Speaker 1: Why is it so hard to get real answers about
Speaker 1: your health? If you've been told that everything looks fine,
Speaker 1: but you know that something is off, we're not imagining it.
Speaker 1: That's why I created Vitality three sixty to help you
Speaker 1: better understand what's going on inside your body so that
Speaker 1: you can take the targeted action needed. With a functional
Speaker 1: health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork to
Speaker 1: uncover the root causes of your symptoms. I've teamed up
Speaker 1: with Doctyesmina, an incredible integrative GP and together we will
Speaker 1: help you decode your body's signals and answer questions like
Speaker 1: why am I always exhausted? What's really causing my stubborn weight?
Speaker 1: Am I inflamed? Insulin resistant? Or maybe missing key nutrients?
Speaker 1: Because when you understand your body better, you can transform
Speaker 1: your health. Visit v three sixty dot health or check
Speaker 1: out the show notes for more. This is healthy Heir
Speaker 1: with Amelia Phillips and welcome to one of my mini
Speaker 1: motivation episodes. These are shorter, targeted episodes where we tack
Speaker 1: one specific question or challenge head on. Today we are
Speaker 1: deep diving into our digestive system and answering the question
Speaker 1: how do I improve my gut microbiome? Now, a healthy
Speaker 1: functioning gut microbiome is linked to all sorts of improved
Speaker 1: outcomes such as a stronger immune system, better weight management. Yes,
Speaker 1: it helps with weight management, improved mood, nutrient absorption, lower inflammation.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. The list goes on. But what are
Speaker 1: the best strategies and is it as simple as popping
Speaker 1: a probiotic or is there a better, newer way. I
Speaker 1: pose this question recently to gastroentrologists doctor Paul Frooms. Doctor
Speaker 1: Paul is BORED certified treats patients with gut issues in
Speaker 1: both the public and private practice, and he's known as
Speaker 1: the Microbiome Doctor. He also trains other doctors and practitioners
Speaker 1: in IBS management through his Microbiome Tree program, which is
Speaker 1: called Best Gut Medical. So here is what doctor Paul
Speaker 1: had to say about mastering our microbiome. Doctor Paul, If
Speaker 1: we really want to optimize and support our microbiome to flourish,
Speaker 1: and we want to minimize the pathogens and opportunists, and
Speaker 1: we want to help the good bugs of our microbiome proliferate,
Speaker 1: what are the most important diet changes that we should
Speaker 1: be making or what should we be focusing on when
Speaker 1: it comes to our diet.
Speaker 2: Basically, what I do is more than DIETA I would say,
Speaker 2: if you really want to do something in legitimate and
Speaker 2: that really changes your microbiome, So you want to get
Speaker 2: rid of pathogens and you want to rebuild, you sort
Speaker 2: of do a variation of whed and seed. If you're
Speaker 2: not going to do a full medical one, then you
Speaker 2: might getch you something natural so to weed out or
Speaker 2: bad back, get rid of bad bacteria. Naturally, you want
Speaker 2: to add some plants that are effective and helping your
Speaker 2: gun immune system control bad bacteria. So that's eating a
Speaker 2: lot of garlic, onion and adding something like berberine, oregano oil.
Speaker 2: Those sort of things are actually pretty good.
Speaker 1: Is it kind of anti microbial? Is that what mean?
Speaker 2: Like anti microbials? Rid of opportunity organisms?
Speaker 1: Okay, so what's interesting about so like berberine, for example,
Speaker 1: which some people like to take for weight management as well,
Speaker 1: it's actually not something that you would want to take
Speaker 1: as a supplement permanently, is it? Because it could also
Speaker 1: potentially alter your good guys or you someone that's very
Speaker 1: happy to permanently supplement with berberine.
Speaker 2: I'm coming around to the you know what, I think
Speaker 2: berberine might have a as an ongoing suffer. Okay, it belodoendron,
Speaker 2: which is obviously antimicrobial, but reasons for that you've shown
Speaker 2: berberine actually acts as a prebiotic for the promotion of
Speaker 2: good bacteria. So it's kind of a really good one
Speaker 2: for maintenance because it's doing a little bit of suppressing
Speaker 2: of bad buds, but it's also stimulating the pollutination of probiotics.
