The Dr. Josh Axe Show - The #1 Supplement to Heal Your Gut, Burn Fat, and Boost Immunity

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

Did you know your body contains 30-40 trillion microbial cells, outnumbering your human cells? Probiotics—live bacteria that support digestion, immunity, and even mental health—are essential for overall wellness. But most people today lack them due to antibiotic overuse and processed diets. In this episode, Dr. Josh Axe dives into the science of probiotics, revealing their powerful benefits and how to get more of them through food and supplements. You’ll learn: What probiotics are and why they matter for digestion, immunity, and gut balance Best probiotic-rich foods like yogurt, natto, and fermented vegetables How antibiotics and modern diets harm gut health and what to do about it The gut-brain connection and how probiotics support mental health Probiotics for weight loss and metabolism regulation Top probiotic strains for immunity, digestion, and inflammation The difference between probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics for optimal gut health If you want to improve digestion, boost immunity, and balance your microbiome, this episode is packed with actionable insights. Tune in now and subscribe for more natural health strategies. #probiotics #guthealth #digestivehealth ------ 00:00 Introduction 04:47 What Are Probiotics? 07:33 Best Types of Probiotics 19:28 Superfoods Rich in Good Bacteria 26:07 Top 10 Exposures to Antibiotics 33:48 Effects of Modern Diets   36:33 Benefits of Probiotics 52:50 Types of Prebiotics & Postbiotics 57:33 Best Foods for Gut Health ------ Want more of The Dr. Josh Axe Show? Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Follow Dr. Josh Axe Instagram Twitter Facebook TikTok Website ------  Staying healthy in today's world is an upstream battle. Subscribe to Wellness Weekly, your 5-minute dose of sound health advice to help you grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. Every Wednesday, you'll get:  Holistic health news & life-hacks from a biblical world view Powerful free resources including classes, Q&As, and guides from Dr. Axe The latest episodes of The Dr. Josh Axe Show Sign up here → https://forms.thehealthinstitute.com/l-77  Submit your questions via voice memo to be featured on the show → speakpipe.com/drjoshaxe  ------  Links:  We’ve created a full blog post that walks through the main points and insights from this episode. If you'd like to dive deeper or revisit the information later, this is a helpful resource to keep on hand. Read it here → https://thehealthinstitute.com/2025/02/09/probiotics-their-role-benefits-and-dietary-sources/ https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Probiotics-HealthProfessional/ https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6382/6/4/21 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26216624/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21069673/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8843965/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36001877/ https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(21)00097-7/fulltext https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37692658/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8848107/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26512560/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11187407/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34684633/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34960102/  ------  Ads:  Even if your bloodwork looks "normal," your symptoms could point to Cell Danger Response (CDR). Discover how to break free from CDR and unlock your full potential at https://beyondbloodwork.com/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you've been doing everything right, eating clean, exercising, but somehow you're still not feeling your best, your energy's dragging, your memory is slipping and it's frustrating because you know there's more to your potential. Well, what if the issue isn't just in your routine, but it's deep down inside your cells? You know, you're investing in the best supplements, working out regularly and sticking to a clean diet. but if your cells are stuck in what's called cell danger response, all the hard work might not be paying off as it should. Think of your cells like a house under renovation. You can bring in the highest quality materials like the best supplements in clean foods, but if the workers inside the house or are on lockdown because of a storm, nothing gets done. The materials just pile up unused. That's what happens when your cells are in CDR. They can't.

fully use the good stuff you're giving them. Getting out of CDR, the cell danger response, is the key to unlocking your body's full potential. When your cells are no longer in protective mode, they can finally use the nutrients, hormones, and energy you're working so hard to provide. That's when everything starts to click. Your energy improves, your workouts become more efficient, and you start to feel like yourself again. Go to beyond bloodwork.com. to learn how to break free from cell danger response and make the effort pay off. Hey everyone, welcome to Dr. Josh Axe Show, where each and every week we explore the science and principles behind how to grow and heal and body, mind, spirit, and take your health

and your life to the next level. Today, I will be talking about the power of probiotics, these tiny heroes that live in your gut microbiome, enhancing your immunity, also supporting nutrient absorption, and so much more. We'll die. deep in the science. And if you're a person today that's struggling with gas or bloating, there are so many men and women today that have those issues, they have gas, they have bloating issues, and it's sometimes it's embarrassing, it's uncomfortable, but they don't realize it's also causing other issues. Maybe you're a person with food sensitivities. You're allergic to this food and this food and that food. Maybe you're a person that's allergic to almost everything,

or maybe you have a favorite food. It could be eggs. It could be dairy, could be coffee, could be chocolate and you can't eat some of your favorite foods. This all has to do with gut bacteria and how that affects your immune system. And maybe your person with leaky gut syndrome. Could be autoimmune disease, maybe inflammatory bowel disease. These are all issues related to your gut microbiome and the bacteria in your body. And today I'm going to go through how to boost your probiotic count, create more diversity and the type of supplements you should or shouldn't be taking,

and I'll be going through the science and the foods you want to start consuming to feed the good guys in your gut. And a lot of the content I'm going to go through today will likely surprise you. I also want to say this, probiotics helped save my life and transform my life. I had to personally, two years ago, get on an IV antibiotic for four weeks straight, for a whole month straight because I had a spinal infection. that almost took my life. And I'll be going through exactly what I did

when I personally had to be on antibiotics. By the way, I had not taken a drug since, I want to say it was like high school, okay? That was the last time I did. And in 20 years, I had to take, the first thing really I'd ever had to take. And when I did, I was worried that my gut would never be the same because I'd spent so many years caring for my gut microbiome,

drinking bone broth, taking probiotics, eating sourcrow. And then I was put in the position where I had to take a prescription antibiotic for an entire month. And I'll go through the exact protocol I went through, including things like clay, something called bacteriophages, doing a number of surprising things when I was put in that situation. And so if you're ever in that situation or if you've ever taken an antibiotic before, you'll know what you can start to do to rebuild your gut microbiome. Before I dive though into the content, make sure to subscribe to the channel and hit the link in the show notes to subscribe to my weekly wellness newsletter to get my top tips for natural healing delivered straight to your inbox.

And by doing that, you're also going to be able to find out my exact protocol that I followed in order to heal my gut, overcome those side effects of the antibiotics, get my bowel movements healthy again, and so much more. Well, I want to start here, and I know that this is sort of getting into the basics before we get into more of the advanced content, but I want to talk to you about what probiotics are. Probiotics are live microorganisms, typically bacteria or yeast, that are essential for your survival. Did you hear what I just said there? You can't live without bacteria living in your gut. In fact, we know, based on medical studies, you have anywhere from a one-to-one to a one-to-three ratio in terms of cells. in your body to bacteria in your body. Most people have anywhere between likely 37 trillion to 100 trillion bacteria in their body, and the average person has likely somewhere around 37 trillion

cells. And these microbes that live in our gut, and by the way, it tends to be mostly bacteria and yeast. However, there might be beneficial or sort of not. non-threatening, unless they get out of balance, parasites, mold, fungus, virus. There are a lot of different microbes that live within your body. Every single one of you today has some sort of parasites within your body, have some sort of mold, some sort of virus living within your body. But the good guys, the good bacteria, for the most part, are what keep those things at bay and from taking over your system.

