The Balanced Hormone Solution

Ep. 70 Gut Check: How Your Microbiome Could Be the Missing Link to Hormone Balance

• Tracy Rickstrew • Season 1 • Episode 70

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Hey friend,


What if your bloating, brain fog, and mood swings aren’t hormonal at all… but gut-driven?


In this week’s episode of The Balanced Hormone Solution Podcast, I’m joined by my go-to gut health expert Tamara Wiper from Microbiome Labs for a fascinating conversation about how your microbiome sets the stage for your entire hormonal system.


Inside this episode, we unpack:

👉 The gut-hormone connection and why you can’t fix your hormones without fixing your gut

👉 What the microbiome actually is (and why it’s your body’s “master control center”)

👉 Early warning signs that your gut is out of balance—long before symptoms show up on labs

👉 How inflammation in the gut triggers hormone chaos, mood changes, skin issues, and fatigue

👉 The 3-month Total Gut Restoration Protocol that rebuilds your terrain and transforms your health

👉 Plus, what every woman should know about the gut-vagina connection and the new Vaginal Balance probiotic


You’ll walk away understanding how one simple system can influence everything—from your thyroid to your libido.


Because here’s the truth:

Your hormones can only be as healthy as your gut.


🎧 Listen now to learn how to create a body that’s resilient, balanced, and thriving from the inside out.


In health & hormone harmony,

Tracy Erin

Registered Nurse + Functional Medicine Practitioner


Before you go…

✨ Ready to finally get to the root of your hormone symptoms?

Join The Balanced Hormone Solution—my 90-day functional medicine program that helps women heal from the inside out.

You’ll get personalized testing, targeted nutrition, and step-by-step support to restore your gut, balance your hormones, and feel like yourself again.


👉 Book your free hormone assessment here

Audio Only - All Participants:

So what if your bloating, brain fog and mood swings had the same root cause and it wasn't your hormones at all? Today we're gonna talk about the gut hormone connection that, could completely change how you approach healing.

Speaker:

Welcome to the Balance Hormone Solution Podcast. If you're a woman 35 plus feeling exhausted, struggling to lose weight, and wondering where your libido went, this is for you. I am Tracy Aaron, a functional medicine practitioner who helps women balance their hormones naturally. Without prescriptions, guesswork, or trending Nonsense.'cause here's the truth, your symptoms aren't random. They're signals. And if you know how to listen, you can fix the root cause and start feeling like yourself again. If you're ready for real solutions, let's get to it.

Audio Only - All Participants:

