Business Innovators Radio - Gut Check

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

In recent years, gut health has emerged as a key component to immune system function. A healthy functioning digestive system is a large factor in how you feel and your ability to fight off infections. And when the gut isn’t in check, you know it – you’re more likely to get sick, have less energy, and deal with other health challenges. That means giving your gut health a makeover could be the best way to revamp your overall health.In this episode, Dr. Dan and Angela discuss the importance of gut health and listening to how your body signals you through feeling and function. Dr. Dan shares his personal health issues in 2023 with extreme fatigue, pain, and ultimate diagnosis of Lyme disease and shingles. They emphasize the gut-brain connection, benefits of intermittent fasting, and the need to make health a priority with lifestyle changes versus just taking supplements. If you’re not feeling as good as you should, maybe it’s time for a gut check – and this episode is the perfect place to start.To learn more about this and other hot health topics, follow us on social media and subscribe to our WTH podcast. If you have a specific health question or would like to find out if we can help you with a personal health challenge, check out our office page or contact us at 412-369-0400/ [e-mail] always, our mission is to help you Get Healthy and Stay Healthy for a Lifetime!What the Health?!https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/what-the-health/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/gut-check

Welcome to What the Health, where anything health is fair game as we tackle the trends and bust the myths about health and wellness. Here are your hosts, Dr. Dan and Angela Toro. And welcome to another episode of What the Health. I am Dr. Dan here with my co-host. Angela, welcome back, everybody. As you know at this point, we are here for informational purposes only in no way offering individualized medical advice.

Always talk to your trusted health care provider before making you. changes to your lifestyle. So with that being said, I think this is a good one for this time of year, so we're doing a gut check. Got check time. Talking about listening to your gut, which we hear about all the time and, you know, the world, just listen to your gut, like that gut feeling when something's right or something's wrong. But there... I have a gentleman in my men's group who gave us the acronym. Gut stands for God's undeniable truth. Got check. So, Yeah, so this is all about checking in on your gut. And I think part of this that stemmed this discussion was my very interesting story over the last six months of my health crises.

Yes, so this was definitely a very personal one. Yeah, so I, in 2023, so we're at the beginning of 2024 now, at 2023, I had two pretty serious illnesses that just kind of came out of nowhere, but when you look back on it, I'll be very blunt and vulnerable. I was not taking care of myself. I was not exercising regularly. I was, you know, other than just some walking on a daily basis, but, you know, between the busyness of practice and the busyness of three kids and also trying to, you know, help a nonprofit organization get up off of the ground, like they're just excuse after excuse that I hear from all of my, all of our patients, all of the time. And, And sometimes those of us who are in the healing profession take care of ourselves last.

So, yeah, I was not making myself a priority. But what happened in, and I think I shared this story on another podcast, didn't I? Might have. Maybe it was just on a Facebook post. But basically, I started getting a very, it was middle of June, right before we were leaving for a week vacation. I had extreme fatigue and flu like aches and pains to the point that I never had felt them in my life. In fact, this Sunday before I had the Sunday before our last week in the office before we left for work, I couldn't get out of bed. Like it was that bad.

And I'm never like that. You know, if I get the flu, you know, I'm down maybe 24 hours and then I'm right back to it. you know even even about a COVID or two it was like you know down for 24 36 hours and right back to it but I mean that was you know pain and fatigue like I never experienced it and you know again being the you know very pushing practitioner I showed up at the office that week pushed through that week it was a week before we're leaving for vacation so of course it's a busy week and you saw me on the floor on the back a couple times because it was like I just a couple people all right go to the back But I pushed through and I started feeling a little bit better.

I was being adjusted like crazy because I was getting adjusted almost every day from a colleague of ours. And I was starting to feel a little bit better as the week went on. But then after the fatigue and pain started to dissipate a little bit, then I was starting to get all these random rashes. Like this one inch purple rash, you know, these welts that showed up, looked like I was hit with a baseball or racquetball or something. And they'd show up on my stomach. They'd be on the back of my arm, back of my legs.

