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Roots to Health with Dr. Craig Keever
Welcome to Roots to Health—where we dig deep into the foundation of lifelong wellness! Hosted by Dr. Craig Keever, Northwest Arkansas’ first and only plant-based pediatrician, this podcast unearths the power of nutrition, lifestyle, and holistic health to help kids, families, and adults thrive.
What can you expect?
Dr. Keever breaks down the science of nutrition and disease prevention in a way that’s simple, practical, and life-changing. From raising healthy kids to optimizing adult wellness, each episode delivers key insights that challenge conventional wisdom and empower you to take control of your health.
Whether he’s debunking nutrition myths, explaining how food shapes long-term well-being, or sharing actionable tips for disease prevention, Roots to Health is your go-to guide for vibrant living—one bite, one step, and one conversation at a time.
Get ready to rethink everything you thought you knew about health—and discover just how powerful roots can be!
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Roots to Health with Dr. Craig Keever
Your Gut, Your Joints, Your Life: The Inflammatory Connection Nobody Talks About
The destructive cycle of chronic inflammation affects millions, yet conventional medicine often addresses symptoms without resolving root causes. In this candid conversation, Dr. Craig Keever and his wife Amy reveal the profound connection between diet and auto-inflammatory conditions through both scientific evidence and personal testimony.
Amy's journey from debilitating fibromyalgia, endometriosis, and thyroid issues to vibrant health at age 54 demonstrates the transformative power of plant-based nutrition. After decades, facing what seemed like a genetically predetermined future of illness, she discovered that food could be her most effective medicine. "I want to tell that woman out there who's struggling that there is hope for your pain," she shares with raw emotion.
The science behind this healing centers on what gastroenterologist Dr. Will Bulsiewicz calls "leaky gut"—damage to the single-cell-thick intestinal lining that allows inflammatory triggers to enter the bloodstream. The standard American diet, rich in inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids from meat, dairy, eggs, and oils, creates a perfect storm for chronic inflammation. By contrast, omega-3s from sources like flaxseeds and chia seeds help decrease inflammation and repair cells.
Particularly striking is how even after adopting a plant-based diet, Amy continued to refine her approach with digestive enzyme support and focused nutrition that ultimately continued to reduce her chronic pain. The couple explains how consuming diverse plant foods—aiming for 30 different plants weekly—rebuilds the gut microbiome that influences not just digestion but immune function, hormone balance, and even mood.
Whether you're facing rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, fibromyalgia, or unexplained joint pain, this episode offers practical strategies for healing through nutrition. Visit ozarkpediatrics.org for evidence-based resources that could change your relationship with chronic pain forever.
Thanks for listening to Roots To Health!
The information provided in this video is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have seen or heard in this video. Dr. Craig Keever is a licensed pediatrician, but the content shared here is general in nature and may not be applicable to your individual health needs.
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Well, good afternoon everybody. Another episode of Roots to Health. I'm your host, dr Craig Kiever, and my lovely vegan chef wife.
Speaker 2:Amy is with me, Vegan chef wife.
Speaker 1:yes, absolutely, and I can say that almost with, as if it wasn't really legitimate before, but she is by the time this airs by the time this airs, she will be a licensed Food for Life teacher Instructor. So an instructor for teaching people to eat this way, yeah, how to do it what it's about.
Speaker 1:Exactly. So we're super excited about that. That's great. So today's episode we're going to tackle a little bit about your body's inflammatory response and auto-inflammation and kind of chronic pain things and how to hopefully help that with the plant-based eating plan. So let's see there's a number of things listed under. Let's see there's a number of things listed under autoinflammatory diseases and I probably won't go into a lot of details about many of them. For instance, adult onset stills disease and beset disease and family Mediterranean fever, familial Mediterranean fever, the old Mediterranean fever. You know these aren't very common, you know. But the more common things that would be addressed things like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and thyroid issues, and actually diabetes is actually in part type 1 diabetes can have auto-inflammatory roots to that. So a number of things are instigated by our body's inflammatory response. Well, in fact my wife has had some dealings with this. If she would care to share with us.
