Probiotics and the Microbiota | Full episode

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to the Solex Podcast, where wellness meets frequency, technology, and just the right amount of weight. That's actually kind of cool. Let's dive in.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Hello everyone. I am here with Jennifer Nelson Hawk. So glad that you have visited us in the last few days and are taking some time to actually have a really cool conversation.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Thank you. It's exciting to be here.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Yes, now, Jennifer, I know her here. Not only is she obviously worked in this space for quite a while, but uh you have a course on Solex University, actually a pretty powerful course that comes with a book that I'm very familiar with. But why don't you share with everybody a little bit about uh your background, where you came from, what you're what you're doing?

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Sure, thank you. Um I am Jennifer Nelson Hawks. I'm originally from Jackson, Wyoming, and I have been in this industry for 20 plus years. So it it's it sings true to my heart. Um I opened up a full functional wellness center in 2013, and I recently just sold it in September to do more one-on-one and create more programs like I have in Solex University called Simplify from Head to Toe.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Wonderful, wonderful. When you uh jumped in uh into your wellness center, your full functional wellness center, what was the draw? What was the draw away from mainstream everything into full functional? Why is that important? Why was that important to you?

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Great question. Um, one of the reasons why it was so important is because I believe that sometimes the body needs extra support, that we can't just do it all on our own. So um when I say full functional wellness center, it's because I had different modalities like the AO scan in there. I had things like the your um lymphatic bed that you have.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

So I have those type of tools that were able to help the body facilitate the actual functionality of where people were breaking down. Um and then being able to look at what their nutrition was, being able to look at what maybe supplementation they needed, which uh is something that is not one size fits all.

SPEAKER_03 2:14

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

And so it was a place for people to come where they could feel um supported, they could feel like they were in a safe space, but knowing that everyone has a unique situation.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Yeah, I love that. I love that. And it gives you that that approach alone of everyone having a unique situation, and everybody is unique in and of themselves, with the power of being very diverse in your and you know, empowered with tools to give you a broad range of ability. Boy, that must have been very satisfying.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Absolutely, absolutely. And um it just it got to the it got to the point where um we were so busy that it was taking up too much of my time, really. And I wasn't able to provide enough support to everyone. And so um what that did is I was able to create group classes. I was able to create little programs like I did um through Selex University.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

Yes. That's there there becomes a stage, I think, in every master's career, right? When I say master, you're mastering a subject, mastering an area, something that you just are super passionate about, that you then get you must, not you just that you get to, you must reach beyond what got you there. And it's passing it on and trying to reach more. And thus obviously education is part of that. But I've always find it found it fascinating. I've said this over and over again. I love to buy books. I love to buy books where somebody has spent a decade, two decades, their whole life on this subject. And, you know, relatively, whether the book costs me, you know, 15 or 20 bucks or 150, 200 bucks or $1,000. It doesn't matter necessarily because what you are getting whenever that happens is incredible.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Right, little nuggets from someone's brain.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Yeah, that have been developing for decades.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Absolutely, right? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

Well, we're not gonna go through every facet of uh everything you know, um, and everything that obviously is in your course. Your that course is is fantastic on its own, and the book alone is worth the price of the course. But what I we're gonna kind of talk today about is a is a subject that you and I uh I think we have an interest in. Uh, we've been looking at it, researching around it, testing, trying, developing our own approach, right? And we're gonna talk about probiotics. Probiotics, the microbiota. Now, to kind of lay the landscape here, um, we're talking about trillions of microorganisms, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Absolutely. And not just trillion, people think of probiotics and they think of only their gut.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

It's all over their, all over the body.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Everywhere, exactly. From I mean, and and we're not just talking even just in the GI tract, not just uh from mouth to intestines, but then we're also talking about nose, eyes, skin. Everything is a part of this.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Absolutely. And one of the things that I um get asked all the time, and we're gonna get into this deeper about you know what probiotic works for what people, right? But sometimes it, you know, we have to stop and think about the north to south approach.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Right? Where's the north approach? The north approach is the mouth. Yes. So sometimes it's not even in the gut that we need to be, you know, aware of.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Yeah, and I yeah, exactly right. Uh, because we can do so much good and in the same effect do so much damage, right? Uh, based on just that avenue alone.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Well, yeah, and I I think that's because people don't really understand what a what a probiotic is really all about. I mean, they understand the concept of it. Yeah, but there are billions of different strains of probiotics out there, right? Some of them are are supporting your gut, some of them are supporting your skin, some of them are supporting your brain, some of them are supporting your gut.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Yes, and when you're looking at that, it's so interesting, and we'll get into this as well, and not to give everything out right here. Um, but well, this this idea of there are billions, yeah, right, right, uh, of types that can address different areas and in the same breath, maybe not be so great for another area of the body.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