like just very randomly and it was kind of migrating around it would show up in an area those would start to fade and they'd show up in another area that was basically going into the start of vacation and then you know happened all throughout vacation exactly what you want for a beach vacation i'm like i didn't care yeah i was like aaron we're just we're getting to the island and you know i'll just lay on the beach whatever so um so after once that rash started showing up again that week when it was just aches and pains i'm like maybe it's just a really severe case of, you know, flu or whatever. But, um, but once that rash started showing up, I'm like, okay, well, maybe this is something a little bit more and, you know, severe. And, you know,

the first thing that popped into our mind is the possibility of Lyme, you know, and Lyme is a tick-borne illness. If you are in the, uh, northeastern part of the United States, you're very familiar, uh, with Lyme disease. Um, but, you know, I, I had been bit by a tick. 18 months prior, 18 months, a year and a half prior to those symptoms showing up and didn't think anything of it. The tick had been, you know, wedged and, you know, I pulled it out. I didn't have it tested, you know, hindsight probably should have, but, you know, didn't have any symptoms after that. And, you know, again, that's what you kind of watch for. Like if I saw a rash or something show up, nothing showed up. And so didn't think anything of it. And then, you know, again,

going a year and a half later, coming out of the pandemic, again, not taking care of myself, you know, now all of a sudden, you know, systems are starting to crash. And it was to the point then, you know, the rash started going away. But then when we got back from vacation in that first week back from vacation, that's when I started getting the joint pain. Sorry. I'm laughing. It's funny now. It's just laughing. I'm laughing now. It was not funny at the time. It was very, very scary. But I was just thinking about how we were trying to help our mother move a table. Oh, yes. Forgot about that. And, yeah. a Tuesday.

I were on the bottom, handing it up to our mom and his oldest son on the top deck. And he got his hands to about his chest and was like, I can't lift anymore. And I was like, okay, I guess this is why I have been working out. That's right. I have to overhead press this table by myself. You did good.

Oh my gosh. But yes, it was very, very concerning. And it was, yeah, it was a joint pain in my shoulder. My, it started like on, you know, I thought I had injured my elbow on vacation. And again, we were doing a lot of activity with the kids. I thought I might have just injured it, but I was getting a lot of joint pain in my inside elbow. But then it was moving to my shoulders. And then I woke up, I think the day after that, I think it was Wednesday.

I woke up and my one thumb was twice the size of my other thumb, just extremely swollen. I mean, I really felt like I was an arthritic, you know, individual in their 90s. like I could not move. And then, you know, again, continuing to push through. I got to Friday. Friday. And I woke up Friday morning. And I could not lift my arms. I jumped in the shower. I couldn't lift my arms above my head to dry my hair. I could not grab my pants to pull them up from my ankles. That's how painful my hands were. And so when I came down, you know, very comically now, when I came down the stairs with my pants down around my ankles and my wife is like, how in the heck are you going to go to the office now? That's when I get the phone call.

Like, cancel the morning. Cancel the morning. He is going to the doctor. So we had a pretty good idea that it was Lyme at that point. And when I went to the when I went to and talked to the physician assistant, she listened to my story. She heard me out. She had a fantastic job. She heard me out.

And she really, you know, and I had done a blood test earlier. that week and we were waiting on results. But after hearing, you know, the discussion, she agreed with me that it was probably Lyme and it was probably time to start going on medication. That was the first medication that crossed my lips, if you don't count alcohol, that crossed my lips in 20 years. And boy, was I screaming for it at that point. And it was amazing how quickly it kicked in. And antibiotic works when you need it? It was, I mean, I was 70% better within 24 hours, 90% better by the end of the weekend. It was amazing how quickly, you know, that it kicked in to resolve that. So, and again, you know, when you're like myself and you don't take an

antibiotic for every little sneeze and sniffle, which you can develop a resistance to, you know, different bacteria, man, it kicked in and worked. So I continue that process. Now, again, for any of you who are familiar with Lyme, it's very much. a systemic. That's why you get all these random symptoms. And it can come and go even after you take an antibiotic. It can, you know, really kind of lie dormant in your system and your tissues. And so I was good for a couple months. And then, what was it? November. It was the day after Halloween. It was the day after Halloween. So, I mean, we're looking at four months later, five months later, I woke up. And again, I had like these really sore lymph nodes behind my ear.

You know, and again, it felt like, you know, maybe I had some TMJ issues. Maybe I was getting a little bit of a sinus infection because I was getting some pain up around, like under my eye above my teeth. So I thought maybe I was getting a sinus infection, which I've had them before in the past. And, you know, so again, as that week progressed, I was getting adjusted. And I had another seminar. I was doing a lot traveling. I had a seminar that weekend.

