Dhru Purohit Show - Top Hacks to Reset Your Gut Health with Dr. Mary Pardee

Starting point is 00:00:01 Hi everyone, Drew Brode here. Today's mini episode, we have Dr. Mary Perdee, naturopathic medical doctor and gut health expert. And we're diving deep into an interview that we did with her where we talk about gut health. In fact, here's the list of topics we go into on the topic of gut health. Number one, the first place you should start if you have gut issues. Number two, the benefits of walking right after a meal. Number three, how a targeted elimination diet. Targeted means that.

Starting point is 00:00:31 You do it for a period of time, not forever, can help you get to the root cause of food intolerances. And lastly, some of her quick tips to radically improve your gut health starting today. I hope you enjoy this mini episode and I'll see you on Thursday for our new episode. I want to talk a little bit about gut health. And I want to go from the topic they were in before to gut health because really gut health is actually your immune system. Yeah. We've talked about a little bit before. but for anybody that needs a rehashore on that, what's the gut health immune system link?

Starting point is 00:01:06 Yeah, so the majority of your immune system resides like around the gut. It's called the galt, the gut associated lymphoid tissue. And this is just a collection of immune cells that we have that interact with our gut and what's inside of our gut. So your gut is actually on the outside of your body, which people don't realize. But just like your skin is on the outside of your body, the gastrointest, intestinal tube is a tube that runs from your mouth all the way down to your anus. And so it's actually the exterior of your body, which is really important for the immune system because that's one of the places where pathogens will contact our body first, just like if something landed on

Starting point is 00:01:44 our skin. If something goes through our GI tract, then it's going to be in contact with that lining. And the lining is one cell thick. So it's a very thin lining for the GI tract. And on the other side of that cell is the galt. So some of your lymphocytes and immune cells that are first responders in the immune system. And so there was a connection, too, between COVID and the gut associated lymphoid tissue because of the receptors, the ACE receptors that are found in the GI tract, also in the lungs, but also in the GI tract, which is why one of the symptoms sometimes with COVID is actually diarrhea.

Starting point is 00:02:20 But having that much tissue that's immune right around the gut means that we have to view your GI tract, not just for digesting food and absorbing nutrients, but also as a protective way to keep pathogens out when you have a healthy gut. And so there's a lot of things that go into that, but we talk about intestinal permeability or leaky gut in functional medicine a lot. And that has a role in terms of making sure that you have an really strong gut wall so you don't have the permeability to allow antigens through that shouldn't be getting through. Sometimes when people hear about gut health, This is kind of connecting this topic to our first topic we went into, emotional stress. And they hear about it from a functional medicine and naturopathic perspective.

Starting point is 00:03:03 It can feel very clear, do this, start with this, start with that. And yes, that is the case for a lot of people. But I'm sure you've also had people that do everything kind of there. And the first topic that we were talking about, which is stress and emotions, they haven't dealt with that. And that still will F up their gut. Yeah. And I would say that's 90% of the people that come. come to me. So usually they've seen five to ten other doctors before they've seen me.

Starting point is 00:03:31 I've worked in a conventional GI office, and that can be, it's actually a little bit more fun because I'm like the first doctor. They've come to see. And I'm like, the quick and easy, do the elimination diet, take a couple enzymes, probiotics, and they feel like night and day difference. Exactly. Yeah. But then you have the people that have been to five, ten, they've even meant to functional medicine doctors, they've been to acupuncturists, they've been to chiropractors, they've gone through everything, and they still have, you know, alternating diarrhea, constipation, bloating. And it's like, now what? And those are the people where I am really digging into, you know, when did this start. You know, I was talking to a young gentleman the other day,

Starting point is 00:04:08 and it started when he moved in with his mother, you know, there was a divorce, and that's when when the gut issues started. You can't ignore that. Like, if there's a divorce or if there is a stressor, there's a death or anything that's really traumatic that happens and that's the onset of your gut symptoms, that's not a coincidence. And so really diving into what emotions are around that. Like, what do you actually feel when that's brought up? What happens when you go back to your mom's house? Do you have tension that you hold in your gut? A lot of the times that I'm meeting with somebody else, say, let's do like a body scan.