And the reality is this as well, that if you have enough good microbes in your body and they are healthy, it's going to improve your digestion. You're going to absorb more nutrients. And so a lot of you today, you're not absorbing your nutrients. So a lot of women today, I see this with them, is they have an iron deficiency or borderline where they just sort of feel weak, they feel tired because they're not absorbing iron. For a lot of men, it's they may not be absorbing selenium or other nutrients. Of course, that's common as well with hypothyroidism. Your issue might be, you might be taking lots of high quality supplements. The problem is you're not absorbing them. Another thing we know that's critical when we talk about the microbes in our body is immune function and even mental health.

You have a gut-brain connection. And so if you feel depressed, if you feel anxious, if you feel lack of motivation, this can all be tied to the microbes in your gut and your body. And it's critical. You're doing the right things of everything from fermented foods to supplements to maybe consuming raw local honey to getting more polyphenols in your diet. There are many things you can start to do to build up the good bacteria in your gut, which I'll dive deep into how to do that today. Well, I want to dive into specific types of probiotics, ones you want to start getting in your diet to start here that you want to be familiar with. The first one is called lactobacillus.

And lactobacillus is found in yogurt and other fermented foods. This is beneficial for diarrhea. May help those who cannot digest lactose, which is the sugar and milk. And so if you are wondering why, well, I don't digest dairy very well. One of the big reasons might be you don't have enough lactobacillus in your gut. And this is why when I have people who want to start introducing dairy products into their diet, I will recommend that they first consume highly fermented goat's milk or sheet milk dairy products, like a sheet milk yogurt or goat's milk kefir, because when you ferment those,

they tend to be much higher in lactobacillus, which helps digest that lactose that many people are sensitive to. Now, another type of bacteria, which is very important at birth, and by the way, if you are not born vaginally, and when you don't have that good bacteria that you are exposed to at birth, you can start out being very deficient in this type of bacteria from the moment you are born and it's known as bifidobacterium. And this is found in some dairy products. In clinical studies, it's been shown to help ease symptoms related to irritable bowel syndrome and other conditions.

So again, bifidobacterium in lactobacillus are probably two of the most foundational and the most abundant forms of bacteria that live in our gut and our body. And by the way, there are other, there are subtypes of bifidobacterium and lactobacillus that you can get in different dairy products as well and other food products you might consume. Now, another one I want to hit on here, and this is yeast. When we hear the word yeast, of course, we're familiar with candida. But there is a type which, of course, if candida grows too much as bad for your body, Now, a little bit of candida in your body is actually fine and good.

A little bit of E. coli can be finding good. But it's one of those overgrowers. You get too much of them that it can make you sick. And one of these types of yeast is called Sarcomesi's ballardy. And again, as I mentioned, it's a yeast probiotic that's found in a lot of probiotic supplements today. And it's been shown to combat diarrhea, bloating, gas, numerous digestive issues. And it's been shown to be maybe the most effective single type of bacteria.

for treating acne. So if you have acne or inflamed skin, this bacteria is powerful. Again, it's Sarkamezes-Balardi, and it is a yeast that was discovered in 1923 by French microbiologist Henry Ballard, okay, which is why it's called Sarkamese's Bullard-eye, okay, after Henry Belard. And he isolated it from the skins of tropical fruits like leachy and mango steen. Now, this is years ago. You may have remember there was a big craze around drinking tropical fruit juices that were high in antioxidants like noni juice and mangosteen and assayi and numerous other super fruits so he would allow these skins of these superfoods like lichy and mangostein to ferment and then when the locals had skin issues and diarrhea outbreaks during actually a cholera outbreak he would give it to them as a form of

medicine and it helped cure them. And today there are numerous studies on sarcomices ballardy. Number one for gut health. It's been shown to restore gut flora and combat diarrhea, especially those diarrhea that's associated with the use of antibiotics or infections or travelers diarrhea. So if you go to another country, get some sort of infection, you have loose stool or diarrhea or dysentery because of it. This is the type of microbe you want to take sarcomices. Belardi. If you go to you, get prescribed an antibiotic drug and you get on antibiotics. This is a yeast that you want to make sure is in your probiotic supplement or if you have a type of viral infection or some sort of infection going on in your body. This is a sort of bacteria or yeast specifically you want to be taking.

Now also it's been shown to have an anti-inflammatory response. It reduces inflammation in the intestinal wall, which in medical studies have been shown to be helpful for IBS and IBD like Crohn's and ulcer of colitis. Also, it's been shown to protect against pathogens like C-Dif, known as Clostridium difficile, and Candida Albucons. Remember, candida albacons, and a lot of the issues we talked about with skin and acne, this is such a powerful bacteria slash yeast, and it enhances immunity supporting immune and gut function. So what you want to do, when you're buying a probiotic supplement, you can simply flip it over and look at, okay, what are some of these species, what are some

of the, more specifically the strains of probiotics that are in this formula. And sarcomases ballardia is one you oftentimes want to make sure is in the formula with some of those benefits. Now, I want to hit on probably my favorite probiotic. Now, there are many types of probiotics out there, as we've already discussed. This is one of my absolute favorites. It's called bacillus subtilis. It is known as a spore-forming bacteria. It actually is a rod-shaped bacteria that's found in soil, water, air, and plant surfaces. And it's one of the most resilient bacteria. It can survive really extreme conditions, which, by the way, your gut and digestive tract, that's extreme conditions.

Because when you eat food or you consume anything, once it gets to your stomach, there is an incredible amount of acid. in your stomach, which tends to kill off most bacteria, so it doesn't survive past that. And there's also a lot of heat in your body. So most bacteria will die with heat and with acid. This bacteria, though, survives. And it's been shown to act like a bulldozer clearing out Candida, bad bacteria, E. coli, pathogens from your system. So imagine you've got all these bad stuff in your gut. It's the bulldozer that is removing all of it from your body. This is also why there are actually specific types of bacillus subtilis. There's one called AB22.