Welcome to the Balance Hormone Solution podcast. I am your host Tracy from Tracy Aaron Wellness, and today I'm very excited to have Tamara Wiper, who is the Tennessee account manager for Microbiome Labs with us. She is my personal go-to gut expert and helps me when I run into issues on labs or dealing with clients, and I can't wait to introduce her to all of you today. So welcome, Tamara. Thank you. Thank you for having me. My favorite subject, so I'm happy to be here. Yes. I love it when you start talking about the gut because you get a certain, um, sparkle in your eye and it's, it's exciting to see somebody so passionate about something like microbes, which we're gonna dive into today. So I am excited to just have a casual and comfortable conversation. We can talk about client work, we can talk about what's new in the Microbiome Labs world. Um, we can take this really any direction. But first, why don't you tell us how you got started in this work and, um, what brought you into Microbiome Labs specifically? Sure. Well, you know, it's funny when I think back to growing up, um, I remember there was a bookshelf in my bedroom in the house that I grew up in. For some reason this, I can picture this bookshelf like yesterday, and I had, I was very attracted to all things natural health, and I remember having all these books that were all about, you know, using herbs and natural healing and even as a child. And so for whatever reason, I, I have a very fond memories of that book collection. So I think it, it was sort of a, a, um, fate, right, that brought me here. But I also had a strong passion for athletics and fitness. And so that's really where my career started. My health career started, um, personal training, right? So my love of dance and athletics led me to personal training and I quickly became very interested in using. Movement as healing, as a healing tool, as a rehab tool. And so I made a very big effort to educate myself in that way. Um, found the Pilates methodology and that kind of catapulted me into a career. I had a Pilates studio for 12 years in Southern California and I worked one-on-one with people who had any number of ailments, but normally, um, it was chronic pain or some kind of degenerative spine condition or even, um, you know, those facing surgery as their only option or joint replacements or something. And you know, the majority of people over a 20 plus year period that I worked with were able to avoid surgery, some of them not, but we got them as strong as, you know, could be, uh, before they went into that, uh, procedure. But even with movement therapy as a healing tool, there was something that I couldn't put my finger on that was preventing my clients from healing completely. And it was some inflammatory process that I was not educated to investigate. And so that led me to functional diagnostic nutrition. I received a certificate in that program so that I could guide people in lifestyle choices to, um, get at that root cause, that inflammatory process, the root cause of that inflammatory process. And then quickly learned that I was kind of done in the one-on-one space. I didn't wanna work one-on-one with people. I wanted to have a broader reach in terms of education around that. And so found my way to a Microbiome Labs as sales rep or as account manager, and. I'm six years into that and, and this is really where I'm supposed to be. So that's kind of a long story about how I got here. But I think, um, it is, it is interesting and it leads us, I think, into a really, um, important topic, which is inflammation. And think of how many more people you're able to reach now, because everybody on your team has patients and clients and they've got their webs of influence, and so you get to affect and help thousands really. That was, yeah, that was the, the, the, um, appeal, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, microbiome Labs just held a symposium in Nashville, was it two weekends ago almost. And it was my first one that I ever intended attended. I was very impressed. They pulled off a beautiful three days and the hotel, the food, the ambiance, but also just the caliber of teaching the, um, expo with the tables that were represented from a variety of different companies. It was a really beautiful three days. I learned a lot. I love to hear it. You know, the gut is really gaining momentum in the research and in, um, you know, uh, events such as what you and I are doing today. Right. And so, yeah, it's, uh, it's a worthy topic. Yeah, for sure. Well, bottom line is what we know. Is that your hormones can only be as healthy as your gut. So since I work in women's hormones specifically, let's dive into this whole concept of the microbiome and how it influences our hormonal expression. I like to think of our gut is not just an organ of digestion. It really is, um, setting up so many other systems in the body. And was it Hippocrates who said health? All health begins in the gut. Very, very, that quote has been years ago. Yes. Yeah. A long, long time ago. And it happens to still be very, very true today. So if our gut is not just a digestion organ, if it's also an endocrine communicator, it is influencing a lot of pathways inside the body. So, um. How would you even define the microbiome? What is the microbiome? Yeah. Um, I think that's a good place to start. You know, I think the word means, or you can define it as a microbial ecology or a microbial community, right? And the gut microbiome gets the most attention. Um, but there are certainly other microbiomes in the body. Um, the oral cavity has its own microbiome or the its own community of bacteria, microbes that live there. Um, the skin right is another area where there's a microbiome of bacterial community. The vagina, um, is also, uh, a microbiome, the lungs, right. So there are different microbial communities throughout the body, but the gut microbiome gets the most attention because it's considered the master control center, right? It has the ability to impact all of the other microbiomes in the body. So there's a gut skin access. What goes on in your gut has an impact on what goes on in your skin. The gut vagina axis, right one can impact the other, the gut brain axis, which is a huge, uh, area of research now because we know that many cognitive dysfunctions, anxiety, depression, sleep, um, are impacted by what's going on in, in the gut microbiome and an imbalance in the, the, the communities. The good bacteria and the bad bacteria have a dramatic influence on these other areas and these other body functions. Yeah. What are some of the early signs that somebody might see if they're having, um, issues with their microbiome? What are common symptoms? Yeah. And I I, it's a great question and I think the answer is surprising. It really could be anything. Yeah.'cause we're all unique human beings. The manifestation of an imbalance in the gut microbiome could be, you know, just about anything. It could show up as acne or psoriasis, right? It could show up as anxiety or sleep issues, as I just mentioned. It could, um, manifest as hormone imbalance, whether we're talking about cortisol or thyroid or sex hormones, right? It could be chronic, uh, UTIs or chronic vaginal yeast infections. Um, it could be. As simple as gas and bloating, right? Sometimes it starts there, and then if left un untreated or unaddressed, then years later it could manifest into some condition or disease state, right? Um, and that's why it's so important to recognize those signs and get a jump on it. Therefore, it becomes something that could take a very long time to heal. And not all symptoms are immediate, right? Like some are delayed. And so that can contribute to people having a hard time pinpointing what their issues are really stemming from. If it's, if it's an effect that, like let's say we eat a certain food that we have a sensitivity to or we're not breaking down properly, and if, if we don't have immediate symptoms, we might forget about that. Right. And then blame it on something else like joint pain, right? We don't connect the food that we eat in our bodies and the health of our microbiome to a knee that hurts when we walk upstairs. Well, it all goes back to that inflammatory process, right? And inflammation is, the body's response is the immune system's response to some dysfunction, right? And, and a lot of that can be traced back to the gut. The gut is a very common root of the inflammatory process. And like you said, that could show up as acne. I can't sleep, or I have pain in my knee chronically. Right? So, uh, oftentimes it, it all has the same root cause. And if we can identify that and address it, then a lot of times we can knit those problems in the bud. Yeah. What tools do we have available to us as practitioners to find out if our microbiomes are healthy? Well, it could be as simple as, um, identifying or acknowledging