So, again, the pain. was just kind of there. It was really, you know, it was on my scalp and everything. But then, you know, I traveled and I went on a seminar. And then Sunday, when I was coming home, I developed this rash on the top of my head. And as that rash progressed the following week, it was all one-sided. And it got extremely inflamed. And as I, you know, again, hindsight 20-20 and putting all the symptoms together, it ended up being shingles. And shingles, again, is a, chicken pox virus that has lied dormant in your system. And shingles is very much an auto, it's very much an immune deficiency, you know.

It's stress induced. You know, your immune system is suppressed. And so, you know, the virus that is lying dormant in your system now recognizes that, okay, all the, all the security is down. So boom, now it pops out. So looking back on it, I mean, it makes perfect sense that that flared up, partly because my system was down after having the lime flare up over the winter or over the summertime. So long story short, much of this can develop from a very poor gut microbiome.

And that's what we wanted to talk a little bit more about what I have done in the last couple weeks to get my gut back on track. But it started with the testing. And, you know, we went to a practitioner that we trusted in the area that does a lot of blood and stool sample testing and does practices more functional integrative nutrition. He is a chiropractor by trade, but, you know, has moved more into the, you know, the functional integration, integrative functional testing. So we tested for stool and we tested for blood. Two tests that I could do on my own at home, which I thought is fantastic. Again, rather than going into a medical doctor and just waiting for the blood draws and all this other stuff. You get a lot more, again, functional testing, not just the blanket.

Oh, here's what's in your blood. And, you know, we're not even going to tell you, oh, that looks good, that looks good. Yeah, they just tell you high, low. Yeah, high low. Yeah, it doesn't tell you anything about what it means or how to resolve it, right? without just taking you medication. So sure enough, after I did the blood and stool sample testing, I found some sensitivities that my body was sensitive to.

It's not considered an allergy, but it's a food sensitivity test. And, you know, my top ones were peanuts and wheat and cod fish were like the top three that considered plus three and plus four reaction is the highest. And then, of course, plus two is still considered reactive. But those are all the sad ones that ended up being like, you know, beef, salmon, bacon, I think raspberry, I think there was a type of cheese in there. But, yeah, all of these, you know, minor sensitivities. So, so now I'm doing this elimination diet to basically take that out, but also eating extremely clean, you know, and again, stuff that we

should be doing 90% of the time. Yeah, stuff we always talk about too. But, you know, again, just definitely have gotten away from it and not making it a priority. But knowing how adaptable the system is, I mean, within two days of actually implementing, you know, the diet and the elimination. I mean, massive difference in energy level, massive difference in, you know, my, you know, how my stomach is feeling. And again, I know I'm going to be losing weight on this.

You know, again, not my main goal, but just making sure, you know, you can, there are ways to test and go deep. deeper into what you can't, should or could or not be eating, you know, based on some of these sensitivity testings to your body. And so, you know, the individual that just has, you know, one health care practitioner, doesn't have a health care practitioner on their health team, you know, that was really part of my messaging is just, you know, we need to be looking at the body in multiple different directions, you know, to make sure that you're keeping it as healthy as possible. So, yeah, I think you, yeah, I think that's interesting too. You mentioned

the energy level because, you know, what people don't, we're finding more and more how, I mean, probably in the last decade, there's been so much of this come out about how important the gut is for overall health and wellness. So not just, you know, obviously, you know, we think about, we've all had digestive issues, you know, from time to time, a stomach bug or, you know, this, that, or whatever, our stomach's been off, but. Yeah, travel or when constipated. Yeah, or eat something that goes right through. It's like, you know, we've all experienced that, but, you know, not realizing, like, on a day-to-day basis,

how much that gut microbiome affects everything. And, you know, they're finding more and more with, you know, especially the gut brain connection. So, you know, connections to depression, to Alzheimer's, to, you know, focus and alertness. So, you know, talking about the brain fog and things like that where, you know, stuff that we used to think was brain issued and it is but so much of that is coming from the gut and so that's that's what i always find is like the most interesting thing is you know when you when you do when you eat really clean and and you notice that that difference um it's just that that's not something that people tend to think about you know when we're when you're having a lot of brain brain fog or you know mental