Speaker 2:So I think when I thought when my started actually was as an adult, but it really started even when I was in high school, and so I was a big cheese hound, major big Dr Pepper girl, and so I had severe endometriosis that started and terrible cramps. I was telling you, when I went to Washington DC, my poor little group didn't get to see half this mycelium because I was sick, I was, I couldn't walk, you know. So as an adult started having high blood pressure, started having a little bit of a thyroid issue, looking like I had Hashimoto's, but I had terrible fibromyalgia, and so it was just scary because it was tons of, you know, weird symptoms. At night I wasn't sleeping. People would tell me you've got to get rest, and I'm like you know, when you're in that chronic state. This is why I always say, with the pillars of lifestyle medicine, you really can't get to the other pillars, or most of them, until your nutrition is in check. And I didn't know I was not doing anything right, you know, I mean I didn't know I was doing something wrong. So just terrible inflammation.
Speaker 2:And everybody eventually in my immediate family was either on blood pressure or cholesterol medicine or both, and right in the middle of that I'd lost a brother to a heart attack at 47, and so it was just scary, because it was like my grandfather started on blood pressure medicine when he was 30, and so it was just like this is just your family history, I mean, this is just your, this is your future, you know. And so I couldn't figure out what was wrong, what was going on. And I had a friend that had helped her cholesterol with a whole food, plant-based diet. And she told me about it, marianne, and absolutely changed my life. I mean and we've still had those tweaks along the way, even after being plant-based, that I needed those extra. You know. I know you're going to talk about omega-3s, but, wow, the world needs to know more about that, because that was a game changer for me.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And yeah, one of the things I would like to say here at first about all that is you know, a lot of these auto-inflammatory processes get started very subtly and it creates a series of symptoms that aren't tied necessarily to oh, you've got an inflammatory problem here, all right. Well, why is that? And I'll refer somewhat to one of our favorites in terms of plant-based doctors, dr Will Bolschewitz, a gastroenterologist. Now, how does that fit in to hold this whole auto-inflammatory issue? Well, one of the major triggers of inflammatory and auto-inflammatory problems is related to our gut. So, if you think about this, our gut lining is one cell thick and it doesn't take a whole lot to get that damaged right. And we damage that very often by our poor dietary choices. And the food supply in this country is notorious for having problem causing problems with our GI tract, although we often don't blame it on our foods, right?
Speaker 2:Now I mean people were telling me I had leaky gut and traditional doctors are like that's not a thing and a lot of doctors said fibromyalgia isn't a thing either. It's like right for women, and mostly women are the ones that suffer with fibromyalgia. It's a very real thing.
Speaker 1:Well, you might ask how does that happen that a leaky gut causes auto-inflammation? Well, what that does is it allows different antigens and compounds to get into the body that don't belong there, and so then our inflammatory response which, by the way, is a normal part of our system we have to. If we don't have an inflammatory response, we're in trouble, right? Okay, so we got to fight off our foreign invaders, but the problem is that these things that should be not in our system and eliminated through the gut get into our system and in the bloodstream and cause our immune system, yes, to start attacking that, and that can then start attacking any of the organs in the body. So it becomes a real problem and again, like I said, it's a very subtle thing and it can attack any number of different places.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mine went back way farther than I realized. And I say, sugar and dairy were my two big things.
Speaker 1:For sure, and so then, when your immune system gets tuned up for that, then you start having all these other symptoms and problems. Well, and we'll get into kind of how to avoid some of that. But that's, I think, one of the biggest issues that's now, I think, scientifically coming to light. As Amy said, I think historically in Western medicine we probably haven't had a good enough understanding.
Speaker 2:I mean they'll prescribe women depression pills, you know like they'll give them something for depression. It's like you know, and to that point there is anxiety that is provoked in that, because you're not sleeping, your body's inflamed, your brain's inflamed, and so I'm definitely more anxious when I have had those moments.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so some of the major chronic inflammation symptoms are very kind of broad and nebulous, like you don't necessarily think of. So fevers fevers of unexplained reasons is a relatively common one Joint pain, in fact. I just saw a kid in my clinic this morning, joint pain. In fact. I just saw a kid in my clinic this morning. Was talking about an episode of joint pain and then a few months ago he had an episode of eye problems and the eye doctor ended up giving him a steroid for his eyes and that helped settle things down. But now he's kind of on this pathway and so I talked to him about his diet and he's a pretty typical teenager junk food diet, right and so I let him know. You know, some of the things that we'll get into here. You know, and conventional medicines do have some of an effect. You know the non-steroidal anti-inflammatories like aspirin and ibuprofen and things. Now the drawbacks of those of course, is that they end up causing trouble with the stomach.