symptoms. Right? Um, there are many different tests, um, available to practitioners like yourself, and I know you utilize a lot of them in your practice. Um, you know, we, we do, as at Microbiome Labs, we, we focus a lot on the research. We reinvest a lot of our profits back into the research of our, of our ingredients, our finished formulas, and that helps us kind of simplify the ingredients of products and prove efficacy, right? So, sometimes testing isn't always necessary, um, but it can, you know, guide you in. Um, what tools to select and attempts to heal a particular issue. Yeah, that's a good point.'cause some of these tests, like the GI map, the gut zoomer, they're upwards of five,$600. That's just the price of the test, not the practitioner's time to read the results, craft a protocol, et cetera. So sometimes these things can be cost prohibitive, um, but the body doesn't lie. And sometimes just keeping a detailed journal of when symptoms occur, how severe they are. Um. What time of the month, like for my clients, you know, what, when do those mood swings come? Are they always premenstrual? Are they around ovulation? When I like to think about a hormone problem, I have to think outside the box of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone.'cause there's so much upstream affecting that. But yeah, keeping it, raising awareness, that's really big, right? Raising awareness around when do we experience these symptoms? And I love that Testing is not always necessary. We can make really educated guesses around, around patterns that the body displays over and over. Um, you mentioned journaling. I'm always trying to get my mom to journal. Like, mom would really be helpful if you journaled, you know, kept track of what foods you're eating and then how, how, how your body is feeling the next day. And maybe you can relate some of these. Foods to some of the inflammation that, that you're experiencing the next day. Or, I remember in my practice, I used to use a, a journal called Food Mood Poop Journal, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Journaling the food that you're eating of how it affects your mood and your bowel movements. Yeah, right. And, and just doing something as simple as that could tell you a lot. So I really like the journaling, um, idea. Yeah. That helps bring awareness. Yeah. We gotta connect the dots. We have to become our own detective. Um, and sometimes honestly, I actually value that even above a gut test because the, even a stool test, as good as they are, I love them and I do use them in my practice. And sometimes they feel like the one thing that, you know, put the light on the, the actual issue. But we don't, we, we tend to, to overlook the. Pattern detection, which is almost just as good. Yeah. At the end of the day, we have to remember that these are human beings, right? That we may be running a test, but this is a human being with, with, with, uh, a lot of complexity, right? Yeah. And to treat a, a piece of paper that's showing you some test results is one piece, right? But then there's a, there's a clinical picture that you have to consider and symptomology, and the way that the, it's manifesting in that particular human is, is maybe even more important. So the combination can be, um, can be very helpful. But you, it, it, there is a tendency to treat just the report, right? Yeah. Just this piece of paper, whatever. Right. And there are, there are certain, there are times when those tests can be really helpful, especially if we're. Able to identify a particular overgrowth, um, of bacteria. You know, candida is one, a yeast infection. You're going to use certain ingredients to treat that, whereas your standard antimicrobials and things aren't really going to be appropriate for that particular infection. H pylori is another one that's an infection in the stomach, and it's gonna take specific ingredients. Right. But for the most part, if you've just got this imbalance that's causing this, you know, dysregulation of your, of your hormones, of your cortisol or your sex hormones, then addressing the, the inflammatory process, as we mentioned previously, is, is gonna take you a long way. Yeah. Yeah. So Microbiome Labs is a lot of research with probiotics. That's where it started for us. We were the first company to formulate in all spore probiotic. Tell us what that means. What does all spore mean? That happened in 2012. So MegaSpore Biotic is our flagship product, and spore forming bacteria were designed by nature, not by us, to, um, encapsulate themselves in what's called an endospore. And that is a armor like coating that's made out of minerals and proteins and, and materials that are impervious systemic acid. Right? So if you go back to the definition of the word probiotic, um, we want that particular bacteria that's using probio to be able to arrive alive in the lower part of the GI tract, in the colon, arrive there alive in order to make meaningful change. Right? We talked about the microbiome as a collective ecology of bacteria, right? And we know that healthy. GI tracts or healthy gut microbiomes have about 200 or more different species. In order to make meaningful change in that environment, we need to use organisms that are going to arrive there a lot. Unfortunately, non spore forming bacteria don't have the ability to protect themselves, and many of them die in the stomach acid, so they can't impact the gut microbiome in the last five feet of GI tract because they die on the way down. Right? So the spore forming organisms were designed by nature. As I mentioned, they live in the environment in a dormant state. They have no job anywhere outside of the gut of a human or animal. Once they're ingested, which we used to have organic exposure to them, and we lived outdoors as humans growing our food and hunting and all of that, um, we had organic exposure to them consume them. As, as a byproduct of living in the environment. And they, once they hit the, the, the lower part of the GI tract, they come out of that dormant, see and become active, right? And their job is to manage the terrain that is the gut microbiome. That soil, if you will, we're use in a garden analogy. You, you plant a garden, you better make sure that you have good soil, otherwise you're not gonna grow all of your nice plants and vegetables and things. You're gonna grow mostly wheats. And that's the same thing for the gut microbiome. So those, the spore formers are the microbiome managers. They lay a nice foundation to grow good bacteria, more good bacteria than bad. They stay about three weeks and then you poop them out. And if you think about our, when we lived outdoors as humans. They went back into the environment, they go back into that dormant state and they lay and wait for another host to consume them. And that's how it worked back then. It doesn't work that way the same way anymore. So we need to continually consume'em. So that's the first step really, in making sure that you have an environment conducive to growing a lot of those keystone species, meaning the most productive organisms that live in the gut microbiome and that control many, many, many of the functions in the body. So if we're not taking a spore based probiotic, is it safe to assume that it's not making it through the GI tract where we need it to be? Um, it is safe to assume that, and, uh, there, there isn't really any scientific evidence to support using a non spore based. Probiotic formula. Um, there's no scientific evidence to really support that, that's making meaningful change. So there, and you're probably spending lots of money on things that we are buying, uh, you know, whole Foods, refrigerated cases at best Rest are purchased on Amazon at worst. And we're taking these probiotics thinking that we're affecting our gut and we're really not. That's the harsh reality. And I'm not here to tell anybody not to take your favorite probiotic that you buy at Costco or Walgreens or Whole Foods or Yeah. If you feel a difference. And then some people say, I take this probiotic over here, it changed my life. Then I say, please keep taking it'cause it's having some benefit to you. It's probably not changing the ecology, the balance of your gut microbiome. It's having some other impact probably on your metabolic system. Mm-hmm. Probably on your immune system. Um, and some of the most well-researched ones can provide evidence to that, uh, effect. Right. But it's, you know, most likely not impacting that balance that we are hoping to impact. Right. And the whole point of taking a probiotic is to grow more good bacteria than bad bacteria. So, and we want that probiotic to survive not only just the dropdown through the esophagus, the acidic environment of the stomach, then it's gotta move its way through the small intestine and where we want it to populate. You're saying, is that large intestine, lower section? The colon? Yes