And it's been shown to clear out glyphosate. That chemical found in Roundup in herbicides and pesticides today. It's been shown to remove it from your body with incredible power. And so, in fact, it is probably the single most powerful thing you could take to detoxify your gut. So a lot of people today try and take fiber or they try and do a detox with things like milk this or dandelion or green juices or fasting. None of those are as powerful as using bacillus subtilis when it comes to cleansing your gut, according to studies in my professional opinion. And one of my best friends and someone that we've had on the show here, Jordan Rubin, he healed himself from ulcer of colitis and Crohn's disease that he was diagnosed with

by taking high doses of bacillus subtilis and other spore-forming bacteria because it helped really clear out the mucus, the parasites, the bad bacteria, and a lot of the chemicals out of his body. Now, bacillus subtilus is also found in the highest amounts in the diet of the countries that have the highest lifespan. And one country in particular I want to mention here is Japan. When you look at a traditional Asian diet, it is very high in this type of bacteria. In fact, the number one place you're going to find this is in a traditional fermented soybean dish in Japan called Nato. And have you heard of a compound called Nato Kynase? Well, that's another

compound we could talk about another time but also bacillus is found in fermented soybeans like nato and it is a key part of a japanese diet and again they have the longest lifespan i think part of that is due to their intake and having high levels of bacillus subtilus in their diet now also you can find basilis subtilus in fermented vegetables and certain types of sourdough bread you're also going to find in soil-based organism SBO probiotic supplements as well. But this is one I think that's very good. If you're struggling with an infection, with a virus, if any major health condition,

this is, I believe, the most powerful probiotic on the planet. According to medical studies, again, number one, it kills off and removes bad bacteria and harmful bacteria from your body. And has antiviral properties and a number of other benefits. It supports your immune cells. It also supports enzyme production. If you're a person that isn't digesting food well and you have food sensitivities, this probiotic, bacillus, subtilis, helps your body create more protease and amylase,

which will help you better break down and digest your food. So this would be very good if you have psiliacs disease or autoimmune disease. And also it's very anti-inflammatory for the gut. So numerous, numerous benefits here of bacillus subtilus. Now, we talked about Nato here and fermented vegetables and having probiotics in there like bacillus subtilis. Now, I want to mention another Japanese superfood here you may not have heard of yet, and it's actually made from fermented soybean salt and cogi mold. It's called Aspergillus Orze.

And the fermentation for this product used in Japan dishes can last from anything from weeks to even years, resulting in a very rich umami flavor. By the way, in the Western world today, you know, United States and Canada and Europe and Australia, we tend to do sweet and salty. Okay. When you go to countries like Japan and Asia and in the Middle East, you're going to get a lot more of this umami flavor and a little bit more of the bitter flavors. And this umami flavor in Chinese medicine is known for boosting the immune system. So sour tends to be known for boosting your detoxification system. Bitter is known for supporting heart health, cardiovascular health, and detoxification.

Salt is known for supporting your kidneys and your adrenals and your thyroid. We know that a sweet is known for supporting your pancreas and your spleen in small amounts. But umami is most impactful for your lungs, for your colon, for your immune system. And the umami flavor, the flavor is going to be if you've ever had aged cheeses or, If you've ever had, let's say, you know, certain mushroom dishes or had things like miso, it's that, you know, even bone brought to a degree has a little bit of that umami flavor. And it's more what we'd call pungent with loads and loads of health benefits there. And the benefit of getting more of these umami flavors, and again, raw cheese is a great example of this or this or this fermented dish we talked about in Japan.

But the benefits of getting more umami foods are, um, um,y foods tend. to have more good bacteria. They tend to be more moving of what's called your lung chi in Chinese medicine, which is basically just your cardiovascular health and creating more circulation for the body. And so there's loads and loads of benefits there. So one thing I'd encourage you to do is get more umami flavors. That dairy tends to be more umami, especially fermented and aged dairy and mushrooms. Those are those flavors there that have loads and loads of benefits. I want to go through a few superfoods rich in good bacteria that you're going to want to be adding into your diet. And the first one here is miso. Okay, miso has been used in Chinese medicine and Japanese medicine for thousands of

years. It has a rich umami flavor. And by the way, umami is the taste of things like, of course, miso, raw cheeses, fermented dairy, and certain mushrooms are going to have more of that umami flavor. You know, in the United States and the Western world today, Australia, Europe, we tend to do a lot of sweet and salty. We're missing umami. We're missing bitter. We're not getting enough sour. And all of these different flavors activate different organ systems. So for instance, we know that sweet activates the pancreas, right? You want a little bit of sweet, but too much actually overburdens it, which is why too much sugar causes diabetes. Sour activates the liver. So support your detoxification channels. It can also be good for the lymphatic system. Bitter activates a different part of the liver

and your lymphatic channels and your heart supporting benefits there. So think about something like coffee, right? The bitterness of coffee or chocolate. Those have been known to be good for heart health due to the unique antioxidants found in coffee beans and cacao. Also, we're looking at things like I mentioned sour earlier, Granny Smith apples, certain fermented foods. Those are good for detoxification.

Salty is good for the kidney, the adrenal glands, the thyroid. We know, of course, there's natural occurring iodine and seaweed, you know, and sea salt in there as well, so things like that. And then, umami is known for being very good for the lungs and the colon, so your immune system and creating more circulation in the body due to the pungitness and those pungent flavors. So miso is an incredible superfood that is high in a type of bacteria called Aspergillus Orze. And it's rich in probiotics. It's very nutrient dense, good for heart health, great antioxidant benefits, but good bacteria. So miso, what you can do is take a tablespoon of that and add it to chicken dishes.

You can add it to hummus. Anytime I'm making chicken soup, I just add a couple big tablespoons of miso. There adds a little bit of good flavor, a little bit of umami, a little bit of saltiness there. And so miso loads and loads of benefits there, you can really benefit from that. And then another great one in Japanese medicine is Nato. We talked to this earlier. it is rich in that soil-based organism known as bacillus subtilus. In addition, Nato is rich in natokinase, which I believe is one of the top three supplements

you should be taking if you're suffering from long COVID. One of the reasons it's so powerful, it's actually an enzyme that works by reducing blood clots in your blood. And if you've heard, I'm sure all of you aware, one of the complications of people that have come down with COVID is myocarditis. There's a lot of men that have passed. In fact, I have an uncle that was very close to at 59 years old who died of myocarditis due to, you know, due to, I think, something that he had taken, something injected into him.

And then because of that, he ended up getting, we believe, well, he had myocarditis is what happened. And so, but all that being said, natokinase, I think, is maybe the single greatest supplement you could take if you're still suffering from long COVID because this enzyme goes into your blood and starts breaking down that blood that gets too sticky and coagulated and starts to help it become more viscous, more healthy. So natokinase, I think, is the greatest cure for helping create healthy blood because it is an enzyme. Again, this is found in Nato. And so you can actually eat Nato or buy a Nato Kinez supplement or a Nato supplement that has both Nato kinase and Bacillus, but loads of benefits there. Another benefit of Nato, it's high in vitamin K2, which is great for calcium metabolism and bone strength. Of course, it supports your gut bacteria and your digestive health as well when we're talking about Nato. Now, I want to talk about why probiotic deficiencies are so common today.

If someone were to come up and ask me, Dr. Rax, what are the top three deficiencies all across America today, Europe, the Western world? Okay. Now, if we would go to the third world, my answer would be a little bit different. A would be on that list and some other nutrients. But the Western world today, most of you listening, at the very top of the list is going to be, probiotics and vitamin D. I'm probably going to have magnesium on there a little bit after and maybe even things like coline and certain types of B vitamins.

But I'm going to have vitamin D and I'm going to have probiotics probably is number one and number two on my list. And the reason why we are so deficient in probiotics today is due to the overuse of antibiotics and are modern diets lacking fermented foods. You know, before refrigeration, think about we've only had refrigeration around probably for the last, I don't know, it's called 150 years or so. Not very long. In fact, in fact, that's, that might be too long because I think probably not until the 19, I'm guessing around the 1920s is when probably more people started using. In fact, what's interesting, I remember

my grandmother telling me that her mom, who I was blessed to be able to meet my great-grandmother, she was the first person on her street to have a refrigerator and an ice maker. And they said that Kids would sort of line up down the street to get ice cubes when they first got this, this freezer and refrigerator. And so this would have been back probably in the, yeah, it would have been back in probably the 1930s, 1940s. And so all that being said, refrigeration has not been around that long. So what did people do before?

