The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - Dr. Will Cole On Eliminating Inflammation, Functional Medicine & Integrative Health Care

Episode Date: November 15, 2019

#228: On this episode we sit down with Dr. Will Cole. Dr. Will is a leading functional medicine expert and practitioner. He has been named a top 50 functional medicine & integrative doctor in the nation. He is also a regular contributor to Mind Body Green and GOOP. Today we discuss how to eliminate inflammation, the benefits of functional medicine and the practice of integrative healthcare.  To connect with Dr. Will Cole click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by TRUMANS. The coolest cleaning company on the internet. Probably. To receive 50% off your Truman’s Starter Kit visit www.trumans.com and enter promo code SKINNY Kit. Truman’s. A Better Cleaning Experience. This episode is brought to you by BETABRAND and their Betabrand dress pant yoga pants. To try these pants go to betabrand.com/skinny and receive 20% off your order. Millions of women agree these are the most comfortable pants you’ll ever wear to work.  Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to The Skinny Confidential, him and her.

There's a lot of different things. So all we see is anxiety and fatigue. We see the check engine light. But what the heck's going on? Because some of those things are going to be factors for some people, but not for others. Like you take the car to the mechanic, he does diagnostics. That's what we do in functional medicine to find out what's going on. Happy Friday, everybody.

Checking out end of the week, made it through another tough one. We all did. I'm excited about this episode. This is a super informative episode. Yes. And that clip was from our guest of the show today, Dr. Will Cole. We are going all into the world of health with Dr. Will. Lots of digestive talk.

For those of you that are new to the show, my name is Michael Bostic. I am a serial entrepreneur and the CEO of the Dear Media Podcast Network. And across from me, seven and a half months. Seven and a half months, guys. Anchor babied her. You anchor babied me. I am in the home stretch. I am feeling bloated. Next Tuesday's episode is all about my pregnancy. Some of you guys have asked. I got real specific next week. So stay tuned for that on Tuesday. Before we get into this episode with Dr. Will Cole, he is named one of the top 50 functional medicine doctors in the nation.

He's major. He's a health expert for MindBodyGreen and Goop. And he's helping thousands around the USA worldwide. He's major. Before we get into that- And he's got a podcast, GoopFellas. Yes. We're going to do a question of the week. Okay. So you ready? So this one is from at Mrs. Parkinson, and she asks, what's the hardest and most fun part of living your life publicly? Are you going to go first? You want me? No, you can go first. I don't really live my life too publicly. I'm not as out there as you,

you know? I get your runoff. Okay. What's the runoff? I get some public exposure, like as the runoff of the skinny confidential. So like if we get divorced. I would say if you and I don't make it, my bio, my dating app bio, because you know, I get this question. I would just write the skinny confidentials X. You're going to do a dating app. Well, I don't know. I got to, who knows? It's been so many years since I've been out there, you know, but that's, that's what I think I'd lead with. I'd be like, this is my ex. She's hot. She's got a lot going on. She's obviously, you know, people seem to like her. She saw something in me at one point. So something must not be too off. I mean, she did a bit then at this point at this point they would have gotten rid of me

or vice versa. So maybe they think something's broken. But at least I would say like at one point in time, she thought that something was working here. You really thought this out. I mean, for me, my strategy would be completely opposite. I'd be in Saint-Tropez sitting perhaps in front of the yachts reading Anna Karenina. You'd be fucked up though. Then we'd run into each other because that's where I'd be. No, you wouldn't be in Saint-Tropez. Maybe we'd reconnect. Don't fuck with me. Maybe we'd reconnect and we can't rekindle our love i'm just telling you that i would be in san trope when i would actually be in like abitha or somewhere like exotic i'm never going to give up on you so i'll just go there and i'll be there

and we'll rekindle this love and it's going to work i can please take me back i can make it work you're like it's going to be okay give Give me another chance. Give me another chance. OK, herpes. Anyways, what's the question? The question, the best parts of living life publicly. And Taylor, feel free to turn on your mic because I'm sure you have some weird shit. For me, the best part of living life publicly is you get to share some pretty incredible opportunities that, you know, I didn't get when I was not living a public life. We get to meet amazing people on this show. You get some exposure. Sometimes people send you some things,

but please don't send me anything because I don't know how to accept gifts. But I actually think that there's some negatives as well. I get very uncomfortable. I'm not used to people coming up to me in public. I'm very appreciative of it, but sometimes I don't know how to react. I don't know what to do. I sometimes get a little awkward. I'm a shy person sometimes. And so that sometimes can be strange because I want to meet everyone's level of enthusiasm or lack of enthusiasm in the same place. But listen, if I have a cinnamon bun all over my face and crumbs all over my shirt and I'm caught off guard, that gets a little bit awkward sometimes. But I would say there's more pros than cons. I think it's just all how you contextualize it. For me, I always tell people,

like, I'm just a normal person that some people sometimes hear or listen to on the show. But other than that, like, I don't think there needs to be kind of like a label on it. Right. Just like, I'm just normal, just a normal dude. Come up, say hello. I think the hardest part is what Kim K said at a Create and Cultivate event. She said, sometimes you just want to go out in your fat pants with no makeup on and get a churro. And I think sometimes like, I just, I just want to roll out of bed and walk down the street and get a churro. And then like, maybe not a churro, but maybe like an avocado toast.