ma'am. It's got a long way to go. Got a long way to go. And nature, nature knew what she was doing. Other nature knew. She knew that she had to find some way to protect them on that journey so they could arrive in the environment where they're designed to make impact, become active, do their job. Think of the, I like to use the National Guard as a, an analogy because the National Guard has a temporary job. They usually are called to a, an environment where there's unrest. They, they stay for a short period of time to make an impact, to improve this, the situation, and then they move on. Right. And so I like that analogy because I think everybody can relate to it and it's very applicable. I like that too. So they do their job for a couple weeks, you say? And then, and then we eliminate them. So do we need the National Guard all the time? Is there, is there. Is it for our best interest that we take probiotics long term or do we take breaks from them? What do you recommend? Well, because the spore formers have a job, you know, designed by nature the way that I described it, um, we can, you know, that story justifies their, um, their presence long term, right? So the way that we've studied it, um, in people that have an in mostly like an inflammatory process or some condition, whether it be IBS or you know, some condition, there's a healing phase, right? And we say that healing phase is about three months in most cases, and two caps, two capsules a day for that three month period is what seems to be. Um, the amount that is required and then beyond that, beyond that terrain Yes. To, to making that shift. Okay. To that, um, change to the environment where we are, we're now, you know, um, supporting the beneficial organisms, it seems to be about three months to make that shift. Mm-hmm. Then we still need them onboard to make sure that they're managing, um, any unwanted organisms that, that may find their way there. Right. So a maintenance dose could be, you know, one capsule a few times a week seems to be all that's necessary once you've healed that environment. Yeah. So yeah, it's like, it's like the national guard guard comes in, does its job, and now you just need some security guards on the scene to maintain. The regular police force, this is gonna be fine. Uh, yeah. Okay. So, uh, so this is, this is interesting. So in the spore based probiotic, the MegaSpore, the flagship product, how many strains are there? If we've got over 200 in our gut, how many are in the MegaSpore probiotic itself? So bacillus is the genus, right? So we have it. Uh, any, this maybe gets a little too clinical, but, um, there are certain genus that are very familiar in the probiotic world. There's lactobacillus and bifidobacterium. That's what you typically see in probiotic in the drug store, on the drug social, um, bacillus is the name of the genus of spore formers that we use, right? And then there are five different strains of bacillus spore formers, bacillus indicus, coagulants sub. Uh, quasi and like inform us. Those are the five that we chose because it mimics the, um, the combination that we would get a organic exposure to when we lived outdoors. They all bring a little different personality or different role to the, the formula. Some produce the full spectrum of B vitamins, some produce natural antimicrobials that help manage the unfriendly type of bacteria. Some produce different carotinoids and antioxidants, and those become kind of the nutrients for the soil. And that provides an environment that's conducive to, to supporting the good organisms. And when they have that environment, then they tend to reproduce in high quantities, and that's what we want. We have, you know, we were, we're given by nature a. Microbiome that's populated as it should be. And then over our life, we take all kinds of antibiotics and maybe we don't live a lifestyle that's conducive to supporting them. Maybe we don't eat the proper diet or we have a lot of stress, or we're not sleeping properly, right? And all of these lifestyle factors impact the health of this eco um, environment, right? But we still have some of the endogenous species. Even if we have all of those things, even if we take in a million rounds of antibiotic, we haven't killed them all. There's enough to work with. So if we give them the right environment and the right, um, nutrients, then we should be able to grow them in the numbers that are gonna create a healthy, um, ecology again. So those are the endogenous species. We call those endogenous. The ones that are still there, just need a little support and need the right environment and nutrients to. To reproduce, to grow in numbers that are gonna give us a healthy, um, setup. It reminds me of this, the whole, um, terrain theory, um, you know, terrain versus germ theory, or like the goldfish example where we look at functional medicine versus conventional medicine where we might have a, um, sick goldfish in conventional medicine looks at that goldfish and says, you know, what can we do to treat you? You're sick. Whereas con uh, functional medicine says, why are you sick? Let's look at the water in which you are existing right now. We change the water, the fish gets better. So if we're changing the, what you're describing is changing the entire terrain of the microbiome, which then is going to have an a healthy expression on the body. If we get too many unfriendly bacteria living there, that's where we start to see the inflammatory process take off. Once that happens, then we could just fill in the blank with what comes next. Mm-hmm. It can be, your hormones are dysregulated, you, your skin health is, is suffering, right? Oh yeah. Vaginal health, your brain health, your lung health, your heart. There's new research showing the gut microbiome and the heart have crosstalk. The what? The organisms that live in your gut can impact the health of your heart. Right. So this is, these are all things that we know and we're starting to learn more about, which is scary and fascinating and exciting all at the same time. Yeah. I feel like when I think back to high school biology, I learned that the digestive system was this north to south closed track. And it wasn't until I went through my own training in functional medicine where I understood this concept of leaky gut and how we could have this very thin permeability or permeable layer, which get, can get, um, easily damaged by the things you've mentioned, lifestyle, nutrition, toxins, chemicals. Then we've got holes in this layer, particles now of undigested food and said, toxins, chemicals, bacteria, parasites are getting through. Now they're in the bloodstream. The immune system doesn't like that, uh, gets activated much more than the National Guard comes on the scene and bam, autoimmune illness and like, mm. All of this, the, the gut is not, the digestive system, I should say, is not the closed system that we once thought it was. It's heavily influenced and can be changed. But the beauty of all of that is if it can be damaged, it can be healed. Yes, ma'am. And I think, you know, we have to consider the entire link of the j of the digestive tract, which starts with the mouth. Yeah. And right in the middle we have all kinds of things that can go wrong. Yeah. Also, what happens in the oral cavity can heavily impact with what goes on in the colon. Mm. And in between we have the stomach, which is a very important environment if we don't have the proper stomach acid, which is designed to kill things that are swallowed. Right. Um, the founder of our company, Quran Christman, um, is famous for saying, you know. Eating is the most dangerous thing we do every day. I like that, is we're swallowing. We don't really, we don't know always what's in the food. Maybe there are, um, harmful bacteria. We rely on their stomach acid to kill those things so that they don't make their way into the lower part of the GI tract. But what if your stomach acid, your gastric environment is not optimal, then the things that should be killed shouldn't be, aren't being killed. And then we end up with an overgrowth, um, in, in the lower part of the GI tract. And then it can manifest in you as brain fog. It can manifest in me as dysregulated cortisol or dysregulated sex hormones. Or my neighbor can have not, you know, she's not being able to sleep. So it ma it can manifest that same dysfunction starting. An inflammatory process. As you mentioned, the leaky gut can manifest really in any way, in any human. Yeah. Yeah. All the more reason why we still need more than ever bio individual personalized care.'cause none of us are the same. And yet I find it in, in my practice that, uh, even though we are all unique, um, if, if you kind of boil root causes down, you can see repeat resolution patterns, right? Like, uh, the expression is very, very personalized and unique. But for example, everything that might fit under