Speaker 1:You can get a higher incidence of ulcers and whatnot. So that's usually step one. When you think about minor painkillers, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, well, the next step to ratchet that up to is steroids. They can be very, very effective short term yeah, sadly, some people need them. Long term If you're strictly going by the Western medicine treatment plans.
Speaker 2:I just saw something on my Facebook page that was from like 15 years ago and it was like I got a steroid shot. I haven't been able to sit down for two weeks, you know. I mean it's debilitating, and so I feel like a lot of people that are getting on opioids and pain medicine. They're not wanting that, they're just miserable. You know, chronic, chronic pain is debilitating, yes and so yeah.
Speaker 1:in relation to steroid shots, typically in my understanding and experience which is relatively unlimited because I'm a pediatrician, not an orthopedic but for those kind of acute bone and joint problems, they can be very effective on a short-term basis a shot and then you're good. But when you start talking about longer-term treatment of chronic inflammation and you start adding oral corticosteroids, that becomes a real problem. It really opens you up to a lot. It really opens you up to a lot. It will decrease your immune system responses. It will cause weight gain. You know a number of side effects. Osteoporosis it's involved in, you know. So this is not a preferable solution, okay.
Speaker 2:Which is so great from a pediatric standpoint for you to be able to warn a parent, like if this starts happening, you know, like just be aware, because Dr Brooke Goldner is a perfect example of she's helping someone who first had thyroid issues, then this, then and it just keeps multiplying, it will go into another thing, it will.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's very true. And it just keeps multiplying. It will go into another thing. It will yeah, that's very true. And then the latest generation of things and I'm sorry that I don't have a lot of names of the medicines off the top of my head, but they're called biologics and they're, I think, typically injectables, and I want to say Dupixent may be one of them. At any rate, I think they're showing to be very effective and I haven't had enough experience with them yet and done enough research to know what kind of long-term side effects we're going to expect from those.
Speaker 2:Ultimately, we want to get the body healing.
Speaker 1:Well, and yes, that circles me back around to let's try and figure out what the root of the problem is. Yeah, okay, root to the root of the problem.
Speaker 1:And so there may be more to it than just diet, but diet is certainly a very integral thing with this.
Speaker 1:You know, and I liken it, and I've told this story on the podcast before one of my favorite analogies is not that this is related to auto-inflammation, but it is related to getting at the root of the problem regarding high cholesterol. And let's say that you own this house and you love this house and it's wonderful, and all of a sudden you find out it's got termites. Well, you don't do anything directly about it, for whatever reason, you don't change anything about it. And now, all of a sudden you get a hole in your wall because the termites have eaten through. And so you decide oh, I got to do something. Now Let me get a picture and hang it up over the hole. Look, isn't it wonderful, my hole is gone, it's cured. Well, that's a little bit similar to just throwing an anti-cholesterol lowering medicine one of the statins at your cholesterol problem, not making any other changes and expecting that to fix everything. True enough, it may lower your cholesterol numbers, but it's not going to get at the root of the problem.
Speaker 2:And the thing is I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you, but the thing is how you feel in that, like the other might get your numbers down, but nothing has compared to the way I feel on this diet Nothing. There's no drug, there's nothing that can really if the body's out of balance, the body's out of balance.
Speaker 1:That's right, and so I think in terms of treatment of inflammatory and auto-inflammatory problems, one of the root causes is going to be, as I started the talk out with, is that leaky gut syndrome, and if we can learn to do things that help fix that, we are miles better, if not completely cured.
Speaker 2:I'm like a walking testimony to that. I am the person who literally did not sleep three hours a night and I would go two nights in a row not sleeping and then I would just be exhausted in my body. There was nothing I could do about it, you know, like it was out of my control, and so I just want to try not to cry. I want to tell that woman out there who's struggling that there is hope for your pain, because when you're in that moment it's really devastating. You know it's devastating. So it's changed my life.
Speaker 1:Very much so, and I want to be very clear. I am not downplaying the roles of Western medicine and some of these medications that we have out there that can help, but you know, I think a good combination of a healthy eating plan and, primarily in this case, what I'm talking about is let's fix our gut microbiome, let's protect our digestive tract lining again, which is one cell thick, right, right. And how do we do that? Well, we need fiber. Our gut is home to trillions of bacteria, okay, and most of them are what we call symbiotic with us. We provide them a place to live. They provide us with a lot of things that help our bodies function, not the least of which would be and I've mentioned this before, I think, on the podcast short-chain fatty acids.
