Your Gut Controls More Than You Think | Dr. Avraham Gundle

In this episode of the Frum Health Club Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Avraham Gundle, a leading gut health specialist and functional medicine practitioner, for a fascinating conversation about how healing often begins in the gut.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Gundle has helped people overcome IBS, bloating, Crohn’s disease, autoimmune conditions, chronic fatigue, anxiety, digestive disorders, and many other chronic health issues by addressing the root causes rather than simply managing symptoms.

His journey into gut health began as a father searching for answers after his daughter, who has special needs, struggled with severe digestive issues that conventional medicine could not resolve. That search led him around the world, studying natural medicine, nutrition, traditional healing practices, and functional medicine. Today, he shares the lessons he has learned from decades of clinical experience.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why the gut may be the foundation of physical and mental health
• The powerful connection between the gut and the brain
• How gut health influences mood, anxiety, brain fog, immunity, and inflammation
• The biggest mistakes people make when trying to heal their gut
• The truth about probiotics, prebiotics, and fiber
• Why ultra-processed foods, sugar, and processed oils are damaging our health
• Practical nutrition strategies anyone can begin implementing today
• The importance of movement and exercise for digestion and longevity
• Why taking responsibility for your own health is one of the greatest investments you can make

One of my favorite moments from this conversation is when Dr. Gundle says:

“Where do you want to be in 20, 30, or 40 years? Do you want to be dancing at your grandchildren’s weddings, or sitting on a walker? Your health today determines your future.”

This conversation is practical, inspiring, and filled with timeless wisdom for anyone who wants to live a healthier, longer, and more energetic life.

About Dr. Avraham Gundle:

Dr. Avraham Gundle is a Gut Health Specialist and Functional Medicine Practitioner with over 30 years of experience helping people restore their health by addressing the root causes of disease. His work combines nutrition, gut microbiome science, lifestyle medicine, functional medicine, and holistic approaches to help patients achieve lasting healing.

Learn more about Dr. Avraham Gundle:

Website: https://www.theguthealthspecialists.com/

Intagram: https://www.instagram.com/avrahamgundle/ 

Join the next Frum Health Club 10K Step Challenge!! (Win a Rolex worth $10,000!) Join here: https://wa.link/zfgmx1

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Where do you want to be in 20 years, 30 years, 40 years? Do you want to be dancing at the ch at your grandchildren's weddings? You don't want to be on a little one of those walk-stroller things at the age of 60, 70. You want to be having the Hossan on your shoulders if you can, you know, at the age of 85 and 90. Ultra-processed foods are the most damaging for the body, for the mind, and for the soul. That's the truth.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Welcome back, everyone, to the Froom Health Club Podcast. I'm your host, Mendo Koshinski. Here at the Froom Health Club, we believe that health isn't separate from our Yiddishkeit. It's all part of it. When we strengthen our health, we become better able to serve Hashem, our families, and our communities with energy, clarity, and joy. Today's guest is Dr. Abraham Gundl, a gut health specialist and functional medicine practitioner with more than 30 years of clinical experience helping people overcome chronic digestive issues and complex health challenges. Dr. Gundel's journey into gut health didn't begin in a classroom or clinic, it began as a father searching for answers. His daughter, who has special needs, struggled with severe digestive issues that conventional medicine was unable to resolve. Determined to help her, Dr. Gundel embarked on a decades-long journey studying natural medicine, functional nutrition, mind-body healing, and holistic approaches from experts around the world. What he discovered transformed not only his daughter's health, but his own. After struggling with digestive issues himself for much of his life, he found lasting healing by addressing the root causes rather than simply managing the symptoms. Today, Dr. Gundel helps people suffer from IBS, Crohn's disease, bloating, autoimmune conditions, chronic fatigue, anxiety, diabetes, and many other chronic health issues by focusing on one core belief that the gut is often the gateway to healing physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Dr. Gundel, it's a pleasure to have you with us.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Thank you, Mendel. Thank you for uh inviting me. I've been following you with great interest. And um, I was just sharing before we got started how you pointed me and my son in the right direction when we visited Ashdod and went to work out in a local uh from gym there. So, all the kudos to you for your outstanding work. So thanks for uh inviting me.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Thank you, thank you so much. Thank you for being here on the podcast. Um so if you could maybe take us back to how your journey started into gut health and share that with us.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