Starting point is 00:04:46 And when we get to the gut, like, are you contracting your ass? Are you holding things in? And almost all the time, people say yes. It's interesting that you say the contraction of the abs because when we look at it from like a physiological standpoint, when do you typically contract your abs? It's usually when you are bracing for impact. Yeah. And that's what we're doing all day long when we're under stress. We're bracing for impact, but the impact never comes because there's no physical threat.

Starting point is 00:05:15 But our brains think otherwise. Totally. Even just being an entrepreneur, I know, I knew for a long. long time and it still happens every so often. When I'm in a situation where, let's say, I feel like I have to, quote unquote, perform, like I'm about to do a podcast or I'm gearing up for something, the initial sort of tension coming in because you're balancing everything out and you're getting ready to like turn the switch on is I might clinch my, clench my apps. And so I'm bracing again for an impact, an emotional impact that's about to start because

Starting point is 00:05:47 you don't know what's there. It reminds me of a story. I don't have. buddy in San Diego, who had a very successful business, had seen a bunch of different doctors, including some doctors at the Ultra Wellness Center or clinic, and was not getting better with these issues. And he had some gut issues and some other health issues there. And then finally, I don't know how he arrived at that, but finally said, if I'm seriously about getting better and he was really bad with suffering with a few things, I actually need to sell my company and get out of the day to day.

Starting point is 00:06:17 And it was a big decision. And I didn't even know exactly when he decided to do that, but he sold his company. And I texted him a few months later on. And I said, hey, brother, I'm just thinking about you. How are you doing? He's like, I've never been better. And I didn't realize how much my issues were tied into stress. Not that there aren't other things.

Starting point is 00:06:40 I think he was working through some Lyme stuff, some other things that needed to be addressed. But there's this kind of core idea that a lot of functional medicine doctors are talking about, is if your body is already, if your immune system is so suppressed through just general life stress of managing the day-to-day work, family, etc., it may not be able to get to a place where it can actually start the full healing process because it's almost like it needs to get to 20% to hit that threshold and it can never make it past 10%. Yeah, I see this all the time. And I think it's not until we take away that stressor like your friend did to you actually see how much of an impact it has on your health. But, you know, when people come to me and they're like, I have mold,

Starting point is 00:07:29 I was told by this doctor, I have mold, I have heavy metals, I have, you know, all of this stuff. If there's multiple things going on like that and it's been chronic, meaning it's not just an acute thing, I'm always wondering, why can't your body detoxify? Why is your immune system not where it should be to actually get rid of that mold. And sure, there is genetic mutations that increase or decrease your ability to detoxify. But I truly believe that our bodies have the innate ability to heal themselves. And so if they're not going through that process, then what is actually lowering your immune function? What's making it so that you can't detoxify properly?

Starting point is 00:08:05 And a lot of that, when we look at chronic health conditions, is going to be the mental, emotional, spiritual, stress piece of it. You know, are you living a life that you don't like waking up in the morning? You don't like the job that you're going to. You don't have a healthy relationship with your partner. All of these things are going to change how your immune system functions and it's going to make you at an increased risk for getting a mold infection or not being able to detoxify heavy metals in your body. Or having continuous CBO symptoms that keep flaring up because you don't have any motility

Starting point is 00:08:41 because you're living in the fight or flight. But we have to figure out, like, what is that underlying thing? And for your friend, it's like, you know, selling his company let up enough of that stress where his body could start to heal itself and the immune system could start again. But you do. You really have to figure out what that piece is that's missing. It's so true because even on a, it sometimes can seem so ethereal, but on a biological level, I was reading that, and I got this from Dr. Leaf because I was doing an interview with

Starting point is 00:09:12 Dr. Caroline Leif for her new book, and she was writing that basically the pancreas, when you're stressed in sort of in that mode of fight or flight or whatever you're dealing with, even freeze, she had thrown out a number. I think it was like the pancreas can be 40% like more inefficient. And the pancreas, which is secreting all these enzymes which help you process and digest food, now you're eating food, you're stressed, or you're looking at Instagram thinking about everything that you don't have comparing yourself to other people while you're trying to eat at the same time, now you can't digest, which means you're going to get 40% less nutrients from all the food

