The Mel Robbins Podcast - Reset Your Health in 10 Days: Advice From a Renowned MD

Episode Date: March 23, 2023

I made you an appointment with one of the world’s leading doctors in functional medicine.Dr. Mark Hyman has written an incredible 14 (!!!) New York Times best sellers. He is the founder and director of The UltraWellness Center, and Head of Strategy and Innovation at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine.His latest book, Young Forever, teaches you science-backed, actionable steps to slow down the aging process and even reverse disease.An appointment like this would cost $$$ in person, but today, it’s free for you.Seriously, you will be floored by what you hear.No matter how old you are, you have more control over your health than you may think, and it’s never too early or too late to start making simple yet profound changes.Having trouble sleeping? We've got you.Brain fog and headaches messing up your day? Check.Low energy? We hear you.Anxiety and ADHD running your life? We’re covering that too.In this episode, we are breaking everything down point by point so that you get the specific, actionable steps you need to start changing your life in real time.Grab a notebook because the doctor is in and he will see you now.Get ready to take charge of your health like never before.Xo MelCheck out research and other resources at melrobbins.com/podcast. In this episode, you’ll learn: 9:30: Food is not just food; here’s what it becomes once you eat it.12:30: So what’s the connection between gut health and overall health?14:45: What exactly is inflammation and what’s causing it?16:30: Okay, so then what does a healthy gut look like?19:30: Put these foods on your plate for 10 days and see what happens.23:30: The big fat lie we’re being fed every day.25:30: Can changing my gut heal my anxiety?27:15: This simple tool will improve digestion and calm your nerves.28:30: Phenomenal story of ADHD that was healed in two months.31:30: The difference between two main types of allergies.34:00: Holy sh*t! What Dr. Hyman said that reminded me of Oakley.37:45: The 5 major things in your life that cause inflammation.40:00: Simple tips to help you start sleeping better.42:40: If we could cure this, we’d extend our lives by more than 7 years.44:45: These are the supplements you and I should be taking.48:15: Here’s what causes your body to dump too much magnesium.50:50: Trouble with your hormones? You need to hear this.55:00: Do this if you want a clear picture of your health.59:45: What probiotics help reset your gut? Want me to answer your question on the podcast? Submit it here.Start your day off with focus using “A Toolkit for the Perfect Morning Routine.”Here are more “Simple Ways to Improve Your Brain Health.” Disclaimer

Hey, it's your friend Mel and welcome to a vibrant, phenomenal episode of the Mel Robbins podcast. Let's do this thing. Okay, everybody. I am so excited. Boy, do I have an incredible gift for you today. And for those of you that are brand new to the Mel Robbins podcast, let me welcome you. My name is Mel Robbins.

I'm a New York Times bestselling author and one of the most respected experts on change and motivation in the world. And I have a treat for you today because I have arranged to get you an appointment at zero cost with one of the world's leading doctors and medical experts. I'm telling you, you are in for a treat because you are getting world-class medical and research back simple tactics today to improve your health, to improve your energy, to improve your

vitality. We are going to do some healing today from the inside out. Who the hell am I talking about? Well, I'm talking about none other than Dr. Mark Hyman. Welcome. Thank you. 14 New York Times bestseller's people. 14.

He's the founder and medical director of the Ultra Wellness Center and head of strategy and innovation at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine. Dr. Hyman is also consulted with the Surgeon General on diabetes prevention. I mean, we could just be dropping all, and he's laughing, he's laughing at his own credentials. And that's something that I actually love about Dr. Hyman because he's relatable. And so we are gonna break down the world of functional medicine and the science behind how you can have more energy, how you can use things that are in your house and in your fridge to help you calm your anxiety, to help you gain focus if you have ADHD.

And more importantly, I don't care how old you are. I know we got a ton of college kids that listen to this. You should be thinking right now no matter how young or old you are about what you can do to make sure that as you age, you also have the energy that you deserve, right Dr. Heiner? Absolutely. Welcome. Thank you. You're welcome. And one other thing I want to tell you guys. So about a year ago I think you guys know this. I had this like tsunami casserole of a breakdown. That was a combination of anxiety, grief, and crushing symptoms from menopause. Mm-hmm. Just. That's always fun. Oh, it was a hot mess.

Literally. Literally. And I texted Dr. Hyman, and I went to his wellness clinic in Linux. And so I have firsthand experience working with his team and following his advice, and it has made a profound difference. And that's why I'm excited for you to be here. You're amazing. Sadly, our healthcare system and their medical paradigm

doesn't actually know how to get you from there to here. And it's all about activating your body's own innate intelligent healing systems, which is really all I do. I don't really treat disease. I just help the body do what it's supposed to do by getting rid of the bad stuff and putting in the good stuff. So the body is really an amazing organism that's a self-healing, self-repairing, self-renewing system if you know what to do. And I mean, who's listening out there that got an owner's manual

strapped to their leg when they were born? Probably not too many of you. You know how to use your iPhone and computer more than you know how to regulate and use your body. And that's really what this is all about. Dr. Hyman, you just said something that really struck me, which is that every single one of us, our bodies, has an intelligent healing system built into it. And I immediately thought about the fact that, you know, we all know instinctively that if you cut your hand. Your body knows how to heal itself and so you don't have to go to the doctor to get a prescription to heal your hand just those what to do yeah and so. Can you just expand upon that for somebody who is never considered. somebody who is never considered that concept, that your body is designed when you know how to take care of it, to heal itself, what the hell does that even mean?

It's really incredible. I mean, I literally get to be the witness to miracles every day. People who are either wanting to just optimize their health and live a long healthy life or people who have end stage diseases like tectodibides, heart disease, autoimmune disease, dementia, whatever it is, ADD depression. When you know how the body works, you can learn how to optimize its function, which is what we call it functional medicine. And then you get rid of the stuff that's impairing our ability to function properly. And you put in the stuff that the body needs to thrive. So you take out the impediments

to health, you put in the ingredients to health, the body knows what to do. Most people don't connect the dots between what they're doing in their life, whether it's what they're eating or the toxins they're exposed to or the stress they're under or the lack of sleep they're getting or the lack the fact that they, you know, may not move their bodies, or learn how to do all these things, they don't know how that's impacting them, they don't know how close they are to feeling good. We're literally only a few days,

not weeks or months, from feeling better. We're only a few days away from feeling better. Yes, it's really remarkable. I take people all the world, and I put it in these groups, we do these programs around the world. And we change our diet, we move them a little bit, a little bit of yoga,

not like running a marathon, but just general exercise, some simple body practices. And within six days, the average person reduces their symptoms from all diseases by 70%. Wait, what? Yeah, I've done this so many times,

I'm like, I've been shocked myself, because like, well, you have migraines, are irritable bowel or depression, or insomnia, or? Yeah, I've done this so many times, and I'm like, I even shocked myself, because like, well, your migraines are irritable bowel or depression or insomnia or joint pain or fatigue or brain fog, whatever the stuff you're feeling, and I call it the FLC syndrome, which means you're... What's FLCs it? When you feel like crap. Feel like crap.