You know, my journey didn't start in the clinic. Um, as you mentioned in the intro, we blessed with five beautiful kids. Uh each three of them had major health challenges, but one particularly has uh is a special needs child. She's uh my biggest teacher. She's 22 years old and still struggles every day. Um when uh going back, you know, really 21 years, uh even before that, three, four months after her birth, we knew that something was wrong, but the doctors just said delay uh in development, etc. Bottom line, after pressing the system, we got an MRI, got a clear diagnosis of her condition, uh, which didn't bode well on paper for the future. Um she struggled from seizures, she still does. Epilepsy is part of her life, which we've managed to tone down significantly through this journey that I'm on uh with her. And um I just remember distinctly sitting at the table, uh, at the kitchen table, my wife and I had a little pink baby spoon in her mouth, just trying to coax her to eat a little bit more. She struggled not only from epilepsy, but skin conditions and uh problems sleeping, major dysregulation and digestive problems that kind of go hand in hand. We she had had all the scopes, up, down, we'd been to all the experts, all the consultants, and we were at a total loss. And I remember with that little pink spoon coaxing her to eat something small as she was not thriving, she was losing weight, she was doing extremely poorly. My eyes crossed my wife's eyes at the table, and we kind of just took a sigh. And uh I there's a part of a corner of my heart that really did sink into like a hopeless dark space. Um, but something something turned in me and said, you know, I've got to find a solution. This is a must. This is not just like helping this kid. This is this is so much more than that. There's my wife, there's my family, there's my whole my what was interesting, Mendel, though, and part of that struggle at those in those early to early days is that I think what touched a chord in me deeply with her struggle is my struggle. You know, um I inherited beautiful things from our folks, and I'm not saying who, but one of them has a major digestive problem. And I just thought it was hereditary, it was genetics, and that's just how it was. I had major stomach problems as a kid growing up, stomach pain, bloating, gas, you know, RBS type symptoms, bathroom dashes at the most inconvenient and compromising times. And I kind of felt it, you know, I'd seen doctors and stuff, but nothing, no real resolution. And in my mind, there was a belief, you know, this is hereditary. It's kind of lumped with it. So seeing my daughter suffer, feeling and understanding the pain of digestive issues myself, I I set on really a 30-year project. I traveled the world extensively. Um, went to many, many places through the through the Amazon, through Mexico, through the Far East. In my quest to find answers, to meet experts. I met a lot of charlatans, uh, made a lot of painful and costly mistakes in my journey. Um, I learned many, many lessons, and I came to a place where I was able to put together a very varied program, very dynamic program to help this child. She's now, as I mentioned, 22. She loves all my pickled fermentings in the in the in the home. She eats well, she's thriving, her weight is stabilized, her seizures are uh infrequent, thank God, part of her life, but a part of her life. We've learned to manage it well, learned to manage her well. And uh that's part of the backstory that led me to create um a program to really help people with these issues.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Wow, wow, thank you so much for sharing that. You you spent, of course, as you mentioned, decades searching for these solutions. What were some of the biggest lessons that you learned along the way?

SPEAKER_02 7:10

You know, the first lesson is there's divine intelligence in our body running the show. That's number one. Um, you know, we we affirm it when we we say our shayyat sar, hopefully with a grateful heart and uh with intention. And I started really just stopping, uh, not walking, not rushing, just stop and really, really open into that blessing to really deepen into the gratitude that that blessing has to offer, because I've been there. Um so the first lesson is this uh intelligence within our body from a Gotta Barock, the Hochman upguf, that when we really get out of the way and support healing, the body has a remarkable ability to heal, Mendel. And that is I'm gonna say the first thing. So I'd say to anyone, like wherever you're struggling, um, don't give up. Like I did, almost stayed there. Uh, there's wisdom and you can get healing. The second thing is that there are many, many pathways to healing. I learned Arivedic medicine, I learned Western herbs, I learned from the Amazonian people, I learned from the wine traditional healers. I uh was in the Navajo um with the Navajo peoples, understanding their healing strategies and pathways. I was with the Japanese healing people, Indonesia, etc. I'm not going to go into the whole, I've got journals of this travel. Um, but there are many pathways to heal. And uh we say Makdem Rufola Maka, Kodish Barak, who's got the healing waiting in the wings, waiting for us to show up with prayer, with uh efforts, with etc. Um, I think the third thing, Mendel, that's really important to me in terms of bringing in the psycho-spiritual part to healing, is that symptoms have a message. Systems uh symptoms have a meaning. Uh and they're not just like something to knock out and and get rid of. They are our teacher. Almost symptoms are our healing teacher. And I think if we enter into, I'm gonna say, a dialogue with a symptom or engaging it to teach us, we will definitely fast track our healing uh and be wiser on the other side.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Wow. Wow, so insightful, yeah. Um, I I wanted to also ask, you know, people often hear the phrase gut health. I think right now it's really popular uh to you know discuss gut health and and learning more about people are learning more about gut health, but what does it actually mean?

SPEAKER_02 9:51

That's a great question. Let's just keep it simple. Uh firstly, what is the gut? The gut is a di is is we're referring to the digestive system, but I'll just make it really simple. The gut does three things it it uh digests our food, it absorbs our food, and it excretes our food. And digestive problems can really occur in any one or all three or more of these three simple functions of the gut. Obviously, from a bigger perspective, it also includes not only the stomach and the large and small intestine, but all the organs of digestion, the role the spleen has, the role the liver and gallbladder has, etc. But when I'm working with a gut, I'm really looking at where are the problems going wrong in this simplified version, let's say the digestion, the absorption, and the excretion. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

And and what are some most common symptoms that might actually be gut related, but people don't realize it?