Speaker 2: Plus it's helping you activate SGLP one a little bit
Speaker 2: as well, so it's actually seeing not a bad little supplement.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, berberine, you heard it here, guys. And
Speaker 1: then those other food based ones, so do you want
Speaker 1: to just rattle those off again? So these are the
Speaker 1: kind of antimicrobials that are going to keep those pathogens
Speaker 1: opportunists a.
Speaker 2: So garlics are very good one, or a garna oil
Speaker 2: is a very good one. And then there are things
Speaker 2: like you can intermittently take things like wormwood time extract
Speaker 2: time oil. Those sort of plants have pretty good antimicrobial effects.
Speaker 2: But the second step is you've always got to be
Speaker 2: repopulating your guts. So eating eating prebiotic foods and taking
Speaker 2: a probiotic is going to help establish and maintain your
Speaker 2: probotic level.
Speaker 1: Your top favorite pre biotic foods that this gastroentrologist will
Speaker 1: be eating, you'll see it in the fridge and pantry
Speaker 1: every week. What are your go to prebiotics?
Speaker 2: Well, I love the bit of glue cans in steel cutoats.
Speaker 1: I love steel cutoats. I think I should buy shares
Speaker 1: in steel cutoats because the amount of people I have
Speaker 1: got to switch across. The best tastes so much better
Speaker 1: than rolled or instant.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're really good. Then you've got to have some
Speaker 2: sort of resistant starch. So whether that's a green banana
Speaker 2: or whether it's sweet potato. There's lots of different sources
Speaker 2: of resistant starsh.
Speaker 1: Cooled like just cooled potato. Like you know, you had
Speaker 1: some roast potatoes last night, make a little potato salad
Speaker 1: the next day, cooled potatoes. I can't do green bananas.
Speaker 1: Where else can we get resistance starch?
Speaker 2: The cool potatoes are very good resistance stark. Any starchy food,
Speaker 2: if you try cook it, then you're going to turn
Speaker 2: it from something that releases sugar quickly, which is bad
Speaker 2: to something that's slow release, and then you want to
Speaker 2: add in things that so lots of green leafy greens
Speaker 2: are a really good thing to add to your diet
Speaker 2: because they've discovered another sugar that is a prebiotic sugar
Speaker 2: in leafy greens that was probably only discovered about six
Speaker 2: years ago. We're still just coming to terms what is
Speaker 2: in these foods in terms of prebiotics. And then polyphenale
Speaker 2: rich foods are really really good too, So they were
Speaker 2: all the really colorful things like pomegranad, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries.
Speaker 2: They provide a fuel for acamancia, which stops leaky that.
Speaker 1: So, yes, I heard pomegranite is a particular favorite of acromac.
Speaker 1: Now do you want to just touch on achromance here
Speaker 1: for a second, because certainly in the weight loss world
Speaker 1: where I spent a lot of time, it's getting quite
Speaker 1: a lot of bars and unfortunately, the only supplement I
Speaker 1: can find, and maybe you can point me in a
Speaker 1: better direction pendulum. They do an acremensia, but it's really expensive,
Speaker 1: it's pretty exy, So I just would rather feed my
Speaker 1: natural acromencia. So how should I feed it? To help
Speaker 1: with weight management and metabolic flexibility.
Speaker 2: Incomania is probably one of the most exciting new probotic
Speaker 2: discoveries of the last decade. This thing leaves. They found
Speaker 2: it deep in the mucous layer of the gut, so
Speaker 2: and it's then become like a recognized as a keystone
Speaker 2: species for metabolic health, gut barrier health. It basically maintains
Speaker 2: and stimulates your gut mucus barrier and prevents leaky gut,
Speaker 2: which massively reduces inflammation, produces a short it's one of
Speaker 2: the producers of short chain fatty acids like propionate, and
Speaker 2: it's got a several protein as you know that stimulates
Speaker 2: GLP one. So it reduces leaky gut, reduces systemic inflammation,
Speaker 2: reduces insulin resistance, improves weight gain, and improves insulin sensevity.
