Episode 142: How Your Gut Affects Your Heart Health

Ever wondered why treating the root cause of a health issue is so much more effective than just tackling the symptoms? This episode of the Berman Method podcast is a treasure trove of insights into the often-overlooked aspects of healthcare. Join us as we dive into the limitations of diagnostic images and the power of functional assessments. We share compelling stories, including one about a client whose knee pain wasn't reflected in x-ray results, highlighting the profound importance of clinical presentation in guiding treatment decisions. 

Navigating through the maze of autoimmune diseases, we uncover the astounding connection between diet and disorders like plaque psoriasis and Crohn's disease. Listen to our discussions on the invisible internal stress that can lead to heart disease and strokes, even in those who seem the picture of health. Our conversation is peppered with personal anecdotes and accounts of dramatic health turnarounds in infants and adults alike, brought about by simple yet significant dietary changes.

Finally, the key to unlocking your health's full potential might just be comprehensive blood testing. We delve into the nuances of individual health markers and share our personal experiences, including the eye-opening revelations from food sensitivity screenings. Learn about the substantial benefits of understanding your body's unique responses to food and the impact of sleep on your health. Whether you're seeking to enhance your well-being or just curious about the body's complex systems, this episode will equip you with the knowledge and encouragement to take charge of your health journey.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Berman Method podcast, featuring Dr Jake Berman and physician assistant Jenny Berman. We are here to treat problems and not symptoms. Disclaimer this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and not to treat anyone or to give medical advice. If you are interested in any information that we are giving and would like to use this for yourself, we recommend that you contact your primary care physician or reach out to us and ask us questions about yourself specifically. Enjoy.

Speaker 2: 0:34

Jenny's mic is officially checked for the Berman Method podcast. Treating problems and not symptoms. Beautiful Music to your ears.

Speaker 1: 0:49

Beautiful. I just love Monday mornings. I love starting the week out with your serenation.

Speaker 2: 0:56

Oh man, dr Jake Berman, here with my lovely co-host, jenny Berman, physician assistant. What is happening? Love it. Thank you for tuning in today. We got some exciting things today to talk about. First, right out of the gate, don't forget what we're going down. We're going down getting clarity, getting more answers, opposed to just going along with what you've been told. Just because your doctor tells you that this is the solution doesn't mean that that's the only solution. So always question it.

Speaker 2: 1:28

We just ran into another case last week with one of my clients that came in and she said man, I tell you what, if I had $100 for every time somebody told me these words, we'd be retired right now, or this would be a full-time job, me trying to get my 10 minutes of fame on podcasts or, yeah, stardom. But anyway, she said I don't really want to mess with my knee because Dr So-and-so says it looks horrible in there, x-rays are horrible. I'm not going to say the exact words because they're very unique words and I don't want to particularly call this person out and I'm going okay, let's do a couple of tests. I won't even touch it and she does. I asked her to straighten her knee, get it as strong as you can, as straight as you can, and it goes perfectly straight. Quads are firing great, glutes are firing even better, and I'm going wow.

Speaker 1: 2:28

Oh wow, that's not normal, not common.

Speaker 2: 2:30

Well, she had been working with us for some time. Okay, and I'm going. Okay, there's nothing wrong with this knee functionally. It's very different what it says on x-ray or mri, right, but again, I don't care about what your x-ray says, I don't care about what your mri says, I care about what your body says. It's so important to remember this, people, that x-rays and mris are only supposed to be used as a tool. They're not supposed to be used as a diagnostic factor that predicts a plan of care.

Speaker 1: 3:13

Right, right. So they're supposed to go along with the symptoms that we are experiencing, not diagnose the symptoms.

Speaker 2: 3:23

Correct. It's supposed to go with the clinical presentation. Here's another phenomenal example then we'll get into. What we wanted to get into today is I cannot tell you how many people I've talked to over the years who have gotten an MRI of their shoulder, of their hip, of their knee, of whatever of their back and went into the orthopedic surgeon's office, waited two and a half hours. The surgeon finally comes in, barely even says hi to him, barely even makes eye contact with him, looks at their MRI and says, okay, this is what we're going to do. We're either going to start with the cookie cutter RS physical therapy or an injection, or let's go have surgery. And they never ask the patient to move.

Speaker 1: 4:11

Right. They never evaluate the patient with their hands, or even not with their hands, with their eyes, watching their mobility Drives me nuts.