That's correct, yes. Those opportunistic bacteria create a, yeah, they create some of them are creating you know the haven and other of others of them are creating the havoc.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

Yes, yeah, I love that. So as we jump into this, I mean the one of the first things I think uh we're trying to understand, at least in this foundational level, of trillions of microorganisms from skin to eyes to throat to to gut, right? We're looking at that and we're saying, okay, what we're trying to, if there is a baseline we're trying to avoid, it is a low diversity of microbiota, of, of or microorganisms in the in the gut, because that creates as an creates an imbalance. Would you agree with that?

SPEAKER_01 7:25

That's correct. Yes, I was I was gonna ask you. Um, so you're saying that having low diversity is not good, correct?

SPEAKER_02 7:32

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Yes, I agree with that.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

Yeah, so we one of the things that if we're trying to just generally approach, and there'll be plenty of people who who listen to this or watch this, uh, that will go great. Uh yeah, I've heard about microbiota, I've heard about microorganisms and gut bacteria, and I've heard about probiotics and prebiotics and and everything in between. But really, uh outside of you know what PG is doing to put probiotics on the shelf at Walmart, you know, what do I do? Do I just grab the box with the highest number of probiotics in it?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

I mean, there's so many components to this. Yeah. So many components because, you know, there's proprietary blends. There's blends with, you know, CFUs per each line item of different strain. There are ones that sit on the shelf, there are ones that sit in the fridge. Um, there are ones that are mixed in with other things. There are there's food relations, there's there's so many different things. And then you have to understand, okay, if you're going to take a probiotic, what are you taking with that probiotic?

SPEAKER_03 8:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

You know, are you are you trying to create this diversity, but in the same, literally in the same mouthful of whatever it is, you are you're destroying that density.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

You're absolutely killing it. Yeah, it's not even making it to where you think it's going. And in fact, there are even really poorly made probiotics and prebiotics that don't even survive the stomach to get to the environment where you want to create as much diversity as possible as well.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

I agree with that. And that's because they are live bacteria.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

And live bacteria are not strong enough to sustain high acid.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

And if you have a digestive system that is properly established, you have hydrochloric acid that is in a 2.5 pH. So you put a live probiotic into that hydrochloric acid environment, they're it they're gonna die off.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

So unless you have had situations where you have low hydrochloric acid, um, or you have leaky gut, or you have you know stress that has broken down all you know, the diversity of of uh strains of probiotics in your stomach, well, then it's a matter of how long does that stay live, right? And then what strains do you need to create that diversity? How do you weed your garden? How do you support your garden? And how do you fertilize your garden? Yes, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Love that. Love that. And I love the garden analogy because I think that's kind of perfect when you think about this broad range of what is involved and so many variables. If anybody has tried to unsuccessfully garden, um, you understand that boy, it isn't just digging a hole, putting a plant in there, giving it some water every once in a while, and hopefully you get the benefits of it.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Well, yeah, and so with my research, right? So owning the supplement or owning the wellness center, I had I have supplements in there.

SPEAKER_03 10:26

Yeah, yep.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

The proprietary blend of supplements, that is a essentially it's a formula. It's a formula at the end of the day that says this is a proprietary formula that has these specific strains. So as long as you take this before the expiration date, I we guarantee you that this probiotic will sustain these amounts of CFUs.

SPEAKER_03 10:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

But if you have line items, so so say that that company, that particular company, runs out of a specific strain or is low on it because of quantity over quality or whatever reason.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

You know, they could supplement like say there's lactobacillus and there's uh, I don't know, uh Sacromyces Ballardi. And they're in a it's in a proprietary blend of a hundred CFUs.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

So they could it could be 99% of Sacchomyces Ballardi and 1% or the other.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

And maybe your body doesn't need Saccharomyces Ballardi. Right. So you're creating an issue somewhere else in the body when you think you're actually trying to do good.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

Right. And I and I think that is often the case, especially in the marketed probiotic approach. Uh, you know, when I say marketed, I what we'll see on commercials or what we'll see in different advertisements, whether it's social media, is that they're they're they're selling an easy solution, an easy pill, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