And I just don't look presentable. I mean, I'd like to be presentable at all times, but that's just not how it works. And that's not even a hard part. That's just like, probably, you know, well, that's my fear too, is like, I, I don't like to disappoint people. And my fear is that maybe you're somebody that likes this show and you're like, oh, great. And then you meet me in person. Like, oh man, that was disappointing. Like it didn't look very good. Yeah. It's like, what's that hyperpigmentation mustache on Lauren's face? God, that guy was kind of a dud. And then I'm like, shit, like, you know, it's happened to me too, where I've met people that I thought I was going to be really excited to meet.

You don't want to look like a butthole. No, but you know, it's happened in my life where you meet somebody that's a public person. You think you're going to be so excited. You meet him like, oh, fuck. It's like never meet your idol type thing, you know? I think there's more pros than cons of living your life publicly. You know, I put myself out there on a daily basis. And I think that if people can pick up any tangible takeaways, and I always say this

and apply it to their own life, that makes me really happy. I also like meeting the Skinny Confidential community in person. I think being online is great and all, but I think to actually meet and interact with the people that have supported my platform for the last 10 years or our podcast is really cool. Whenever I meet someone in person, I like to hear more about them because I feel like we do put our life out there. So if they follow along, then they already see that. So I want to always hear about them. I'm a big fan of doing like speeches or events, um, or eventually a tour. Like those are things that get me really excited, but I, you know, I do feel bad when, like Michael

said, I have avocado toast all over my face and my hyperpigmentation mustache is popping and like things are, things are not looking great. I think it's just like anything else though. Any, this is in any regard to life. There's always a trade-off to, there's always a pro and con to everything, you know, and that exists and you just have to decide which pros you want to live with and which cons you want to live with. And that's fine. But the one thing I would say, and I've alluded to it on this show is without this public platform, there's so many conversations that I don't think we would have got to have, you know, like the one time I, there's literally been one time when I was extremely starstruck on this show was with the author, Robert Green,

because I've read his books for so long and admire his work so much. And I joked with him on that episode, you know, you know, we've had some celebrities and stars and be like, that was the one guy that got me choked up. And it's because, and when I told, when I was on that episode, I was, you know, Robert, if, if I just was a, you know, didn't have this platform and wasn't a public person and said, Hey, can I just pick your brain and ask you any question for an hour and a half? He would probably say no, but because we have this public platform,

we get to unlock conversations like that. And to me, like that's the ultimate trade-off and benefit and the pro that I want to live with that outweighs any kind of cons. I think at the end of the day, we're just fucking grateful to be able to do what we do. I don't, I don't have a lot to complain about with that. I mean, I think that there's a lot of fun, interesting, cool parts and we should focus on the positive, not the negative. Because if you focus on the negative, that's a drain on the energy. All right, guys. With that, Dr. Will Cole on this episode.

Another big one, guys. Another big episode. Guys, Dr. Will Cole, welcome to the show. This is the Skinny Confidential, him and her. This question is for Taylor O'Connor. Taylor would like to know what consistency in color your poop should be. This is good. This is a great question.

Dr. Will, let him know. Let's break it down. So it should be, I mean, there's what's called a Bristol chart. You can Google it. Basically, just thinking of a pictorial like concept for people, visual concept, it would be you want one to two snakes a day. One to two snakes a day. All right. That's an Instagram quote.

Do I need to count your snakes, Taylor? Taylor, you getting some snakes out or what? What if Taylor's getting like a small worm, not a snake? Yes, it's a problem. There's something going on in the microbiome and all the trillions of bacteria. Yeah, we could check that out. That's what I do. It's my day job.

And I realize like how not normal to talk about poop, but it's so like I talk about it on an hourly basis. So should it be a certain color? Well, it depends on what you eat. That can vary based on what you eat. And what are going to give you those two snakes? What kind of foods? Well, it depends on the person. And I think that's really the heart of what I do is finding out what works for you. So generally speaking, if you look at the research, it's looking at lots of varieties of plant foods. They are going to may have, they may have to be cooked for people with digestive problems to make them more digestible, to break it down a little bit.

Healthy fats helps with GI motility. So there's things like avocados and olives and avocado oil and olive oil, and clean protein. So a variety of those, how much of each depends on the person, how you prepare it depends on the person, how you prepare it depends on the person. And certain people shouldn't be having certain types of those foods too. So it's the heart of functional medicine is bio-individuality.