Starting point is 00:09:52 that you're eating, which means that other mechanisms are not going to happen. So it's not ethereal. It's actually happening on a cellular and a DNA level. Totally. That brings us to mindful eating, which is the opposite of stressful eating. Tell me, how are you doing that? Talk about mindful eating, but also talk about like, how? how are you doing that right now at home and also fighting against sort of the distractions that,

Starting point is 00:10:17 you know, is watching TV while eating? Is that a completely bad thing? Can you still be mindful eating while doing that? I'd love to hear. Yeah. First of all, I'm human. I'm not perfect. So I don't mindful. I thought you were perfect. I am not. That's why I buy that. This podcast title was called How to Do Everything Perfect with Dr. Mary. But yeah, the majority of the time you want, especially if you have gut issues, this is the first place I would start. Like this cost first first this cost no money. I've had people it's because it's in my gut health course but I've had people just do this and solve like IBS issues that they've had for years. So I've had amazing emails that have been sent just about the impact that mindful eating

Starting point is 00:10:58 can have if you go all into it. But the quote that you said so about 30% of your pancreatic enzymes and about 20% of your stomach acid are produced during the the cephalic phase of digestion. So cephalic is a Latin word comes from the root head. So that means the sight, smell, taste, even the sound, right, of the food that we're preparing. So this is before the food actually hits your mouth and then right when the food hits your mouth for the taste. But it's actually the preparation of food.

Starting point is 00:11:35 And humans have been around for 200,000 years, right? fast food prepared foods have been around for 100 years. And so as humans, we're not evolved to go have. Barely, barely 100 years even. Totally, barely. We're not evolved to go and just have a hamburger and eat it. There should have been a whole process of, you know, cutting up the meat, cooking it, having that time where like the aroma is actually coming into your nose,

Starting point is 00:12:06 chopping the vegetables, looking at them, cooking them. The preparation phase of food is extremely important to the digestive process, and we're lacking a lot of that when we're doing prepared foods, which the majority of us are. Especially when we're doing Uber Eats. Uber Eats. Is there a hack? Is there a hack when you order in?

Starting point is 00:12:26 Is it to bring up a photo of a food and kind of like look at it a little bit until you start salivating? There's a word for that, right? Food porn? Food porn. It might be a new business idea. Cephalic phase. There is a little bit of a hack of it because you can still stimulate that cephalic phase.

Starting point is 00:12:45 If before you eat your meal, you put it in front of you, you look at it, you smell it, you sit with it. It's a great time to do gratitude as well. Think of things that you're grateful for. Also sharing a meal with somebody else slows you down so you could have a conversation while you're looking at your food. it's a really important time to kind of savor the moment and the power of now at cartoulli to be in the present state right to really just be there with your food sounds like a love story but it's it is it is I mean we should love our we should love our food and all the things that go into especially if you're you know eating meat just the sacrifice that went into it the farmers

Starting point is 00:13:27 that all had a hand into it the appreciation of growing the food the fact that we even have food you know, there's so many times where it's like that even that we have food, when there's so many people that don't have food, it should be a full on gratitude thing. It should be. And then from there, so after you visualized, smelled, then it comes, you start to eat. And the tasting of the food to really savor that to slow down.

Starting point is 00:13:49 Most people will consume their entire meal in minutes. And so you really want to slow down that entire process so that your body has the time to produce those digestive enzymes and the stomach acid. Chewing your food is extremely important. and people miss out on this process. Men specifically tend to shovel in their food, but women do as well. And so you want to not swallow your food until it's baby food consistency.

Starting point is 00:14:13 So it should be puried by the time it goes into your stomach. The reason behind that is the only mechanical digestion that we actually have is our teeth. So after the food leaves our mouth, we only have chemical digestion left, which is from the stomach acid and the pancreatic enzymes that we produce. when we're in the parasympathetic, the rest and digest state. So you really want to make sure it's baby food, you swallow it, and then you also want to make sure that you're not doing things. So just what you are doing is just important as what you're not doing.