Speaker 1:As our intestinal tract germs dine on their fiber and digest that, they create a number of chemicals to include short chain fatty acids, and these the ones that I've studied. The short chain fatty acids will affect our immune system function, they will affect our hormones, they will affect any number of our mood. There's a gut brain connection that they affect our mood and our intellectual function. So it's so many things that are related to having a healthy gut microbiome. And one thing again I don't want to beat a dead horse, but it's just numbers that are, I think, important to think about. If you can get seven servings of plants per day different plants, and 30 different plants per week, there's a much higher likelihood that you'll get all the fiber you need, which the average adult in this country needs about 30 grams of fiber a day and, by the way, the average adult American now gets about 10.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's no wonder that we're going around feeling crummy all the time, right.
Speaker 2:Well, and you know, to put that in perspective, we talked about this too, but this might be someone's first time. You know, tuning in, we had a spicy bean lentil soup today with poblano sauce, and so that probably had at least 12 plants in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, by the way, the poblano sauce had no cheese.
Speaker 2:That's right. You're right, it was all plant based. That's right. Cashew based. Yeah, so it's so good too.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, well, and what are the things that we should avoid? Okay, so, when we're talking about things in our diet, things that help us, you know our In our diet we have things that are necessary, that we need to ingest, and in the realm of the fats, we have omega-6s and omega-3s.
Speaker 2:These are fatty acids that are essential to our function, and you almost never have to worry about getting enough omega-6s.
Speaker 1:That's where I was going will often have ratios of omega-6 to omega-3s in the range of 20 to 40 omega-6s to one omega-3. You know well what's the big deal with that. Omega-6s tend to be involved and supportive of the inflammatory response. All right, so when we have a diet that's so heavily favored with the omega-6s, our inflammatory responses are ready to go and fried foods have.
Speaker 2:those oils have been cooled and heated and cold and heated, and cold and heated.
Speaker 1:Yes, they're like primed for that, and so where that's going is that. You know, the levels of omega-6s in the standard american diet is just really high. Okay, and what are the foods that tend to have high omega-6s? Gee meat, dairy oil, dairy is one of the worst.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like dairy is like so bad for you. Yep, meat, dairy and oils, and I was. I was a, you know, had a love affair with cheese and and eggs?
Speaker 1:I forgot, yes, meat, dairy oil and eggs. So those are really high. Highest level of cholesterol in almost any other food is an egg. Well, on the flip side of that coin, the omega-3s tend to deal with decreasing our inflammatory response and repairing the cells and repairing the cells. So what are omega-3s? Where do we get those? Well, we get those primarily in the plant-based world, from flaxseed and chia seeds. There's a few other sources. You can get some from walnuts and other things, but primarily those are the best sources.
Speaker 2:And those are really low, if not low all the way of omega-6s, because some of the nuts have omega-3s but they tend to combat it. They kind of cancel each other out, right, right and so what is a healthy ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s.
Speaker 1:It depends on, probably, who you listen to, but I'm going to say what I've read and gleaned from my studies probably somewhere around four omega-6s to one omega-3. But I would offer as well some of the other things I've read is that if you have an active inflammatory problem, switching that and getting a higher ratio of omega-3s than omega-6s, which is, I think, in large part what Brooke Goldner's plan.
Speaker 1:If anybody needs help with that, Dr Brooke Goldner is someone to look up for sure, yes, and her goal, I think, is to at least get at a one-to-one ratio, if not favoring omega-3s, oh yeah, much more, and that will put you in a state of healing and allow these things to get better.
Speaker 2:And it's a good thing to say that emotional things, trauma, any kind of crisis, will definitely add to the inflammatory responses. Very much so. Your gut is so related to your emotions. Getting you know again those pillars of lifestyle medicine, they all fit. But yeah, dr Brooke Goldner has a group called the Smoothie Shred and it has her name and her husband's name. Tadlock is his. Oh gosh, why can't I? That's terrible. If you look up Dr Brooke Goldner, smoothie Shred, thomas Tadlock is her husband.
Speaker 1:There it is.
Speaker 2:That's a great group to join. You will see people, hundreds of people, if not thousands of people, who have cured their MS, their lupus.
Speaker 1:Dr Goldner did herself so you bet it's empowering very empowering and, I think, the other thing to really emphasize here, along with, really, in cases that have difficulties with their inflammatory responses, in addition to focusing on getting those omega-3s from chia, from flax, if you can't go completely, plant-based fatty fish does have omega-3s in them, with all the other bad stuff, with all the other bad stuff, but you know.