Speaker 1: And it's found in an abundance in lean people usually
Speaker 1: and then in very low levels in at lease people.
Speaker 1: Is that kind of one of the key findings?
Speaker 2: Absolutely right? Yeah, Okay, So a technotic feature of type
Speaker 2: two diabetes, obesity and flum to bow disease is that
Speaker 2: they are missing a commancia. Now there's one probiotic on
Speaker 2: the market which you mentioned that you can buy, but
Speaker 2: as you said, it's expensive. So the best way is
Speaker 2: to rebuild our commands here is one do something and
Speaker 2: fasting because it loves it when you're fast.
Speaker 1: Is that right? I didn't know that? Okay, So like
Speaker 1: a prolonged overnight fast, you know, twelve fourteen maybe sixteen
Speaker 1: hours for some people easy finished dinner at eight pm.
Speaker 1: Have breakfasted between eight am twelve hours or ten ams
Speaker 1: fourteen twelve am sixteen hours. Okay.
Speaker 2: It thrives when the gut's not you know, for those
Speaker 2: periods when the gut's not processing food, then you want
Speaker 2: to feed it the most powerful bursts of a commands
Speaker 2: that we mentioned of the polyphenol rich foods, right, which
Speaker 2: is pomegranate, is the king cranberze, blue.
Speaker 1: Berries, plums? Is it? Basically the purples? Is it that?
Speaker 2: The dark personal purple purples, reds, even dark chocolate? They're
Speaker 2: like eighty five.
Speaker 1: You have just made us all fans of you today
Speaker 1: have a.
Speaker 2: Cup of green tea fee squares of dark chocolate and
Speaker 2: some cranberr and some blueberries. Bang, polyphenol explosion and acamance.
Speaker 1: Here it will just proliferate amazing. Well, I want to
Speaker 1: dive into the common probiotics, but I just want to
Speaker 1: circle back because I feel like, did you finish you
Speaker 1: were going through some kind of steps of you know,
Speaker 1: helping our gut microbiome. Had you finished going through all
Speaker 1: the steps before we go into the probiotics. I wasn't
Speaker 1: sure if I had cut you off.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we got through seed. We go through
Speaker 2: natural waste to weed. We got through a natural waste
Speaker 2: to seed, and were just at the end mentioned Look,
Speaker 2: there's no harm in taking a good broad spectrum probiotic
Speaker 2: and some probiotic foods that would sort of complete that.
Speaker 1: Why don't you list off some of the probiotic foods
Speaker 1: that air in your cupboard and fridge that you recommend.
Speaker 1: We all have.
Speaker 2: Probodic foods is very different to probiotic foods. So probodic
Speaker 2: foods means there's living, live cultures in them.
Speaker 1: So the prebiotic food is like the fertilizer, yes, for
Speaker 1: our living creatures. So we've just been talking about all
Speaker 1: the foods that our bugs love, but now you're actually
Speaker 1: talking about buying more bugs in the probiotics exactly right.
Speaker 2: So there's not many because we don't ferment foods like
Speaker 2: preserved foods like we used to when we're all farmers
Speaker 2: and we'd have to get through a long winter. So
Speaker 2: what's readily available out there are live culture, probotic yogurts.
Speaker 2: But do you want to get one that doesn't have
Speaker 2: any added sugar, coloring or.
Speaker 1: Flavoring unsweetened Greek yogurt?
Speaker 2: Yes? Please?
Speaker 1: And do you have killer brands that you're just like,
Speaker 1: I only get this brand or do you not mind?
Speaker 2: Now? I don't mind as long as it is the
Speaker 2: real genuine article.
Speaker 1: How do you know?
Speaker 2: You look at the ingredient list and the.
Speaker 1: First ingredients should be the probiotics.
Speaker 2: It's literally got to be just fermented milk and nothing else.
Speaker 2: And a lot of.