There's a more serious version of that called FLS. For election. Yes, exactly. Well, and I, you know what's interesting is that I think about, you know, we're constantly looking at what people DM us and what they fill out in the forums at MelRobins.com. And I've started to wonder if part of the problem is that so many of us are used to feeling like shit. Yeah, we don't know how better we can feel. We don't have any insight because we've never, it's like you have any health and standing in your foot

your whole life. You don't know what it feels like when the helmet gets off until it gets off. And so then people have the insight. And you know, I've written many books about how to do this. I, in my new book, Young Forever, I explain how to do this. I've written a book called The 10-day Detox Diet, which is really what I used in my patients to help reset autoimmune disease, reset the gut, turn off inflammation and get rid of asthma,

migrate, whatever it is. Some people are suffering from depression because we don't know how depression is inflammation in the brain. I want to go point by point by point because I can feel, can you just hear Dr. Hyman winding up? He's so excited. I want to back up a couple steps because we were talking about the fact that your work in functional medicine,

as a medical doctor, decades of work with patients, of research, the books that you've written, we're going to link to all of this everybody. It will be in the show notes. Don't you worry, we're gonna link to all of this everybody. It will be in the show notes, don't you worry, we got you covered. You talked about the fact that our bodies are designed to heal. And so I want to give people a metaphor to start to think about

because you've already started talking about food and that we don't stop and think about the fact that the environment that we live in and the things that we stick in our mouth and put into our body and the stress that we live in, and the things that we stick in our mouth and put into our body, and the stress that we endure, are all things that we can change for the better, that have a material demonstrated impact

on the quality of your health to the point where if you take this seriously within six days, you will feel better. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I mean, what's so amazing, no, is that every cell in your body, your DNA, your microbiome, which are the bugs that live in your gut, your immune system, everything is listening to your thoughts.

Everything is responding to your environment in real time. We call it the expose home. Your life is not predetermined by some genetic destiny. It's the life and the expose home, which is all the sum total of all the experience you've had, all the toxins, all the thoughts, all the relationships, all the food you eat, everything, washing over your biology,

creating the expression of who you are in this moment. And so that's a very empowering idea because it doesn't just, something just didn't happen to you. You can actually be empowered to understand what those things are and change them and radically reverse your biological age, your health problems, your mental health, because the body has this incredible healing system,

as we said. Wow, okay, so what a good amount of four, and maybe you have a better one, but I keep thinking about, like, if you think about the fact that a car, brand new car is designed to drive. Yeah. Right? It needs fuel though.

Yeah. So if you want to take care of your car, you put in the fuel that doesn't have a bunch of crap in it, and or you plug your car in, right? And you drive one of these electric cars. I think a lot about food as the fuel. And if your car drives best on electricity or gas, you would never put sand in your gas tank

because it would clog it up. And so is that kind of a metaphor that you're thinking about? What is it? It's more exciting than that because yes, food is fuel, it's energy, right? You need it to run your body. But there's all these other stuff in food

that we've ignored besides calories, and it's the informational molecules in food. Because food is not just calories, it's information, it's instructions, it's code that upregulates your biology or downregulates that every single bite. It changes your gene expression, your hormones, your brain chemistry, your immune system, your microbiome, literally everything is changed

in real time by what you're eating. Like most people don't connect their food and their mood or their food and their asthma, their food and their arid ol' bowel, or their food and their microns, or their food and their... Or food and anxiety, or food and depression. Wow, okay.

I wanna talk about where do we start, okay? food in there. Food in anxiety or anxiety or depression. Wow. Okay. I want to talk about where do we start? Yeah. Okay. Because I want to make sure that everybody listening leaves with a better understanding of how their body is designed to heal itself and specific changes that we can make in order to activate that power inside of us. And so I want to talk a little bit about,

you write so much about food, and we've already started talking about it. And in particular, I'm a huge fan of your book, The Blood Sugar Solution, which is where I think you're one of the first people to start talking about the Vegas Nerve, and the power of Vegas Nerve, which we talk about on this show constantly. Yeah. And the ultra-mind solution is a book. All these book goodies. Oh, yeah.

All these book goodies, but listen, you know, everybody, and I'm going to have you explain it. You know, you probably, you may have heard that your gut is called the second brain. Yeah. But what you may not know is that during the formation of you as a human being, the same embryonic clump that forms the brain also forms the gut, and they separate, but they stay connected via neurotransmitter. So I think about it like almost like like goop, like you break goop and half and it's got the stringy

sections and part of it becomes your brain and the second part becomes the gut Well they call it your gut brain or your second brain. Yes, and that they talk to each other all the time. Completely, yeah. And so where I want to start with this is can you explain the connection between your gut health and the connection between your gut health and your overall health. And then we're going to get into specific mental health issues that people struggle with. Absolutely. What was really amazing to me, Mal, is I began to practice functional medicine.

I began to treat people's guts. I would help their immune system get better. I'd get them on anti-inflammatory diets. And as a side effect, they would report to me that my ADD better, my depression is gone, my picotax are gone, my mood is better, all these things I'm like, really? Well, what's going on here? And I began to really inquire about this process of how everything below the neck is influencing everything above the neck.

So the subtitle of the Ultraman Solution is how to fix your broken brain by fixing your body first. And what's really amazing is the microbiome is this new frontier in addition to the understanding of the gut brain and the gut nervous system and the brain nervous system and how they're connected, it's constant communication, there's more nerve transmit than your gut than your brain. But what's now happening is the understanding

of this sea of bacteria in there that are all speaking to you every minute. And I just had talked to a scientist who was researching a particular microbe in the gut. And it's a big word, it's called acrimansia, don't worry about it, it's just one of the bacteria that lives there. I already forgot it.

And what's amazing is as they were fermenting this growing the bacteria to put into probiotic, which is very powerful for many things for regulating metabolism and mood and ship-led sugar and everything, they discovered that this that of the byproducts of this bacteria was something called GABA. Now GABA is a calming neurotransmitter. Oh. Now, GABA is a calming neurotransmitter. When people take volume, that's what it's doing. It's activating the GABA receptors in the brain to calm you down and relax you. So when you think, if you have the right bacteria in your gut, you're producing compounds and neurotransmitters that are going to your brain and making you either relax and calm

or depressed. Wow. Okay. I want to have you either relax and calm or depressed. Wow. Okay. I want to have you define a few things for us. So you've used the word inflammation a lot. What the hell does that mean? Well, everybody knows. You know, you cut your finger.

You cut your finger. You got a sore throat. That's inflammation. You cut your finger and it gets red and pussied. That's inflammation. Oh. Right? No. I never thought about it that way. You just brain your knee. It swellussied, that's inflammation. Oh, right? No, I never thought about that.

Right. You spray in your knee, it swells up. Well, that's inflammation. Well, that's inflammation. But when you functional medicine doctors throw around the word inflammation, inflammation here, I don't even know what you're talking about. Yeah, so we know that inflammation on the outside, what it looks like. Yes.

That's what I was just referring to. Yes. But there's inflammation on the inside. And it's silent inflammation. If your brain's inflamed, it doesn't get rid of this fallen, but you get depressed and you have ADD and you have personality issues and you're can't sleep and you're anxious. We're now understanding that the inflammation, this hidden inflammation is occurring inside of us. And it's leading to all the diseases of Western civilization, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia.