Well, they fermented their foods. I mean, I remember my grandmother's well doing lots of canned foods, right? So they would do beats. They would can their beats and create pickles and do sourdough breads and things like that. So it would last longer. So our modern diet lacks good bacteria. The other thing is, so I'm going to first dive in here into the antibiotics, then get into the fermented foods you want to be eating. And then I'm going to get into some other things in terms of probiotic supplements and things you really need to be conscious of doing to boost your bacteria.

So the first thing is here are the top. Top 10 antibiotic exposures that are killing the good bacteria in your gut. Number one is prescription medication. When doctors prescribe antibiotics for bacterial infections, this is the most direct way people consume antibiotic drugs. And there was a study that came out when I had Dr. Marty Macri on here recently, he came on and shared this statistic. But it's something like over 90% of infections, especially viral infections or things. things affecting the lungs and sinus cavity, those are, I want to say it's like 98% of the time, those are viral infections. However, when someone goes into their doctor with one of those

conditions, more than 50% of the time they're prescribed an antibacterial drug, an antibiotic drug, which does you know real good. It is not going to kill the virus. Bacterial drugs do not kill viruses. Okay. And so what happens when you do that, by the way, it should be a form of malpractice. If you bring your dog, if you bring your kid in with an ear infection, as an example, to your doctor, and they prescribe an antibiotic drug. I mean, again, that's, it's malpractice. They are not prescribing the right thing for the right condition. And they're just trying to make money or they're very uneducated. And so you don't want somebody that's uneducated and unqualified and unwise, treating you and your child was something that could ruin their health long term.

And so this is the number one thing, prescription medications, antibiotic drugs are the most common. Birth control pills have antibiotic-like properties. They create yeast overgrowth. They cause estrogen to increase, which causes bad bacteria to overgrow. So contraceptive drugs are probably the second on this list. And there are numerous others. There's hardly a drug without a side effect. and many drugs, prescription medications, kill off good bacteria in your gut. Number two is household cleaning products. If you're using chlorox bleach in your home, if you're walking into stores where they've used chlorox and chlorine and swimming pools, that's another one, chlorine in swimming pools,

when you're exposed to household cleaning products in these chemicals that are found in your home and in places of public usage, those kill off good bacteria in your body as well. Number three, animal products. Antibiotics are frequently used in agriculture, especially in livestock, to prevent disease and promote growth, leading to residual antibiotics in meat, dairy, and other animal products. Did you know that 80% of the antibiotics prescribed today are given to animals? So 80% of the total volume of antibiotics used in the United States go to animals. And so when they consume those antibiotics and then you drink their milk, let's say,

you're getting that antibiotic residue in your food. And this is found in their meat and their dairy products across the board. Number four, non-organic fruits and vegetables. Residial antibiotics can be found on crops treated with antibiotic containing pesticides or grown in soil with antibiotic residues. This is where glyphos say, this is what we're talking about here with glyphosate. I've had people say to me before, well, eating organic versus non-organic isn't that big of a deal. It is a big deal.

because of glyphosate, because of forever chemicals, because of all the herbicides and pesticides, these chemicals have antibiotic properties that kill the good bacteria in your gut. And studies have shown generally organic foods are a little bit more nutrient dense. They're not always more. Now, listen, if you do your own garden or go to a local farmer's market, buy it fresh, it is more nutrient dense. But also, even if it's organic and it's not more nutrient dense, because listen, sometimes you have organic food that's shipped out from Mexico. up to the United States, and they picked it before.

It was two to four weeks even ripe. And so it's not fully that nutrient dense, maybe much more than a non-organic. But the reality is this, at least it wasn't sprayed with chemicals and pesticides that are going to destroy your bacteria. So eating non-organic, fruits, vegetables, grains, other products is another source of antibiotics. Number five, aquaculture. Similar to livestock, antibiotics are used in fish. farming to prevent diseases and traces can remain in seafood. So if you're doing Atlantic salmon,

which is always farmed, you're going to be getting antibiotics from that product. Number six, contaminated water. I mean, I did a, by the way, if you have not watched this episode, I would go back and watch or listen to it when I went through water quality. I went through the top cities in the United States. They have the worst water and the best water. And not surprisingly, I went through places like, I want to say some of the ones I remember were, I remember Michigan. There were a few cities in Michigan where the water was just absolutely terrible. I want to say there was places in Arizona. I mean, it was, you know, Florida.

There was this really bad water in a lot of places and a lot of cities. And if your water isn't very clean, it's going to, obviously, listen, they had found everything in there like estradiol. So literally birth control and female hormone. hormones and medications in the water supply, bad bacteria, antibiotics, all kinds of things. And so, and of course, fluoride, chlorine. If you got fluoride and chlorine in your drinking water, those kill off. I mean, why would they put chlorine in water? Well, it's to keep bacteria at bay, right?

But if you have large amounts of it, and you're drinking it all the time, it's going to kill off a lot of the good bacteria in your body. Number seven exposure to antibiotics. hospitals and health care settings. Exposure to antibiotics can occur during hospital stays or medical treatments where antibiotics are commonly used to prevent or treat infections. Number eight, here is a big one I saw coming out of COVID. Hand sanitizers and soaps.

Okay. Now, listen, we just got back from a family trip to Park City, Utah. And if we have our four-year-old and our one-year-old and we're bringing them into public bathrooms or our daughters touched everything imaginable. or been on the floor crawling like they do. And then what we do, we bring this hand spray that has essential oils in it. And I think a little coconut oil. And we rub their hands with that.

It's essential oils. That's all it is. And that's what we do. But we don't, we don't lather them down with or use, you know, the hand sanitizers that are in these public places because they're loaded with a chemical called triclosan. along with other antibiotics that kill off a lot of the good bacteria. They even damage your skin, age your skin. And so I would say, you know, these hand sanitizers, I remember going through COVID and people, I mean, literally everybody that walked in was like coating their arms and their hands

and their whole body with these hand sanitizers. Those are very toxic to the good bacteria in your body. So find an essential oil-based hand spray and use that instead. Number nine, pet medications. You know pets are often prescribed. antibiotics for infections and improper disposal of these medicines can lead to environmental exposure. Number 10 is almost every other food out there, okay? Most foods, it's not just fruits, it's not just vegetables, it's not just dairy, it's not just meat, it's also things like coffee beans.