So it's finding out what works for you. But that's some general things to think about. So typically, like when these shows starts, we open it with a poop question. I'm just kidding. But let's go back. Where were you from? What was your childhood like? How did you start getting into functional medicine? Yeah. So I grew up in a household that my parents were interested in wellness. Before wellness was a thing in the 80s and 90s outside

of Pittsburgh. My dad was one of those bodybuilders in the 80s. I thought it was normal to have people's dads like lubed up with baby oil and in turquoise Speedos and my mom like critiquing him on the poses. But they were interested in wellness. They were interested in healthy foods. And we'd go to the co-op and the health food store. That informed me the difference between what we ate at home and like what everybody else was eating. Because, you know, Pittsburgh is not a like it's not Abbot Kinney. It is, there's lots of fast food restaurants and it's better today for sure. I knew I wanted to get in healthcare. So I went to a integrative medicine school out here, Southern California University of Health Sciences in Whittier. And I heard of a guy called Datis

Karazian who has anybody that knows anything about functional medicine. He's one of like the godfathers of functional medicine. So that's how I came into the space. Now, like my day job is consulting patients primarily online via webcam and stand at my standing desk, drop ship labs and kind of get to the root cause of why they're struggling with a variety of different health issues. So if someone comes to you and they say, I have crippling anxiety, because I hear this all the time, just through my own DMs. I have crippling anxiety. I'm fatigued during the day. I'm so tired. I can't concentrate. I have brain fog. I'm drinking a lot

of coffee. What's the first thing you do? Like, what are the steps? That it's interesting. That's what you hear so often. It's what I see very often too. Like that wired and tired feeling, like they have this anxiety, but they're so exhausted. So for us in functional medicine, we see that as almost like a check engine light. We know something's off, but the differentials can be different from person to person. What's driving that anxiety? What's driving that fatigue? So it's a variety of different things. So we have to get a good health history and actually find out, like do some like clinical investigation, like Sherlock Holmes stuff as far as the health is concerned. So things like the gut brain axis, the research shows

your gut is your second brain. It's actually formed from the same fetal tissue. When your baby's growing right now, the gut and brain are actually formed together and they're inextricably linked for the rest of our life through what's called the gut-brain axis, through the vagus nerve, the enteric nervous system. And 95% of our serotonin, our happy neurotransmitter, is made in the gut and stored in the gut. So research refers to the gut as our second brain because of that. And if you think about it, the intestines even look like the brain because of that. And if you think about it, the intestines even look like the brain because of that. We want to look at these underlying issues of why somebody's going through anxiety and fatigue. So the gut-brain axis research shows that's a component for some people.

For other people, it's not a factor. And then there's a field of research called the cytokine model of cognitive function. Basically, how does inflammation impact how my brain works? And it's associated with anxiety, depression, fatigue, things like that. And then you have to look at nutrient deficiencies, hormone imbalances, chronic infections. There's a lot of different things. So all we see is anxiety and fatigue. We see the check engine light.

But what the heck's going on? Because some of those things are going to be factors for some people, but not for others. So we want to look, like you take the car to the mechanic. He does diagnostics. That's what we do in functional medicine to find out what's going on. So we run labs to answer your question. We run labs and then we sort the problems out on the labs. Okay. So I hold on. I have a selfish question. I'm sorry, babe. You said something about the fetus. How can I build my fetuses or babies? I don't know what the proper verbiage is. Brain and gut right now.

You got two in there? No, no, there's a brain and there's a gut. Breaking news on the podcast. There's a brain and a gut. Yeah. So what you can do, what fuels you fuels your baby. So I would start with a variety of different nutrient dense foods, things like healthy fats that I just talked about earlier. I'm eating my avocado toast. It's right there. So you have that and you have a variety of plant foods in there.

You have antioxidant-rich fruits in there in the bowl that you're having right now. So those are things to consider. Wild-caught fish specifically with the omega fats. Foods that are rich in B vitamins, obviously you see those in prenatals with the folate. Well, the highest form of folate is going to be in things like wild caught fish, grass fed beef, the highest amount of folate in beef liver, which people... That's so weird because I went to Belcampo. Have you been there? I just went. It's good. It's amazing. She's coming on the show.

And so I hadn't wanted meat my whole pregnancy, but for some reason when we went there, I just knew it was such pure meat that I went straight for the liver. The beef liver. And immediately it gave me energy. I was completely shocked because she never eats any meat and she just dove right in with the beef liver. Fucking eating the liver like no tomorrow. So that's like one of nature's multivitamins that it doesn't have to be beef liver.

It could be chicken liver or something else like that. But organ meats as a whole. What about beef heart? She ate the heart too. It was different. I don't know why my father was craving it. No, it's that same thing. It's very high level.

Yeah. You're a carnivore now. But yeah, so those are some things that research shows to be really beneficial for healthy baby development. So not Krispy Kremes that I just Postmated. Like that's not going to do anything. No, that's not going to be the best thing. But you know what?

