just shown us how these essential fats work to balance immune responses support brain health and maintain cellular Integrity in the complex world of autoimmune conditions Omega-3s emerge as a powerful Ally offering hope for those seeking natural ways to manage their symptoms next up we'll dive into the fascinating world of probiotics these beneficial bacteria have been making headlines in recent years but there's still a lot of confusion about how to use them effectively especially when it comes to autoimmune conditions we'll explore the latest research on probiotics including which strains might be the most beneficial for specific health concerns you'll learn about the importance of strain specific effects the myths surrounding probiotic use and how to choose the right probiotics for your needs I also do recommend people taking probiotic supplements what we're starting to find and uh students of mine and I published nine papers on probiotics that are open source you can find them on PubMed look up lip ski and probiotics and disease and you'll find them there and um the there's research on different strains of probiotic microbes working to modulate the immune system in various ways so a probiotic that works for somebody who has chronic bladder infections may not be the best probiotic for somebody to take who has diabetes to help modulate their blood sugar levels and so we're starting to see more and more specific probiotic formulations that are designed based on the research for specific health conditions and so I think we can see more of that I think we'll also start seeing more and more kind of prescription drugs that are specific probiotics as well we have some probiotics even that can help people who are in chronic kidney disease um kind of Stave off dialysis for longer because they they help get rid of the the toxins that are produced in the gut that produce toxins that damage the kidneys so you know there's a lot of probiotic research that's coming out um and there's certainly times where I would recommend to somebody taking probiotics if you got chronic diarrhea or somebody who has cluster defil I would recommend um taking sacy's Bui which is a a cousin to bread yeast because it will really help with diarrhea or or you know if somebody's just Tak in antibiotics I might recommend sacris bardi as well but um you know there's definitely times to take them yeah when it comes to probotics I would argue strain is everything for almost all of our applications for some things and I would even put immune enhancement here it probably doesn't matter quite as much because even even just eating yogurt normal yogurt um who would and those those bugs we eating yogurt tend to die in the stomach and they die in the small intestine because they can't handle stomach acid they can't handle bile and they go they die but even those dead bits tend to enhance immune response so eating yogurt daily will will decrease your risk of respiratory tract infection so that's a pretty cool thing but for most applications it is very strain and specific and I think it wor is worthwhile taking a step back of what do you mean by strain and I think the best analogy here is looking at dogs and all dogs are canis familiaris they're all the same species but they're obviously a Chihuahua and Irish Wolfhound are quite different things yeah we can look at them and go hey they look quite different but they are the same species now with bacteria they may not look so different so so there might be hundreds of strains of lacil rosis that that you can't just physically look and tell that they're different but they will differ in their ability to tolerate stomach acid or bio salts whether they stick to gut at all how they stick to your gut whether they produce compounds which Target beneficial bacteria whether they produce antimicrobial compounds which selectively Target pathogenic bacteria whether they speed up your Transit time whether they slow down your Transit time whether they otherwise compete with pathogens all those things are strain dependent I think there are a number of myths around prootic prescribing and for me one of the biggest ones is around permanent colonization that you can go oh look I've got no bid bacteria I'll take a supplement with Biff bacteria and it will live in my gut thereafter but if you look consistently at the data from the 1970s ' 80s 90s onwards they do not this and there's maybe the rare exception you know one out of 100 papers might show some capacity of long-term um colonization but they do not really have the capacity to recede or recolonize so I think that's kind of like an an incorrect way of using products and if you're using it that way you're not using them that well Frankly Speaking because I think what research has shown is that specific probotics have specific actions you look at look at laop rosis GG one specific prootic strain that binds to Rota virus yes so when you take it and you've got rotavirus diarrhea it kind of glues it up and prevents that R virus from killing your your gut cells and causing diarrhea and you take that probiotic we've got clinical trials showing that you might have 24 hours less vomiting in diarrhea you know which is pretty substantial when you volting in diarrhea 24 hours less is noticeable Improvement um but that's kind of how it's working and there'll be other probotics that can you know produce compounds that decrease blood pressure or that can bind to cholesterol and help help it excrete it from the system and when proct supplements are put together well they're based on that they're looking at the research base going okay what do these strains do what are clinical trials show that they do and then how do we package them together make sure that they're there in sufficient amounts and I think that's where we get the most out of out of probotics is when we're using it those targeted strains with specific actions to Target changes in in body function or specific specific bacterial overgrowth or fungal overgrowth or something along those lines is because this thing has got the right actions to treat that not because they're going to stay in your gut from that from their point forever because that's not what happens what you want to look for is the strain number because different strains do different things I use for example bifido bacterium lactus h19 that's