It's your herbal tea. It's all of these foods that you're consuming if they're not organic. Almost all of them have been sprayed with some sort of chemical that is going to kill off good bacteria in your body. Now let's talk about the modern diets and the lack of fermented. foods we have today. Modern lifestyles have greatly reduced our exposure to natural good bacteria. And I want to say, I remember reading a study years ago that said that if we would go back about 100 years, close to 50% of jobs were agriculturally related to growing or preparing or providing some sort of food for people. I mean, that almost 50% of people, people spent so much more time outdoors. When they were traveling, they were walking outside. And here's the reality,

the less time you spend outside, the less good bacteria you'll have. There are studies that show if you garden, for instance, your good bacteria diversity goes up tremendously, sometimes doubles and triples. And so if you can expose yourself and have your hands in the dirt and be walking outside in nature and just spending more time outside, it has tremendous value for building up the good bet here in your gut. And one of the greatest things you're going to get are these soil-based organisms we talked about earlier, which you get from the dirt. You know, I wrote a book years ago called Eat Dirt. And in this book, by the was the first published book I've done, and it's still popular to have people come up to me saying, I read your book. And the book was really all about how to

heal leaky gut syndrome and how to boost your immune system. And in this book, I go through how, like if you pull carrots or beats out of the ground, even if you wash them all, There's still kind of little brown specks on them. Like carrots are not this bright, vibrant orange only like they are under the surface. Or if you look at those sort of chlorinated baby carrots that are peeled and sprayed with the chlorine, they kind of glisten, you'll see, okay, well, there are no soil-based organisms on there. But if you go to your farmer's market, you'll see those little brown specs. Those are actually soil-based organisms. And there are studies that show that if you consume those foods locally that have those soil-based organisms, you're better going to digest the food. Because Remember what I wrote what I shared earlier. Soil-based organisms like bacillus subtilis, they actually create enzymes that help you better break down and digest your food, which will also reduce food allergies and sensitivities. So the more that you can eat local, the better it will be for your body. And the other thing is, so the big things here are we're spending less time outside.

We're spending less time in the dirt and soil. We're spending less time eating foods that are local, and we're not spending as much time fermenting our food to preserve it, so there's less bacteria there. So those are all things that can naturally build more, and more bite bacteria and a more diverse bacteria in your gut microbiome. And they're in probiotics, remember, they're not just bacteria that are living in your body just to be there. They are the majority of your immune system. and we've all heard this step by now that 70% of your immune system is in your gut. And most of that immune system is the bacteria. So without the bacteria, you almost don't have an immune system.

Think about that. So the more good bacteria you have, the more diverse it is, typically the stronger and better your gut is. Also, we know probiotics are essential for digestion and nutrient absorption. If you're a person struggling with gas bloating, sebo, anything like that, that loose stool constipation diarrhea you need to be taking probiotics and getting more probiotics in your diet you know there i want to hit on one study here there's a study on g i issues and they found that probiotics help with ibs some studies showing up to a 50% in a 50% symptom reduction by the way i saw another study that found that you tend to want to do a higher dose than you think in fact there are

brands out there that have probiotics that go up to either nearly or close to around one trillion probiotics per serving. And those types of probiotics performed better than probiotics at the lower doses. So if you're a person with a major issue, you don't want to just be taking 10 or 20 billion CFU of probiotics. You want to be doing higher doses of probably half a trillion to a trillion probiotics. If you have IBS or you have IBD or you have leaky gut or you have, you want to really detoxify, you want to be doing a higher dose. probiotics. I had somebody recently I'm working with and he went to on a trip to Mexico, came back, has a parasite. And so I have him doing a trillion probiotics a day as a supplement and

doing food probiotics as well. Also, there are studies showing urinary track infections. Probiotics being very, very effective for urinary tract infections, yeast infections. We talked about diarrhea as well. According to the National Institutes of Health, probiotics are effective in treating antibiotic associated diarrhea, which affects at least 30% of people who use antibiotics. And another study found they are 50% effective. Another study found in children up to 70% effective at relieving that symptom. And I would say the people that only saw that 30% effective rating, they might have not been taking a high end of dose and not doing some of the other things they needed to do diaterally. There are also studies on probiotics relieving IBS.

Again, we mentioned bloating. We mentioned abdominal pain at least 21% of the time. And there was something called the Cochrane Review. This looked at 63 different studies. And it found that probiotics can reduce the duration of diarrhea by about 25 hours and decrease the likelihood of diarrhea by about four days or reduce it by close to 60%. So lots of benefits here when we're talking about GI issues of taking probiotics. Now, I want to go through a few studies here.

Studies suggest that lactobacillus, Okay, lactobacillus bacteria is effective when taken in doses of at least 10 billion daily. So even if you're only getting 10 billion, that's effective enough to make an impact. However, many people need to be doing much, much higher doses than that. And very similar with sarcomesis ballarde, 10 billion CFU daily for five to 10 days actually helped reduce the duration of diarrhea and loose stools. However, again, I believe most people need to be doing much higher doses than that. Now, let's talk about nutrient absorption. I want to share with you a story.

I had a patient come in once, and she came in with these two whole foods bags full of vitamins and supplements. And when she came in, I told her, I said, listen, I think you've got really expensive urine. I said, what I'm seeing here, when I look at your blood, because we did a blood test, and her nutrient absorption was very poor. She was low in B vitamins. In fact, she'd been getting vitamin B 12 shots because she wasn't because her numbers had been so low.

And I said, here's what we're going to do. we're going to put you on a very, very high dose of probiotic, and I'm going to put you on a probiotic diet. And three months later, all of her, every single nutrient, she was deficient, which is numerous, she was over 10 and incredibly deficient in B12, all normalized completely. And I didn't put her on another supplement outside of very high dose probiotics, very high dose. In the studies show that if you take a probiotic supplement, it can double your absorption of B vitamins. This was at a Stanford study.

They also shows that you'll create more beneficial fatty acids that your cells need to function properly like buterate. This is also really critical for cellular energy. So for cellular health, you need good bacteria as well because it'll create B vitamins. It'll create buterate. It'll help your body create enzymes. So probiotics not only help you absorb things, they help you create things like B vitamins and enzymes. critical for detoxification and for cellular energy. Now, I want to mention again the benefits of taking good bacteria

and its benefits around detoxification. Certain strains I mentioned earlier like bacillus subtilus. We talked about how that soil-based organism acts like a bulldozer clearing out bad bacteria. What has a relative called bacillus coagulins, which acts in a similar way, it's been shown to help fight harmful bacteria and break down harmful substances like glyphosate, aiding detoxification process as well.

One study found it reduced oxidative stress and inflammation in the intestines when it's irritated. This can be really important if somebody has diverticulitis as an example or any type of inflammatory bowel disease. There's another study that found when you're taking bacillus subtilus, inflammation markers like C-reactive protein start to drop down. So we're talking about taking bacteria like probiotics. People tend to not think about it like this. But these studies show that it's reducing systemic inflammation in your entire body, not just your gut, in your entire body when you're taking the right types of probiotics.

And when you're taking the right type of probiotics, getting it in food and supplements and also taking the right type of, which we'll hit on in a minute, the right type of prebiotics, your body is going to be stronger. Your entire immune system is going to be stronger. Better to fight infections, better able to fight cancer, better able to fight UTIs, respiratory infections, just infections across the board. In fact, there was a systemic review in the International Journal of Infectious Disease, and here's what they found.