It's not going to give me two snakes. Probably not. And you know what? Don't stress about it because stressing about eating healthy is not good for your health either. So I've known Lauren for 20 something years. I've never seen you order or crave a donut. It's weird. Weird. I have a or crave a donut. It's weird.

Weird. I have a craving. All right, let's pray. Listen, you, we got to extract a lot of stuff from this brain of yours because you got a lot going on in there and we, and we need to break it down. I need to break it down selfishly. So let's start with what is the difference between functional medicine and basically like the conventional medicine?

Is that the right way to say it or not? Yeah, totally. Before we get into that, I want to tell you about the coolest cleaning company on the planet. Now, since I have become pregnant, I've even been more psycho about my cleaning supplies. So I like was on the lookout for a non-toxic cleaner and Inter Trumans, it came into my life at the perfect point because not only is it non-toxic, you guessed it, it gets delivered to your door, which gets me so excited. And at this point, at seven and a half months pregnant, it gets me real excited, more excited than it should get me. To get started, order your Truman Starter Kit and try all four non-toxic sprays, like Lauren said, all non-toxic, great ingredients

for 45 days, risk-free, and like she said, free shipping. And so what you do is you get this Truman starter kit and it comes with these four reusable bottles and four amazing refill cartilages. And I really like this because I also think it's good for the environment. So you're not throwing a ton of stuff away. There's like an all-purpose kitchen cleaner. There's this glass and technology cleaner, which I cleaned my iPhone with and Michael's. I've gotten a little, a little crazy, like I said, since I've gotten pregnant. And then there's an all-purpose bathroom cleaner and a floor cleaner, and that's going to work on all hardwood flooring surfaces, which is amazing. Guys, you just drop these little cartridges straight into the bottle, add a little water, you can reuse them over and over. And it really is a life-changing, world-changing idea. If you

don't believe me, just check out Fast Company. They say the same thing. And Michael and I, this is going to sound weird, but if you think about it, you'll start to fixate on it. We have chihuahuas and they're five pounds and they're so close to the ground. So if you do have small dogs or any kind of dogs, you want to make sure you're cleaning your floor with non-toxic ingredients. Babies, chihuahuas, me if I have a couple too many drinks and I'm on the floor. Yikes. Want that non-toxic stuff, guys? To try

Truman's and receive 50% off your Truman Starter Kit, visit trumans.com and enter promo code SKINNY at checkout. That's T-R-U-M-A-N-S.com, promo code SKINNY for 50% off your starter kit. Truman's, a better cleaning experience. Take advantage of that 50% off. trumans.com, promo code SKINNY. Guys, enjoy. All right, let's get back into the show. So the differences between functional medicine and mainstream or conventional medicine, number one, we interpret labs using a thinner reference range. So you know, when you go to your doctors, you'll have your number and you'll have this reference range. We get that from, we get the reference range from a statistical bell

curve average of people who go to labs. People that go to labs aren't the healthiest group of people. So there's a lot of people, like the people that are DMing you that are going through these anxiety and depression and these inflammatory issues, they go to the doctor and the doctor says, all the labs are normal. Like you're just depressed. Here's an antidepressant. You're a new mom. You are getting older. You just need to lose weight. But what they're unintentionally telling them is you're a lot like the other people with health problems that make up the population of the lab that we're comparing you to, the reference range. So in functional medicine, we take people with health problems out of that reference range. So we're comparing you to where is optimal vibrant wellness, which is typically a tighter range

within that reference range. So that decodes or that illuminates some things going on there in the gray area, which it's that spectrum, that inflammatory spectrum that I talk about. Second thing, we run more comprehensive labs. So that's based on a health history. So like what labs are relevant for you? So is it a microbiome test? Is it a chronic infection test? Is it a hormone imbalance test? To look at the root reasons of why somebody is struggling or going through a problem or just maybe wants to optimize how they feel. And then we realize we're all different. So back to that bio-individuality that I said.

So what works for one person may not work for you. So we use food as medicine. We use natural medicine, like botanical medicines, medications when needed, lifestyle changes, like dealing with the mental, emotional, spiritual component of wellness, because it's not just about food. Yeah. So that's what functional medicine is. So say there was two guys, you know, just two guys, let's say my husband and Taylor. Okay. And they ate chips. They ate eggs to go in the morning. Sometimes they forgot to eat. They eat fast food. Sometimes Craig's burgers are on speed dial on post. Wait, are you like saying I'm doing this? Yeah. And my

husband is not the best eater in the world and neither is Taylor behind you. In fact, I'm going to say Taylor's worse. What do you think, Michael? No, Taylor's for sure worse, but just what are some tangible tips that they can do that are easy? Because I don't want to overwhelm either of them. They can add to their diet or subtract. But let me ask you this. So this is why I get into the individual thing, because Lauren will use that example. And in most cases, that's a bad example. That's an example for somebody that's going to be in poor health.

Yeah. For me, I actually consider myself to be in good health. Right. And I was going to ask you one of my follow up questions was I just did all like the traditional blood tests. I'm solid there. But what are the other tests I should do? Because I think like you said, something like I may eat a certain way that works for me.