SPEAKER_02 10:50

That's a really good question. So, firstly, um, you know, there are many, they're my six quote favorite gut everything connections. There's the gut-brain connection, most people have heard about the gut immune connection, the gut hormone connection, the gut skin connection, the gut metabolic connection. There's more than half a dozen of these amazing connections. For example, over 85% of our immune system is based in our digestive system. So when you say, you know, what are some of the symptoms people can be suffering from that are not gut related? Simpl, everything, right? So when we know that our digest, our immune system is 85% gut-based, then people get cold, uh, colds and flus a lot, viruses. They say, oh, they just got a low immune system. I hear that a lot. Um, or whatever goes around, they're gonna catch, not only in is a sort of stomach flu, but low immune system allergies, skin issues, Mendel is are huge, uh eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis. Oh, you know, I had a patient, actually, um 52-year-old male from from England who reached out to me with a condition called psoriatic arthritis, a combination of psoriasis and arthritis. His skin looked like crocodile's back, his joints were pain inflamed. He was on methotrexate, some some uh medications and um cortisone, and he he was trying to weigh, bring himself down. Um he heard of me, we worked together. I never treated his skin directly, I never treated his joints correct uh directly. I just focused for the first three months on helping and healing his digestive system. He did not come to me for a digestive problem, but because I understand the intimate connections with the gut and everything, after three months, his skin was clearing up, he woke up with less joint pain, he's able to return to work, he began to get his life back slowly and incrementally.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Wow. Wow, that's incredible. Uh, I know that you know a lot of doctors, because you are a functional medicine doctor, so you are not just looking at the symptoms, but would you say that if you you know came to a conventional doctor, they would be treating more like the symptoms of the skin instead of going deeper and trying to figure out the root cause for this person?

SPEAKER_02 13:15

Firstly, the model is slowly changing, but yes, that's the traditional model uh traditional model. Like this fellow, he was treated by the consultant experts in hospitals, and these are good people doing outstanding work. However, the model, the map of the world is just about treating disease. It's not it's not about um looking under the hood and getting to root causes. Yet it's slowly changing, it will change completely in due course.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Yeah. Wow. So you mentioned that, of course, the the brain and the gut are are very much connected. And I think uh when people think about like when they get nervous, they start like maybe their stomach hurts or they want to go to the bathroom. But could you explain to us like biologically how to what is the connection there?

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Yeah, it's a great question. So, firstly, just going back to chazal, the word panim, face, and the word panim are the same letters, right? And the Gemora says if a person gets embarrassed, uh their stomach gets, you know, their face and their stomach, you know, change color. So we can just see from through the lens of chazal, chazal understood the body-mind connection. We are body and soul. We've we've basically a soul that's been bodied through this journey in this life. And it's really Greek thinking to think, you know, it's two separate systems, it's one system, and um the Torah teaches that pathway. So how technically there are 12 uh cranial nerves, 12 nerves in the brain. One of the main nerves for this discussion is called the vagus nerve, V-A-G-U-S. And this nerve goes directly from our brain down through our throat, through our diaphragm, and supplies the juice, the nerve food for the entire digestive system. So I like to tell my patients that our stomach, our digestive system is like a pregnant woman. In a way, she has a baby in her tummy, and every experience she has, her feelings, her thoughts, her emotions, what she eats, what she drinks, what music she listens to, her everything she experiences in life, the baby is hardwired to feel that and experience that too, through her nervous system. So our gut is that baby. So uh whether we are pregnant or not, we have a baby in our tummy that's hardwired through the vagus nerve. In fact, the vagus nerve comes from the Latin word, uh, you've probably heard of the word vagabond. A vagabond is uh someone who's like a vagrant, right? And they travel the vagus because it travels so far all through the all through our parasympathetic nervous system. So we are hardwired. Everything we experience, strong emotions. In fact, I was at a research conference last week, and one of the research scientists uh talking about lifestyle medicine and body-mind medicine um shared some research that within 40 seconds, it's probably less than that, you're saying, but within 40 seconds of a person experiencing a strong negative emotion, like anger, rage, something like that, the there's an entire physiological change with hormones, with chemicals in the body, adrenaline, cortisol, histamine, all sorts of inflammatory markers. And over time, that will corrode the body. And the opposite is true, you know, thinking, loving, grateful, beautiful thoughts, that too will stimulate healing and calm in the body.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Wow. Wow, that's incredible. So would you say that people that have anxiety or you know, maybe brain fog, uh things like that, that that can that's also that could be from issues of the gut.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