Probiotics also fight viruses, including COVID-19. Here's what the medical study states word for word. The review states, due to antiviral and immune-modulating activities and their ability to stimulate interferon production, we recommend the use of probiotics as an adjunctive therapy to prevent COVID-19. So when we're saying about COVID, when we're talking about the rhinovirus, when we're talking about regular colds and flus, probiotics are effective for strengthening and boosting your immune system in fighting these even viral infections. And here's another big one. You know, I mentioned earlier that so many medical doctors are overprescribing antibiotic drugs for kids specifically. And one study found that we can reduce the use of antibiotic drugs simply by giving children more probiotics.

They found probiotics have been shown to reduce the need for antibiotics in children. A study found that infants and children who consume probiotics daily had a significantly reduced need for antibiotic treatment. So you don't just want to do this when you're sick or your kids are sick. You should be taking probiotics year round. I mean, I've taken probiotics almost every day as a supplement for probably a, over 15 years, that long. And I know the people that I know that are the healthiest are doing those things on a regular basis.

In fact, we give our one-year-old a probiotic. We give our four-year-old a probiotic. Chelsea and I take probiotics regularly as well. By the way, there are also studies showing that taking good bacteria is very powerful at fighting depression and anxiety and improving mental health. Here's what they say in the study. Treatment with antibiotics or prebiotics may decrease the severity of these mental disorders by altering the gut microbiota.

And another journal found that six out of 10 studies found that groups taking probiotics experience significantly greater improvements in depression, anxiety, and mental health compared to other groups. And so we know, because think about this, if you have more good bacteria, you're absorbing more magnesium, you're absorbing more vitamin D, you're absorbing more iron, you're absorbing more B vitamins, and these things are important for methylation. So you're going to have a better mood when your gut microbiome is healthier and you have a better balance of good bacteria in your gut. And so there are so many benefits we're talking about here when we're looking at good bacteria.

Here's another surprising one. By the way, when I started looking at good bacteria in probiotics, I mean, it was kind of like almost everything from longevity to digestion to mental health to cholesterol levels. Listen to this one. those who take probiotic supplements have lower cholesterol. Here is the mechanism. Biosol, hydrolyst activity. Probiotics increase this activity, which necessitates the production of more bile acids from cholesterol,

thus reducing blood cholesterol levels. So it's important, this is also important for gallbladder and liver health. You know, binding of cholesterol in the intestine, this reduces the amount of cholesterol absorbed into bloodstream. So what's happening here, when you have bacteria, more probiotics, it's acting as an enzyme as well, which means it's helping break things down. It's helping remove things. It's getting the cholesterol from your blood into the areas of the body where they need to be in order to repair, help heal your brain,

help heal yourselves, help create hormones like testosterone and estrogen and progesterone. So good bacteria helps with all of these mechanisms in the body. They also help with the production of something called short-chain fatty acids. Now, you may have heard of medium-chain fatty acids found in coconut oil, and there are loads of benefits of medium-chain fatty acids for brain health, especially in cellular function. But these short-chain fatty acids actually are critical for liver health, for cholesterol health, for heart health. They help regulate your overall cholesterol metabolism. And there's a large study done where they compiled 30 different studies. and they found that those who took a probiotic supplement had nearly 8MG slash DL, lower LDL, and higher HDL levels compared to others in the groups over about an eight-week trial.

Here's another surprising one. Probiotics help you lose weight. Certain probiotic strains may help with weight loss and prevent obesity, particularly strains of lactobacillus, which have been shown to reduce belly fat. There was a 2024 study that was published in the obesity and science and practice journal, and they found that the use of probiotics in the absence of dieting produced a significant reduction in body weight and mass index in 66.6% of the reviewed studies, a significant reduction in weight circumference in 80% of the review studies, and an improvement in total body mass and waist circumference. So we're talking about 80% of people that took probiotic supplements. had an improvement in their body fat percentage and in their waist circumference and how they actually

physically looked. 80% by just taking a probiotic supplement. This was just this last year, 2024, seeing these benefits. It's really incredible here. And there are so many more studies on this. There's another 12-week study that found this. And in this study in particular, they were looking at lactobacillus as the probiotic. But we've seen here loads of benefits. By the way, as I mentioned earlier, Remember, you have a gut brain connection. You also have a gut-skine-connection. Probiotics are crucial for skin health. Everything from allergies, acne, dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis in children and in adults.

So if you've got a skin issue, you tend to want to do much higher doses of probiotics. And again, I don't think people are doing a high enough dosage oftentimes or doing enough prebiotics and postbiotics with it as well, which is what I'm going to talk about here in just a minute. I want to mention two last benefits here when it comes to. probiotics. One of those is being a lifespan. Research has found that those who take probiotics can get more bacteria in their body age slower. In fact, the microbiome plays a crucial role in the way you age. As we age, our cells respond to stress by entering a state called cellular senescence where your cells stop dividing but they remain metabolically active, sometimes secreting inflammatory compounds. Okay. Now, what happens when your gut microbiome is health,

This influences that, in fact, this is sometimes called not just cell senescence. It's called immunosinensence. And this is where your bacteria in your gut starts affecting cellular behavior through the production of microbial metabolites linking gut health to health to other areas of your body. There's ongoing research on this, but basically these bacteria help with clearing out these senescent cells, helping you age more slowly. Also, lastly here, I want to mention the most profound things. thing you're going to ever hear about probiotics, and it's this. They not only affect you,

they affect your kids and their kids and their kids generations to come through the power of epigenetics. Emerging research indicates that maternal probiotic supplementation during pregnancy, so the mom, when she takes a probiotic, influences both her health and the health of her offspring via impacting DNA methylation of things, even like obesity genes. So things, about this, whether your child's going to be overweight or not can be dependent upon if the mother has a healthy gut microbiome and if she takes probiotics. Listen this. A study examined the effects of probiotic supplementation during pregnancy on DNA methylation in mothers and their children. Here are the findings. Probiotic intake led to significant changes in DNA methylation levels

of obesity and weight gain related to gene promoters in both mothers and offspring suggesting a potential mechanism for long-term health, whether the children were overweight or not. And also a meta-analysis, so this is a review looking at multiple studies found that when a mother takes a probiotic, it influences the health of the offspring, the growth of the child, the child's intestinal health, including their allergies, whether they have IBS, a number of other intestinal issues, their immune development, and even their neural development. So we see here that if a mom takes probiotics, and by the way, it's not just a supplement, it's eating probiotic-rich foods, it's doing the right things for their gut health. It has a tremendous impact not only on their health, but the health of their kids.

So probably as much as any other supplement out there you could take or any other food you could take, if you get more probiotics, it's not only affecting you, it's affecting future generations. And as we talked about, these scientific studies show a correlation between low probiotic levels. By the way, if you don't have enough probiotics, people tend to be more overweight, have more immune system disorders, more GI-I-D-diarrhea and constipation, potentially more neurological conditions like ADHD and autism, according to the studies. Now, conditions that are benefited by probiotics, we hit on so many, but we talked about digestive disorders. Again, we talked about infections, especially infections related to diarrhea. We talked about skin conditions like acne, eczema, oral health. This is big. Mental health, this is big.