Like for a lot of times I skip breakfast and I don't eat till 11 or noon. I think that's like a little bit of form of fasting. Once in a while, I will add a lot of red meat if I'm craving it. But I feel overall pretty healthy. Now, again, I would not suggest that other people should eat the same way as I do, but I think it's all individual. And I think that's where we run into trouble is what I may be able to do might not be what somebody else will do. And what they maybe will do might not be what I'm able to do. That's exactly right. So everybody, the way that I think of it as like different glass sizes or like, um, like bottle sizes, some people have

big tolerances for stressors or things that maybe aren't ideal for human health. And some people are really small capacities. So we can't change our capacity for these things. Some people are super sensitive to these foods. Some people can get away with it. They're just genetically more adaptive and flexible to that stuff. But we can change what we can put in that. So you're right. You're getting away with stuff that other people couldn't get away with, for sure. And a lot of my patients have those smaller glasses, so to speak, where they are like, what the heck? I can't get away with anything. I eat perfectly and I still feel lousy. Those are typically the people that I talk to. But generally speaking, if somebody doesn't feel

well and they're like, I don't want to be overwhelmed, like let's just lean into stuff. In the inflammation spectrum, in my second book, I just, what I call the core four. I think if you just did that and you wanted to lean into this wellness stuff, it's going to move the needle in a positive direction. That's for a while going off of grains and that's going to be gluten containing grains like that crispy cream, but also the gluten free grains as well, the gluten containing and gluten-free grains. And dairy would be the second one. High omega-6 oils like industrial seed, like canola oil, which is going to be in things like donuts too and packaged foods in general. And added sugar.

So those four things, most people know that. But if they just like, what I find is that people are like in limbo. They like avoid those for a little bit and then they keep it in on some days. And there's this sort of yo-yo response in their life. And then they're like, I don't feel good. And they think they're all right, but they're not totally removing those for a while. So their body can actually handle that, handle its biochemistry to lower the inflammation level. So those are some things. I'm not going to, I don't like to preach or talk about basically my formula because I don't think it will work for other people. I'm not saying I eat great or that I am great. I just

think that whatever I'm doing right now for my health, you know, my fitness routine and my diet is it's working for me, but I like to point them in people like your direction because taking an individual approach, I think is the most important thing for people to understand. It's like these, where I get a little bit concerned is when there's these blanket approaches that people try to apply to everybody i just don't think it works you gotta eat paleo you gotta eat vegan you gotta be eat red meat like you gotta cut sugar it doesn't it doesn't translate for the entire populace like you everybody is individual and their genes are individual and things are going to respond in different ways 100 and that's why in the inflammation spectrum i'm not making a

mandate or over sweeping like broad sweeping generalized statement in that book, because I know people that handle certain amounts of sugar fine. They handle grains fine. All the foods that I just mentioned, some people handle them fine. And you're going to find a collection amongst these people that they'll find out what their body loves and what their body doesn't love. So I'm just saying, let's remove that for a little bit. Then reintroduce them one by one. And you may find, hey, maybe two of those four, you do fine on the other two. You don't. But then you have that discernment to know like, heck, like I avoiding these foods, I'd rather feel good that I miss that food. Judging Michael and Taylor while I order a Krispy Kreme, so I

should shut the fuck up. How does Gwyneth Paltrow look so amazing? Is she doing what you've asked to do with no grains, no dairy? Or is she do something that's more broad? What's her day to day? She was doing stuff before she met me for sure. So she's definitely practices what she talks about on the website and in her life. But yeah, I mean, definitely she's working on her health like everybody else. I think we're all trying to find what works for our body. And all the stuff that we do in functional medicine, that's what she's working on her health like everybody else. I think we're all trying to find what works for our body.

And all the stuff that we do in functional medicine, that's what she's doing. I know she likes martinis, though. She wrote in her book that she likes martinis. I made some martini. I can't wait for a martini. So one of the big cornerstones of what you talk about is inflammation. Let's dive in inflammation. We've gone into a little bit on the show, but not in detail.

What do we need to know about inflammation outside of that? It's probably not good for us. Yeah. So inflammation isn't actually inherently bad. It's actually balanced. Inflammation is a good thing. It fights viruses and bacteria. It like is a good part of our immune system.

And from an evolutionary health standpoint, we'd be goners without healthy, balanced inflammation levels. So that's first and foremost in check. It's a good thing. The problem is when inflammation is out of balance, chronic inflammation is associated with just about every health problem out there. When you deal with heart disease and cancer, I mean, look at the numbers of those. It's staggering. But then you look at autoimmune conditions. 50 million Americans have an autoimmune condition. Millions more are somewhere on at autoimmune conditions. 50 million Americans have an autoimmune condition. Millions more are somewhere on this autoimmune inflammation spectrum where they're not bad

enough to be labeled with an ICD-10 like a diagnosis code, but the doctors say, well, it looks autoimmune or the ANA is positive, like this lab's positive, that's a marker for lupus and other autoimmune issues, but they don't fit all the boxes. So that's a bigger problem than just the 50 million people. And then the mental health space of looking at anxiety and depression and fatigue and looking at that inflammatory component to those problems too. So inflammation out of balance is a problem. And the things I mentioned, just about everyone around us is going through that. And if it's not us, it's someone we love.