The aging process itself is called inflamaging, which is one of the hallmarks of aging I talk about in young forever in my book. And the beautiful thing is that we now know what is driving the inflammation on the inside. What's causing us to have inflammation on the inside? Well, our gut is a big player. Okay. It's 70% of our immune systems in our gut. And if we don't eat the right food, if our microbiome is in the right bugs in there, they're nasty bugs. And we get leaky gut. And that means

the body can't filter out the food and proteins from food and the bacteria in there. And you leak them across the intestinal lining. And guess what? Your immune system's right there, and it goes, oh shit, what is all this? And so I was creating inflammation. So you get asthma, or you get arthritis, or you get depression, or you get diabetes, or you get dementia, because the gut bacteria and the whole system in there is broken down. And the other... I ask one more question. Yeah.

Because I think this is really important for everybody to understand. Let's back up a minute and talk about how your gut is supposed to function. So when it's functioning in the correct way, because I only learned about leaky gut because we had a daughter that struggled with distorted eating. And she was constantly talking about how she felt fat.

And I thought, oh my God, we have not only this issue with restriction and her not eating, but we now have body dysmorphia. And we went to see a nutritionist that was a functional holistic nutritionist. And she came back and said, through the disordered eating, your daughter has destroyed. Her gut.

Her gut. There are no positive bacteria strains. So the food hits her gut. And without positive bacteria strains, the food doesn't break down. And so she does feel good. And then like all of this acidic crap because the food is not digesting properly because there's no positive bacteria, all this acidic crap leaks through the wall of the gut and then goes through the nervous system

and the anxiety spikes. And so this was brand new to me. So can you just explain to everybody when your gut is in balance, how is it functioning properly? Cause I think that'll give everybody the ability to then understand the impact of it not functioning properly. Well, I mean, pretty much shouldn't know it's there.

It should do its job, right? You shouldn't be blowing it or standing. That's true. You shouldn't have heartburn. You shouldn't have gas. You should feel fine. Really? People go through life without all that.

I mean, you can have a little gas, but it's not like, you know, that's kind of a normal thing. But I think if people are really noticing their gut function, yes, something's wrong. Okay. And then you just look in the toilet, you should have a perfectly formed log that floats a little bit.

And that's it. And you should be able to urge to go and you should go and it should take a couple minutes and that's it. And that is not the case for most people in the Western civilization. We know now how to identify imbalances in there. We know how to test for it.

We know how to treat it. Not most traditional doctors, but most functional medicine doctors, this is the focus of a lot of the way we help people is by optimizing their gut function. Because when we eat, we're not just feeding us. We're feeding the thousand critters that live down there. The, there's probably 10 trillion cells in there that we're feeding.

And you're got. And you're got. And they affect everything that's going on. And if they're the bad guys, you're going to feel bad. And if they're the good guys, you're going to feel good. When you eat sugar and starch and processed food and artificial sweeteners and thickeners and gums and adives, they just destroy the microbiome. So we really have a gut crisis in this country, but we also have the food crisis.

And the food crisis is really what's driving it. Change your diet and see what happens. Not for a year or 10 years, but 10 days. Anybody can do anything for 10 days. And when you do that, you literally take away all the potential inflammatory foods, all the foods that are causing you to have issues, which is typically gluten, dairy, sugar, or process.

So what is the 10-day? Like, look, just give us simple rules that you want everybody listening to try. This is a dare. Let's just, let's go through a sample menu for today. Okay. But it's basically protein and vegetables, nuts and seeds and berries. And so you, Hold on, you said that very fast.

Protein, vegetables, nuts and seeds and berries. Not some seeds and berries. And lots of good fats, olive oil, avocado. So as basically breakfast could be, for example, a couple of eggs with sliced tomatoes and avocado with olive oil on top. Lunch could be a big salad with lots of different veggies and tomatoes. I could throw a can of wild salmon on there, putting some pumpkin seeds and just lots of good plant food.

Very colorful very colorful And dinner might be you know some piece of fish or chicken or some nice small piece of meat with three quarters of your Place should be vegetables so three quarters Yeah, I like I'll have a lot good and I had like a purple sweet potato I had some roasted mushrooms. I had roasted eggplant whatever whenever you kind of get excited about broccoli I make cruciferous vegetables every day. These are the broccoli and what did you say? Cruciferous. What the hell work?

Cruciferous? It's broccoli, basically. The broccoli family. What does cruciferous mean? It means broccoli, basically broccoli, collard, collards, cabbage, brussels, sprouts, you know, all those. The fight between you and your grandmother served.

Does that understand? It's this family of vegetables. It's a super family. Got it. Because it actually detoxes your cells. It helps prevent cancer, it boosts all the molecules in your body. So I want to stop you real quick because you posted something two days ago. I did.

What? It was your cells, your brain cells, like all of this stuff, your skin that all is continuing to grow. It doesn't just grow out of thin air, it actually is impacted and grows from the raw materials that you have. And so would you rather have cells that are made from abaga Doritos? Exactly. Or cells made from a salad or a piece of fish.

And when you boil it down that way, like holy cow, what I put in my mouth is what I become. Yeah, absolutely. It literally becomes what you eat. Listen to your own body, your body's the smartest doctor in the room. It'll tell you what works and what doesn't. And when you stop this for that, you go, well, God, no, wait a minute.

My joy stone hurt or wait a minute. My, I'm not having terrible reflux or heartburn anymore. I don't have migraines, what happened? Where my mood is better. Hmm, what's going on? It's what you're eating. Wow, okay, we gotta hear a quick word from our sponsors. Hold that thought and we'll be right back.

Okay, so we're gonna go back to the next question. Okay, so we're gonna go back to the next question. Okay, so we're gonna go back to the next question. Welcome back, I'm here with Dr. Mark Heimann, and he is talking today all about the fact that we have the power to heal ourselves from the inside out. And we're talking about simple ways that you can do this. All right. Dr. Heimann, what are the top things that people should in this kind of 10-day window

Stop eating basically anything comes in a package can or a box get rid of it if it's sugar No, if sugar sweeten beverages. No alcohol. No grains and beans for a short time There's a lot of people have inflammation from that. They have a gut issue Grains and beans are healthy and they're good for you But for some people they can be a problem. What's the universal one? It's a no gluten. No gluten, no sugar, no dairy, no alcohol, no processed food. Do you have any fun? Absolutely.

So much fun. I have so much fun every day. My whole life is fun. And I don't feel restricted. I don't starve myself. And the thing is, these foods are addictive now. So people think I got to have sugar. People are listening.

They're thinking, oh Dr. Hyman, can I have artificial sweeteners or can I have, you know, a TVL or can I have? A TVL, okay. Everybody's going through their head. And if you are having this inner dialogue right now, I guarantee you have biological addiction sugar because you're trying to find a way out.

You know, I'm gonna stop smoking, but I'm gonna vape or I'm gonna chew nigger-ed gum. Well, that's not getting rid of your addiction. Yes. And I think getting rid of your addiction. Right. And I think it's not your fault. And this is probably one of the biggest problems I have with the narrative in America, that we are blaming the person who's overweight for their problem.