To say, oh, just do this, everything's gonna be fine.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Right. And I do think that there's a time and a place for that. So if someone has bent on antibiotics, that's gonna wipe everything out. You've got to help the body start. It's a seed, it's that little seed that's going to allow the garden to at least have some diversity in it before you add other things. Because if you go um into a stomach that has no hydrochloric acid, that has now leaky gut because of antibiotics, you have a stressful situation, you're not sleeping, you've got all these things happening. Yeah, um, you you might need a little bit of help to start getting that the diversity started.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Right, right. I think you're spot on. Uh we do, uh there's so many things that can happen throughout our regular day-to-day life that could do massive damage. Like you mentioned, antibiotics alone, uh, going to do massive destruction to the environment. Uh, although it's it's doing something to help you in a different way, right? It's it's really hurting uh in this area. And so using an even an off the shelf to a degree, diverse, again, we're true, we're looking for massive diversity, right? When we're looking at probiotics and prebiotics to help kickstart things back in the right direction.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

I agree, but it's also, um I'm gonna kind of play devil's devil's advocate here, is because okay, so you have maybe you don't have antibiotics, right? Maybe you haven't taken the antibiotics, but perhaps you have long-term constant constipation. Yes, right? You've got a toxicity going on in your colon. So you take a live probiotic for your stomach that doesn't even get to the colon, and it's really the colon that needs that diverse, right?

SPEAKER_03 13:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

So then you're looking at a spore-based probiotic versus a live probiotic.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Well, and spore-based, that is something that uh you've mentioned in in the past that you prefer.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

I personally do prefer that because I think our colon is truly the source of toxicity and destruction when we're looking at the big picture of things.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Right, right. No, I and I and I think that's great. And you might uh as you think about choosing that or looking into that or where people would find something like that. Um, what what do what you would you recommend to somebody? Say I want to do a spore-based probiotic to support my situation. Did they just go search on the internet, spore-based?

SPEAKER_01 14:07

I mean, the reality is yes, you can do that. Okay. Um, and but you're gonna find some trusted resources out there. Okay. So if you don't know what those trusted resources are, find someone that you either work with or that you know that can help guide you in that direction.

SPEAKER_03 14:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Because uh, you know, just because it's a spore-based probiotic doesn't mean that it doesn't have different strains as well. Yes, right. So we're back to what strain do you need?

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I uh I mean, in my uh I used to be the off-the-shelf uh probiotic and in in probably two decades ago, I was interested and I just looked for a bigger number, right? Which I think a lot of us have in the past. Um, and then as in my as my education's uh broadened in this area in particular, I look for uh those things that it might be a slower play, but that feed a natural reaction to the body's own ability to balance out the diversity it wants. I mean, that's a long way to say that. And so my approach then is I'm looking at the fermented solutions, those those fermented foods that help create the diversity. For me, it's like uh the sauerkraut, the kimchi, the kombucha, it's all c's the kefir, you know. I'm looking for these solutions uh because of that that fermented situation, and I think we can talk about that in a little bit as well, about the benefits of other um foods that help ferment in the body and what that does as if anything, reduce inflammation.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

I agree with that. Um the only reason why I hesitate with with jumping on board with that, yeah, um, is because sometimes people don't have a let's go back to the hydrochloric acid again, right? If you don't have the right chemical component going on in your stomach and you put kimchi in there or you put sauerkroat, you're gonna bloat.

SPEAKER_03 16:09

Right. Right?

SPEAKER_01 16:10

It's gonna off-gas.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

And then as you're crying, you're you're creating this diversity, but now you feel uncomfortable. Right. Right. So I do, I I'm not suggesting that probiotics are the only only approach. I think looking at a combination of both is probably the most important.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Well, and and I think that, I mean, going back to the garden uh scenario, right? You don't just treat your garden with water. You don't just treat your garden with sun, you know, you you treat your garter with other nutrients. And then the question is, it also depends on the diversity you want in your garden, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Absolutely. And you know, if someone has a long history of um, you know, different different health ailments that they need to be supported, like there are stool tests out there. Yeah, there are stool tests out there that will tell you exactly what good bacteria you have, what opportunistic bacteria is overgrown, if you've got H. pylori, if you've got parasites. Yes. Like there are tests out there that will show what you actually need. But if you're just going to the supermarket or going to uh a health food store or whatever that is, yeah, you kind of got to know what's going on to know what approach to take.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