Speaker 1: Cultures okay, perfect, all right? Unsweetened Greek yogurt, Picky brand?
Speaker 1: What else?
Speaker 2: The only other promotic foods out there are things that
Speaker 2: are fermented that you and I can either make or buy.
Speaker 2: So that includes sour crap and variations of that like
Speaker 2: kim chi. And then there are some fermented soy products
Speaker 2: you can buy. There are some fermented drinks that are
Speaker 2: very popular.
Speaker 1: Yeah, kom butcher, Can I just buy the can Kim
Speaker 1: Butcher that's sitting next to the v drink and the
Speaker 1: mother drink.
Speaker 2: KM Butcher's better than drink a soft drink because the
Speaker 2: sugar content's a lot less, but there is still some
Speaker 2: residual sugar in it because that's how you're ferment it.
Speaker 2: So it's a healthier alternative. But there are some junkie
Speaker 2: butcher's which are colored and flavored and I also have
Speaker 2: excess sugar. And then there are the ones you get
Speaker 2: from you know, the health food stills, that are really
Speaker 2: they taste completely different. They are like you really like
Speaker 2: drinking a proper fermented drink. And then that one step
Speaker 2: up from yogurt is kefir, which is the fermented milk drink.
Speaker 1: Which I love as well. Quick question. The problem with
Speaker 1: kafir is it goes off really quickly. You do and
Speaker 1: I don't. This is I'm putting you on the spot
Speaker 1: here and don't worry if you don't know the answer.
Speaker 1: But I started pouring it into ice cubes and freezing
Speaker 1: some of it, so I kind of buy it, buy
Speaker 1: a big because it's pouring. So imagine you know, a
Speaker 1: milk carton, for example, and if it's you're the only
Speaker 1: one in the family that likes it. You won't get
Speaker 1: through the whole lot before it goes off. So I started,
Speaker 1: and I love it in smoothie. So I started pouring
Speaker 1: it into ice cubes and getting rid of half of
Speaker 1: the packet and freezing using the fresh stuff and then
Speaker 1: moving on. But then I thought, oh, I'm probably killing
Speaker 1: all the probiotics by freezing it. Do you think I
Speaker 1: would be?
Speaker 2: No, probably not. They seem to survive freezing most of them, which.
Speaker 1: Is today, well hot tip guys do that. And then
Speaker 1: when you make your smoothie and you drop a couple
Speaker 1: of cubes, three cubes of kafir in there, it makes
Speaker 1: it creamy rich, it's got a tang. It makes it
Speaker 1: feel so like you're having literally like a thick shake.
Speaker 1: It's so yummy.
Speaker 2: And we know this because we've studied frozen fickle transplants,
Speaker 2: and particularly in COVID. We had to freeze them and
Speaker 2: you then reconstitute them and you look at them and
Speaker 2: that studies look at the micro content and actually the
Speaker 2: life bacteria seem to survive very very well.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, look it's saving me. I still can't get
Speaker 1: my husband to drink it. So it's going to go
Speaker 1: off if I don't. If I don't do something with it,
Speaker 1: all right, And so in my fridge, for example, I've
Speaker 1: always got a jar of kimchi. I love the purply
Speaker 1: one and then sour crawt. And so now whenever I
Speaker 1: have my eggs in the morning, no matter what I do,
Speaker 1: I just put a big dollop. Or I grabbed my fork,
Speaker 1: I put a big dollop. And actually, if I I
Speaker 1: don't have it, I feel like I'm missing out Now.
Speaker 1: It took me a while. I used to hate for
Speaker 1: minute food, like the vinegar, anything that vers vinegary. So
Speaker 1: if I can do it, I think other people can too.
Speaker 1: Why is it so hard to get real answers about
Speaker 1: your health? If you've been told that everything looks fine,
Speaker 1: but you know that something is off, we're not imagining it.