It's your fault that you're eating too much and not exercising enough, because that's the solution to weight loss. It's all about calories and calories out. It's all about moderation, and if you can't do it, there's something wrong with you. That's just a big fat lie. And that keeps people feeling ashamed about themselves. It keeps them from being empowered to know what to do. It keeps the food industry free of responsibility.

And it's one of the most unfortunate narratives that we have. And what you're here to say is it's not your fault. Because the way that food is manufactured, it is addictive. And it is screwing up your body chemistry. And it is causing like a whole litany of things that you aren't even thinking that my diet and the way that process food is getting metabolized, is causing this inflammation that

makes my brain not work right, that impacts focus and energy and mood and sleep and all of these things. And all of your work points to the fact that one of the places that all of us can start is by just doing an experiment for 10 days where you stop the dairy, stop the glute, and stop the sugar, and you eat a colorful meal of whole foods and vegetables. Three-quarters of the plate is vegetables and have a protein.

There is your homework for 10 days and report back everybody because you've seen over and over and over again that in that small of a window, people have remarkable results. Yeah, I mean, that's the key. If people go, you know, this is a long slog and it's going to take me a year or so, you're not going to want to do it. So this is like the restart and has enormous benefits because for the first time people understand what they're doing impacts how they feel. Yeah, I almost feel like this is like an oil change. We've got to get that nasty ass oil out there and glug, glug, glug, glug. Get your gut working right.

Can we talk about the impact of the gut with anxiety and what's your recommendation? If somebody struggles with anxiety, what do they need to do to heal their gut and how will that impact anxiety? Well, anxiety can be caused to many things, right? From life stresses, from trauma, from environmental toxins, from your microbiome,

from eating too much sugar. I mean, there's a whole list. So functional medicines, if I back into the root cause. Yep. And anxiety is a symptom. It's like saying, I have a headache, right? Well, did someone hit you in the head with a hammer? Do you have a migraine?

Did you not sleep enough? Did you have a hangover? Or, you know, have, you know, a good aneurysm? Like, why do you have a headache? Right. So anxiety is just like saying, I have a headache. Our depression is like saying, I have a headache. It doesn't mean anything other than what your symptoms are.

The question is what's the cause? And that is what functional medicine is so good about. And so the gut plays a big role. I really just start with the simple lifestyle practice. I do a 10 day reset, do some simple movement, take a walk, do some simple mindful movements practice. Do your high five. I do take five, which is five breaths, five times a day.

You know, simple. Like before you eat every time, you're gonna be able to take five breaths in, Yeah. I do take five, which is five breaths five times a day. You know, simple. Like before you eat every time, before you're going to bed, take five breaths in slowly in and out for five seconds. How the hell does that help? It resets your nervous system because every time you breathe, you move your diaphragm

and your diaphragm is this place where the vagus nerve goes through. The vagus nerve is your relaxation nerve as your nervous system. You just need to find the switch. And this is, yeah, that's the beautiful thing. So you can actually use your breath to reset your nervous system and to calm everything down

and lower adrenaline or cortisol or all the stress hormones and reset your system. But it didn't take a lot. I wanna just come back to something you said in the very beginning. Over and over and over again, you're proving simple ways that your body is designed to heal itself. Yeah.

So five breaths, deep breaths. Well, walk us through how you do this. I just go like, take a deep breath in to five through your nose. And five out. Do that five times. It's not that hard. Yeah, but nobody does it. I nobody said at once and I feel already. I feel better too. And again, it's proof that if you do the right input, your body responds.

And this is really what my work is about. It's what my book, Young Forever, is focused on. How do we activate our healing systems? whether you're 25 or 75, you can activate these systems and feel better now and put yourself on the track for a longer, healthier life. Wow. Let's talk about ADHD. What did you say? ADHD. Okay.

I even fell for that. That was good. Let's talk about ADHD. I'm worried about you about that. Yeah, exactly. Let's talk about ADHD and the gut. How is healing your gut? Oh, God. How the thing with ADHD?

I'm going to tell you a story. And it was what really got me on this track of thinking about writing this book. It was a 12 year old kid who had severe ADHD when he was younger. It was a kindergarten on Adderall, and kicked out a kindergarten. I mean, who gets kicked out a kindergarten? Wow. And just struggling at 12 years old, his mother was center with send,

and you know, can behavior problems, and just struggling. The mother brought him in, and I did a full evaluations, because I don't just say, tell me by your ADHD, I said, tell me about your bowel movements, tell me about what's happening with this and that and the other thing.

And you know, he had asthma here at the Royal Dallas Syndrome, he had headaches and night, he had muscle cramps, he had anal itching, which is a clue about something. Oh, okay. It's often a sign of yeast issues or, yeah. So he had all these problems. And he was on seven different medications from multiple different doctors on hazard medications on a grant medications on 80 medications on moved medications, it was a mess. I started treating him and all we did was clean up his diet.

He was living on junk food, never ate a vegetable's life, massively nutritional deficient. He was a fish in magnesium, which caused muscle cramps. He was a fish in zinc, because he didn't, any pumpkins, he's a vegetable. And his immune system was dysfriculated. He had also a b-vitamin deficiencies. He was having gut issues with bad bacteria, gluten sensitivity. He had yeast overgrowth. He had a little bit of leadness system here. All this stuff, it was really easy to treat. All I did was basically take out the bad food, put in a whole food style, a little

bit of elimination that we talked about. I gave him basic multivitamin, some bish oil, magnesium, and vitamin D, some probiotics, kind of reset his gut. And the mother brings him back too much later, and it's not only is this ADD gone, but all of his other symptoms are gone. His migraines is, is, is, is, ear roll bowel, his asthma,, skin issues, is analogue, it's all gone, congestion, sinus issues, all gone. And it's handwriting went from totally illegible. You know, these kids were really bad at penmanship. To perfectly legible, perfect penmanship.

And I didn't send him to a handwriting school. All I did was fix his brain by fixing his body, by fixing his gut. I'm processing this. Yeah, it's a lot. No, no, no, no, no. fixing his gut. I'm processing this. Yeah, it's a lot. No, no, no, no, I'm processing this because I have a visual to share with you listening to us. And then I want to tell a quick story

because I'm starting to feel like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, with our own son. So the visual I want to give everybody, because it just hit me, is you know when somebody has an allergic reaction, like they get stung by a bee, or they eat something that they're allergic to, and their face turns bright red, or you know, something swells on their body, that inflammation that you're seeing on the outside is the body reacting to something that it can't process.

What is it like? Can you describe what an allergic reaction means medically because I then want to tie it to something that I'm now thinking about when it comes to the gut. So what does it mean when you have an allergic reaction? Your allergies. I mean, there's really two main kind of allergies. One is a true allergy. So if we peanuts, your tongue swells up, your lung shut down, you can't breathe, and you can die. You get anaphylaxis. That's a life-reading emergency, a beasting allergy. That's a certain type, we call type one, allergy, which is super fast, super quick, and you can die from it.