Yeah, yeah. And I and I think that that's where you have a very uh it sounds to me like a very good, uh, more surgical approach, uh, where I'm lazy. And so my approach is more, oh, just just feed the body and the body will take care of itself, right? To degree, and I and I understand that it's probably a bit oversimplified, but let me even make the the point before people if they wanted to go a route that I like. And and to your point, mixing them is probably better than not mixing them. But I like sauerkraut, for example, you don't want to do the the shelved uh uh non-refrigerated sauerkraut, you want to do the refrigerated. The shelved has gone through a pasturation process and you've basically killed all of the benefits that you're trying to use in that. When you're looking for these, you're looking for something that is as close to its live environment as it can be, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Correct. And then I think that if you're if we're if we're gonna talk about that direction, then you're gonna be looking at you know the other the fruits and vegetables alongside of that that are gonna create the prebiotic aspect that are going to help with um creating the supercharge for the probiotics that you've got going on. And it really comes down to diversity, and that's not just diversity with probiotics, but it's diversity with food. So the people that constantly eat the same thing every single day are gonna have less diversity. The people that are traveling the world or traveling state to state or willing to try different foods are gonna have more diversity in their stomach.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Yeah, that's fascinating because I mean that and there's always it's so interesting because there's always a different argument, right? People, some um um you know, weight loss experts or or and nutritionists might say, might say, uh, and I'm I'm in your camp with this one, uh, when you eat the same things uh, you know, for the same meals in a day, your body assimilates to that. It's it begins to be able to uh metabolically break down that faster, easier, right? Because it's used to it. It's lazy, right? But giving the diversity to the body actually allows it to function and flourish in different ways. And I think that that's spot on. The the supporting food around it. So, like for me, uh it was always uh I'm a big fan of fiber, always uh whether it's uh coming through, you know, the vegetables or whether it's uh even supplement, right? I in fact, like I'll take our X product um probably once every two to three months, just as a normal practice of trying to feed things the right way and bring things back into balance. And for me, that's always the goal is I'm trying to just figure out how to get the not to force the body to do anything, but to help the body achieve what it naturally does. And that is it wants to be in balance. The body wants to achieve a balance. It's just sometimes I do things to it that make it so out of balance it needs a little bit more help or a little bit longer run rate.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Yeah, we're all guilty of that, right? Right? We either don't get enough sleep, we don't drink enough water, right? We, you know, we don't move our body enough.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Right?

SPEAKER_02 20:27

Yeah. Um and all of those, and all of those actually are gonna have an impact. And nobody's gonna, I mean, you might have one perfect day, right? But but you're certainly trying. Yeah, we try, but we're not likely gonna have two in a row, right? Be just because that's life. That's that those things happen. But it's cool to know that even like back to the supporting foods around the probiotic and how you're feeding the microbiota, it's uh like fiber in and of itself. It's not the fiber that um is the benefit to the probiotic and that environment, but it's the enzymes created from the fiber that help the environment, the microbiota, break down the more complex introduced foods, right? That's exactly to then make a more diverse environment.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Yeah. And in my in my course, Simplify from Head to Toe, there is a section on probiotics, there's a section on prebiotics, there's a section on all of this that goes through what foods do what for the body. Yes. Right? So, you know, it's not just about throwing pills down your throat. Yeah, right. It's not, it's not, you know, you don't have to be an expert at everything going on in your body to know if you need a probiotic or not. But I think if you just take one step forward to trying, one step forward to like bettering your human body, you're only you're one step, you're one step closer to being healthy.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Yeah. Yep. I I I think you're spot on. One of the things you mentioned a little bit earlier is the impact of stress. Uh and in particular, when you when you look at Stress and the gut. Now we already know, I mean, of course, the gut's considered second brain, and and there is this uh symbiotic relationship of of influence, right? How would you, what does gut or what does stress do to the gut?

SPEAKER_01 22:18

That's a great, I mean, that's a loaded question.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Oh, it is, and that is super high level, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:24

So uh the enteric nervous system is part of that um uh the autonomic nervous system that goes down into gut. So it's the reaction of when we have a lot of stress, it tends to slow everything in the digestive processes down, right? So if we're stressed, we're gonna eat faster. Yeah, we're not gonna eat slower. We're gonna, you know, we're gonna I'm always stressed, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

No. I I fly through my food. Is that is that the indication? If I'm eating really fast, is it because I'm stressed?