So that's super sobering to go over that. But the flip side is most of these problems are drastically improved with lifestyle changes, meaning that there's so much agency that we have. There's so much power that we have to start moving the needle in a positive direction. Hold up. We have to take a minute to talk about my ass, specifically my ass in beta brand. I'm happy to take more than a minute. I don't know. But babe, I don't know right now. Things are things are happening to my ass right now. So that's why I need a very,

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That's B-E-T-A-B-R-A-N-D.com slash skinny. All right, let's get back into the show. So what are some practical steps that we can take? One, to figure out, actually, let me go back. How do we know if we're inflamed outside of, you know, physically looking inflamed? How do we determine if we are? And then, and then once we do, how do we fight it? Sure. So subjectively check in with your body. Like we just, we opened the show with talking about digestion. Like, are you going to the bathroom one to two times a day? What's that

look like? Where's your energy levels? Is it sustained throughout the day? Do you need the sugar and the caffeine to get throughout the day? Do you get a PM slump of energy and then get a second wind in the evening? Do you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep? What does your hair and your nails look like? What does your skin look like? So I adapted a lot of these signs and symptoms or these things that we can check in with themselves in the form of a quiz that I put in the inflammation spectrum. It's just adapted from questions that I ask patients.

The quiz is also on the website too, if people want to go check it out, it's for free. So at drwilco.com. But that's subjectively, because a lot of people are going through things every day and they just think that's normal. They think, oh, like I am whatever, I am a new mom or I am just stressed out at work or whatever. They just think that's normal. They think, oh, like I am whatever. I am a new mom or I am just stressed out at work or whatever. They just think that's normal just because something's common doesn't necessarily mean it's normal. And maybe, but a lot of these problems are just settled for. They're not normal. And then labs is the other thing, running labs and pinpointing. Is there certain labs that people should ask for? Yeah. And a lot of them are basic tests that are very low cost, effective, accessible labs. One would be high sensitivity C-reactive protein or HSCRP.

It's an inflammatory marker. In functional medicine, we want under one. Homocysteine is an inflammatory marker. We want it under seven in functional medicine. Ferritin is a biomarker at a gauge for stored iron, but it's also what's considered an acute phase reactant. So basically in states of inflammation, ferritin can spike. And then there's a look, those are all the basic tests that anybody can run and rerun them for patients too. But the more expanded labs that we run in

functional medicine are things that look like gut centric inflammation, things like calprotectin and lysozyme. These are inflammatory markers in the gut. We look at genetics too, because certain people just genetically, like that glass size I was saying, people with these methylation gene SNPs, like what's called the MTHFR, it looks like an acronym for a swear word,

but it's actually an acronym for the gene that makes the enzyme, that can basically brings inflammation levels down. And there's different endocannabinoid gene SNPs too that make people more sensitive to these inflammatory markers. So you can get those actually from the raw gene data, like through 23andMe.

I don't know if you guys have done that before. Yeah, so those are the things that look at. Genetics, epigenetics, like what is driving what's going on in this person's life? Those are some things to think about. Can you go and just ask for all those tests at once? And if you do, is it like 20 vials of blood? Those labs that I just mentioned is not that much blood.

The workup that we do for an autoimmune type case could be close to that, maybe around 15 vials, depending on the vial size, 10 to 15, I would say. But not everybody needs that. Like those labs that I just mentioned right now, that's just a couple of vials of blood. And some of those, like the stool, the stool one is through a stool test and 23andMe, their gene data is saliva. So it's not all blood. So what if someone's sitting there right now and you just named a ton of symptoms and they're like, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. I got a lot of that stuff. And then they don't have the test. Someone finds out they're extremely inflamed. What are some practical steps they can take naturally to start combating? Outside of starting to work with

someone like you, if they're just at home and like, I think I have these and I want to get better, what are some things they can do to heal? One would be decrease the amount of sugar they're having. Americans, generally speaking, are eating too much sugar. And you're absolutely right that there are different tolerances to that. I'm not saying wipe it out entirely. I've heard it said that like sugar is like a recreational drug. You should not use it like as your staple for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It should be limited. I'm not saying avoid entirely, but some people are more insulin resistant or more sensitive and they're going to have to avoid it for a while. Second would be increasing healthy fats, like I keep saying, but I think that should be a good