That'd be pen people, that'd be pen people, right? Then there's the delayed sensitivity. It's not a true allergy, but it can create sort of low grade long-term symptoms. So if you eat bread, you might have brain fog. Is that a true allergy? No, but is it sensitivity, yes, right? And I think people don't have, I mean, I know, for example, if I dairy, I will get congestion

and snotty immediately and I'll probably get pimples the next day. But if I have, for example, sheep or goat products that are from a regenerative sheep that have a2 casing, which is non-inflammatory, then I don't. Right? So it's really not so much about the type one, we're so much worried about. It's all these other types of food reactions that are slow and delayed and create this low-grade inflammation that creates all these symptoms for people. Yes. So I wanted to bring that visual in for everybody because I think it's really helpful. And it occurred to me a couple years ago. Huh.

I wonder if like these sensitivities and these allergies that people have to food that may not cause swelling or redness in your face or break out or whatever that you can't see. I wonder if all of this is screwing up the way that our body is able to function, and it interferes with your body's way to function. So when you think about it like those type 1 ones, and you just explain it like, if you have a sensitivity to wheat, or your body just can't handle the big company manufactured foods because of the chemicals and the dyes and the crap that are in it. It is causing your whole body to have almost like this reaction, this molding inflammation.

This molding inflammation. And so when you think about it that way, it makes so much sense to go holy cow. If you just simply were to switch your diet from all this process crap, grab and go, and you were to put on your plate a little bit of protein and three quarters vegetables. It would probably calm your body down and your thoughts down. And here's what I'm going, holy fuck, this is crazy. Because our son, exactly what you're talking about, Oakley in fourth grade was diagnosed with severe dyslexia. The kid could not read. It looked honest to God, like he was writing with his feet.

His dysgraphia was so bad. He could not sit still. So we pull him out of public school and they immediately medicaid him for ADHD. He hated the meds. But it was the only way he could sit still in class. Fast forward to about eighth grade, he starts advocating for himself.

I'm not taking these meds, I'm not taking these meds, I'm not taking these meds, we're like fine. But if we get a report from school that you are bouncing around the classroom, we're gonna have to find a different solution. This school happened to have a cafeteria where all the kids ate and it had healthy options. There were no unhealthy options.

There was the salad bar, there was the homemade soup, there was a protein. He gets into ninth grade. When I tell you, this kid is a totally different person. His handwriting is different. That's what made me think. His ability His handwriting is different. That's what made me think. His ability to focus is different. He is just, I don't even know who he is.

It's like destroying it in school. He is present. Yeah. And he eats vegetables. Yeah. He has a totally different diet. Yeah. Like I'm sitting here going, holy shit, the kid used to eat mac and cheese.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Check it out. I'll do it. That'll do it. oh yeah. Check it out. That's all do it. That'll do it. Don't put a vegetable in my plate. I'll do it. Yeah, it's really true. And it's like,

And I'm just processing this because I'm like, I think I, this is a major part of why he is transformed. And male, if that's just ADD, everything that goes on on our brain above our neck is governed in the same way. We may not have such severe symptoms. We may not have asthma. We may not have severe ADD, everything that goes on in our brain above our neck is governed in the same way. We may not have such severe symptoms. We may not have asthma. We may not have severe ADD, but we may have fatigue or brain fog or just depression or anxiety. Well, let's talk about depression because anxiety is not a disease.

ADHD is not a disease. No, they're just... Let's talk about depression, though, because that is technically like a disease. Well, anxiety is a disease, and ADD is considered a disease. Well, anxiety is a disease and 80D is considered a disease. I mean, they're in the disease classification manual. I don't agree. I think here, let me just back up a little bit. We have like 155,000 diseases in our manual,

Dr. Manual that we can pick from when we want to diagnose somebody. And most of them are just descriptions of the symptoms that people have, but tell you nothing about the cause. So is the root cause inflammation? Is that the root cause of all this? Is the root cause of many things? Is inflammation not about everything?

What are the options when it comes to root cause for you as a functional medical doctor? So basically at the beginning, we talked about taking out the bad stuff, putting in the good stuff. And the body's not that complicated. I mean, it's complex, it's very dynamic. But basically, it needs certain things to thrive

and certain things make it not thrive, right? So what are the things that we need to think about getting rid of that the body's in like? Bad food. And we can define, we've sort of defined that process food sugar, it's stress, and it's, it can be physical or psychological stress.

And a lot of, you know, stress is really defined as the perception of a real or imagined threat to your body or your ego. So it can be a tiger chasing you or you could think your spouse is cheating on you, but it's not true, right? Or you could think that your boss is mad at you. Yeah, the other few things,

it are the things that cause our body to be out of balance besides bad food and stress are toxins. Our gut and microbiome is a huge factor, so an unhealthy gut and bad bugs. And last is things that irritate our immune system like allergens or sensitivities. Okay, what are the five things? Bad food, stress, toxins, bad bugs death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death D, B vitamins, iron, zinc. These are magnesium common nutritional deficiencies that have brought impacts across the body, including our mode.

Then we need the right balance of hormones. We need clean air, we need clean water, we need movement, like exercise, we need resetting restoration, relaxation, resetting the vagus nerve sympathetic nervous system used to be calmed down, right? That's not a passive activity. So you have to actively relax, with this breathing or yoga or meditation or whatever prayer or journaling, a million ways to do it. Then we need also

sleep. And most of us are not getting enough sleep or good quality sleep. So seven, eight hours minimum for most people is essential. So if somebody is not getting good sleep, you mentioned 7 to 8 hours of sleep is what the average person needs minimum. What are a couple simple changes that you would recommend that someone focus on immediately to start to improve their sleep habits. Well, there's a number of simple things you can do to fix your sleep. One is regular sleep cycle.

So, wake and sleep at the same time every day. Okay, how does that help? It puts you in a rhythm. So, your body kind of knows, oh, it's time to eat, it's time to sleep. You have a, you're by your biological organism, whether you like it or not, and you have to regulate yourself

based on circadian rhythms and the basic cycles of day and night and light and dark. The other thing is, make sure you have 20 minutes if you can of light in the morning. Why? Because that sets your recess, your brain for the day, and also recess your pineal gland will help with melatonin production later in the day, Oh. Which melatonin helps you sleep at night. And so the light you're talking about is get outside, even on a cloudy day. Yeah, 20 minutes.

20 minutes. And it was light boxes, even you can use that have full spectrum light. The second is at night, don't get blue light. So where blue blocker glasses get off your screens, at least two or three hours before bed. Is that include television or just phone and- If you want to really do the blue-bocker stuff, you can wear your blue-bockers while you're

watching television. Okay. And that's a cheap investment for a good benefit. And that will help your brains start to calm down. And how does blue light interfere with your brain's ability to shut down and get ready for the- Well, listen, listen, Mel, we didn't have the light bulb to 100 and something years ago, right? So our bodies are like designed.

When the sun goes down to produce all these hormones and chemicals to help us get ready for sleep, another thing you can do is take magnesium. Magnesium really helps with sleep for a lot of people at night. And then the other thing I love to do is a hot bath with Epsom Salt and Lavender. Why Lavender and why Epsom Salt? Epsom Salt has magnesium, which gets absorbed in the body.