health issues or focus issues you know we tend to want to think about you know kind of focus up on the brain, but sometimes really just getting that, you know, getting to the root of it, which a lot of the times is coming from the gut, can make such a big difference on those, that overall energy level immune system. And our guts are so sensitive to everything. You figure anything that we ingest that has to go through the digestive tract is affecting it in some way, shape or form. So if you're taking, you know, we all, everybody knows, oh, antibiotics wipes out your, you know, your gut health because it's, you know, it's an antibiotic. It's not differentiating that's wiping out the bacteria. So, you know, it's pretty well known that, okay, after an antibiotic,

you need to take a good probiotic to, to rebuild that gut health. But, you know, what people don't realize is that pretty much every medication does that. So, so. Because it's chemically based. Yeah. You know, Advil, if you're, if you're taking that regularly, if you're taking any prescription medication, hormonal birth control, like all of these things that are taken on a daily basis are wiping out that gut microbiome in the same way. Our diets are, you know, our stress levels, you know, lack of adequate sleep and restorative sleep. So all of these things are, you know, negatively impacting the gut.

And so. Well, you have to, you have to, you know, look at it too. I mean, the one thing that I remember learning when I was in school is, you know, is your gut on the inside or the outside of your body? Inside? Oh, well, you mean? Oh, okay. I see what you're saying. So the tube, you know, your mouth to anus is one long tube and technically what is on the inside of that tube is outside. It's not come in contact with your body yet. And so when you look at, you know, the different layers of immunity, you know, your skin and your lining of your digestive tract

is a primary physical barrier to a lot of, you know, your skin. you know, viruses, bacteria in the outside world. And so if you have a weakened digestive tract, like you just mentioned with all the medications, stress can impact to that, you know, previous infections, you know, not getting good, healthy ingredients. What can happen is, you know, that literally the lining of the digestive tract, you know, much in the stomach, small intestine, large intestine, when that starts to weaken and break down, then, you know, you know, you know, you're in, you're opening the door for, you know, undigested proteins, viruses that are supposed to be inside the gut, but not inside your body, can start filtering their way into your bloodstream,

into your body. And so that's where, you know, the example I used at the beginning where, like, I had, you know, the lime flare up. That lime may have been in my system. It may have been in my digestive tract, but it was being held at bay by my immune system. Until that started breaking down. Yeah. And so I started breaking down my digestion or just, you know, my overall, you know, microbiome was broken down enough.

And so I didn't have the strength of my immune system to keep it at bay. Now all of a sudden you have this flare up, this viral flare up. And then again, when you have one of those, a lot of times, you know, I was reading a book online when I started getting that. You can start to have all these co-infections then because, you know, Lyme, you know, just has such. a massive systemic impact on, you know, on your whole body. So it's the same, same idea. It's like you just have a systemic impact when your, you know, gut and microbiome is under stress. So, so yet, taking care of that is so incredibly important. And a lot of these early signs, like you said, the brain fog, the energy level, the, the sleep. I mean, a lot of times people don't sleep well when they have poor

digestion. So, you know, lack of sleep, that leads to more energy issues and then more immune system inflammation. I don't know if you notice that. I don't know if you retain water as easily as I do. But it's like, yeah, a couple days of clean eating. And it's like, oh, I feel like I can like see my joints again. Yeah.

You know, you don't feel as like puffy and inflamed. And you look like you lost a lot of weight. I really see it in your face. But it's true. It's absolutely true. And again, a lot of that is, you know, it's either water being retained in the cell or in the interstitial fluid, you know, between the cells. And it's just that water is there because of inflammation and trying to help circulate. But it just gets trapped because your whole body is inflamed.

And so it's not filtering it out. Once you get a handle on that. Yeah, absolutely. After two days of, you know, eating very cleanly, it's like, it's amazing that, you know, the urination kicks up and you're just, you know, kind of filtering that water at a much, much more efficient pace, you know, whereas before you just kind of get stuck. And again, you're addicted, right? You get addicted to the, you know, poor eating habits and the foods that you're consuming. And so, you know, we always talk about how, you know, food is the, it's the socially acceptable addiction, right? You know,

you're taking, you're doing certain drugs or, you know, alcohol, not necessarily socially acceptable, but you know you could sit down and eat three four or five cookies in a sitting and no one's going to bust your chops about it um so you know that's uh just very important to recognize that if you are having some of these early signs and symptoms of you know energy level that you can't quite figure out um you know joint stiffness especially in the morning sometimes a lot of people that's one of you know i would say one of the biggest symptoms that i hear from other of our patients it's like yeah i just wake up and I feel like I'm just stiff and it takes me a while to get moving. Yeah. And again, we always go back to, is this an injury? Is this systemic inflammation?