Um, yes, that's true. In fact, um, some months back I was giving a webinar on gut health. My my wife uh was on the Zoom, she was watching, and uh I mentioned a formula to help people who are suffering from brain fog, from anxiety, from low mood, from depression, just because most people don't know, Mendel, that over 95% of serotonin is made not in the head, is made in the gut, and over 50% of dopamine is made in our gut. What that means is that new these these two neurotransmitters are specifically required to um facilitate upbeat, buoyant, joyous mindset, so to speak, and regulate mood and regulate sleep and regulate muscle coordination and regulate hunger and so many different things. And when people take anti-anxiety medications, they are SSRIs. That means a serotonin, selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor in English. What that means is they they allow they prevent serotonin to be broken down in the brain and allow more to be circulating in the brain. They don't make more, they just provide more to be available. But where's that serotonin made? Over 90% is made in the gut. So I recommended a simple at-home practice to have a happier gut, to set the environment for healthy neurotransmitter um uh stimulation. And she thought, that's interesting. Well, it's safe, and uh, she doesn't have to check with a doctor. And she was working with a client the next day who was maxed out on her anti-anxiety medications. She didn't want to take more, and uh she was going through a really, really hard time. So my wife said, Listen, I don't know if you're open to experiment, but this is a safe thing you can try. So she gave her the recipe, and within three days, this woman's mood was back up to a uh a regulated place without adjusting her meds. And that's when, you know, my wife said, My gosh, this stuff really works. Obviously, she knew that there's a difference between knowing it and knowing it, right? Yeah, um, yeah. So they're they're practices that we should all be doing. You know, we all want, we all want good neurotransmitters, we all want great skin, we all want clear thinking, we all want cognitive uh well-being, memory, mood, all that stuff, immune system. So the hub, the gut is the hub.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Wow, could you could you share what were some of those things that you should show?

SPEAKER_02 19:42

So, firstly, um, the whole world of probiotics is a huge universe, and the latest research is even identifying specific species, specific strands for strains of gut bacteria for different diseases. So they are treated today, people are being treated with specific scientifically based strands of strains of probiotics for different conditions. So uh I didn't want to get that granular on a public webinar, but I suggested firstly increase healthy fiber because fiber are what's called prebiotics and they create an environment for the food, for the food for the friendly bacteria. So um I generally use I recommended on this webinar a combination of three fibers. The one is flax seeds, chia seeds, and hemp seeds to grind them up. And I suggested a uh a ratio of two parts flax, one part chia, and one part hemp. Now, for those of you in Israel who can't get hemp seeds, don't worry. Um, it's not so easily available for legislation reasons, unfortunately. Uh, but you can just use chia or you can just use flax or you can use them both together. You grind them up uh uh or buy them from the uh store, ground up, and you start literally with a teaspoon in a six-ounce cup of warm water, let it sit for a few minutes, just soften and kind of pre-digest, and you drink that once a day for three days, and then you gradually, gradually build up to the right dose for your body. And it's important that your listeners know if you when you're introducing fibers, even good fibers, you it's medication, you have to dose up correctly, or else there could be uh gas and stomach pain and all sorts of things if you increase fiber to so that was the one thing. Then then I recommended a a probiotic. Um, and I suggested that she take that first thing in the morning and last thing at night on an empty stomach, like before bed, the probiotic, and in the morning, first thing in the morning with a six ounce glass of water and then her probiotics, uh prebiotics, her fiber. Since she was already taking some fiber, we were able to start her on a high level. I'm gonna think three. Three days within three days, this woman had this uh normalization.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Wow, that's incredible. Um, what would you say are foods that are causing the most damage in modern diets? Well, causing the most damage.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