Speaker 2:And one thing about the flaxseed and the chia seeds is to break them up the body. They'll go straight through you. You want to absorb that? Yes, so we get our f go straight through you? Yes, you want to absorb that.
Speaker 1:Yes, so we get our flaxseed pre-ground.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I like chia seeds.
Speaker 2:I've gotten to where I'm a chia girl. Yep, put them on a salad or something like that.
Speaker 1:Let's see Other dietary concerns. As with any plant-based person, you want to think about making sure you get enough vitamin D and vitamin B12. Those are really important too.
Speaker 2:And Dr Kahn recently. You know this is kind of a new thing that they're talking about, but with heart disease that vitamin C is playing evidently a role in those arteries being brittle.
Speaker 1:If you don't get adequate vitamin C, it really yeah, I haven't seen this research yet, so I'm interested in diving into that a little bit, dr.
Speaker 2:Kwan is a leading cardiologist and he's just now bringing it to the service. It's kind of a new thing, yeah, leading plant-based cardiologist. That's right. Yes, yes, K-A-H-N Dr Kwan.
Speaker 1:And so, of course, as with pretty much any other tweak to a plant-based diet, I think, some of the core essentials. In addition to the auto inflammatory issues with the omega-3 and omega-6s, you want to pay attention to getting lots of green leafy vegetables, berries, turmeric. Turmeric does tend to be a bit anti-inflammatory as well, so that's another spice that can be used Anti's like cancer.
Speaker 2:It's a really good answer.
Speaker 1:Yeah and yeah, and fermented foods will help us provide some of those germs for our microbiome.
Speaker 2:So those prebiotics are better than probiotics.
Speaker 1:Yes, I thank you for mentioning that.
Speaker 2:Yes, I guess someone hasn't heard you explain what's the difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So the probiotics. I've recently become a little less impressed with Many, I understand, of the brands of probiotics, which are the actual germs that live in our intestinal tract. Many of these that are sold over the counter have some level of antibiotic resistance to them. I had not heard that, and one might think well, very often we'll take probiotics after a course of antibiotics, so what's wrong with having an antibiotic resistant germ?
Speaker 1:Well, the research, apparently, is bearing out that if you provide these germs that have preset antibiotic resistance to them, they mingle with the germs that are in there and actually what happens is they cause our gut to take a longer time to heal after a course of antibiotics. So I've become not a fan of probiotics, but I'm a big fan of prebiotics. What's a prebiotic? Basically, that's the food for the germs. Yeah, exactly, and so I think it would be critical to use prebiotics more than probiotics. And my understanding of the research I don't have a specific study to point out at this point, but my understanding is what they're finding is these prebiotics actually do help the gut heal faster after a course of antibiotics.
Speaker 2:And I feel like you would for sure find that study on nutritionfactsorg Dr Greger has lots to talk about that. Very much, so you can address anything I feel like on that website, because he's really done his due diligence to make sure.
Speaker 2:Because, you know, everybody's getting so confused because they say, well, this study, well, my doctor told me this study, and then it's backed by the meat industry or the shooting industry, so you've got to be careful, or they compare it to a hot dog. So, yeah, whatever this is they're doing, it's better than a hot dog, because that's like low.
Speaker 1:Not much isn't better than a hot dog yeah. So, amy, tell us a little bit more about some of your journey in terms of I know you mentioned you'd been through an elimination diet at one point and then kind of bring us more up to speed on some of the more recent things that have really started to turn around some of your pain issues, even though you've been on plant-based for 10 years. Right, some remarkable things are happening just in the last few months.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I still had. I tore my hip joint years ago, had surgery on that, walked around with a torn labrum and didn't realize it. So this hypermobile was being brought around. So I still thought, okay, that's just part of that.
Speaker 2:You know, so I still had some achy bones and things like that, still was not sleeping great, still having a little bit of inflammation. And you know, a big part of that shift initially was finding Dr Brooke Goldner. I mean, it's adding in those leafy greens. So her program basically is to give hypernutrition and the highest of the highest are the grains, and so kale is numero uno and that's what I went with you, like spinach, it's right there with it, and kind of overloading your body on those extra you know nutrition so. But then I was still having issues like my, my tummy was hurting some and I couldn't figure out what all that was about. And I I am known for doing tons of lemon juice with my water and I thought, you know, I mean, the thing that's neat about this is the more that you get going and with with a live foods you do start honing in on what's. You know what your body's feeling.