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Um well, I think that sometimes people are actually they're addicted to stress, right? They they have done it, they've done it for so long that they don't actually know to stop, take a deep breath. Yeah, they don't know that they shouldn't drink fluid when you eat because that fluid breaks down the hydrochloric acid that is supposed to be helping you break down your food. And in that food are those prebiotics and probiotics that your body needs to flourish. Right. So there's so many components to that. But going back to stress and and the gut, um, oftentimes when we have stress, I'm not saying always, but most people that are stressed have constipation.

SPEAKER_03 23:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

And that's because that peristalsis activity, the the smooth muscle, gets lazy, it gets paralyzed in a sense.

SPEAKER_03 23:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

And so toxins get trapped in the colon. And we talked about from north to south, right? You eat food and it goes down through all of your process, the digestive processes, and then you eliminate.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

But if you're not eliminating, where does it go? It has to come back up, right? So then you're not breaking down at all food in your stomach, your your liver's becoming um overwhelmed, your kidneys are taking on so much. Um, but then the biggest thing that I see with clients is um this thing called leaky gut.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Which when you've got leaky gut, you've got leaky brain because of that gut-to-brain connection.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

And so if you can go in and you can reinforce the structure or the microbiota, the intestinal permeability of the gut, okay. So sometimes that'll look like, if you will, um Swiss cheese. Okay. So think about it, think of Swiss cheese. You got all those holes.

SPEAKER_03 24:29

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

So when you've got those holes, it doesn't matter what you're eating, even those probiotics, because you have this space where unwanted food particles or unwanted pathogens leak through the stomach into your bloodstream. And in the bloodstream is where your now immune system is on attack.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

When your immune system is on attack, your body creates uh a cytokine storm, which creates inflammation. So now you have this chronic inflammation that you're feeling in your back or your knee or your elbow. And when it really is about the diversity of the stomach, if you go to the root cause of things, right? Where did this all begin?

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Yeah. And so the idea is you're you're really trying to, if you can identify some of those pains, maybe the first step is to look at like a leaky gut cause, because I've heard that so many times.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

Yeah, and you know, to be honest with you, I really dislike the term, but the term is what it is, yeah, right? You can't get away from that.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

But it is fascinating because it uh because I okay, personal story, like I deal with I've dealt with this, right, for the last many years. Recently uh had some success, um, what I believe is healing it. Um, and mine happened to be by again popping pills for pain, uh, not just any pills, it was it's it's Tylenol and ibuprofen. Okay, those are the but but I was always told, just over and over again, especially when they heard how many I was taking. They were like, oh, leaky gut issue. Yeah, sorry for you, you know, that sort of thing. And so I didn't really know a difference between how I would feel in the healing process or not. Uh, and I didn't even know that you that I had it. Uh, and maybe because I was also addressing a lot of other things in a very positive way, right? It's like trying to outrun the leaky gut with some positivity. But in the end, you're not gonna outrun unless you stop or plug the holes in the Swiss cheese, right? Correct. Uh and and deal with it that way. And unfortunately, uh to a great benefit, uh, yes, a few months ago that did stop for me. And now I'm in the process of trying to continue to feed and relish in the current state and feel better about it.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

Yeah, it's about that replenishing state at one point, right? Yeah. So um, I couldn't agree more with all of that. But the thing about it is, is it's not just, you know, the ibuprofen and the tylenols and the antibiotics. I mean, you know, it's also from birth controls, it's from oh an overabundance of supplements. Yeah, you know, a handful of supplements. Supplements are designed to be supportive when you need them.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

Yes, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:07

They're not to take over your food. No. They're not to take over for anything. And just like we won't get into that because that's not what this is about, but just like a probiotic, when you've got multiple strains of B6 or B12 or you know, whatever that is, when you're when you start to get too much of something, too much of something is never a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 27:28

Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

So it's a it's still finding that balance. It's all truly about balance.

SPEAKER_02 27:33

Well, yeah, exactly. And when we go back to the garden scenario, any extreme you take, right? Oh, I know that my plants need water, and so I'm just going to water, water, water, water, water, water, and they die.