the name of the strain specific for constipation research is fantastic on that um I use lactobacillus rosis LGG for leaky gut for example or eczema so it's really good to know what each strain does in terms of sacris poity um that's often used to uh increase secretory IGA and to treat candida and to treat things like Clum defal and diarrhea so we use sacris bardi really specifically for and then the Spore biotics do do different things and there's limited research on them as well but typically uh that i' I've found that to be I found the sporebiotics really useful uh often when people are very sensitive to probiotics some people have um they have sensitivity for different reasons to actually taking probiotics sometimes it makes their gut symptoms worse and that can mean that they may have um a situation where the immune system recognizes that as a as an Invader or a pathogen because they have leaky gut for example and their immune system is overactive and very uh alert to different pathogens that can happen um or it's the wrong strain for the for the wrong reason so if you are reactive to probiotic doesn't mean you're going to react to all species and all strains but uh perhaps the the the few that you've tried so my approach to using probiotics in autoimmune disease is to really understand what is going on in the microbiome and address it so to take a more personalized approach and this might mean microbiome testing to see what the deficiencies and overgrowths are but also to understand the research behind it so for example in autoimmune conditions like multiple sclerosis there are actually studies that have come out of prestigious academic centers that have shown that when they engineer specific prob biotics that increase things like lactate they produce lactate that they have found that it regulates t- cell mediated immune reactions and so there is no question that probiotics are going to be an extremely important part of microbiom manipulation in autoimmune disease healing although right now we're very much in the infancy of This research specifically in inflammatory bowel disease and probably best studied in ulcerative colitis there have been many studies looking at probiotic combinations that are famously known as vsl3 which include combinations of different lactobacillus bifidobacteria and streptococus and so in studies they've seen that if you're using vsl3 and usually in addition with an anti-inflammatory medication then there is improved healing as far as induction of remission as well as maintenance of remission so I think it is really important to understand the literature because there is no probiotic that is one size fits all for autoimmune disease because autoimmune disease is so complex and your microbiome is so complex so you have to work to heal your microbiome and your autoimmune condition so probiotics are really interesting there's pretty good data that probiotics are helpful for talking to the immune system that's right underneath the gut and build tolerance of the immune system instead of the immune system attacking everything that you eat all these food sensitivities you just get inflammation the probiotics can actually help build rebuild tolerance and kind of qu quiet it down they're not helpful for um building a broad microbiome they haven't really been proven to do that as well so some people are like oh there's no point of probiotics and that is true cuz they kind of wash out uh most of them do anyway but they do help build tolerance so it depends on the person what I will Ed um if someone's gut is really a mess and they have loose stools I might use something like sacy bulard which is good for loose stools and helping to regulate it and people with high histamine amounts so I might use that one initially if people are doing okay we might use something like a lactobacillus bifidobacteria mix something simple and then when people are getting better doing a lot better then I really want a broader probiotic that has a lot more in it because there's some good studies now that the broader ones um actually will have a better effect but people whose guts at RMS or they're super inflamed or have high histamine are not going to tolerate that at the beginning so it kind of depends what stage they are what we're going to do and then as they improve and the gut quiets down we're going to start with fermented foods and then they'll get their bacteria from that as well within our bodies reside trillions of beneficial bacteria each with its own unique role to play our journey through the world of probiotics has revealed a landscape far more Nuance than simply just adding good bugs to our gut we've discovered the importance of strin specific effects and the Strategic approach needed to truly harness their potential as our experts have shown when used wisely these microscopic allies could be powerful Tools in our quest for gut health and immune balance coming up we'll dive into a time honored tradition that cultures around the world have used for Millennia to support their gut health fermented foods these probiotic powerhouses offer a natural Whole Food approach to supporting our microbiome humans have fermented foods for you know thousands of years mainly as a way not for health benefits but main as a way to preserve the food and that has um together with cooking has allowed you know humans to migrate around the world um without you know their food going bad so our genes and our um our gut jeans are definitely adapted to the regular consumption of of fermented foods and you know if you go around the world in all these different cultures you will see that almost every culture around the world um swears uh the benefits it's part of the natural cultures from from Russia to Asia um it's only the US has sort of been slowed to that process uh fermented foods but obviously now it's a big you know it's a big industry um but compared to other countries if you look at Korea um I've always enjoyed the experience in a in a Korean restaurant um to get a to order a dish where you get like 30 or 40 little dishes with different fermented food items you know on the on on the the table which is an amazing experience the good thing about this is that each of those foods will have their own set of of microbes that are required to break down that particular um this particular food item fermented foods