Speaker 1: That's why I created Vitality three point sixty to help
Speaker 1: you better understand what's going on inside your body so
Speaker 1: that you can take the targeted action needed. With a
Speaker 1: functional health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork
Speaker 1: to uncover the root causes of your symptoms. I've teamed
Speaker 1: up with doctor Esmina, an incredible integrative GP, and together
Speaker 1: we will help you decode your body's signals and answer
Speaker 1: questions like why am I always exhausted? What's really causing
Speaker 1: my stubborn weight? Am I inflamed? Insulin resistant? Or maybe
Speaker 1: missing key nutrients? Because when you understand your body better,
Speaker 1: you can transform your health. Visit V three sixty dot
Speaker 1: health or check out the show notes for more. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about probiotic supplements without rattling off and just confusing
Speaker 1: our members. We've got like the Lacdo bacillis, the common
Speaker 1: ones that we see all over the place, Lacdo Bacillus,
Speaker 1: and there's a few different strains of them. You've got
Speaker 1: the Biffodo Bacterium, you've got bacillis. Are these still the
Speaker 1: big ones we want to get or are there others
Speaker 1: out there that you're like, no, no, no, that's last
Speaker 1: year's news. I've got some new ones for you, hot
Speaker 1: off the press.
Speaker 2: We do have some new ones, but still the foundation
Speaker 2: species that we lack and that we need to replace
Speaker 2: still fall within the species lacto Basillus, Biffodo Bacterium, and Basillis.
Speaker 2: We've added to that with Acamancia. We've added to that
Speaker 2: with something called why sella.
Speaker 1: Can you say that again?
Speaker 2: Why seller?
Speaker 1: Why sellar? Okay, I haven't heard of that one.
Speaker 2: That's incredibly important for the oral microbiome to prevent ginger
Speaker 2: of artist dental careys, period on titus, heltosis or thrush,
Speaker 2: it reflex, all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: Okay, So basically, do you have any tips when we're
Speaker 1: looking for supplements? Is it you know you're just basically
Speaker 1: wanting to have a combination of those out there.
Speaker 2: There's really two answers to that. There is just a
Speaker 2: general probiotic for those people who have gotten on so
Speaker 2: no specific symptoms, but do realize that their microbiome is
Speaker 2: always under threat and it's just a good idea, and
Speaker 2: that will just be a blend of biffodo different biffodo
Speaker 2: strains and lacto basilla strains. And you really need to
Speaker 2: be taking probiotics that have at least thirty billion C
Speaker 2: if you per capsule, well, you you're just not getting enough.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at some supplements on my notes now and
Speaker 1: it's got lacdo bacillis. Am I allowed to talk brands?
Speaker 2: I think you can?
Speaker 1: I can? Okay, all right, So I've got I've got
Speaker 1: the ones that you know, I sort of use and recommend. So,
Speaker 1: for example, Metagenics has one called Ultraflora intensive Care, and
Speaker 1: it's got twenty two point five billion c few but
Speaker 1: Lacdo Bacillis has ten billion, the Biffodo bacterium has five billion,
Speaker 1: and then Sacrimias has seven point five billion. You know,
Speaker 1: And so when you're saying, like, is it total that you're.
Speaker 2: Saying, I'm looking total.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thirty billion, you said.
Speaker 2: We're talking about a general probiotic here, So yeah, thirty
Speaker 2: billion upwards is a really good amount. So I intensive
Speaker 2: care that particular combination will exceeds that.
Speaker 1: And I'm just looking. That was per capsule, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure the instructions would be probably two capsules anywhere. That
Speaker 1: was twenty two point five. You know how we spoke
Speaker 1: about Lacdo Bacillus, Biffodo bacterium, and Bacillus. Interestingly, I was
Speaker 1: trying to find a supplement that contained all three, and
Speaker 1: they generally don't.
Speaker 2: No, they tend to separate the spore formers out why
Speaker 2: this is a spore forming probiotic, right, they separate them
Speaker 2: at because they're exceptionally stable spore forming probiotics so they
Speaker 2: can survive stomach acid really reliably. They don't need such
Speaker 2: a thick capsule coating because they'll survive stomach acid. So
Speaker 2: they tend to market those individually or as a collection
Speaker 2: of different strains of basillis, whereas the Lacto Bisilus and
Speaker 2: Biffodo bacterial species need to be better encapsulated to survive
Speaker 2: the stomach acid, so they separate them at.