SPEAKER_03 27:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

Right? They will die. Even though they need it, they want it, but they want it in its moderation, right? In its balance, right? With everything else that it should should receive. So we've talked about some of the some of the ways to get into obviously leveraging pre-probiotics into uh recovery from a bad situation. We've talked about um spore-based uh uh probiotics and then fermented foods as to helping the environment. Um, and then we're we've talked through stress being an impact and obviously uh whatever stress is, right? The negative influence on the gut. But then what about I mean processed foods? Are those gonna help us?

SPEAKER_01 28:27

So, you know, processed foods are, yeah, no, I don't, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

Easy answer, right?

SPEAKER_01 28:34

But I think it's also about the inflammatory foods, right? It's not just about sometimes we think that foods are are healthy for us, right? But sometimes, like if you don't have enough hydrochloric acid and you put super acidic foods on your stomach, you're gonna create the inflammation.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

I like that. And I think that's a like a perfect answer because when you look at uh avoiding processed foods, one of the things that processed foods do is they aren't necessarily may not be the direct impact to inflammation, but one of the things is they may also be an indirect pathway to inflammation, right? They're gonna disrupt the mucus layer in the GI tract, and because they're disrupting that, the process of the GI tract to take care of things actually gets overfilled or doesn't utilize what it's being given.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Right. It doesn't, yeah, it doesn't know. Is it supposed to break down protein? Is it supposed to break down the carbohydrates? Is it supposed to break down the fats? What is your body supposed to be doing? And if you give it too much information, it doesn't do anything.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

Yes, it's exactly right. And so then the inverse of that is if you stay away from the process and go to the non-processed foods, there is actually a lower uh lowering of inflammation response because of the process of breaking it down. In and of itself, the non-processed food actually ferments in its breakdown. And that fermenting process actually has been tied to a reduction in inflammation.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

Correct. Correct, yes. And I think it's also just knowing though, what again, it's back to what strains do you have. Yeah, right. So if you are someone that is uh gluten sensitive and you eat gluten, gluten is gonna create that inflammation, whereas other people aren't.

SPEAKER_03 30:13

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

So that gluten actually it is fine for them. It doesn't matter, it's not an inflammatory food.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

What would you say? Like I'm I'm listening to this and I'm like, yeah, okay, I I want to take step one, right? Step one, step one.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

In my in my true opinion, step one is first and foremost, look at your refined sugar. Good. I mean, it's not even about the probiotic at that point. If you're looking at truly step one, look at how much sugar you're consuming on a day daily basis.

SPEAKER_02 30:42

And you're trying to get that back.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

Yes, because that is what's feeding the good, the bag, and the ugly.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

Yes, everything.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

So until you remove that, there's no point to even attempt the future aspect of whether you need a refridge, uh, a store-bought um live probiotic, a spore-based probiotic. Because if you're gonna continue, what doesn't change will never change.

SPEAKER_02 31:05

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

You've got to make changes. And if we're looking for the number one change, I would say look at that first.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

I like that. I think that's wonderful. I think we all need that to some degree. I mean, some uh listening uh uh are the type of people that, you know, give me the 72-step list of things I need to do in what order, and I'll do it. And and that's great for those personalities, and and then I love those personalities because they can just drive to that end. But I think uh that's not as common as, oh, I'm totally overwhelmed. I don't know what to do. I'm gonna go out and buy everything, and I'm not gonna know what order to start in. The simplicity of saying, hey, listen, just let's reduce some refined sugars right now. Today, let's do that.

SPEAKER_03 31:47

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

And tomorrow we can look at some more, and then we can look at adding the right source uh of benefit to our body, or removing something else that's causing, you know, removing some processed food, or maybe adding a little bit of fiber or whatever it might be, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Right. So I mean, I'll just go to the basic questions I ask someone. Yeah, right. Are you going to the bathroom?

unknown 32:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

Are you constipated? Do you have diarrhea? Because that's gonna tell me a lot. A lot, right? The second one is do you belch or do you bloat after you eat? That's gonna tell me another piece. Interesting, right? Um, how much water are you getting in a day?

SPEAKER_03 32:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

So those are just very, very simple little questions, but it tells me a lot about where do I start with someone? Yeah. Perhaps it's not even a probiotic. Perhaps it is a probiotic.