the category of heal the gut can, you know, benefit all these other people no matter how that. Uh, process is, is, um, manifesting itself in clients. So that's why like we can, we can have success in this. We can go after this one thing, gut health and affect so many people expressing a disease process that looks completely different for all of them. So this is what you're describing is like how important it is to keep this terrain healthy. And we do, let's face it, we do live in a world that's difficult to do, that we have air, food, and water number. Those three top dangerous things. We're, we're breathing toxins all day long. Chemicals we're drinking it, water and we're eating it. And, and so, and that's just the tip of the iceberg of where we get exposure. We have medications, a lot of women on birth control, um, over the counter things like, you know, Advil isn't as innocent as we think that it is, right? All these have impacts. On, on our microbiome. But, um, when we, when we give, uh, ourselves a healthier terrain, we can impact all of these symptoms. I agree. And it, it can be overwhelming for people when they're, they're starting to learn about all the things that, that impact these microbial environments. Right. But, uh, you mentioned that I think the three is a good place to start, you know, the air, the water, and the food. Mm-hmm. We can filter our air. We, we can't control every single thing we breathe. Right. But we can, we can start with filtering the air that we breathe in our homes. Right. Filter the water that we drink. Yep. And pay more attention and make better choices with the foods that we consume. Because, you know, as I mentioned before, the microbial diversity. Of the, the low five, the last five feet of the gi tract, large intestine, colon, which is where your gut microbiome lives. We want 200 or more species living there. How do we, once we do get them, we know we have two that can heal and improve that environment, that diversity, but then how do we maintain it? Right? All of these microbes eat something a little differently and they eat mostly fiber, so we have to increase the diversity of our fiber intake to feed all the little groups of organisms that eat something different. Mm-hmm. You go to the grocery store and there's limited choices, and we tend to buy the same things all the time, and I'm guilty of it too. Right. So making sure that we have a diversity and the, and the fibers that we consume are, is the best bet in keeping a divide a diverse. Microbial microbiome. Alive and thriving. Yeah. Yeah. Super easy when we think of a green vegetable to add on just to do like green beans or broccoli. Right. You're gonna feed the same bugs over and over again. Right, right. What about the, what about the, um, red cabbages and, um, purple potatoes and, um, I don't know, some of the, a little bit more exotic things that we, we don't regularly put on our plates. I remember being, um, when I lived in Northern California, I was invited to a Christmas, um, holiday meal that was prepared by a friend that owned a enormous vineyard and she had a garden and she sold a lot of her the things that she grew in her garden at one of the local, um, produce markets. And she served this, the most delicious squash I've ever had in my life. Mm. I've never anything like it before. And she said it was some variety of Japanese squash, and she and her staff were, and earlier that day, selecting the squash they were gonna serve at this dinner and they had 14 choices. Wow. She was between 14 different types of squash in her garden. Now, you know, your average person doesn't have that kind of space or the wherewithal to grow 14 different types. But my point is there, you know, we think there are only what's available in the grocery store. You might find two or three. Right. But there were 14 different types of Japanese squash that she had to choose from. Um, wow. At this meal. So it, I love that story because it's like, wow. You know, it just goes to show, yeah. We, we can do a better job, right? Yeah. Yeah. And yes, and like you said, diversity. So just imagine the, the variety of phytochemicals one squash to another and how important it is to truly, like they say, eat the rainbow. Wouldn't it be fine, like, when you were telling that story, I was thinking it'd be really cool to have like a potluck, um, supper club kind of dinner party and you were just in charge of like a color, right? Yeah. Maybe challenging if you got anything other than like green, yellow, or red. Uh, but it would be fun. Like what if you got blue, you know, you could bring a bunch of blueberries and the, um, the founder of our company, I mentioned Koran before, he, uh, he is, um, I think his heritage is Malaysian and Indian. Hmm. So he. Regularly shops at the local ethnic food store, and I think he, uh, lives in Chicago, right? And so if there's ethnic store where you live, that's a really good opportunity to maybe find, um, different vegetables and fruits that you wouldn't necessarily in the, in, in your typical grocery store. So doing things like that, you know, they have different kinds of radishes and different, um, all different things that you may not even be aware of. So yeah, it could be an adventure. Eating should be an adventure, not a chore. Yeah. Enjoyable. And we should consider our gut bugs when making our food choices and other lifestyle choices. Yeah. When we moved to Nashville, my oldest was, uh, let's see, he must have been eight. I only had four children at the time. But there's so many fun. Pockets of town that do have international markets. And I found one off of Nolansville Pike within a couple months of moving here. And my homeschool assignment was for each child to pick something that they had never seen before and we would bring it home, read about it, and then consume it. And I'll never forget this, like bright, maybe it's a dragon fruit. It's been a couple years, I don't remember what it was, but it was like bright magenta pink, and it had all these spiky things on it. And we brought it home and we washed it, we cut it open, and it was white flesh with little tiny black seeds in it. It looked like a, you know, an alien. Yeah. Fruit. Like we had never seen this before. Had no idea how to eat it. And it was delicious. Well, especially for children, what a great experience. Right? It teaches them to be adventurous. Yeah. Um, you know. Uh, it, it, it's such a great learning experience and it opens them, opens their palette as well, right? Yeah.'cause so much of their palette, I think, is formed at an early age, and the more exposure they get, I think the less picky they might be. I mean, I, I might be making that up, but it just seems kind of intuitive. Yeah. And I, I'm probably a little different on this front, but I mean, one of my rules as, as a, a mom and a personal foodie is my kids are not allowed to order off the children's menu. And that's because there's, there's, yeah. Chicken nuggets, french fries. Maybe at a restaurant you can get a chicken breast and broccoli, but who wants to eat that? You know, eat a real food, you're gonna go to Mexican food, enjoy the Mexican flavors, get something with some spice to it and enjoy the, the full range if you're gonna go Indian food, Asian food. I love all of that. So, you know, that's what cracks me up. If we eat out with friends and we're we're somewhere and they get a hamburger and french fries, it's like you didn't wanna just expand a little bit and try some of these other flavors. You really never know. You could absolutely love it. It's funny, I, um, I remember growing up, my mom, my mom grew up on a farm, so cooking was. Something that they did like so much of their life, they spent cooking. Yeah. And so she was a really good cook and made us really nice balanced meals growing up. And she tried to get us involved, my sister and I in the cooking process. I wanted to know part of it. My sister was a little bit more involved, but I wanted no part of it. And I think that was just because I was just a rebellious teenager. But what's funny is now, um, I, I cook almost every meal. Right. I, I super, it's super important to me Yeah. To know where my food comes from and to know what ingredients are going into my food. And I've become like the, I've become a really good cook if I do say something, but it's really important to me, whereas I wanted to know part of it as a kid. Yeah. And I remember being a little bit picky as a child. And now I, I bring on the ethnic food. Right. I love, yes. So. So message to moms out there listening. Don't give up on the good work you're doing with your kids because it, it might take them a while, but they'll come back to appreciating a variety of flavors and caring about those details. I think it's all about exposure. Yeah. Just continue to expose them. Yeah. Paying attention whether they participate or not, or whether