Starting point is 00:14:48 Watching television, working, doing emails while you're eating is going to take you out of the parasympathetic, put you into the sympathetic fight or flight state where your digestive system isn't moving. Motility is a huge issue when it comes to the most common GI conditions, reflux, IBS. Even if you're watching something uplifting that's not sort of like freaking you out, even if you're watching something like informative.

Starting point is 00:15:11 There's a statistic. Yeah, tell me about it. There's a statistic. I'll be honest, I do usually at night, not during the day. It's sort of one of the ways because my fiancé, we sort of bond over this has been a COVID thing because we didn't used to do it beforehand, but we might, we don't like any of the same stuff in terms of like watching. But there's a few things that we do like,

Starting point is 00:15:33 and they might be a show about business or like an inspirational documentary. We especially are big fans of like documentaries about music producers, like Clive Davis. And we sort of sit and we would watch that together, not every night. And so I'm definitely guilty of that. So I want to know the stat.

Starting point is 00:15:50 Yeah. There was a research study done that looked at people who eat food while watching TV or working. They lumped them into the same category. So maybe you're positive. I think working. I think working is going to say that working was probably the cause of all the bad stats. So the people that were doing something while they were eating and they weren't just sitting with their food and eating weighed 18% more than the people that weren't doing something while they were eating.

Starting point is 00:16:17 And so 18% more, what the heck does that mean? It feels very, you know, just an idea. 150 pound person, it's 27 extra pounds. Significant. Got it. It's very significant. You could do a study on yourself and see, but I think the point is with that, even if it is something uplifting, you're distracting yourself from your meal. And you really want to be present with your meal to actually sense when are you 80% full?

Starting point is 00:16:45 Like, when are you getting to the point where I'm not hungry anymore? Which is really when we should stop eating and see if we should have more food or if we shouldn't. So if you're, you know, especially if weight loss is top priority, then really being just present with. with your food and just another human being so you know when to stop. Yeah, I definitely agree with the working thing and kind of multitasking. You're kind of in one mode and you're doing another thing or even just looking at the phone, especially when it comes to the things on social media by design are the most popular stuff. The most popular stuff tends to be not always what's good for you.

Starting point is 00:17:27 it's just stuff that is popular. So, you know, this quote that I've shared a bunch of times with our community, but it's from Reverend Michael Beckwith. He says, like, the news is a collection of the lowest common denominator of humanity. And sometimes social media can be that, can be that too. So you're just seeing things that are keeping you distracted to kind of feed that mind input instead of taking a fast. And I can definitely see it on that side.

Starting point is 00:17:53 But you know what? I'm going to try it again. And not that me and my partner don't ever just sit between us, but I think we got into a little bit of a habit with COVID and not entertaining as much and not going out as much where we're relying on that. But you said something really interesting, which was this is one of your top go-toes, like an easy go-to, something that anybody can do and it doesn't cost you anything. What else is close on that category? If you put your top five things for gut health, inexpensive to cheap, what else would be in that category if you had a couple more to add? Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:18:36 Walking. Walking is free. Walking like right after a meal. Right after a meal and just during the day in general. But yeah, between meals is really good because you're actually stimulating that rest and digest, the parasympathetic. So walking will stimulate the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve innervates from the meal.

Starting point is 00:18:52 the mouth to the lower part of the colon to help with motility to make sure things are moving. But also when you stimulate that parasympathetic, the vagus nerve, you're also stimulating digestive enzymes, secretions. You're stimulating the whole GI tract in its entirety. Walking is also great for so many other health reasons, reducing the risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, I mean, a whole host of things for movement. And movement is really different from exercise, too. So I put them in different categories. But I'm talking about passive movement. that you do during the day. So walking is right up there with the top five things that I would do for gut health.

Starting point is 00:19:29 Growing up, my grandparents on both sides would walk after every meal. And I used to feel like what the hell is going on. You know, you're younger and like, why are we different? Why do we have to all go around the neighborhood? We would literally would make a loop. That's so cute. We'd make a loop with my grandparents. We'd always make a loop.