Speaker 2: 4:20

I mean I don't care what the MRI says, I care about what your body says. So if the MRI says that you've got a torn rotator cuff and then I ask you, can you raise your arm up over your head? And you can raise it up over your head, no problem, and your shoulder doesn't hike up, I'm going. Ok, chances are you don't need surgery, even though this piece of paper in my hand right now says you've got a full thickness tear, even though this piece of paper in my hand right now says you've got a full thickness tear, but if I just look at the piece of paper and I never look at you, the patient

Speaker 1: 4:53

then all right, let's schedule a surgery date Right, right. So your presentation really matters. It really matters as far as where's the pain actually coming from? Is it coming from what this piece of paper says, or is there something else going on that may not be surgical?

Speaker 2: 5:10

Exactly, and I think that this is going to tie in wonderfully to what you want to talk about today is that these are all just tools. You're supposed to use these as tools to help you come up with your plan, meaning that if I'm going to build a house, I can use a hammer and a nail and build the house. But I could also use a nail gun to build the house. I could use a screw gun. So there's other ways to achieve the outcome that you're looking for, and it doesn't have to be an MRI or an x-ray. You should not be making a plan of care based off of your x-ray.

Speaker 2: 5:47

Now caveat, asterisk if that MRI matches your clinical presentation, then we can start saying okay, the clinical presentation looks like you have a torn rotator cuff. Let's get an MRI. Okay, the MRI confirms you do in fact have a torn rotator cuff. Let's get an MRI. Okay, the MRI confirms you do in fact have a torn rotator cuff. Okay, we probably should not waste the next six weeks or 12 weeks trying to rehab this torn rotator cuff, because you're not going to fix a tear that massive with conservative treatment. Right right.

Speaker 1: 6:25

So that is the asterisk Right if it matches or, as you've mentioned many times in the past, is through a traumatic injury. If you have a traumatic injury, of course in that particular instance surgery may be warranted Exactly.

Speaker 2: 6:42

There was an accident, there was a trauma. Okay, so let's tie that into what you want to talk about today, because it's very fascinating from the outside looking in how. Why in the world, if I'm coming to you with heart issues or concerns, or blood pressure, cholesterol, brain health, why are you looking at my gut?

Speaker 1: 7:06

Right, and this is something I wanted to dive deep into today, because our practice really focuses on two things. When a client walks in the door, no matter what they're coming to us for, we have to get to the bottom of two things, and that's blood sugar stability and gut health. And I actually did a seminar this past weekend and client or the listeners there automatically were like well, why doesn't my doctor look at these tests? Or why doesn't my doctor say this to me? And it's just, you know, always reminds me of an individual going into their primary care with their blood pressure rising every time they go in and their cholesterol values creeping up, and the result is putting you on a medication instead of really figuring out.

Speaker 1: 7:55

Why are these numbers increasing in the first place? So even for clients who come to us and have zero quote unquote gut issues so they are not having constipation, diarrhea, irritable bowels, abdominal pain, stomach pain, bloating they're not having any of these symptoms, but yet they're coming, as Jake mentioned, for high blood pressure issues or cholesterol rising, blood pressure rising, chest pain, or even if they're coming in just simply because they want to lose weight we have to assess the gut health. Your gut is your second brain. Over 75% of the immune system starts in the gut. Over 90% of our serotonin, which is our upper happy hormone, is produced in the gut. So your gut is really dictating majority of our immune system and majority of the hormones coming from the brain.

Speaker 2: 8:55

So hold on. This is important. I don't want to just glaze over this. 75% of our immunity, our immune system, comes from our gut. So if you don't have a healthy gut, you're going to get sick more. If you do have a healthy gut, you're probably going to get sick less. Is that accurate?

Speaker 1: 9:16

Or shorter duration of the same illness that somebody else will have. That'll last 10 days, yours will last two or three, and absolutely that's accurate and we talked about just this past weekend. The whole topic was talking about how our immune system is at our fingertips. So we have control over our immune system 98% of the time. We have control over our immune system, the autoimmune diseases, the illnesses, the sinus issues, the headaches, the skin rashes or eczema, psoriasis. We have control of all of this through the food that we're putting into our mouth.

Speaker 2: 9:54

Didn't you say a while ago, when we were talking about autoimmune disorders, that 100% of autoimmune diseases are tied to the gut in some way, shape or form?

Speaker 1: 10:08

Well, yeah, all of them are tied to the gut in some way, shape or form. Now, the ability to reverse or halt or prevent the autoimmune disease from the gut health probably 98% of them there are. You know the handful that we cannot really change because of a genetic makeup. And I say that cautiously because really, through something called epigenetic expression, we have the ability to turn genes on and off. So from the time we were born until the time then autoimmune disease develops, we were doing something to cause a gene to turn on, or a protective gene to turn off, until we've developed this autoimmune disease. Many times through gut healing we have the ability and through our food we have the ability to reverse or halt, meaning stop, progression of autoimmune disease, though there are some that we don't have that ability once that gene is turned off.