evolutionarily just make a lot of sense and that's why they are considered traditional foods um but whether it be something like sourkraut whether it be certain kinds of like uh apple cider vinegar whether it be me so whether it be um you know kombucha right there are all different kinds of ferments that we can eat we can ferment any kind of vegetable basically most kinds of vegetables and there are incredible recipes for that so I'm not going to give you recipes here and now but you know I have some in my book in the dirt cure and there are um many many many other ways to find them and also now to buy them why are they so important well it's sort of this beautiful system that's been developed because for one thing you want those nutrients not just talking about the ferments which are bacteria so that's like a built-in probiotic but you also are getting the nutrients from let's say the pickled carrots or the pickles or the sauerkraut or you know any of these other kinds of um Foods at the same time you're also getting diverse organisms and what's really helpful when it comes to fermented foods going to the idea that the more diverse the foods are the more diverse the organisms in your gut and in your body are okay and that is the way that no one organism will grow too much out of control so diversity is the name of the game and because diversity of organisms is the name of the game so too our diversity of foods and even ferments meaning one day I might have turmeric sauerkraut another day I might have a red cabbage sauerkraut another day I might have um another kind of kimchi right like in other words I'm kind of rotating I might go one week where I'm just totally into one kind of fermented vegetable and then either I finish it off or I'm kind of sick of it then I move to the next thing I also even use like fermented sauces I use the juices from my ferments to make like salad dressings or season things so you can just constantly be creative with the way that you use these ferments and in that process you are feeding and feeding and feeding the different organisms in the gut in the digestive tract and even throughout the body one of my favorite studies was that group out of Stanford those guys are amazing the sonnenbergs and husband and wife team who are amazing both doctors sonnenbergs Dr Christopher Gardner that team out of Stanford they did a study where they took 36 people and they made them either eat plants basically high-fiber plant- B plant-based diets or they had them do add fermented foods and I think they were aiming for large amount so like six servings or more a day so a good amount they it was a 10-week trial they gave them some time to ramp up in in both studies so they expected to um that would the people who ate the high fiber diet would have lower inflammation and better results and help them with you know putting out all this inflammation but what they actually found was the people who ate the fermented foods the high amounts of fermented foods actually had 19 inflammatory markers and this is interesting one of them was I6 significantly reduced this is the fermented arm so significantly reduced their um inflammation and their inflammatory markers in these people the people who did the fiber they found three results a third of them got better so there inflammation markers did come down and they did great a third of them got a little better but still had a little bit of ongoing inflammation a third of them got worse and that made so much sense to me when I saw that study like a total light bulb came in and it just it gave me this greater sense of understanding in that how they interpret it and I agree with them that clearly the the fermented food is making a difference those bacteria maybe the LA lactic acid it's in is is clear barely making a difference but in the plant-based group if you don't have the diverse microbiome already and we start giving you a ton of Fiber Well you now are just going to poop out more fiber and it may even cause inflammation in you because you can't break it down and so now it might ferment inside of you and cause problems if you're not if you're not breaking it down properly and so I think what's happening to some people is that third are going plant-based or eating High raw or doing these great autoimmune protocols and reversing and that's awesome those are the patients that I am explaining in my Cas is even you know so proud of them so happy to see that a third are getting somewhat better but not fully resolving and a third are getting worse like me when I first went plant P I got way worse and so we need more work we need to diversify our microbiome so we probably should be eating those fermented foods but there's a caveat so ever since that study we want people eating more fermented foods right it was important study and a ton more studies are being done now all sorts of scientists are studying it so we'll have a lot more information like all the time out but um I think it clearly showed us the benefits of fermented foods so for autoimmune people we might all go rush off and start eating sauerkraut and kimchi and miso and all these foods but fermented foods are high in histamine and so if people have an autoimmune disease they some people the histamine bothers them they already have high histamine or histamine intolerance or the histamine is going to cause their leaky gut to worsen and they get symptoms so a lot of autoimmune people don't tolerate fermented foods so even though that's going to help them ultimately that's what we want to get in them and then we're really going to improve a lot of people can't tolerate it so I might have someone try it if someone's guts is really inflamed I will not introduce it at the beginning and I would recommend those people wait but once the gut is calming down and have a little in control of the inflammation then if people tolerate it that's really great and I really I try to diversify the fermented foods that they're eating and try to bring it in a little bit throughout the day and I think that makes a huge difference the probiotic rich food s are fermented and cultured Foods the most common one would be yogurt that we see in our in our cultures we also see things like kombucha being drunk more widely or sauerkraut or homemade pickles um um all of these kind of cultured and fermented foods are really