they give you a hard time or not. I don't think that's the point. I think the exposure. Yeah. So let's get back to the gut a little bit. Um, so that probiotics, you've, you've taught us about this spore based probiotic, which is fascinating because it's gonna survive this process, make it to where it needs to go so that it can have a meaningful impact on the actual terrain where we need it to go. Repopulating in the right. Um. In the right proportions, right? Because we need some more than others in, in larger quantities than others. But then there's this whole world of prebiotics. So tell us what a prebiotic is and what does it do well? And too, just to kind of expand a little bit on what you just said too, there is such thing as a microbiome foot, uh, fingerprint, right? So your microbiome, let's just say you and I both have healthy microbiomes. The proportion of those organisms may look a little different. You might have more achille, bacterium, prosi. I may have more amania and eosinophilia than you. You do. And I, I just love to say those words'cause it makes me sound really smart. Um, but there is such a thing as a microbiome fingerprint. So if you and I ran stool tests side by side, we were both have healthy, diverse microbiomes. But the, the residents that live there, they may look a little different. Right. And so I think that's important to note.'cause you don't want, we're not looking for an ideal, like this list should show up in your microbiome at these abundances, right? It is. Um, so let's just say we use MegaSpore biotic and we've, um, shifted the terrain in a way that's now condu conducive to growing our, all of our good keystone species. Those are the, the most productive, the ones that are controlling all the functions. And we know that because the research has, um, has identified a lot of them. So we know what, you know, we need certain ones that do make the short chain fatty acids and then make the gaba and, and, um, clear estrogen. Right? And for your purposes, that's really important. Produce, um, bile acids and, uh, oxalate that degrade oxalates, which can be, uh, problematic for some people. Um, so then once we have that terrain established, then we need to make sure that they're, we fertilizing the garden, uh, properly. We're, we're bringing in the right fibers, and we've talked a lot about fiber, but in, during that healing period, we may need to use specific fiber supplements to kickstart that a little bit, right? Because prebiotic formulas, um, can have concentrated fibers, which are, have been identified as kind of the favorite food of some of these keystone species. And we have one that we've studied, um, extensively called mega pre. It is formulated with three fibers that have been determined to be the favorite food of these targeted organisms. Mm-hmm. Shown in our studies that they grow like crazy when exposed to mega pre, um, fiber from non GMO corn cob fiber from kiwi and fiber from cow's milk. Who knew cow's milk had fiber? Wow. Now you should have been concerned because we're not talking about proteins like lactose or cain. A lot of people can be sensitive or intolerant to those types of fibers. Those aren't included here. We're talking fiber. And the fiber from these foods are very well, um, research and established to, uh, grow these organisms. In a significant way. And as it turns out, the unfriendly organisms, that's not what they eat, right? Mm-hmm. It's, we're not risking overfeeding the bad guys. Mm-hmm. We're providing a, a, a buffet of the fibers that are, um, targeting those keystone species. Right? Yeah. That appears to be very helpful in that healing period. And we've shown that in a three month period we can change the terrain. We can significantly increase the abundance of these particular keystone species by giving them their favorite food and that like that, like I said, that three month period, it seems to be the optimal time period for healing. So in that three, you know, diet, like as we've talked about, becomes very important for long-term maintenance. Of that, that new, um, environment that we've spent so much time and hard work creating. So then a diverse fiber intake will help you maintain that, um, long term. Yeah. So then we've got the probiotics, which is shifting the terrain and the organisms themselves that we need to have a healthy microbiome. Then we provide the food for those organisms through a prebiotic. Is there anything else that we need outside of maintenance, but, um, during this sort of three month treatment period, is there anything else that we can utilize and need for best results? I think you mentioned, um, the, the concept of leaky gut earlier. Right? And if, if you can picture in your mind. A, um, the, the, you know, the, uh, last five feet of the GI tract that we've been talking about, the microbial environment, the lumen or the microbiome is where all the bacteria live. Below that is a mucosal barrier. It's a buffer between the microbiome and the intestinal barrier, or the gut wall, if you will. So the gut wall, and you mentioned before, it's a very delicate structure, but its job is to keep the integrity of your digestive tract right? We wanna keep everything inside the digestive tract, inside the digestive tract. Once that becomes damaged, then we risk the leakage of the toxins and the bacteria and the parasites and all the things in through, you know, past the, the intestinal barrier into the bloodstream. That's where we get this inflammatory response. So the, the process of that leaky gut is the erosion of that mucosal barrier, that buffer between the microbiome and the gut wall, and that it's very important to repair that in order to have long-term resolution of leaky gut. And it turns out that it only takes four amino acids to repair that. The four amino acids that are the building blocks of mucin and UCIN, the mucin two layer are l prolene, l serin, L three cysteine. You don't have to memorize that. All you need to know is those are the four amino acids that we put in mega mucosa. Mega mucosa is really the only mucosal support formula of its kind. That has been clinically shown to repair this structure, and it might be one of the most important structures in this leaky gut situation. So that comes in at the end. The studies show that when you use those four amino acids, we can do a pretty dang good job in 28 days on repairing that structure. And so this formula includes those for amino acids, it includes some, uh, immunoglobulins from bovine serum that act as a binder of toxins. And then we put a very anti-inflammatory citrus polyphenol blend that helps continue to bring down the inflammation. Very simple but super effective formula. So that rounds up what we call the total gut restoration Protocol, which is a three month, three product, um, healing, foundational healing program. So that, and that 28 days that you just described fits within that three months. So during this three month protocol, you're taking mega score biotic for all three months. Okay. On the second month, we bring in mega pre as the fertilizer for the microbiome, and then on the final month we added mega mucosa. Yeah. And then after that, um, move into maintenance mode with just the mega spore. Yeah. I think at the very least, you know, mega spore, as I mentioned, one capsule a few times a week could be all it takes. Just keeping that police force, um, on board to manage any bad guys that might find their way in. Um, as long as we're eating a diverse and fiber rich diet, we'll we'll be able to maintain the abundance of all of those organisms. We worked so hard to upregulate. Then, um, you know, as long as those two things are happening, the mucosal barrier should stay, should stay strong and healthy. What about people who aren't experiencing symptoms yet who maybe want to prevent or, or have optimal health? Is this something that they can do too? I like it. I think, you know, there's, because there are so many things we can't control just living on this planet, right? We know, um, the planet has a high toxic load, right? Prevent prevention, I like to say, um, the healing is in the prevention, right? Is that true? Is that what I say? Healing? Say it again. Heal, um, healing. No, that's not what I say. Um, I, I say something and I can't remember what it is that I say, but the whole point is that, yes. Prevention is very important. Let's just say it. Yes. Yeah. Think the, the more diligent we can be in doing all the lifestyle things, which we know promote health, including keeping the structures of our digestive tract healthy, goes so far, right? Mm-hmm. And it's all about creating resilience. And the founder, I keep going back to our, our founder Koran, he takes an 80 20, um, he has, he lives by the 80 20 rule. Mm-hmm. Doing, uh, living a lifestyle, a healthy lifestyle with all the things 80% of the time. There's a lot of living that happens in that 20% of the time. And I think that's a direct quote. Meaning if you were gonna go travel maybe to a third world country, right? And you've created a resiliency for your gut microbiome, any exposure that you might get to a parasite or some bad unwanted bug probably won't be able to take root, right? If you wanna have a glass of wine or have, you know, whatever it is, whatever your treat of choice is, you should be able to do that if you've created a resiliency, um, in your, in your health, let's be honest. Yeah. Want those? Forget microbiome. I love that. So, in, in thinking of that, like how often would somebody do this three month protocol, what would you recommend? I dunno if, if we've set, um, set a recommendation around that. I mean, I think. Uh, you know, an argument could be made for doing it once a year. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah. Why not? You know, maybe do it after the holidays, maybe do it on your, um, you know, as your New Year's resolution. I hate native revolutions, but, you know, setting your mm-hmm. We tend to, a lot of people tend to overdo it during the holidays. Maybe that's a good reset. Um, you know. Yeah, yeah. No, I like that. And, and I like the idea of like, before a trip. Um, and so, so we're looking at the three months there and then the MegaSpore, uh, a couple times a week as a, a maintenance plan. Of course, staying on top of lifestyle and nutrition. Then, you know, there are, give us a really, really good shot at keeping a healthy microbiome. Yeah, a hundred percent. And then I think, you know, we all have tendencies based on genetics or whatever, whatever other factors there are that maybe, uh, predispose us to having anxiety or maybe having, you know, some other, uh, condition. And then we have products that are specifically targeting those other, um, areas of the body, always connected to the gut. We have a line of psychobiotics that address the gut bringing connection, right? We have a line of women's probiotics that address the gut vagina access, right? So thinking about maybe local ingredients you might need based on your individual. Um. Yeah, that might also provide support, but definitely from, from your practice's focus, which is women's health and hormone balance, um, you know, always being mindful of your gut health is gonna go a long way. Whether you're talking about cortisol regulation, your stress hormone, or your sex hormones or your thyroid hormones, the healthier your gut, the more, um, resilient you're gonna be in that respect. Okay, let's, let's touch on this estro really quick. Um, I know at that, um, Nashville conference I was at a two weekends ago, um, learned a lot more about the newer product, the vaginal balance. I want you to talk about vaginal balance, the pregnancy support, and then there's a test. There is a, uh, a swab test now that women can use at home and. Learn about this vaginal microbiome. Tell us about how Microbiome Labs is kind of leading the front in this and how important this could be for women's health. Yeah. So, I don't know, it's probably been four years or so. We, um, we developed a vaginal microbiome test and the reason why we did, like, people are like, why is a gut health company getting involved in vaginal health? Well, because if you look at the female anatomy, the opening to the gut and the opening to the vagina, I mean, how, how, how much distance is there, right? Um, an inch or two, right? Yeah. Right. We know that bacteria, whether they're good bacteria or bad bacteria can translocate and make their way from the anus to the vagina very easily. Um, so many times. Women that suffer with chronic vaginal issues, vaginal infections, whether it's yeast, whether it's bacterial vaginosis, whether it's chronic UTIs, a lot of those issues can be rooted in a dysregulated gut microbiome. And very oftentimes just healing the gut can help resolve the issues in the vagina without even bringing in any specific local ingredients for the vagina. However, there are some women who continue to struggle even when they've healed their gut. And then we need to look a little deeper. Right now. We need to look specifically at what's happening in the vaginal microbiome. Now, unlike the gut microbiome where we want lots of diversity, 200 or more species, the vaginal microbiome is, is a bit of a monoculture. We wanna see lactobacillus living there. It comes down to, um, four different lactobacillus species. Their names are, I could say them, but it's not gonna mean anything to anybody. Right? But the, the idea is that lactobacillus pretty much predominantly resides in the, in the vaginal microbiome. And when those species are living there in the abundance, that's considered healthy. Then we don't see, um, unfriendly bacteria taking root and overgrowing. Um, and this particular, uh, ecology is very sensitive to estrogen, um, levels, right? So as estrogen levels, let's just say in a cycling, woman, um, will fluctuate over the month. So will the lactobacillus species to some extent, because estrogen. When it's being produced optimally provides glycogen, stimulates glycogen production, and that is the fuel, the food for lactobacillus species. So when you have estrogen optimal levels of estrogen, you have optimal levels of lactobacillus. But let's just say for whatever reason, estrogen levels are declining, maybe in a perimenopausal woman or a postmenopausal woman, then we start to see the lack of bacillus, uh, abundance also decline that opens the door for unfriendly organisms, whether it's candida or, um, bacterial, uh, sorry. Um, I'm starting to get brain dead. Uh, the one that's, um, we see in bv, bacterial, uh, Gardnerella vaginosis. I thought of it. Gardnerella. Oh, okay. Yep. Is the organism we see overgrowing in bacterial vaginosis. So, um. So this is something that can be, uh, identified through our vaginal test. So it's an at-home swab. You send it to the lab. We, um, produce a report that tells you what is your lack of illness doing, and then who else is living there that we don't want there. So oftentimes, as I mentioned, we can heal the gut, resolve a lot of those issues, but when we need more local support, now we have available vaginal balance. It is a probiotic and we've included four lactobacillus species that have been very well documented in the research to improve the abundance of those organisms in the vaginal microbiome. It also has a strain, specifically targeting yeast. Very, um, impressive research around. Uh, yeast, uh, chronic yeast infections, acute yeast infections in women, and then we've got some cranberry powder to support the, the urinary tract. So there's a, there's a bladder vagina axis. So what's going on in the bladder could affect the vagina and vice versa, right? So we are supporting not only gut health and immune health with this product, we're supporting vaginal health and urinary tract health. So it's kind of a four in one. Now, this becomes a very important product for anyone that is considering becoming pregnant as part of preconception care or vaginal dysbiosis, or the imbalance in the vaginal microbiome has been very closely associated with infertility. Lots of research around that. Mm-hmm. So if, uh, any women out there are struggling with. Um, fertility, then this is a product that can be a good tool to help that particular piece. If that is, um, a part of the infertility, um, picture, then we can support that, um, area and make sure that that is not contributing, right? A contributing factor. Now, once a woman becomes pregnant, let's just say she's, um, gets a jumpstart on preconception care. She's taking vaginal balance. She should continue taking vaginal balance until once she becomes pregnant, until the third trimester, and that's where she would switch to our product called pregnancy support. Now, it's important to continue to support the vaginal microbiome that lactobacillus abundance dur all the way through pregnancy and certainly through the th trimester. But we've added to that same lactobacillus blend. We used, we use in vaginal balance, we've included two additional probiotics specifically for the big in this product. So the last trimester mom's taking pregnancy support, she's supporting her vaginal microbiome. She's accumulating, seeding her gut with lactobacillus, um, Rosis, LGG and bifidobacteria infantis trademark name is Asus. These as she's taking this for the last month of her pregnancy, the last few months of her pregnancy, those strains are seeding in her gut and will inoculate the baby during vaginal birth. Yes, yes. They continue to receive those strains through breastfeeding, and we see there's a lot of research showing we can support the developing immune system of the baby. We can also support the baby's skin health because the lack of bacillus rosis, LGG screen has really great data on showing of lower incidences of eczema in children