I think there's hands down, ultra-processed foods are the most damaging for the body, for the mind, and for the soul. That's the truth. In fact, there was a a BBC, a doctor in the UK who created a documentary on BBC, and in my recent webinar, actually uh, with the with permission, showed a little clip from this documentary uh for people to um see how how destructive these foods are and the research going into these foods. So, ultra-processed food is number one, the biggest cause of our physical demise. What does that mean? Firstly, for your listeners who may be interested in a book that goes into a deep dive, which includes also the food engineering, the manipulation behind the scenes by the pharmaceutical and food companies, and also research about what that does to our gut microbiome. In fact, ultra-processed foods destroy the gut microbiome and increase inflammation, and a condition called leaky gut syndrome, where the uh gut barrier is eroded and basically opens the door to many, many health challenges. So he has a book, uh, very engaging read called Ultra Processed People. And this is by Dr. Chris Van Tulliken, T-U-L-L-E-K-E-N, Ultra Processed People. I love that title. Um and it's a deep dive for anyone who really wants to understand the dangers and how noxious these foods are and and how marketing has really got the better of us in a way, unless you are aware. By the way, I just tell I tell a lot of my patients, don't buy health food at the health food store. And they go, What do you mean? So, because when you go to health food store, your guard's down and you think everything's healthy, so you make less informed decisions. But if you go to you know cheaper coal, um like you're not in health food store. So you're gonna read labels, hopefully, if you're a conscious shopper and you're gonna like you know do proper due diligence. Um, so the first thing is ultra-processed food. That's got to be the second thing, Mendel, is sugar. Uh, if you just do a Google search, a chat search, you know, how many names for sugar are there? I don't know if it was 86 plus, but they there are many, many names for sugar as the uh companies try and hide it and disguise it in all sorts of ways because sugar sells. That's simple as, like, for example, glucose uh corn syrup, fructose corn syrup, is half as uh half the price of sucrose of sugar, and many times sweeter. So, of course, manufacturing companies are going to sneak it into everything because it just tastes so yummy, right? And uh they just want you to come back and buy some more. And uh type 2 diabetes is rampant, rampant, Mendel. And type 2 diabetes is 100% reversible. You know, you in the health trade, you look around, you go to show all these beautiful boos, like like I see 35-year-olds, 40-year-olds, 50-year-olds, like with big, big stomachs. And I I just my heart is just full of prey, you know, guys, you know, just make conscious choices slowly, slowly. Because I'm seeing I'm seeing the other end when things fail and they come to me, and it's years of abuse or just not knowing. People don't know, and that is so really it's ultra-processed food. The second is sugars, and there's another book called Pure White and Deadly by John Yudkin, Y-U-D-K-I-N. It's an old book, it's a classic book, and it's still true. So I would say though those two things, um, the ultra-processed foods, uh, and and all the sugars. And then if you want a third one, just to round it off, is processed oils, you know. Um staying away from from all the processed oils. You know, these oils are are really, you know, they are carcinogenic. Um, they take may taste great, they may stay on the shelf laugh and shelf a long time and survive a nuclear explosion, but they're not good, they're not good for us. They're not good for us. Those three things I'd say like switch out, switch out gradually.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Wow, yeah, yeah, definitely. So um this question might be a bit controversial. If you don't want to answer, we'll edit it out later. But uh but why what would you say like in the in the from religious world, why why are we seeing so many people struggling from uh gut issues and just you know preventable diseases? Well, like what are what are some of the most common causes for that? Specifically in the from world.

SPEAKER_02 27:13

Um, Mendel, part could be socioeconomic, just people uh on on a on a tight budget, needing to feed a large family, needing food to go a long way, you know, a loaf of white bread is cheaper than you know, a whole uh, you know, sourdough spelt, for example, a little roll like this for like 35 checks or something. That's not going to feed a family of four, six, eight. That's that's one part. You know, the processed foods are cheaper, they just they are cheaper. Um so that's a kind of just to be fair, I think uh a piece. The second thing is uh I think awareness, Mendel, I think I really do. I think people don't really, don't really know. They don't really know the scoop, the inside scoop. It's not a secret, but that's one thing. I mean, since you know, cigarette packet says smoking causes cancer, I think cigarette smoking has gone through the roof. It sells even higher. So um there is an education piece when it comes to food. The third is could just be cultural, you know, like Shabbas comes around at least these days once a week, right? Uh so we're sitting, we're eating a ton, eating much more. People forget the stomach is, you know, make a fist, Mandel, let me see your fist, you know, like our fist pump, right? That's how big your stomach is, right? This big. Okay, it expands a little bit. So uh, I mean, if you see the food on people's plates, the second helping, the challenge, the this, this, the dessert, it's like, what stomach are you feeding there? You know? So I think it's just the culture. Um, and you know, kiddish. I'm not talking about kiddish clubs, but there's kiddish uh after dovening, and then the coogles and the razor things, and maybe men are hungry after long doveening, and then let's come home, and there's another meal, right? And there's and then there's well, Malka. It's like it kind of stacks. There's a condition I call called chronic reversible shabbitis, it's not a medical term, but basically, it's a chronic condition of abusing shabbas, right? And uh it's just overeating, not moving your body. We all know this condition. Say again, please.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

I I think a lot of people know about this condition, right?

SPEAKER_02 29:32

Right. So it doesn't have to be that used to be me. That used to be me. I suffered from chronic uh shabbicitis. I didn't know it was reversible. Now I do. But I'd say that's that's that's a thing. I think it's uh socioeconomic to be fair. I think people don't really know. I think there's cultural issues as well. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

So another question, like for someone that is a parent of young kids, you you send your kids to school and you know you want the best for them, and they come back with six packs of chips from the from three birthdays and candies for more sugar than they should be having in a week in one day. How do you how do you tackle that? You know, that's a question that I constantly ask myself. We don't have this in our house, but when they go out to school or whatever, it's uh it's really difficult.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