Speaker 2: 11:14

Real quick, let's just do a couple of examples, extreme examples. So let's first define autoimmune disease. Autoimmune means that your immune system starts attacking your own body, your own cells, because it thinks it's invaders, and that's what creates things like plaque psoriasis. Right, and just give me a handful of other presentations.

Speaker 1: 11:37

Rheumatoid arthritis, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's disease, psoriasis, as you mentioned, migraines, Crohn's.

Speaker 2: 11:46

So these are the more visual and explicit examples that come on usually later in life. So I wasn't born with Parkinson's. Right. Right, my rheumatoid arthritis didn't really start flaring up until I was in my teenage years. Right.

Speaker 2: 12:07

So these are all things that happen later in life that you're saying, because we were ingesting a certain food or drink or something, that it took a gene that I was born with, that was born with it turned off, and by consuming that food, let's just use a food over and over again. Over my childhood it turned the gene on and now, oh crap, I've got rheumatoid arthritis.

Speaker 1: 12:34

Right. So your body is. You were born with sensitivities and allergies to things. We're talking about food in this case. You're born with sensitivities and allergies to foods and through consuming those foods our body gets to what we call a threshold. It gets to a histamine level that then it starts reacting and that's where the immune system starts to respond, turns this gene on for X autoimmune disease Jake was using rheumatoid arthritis in this sense turns that gene on and now again our body starts attacking and this is where the inflammation comes from the joint pain, the swelling joints. This is all because the immune response of the immune system attacking itself for that particular autoimmune disease.

Speaker 2: 13:21

Okay, great. So that's an example of an autoimmune disease coming on later in life. Now let's go the extreme opposite end, where you've worked with babies that just have these horrific rashes and psoriasis and hives and the poor mother is just trying to do everything in her power, every cream and everything that the Western medicine suggests, with no solution in sight. And you've had many, many cases over the years where you have successfully through diet, yeah, reverse the skin disease.

Speaker 1: 14:03

Essentially it's a disease. Yes, through diet, figuring out what foods are causing this inflammatory response to the infant and majority of the times they don't just have the skin issues, they have asthma issues or they're getting sick very frequently, getting colds constantly. They're not sleeping through the night. At 18 months old, this is all interrelated, it's all combined and, yes, these things have been reversed through identifying the inflammatory foods. And then I wanted to go to another side of the spectrum, where individuals with heart disease so having a heart attack or a stroke and they have their quote unquote healthy, their cholesterol values are normal, their blood pressure has been normal and now they've just had a heart attack or a stroke and this is coming down to inflammation as well. Over 50% of individuals who are admitted from the emergency room into the hospital, 50% of them that had a heart attack or a stroke, had normal blood tests when it came to checking their heart.

Speaker 2: 15:11

So when they Say it again.

Speaker 1: 15:13

Over 50% of individuals who go into the emergency room with a heart attack or a stroke had normal blood tests that their primary care doctor checked, which is a cholesterol panel and blood counts and normal blood pressure.

Speaker 2: 15:30

Okay, let's spend a couple of minutes here, because this is one of those things that the I don't know if it's even the media, maybe it is Western. It's more Western medicine than the media has done a really good job of scaring the American public. I interpret it as this based off of this information here, they're saying blood pressure is the silent killer. Right, it doesn't matter how healthy you are, you can still have a heart attack or a stroke. Right? And here's a perfect example 50% of the people that have had a heart attack or stroke have quote unquote perfect blood work done by the Western medicine physician.

Speaker 1: 16:14

And blood pressure.

Speaker 2: 16:15

And blood pressure Right. So what in the world is causing it?

Speaker 1: 16:19

And we hear it, we've heard it several times in our friend group about these such healthy individuals who have had a stroke or a super healthy individual works out all the time had a heart attack and it comes down to internal inflammation and stress on the body, which majority of the time, is coming from poor gut health. So inside of your body, the inflammation coming from the foods that we're eating, coming from too much sugar in the diet and not enough protein in the diet, coming from foods that your body is sensitive to or allergic to, coming from stress response. So the cortisol level internally is elevated. Even if you don't feel stressed on the outside, there is something inside that's causing inflammation and stress on your body and this is where majority of the time these heart attacks and strokes come from.