I even think for athletes, for nutrient absorption. So there's a lot of things here. Now, in addition to probiotics, here's the reality. You need more than just probiotics to have a good, good healthy gut. You need prebiotics as well. And prebiotics are compounds in foods that induce the growth of these healthy microorganisms like bacteria and funguses. and they are non-digestable fibers that the human body cannot digest so they serve as food for probiotics in your gut flora.

So prebiotics tend to be fermented by the gut, particularly probiotics, which promote their growth. And some of the foods that are the richest in prebiotics include super fruits like omla berry. In fact, there's an ancient formula called trifala, and it's three berries. Okay, one of those is Amla berry, but this is used in Ayurvetic medicine. And studies have shown this to increase lifespan and to be maybe the greatest prebiotic food out there today. And again, it's called Triphala that's spelled T-R-I-P-H-A-L-A-Triphala. And it's a three-berry blend that's very high in prebiotic fiber and in polyphenols and antioxidants that cause good bacteria to grow. So that would be high on my list.

Bananas are high. onions, garlic, leeks, asparagus, artichokes, certain whole grains as well. These are going to help boost the good bacteria in your gut because they serve as food

for the probiotics, the type of fertilizer. Now, in addition to getting more, and if you want to get more of these prebiotics, again, you want to be eating, here's the deal. It's a lot of fruits and vegetables, okay?

Eat a lot of fruits, eat a lot of vegetables, do some fermented grains, like a sourdough bread using whole grains that are grains that are higher in fiber like oats. Again, you know, garlic and onions, artichokes, but it's a lot of fruits and vegetables. That's the reality, especially berries, fruits, vegetables, figs, these sort of foods. These are going to act as prebiotics more than anything. So you need to do a lot of those, mostly in cooked or just as good as raw or better, actually.

So a lot of fruits, a lot of vegetables, a lot of herbs, a lot of spices, things high in polyphenols, like macha green tea. These are also going to act as prebiotics for the gut. And then mushrooms, that's another group, very, very good for prebiotics. Now when it comes to postbiotics, so imagine this. You have a cow that's eating grass. Okay, the cow is the probiotic. The grass is the prebiotic.

The poop coming out, the of the cow, those are postbiotics. So when a probiotic goes and consumes a prebiotic, it releases postbiotics. These are bioactive compounds produced by food-grade microorganisms during the fermentation process. And these include metabolic byproducts such as short-chain fatty acids. So we've talked about medium-chain fatty acids, short-chain fatty acids, which are great for gut health. It could be functional proteins, peptides. So your body actually produces peptides on its own. people go and get these injected in their body. There's lots of benefits of that form of medicine,

but also your body will create its own with postbiotics. And overall, these postbiotics can create a better environment for prebiotics to grow and probiotics to grow within your gut as well. And next step is paribiotics. Now, paribiotics act as a benefit to probiotics, though it tends to be more non-directly. And I want to explain sort of the relationship here as we've talked about prebiotics, probiotics, probiotics, post-biotics, and paribics. And I want to give an example in gardening. Probiotics are the seeds of the live plants. Okay. So if you want to plant a, you know, a tomato shrub or a fruit tree, whatever it is, the probiotic is the seed. Prebiotics are the soil and the water. They're the nutrients that help that seed grow into a flourishing plant.

Postbiotics are the fruits that will be produced from the plant. Okay, so postbiotics could be the tomato or the apple or the blueberry, but it's one of those fruits that's produced by the plant. Paribiotics are like the compost that help the seed and the plant grow. They're helpful even when they're not alive. Okay. And so you really want all of these things in order to help you create a healthy, flourishing gut microbiome.

So again, you can be as healthy as possible. I want to walk you through now some of the most probiotic-rich foods, prebiotic, post-biotic and parbiotic rich foods that are out there today. Number one probiotics. Let's head on the most probiotic-rich foods. Yogurt. Yogurt is rich in live cultures. In fact, yogurt and kefir are my top one and two tend to be the,

the highest in bacteria. Now listen, you can do a dairy-based yogurt or kefir. If you do so, I recommend doing one that has A2 milk. That could come from an A2 cow or a sheep or a goat. But yogurt and kefir are very high on the list. You can do them from water. You can do them from coconut. So it can be dairy or non-dairy either way. Yogure and kefirmed in kefirmeded dairy beverages with loads of benefits. The next would be sauerkraut in kimchi. This tends to be fermented cabbage, also sometimes carrots and other other vegetables in there. So sauerkraut and kimchi are also powerful. Next on the list would be kovas.

That could be fermented vegetable juices like fermented beet juice is drank in many other countries. So kovas. The next on the list would be Nato and Miso. These come from fermented organic soybeans from countries like Japan, but miso and Nato loads and loads of benefits there with the probiotics. Another one here is raw cheese. There's another dairy product. Raw cheese and cottage cheese can have some good bacteria in them,

a lot of times you'll know something as probiotics based on its sour flavor. Now, there are other things out there, kombucha, which is less beneficial. In fact, people that have a lot of dampness or candida, you actually don't want to consume kombucha. But doing a little bit on occasion can be fine for a lot of people. That also is rich in probiotics. And then sourdough bread. Real sourdough bread also has great probiotics. also some ancient things that were created traditionally, everything from pickles to ketchup,

that actually have a small, very small amount of good bacteria if you made them yourself at home. But I would say that those are the most probiotic foods out there, the yogurt, the kefir, the kimchi, the sauerkraut, the kvaj, the raw cheese, the sourdough breads, some of the other fermented foods are going to be the highest on the list. The next are my favorite prebiotic foods. These are foods rich in prebiotics that help feed probiotics. On this list, we have trifala, that incredible Irovetic blend, garlic, onions, asparagus, bananas, not fully ripe, chickory root, Jerusalem, artichoke, and oats are some of the most prebiotic root foods out there. And then we've got postbiotics. These are metabolic byproducts produced by probiotics that we talked about, kimchi juice, juice, combined.

Buccia, sourdough bread, Nato, fermented pickles, apple cider vinegar, and certain cheeses like parmesan cheese, these have postbiotics in them. So apple cider vinegar, this is why it's so beneficial. Apple cider vinegar doesn't really have much probiotics in it. Okay, it's low, there can sometimes be a small amount, but it's not very high in probiotics. However, when you taste apple cider vinegar, that sour taste, that acetic acid, that is a post biotic. That is a postbiotic. that is the fruit of fermentation that has loads of benefits for everything from weight loss to improving digestion. So again, postbiotics can have major benefits there as well.

And that's going to be things we mentioned like kombucha and kimchi and an apple cider vinegar, even sourdough bread. They're going to have those post-bics. And then paribiotics are, this tends to be when heat has killed or inactivated probiotics, but there are still benefits. So, for instance, if you drink a yogurt drink that's heated up, that will have paribiotics in it. Heat treated kimchi. Heat treated miso.

So if you put miso in a hot suit for a long time, some of those bacteria will stay alive. Some will die, but there's benefits there still. Sourdough crackers. So when you heat up, sourdough, some of the bacteria dies, some of it, though, turns into parbiotics. And then parabolic supplements. So that's where you're going to get some of those paribiotics. And when you are out there buying those supplements, you want to really focus on buying one that's

predominantly a probiotic and also one that might have a prebiotic and a postbiotic in it as well. And you want to look out for those, remember, number one, look out for those soil-based organism strains, the bacillus subtilus, the bacillus coagulins, the bacillus, the bacillus, the bacillus closye. Also look out for sarcommesis ballardide. Those are the biggest ones. And then lactobacillus and bifodobacterium, you can mostly get those from your food. like yogurt and sourcrow.