You know, my wife often says bribery and correction, right? So, firstly, it's this is part of Kinoch Bonim. This is absolutely a part of raising our children eventually when they become independent decision makers to role model. You can't be saying one thing to your kids and doing something else. So making conscious decisions. And I say, I think just you know, have just a warm, firstly, a warm loving conversation. And it starts, you know, doesn't start at seven or eight or nine. It starts, you know, as soon as they start going, you know, Emma will give you this and just say, and you can use money, you can use healthier treats, you can use quality time. You know, Abba will take you to the park, Emma will do this, Abba will read a book. Don't only use food, but use the most precious commodity we have with our family is ourselves, our presence, right? That's the biggest gift we can give. So um, you know, you'll you'll take those off them or let them offer it up and in in in exchange, in the right way, with the right frame of mind. And best, as my wife teaches, is it's with our family, it's best all of this is done is Laubishas Maisa. What that means is not in the heat of the moment where they're like coming back, they're hungry, and you got all these pekalak and all these food bags, and now you want to barter. Come home, drink, wash their hands, drink some water, chill, connect, have some food, and then I don't know, maybe before bedtime, another time, have this conversation.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

And you'll win some and you'll lose some, and that's part of the long haul journey, right?

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Yeah, yeah. That's a really great answer. Thank you for that. What would you say are also some of the biggest mistakes that people make when they try to heal their gut, when they find out they have a gut issue? What would you say are some of the biggest mistakes?

SPEAKER_02 32:16

I think uh some of my best patients, at least the patients who do the best, are self-educators. So while I encourage people to go to Chat GPT and upload their blood test results and their x-ray reports and MRIs and you know, just engage. Um I'd say one of the first mistakes is a mindset, and another mistake is sort of an a practical thing. The first mistake is to outsource their health and well-being to the experts out there. I say to my patients, you become the CEO of your health and well-being. That's where the buck stops. Take responsibility. Yes, you want to form a robust team of caregivers, of experts, of consultants, of your build strong relationship with your family doctor or whoever, or your uh uh your GI specialist, whoever. But you take responsibility. And if they say something that you don't quite understand, respectfully engage if you can in conversation. Um, but the buck stops with you, right? So that's number one. So that's a mindset thing. Take responsibility for your health to shape it up. Like, what do you want? What do you where do you want to be in 20 years, 30 years, 40 years? You want to be dancing at the at your grandchildren's weddings. You want to be you don't want to be on a little uh one of those Walker Australia things at the age of 60, 70. You want to be having the Hossan on your shoulders if you can, you know, at the age of 85 and 90. I was just in England last week uh and I saw an old-time patient started working with over 30 years ago. He's now 90 years old. And he said to him, he is doing 35 push-ups at the age of 90. And I don't exaggerate. And I'll tell you a quick story. I hope I, if I'm going off PC, Mendel, stop me, okay? I'm just very passionate about this topic. Um, 18 months ago, he was walking to work, right? At the age of 88 and a half. He this is downtown London, he tripped on the pavement and fell flat on his face. And that would have been the end of him.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

An 88-year-old falling on the face he was walking to work, he's he was still working at 88 years old.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

He's still working now at 90. Yes, yes. That's incredible. He he um he he he fell straight flat on his and this would have been the end of any senior person.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 34:49

His hands came out, they broke his fall, he did not break his hands, his wrists, his arms. He dusted himself off and he continued to work. The push-ups, Mendel, saved his life. He had stronger up enough collarbones, forearms, he was intact. And I will share this dear man is my father. Wow, yes, and he's a role model for me. I went to visit him last week, and when we we were speaking, I said, Dad, listen, you gotta get yourself a personal trainer and you gotta be doing your push-ups and get him onto a track, and he shouldn't be all you know, kitty glove with you, you know, get to it, and it saved his life. Wow, that is so um your question was you know, what are what are some of the mistakes? So, number one is take responsibility for your own health. That's like and get experts, get a team. Oh, I'll tell you something else. Tell you something else. It just came to me last week. I was at I was at this medical conference last week. There was a uh a board, trip double board certified lifestyle medicine doctor, real real expert in her in her field, talking about um advanced medical war um um um proactive screening and stuff like that. And one of the clinical directors said the following sentence The body does an excellent job at hiding disease. And I thought, wow, you know, I kind of intuitively knew that, but he helped me to just to understand that on a deeper level. In other words, most people go to the doctor when they're not feeling well, uh, or they just self-medicate, you know, it's like the uh a light on the car dashboard that's saying there's an oil problem or a heating problem or an engine problem, and just knock out the light, deal with the problem, right? So he was saying that um by getting an annual checkup, you know, check your blood pressure, check your glucose levels, um, uh check your inflammatory markers, just a basic screening. Um then you you can see early, early warning signs. For example, men from the age of 50, 55, get your PSA, prostate-specific antigen. Make sure you get a baseline to track that. If that starts creeping up, you need to take intervention. So the mistake people make is just like going on, but the body hides disease because it's in survival mode, right? Uh, diabetes doesn't just uh send you a little note on your pillow, hey, my sugar level is high, heart disease isn't uh blood pressure issues. These are silent killers, Mendel.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:35