Or is this, did you just work out really hard? Yeah. I was just end up. I also like I'm feeling that way, but I know why. Don't make me laugh at her. So, you know, again, just having the healthcare practitioner on your team that's going to be able to guide you through some of that stuff. And if you do, you know, have, you know, have, you know, of some of these energy issues. It's not just a matter of. We just did a podcast on the, you know, supplementation. It's not just you're going to, oh, start taking a supplement. It's going to magically go away. You might have to really, you know, take hold of what you're putting into your diet, your

stress level, you're sleeping, your exercise routine to really help to heal that. But the good news is your body has the ability to heal. And in fact, your gut lining, just like your skin cells, are some of the most rapidly, you know, breakdown, you know, dying off, it's called apoptosis, right? To, you know, sluff off, they die off, and then new ones in their place. So, you know, every 30 days, you've got a brand new layer of skin. Same thing with the digestive tract. The problem is when it's under stress, it's not turning over as regularly. So you can actually get, you know, some inflamed, you know, cells that are out of control.

And that's where, again, you'll start to get into some of the digestive. You do your colon cancer screening, and sure enough, they do a, you know, they do the end up the colonoscopy. And, you know, oh, there's a polyp there. It's like, well, you know, they're there because there's some sort of dysfunction going on in the actual digestive tract. And yeah, they can go in and clip them off before they become cancerous. That's great. But if you're not changing the system and the environment of why it caught there in the first place, well, you're just going to keep getting more. What's the definition of insanity?

we're repeating the same behavior over and over expecting a different result. Absolutely right. And again, we know it, like we always say, it's simple, but it's not easy. And we know that. It's our, you know, based on my own experience. Our society may, you know, has made it incredibly difficult to be healthy. And it is it. We're all kind of living in a, you know, uphill battle because, you know, again, even when

you're trying to make the right choices, you know, you got to look. at air quality, water quality, all of these things, again, are affecting our entire system, including our guts. So, you know, trying to do everything 100% is, it's difficult. But again, it's if you can get to the basis of, you know, we were just talking about this and another one, it's like, there is no one right diet for all of us or exercise regimen for all of us, because if there was, we would just all be doing it. And everyone would look exactly the same. And we clearly don't. So, you know, so it's about finding what's right. for you and you know I said at the beginning about listening to your gut and that that's a good

place to start so even just doing some self-reflection self-tracking food logs I tell people all the time you know jotting down what you eat how you feel after after and not just like yeah not just directly after but like within 24 hours yeah so if you're feeling sluggish one day what did I eat yesterday yeah that you know do you feel you know do you feel you know um yeah You feel like things are going through you too quickly, you know, are you feeling, yeah, like I said, it's tired, sluggish, achy. That, you know, that's, these are all important things that, you know, if, you know, the more you track and pay attention, the more obvious it becomes. Like, our gut really tells us if it, if it like something or, you know, you think, you eat something and throw it up, you know, you're not going to eat another bite of it. I hope.

I guess that's a whole nother. As you say, unless it's really, really delicious. But again, it's like that's our body. That's a very well-known way for our body to say, yep, something didn't sit right. I'm getting it out. But unfortunately, our bodies are giving us these signals maybe in less obvious ways on a daily basis. And people just ignore them. It's like, oh, yeah, I just, I'm constipated.

That just happens. Or I just, oh, yeah, I just kind of bloat when I, you know, that's normal. But it's not normal to walk around feeling bloated and achy and sluggish and tired. It's common. It's not in the norm. Well, I think, you know, going back to what you said at the beginning with the connection between so many of the hormones that are in the brain that, you know, stimulate certain, you know, happiness, satisfaction, pleasure are also in the gut. They have the same receptors. And so that, you know, that brain gut connection is so incredibly important.