The hot water basically relaxes your muscle or your nervousness. So I can be like super stressed, maybe I can get a hot bath, and they make as high as I can stand it, and then I have other longevity benefits. And then I have Lavender drops, which Johnson and Johnson knows work and the study's been there because it lowers cortisol. These are the lavender baby bath to calm the babies down. Yeah. So so lavender drops, you can just put them in the bathtub with your

option salt and soak in there for 20 minutes. Go to bed and then it's your temperature starts to go down. You'll sleep also. Keep your bedroom like four sleep and sex, right? And don't have a TV in there. Keep it cool. 68 degrees or lower. Keep it dark. Really important.

Here plugs and I shades. If you know you live in the city, love it. Yeah. But that all helps to reset your sleep system. All right, Doc, hold that thought. We gotta hear a quick word from our sponsors. And we'll be right back. Hey, I'm Mel Robbins. Welcome back.

I'm here with 14 time New York best-selling author, Dr. Markeim and he is the voice when it comes to functional medicine and he is talking today all about the fact that we have the power to heal ourselves from the inside out and we're talking about simple ways that you can do this. All right, Dr. Heimann, can you tell us about the importance of connection as a way to stay healthy? Connection, community, love, meaning and purpose. These are all ingredients for health.

In my book I talk about how, for example, if we cure heart disease and cancer from the face of the planet, we'd extend our life by five to seven years. If we cure loneliness? If we cure loneliness and develop connection and meaning and purpose, we've extended our life by seven years or more. So, wait a minute. Basically having meaning and purpose, we've done it like by seven years or more. So wait a minute. Basically having meaning and purpose in connection to life is more powerful

than curing cancer and heart disease in terms of longevity. Connection is medicine. Yeah. And I'm sure you're seeing it as a epidemic of loneliness, especially coming out of the pandemic. Totally, totally. So those are the ingredients for health that we need to provide. And everybody needs different ones.

For example, some people might need more vitamin D. Some people might need more sleep, some people need me, different kind of exercise. So it's really personalized. But those are the basic ingredients. So that's sort of personalized, right? Because like, just talking to the broad audience is listening. You've mentioned a number of supplements. And it's the same one's over and over.

So for anybody listening that's like, okay, I got it, I have to do something. We've already talked about diet and changing your diet and even just noticing that if you were to remove the things we've talked about and add in this very simple, clean, healthy, vegetable forward and clean protein diet in six six to 10 days, you're gonna feel like a different person, just try it. Try it. And then you're gonna decide what you wanna do for that, right?

I'm gonna keep eating my doughnuts. Okay, fine. Then you're gonna feel like crap. And if you wanna feel like crap, it's your prog and everything. Well, I'll tell you something. I am now on, it's like, I don't know, day 30 something, if not drinking, it's life changing.

Yeah. It's totally life changing. And I cannot believe how much clearer I am. I cannot believe how much more present I am. I cannot believe that I don't really miss it. And I had committed to doing this for almost three months. And I don't know how I'll incorporate it back if ever. Maybe you're in there, but yeah, I could just was such a profound difference for me

that I'm kind of dumbfounded. I didn't do this earlier. And so I think you can tell almost immediately. But will you explain to everybody, if you're not currently taking a high-quality multivitamin or other supplements, what are the non-negotiables where everybody should start? You know, for probably less than a dollar a day, you can get what you need, which is a multivitamin. Yeah. And I would say a good one. It's cleanly produced.

It doesn't have fillers, additives, and products. How do you tell if it's a good one? The ones that are manufactured and good manufacturing practices that don't have fillers, chemicals, and additives that are bioavailable forms of nutrients. And so if you stick with certain brands, they can kind of guarantee you're going to get that. Okay. Then I think a vitamin D from most everybody, even in the summer, people are like, I'm taking vitamin D in the summer, I don't need it. You do. Most people, unless they're out there

running around half naked, between 10 and 2 every day, all year long, you're going to be vitamin D. That's only you. I've seen you in your reform after photos that we're going to link. The dude is pan with the six pack. You're running around in the vitamin A. He's embarrassed in laughing. We know it's true. Yeah. Is there different forms of D by D3? Vitamin D3.

And do you have to take it with something else to be absorbed? I'm with fat, eating with fat. So with food basically. Okay. And so maybe between a thousand to five thousand, the government guidelines the up to four thousand is safe. So there's no downside to that. And then fish oil for most people because 90 plus percent of us are deficient in omega-3 fats, because we don't eat wild food that much anymore. What does the fat do? It, these omega-3 fats are, our fats we need in small amounts that are what our

brains are made up of. They regulate inflammation. They are what our cell membranes are made of. They are basically the most critical fats that we consume and most of us don't have enough of them. And they can treat depression and many mental issues. Even the ADD has been found to be helpful. They postpartum depression. I mean, so a lot of things that we just think, oh, what would we do with these things? But there are great studies that show that these can be effective. So I think that's a kind of basic non-negotiable. I think-

God, so multivitam in everybody, the D3 and Fischua. And Fischua, what about magnesium? Because you've mentioned it. Well, sure. I, that's my fourth one, but depending on your symptoms, and how do you know you need magnesium? Well, I don't know. How do I know your symptoms, and how do you know you need magnesium? Well, I don't know.

How do I know? Listen, listen up everybody, it's pretty simple. If you have anything that's irritable or twitchy or spasomy, it's likely you're magnesium efficient. So if you're anxious, your emotions are twitchy. If you have palpitations, it's twitchy. If your colon's not working, and it's this bazzy of constipation,

if you have muscle cramps, if I twitching, any of those things are signs of low magnesium. I'm just twitching as you describe those symptoms, isn't my check? I promised everybody a appointment, zero cost, with one of the world's most respected medical experts and leaders leading voices in the functional medicine space. My toes cramp all the time. Why? You know, everybody's favorite radio station, you know what that is? No.

W-I-F-M. What does that mean? What's in it for me? What's in it for me? Yes, exactly. So your toes? Yes, my toes. Probably cramp, because you have either electrolyte imbalances or magnesium.

Oh. And so if, you know, people often don't have enough electrolytes in their diet, particularly potassium, so you can get that from eating lots of vegetables, from vegetable broths, or take electrolyte solutions. But taking magnesium is a huge cure for muscle cramps, and it's particularly foot cramps. So what surprising things cause your magnesium to go down? So we should have a lot of magnesium because it's in all foods, nuts and seeds and a lot of plant foods. But we do so much to make our bodies dump magnesium in our urine.

We drink too much soda. We have too much caffeine, too much alcohol, and too much stress, all of which causes to lose magnesium in our urine. How does it make you lose magnesium if you drink a soda? Well, it's got something called phosphoric acid in it, which is in the dark colored colas. And that causes you to leach magnesium out. And yeah.

All right, well, thank you, doctor. Can we talk about hormone imbalance? Yes, we can. How do you know if your hormones are out of whack? And what role do hormones play in your gut? Yeah. And I would love to selfishly focus on women, if that's possible. So in the young forever, I have a whole series of quizzes that aren't fancy tests or literally just questions you answer and you get a score and you go, wow, my hormones are out of whack. Or my detox system is not good.

Or I'm way inflamed. Or I have magnesium deficiency. Like those questions, I just rolled off of what your symptoms would be. So it's pretty easy to identify what's going on now. Women in particular have way more complex hormonal history than men. Men go through angrippas, and they kind of lower their testosterone. in particular, have way more complex hormonal history than men. Yeah. Men go through angrippas, and they kind of lower their testosterone than Asian.