Speaker 1: If you were really focused on seeding in the best way,
Speaker 1: you really wanted to go through a period of looking
Speaker 1: after those healthy bugs, you might take two supplements. So
Speaker 1: for example, I'm looking here on my list. You know
Speaker 1: that Ultra Flora Intensive Care has the Lacto Bacillus and
Speaker 1: the Biffido, But then there's another brand called Probispore that
Speaker 1: has the bacillus, So I may choose to supplement with
Speaker 1: both those for example.
Speaker 2: So that's just broadening your base by doing that, and
Speaker 2: it's a very good idea.
Speaker 1: Are you just supplement all the time, person, or you
Speaker 1: should cycle in and out of supplementing with probiotics.
Speaker 2: I'm a daily supplementer.
Speaker 1: Okay, you have so reignited my passion for probiotics and
Speaker 1: gut microbiome because it was really in favor a few
Speaker 1: years ago. There were some really fascinating documentaries that came out,
Speaker 1: and it kind of has gone a bit quiet. So
Speaker 1: it's great to be reignited.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you should always be focused on this. What
Speaker 2: is coming is the volume of research is it's all
Speaker 2: still being done, and they're still getting more and more
Speaker 2: exciting as newer species get generically sequenced and then we
Speaker 2: work out just what they do and we further better
Speaker 2: understand the relationship we have with them.
Speaker 1: It's so so interesting.
Speaker 2: It's a good space. It's an evolving space, so it's
Speaker 2: fun to work.
Speaker 1: I imagine if anyone's out there thinking of doing a PhD,
Speaker 1: which I am at some point, getting into microbiome, would
Speaker 1: there be quite a lot of opportunities in that research space. Absolutely, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I've heard that it would be Yeah, a very I
Speaker 1: guess it's something that you're interested in. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of opportunities there to wrap up, doctor Paul. If we
Speaker 1: are as inspired as I am speaking to you, after
Speaker 1: everything we've spoken about today, if a woman is going
Speaker 1: to leave today and go all right, I'm just going to
Speaker 1: do one or two of those things that are the
Speaker 1: biggest leavers. That's really going to help support my healthy microbiome.
Speaker 1: What would you recommend she goes and does?
Speaker 2: I'm just saying right, and to get rid of ultra
Speaker 2: processed foods. So eat whole foods. Try and eat thirty
Speaker 2: different plants a week, including fruits, fishables, and eat a
Speaker 2: bit of fermented food.
Speaker 1: Ah, that's simple, doable. Removing the processed food that's the hard.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's a whole other conversation, very very hard.
Speaker 1: But even starting with one meal a day, what can
Speaker 1: I pull out of this or snacks because snacks are
Speaker 1: a big one. I just feel like if the shelf
Speaker 1: life is two years or longer, then surely it's got
Speaker 1: stuff in it that can't be good for us.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely true.
Speaker 1: Dr Paul, thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 2: You're more than welcome.
Speaker 1: Why is it so hard to get real answers about
Speaker 1: your health? If you've been told that everything looks fine,
Speaker 1: but you know that something is off, well, you're not
Speaker 1: imagining it. That's why I created Vitality three point sixty
Speaker 1: to help you better understand what's going on inside your
Speaker 1: body that you can take the targeted action needed. With
Speaker 1: a functional health approach plus testing, we go beyond the
Speaker 1: guesswork to uncover the root causes of your symptoms. I've
Speaker 1: teamed up with Dottyesmina, an incredible integrative GP and together
Speaker 1: we will help you decode your body's signals and answer
Speaker 1: questions like why am I always exhausted? What's really causing
Speaker 1: my stubborn weight? Am I inflamed? Insulin resistant? Or maybe
Speaker 1: missing key nutrients? Because when you understand your body better,
Speaker 1: you can transform your health. Visit V three sixty dot
Speaker 1: Health or check out the show notes for more