chunk of the macro percentages that people are consuming. So avocados, olives, wild caught fish, soaked nuts and seeds, and by soaking them in just means soak them in water because it makes them more digestible. And you can buy ones that are already soaked too. So those are some things that people can start doing that not just me and what I see in my patients, but just the research shows to be beneficial for human health. What about postpartum? We had Gabby Bernstein on here and she talked about, she's so cool. We talked about postpartum depression. Yeah, she went through that. Yeah. And she talks a lot about it. I would love to know if there's things that you would recommend for mothers out there that are struggling with postpartum. Yeah. So first of all, give yourself grace. Like I have two kids, I have a 13 year old and a 10 year old. And I remember my wife going through that and

you feel like you're not, you don't have what it takes or you feel like have all the things and have all the tools right away. And it's a seismic shift in your life. So I think give yourself grace, give yourself lightness towards that time and take the time that you need to get your bearings of what this new normal is going to look like. But there's a lot of physiological shifts that's going on there too. So I think that making sure your nutrition is on point during that time is utmost importance, especially if you're nursing. But even if you're not nursing, I would say you're going to want to take care of your vessel as much as you can during that time because you already are having the shifts. Let's

like mitigate the shifts as much as possible. And going back to inflammation, the lower your inflammation or the more balanced your inflammation levels to inflammation, the lower your inflammation or the more balanced your inflammation levels are at, the less volatile those shifts are going to be, meaning that the roller coaster is going to be less extreme, the more your physiology is sound. So just going back to those basic principles is definitely more appropriate now than more than ever at that time. And then possibly running some labs to see if those shifts, like where those shifts are at, making sure you have a community. So if it's other moms, if it's family members, if you don't have family members, like find a mom's group in your area to reach out because it can be quite

isolating, especially in those early days and make sure that you're not alone and have a support system to some degree. Those are all amazing tips. Is there any supplements or herbs that you would recommend that new moms add to their diet? Yeah, one would be it depends if they're nursing or not. So I'll keep it like if they're nursing omega fish oil, like a fish oil, which they're probably taking already. If it's been maybe it's in a lot of prenatals anyways. But mega fish oil, a good B vitamin is a great one, and you could take that while you're nursing. It's water-soluble. Baby needs it anyways.

Again, you're getting that through foods, but supplementing above that can be good. It's a B complex with a methylated B folate, not folic acid, which is a little bit people don't look into that, but the bioavailability of folate is a lot better than the synthetic folic acid, which is a little bit, people don't look into that, but the bioavailability of folate is a lot better than the synthetic folic acid, especially people with those MTHFR gene snips that some people have, like 40% of the population has that. And turmeric is another good one because it helps to lower inflammation and it's safe while you're nursing too. Obviously, consult with your doctor for all of these because people have different cases. But generally

speaking, those are three things to think about i'm gonna come get my blood done after i have the baby perfect with you i'd love that okay i'm gonna make you do it too because you know i would love to do it too because like i mean we were talking we kind of addressed this i did my blood work with my more you know my general physician but i but it's only the typical blood work that they do there and i think to do the test that you're talking about i've never done them and it'd be really interesting to see what i'm lacking when i'm not, you know, the reason I got so hung up on the, that individual thing is if you take someone like my dad, the guy eats, you know, he's a meat and potatoes guy his whole life, barely ever eaten a vegetable and salt on everything.

And he's in perfect health. He has a cholesterol of a 40 year old man. So I'm like, you know, I would never ever recommend his diet to somebody, but for some reason it works for him. And I don't really quite understand why. So that leads me to my point of, I want to discuss with you, and this is going to be controversial, maybe a little bit, vegans and carnivores. And I wanted to kind of get you, are you, are you plant-based or? Yeah, I would consider myself plant-centric. Plant-centric. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I used to, I was a vegan for 10 years. And in my first book, Ketotarian, I kind of talk about that evolution from being like a whole foods vegan for 10 years. And in my first book, Ketotarian, I kind of talk about that evolution from being like a whole foods vegan for 10 years, my mid to late teens and my mid to late twenties.

And that evolved to Ketotarian, what I call Ketotarian. It's a mostly plant-centric ketogenic approach. And I'm not always in ketosis. I'll cycle in and out of it. And I teach how to do that. But so I brought in eggs. I brought in wild caught fish. I have grass-fed beef occasionally, but still predominantly eating plant foods. to do that. But so I brought in eggs, I brought in wild caught fish, I have grass fed beef occasionally, but still predominantly eating plant foods. Okay, so what is your take on being completely vegan versus being a carnivore? Great question. So I would look at it in the context of who the person is, and their biochemistry, certain people with these autoimmune gene variants, like they're just genetically more prone to these autoimmune issues, their body's not that good at converting nutrients

and their guts probably jacked, for lack of better words, their guts not as healthy. So their body's not absorbing nutrients and breaking it down and assimilating it appropriately. So you take somebody on a completely vegan diet with that set of foods, their body's not extracting the nutrients that's there. And even for a healthy person, we're not talking about ample amounts of bioavailable B vitamins and no B12. And you are not, and also the long chain omega fats and iron, the bioavailable form of these, there are analogs for on the plant foods, but the conversion