So so be proactive. The second thing is be proactive. Get yourself when else do you have a medical, uh, a medical checkup? When last did you have a blood test? Go to your doctor and say, you know, I'll tell you this. He said I could say it in his name. I uh this is many years ago. Um he said I could say it in his name. A very prominent Rav in Ushlaim Mashkirch came to me and he said to me, Uh, Avraham, I'm well and I want to stay that way. What do I need to do? Like, firstly, my heart was full of joy. That is an exemplar of a Jewish leader who is in a Chacham Ainov Baroshoe. He's he he he knows his public property, he he's in service of Claul Israel. How could he guard his well-being? So I I went through a whole program with him, and uh I think the next day or the day after, certain Talmudim heard that I'd recommended he needs to get a f a trainer and he needs to get a treadmill, and he needs to do you know, 20 minutes minimum, three days a week minimum of walking, of jogging stuff, and build up incrementally for his age and situation. I think 48 hours he he had with his wife's permission, he moved an entire bookshelf of Swarim outside out of his home study, moved in his treadmill, Talmudim got together and bought him a fancy schemancy treadmill, and he's got himself a trainer. And this is uh Rabbi Noach Orlawick. Hashem should bless him with health and uh and vigor and his wife and family all the days of his life and you just nach his remember. So that's an exception. I don't know, one out of 500 people come to me and say, I'm well, and I want to stay that way. But that is called becoming the CEO of your health.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

Wow, wow, so inspiring, so true. Um, I wanted to ask you more about diet. Is there any specific, you know, there's so many diets now. You go on the internet, there's uh a new diet every single week. Um, but is there any diet specifically that you see is really optimal for overall well-being and health and gut health specifically?

SPEAKER_02 39:52

Yes. There's the what I'm gonna say, Sume Ra and the Assey Tov, right? Stay away from and then uh and then do the good stuff. It's as simple as that. So I uh in my clinic, I tell my patients, listen, this is a long, this is not a sprint, there's a marathon. So in my personal life, I I enjoy um foods that are not kind of ideal, ideal for the health. My my let my hair down days are relatively clean, but you have to enjoy your food. But so it's not about extreme and saying no to this, no to that, no to this. It will crack, it will catch a person in due course. It has to be a wholesome, rounded mindset and approach. So, bottom line is the processed foods we spoke about, the sumeral things you should limit or get rid of as much as possible, the processed foods, the processed oils, and the added sugars. And any of your listeners who just want to make a humble beginning, for example, um, I have a patient who drinks like six cups of coffee a day, and uh that's not the problem. The problem is the two to three teaspoons of sugar per cup of coffee I later discovered. Wow, and uh I said, where do you want to start? And we we had a sort of Middle Eastern negotiation discussion, and he agreed just one teaspoon a week to reduce, and over three months he'll slowly bring, and that is wholesome, that's healthy. You could go cold turkey, he chose not to do that, and it's several years later, and he's having a black coffee, no sweeteners, because it takes the tongue about 21 days to change its uh taste bud uh receptivity to sweet, so you can just change that, right? So, number one, just slowly or gradually or overnight, however you your personality decides, uh weed out the baddies and then simultaneously eat a whole food uh rainbow-colored diet. Meaning, when you look at your plate, you want to see 75 to 85, 80 percent vegetables and different kinds of vegetables, at least five different veggies, um, you know, different kinds of lettuce and cucumber and carrots and kawrabi. I said to my patients, you know, go to the vegetable store and look at what you haven't bought that week or that month or that year. Like, when did it when did you buy a beet or kaurabi or uh or um or um you know ginger root? You know, just just try stuff. You know, when I was in my world travels mental, I was in a market in in uh Malaysia, and like the I there were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of fruit and vegetables I've never seen in my life. Like weird and wonderful stuff. So I made sure just to buy a bit of everything, just to see like, what are these fruit, what are these vegetables, what do they taste like? Um and so I just say like you want to look at your plate and you want to have the majority of vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, if you can, like broccoli, kale, the baby leaves, all these are very high in phytochemicals, plant-based chemicals that are powerfully anti-inflammatory, heal the blood, help digestion, and then your protein, a clean protein. If you're eating meat, fish, chicken, eggs, then that is a smaller portion. Um, and the research is out there in terms of um I don't keep a plant-based diet because on Shabbos I eat some, I have my wife's delicious chicken soup, I have a little bit of meat, but during the week I don't. I don't, that's my personal choice. Uh in during the week.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

Uh I eat chicken meat.

SPEAKER_02 43:44

So that's that's yeah, I do. That that's my personal balance because I'm not looking for another ism. I have an ism in my life, I'm not looking for another one. Uh it's a balance for me. Uh, and uh that works. So during the during the week, I don't eat fish, I don't eat chicken. Or meat. Um, I have a plant-based diet with whole grains and nuts and seeds and sprouts and fermentings and all sorts of yummy things.

SPEAKER_00 44:09

Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. Thank you very much for sharing that. Sure. Um, so what would you say? How how important also is exercise to overall health and gut health?