Speaker 2: 17:15

For all these healthy individuals who exercise all the time, I love it, absolutely love it because it's shedding light on why does this happen so many times, when something horrific happens to that loved one, that family member or that close friend, where it's like how in the world did they just have a heart attack? How in the world did they just have a stroke? And they're gone in their 30s or 40s or 50s? They were so healthy, they looked like, they were in shape, they were not overweight, they exercised, they were so happy. You have no idea what's happening on the inside, right. So I'm not talking about your psychology, I'm talking about your actual GI system, your gut, the inflammatory response that happens on the inside. You don't know about it. You can't just say, oh, my gut's inflamed right now. Right.

Speaker 2: 18:12

And that's the thing that's happening.

Speaker 1: 18:14

Right, and that's the next question I'll get. Well, if I'm not having an upset stomach or loose stool, irritable bowels, I'm not having bloating, then how do I know? My gut is not healthy. And a lot of times we're able to identify this through asking specific questions. For through the medical consultation. And if you Google the Berman method metabolic questionnaire, maybe we can link it in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 18:39

The Berman method metabolic questionnaire, it's an entire questionnaire that I've developed to assess for inflammation and abnormal gut health or metabolic dysfunction and you can take this questionnaire and at the end you tally up your points and it gives you a point system on low risk, moderate risk, high risk.

Speaker 1: 18:59

So that's something to look at. But through these questions, majority of the time, we can pick out inflammation and metabolic dysfunction which is causing internal stress on the body. The other thing to look at is more blood testing. So not the generic three blood tests that your primary care doctor will look at during your physical exam every year, but actually looking at 13, 14, 15 different blood tests that we assess regularly on our clients to really identify internal inflammation. Know your cortisol level, check it through saliva, check it through urine, know what your cortisol level, that internal stress marker is doing. Know your vitamin levels. If you're deficient in magnesium, vitamin D, b12, ferritin, you're putting your body at more stress internally and this is stress you can't see If you're not sleeping a solid seven to eight hours at night, which is something that I always have to work at. But if you're not getting quality seven to eight hours of sleep every night, you are incredibly increasing your risk for cardiovascular disease, heart disease and inflammatory process.

Speaker 2: 20:11

What about Arnold Schwarzenegger? He says you only need six hours of sleep, and if you think you need more than six hours of sleep, then you need to sleep faster.

Speaker 1: 20:19

Well, disagree. We should check his blood work. Arnold, if you're listening to this, let me check your blood work and see what your inflammatory risk is, although he's just a freak.

Speaker 2: 20:31

So yeah, there's always outliers. So never, ever, compare yourself to the outlier. He is definitely a goat in his own category. Anyways, back to what we're talking about here. Back to what we're talking about here. Here's a good way for me to say it is before you ever asked me to do my first food sensitivity screen, I didn't think.

Speaker 1: 20:54

I had an issue True.

Speaker 2: 20:55

I didn't feel like I had any gut issues at all. I could eat anything that I wanted. I never felt bloated. I never felt anything adverse or man that didn't agree with me. I could. My life was phenomenal. It was the best life ever Just eat 48 cookies, a whole piece of pizza by myself. I'm kidding, it wasn't the best life ever because it was so blissfully ignorant, but anyways, I took my first screen and the reason why I took my first food sensitivity screen. Do you remember why I took it the first time?

Speaker 1: 21:34

I don't remember, was it snoring?

Speaker 2: 21:37

No.

Speaker 1: 21:37

Oh belching, yes, I remember.

Speaker 2: 21:40

Out of nowhere. I just started doing these little tiny, annoying belches burping for no reason throughout the day nonstop, and they were just tiny and annoying as heck. And after a couple of weeks I forgot or didn't realize that I was still doing it. And we're sitting on the couch watching TV in the evening and Jenny goes. She just looks over at me and she's like what are why? What are you doing? I'm like what are you talking about? But anyways. So that took me down this road of attempting Western medicine, had an endoscopy just to make sure that nothing bad was happening, and what was it? My pyloric sphincter, Not my pyloric sphincter. What's the sphincter between the esophagus?

Speaker 1: 22:27

and the stomach Duodenal. Was that the? One? No, I don't think it was.

Speaker 2: 22:31

Anyways, the sphincter between the esophagus and the stomach was not closing all the way. It was the only diagnosis that came up on the endoscopy and the doctor said okay, well, take this what is it Peptide?

Speaker 1: 22:47

No, pepsid, she put you on Pepsid.

Speaker 2: 22:50

And the pill.

Speaker 1: 22:51

Yeah, it was an antacid. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:52

An antacid and it's this little, tiny, itty bitty pill.

Speaker 1: 22:55

I'm sure a lot of you listening, maybe she put you on Omeprazole.