all the way to age seven when they are exposed to the bacteria this way. So this is how we're supporting women, um, from a, a, a vaginal standpoint, gut and vaginal standpoint by using these products. And we're hoping to expand this particular line of probiotics. And, um, there's talk about coming out with a, um, a product for a menopausal women, um, sometime next year. So we're excited about that. Ooh, yeah. You'll have to keep me posted on that. That sounds amazing. Um, I love this, I love the pre-pregnancy support, the pregnancy support, and then the postpartum support. How, how long would a woman postpartum stay on pregnancy support, or does she then eventually switch to. A MegaSpore. Well, she can do that simultaneously. Um, so we still want to support her gut microbiome, um, in the way that we describe, uh, through MegaSpore. Right. And MegaSpore is, is, uh, safe to take during pregnancy. So she's getting different support right. With each product. Okay. Really good question. Yeah. The studies we did on pregnancy support started on week 33 of pregnancy and continued four weeks postpartum through breastfeeding. Right. Um, so that was the study period. Now, because we know baby continues to receive them through breastfeeding, she could take pregnancy support. As long as she's breastfeeding, she's still gonna get support. Her baby's still getting what he or she needs through, um, the transfer through breast milk and continuing to support immune system development, GI system development, skin health. Okay. Very cool. How nature works. Amazing. Amazing. Really quick, um, something that I just recently got my kids on. So tell us about like the MegaSpore gummies. How fun is that for little ones who maybe don't wanna swallow pills? So, you know, it's no secret that gummies, uh, are kind of, uh, are kind of a craze, right? And, um, they provide a, a good option for, for kids or anyone who doesn't want to swallow pills or can't swallow pills for whatever reason. Um, so we acknowledged the, uh, specific need of children for a little gentler product. MegaSpore, um, has traditionally come in a capsule and even before the gummies have only been out for three, four years. Even before the gummies, we were, you know, recommending opening the capsule and just using a tiny bit for the, the little babies, or really anyone, you could open the capsule and use the powder, no problem for any age. But we, um, acknowledged that the, there was a need for a different delivery. And so we made a gentler formula in a gummy MegaSpore biotic gummies. Um, with only four, four of the five strains, we left out that really potent strain that we use at the capsule. We left that out of the smis and we cut the dose in half. So the gummy formula is a little gentler. The kiddos, um, if an adult, uh, prefers that, um, delivery, then, uh, a more appropriate adult dose would be too. Um, just understand that you're not getting the same formula as you would in the capsule, but it's a great option. One gram of sugar. Uh, this is, uh. This is a bit of trivia. You have to use sugar, actual sugar to bind to pectin to make the gummy texture or the gum to form the gummy. People are like, you know, we're all sugar conscious people look at the label and say, right, we can't. Why is there sugar? We can't do it with stevia, right? You have to use sugar. Now, one gram of sugar is in the each MegaSpore gummy, and that's equal to two grapes. There's one gram of sugar in two grapes, so we can handle this. So yeah, that's the gummy. Yeah. Love the gummy. Yeah. Amazing. This has been a really informative discussion. I love the, the concept of, uh, thinking outside of. Um, microbiome, uh, and how it relates to the rest of our health, especially the vaginal microbiome estrobolome, which we didn't really touch on. We'll have to have another conversation another time about that'cause how critical that is to our hormone health and estrogen, especially as it fluctuates, as we get older and move through perimenopause and menopause. Um, such, such a fascinating discussion how one system in our body can affect so many different things, and I love that we have tools, we have tools to address all of this, and I'm just thankful for the way that you outlined the three month plan that is accessible to all of us and the ways that we can use it. Traveling, holidays, higher stress times of life, life changes in seasons. We have so many tools at our disposal. And we just have to sometimes have a little education around utilizing them. And sometimes a little kick in the pants too, to remember that we, we can have a better tomorrow. Some people get stuck, you know, I deal with women who are overwhelmed with their symptoms every single day, and we feel like maybe this is always going to be that way. That's a common story in people's heads. Right? And this conversation today reminds me that just in three months time, we can change the expression of all of our symptoms in our body by doing one thing, which is correcting our gut terrain. And if we, if nothing changes, nothing changes. So. We have no excuse. This is, this is simple, this is accessible. This has been well researched and studied, and, uh, we've, we've got these tools available to us. So, um, thank you for being my gut health queen and, uh, explaining this in, in the easy to understand way. But, um, before we go, I like to ask everyone the same question, which is, tell me, Tamara, something that you do for your health on a daily basis. I would have to say being extremely mindful of everything I put in my mouth. Okay. Um, that is something that I do is a non-negotiable for me. I'm very picky about where I eat out and mostly I don't do it. I think I mentioned, um, in earlier in the conversation that, uh, um. I'm very, um, cognizant about where my food comes from, and I would prefer to prepare my own food. Um, I don't always have that luxury. Um, but then, you know, trying to be as mindful as I can if I, if I have to eat out, um, about, you know, where, where I'm getting my food from. So I'd have to say I'm, I don't really compromise on what, uh, I put in my, in my mouth. Yeah, that's awesome and very inspiring too. You're, you're, you're knocking on the door in one of those top three that we mentioned with that air, food, and water. If we could just master those three, we could make a lot of headway for optimizing our health. It's true. And, and like I said before, I think it, it can be very overwhelming embarking on, you know, a health journey. With all of the things we know that impact our health and trying to change them all at once, it's impossible. Right? So it's baby steps, it's prioritizing doing the, the major things first and you know, controlling as much as we can. There's so much we don't have control over. Um, yeah. Yeah. Well, tell us, um, tell us like how can we learn more about Microbiome Labs and this protocol that you mentioned, um, point the listeners to where they could find more information if they're, if they're interested. Yeah. So we are a direct to practitioner company, um, but you're welcome to go on our website, microbiome labs.com. There's a lot of information there. We're on all of the, the. Social media channels, um, Instagram and Facebook. Um, I know there's a lot of information there. They can certainly connect with you, um, as you are, uh, a very good customer of ours to find out more. Um, yeah. Awesome. Are some of those studies that you mentioned too, are they on the, the website that's accessible to the public? They are not for the most part. Um, we have had to be, because there's so much fraud in our industry, we've had to, um, protect most of our information, uh, behind a firewall. Yeah. Um, but, um, you know, I could make them available to you. Your listeners could request them from you. Um, yeah. You know, unfortunately there's uh, there's just a lot of, um, I. Bad stuff that happens in the industry and people, the, the wrong information, getting to the wrong hand sometimes is, uh, is can be problematic. So yeah, I could see that for sure. Okay, great. Well I'm so glad to have you on today. It's been a lovely discussion. I always learn a lot when I talk with you. So thank you for being on here today and talking about the impact of the gut, especially as it relates to women's health. So you've made a complex subject, simple today, so thank you for that. Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure.

Speaker 3:

That's it for today's episode of the Balanced Hormone Solution Podcast. If this resonated, don't just listen. Do something about it. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you know another woman who's tired of feeling like a stranger in her own body. Send her this way for more support. Check out the show notes. I've got resources to help you get started. Just remember, your body isn't broken, you just need the right tools. See you next time.