Speaker 1:I like to call it test and measure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and.
Speaker 1:I'm still doing that on a regular basis with my issues with cholesterol and blood pressure and blood sugars.
Speaker 2:So, dr Wool, I may be getting this out of order, but Dr Bolsiewicz has this microbiome. He calls it like a multivitamin for the microbiome, and so it's basically some of those prebiotics that can really feed the good bugs. I had gotten my microbiome tested and it wasn't as high as I wanted it to be, which was surprising because you've been on plant-based for years.
Speaker 2:Yes, and a whole food, plant-based. I mean, I was not eating junk food, but if you have bad bugs in your microbiome they can overwhelm you if you don't know where that is. So it was just a series of fine-tuning and then I don't know. I was researching and researching and I thought, you know, I just kind of feel like I don't have the right digestive enzymes. I feel like I'm not, because I was just really bloated and it didn't make sense because I'm used to these foods. You know, it's not like FODMAP is where if you've had these histamines and you've had some problems. So I looked into it and Dr Kliper said, hey, you know, if it's benign, if it helps, you try it. You know no big deal. And it was a game changer. It. It's benign, if it helps, you try it. You know no big deal. And it was a game changer. It was like totally, I mean you saw it, it just absolutely. And so it it.
Speaker 2:I think it helps my nutrition get into my body better, and you can probably explain that better than I can. But yeah, it's been really exciting to see and so my hope is for any kind of hypermobility, that I'm going to get stronger. I went through a time where I wasn't exercising as well, because I just hurt, you know. So I just encourage someone. Don't look at us and think, well, it was just linear, it just all just went all at once. Some people, their blood sugar within 48 hours is better. That was not the case for you, and so everybody's different. But don't give up and keep looking and keep researching and you will find your path to be able to help that.
Speaker 1:Well, one of my favorite stories that you tell about is when you first started working with your doctor in Texas and your elimination diet, and then what happened then.
Speaker 2:The doctor in Dallas.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure which one it was, but you were getting ready to go to Israel.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So he had said, you know he was really trying to cleanse out my liver. He was not plant based, but he was predominantly plant based. He was the thought of like you don't need much meat at all, but he, like took me off of everything. I mean I was eating grass and cardboard at that point, but he said, when you go to Israel, you can eat whatever you want because our food source is so tainted. And it was true, things that have bothered me here didn't affect me in the least. So our country is really at a crisis. I mean, we're going to pay for this medical bill that's coming up.
Speaker 1:Yes, I find that just an incredible story of a physician knowing about at that time what 10, 10 years ago almost yeah, um, you know that, our food supply, that was right before I went plant-based because he, kind of my friend, was definitely the one that opened my eyes.
Speaker 2:But dr metz was like this is not. He goes. Everybody's acting like this is like so hoity-toity, or so like you know, mysterious, he goes. This is basic biology, this is just the body, isn't? You know? And and he would. If someone's got a toxic substance and they're wanting to get, well, he goes. I'm not going to waste, you know, their time and my time to you know I can't help them if they don't want to take the toxic things out of their body.
Speaker 1:So, yeah. So just a quick addressing then you know, when we think about people with autoinflammation, I know several people that I've mentioned a few things to you know that are still on the standard American diet, and this is really true for pretty much any kind of chronic illness that people aren't aware of the power of plant-based nutrition most people. The first response I get is Really I know it makes me cry.
Speaker 2:I mean the more awake you are to how it's helped you. There is a real grief in it because you see people that you know could be helped by it and it's not coming from a place of judgment. It is like I love you. I want you to be better.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You grieve it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you do. I mean, I've had people with cancer that I've known, of course, people with heart disease, you know. I've got closer people that I know that have auto inflammation, arthritis, things along this line, the connective tissue disorders and stuff.
Speaker 2:We're really taught at our age like get ready. My doctor, who, doctor, who you know, like I went in for surgery and had a full hysterectomy without really wanting to. He really you know, and he just pretty much said, um, this is just where you're headed, and I was 45, you know, and it's like that is not you are. Tell them your age I'm 63 years old off of all your medicines.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Taking century rides on your bike.
Speaker 1:That's what life is supposed to look like Historically, I was on five medicines for an array of chronic problems that I was For over 30 years, yes, and gradually, slowly, steadily increasing the number of medicines that I was taking, because that was only putting a bandaid. It was kind of like that house story with the termites right. Oh well, now you got this problem, so now we need to add this medicine and that's the Western medicine approach. Sadly, it doesn't get at the root of the problem.