SPEAKER_03 32:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

But if someone is not eliminating before we do look at a probiotic, we gotta remove the refined sugar and we have to get their cold moving. Yes. Because they're toxic.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

Yes, because we got to get the toxins pulled out so that we can start to work on the environment.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

Yeah. And then you just kind of move down that chain, chain of events of what's next. Okay, I've cut down my refined sugar, my colon is fine, I'm drinking enough water. Okay, now let's talk about what maybe it's food, maybe it is, you know, some um sauerkraut. I love sauerkraut, but if I drink, if I eat too much sauerkraut, I get bloated.

SPEAKER_03 33:06

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

Yeah, yeah, no, and I think that that is that, and that goes to the balancing and listening to your body approach, which I think in the end is really what we always want to do as we get more educated, we learn a little bit more. Now, of course, like the AO scan technology does a great job in helping us listen to our body, right? It guides us to that.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Absolutely. And if you just take a snapshot, like you don't have to dive into each individual line item, but you take a quick snapshot of, you know, number one, what's your colon doing? Number two, do you have hydro what's your hydrochloric acid doing? What foods are showing as ones and twos? Yeah. Or eights and nines for that matter. Yeah. Like, did you eat those? If you did, I tell people all the time to do the Coca-Culse test.

SPEAKER_03 33:47

Okay, what's up?

SPEAKER_01 33:48

So Coca-Pulse test is where you um you have a watch, uh, uh, uh 60 second hand, you consume a piece of food. You can either hold it in your in your mouth for 30 seconds and spit it out, or you can digest it.

SPEAKER_03 34:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

And then um within one minute of that, you're gonna you're gonna see what the time what the one uh 60 seconds is. If your heartbeat is, because you're gonna do your heartbeat. I didn't I should really start over with that one, but um within 60 seconds, if your heartbeat is um six beats or more higher than it was when you very first started, you have an inflammatory reaction happening.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

No kidding. Okay, so let me make sure I can I can I can do this as I walk away. So I'm gonna take a whatever food, hold it in my mouth for 30 seconds, either spit it out or swallow it. If I swallow it, I hold it, I wait a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Either way, either way.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

You're gonna for either way, either way, it doesn't matter. A minute later, I'm going to, well, so I have to have measured my heart rate at the beginning, and then I'm gonna measure my heart rate one minute later. Correct. If I'm six beats or more higher, unless it's something I really love, like ice cream or a pie, then I'm gonna do it. Because I'm just gonna be happy anyways, right? My heart rate is gonna be up because I'm excited to eat the rest of this food, right? Outside of those things, I'm gonna take the six beat higher measurement and say, okay, body doesn't necessarily love that inflammatory response. That's correct. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

And if you want the most accurate, you're gonna do it. Um, the most accurate on the um that's a fast way to do it is to consume one thing. So a piece of gluten bread, right?

SPEAKER_02 35:30

Okay, only eat that.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

Only eat that one piece of gluten bread. So you're gonna do the same thing. You're gonna you're gonna do your pulse for for a total of 60 seconds. Okay, you're gonna eat that piece of bread, you're gonna wait for 45 minutes, and you're gonna do the same thing. You're gonna take your pulse again.

SPEAKER_03 35:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

And the same thing. It's it's a six seconds or or or six beats per minute higher or more.

SPEAKER_03 35:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

The reality is though, it's the most accurate. So sometimes you said that excitability, right? Yeah, you you you have other influences that are happening that could create you to spike your heart rate really quick.

SPEAKER_03 36:04

Right.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

So this is that 45 minute is the most accurate way to do it. Yeah, but it's one, it's one um food.

SPEAKER_02 36:13

One food. And don't go running in between and don't go walking around, stay still, stay steated. Relax. Relax.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

Yeah, stay in the stay in the you know, I say, you know, if it's popcorn, right? Yeah, just have a handful of popcorn. Yeah, love popcorn. Then you know you could do it and see what happens 45 minutes later. I like the 45-minute one just because it is the most accurate. You only have to do it once. There's so many, like I said, there's so many influences in that to 30 seconds, but it can happen. Yeah, you can still see pretty quickly, like, oh gosh, my heart rate just went up, and I was not expecting that.

SPEAKER_02 36:46

Yes, yeah, nobody pays attention to that because nobody's thinking heart rate when it comes to what foods I should eat. Right, nobody's thinking of it. So subtle. That's that's fascinating. Well, and and speaking of that, environment, one of the things uh when we talk about environment is the danger of oversanitizing our environments. And I'll tell my wife about this because you know, we might want to not want to do so much cleaning, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:11

Is that what that means? So, yes, I agree with that, and I don't agree with that.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

I didn't think you would totally agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

Um, I think that the environment that we're around, yeah, we don't want it completely sanitary. But as far as like the food that we're consuming, um, we can't be naive. We can't be naive against pathogens. Yeah. Pathogens are on everything, right? There's pesticides, there's herbicides, there's all the things that do break down um our our digestive processes when we consume it, if it's not washed.