And so the same things that can stimulate that pleasure, you know, and healthfulness and the brain gut. brain, you know, also stem from the gut. And that's why fasting is one of, it is so powerful for both the gut, but also, you know, about, it's about 48, yeah, about 48 hours in. They can consider that a dopamine reset. And that's where if you can get through that 48 hours, which sometimes is difficult, it's, you know, people always like, oh, like, how do you, how do you do that? I'm like, you feel great. What do you mean? How do it's like, yeah, it's, you know, hours 24 to 48, I'm never a of but if you can get past that 48 hours you just you do you get this burst of energy you get this this mood boost it's uh it is it's a really powerful thing especially if you um you know just

you kind of feel yourself caught in this you know rut whether it's a physical rut or mental rut or you know it just it really helps kind of break through that um and think about instances where you bring up fasting think about instances where you know either you or a loved one has been seriously ill in their life. Are they hungry? Not typically. They're lying, you know, half dead on the couch or in the bed and it's like they don't want to move. They don't want to, you know, it's like it's almost like a forced fasting because the body doesn't want. It's focusing on the healing, yeah, on the healing and the immune system. And that's the other thing that boosts. Oh yeah. very well documented when you, you know, go, you know, like you said, 24 to, um, 24 to 72 hours,

one to three days without food. And again, we're talking like, no calories, you know, water, you know, make some salts. You can add some salts if you need it, but, um, the electrolytes. But, um, yeah, one to three days without food. I mean, not just the, you know, the energy boost, but the immune reset that occurs during that time. And again, a lot of it is because of so much of what's going on in the gut. It's literally, you know, digesting the old garbage that's in there. And it's like, you know, oh, we've got all this, you know, inflammatory stuff that, you know, well, we're not putting food in.

So now we're just going to go start eating the, you know, and recycling the broken down stuff that's in the body. Yeah, I couldn't believe that. The day after Christmas, without fail, I was sick. Ever, ever. I will say, that's the one downside to when you eat really clean is when you don't. Oh, my gosh. I felt like every, I swear, every single year for probably the last five years, like right after the holidays, I'm sick.

And it's all the sugar, all the alcohol, being off the, you know, I try to stay on my exercise routine as much as possible, but still more sitting around than I would usually do. So yeah, this one happened. It was a day after Christmas, which was convenient. It was Tuesday. So we were off. And I did not get out of bed. I could not get out of bed. I mean, I was laid out, didn't eat.

I was actually planning on fasting that week anyway, so it kind of worked out. It ended up being day one on my fast. I chugged a ton of water, just again, getting the fluids in. And I was dreading work on Wednesday. I was like, oh my gosh, like after laying in bed all day, I'm not going to have the energy because that Wednesday was going to be a crazy day. I could not believe that I was able to get through that day. I mean, I still had a little bit of like, you know, a little bit of congestion left, but

I literally thought it was going to be, it was going to be. a challenge, but it's because I think I had that 24 hours of fasting in already and then continued to fast. I mean, by two days, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have thought I was sick two days earlier. I mean, going from literally couldn't get out of bed to I felt totally fine with back in the gym. I mean, it was, that's probably the quickest I've ever rebounded from, from something like that. And just, yeah, it's incredible. It's incredible. And I, and I have had, you know, I have been in arguments with other professionals about fasting and, you know, using it for weight loss. And it's like, I don't promote fasting for weight loss.

It's not, you know, will you lose weight when you don't eat for three days? Yes, you will. But that has nothing to do with your long-term weight loss. But it has everything to do with kind of doing the control-alt delete on your computer system. It's literally like, hey, we are refreshing. We're going to go shut off the circuit breaker and turn it back on. IT 101. Turn it on.

And it's amazing the, you know, the systems and processes that are reset in your body when you do that. And I've read research that, I mean, if everyone fasted for like three, they may have pushed it a little bit longer. I think it was seven to 11 days once a year. But like if you did a three to five day fast once a quarter, I think you would be amazed at, you know, the difference that you felt just. giving your body a reset and you do that in conjunction with eating, you know, healthy and your exercise routine, man, it's pretty incredible. Yeah. And that's something, if you're a current patient on our salutedgenic website, we have a lot more information about fasting specifically. I know we kind of got off, well, not really off topic because I do. I think fasting and gut health go so hand in

hand because the best way to stop messing up your gut is stop breathing. It's like, I mean, truly, it's the, you know, it's really the easiest way. It's the purest form of elimination diet, right? That's right. It's like eliminate everything. And then the other thing, you know, make sure you're drinking good quality water during that time. Because, I mean, if you're fasting and then drinking the Pittsburgh tap water, forget it. I mean, it's, so yeah, you really want to make sure you have a good filtration system or doing distilled.