Starting point is 00:19:47 My dad's grandparents, especially, were super into it. and they were more into like, are you veda and stuff? But it was a thing. They were like, you eat and you walk. More recently, there's a buddy of ours, shout out to Mohit,

Starting point is 00:19:59 who really kind of got our, you know, guys crew that all hangs out together. And every Thursday, we had this man morning hike that I just went this morning. He really got our group, we've hung out as a group as,

Starting point is 00:20:10 like our own little bubble during COVID. He really got our group into, like, we'd go out to a restaurant in L.A., let's say when outdoor dining was open, we'd all eat. and he would say, let's all, it's just like walk around the block. Love it.

Starting point is 00:20:25 And it was like, let's do it. So I went to Austin with another buddy of mine, near of who you know, and we all had dinner at his house. And then right after he's like, let's go around and walk around the neighborhood. I was like, this is perfect. Like goes back to the classic example of like your grandparents were probably right. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of traditional things that we just do and don't know why we do them. But walking after a meal, you know, it reduces your blood sugar.

Starting point is 00:20:50 I've got people on the Dexcom, the continuous glucose monitors, and that's one of the things that I'll do if their blood sugars will remain elevated after a meal is just have them go for a walk. It's a way to get sugars into your cells independently of glucose. So your muscle cells actually act like a sponge when you're moving, like a pump. So you're actually like pushing things in there mechanically versus just relying on insulin. Was there anything else on, so walking? Walking. Mindful eating. Mindful eating.

Starting point is 00:21:15 Is there any sort of favorite product or a go-to right now? or anything that you recommend for your patients that is in that top five for gut health? Yes. Well, first, elimination diet. Elimination diet. If people haven't done it before. If you haven't done it before, also I have a post on my Instagram, but I do a specific one with gut people. So if it's like reflux, bloating, constipation diarrhea, if your issues are gut related,

Starting point is 00:21:45 meaning like it's not just a rash that you're trying to get rid of for the elimination diet, you also want to make sure that you take out nuts. And that's not usually, sometimes it's in an elimination diet, but it's not always. But nuts are going to be a huge one. Nuts, nut butters, because of the fiber content, can really cause a lot of bloating and worse than constipation for some people with gut health issues. Especially in the modern day health world where we're eating just a ton of nuts. Nuts typically actually, depending on region, would be very seasonal. They would come in in like the wintertime and then you may not have access to them year out.

Starting point is 00:22:18 Yeah. For good or for worse, we have access to like as much as we want and everything has nuts inside of it. Everything has nuts inside of it. And also if you figure out how many nuts you would need to get like a tablespoon or two of almond butter, it's way more than you could ever gather on your own on a daily basis, right? You're just not going to do it. So really looking at it from a quantity standpoint, but that's one of the things that I would take away. Yeah, and I've dabbled a little bit in elimination diets. For me, the biggest thing on the gut side for bloating, and I'd love to hear your thoughts about bloating, when I greatly minimized grains in my diet, especially because I grew up and I was on a lot of antibiotics for like strep throat and other stuff like I decimated my gut. This is back in the day, I'm not that old, but I'm almost 40. Back in the day where there was like no real consideration of like antibiotics and just kind of throwing it in for whatever it might be. even sometimes when it wasn't bacterial and it was more viral, they just give the family something.

Starting point is 00:23:18 Obviously, a lot of that has changed, but I decimated my gut with antibiotics, and I cannot really handle a lot of quinoa brown rice. White rice, actually, I do okay with. I don't need a ton of it, but I do okay with it. And also, I can't do the whole lentils and beans thing unless if it's like my mom's making it in a pressure cooker type thing. And even then, if I eat it, ton, I'm bloated as a mofo. Yeah. And the legumes and beans bloating is universal for most people. So some people will digest them better, but a lot of people will get bloated from beans