providing great microbes into our guts um personally I make my own kimchi and I eat it every single day there's something that I love about it and kimchi is one of those Foods you either love it or you really dislike it um in my family we go both ways so eating cultured and fermented foods is how people always got their probiotics even something like sourdough bread if you can tolerate gluten is a great way to get probiotics so I'm a big fan of all the fermented vegetables also pickles now you want to get them raw so some people sell pickles that have been ferment or maybe they've just been soaked in vinegar and then they're they're pasteurized and that's not going to give you all those same benefits but if you can get raw wild fermented pickles or make your own or pickled vegetables those can be fabulous now some are high in salt sodium can be pro-inflammatory and can be corrosive of the gut lining at times and it can certainly increase your blood pressure which can be problematic for some conditions so if you are eating a lot of salty fermented foods just think of them as a salt source don't add them on top of an already salted meal but use them instead of soy sauce or salt and that way you'll be managing that issue but I love fermented foods they add so much flavor and deliciousness but they're also incredibly healthy I love using miso as a salt Source on lots of different foods it's it's good in sauces it's good in just about any Savory dish and with miso what you getting is you're getting fermented soybeans that are super digestible and bioavailable so there's a bit of protein some phytoestrogen some other benefits all the wonderful things that soy brings and you're also getting the cultures and the probiotics that come with miso uh make sure you don't boil it though some people make miso soup and they boil it and then you're killing the probiotic so adding it to some hot water is probably fine but not like super super hot that's just a tip but yeah miso is great in lots of things and I also will put in a plug for homemade uh plant yogurts we have a yogur which is a homemade yogurt maker little thing it's not that that expensive you can get them online we will put plant milks in there my personal favorite is Eden soy unsweetened which provides 12 grams of protein per cup and it's nothing but organic soybeans and water so Eden soy unsweetened is one great brand but there are other brands and you can also make your own plant milks and then you ferment them with some culture in the yogur overnight and you've got this like wonderful thick yogurt and even if it doesn't super thicken it's still rich in probiotic and then you've got all the benefits of the plant milk which is made with oats or nuts or soy and water cultured which makes it more bioavailable and gets you the probiotics coming in by the time people come to our practice they've usually been to a few different doctors just trying to get diagnosed there's so often a lag in the diagnosis and detection of autoimmunity that people may come into their primary care physicians say I feel tired all of the time and the doctor might say well here maybe get some more sleep try this sleep medication or they might say I have a lot of pain and they might you know prescribe some pain medications that is oftentimes the first stages of their journey and they're still not getting relief so the autoimmune Journey can oftentimes be a very frustrating one for people because they're not getting answers and they know something is going on deep down they know their body is not balanced that there's some inflammatory process kicking in but they can't figure out what it is and the doctors often times aren't always getting to the root cause to figure out what's going on that's triggering these symptoms the biologics what what they're doing is they're essentially suppressing very specific inflammatory cyto kindes and so those are things that are increasing the inflammation in the body those biologics are going in and suppressing those inflammatory cyto cons which can create other impacts on the body so people oftentimes are wanting to avoid that if possible so we're looking to help them address what created the inflammation in their body what's the underlying imbalance the smoldering that's causing this inflammation how can we Tamp it down how can we use nutrition lifestyle and herbal medicine to really bring that inflammation down and try and bring those symptoms down so that we can maintain some sort of remission for that person you've got to have hope you got to get the inflammation under control all of these things are critically important I just want to say you have the power but you have to do the work it's not as easy as getting your medications and just taking them every day you got to do the work you have to make a decision that you are worth it there's so much healing power in your fork take charge get the right information and just start on a program to reverse this the symptoms are reversible you have the power to take your health in your own hands and heal yourself and that's what I encourage you to do our journey through the fourth episode of the gut autoimmune solution has been truly eye openening we've delved deep into the world of chronic inflammation uncovering its far-reaching impacts on our health and its intricate connection to autoimmune conditions we've explored powerful tools to combat inflammation from essential omega-3 fatty acids to targeted probiotic strategy and ancient wisdom of fermented foods but our exploration of the gut autoimmune connection is far from over in our next episode we'll be tackling a critical yet overlooked piece of the gut health puzzle leaky Colin just as a leaky gut can wake havoc on our immune system a leaky colon can silently contribute to a host of health issues we'll also be addressing two of the most common and frustrating digestive issues constip and bloating you'll learn powerful natural approaches to improve your digestion and find relief from these uncomfortable symptoms whether you're dealing with a diagnosed autoimmune condition struggling with chronic digestive issues or simply want to optimize your gut health the next episode will provide you with practical actionable strategies to transform your health from the inside out I'll see you there [Music] w [Music] [Music] oh oh [Music] [Music] [Music]