So you can get most of those there, but you can also look out for those strains and those species in food as well. And remember, when buying a probiotic supplement, the soil-based organisms tend to be the best because they're the most resilient to heat. So lots of benefits there of the SBOs. Now, when it comes to dosage,

listen, you can take anything from $10 billion daily to over $1 trillion daily. and when I have people that have major health issues, I have them take one trillion probiotics daily or half or 500 billion daily. Now, if you're a person and you're saying, hey, I just want to do a maintenance dose, then you can do around 50 billion daily or something like that as sort of an ongoing doses or even as low as 10 to 20 billion. But if you really have a health condition that you want to heal from, you tend to want to do higher doses. and listen, if you've ever taken an antibiotic drug, or you will in the future, which I hope you never have to, but if you or your kids ever have to,

I want to walk you through the protocol that I believe helped me save my health. So many of you know that a couple years ago, I was diagnosed with a spinal infection and didn't walk for an entire year. I went in for a very simple medical procedure that was all natural, actually. And when they went into my,

they actually went into my disc with stem cells, I got my disc got infected. And I had a, bacteria that was growing in my disc. In fact, I had an infection that not only went from my disc, it went into my bone, my L5 vertebra, and then went into by my spinal cord, I have an aden abscess that got into my spinal canal. And I met with an infectious disease doctor, and he said, Josh, you may never walk again. You could be permanently disabled. This infection is spread, and you can likely have surgery. And he said, I'm going to recommend likely you're going to be on antibiotics

for three months straight. Well, I went and did a lot of research. And I started to research on, well, how can I heal faster more completely? And I came across a study on hyperbaric chambers. And now if I got in a hard hyperbaric chamber every day for 30 days, it could help reverse that issue. And I actually could cut the antibiotic time down to maybe just one month from three month. So I started getting a hard chamber, hyperbaric chamber every day.

And then I decided, you know what? This is life-threatening. I am going to get on an antibiotic. I got on an antibiotic IV. And when I was on this antibiotic, I decided I want to do a, everything I can to protect my gut and my cells. And by the way, if you take an IV antibiotic, it's a little harder on your cells than your gut. It's still hard on your gut, but it's hard on your cells and gut. When you take an oral antibiotic, it's harder on your gut and not quite as

hard on your cells, but still hard on both. And so I said, okay, I want to do everything I can. And so I met with actually Jordan Rubin and with an amazing functional medicine doctor named Gesigoli. And we laid out a protocol for myself. And here's what I did. I consumed one trillion probiotics daily as a supplement. Okay, one trillion. And so you're right. You might go and see one billion. So yes, this would be 1,000 times higher than that. So I took that daily. I also went and took a trifala powder. Okay. That's a prebiotic supplement. I then did a little bentonite clay. I did about a, it wasn't very much, by the way, because I didn't want to become constipated. I did like one eighth of a teaspoon. So a very small amount of that. And then my diet was a lot of

berries. I did something called rice kanji. I did some wild organic meat. But it was basically berries, steamed vegetables, a little sweet potato, and then it was a lot of organic meat. And I did some sourcrow. And I did some coconut yogurt, okay, as well. And so that's sort of what I did for my food. And in addition to that, I did methylated B vitamins. That was very important because methylated B vitamins are important for cellular health, mitochondrial health. I wanted to protect my cells. I also did glutathione. And I got an IV at least once a week, if not more, it's called a Myers cocktail of very high B vitamins and glutathion and vitamin C to protect myself. I was going through this. I also at certain times took something called bacteriophages.

They're a type of a pro-virus that are good for the body. But I would say if you're in this and then I did liver, I did organ supplements and capsules. But if you ever have to take an antibiotic, Here's what I would say the most important things to remember are. Number one to a very high dose probiotic. 500 billion to one trillion daily. Take a methylated B vitamin. Those are, I think, the two most important supplements and maybe even like a trifola powder and then eat a lot of the berries, the steam vegetables, the wild organic meat, and things like that.

So I think those are the most important things to do if you get put in that. And then if you get in a hyperbaric chamber, that's really, really good. for your bacteria and for helping fight that as well. So I would say those are the top things on the list that I did in order to help save. My gut was amazing is I never had, even from a whole month, I never had the antibiotic diarrhea from that, never at one single point.

I think it was because the high, high doses of the probiotics and prebiotics I was eating every single day really help negate that along with a little bit of the clay and the B vitamins and then the Myers Cocktail. So that's what I did. in order to help save my gut. And if you're ever in that position, which I pray you don't have to be,

but if you do, I would follow that same protocol I just shared with you. Now remember this. We are exposed to antibiotics everywhere. There is antibiotics in our water supply, antibiotics in our food supply, antibiotics in our medications, antibiotics in our cleaning products,

everywhere we go, there are antibiotics and they're killing the good bacteria in our gut, which is 70% of our immune system, it's critical for our brain health, our liver health, our thyroid health, or hormonal health, you've got to make sure you've got enough good bacteria in your gut supporting the health of your gut microbiome. Remember this, you've got to be getting enough probiotics in your food and supplements. You need prebiotics. You need those postbiotics. You need

to allow these microorganisms to flourish. And it is one of the top two things I believe we're deficient in. And so it's sunshine and it's soil for the most part. It's sunshine. And it is this good bacteria that most people are missing today. And so if you can follow this advice, I know it's going to make a big, big impact on your house. So listen, if you've got an issue like inflammatory bowel disease, if you have gas and bloating, if you have leaky gut, autoimmune disease, multiple food sensitivities, weak immune system, any of those issues, probiotics should be a key part of you healing. One question I have got frequently is about what about CBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. If you have that, you're going to do better with the soil-based probiotics.

You won't do as well with the others. So start with the soil-based organisms and don't do any others if you have SIBO specifically, because I know I'm going to get that question. Hey, I want to say, thanks so much for tuning in here to the show. Hey, I want to encourage you, most people don't know the truth about probiotics. I want to encourage you to share this episode. There are millions of people that don't know that they're bacterial deficient. How many people have you know people that are taking those hand sanitizers and rubbing down their whole body with it, right? If you're at the airport, the grocery store, people are using it all the time. And if people knew how bad it was for them, they wouldn't keep doing it. So thank you so much for all of you that are on mission with me,

that are sharing this, that are liking it, that are leaving comments on social media and on YouTube. And thank you all of you that are subscribers that are making a difference with me in the world. And again, I hope you've, we've got so many more great episodes coming out here, by the way. this is going to be the best year yet for the podcast. So don't forget to subscribe. We got some amazing special guests coming up. A lot of really well-known doctors and practitioners and celebrities that are, you're just going to, you know, I think really bless you and your health and your knowledge.

So thanks so much for sharing. Thanks so much for subscribing. I'll see you on the next episode.