Again, if you're doing electrolytes, a good quality electrolyte, that's, you know, straight electrolytes, not the meos that have. all the sugar and the artificial flavor and stuff in it. Yeah, you had a conversation with a patient a while back about that. Oh, yeah. He was like not realizing he was doing like insane amounts of caffeine. I didn't even realize how much caffeine was in those. He had caffeinated ones. Wow.

And yeah, and he was doing them like all day. And when I started, when we calculated it up, I'm like, you're basically drinking like eight cups of coffee throughout the day. And plus the sugar, plus the added. Because he wasn't sleeping. Yeah. And I was like, stop. Stop.

that. Surprise. I'm sleeping again. So just, yeah, like things, just little things like that. You don't think about, again, eliminating some of that stuff, giving your body the time to do what, you know, I think there's a book called Design to Heel. That sounds familiar. That's, that's, that's Dr. Dan's book for anyone who doesn't, for anyone who doesn't know. But yeah, it truly that, like, giving it that time. And it's, again, it's hard. I know. I know. I know. I mean, I just, again, I just did that three-day fast. That was probably the longest I have fasted in a couple years. And, you know, I've done, I do 24 hours pretty easily. Yeah, basically stop eating at dinner time.

Yeah, it's pretty much dinner to the next dinner. Yeah, it's not comparable. Especially as easy a busy day at the office, you know, that's nothing. But that is definitely the longest I have done. And I did three, it ended up being like 80-some hours. It was three full days. Like, I did not eat two. Wednesday, Wednesday or Thursday, I broke the fast Friday morning. So it was three full days of not

eating. And it was, I mean, it has incredible how good I thought. I'm like, it's like, okay, conclusion. Food makes me feel terrible. So now I'm kind of sort of like you, less structured, but I'm sort of in that like trial and error trying to figure out like what does make me feel good because the stuff that I've, you know, kind of relied on in the past. I don't know if it's just because the quality of it has changed. I'm sure that's part of it. Or if it's just my body is, you know, again, I'm, you know, in my 30s now.

So what worked for me in my 20s, it doesn't seem to be working the same. You just got to dial it in a little bit more. Yeah, it's just kind of. You know, part of the elimination that I'm doing is, you know, lagoons. Like, they don't want me to have any lagooners. I cut those out years ago with that when you recommended the paleo cardiologist's book. Yeah, I found that's a huge inflammatory one for me.

My gut does not respond well to that. unfortunately because I love beans. I know, right? The Hispanic, you know, tacos. Yeah. It's funny. I'll treat myself to like a good black bean burger is like to me now as like a treat, which sounds silly.

I mean, I have to a lot of people. They're probably like, what? But again, when you don't have it. Yeah. It's good. Tasty tasty. Yeah. Yeah.

So it really just comes down to again, being diligent, listening and listening to your body. And then working with the health professional. and and just really, you know, committing to yourself and your health. And, you know, it has to be a priority because it's not, it's not an easy thing to do. I mean, you, we know it's. Yeah. And again, at the end of the day, you know, trying to come up with a good why behind, you know, what you're doing.

And, you know, if it's just, hey, I want, there's a difference between, hey, I want to get out of pain versus I want to be able to bend over and pick up my grandkids or get on the floor with my grandkids. or get on the floor with my grandkids. Put my shoes on. Put your shoes on. Yeah. Not have to rely on that. Yeah. I mean,

and that's just it. What is, what's the why behind, you know, the change that you're going to commit to? And I will tell you, you know, the whole,

again, we're kind of at the beginning of the year and New Year's resolutions and all this stuff. It's like, you know, I know the research says, oh, 21 days to form of habit. No.

It's probably a solid 90 days to actually instill a good, you know, healthy routine that you are going to then continue beyond that. So yeah. So if you have any questions, I know this was talked a lot about gut health. Again, a lot of this stuff we talked about is just good for overall health and well-being. If anything resonated with you or if you have more questions about specific tests that maybe you could do, because you're starting to, you know, feel sluggish or, you know, joint pain or, you know, a number of different, you know,

ailments and you think that something could be underlying that, you know, your medical professional isn't asking about or doesn't have a clue about, maybe it's time to start looking deeper. So feel free to check out our website. As always, T-U-R-O-ToroFamily chiropractic.com. And you can always reach out with specific questions to us. And I think that's about it. And we'll see you at the next one. All right. Thanks, guys. See you next time. Check your gut. Talk soon. You've been listening to What the Health with Dr. Dan and Angela Toro, brought to you by Toro family chiropractic. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.com.com.