Speaker 2:Which is why it's so important to get the food in front. This is why the class is so exciting and I'm going to form my own class about chronic pain, because, when you look at it and again, if it was like we absolutely hated everything we ate, then that might be a different story. But it's like we love what we eat. Are you really saying that your whole life could be changed because of an hour and a half of what you do a day? 30 minutes a day, really? I mean, I'm begging people to take a hard look at this, because it is. We are walking testimonies of not saying look at us. We're saying you could feel this way you could.
Speaker 1:You know? Well, it's our passion. And then, just something that I've been looking at in the last 24 hours. You know, processed meat is listed as a group one carcinogen.
Speaker 2:With asbestos.
Speaker 1:Listed in the same list as asbestos, uranium, benzene.
Speaker 1:Now that's not to say that eating a piece of bacon has as much toxicity as sitting in a room full of uranium Okay, they're not the same. But what that is to say is that there is solid scientific evidence that proves that eating these processed meats like bacon, like ham, like hot dogs the World Health Organization supports that, as well as the International Agency on Research in Cancer, which is a worldwide it's not just the US that's talking about that means a turkey sandwich, a turkey hot dog hot dog, yep, a steak, yep is two, well two right, yeah, red meat is in group I think it was called group a2, which, uh, basically means, if I'm, if I'm understanding that correctly, is there's enough evidence to suggest the possibility, but really not enough science yet to show that the direct link between a carcinogen and but yeah, like you say, close enough, close enough.
Speaker 1:So what are some of the? I guess attempts at Not wanting to do the plant-based diet, to treat this Excuses too Like? I think one of the most common concerns that a lot of people have about going plant-based is going to be where do I get my protein? I mean, we've joked about this, the whole series, and again I mean this is so easy to fix series. And and again I mean this is so easy to fix, right, uh, and you know, when you recognize that, um, what's the statistics? I've seen 100 grams of beans has the same amount of protein as 100 grams of steak.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 2:Well, go watch. Game Changers is all I want to say. The proof is in the pudding. Those athletes are not weak. They are beating their own records over and over again.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's right, and there are active bodybuilders participating in bodybuilding shows, you know that have never seen meat a day in their life. Yeah, he's never had meat Right yeah, so protein is not an issue. Plant-based diets are too restrictive. What were you telling me? 80,000?
Speaker 2:No, let's see there are yeah, there are 80,000 varieties of edible plants. I'm thinking that's more than I've ever tried to eat on the standard American diet and I'm so excited I found the coolest farm three hours from us and we're going to have to profile them, just vegetables that are from Asia, from China, that are growing in Missouri, and I'm going to get those seeds and we're going to grow them in Northwest Arkansas. I mean fun stuff. I have so much more fun cooking this way than I ever did with a standard diet.
Speaker 1:Well, we've sadly come to the end of our period here. Just a little summary of what we've talked about. You know, for people that are struggling with auto inflammatory issues and and things of that nature, please give this a try. It could be life changing. There is always hope and even if it doesn't fix everything, it will certainly make your need for medications decrease dramatically, absolutely, and the power of healing the gut and everything is just huge.
Speaker 2:I have seen people who had 15% use of their kidneys left completely reversed where they not that they completely healed their kidney at that point, but functioning just fine on the healing power plants.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. Thank you for tuning in and we'll be back next time. Oh, put a plug in for my website. Yes, ozarkpediatricsorg. It has some links if you're interested in studying anything about this, I would say, just as a quick side note I mean, amy and I have our anecdotal stories. Keep in mind that these are just anecdotes and that can become more scientific, but it's definitely don't. Don't rely on things just because we say them here.
Speaker 2:do your own research there's, there's very so many websites on, I mean so many websites listed on ours that you can see those case studies, yes, and be able to be a part of that, yeah and and look into like I.
Speaker 1:Like I said, dr Gregor. Michael Gregor has a great website.
Speaker 2:It's listed on our site?
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's listed on our site. If you're interested in actually looking up what these studies are all about, and did they really say what we're saying? They say Exactly, you know. Yes, there is so much evidence, scientifically based evidence that has accumulated over years and years, that there is really a solid scientific backing to the effectiveness of plant-based eating Absolutely so. We'll see you next time. Thank you very much.