SPEAKER_02 44:20

Exercise is king. Um, Mendel, you don't, you know, you don't need me to tell you that. But I tell you with people with gut health, so many people come to me with constipation. I mean, I was um on the Zoom last week with a woman um in in the states. She was taking 12 laxatives a day to get her bowels moving. Wow. So I teach something on my Heal Your Gut program called the Gut Glow 4, four different strategies just to set up the pillars of success for gut healing. Um, and um um constipation is not a lack of laxatives, it's a lack of you know um movement. So there's bowel movement, so movement on the inside is stimulated by movement on the outside. Movement is medicine, movement is motility. So start small, start simple, you know, go for a 10-minute walk after a meal. Uh take the stairs, not the elevator, you know, or get off at your work, you know, bus stop before and walk the five or ten minutes until you sort of become an exerciser. And I think that's important piece, Mendel, is adopt the identity. I am an exerciser. It's not something you do, you don't do exercise. You are an exerciser. Once you are an exerciser, like I don't do Jewish, I am a Jew, right? So uh once you see yourself and take on as an exercise, and you're going to do this, the research is replete. Exercising will help your sleep, help your mood, help aging, help you uh age youthfully with longevity, heal disease. I mean, there was a there was a video I posted recently, um, a nine-minute video, thoroughly worth worth watching, about the research, scientific research benefits of just a 20-minute walk three days a week. Lowering blood pressure, helping sleep, helping mood, helping digestion, boosting immune system. I mean, like the list is huge. So if any of you are listening and you are not yet exercising, I'm really extending a warm invitation to join Mandel and start moving your body.

SPEAKER_00 46:43

Amazing, amazing. Yeah. Thank you. Um, so if if people remember, let's say just one lesson from this conversation 20 years from now, what would you want that lesson to be?

SPEAKER_02 46:56

Wow. Um that's a great question. Um, you know, I'm reminded of a story. Um, I think it's a true story, but it's a great story. Um Michael Angelo was once asked, you know, how did he create David? David was a marble sculpture of Dovid Amelech, right? So he said, Um, you know, how did you make? Because apparently there's a backstory people struggled, people so difficult, etc. And he said, it was easy. All I did was remove everything that wasn't David. And for me, the teaching is we are at our core, whole, not broken, healthy, we have an innate well-being. All we need to do is remove everything that's blocking the expression of our innate well-being.

SPEAKER_00 47:57

Wow. Wow, that's so beautiful and so true. So, Dr. Gundal, if people would like to work with you or do your programs and so forth, how can people get in in contact with you or or find your work?

SPEAKER_02 48:10

Sure. Well, firstly, uh, you can send us a WhatsApp. We'd love to hear from you. It's in Israel, so it's country code 972 uh 54991 1610. 54 uh 991 1610. Or uh go to our website, the gut health specialists with an S.com. The gut healthspecialists.com. And um actually in the middle of a 10-week online heal your gut program, it's really for women at the moment. The women uh people say, Why are you running these programs for women? I'll say, firstly, uh we everything good that happening to Claudia Strah is going to happen to lady folk. Us men, we're like in our cave, you know, so we're behind the time. So um, so that 10-week online program is an uh online program with a wonderful community, which is really distilling the 30 years of gut health experience and clinical practice into a quick start curriculum to help people get the help. And then actually, this week, the timing is really incredible, Mendel, through this podcast. Next week, this week later, I'm launching something I've been wanting to do for years called the Heal Your Gut Academy. This is for this is a monthly um membership situation where you can come in early and be one of our founding members and inform the trajectory of the Heal Your Gut Academy. And um, it is a place, a hub, a one-stop hub to get all your gut health questions answered, not through Chat GPT or a Google search or whatever AI platform you're hanging out with today, but through clinical experience and a loving, warm, safe community just to really get real, raw, safely, appropriately vulnerable to discuss, you know, bathroom habits, which people don't feel comfortable talking about the best times, but full permission is here, it's just to get the help you need. This is what we do, and that's launching this week. So you can uh send us a WhatsApp or an email to support at thuthealthspecialists.com.

SPEAKER_00 50:18

Wow, it sounds amazing. Sounds amazing. Thank you so much, Dr. Gundel, for being here on the podcast. It was really a pleasure.

SPEAKER_02 50:27

Mendel, um, firstly, thank you for inviting me. I've enjoyed this conversation. And you are a trailblazer, my friend. Okay. You uh I see your WhatsApps, I see your posts, like you're doing amazing things with your exercise and then stimulating, inviting people to uh to really step up in their physical, mental, Jewish health. It's amazing. And I love what you're doing also. You are you're really sort of closing the gap between Yiddish Kitan being from and exercise. It's not it's not a you know, you can be from and exercise, you know, you normalizing it, you busting the myths. So I have full esteem and respect for the work you're doing, and Hashem should bless you just with uh health and happiness and Yiddish and Akhis and all good things for you and your listeners.

SPEAKER_00 51:15

Amen. Thank you, thank you so so much.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

Great, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 51:19

Thank you. I really appreciate it.