That's weird. And their cause? Yeah. That's male menopause, basically. And what happens when dudes go through male menopause? They get low libido, sex drive, trouble having erections, lose a muscle mass, get a little more soft and round. You know, basically, that's what happens. And I had grumpy because of those things.

Low motivation, you know, a little depressed, yeah. But with women, they go through, you know, puberty and then they have, you know, their teenage cycles and then they have their 20s cycles and their 30s cycles and their 40s cycles and then 50s. So it changes every decade. Women have changing hormones and everything happens from PMS to irregular cycles, to heavy bleeding, to PCOS, to pre-perry menopause, to menopause. And so, you know, there's no one prescription for all of it.

But essentially, what we do know is that just like everything else we talked about, the things that cause imbalance in our body that we listed off, right, the food, dress, toxins, et cetera, and the ingredients for health are also influencing our hormones. So. And what role do hormones play? So if we had to just like kind of even get more basic. What are hormones?

Yeah. No, I mean, I'm serious, like, because I think we throw around these terms, but I personally am like, well, what actually, what role does the hormone play? The hormones are like the communication, command and control centers in your body. I thought the neurotransmitters were. They are regulatory pathways that affect your brain a lot and they do work in other areas of your body.

But in your brain, you have something that's like a command center, it's called the hypothalamus. Okay. And this is like a radiotraft control on your, and for those of you who are not watching this on YouTube, I want you to know that Dr. Hyman is pointing right between the eyebrows, and I think the reason why we all get that scrunchy wrinkle right there is because

that is the command center. Yeah, it's a little bit inside. It's like, I can't quite touch it, because it's in my head. Okay, what's it called again? The hypothalamus. Hypothalamus. And that's controlling our sex hormones,

like estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, and so on. It's controlling our stress hormones, like cortisol. It's controlling our growth hormone. So there's thyroid hormones. All these hormones are controlled by this command and control center. Okay. And so what happens, particularly with women, is that they don't only have trouble with their sex hormones because of all the stresses and toxins in everything in our life, but they

also thyroid problems are really big and often underdiagnosed. And then you get insulin, which is becoming out of balance as you get older. Is insulin a hormone? Insulin is a kind of a signaling hormone peptide made by your pink wrist. Okay. And that regulates blood sugar and your body, but it also kind of when it's out of balance and you eat too much sugar in starch, you get this increasing belly fat and weight gain and that's caused by insulin.

So women are subjected, particularly as they get into their 30s and 40s to this sort of in balances and sex hormones, thyroid hormones, stress hormones, and blood sugar control hormones insulin. Those are like the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And so you don't have to treat each one separately. If you do the basic things, you get your lifestyle and sort it out, you eat, write, exercise, you learn stress reduction techniques, you get enough sleep, you take your basic supplements, you get rid of all the crap and your life as best you can, your hormones will reset.

What about the thickening in the middle? That's the one that's bothering you now. I'm not down with that. No, that's not good. No, but he just looked down to see the thickening in the middle, I saw that. But that's the insulin part, that's the blood sugar. So what do I do?

Because I'm getting so many people writing about this too, because I've been talking about it. I'm like, this is not fair. I stopped drinking. I have the healthiest lifestyle I've ever had. I exercise every day. I eat the three quarters of the vegetables, clean protein. I get outside in the morning, like I'm doing it all.

Check, check, check, check, check. What the fuck is going on? Definitely hormones change. So sometimes there's things to tweak. Sometimes there's ways you can modify your diet a little bit or exercise a little differently to sort of regulate this. But it's sort of checking what's going on. Maybe your thyroid's a little off or maybe your insulin's a little higher than you think

and you have more insulin resistance or maybe you need to sort of increase testosterone because that gets lower too. And that increases muscle mass and body fat loss. So it's like a symphony that you have to sort of increase testosterone because that gets lower, too. And that increases muscle mass and body fat loss. So it's like a symphony that you have to be a conductor and make sure it's all playing in, too. Well, I, the visual I got was whack-a-mole. Like the second I hit the insulin correctly, the, you know, the other thing shoots up. No, it's not like that. It's not like that. It's actually, it actually all works the other

way. It's actually, when you actually when you treat the root causes, then everything gets better. So one question for you, if you can't afford to go to somebody in functional medicine to get this all tested, how do you figure out what's going on? Because I know that what's gonna happen with this conversation, Dr. Hyman,

is that we are going to activate anyone listening to absolutely take the next 10 days of your life and see what happens when you reset your diet and you remove a few things. Absolutely add in those simple supplements that cost you less than a dollar a day and you are worth that investment in yourself and see what happens. Absolutely take the steps to lower your stress and tap into your body's ability to reset, like even just the five, deep breaths a day that activate

the, and tone the vagus nerve. But if somebody's going, I want to learn more. What is the next right? That's a great question. And you know, one of the challenges I've always had with medicine is it's kind of a secret guilt. Then doctors hold the reins, they can order the tests or they can't, they will give you the results or they won't, they'll help you interpret them or they won't. And so you're at the sort of mercy of whoever you're seeing. And most doctors do a good job and want to help people, but they kind of kept in the guilt. So in the book, young forever, I do have really extensive questionnaires that allow you to figure out almost 80% of what's going on.

And then depending on what you find in those, you can kind of follow up with different kinds of testing. But because of this problem, exactly that you're talking about, I decided to co-found a company with a good friend called Function Health, which allows you without a doctor's order to go to any quest lab in the country and there's thousands of them. Get a blood draw of over 100 biomarkers that normally cost $15,000 for 500 bucks. Wow.

And it comes with a whole interpretive map and framework and dashboard that's filtered through the lens of functional medicine. Get the testing done, get your results and track it over time. And you can see your hormones, your thyroid, your insulin, your age-related markers, your brain chemistry so much about what's going on with your brain. You know what's so cool about this,

if you can afford to do it, and we'll put the link in the show notes, is it's like getting an x-ray of your insides. Yeah. You've already proven to us that you heal from the inside out. Yeah. Yeah, it's absolutely true. And I'm so excited about this approach because it'll empower

us people to be the CEO of their own health. And the reality is that even if you go to the doctor with all these complaints, they're going to be able to quote manage your symptoms. I don't want to manage people's symptoms. I want people to get better. I want people to reverse these problems and not need a doctor. And the truth is most of the things that work are not things you're going to get at a doctor's office, which is drugs and surgery. So sometimes you need them, and I use them. It's not a bad thing. But most of the problems we have don't respond

very well to that. I mean, they just cover over the symptoms. What if you get actually figure out why you're having the problem and fix it? Well, I think you told us why. It's inflammation. It's a gut that's out of whack. It is the stressors in your life. It is the toxins in your environment and not understanding that your body has this elegant design that is super intelligent and responsive

and can heal itself. If you are conscious and intentional about the right input. Yeah, and that's what's exciting. It's happening now in science as we're actually getting there like the old paradigm's dying and the longevity space I've been working in and when I wrote about a young forever where where these scientists are now talking about what's underlying all these diseases, these 155,000 diseases, that's not what we need to be thinking about, it's these 10 underlying problems that tend to go wrong as we get older

that can explain all disease. And if we treat those, we may not be able to just extend our life by five years by getting rid of cancer heart disease, but by 30 or 40 years. That means living to be 120 and being in good shape. Like I don't want to be 120 in nursing home and in wheelchair, I'm able to ride my bike,

go for horseback ride, make love, you know, that's what I want to do when I'm 100 or 120. Wow. I, you know, yeah, I'm glad that you said that because oftentimes I hear the word longevity and I had that reaction. I don't want to be rotting away in a nursing home. Exactly.