Starting point is 00:23:58 and legumes. So those are one things that we take out in the elimination diet for gut health, too. Yeah. And it's not to be sort of hyper focused on individual foods and other things. I actually think that there's a lot of benefit to not having like very restrictive diet. It's just that when you're suffering, you'll try stuff. So I think I'd love to a link to that Instagram post. And I always recommend people that if they are going to go down a lot of sort of elimination diets,

Starting point is 00:24:24 because you see some people who are like, I can only eat this, this, and this. That's not the long-term answer. The body was meant to eat a lot of different things. And in some extreme cases, people could end up with some version of an eating disorder. Yeah, orthorexia. Orthorexia or some other component. I do want to add that in because I haven't always. added that in the past talking about elimination diet and what I've done. I've never had an eating

Starting point is 00:24:46 disorder so I'm not as present to it as maybe somebody like yourself, but I did hear from some listeners saying, look, if you're going to talk about elimination diet, you really do have to acknowledge that extreme elimination diet, which is more common, but in that instance, that person really should be working with a doctor to really figure out what are the root issues that prevent them from eating a lot of different types of foods. Yeah, and an elimination diet should be a trial of between 21 and 30 days. So it should not be nine months to a year, right? That's not an elimination.

Starting point is 00:25:18 That diet, that's more the new way that you're eating. So it's really important that you take out the foods and put them back in and see, because it may just be that one food for you that you can't tolerate. And then you work on your health with your practitioner, and then maybe you can even put that one food back in. But I think it's, yeah, that's exactly what you said. It's really, really important to not maintain a restrictive eating pattern for two long because then there develops the fear of food. And in my mind, the fear of food is just as bad

Starting point is 00:25:48 or worse than the actual gut health issue that you started with from the beginning. And in some cases, you actually also can lose bacterial strains because you don't have as much diversity. Yeah. Diversity is king when it comes to the microbiome. And so if you're not eating a range of different vegetables, range of different foods, then you're much more likely to decrease your microbial diversity, which is where we get all of the short chain fatty acids, those things that help protect our gut lining like butyrate that are anti-inflammatory as well and protect against intestinal permeability, which we touched upon before. Fiber. How much fiber are you actually eating in a day? And, you know, there's all these

Starting point is 00:26:24 different thoughts about it. I feel like I do best when I get a lot of fiber that works for me. You know, again, going back to Terry Walls, we've had her on the podcast for MS patients and other stuff, people who are really having gut motility issues because MS and autoimmune things are linked to the gut. She's like, Nine cups of fiber a day. And I think that's what you work up to. So our average American consumes 15 grams of fiber per day. RDA for the U.S. recommends 25, 30 grams of fiber per day.

Starting point is 00:26:56 So with fiber, you have to go slow. So start low, go slow, but increase gradually. So if you're having two cups of vegetables today, three tomorrow. Try that for a few days and increase to four. So just go slowly. but I think that the more fiber that we can consume and feel good with, the better it is for our gut microbiome. So for you, where are you getting this fiber in? What is your favorite ways for you specifically?

Starting point is 00:27:25 Yeah. Like throughout the day, if you're just looking at how you're eating and including this in, how are you getting in those six to 10 cups of vegetables or fiber? I love eating bitter foods for my digestion too. So dandelion greens are one of my favorites. I also just love dandelion greens. I think you can get really hooked on them if you like them. So sauteed vegetables, cooking your greens and your vegetables in general will reduce the risk of you feeling bloated after a meal

Starting point is 00:27:53 because it starts the digestive process just by cooking them. And then I also make a green drink. And it's not a typical like green juice that you would buy at the store, but I put in a bunch of leafy greens. honestly it's whatever I have in my fridge even if I have like cooked broccoli from the night before like I'll throw it into my Vitamix and it's not a plug for Vitamix but you need something that's going to really blend the veggies up so it becomes a liquid. So I put all the veggies in there with water, some lemon juice, a couple drops of stevia and I blend it so it's liquefied and I drink it with the pulp so I don't want to take out the actual pulp that

Starting point is 00:28:35 some people would take out to make a normal green juice, but you want to keep it in there to actually get the fiber that's in there.

Dhru Purohit Show - Top Hacks to Reset Your Gut Health with Dr. Mary Pardee

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.