SPEAKER_03 37:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

So I think that there's this fine balance um of at least making sure that your food is washed. But as far as like making sure that every single countertop and every single thing is sterile. I don't think that's healthy for them, no, not for diversity. If we want to go back to diversity, yeah, that is the most unhealthy thing we can do.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Well, and when you talk about when we at the very the very first point of trillions of these microorganisms, and it's from our skin, eyes, nose, mouth, throat, whole digestive tract, you know, you you're you're seeing that and you're saying, oh, well, all of this has the entire environment has an influence on where I am. Whether it's uh pathogen laden or or not, right? Right, or whether you you you are feeding yourself with damaging, a damaging environment, or whether you have created a completely sterile environment where you achieve no diversity. And in the end, diversity is the goal, right? Diversity is the king, the the the queen pin, right? Here yes, right.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

Yes, absolutely. Right, absolutely, and how you get there is how you get there, right? Everybody's gonna be a little different.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

You know what? I love that, I love the scenario. It doesn't matter where you are. I've heard that the the idea, somebody taught this uh um a while back. When you're starting to exercise at the gym, um you don't have to go and run the mile and go lift all the weights and do every exercise under the sun. Sometimes it's enough. Just uh set the alarm clock, get up, put on your exercise gear, drive to the gym and sit in the parking lot.

SPEAKER_03 39:12

It's the intention.

SPEAKER_02 39:13

It's the intention. And you do that enough. Eventually, you don't stay in the car in the parking lot and drive home. You actually get out of the car, you go to the gym, and you do your first thing. It doesn't have to be all at once, it can be step by step. And so there have been several things, I think, today that we've talked about of approaches, right?

SPEAKER_01 39:30

Absolutely, yes, and slow, right? Yeah, the lowest hanging fruit. What works for you? Yeah, what works for you in your day?

SPEAKER_02 39:37

Yeah. And to your recommendation, if you're gonna start with something, what's what you're put on your shoes, show up in the parking lot, uh, maybe take out that candy bar today, right? Take out the refined sugar.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

Absolutely. Try to reduce that. Or even just look at what, like, just be aware. Maybe you're not taking it out today, but maybe you're just starting to read the labels and understanding what the added sugar adds up to.

SPEAKER_02 39:58

I love that. I love that. There's so much, there's so much, you so much expertise. You know, Jennifer, I think that you should really do another course or attend uh for us so that we could uh learn more about how to figure out how to see what is in our lives, what we can do to really leverage our environment and our situation to better health. And and like you did with your functional um medicine practice, was to give people more solutions to their situation rather than limiting them. I think broadening that approach is so valuable.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

Yeah, thank you. Um, well, you will be seeing more of me. So I've got a course coming out, mini course called coming out called Cultivate Calmness. Okay. So that is coming. Um, again, I do have my simplify from head to toe, which is kind of my little baby. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

It comes with that book. That book is so impressive.

SPEAKER_01 40:51

The book literally helps you simplify from head to toe. Yeah, you don't have to know it all. You don't. So if you literally go page by page or you want to just look something up, you can go to the probiotics section and you can see what Sacromyces blurry does. You can see what Acidophilus does.

SPEAKER_03 41:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

You know, you can see what Lactobacillus does. Yeah. So there's that book is just powerful to be able as a as essentially as a little as a little health Bible, really.

SPEAKER_03 41:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

Because it's really showing us what's going on inside of our body or what tools we can use to be able to support ourselves.

SPEAKER_02 41:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

Um, yeah, I I love doing this and thank you.

SPEAKER_02 41:28

Well, thank you. Well, cheers to you on your journey of teaching and broadening and and and helping so many after decades and decades of of research and practice. Now putting that for the masses to consume and made it be made available to them is wonderful. Thanks for being with me today.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 41:51

Thanks for tuning in. Follow along for more conversations like this. Keep exploring and keep learning, and let us know what you'd like to hear next. You can message us on our social media platforms or email us at Solexpodcast at SolexLLC.com. We'll see you next time.