Speaker 2: 22:58

Yeah, I think a lot of you listening to this are probably on the same pill. It's so tiny you don't even think that it's anything. But I was officially on a prescription medication. She told me to take it for 30 days and see what happens At the end of 30 days it was a little better but it wasn't fixed and I said, okay, what's the next step? And she goes, keep taking it.

Speaker 2: 23:18

I said for how long she goes. I don't know, probably forever. I'm going what? On one hand, it's this little tiny pill, just barely bigger than a grain of salt, it looked like. So it's like, ah, no big deal, but at the other hand, I'm like, wait a minute, this is a pharmaceutical, this is a chemically composed drug that I'm putting into my body every single day to fix a symptom.

Speaker 2: 23:43

so, anyways, did the food screen, food sensitivity screen, and three of my favorite things showed up eggs we had our own chickens because we're going through 40 eggs a week yeah right, you were eating five a day yeah, five eggs a day is what I was eating black beans, and what was the third one?

Speaker 2: 24:07

I think it was tomatoes or red pasta sauce, so it was tomatoes and I'm going oh my god, these are three things that I love eating the most and I'm eating them all day, every day almost so. Anyways, got rid of the eggs for two months and changed the belching 90% Because I'm still not compliant, because I love eggs, I still eat them.

Speaker 1: 24:36

Yeah, you don't eat them every day, but I eat them on the weekends. But also dairy had shown up for you and at the time you were still consuming dairy, Like you would go out on the weekends and still consume it. Now you've really pretty much eliminated gluten and dairy. Yeah, I'm pretty good now, even on the weekends I was thinking this morning I haven't woken you up for snoring in a long time.

Speaker 2: 24:58

I was thinking about that too. I'm like man. I've not woken up with sore ribs in a while, yeah.

Speaker 1: 25:03

And you have been much more compliant over the weekends, continuing to stay away from gluten and dairy versus prior. You would eat whatever you wanted from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning.

Speaker 2: 25:16

Yeah, I'm probably. I went from 80-20 to probably 95-5.

Speaker 1: 25:20

Right, right, much better and it's changing.

Speaker 2: 25:24

Yeah, it really is changing. So come back full circle. Let's wrap this thing up. How do you know if you're having a gut issue? Let's just go ahead and assume that you do, because I don't know that. You, jenny, have ever met anybody who has gone through a food sensitivity screen and just coming back with raving reviews? Nobody has passed everything.

Speaker 1: 25:45

Well, and even when it comes to gut health this is the last thing I'll say on it is it may not be specifically food sensitivities or allergies. It may be an abnormal balance of your macronutrients, meaning the proteins, carbs and fats. If your body doesn't have that right balance of nutrients for you specifically, then that can cause inflammation as well. If you're consuming more carbohydrates than your body can process, sugar is inflammatory, so if it's not processing the carbohydrates or the types of carbohydrates meaning simple versus complex for your body then that's going to increase your overall blood sugar level. And even though your fasting blood sugar on your blood test was normal, that's not giving us the whole picture and that could be where some of the inflammation is coming from as well picture, and that could be where some of the inflammation is coming from as well.

Speaker 2: 26:45

Okay, are we good there? Can we wrap things up? I think so. That was really really good. I think it was clear enough, simple enough. The biggest take-home message is that it doesn't matter what you're looking at. You've got to look at your gut, and Western medicine just does not do it. Your insurance is not going to pay for you to do it. So if you really want to do things the right way and you really do want to add life to your years and not just years to your life then you've got to look at your gut love it good yes so we're coming into summertime and the snowbirds are heading north for the summer, which means that we will have a little more flexibility on the schedule starting here soon.

Speaker 2: 27:27

So if you're local, or even if you're not a local and you're virtual, and you want to have a conversation with Jenny, because this sounds like it's resonating with you, let's jump on the phone, email Jenny at Jenny at Batbermanwellnesscom, j-e-n-n-i Yep. Give us a call, comment on this and let's have a conversation. Let's take things to the next level.

Speaker 1: 27:51

Great Good Ciao for now.

Speaker 2: 27:53

Like and subscribe. Share. Ciao for now.

Speaker 1: 27:57

Thank you for subscribing on your social media and podcast platforms to the Berman Method Dr Jake Berman with Berman Physical Therapy and Jenny Berman, physician Assistant, with Berman Health and Wellness. You can find more information on our website wwwbermanptcom for physical therapy. Wwwbermanptcom forward physical therapy. Wwwbermanptcom forward slash wellness for the health and wellness. You can also find us on social media Facebook, instagram and on your podcast platform, so be sure to follow us, like us, subscribe to us and, if you would like any further information, definitely visit our website and reach out to us. You may also find our free reports on the websites as well, where you can download this free information for yourself. Have a great day.