I'm going to go to the vet. That's unbearable. It's terrible because most of what we see in the world is abnormal aging. And we think that's normal. Oh, it's normal to become frail and decrepit and not be able to do what you want and lose function. And the truth is that most of us, our health

span doesn't equal our lifespan. The last 20 years of our life. What's the difference between health span and life span? Well, health span is how many years are healthy? You can do what you want. And life span is how many years are alive. So if you're fine till you're 60, then you get dimension, you're nursing for 20 years.

That's not good. So that's what you wanna do is make your health span equal your lifespan. You know, my mother-in-law is 85 years old. She jumps out of airplanes. She walks five miles a day. There you go. She's having the time of her life.

She prioritized friends. Exactly. She is the definition of vitality at that age. And she's like the Energizer Bunny. I can't imagine her running out of steam. And that's what I think you're talking about when it comes to vitality. One thing we did not touch on that I know

we're going to get a lot of questions on is probiotics. And you've already talked Dr. Hyman about the fact that your microbiome is the bugs in your gut that break down the food you eat so it can be turned into energy. And it's these bugs that keep your immune system healthy and that help your brain to function properly. So how do you reset the gut in terms of what probiotic or is there a strain you should take or what should you is yogurt enough like tell me tell us what you do. The truth is, Mal, that most of what determines the health and quality of your microbiome is what you're eating. Okay.

So you need to feed your gut, right, you need to tend your inner garden, right, and that's not that hard to do. What is it like? It likes lots of fruits and vegetables. gut, right? You need to tend your inner garden, right? And that's not that hard to do. What is it like? It likes lots of fruits and vegetables. It likes lots of fiber. It likes probiotic foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, and things like that. It likes pre-botic foods, which are like the fertilizer that feed the good bucks, things like asparagus, artichoke, plantain, hickamoth, and the list goes on. So we can do that a lot through our diet and to not eat gut-busting foods, things like tons of sugar, processed food, food additives, and multifiers, chemicals, all those things damage our microbiome.

And then drugs, we're on a lot of drugs, antibiotics, acid lockers, and all these things can really screw up or I got my probiot, I like drugs like Advil and the anti-inflammatory drugs. So we have to be really smart about taking out the things that Buster got and putting the things that he or she got. But the probiotic can be a useful tool, but it's not in replacement of the diet.

So you're basically saying, if you eat sugary cereal for breakfast, and then you have chicken nuggets and pizza for lunch, and then you have like a takeout, whatever fried, whatever pop and one probiotic is not going to help. Yeah, no. Okay. And the other thing that's really amazing is that we've learned that they like polyphenols, which are-

What is that? There's like a million molecules in colorful fruits and vegetables that are the medicine in food. And these medicines work in many ways in our body, and they're on a lot of the longevity switches. But it turns out that these microbes in your gut like to eat them. Oh. Right.

And so remember that weird name, acromansia that I was mentioning? I forgot it, but now I know. But the one that produces this natural volume in your gut, that bugs really likes green tea. It likes pomegranate and it likes cranberry. And it likes all the molecules. So you have to feed them. And you have little critters in there. You got to take care of them.

And so food is the biggest solution. And yes, probiotic can help and prebiotic supplements and fibers can help. But we really want to actually make sure we actually take care of it by eating what we need to be eating. And I had actually horrible colitis years ago from taking antibiotic that screwed up my gut. And I cured it using a lot of these polyphenols and prebiotics. Wow. And there's one other thing I want to tell you. Donna, who's one of the producers here at 1-4-3 studios, she has something to tell you. Oh.

Dr. Marquine, a personal connection that I think you listening, you're going to love this full circle moment. Hi, Dr. Hyman. I am really excited to be here today. And this feels very much like a full circle moment because without you, there's a good chance that I actually would not be here today. Wow.

About 12 to 14 years ago, I was living with excruciating back pain. I was on meds that are now illegal because they created hard issues. I had really horrible asthma, so even if I wanted to be active, I couldn't. I was wheezing terribly, and I was allergic to everything. I was diagnosed with 43 allergies when I was eight years old,

so I was just sneezing and wheezing, and hunched over all the time, so quite miserable. And then around that time, I found one of your books called The Five Forces of Wellness, I believe. That was actually an audio. An audio. Yes. Yes. So I, at that time, was divorced. And so I was a single mom and had my son in the back seat. And I would play those same four CDs over and over again. And I really needed to hear what you were sharing about how the body is impacted by food. I had never heard any of this before.

I didn't realize that I was supposed to be eating. All right. I didn't realize I was supposed to be eating greens and I wasn't supposed to be eating all the sugar I was and all the soda drinking and so I changed my lifestyle because of you and I started to go to the gym and Here I am now 14 years later and I have no more back pain I'm not unmeds anymore. I don't carry an inhaler because my asthma is now in remission. And no more allergies.

I'm not sneezing. We have dogs here today. And there's no way I could be in this place with dogs around. So I just want to thank you because I've now run 27-5Ks. And I've climbed out Washington twice. And I've biked 75 miles in a weekend four times and I just could not have done that without you.

So thank you so much for having me. That's such a great story. You know, I think it's amazing story because what you experience is not impossible to achieve for most people if they know what to do. Wow. Donna, first of all, I freaking love you because that, what just happened here is the mission of the show.

It is to truly connect people with the information, the inspiration and the encouragement that they need so that they can take control of their life. Wow. And again, what I love the most is that they can take control of their life. Yeah. Wow. And again, what I love the most is that you have said from the very beginning, your body is designed to work on a very simple rhythm to heal itself. And now you know the simple,

cost-free things that you can do in order to tap into this magnificent intelligent body of yours. It's a miracle, really. It really is. Well, Dr. Heimann in the house, thank you so much. You made a huge difference in my life, Donna's life. I know that this is going to make a huge difference in everybody's life who listens. And one thing I want to point out again, is that the whole point of this episode is to empower and educate you

about the amazing healing capacity of your body to introduce those of you who have never heard of functional medicine to this incredible area of research. And finally, to give you things to try. And if you're somebody that's been dealing with chronic illness and some of the stuff that we've talked about today doesn't apply to you, it's really smart for every single one of you listening to just take and try what feels right for you. That's the whole point of this.

You are your best healer and your body will tell you what's working. All the resources are in the show notes and in case nobody else tells you, I'm going to tell you that I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.

I love you. I love you, Dr. Hyman. I love you listening. I know Dr. Hyman loves you too. That's why he's interested. That's true. That's true. That's true.

That's true. Yes, and I believe in you and your ability to put this to use because it's going to help you create a better you and that's going to lead to a better life. All right, go do it, I'll talk to you in a few days. Oh, one more thing, it's the legal language. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional.

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