rate is really poor for people that have genetic SNPs for autoimmunity and people that have dysfunctional microbiome and gut health. So you can do it. For somebody that's healthy, they could do it. They're going to have to supplement appropriately. They can do a vegan diet. Yes, okay. Yeah, so a reasonably healthy person can do a vegan diet. And if it's

well formulated, it's thoughtful. They're focusing on whole foods. They're supplementing accordingly. And I know some vegans that are in fine health. They're doing great things. So it's what works for your body. There's a lot of pitfalls with it though. And people should be mindful of that. I talk about the pitfalls in ketotarian. I mean, there's quite a bit, but I named the main ones. And then you asked me about the carnivore. Well, yeah, because I mostly like, listen, there's going to be people that are vegan because they care about animals. And I'm not going into that world. I mostly just want to understand, you know, if you're eliminating meat from your diet, red meat, particularly, let's say we're talking about high quality grass fed meat here.

Yeah. How do you supplement your body with the nutrients that you don't get from, you know, that's kind of what I'm trying to figure out. Yeah. So that would be a B complex. You could get a spirulina or like an algae based for some nutrients there too. And that has the long chain of mega fats that are not in chia seed and flax seed oil. That's going to be the shorter chain. So you want to get the algae based supplements and then an iron supplement that obviously is vegan friendly. So those are going to be the

three main things that I would say. And let me say a fourth one. It's essential amino acids, meaning that your body's not making them. Your body needs them from food. And essential amino acids, meaning that your body's not making them. Your body needs them from food and essential amino acids are not as readily available in plant foods. It's completely possible, but you're going to have to think about it. It's not just going to be in your breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You have to formulate it properly. So last one, because I know Lawrence jumped in. This is a little bit of a pressing question. So if you say you need to take all those supplements to basically make up for the lack of meat, have you come across yet supplements that can actually do that adequately if you're not having good meat in your

diet? Yeah, to some degree. To me, it's like, and this is the question I pose in Ketotarian, if you have to supplement for your diet pitfalls, is it optimal for you? Obviously, we live in a day and age where we have the luxury and the blessing to do that. But I mean, you talk about a couple decades ago or 100 years ago, we wouldn't have that option. So yes, is it better than the standard American diet? Sure. I would say that for sure. But just because something's better doesn't necessarily mean it's optimal.

So and I would also say too, it's really hard to mimic nature. You can do a good job at it depending on the sourcing of it and all that stuff, but you can't supplement your way out of a poor diet. You really have to get the basics there from food itself. What's your morning routine? Like what are your supplements that you're taking? What time are you eating? What are you eating? How much water are you drinking? Are you having coffee? Like get specific with it. Sure. So I typically do like intermittent fasting or like time restricted feeding in the morning. So I will just not eat breakfast. Not because I'm like, Oh my, I just want to fast. It's I don't, I'm not really hungry

in the morning. I see patients. I go to the clinic, I'm busy and I eat when I'm hungry. Are you having tea and water during this time? I am. I'll have Earl Grey tea or green tea like I'm having right now. But the Earl Grey tea specifically, I'm intentional in getting that in is because it's a black tea with bergamot in it. That bergamot has been shown in the research to enhance something called autophagy, which is like cellular recycling, like anti-aging mechanisms, anti-disease, anti-inflammatory mechanisms. Fasting does that too.

Ketosis does that too. Ketosis does that too. So I'm just trying to like leverage and upregulate these autophagy pathways by bringing that in in the morning. And then I break the fast around noon at the clinic when I have a lunch. And then it'll be like a ketotarian meal. So something like a pesto zoodle bowl. I have that a lot, like zucchini noodles. You can get those at Trader Joe's or you can get a spiralizer and do it yourself. And there's like a pesto recipe in there. You can add fish to that or not have the fish. You can do like a keto, like a plant-based keto smoothie with coconut milk or almond milk and add some avocados in there and some greens and some berries, a lot of things that's in that bowl. You sound like you'd like sunlight organics.

Yeah, I do. Yeah. I do like them. Yeah. And then dinner, I'll have typically sort of a pescatarian keto dinner. And that means like wild caught fish and sauteed vegetables and things like that. And that's if I'm in ketosis and I'm fasting. And then if I want to do a cyclical ketotarian approach, which I do,

I'll add like extra sweet potatoes. I love sweet potato fries. I'll have that or I'll increase fruits or have a smoothie or have some rice or something like that. So that's how that's a basic day. Wine. I don't drink like very often occasionally, but wine, I recommend in the books to go off of alcohol for a while to give your liver a break and kind of clear things out and just kind of reset the system and get people better faster. Basically, that's the reasoning. But wine, interestingly enough, for a lot of people, it actually lowers insulin levels, lowers glucose levels, and it can be beneficial in small amounts. So like 10 bottles isn't… Yeah, 10 to 20.

What about probiotics? How important are probiotics? Probiotics, the research shows that probiotic, this kind of juries out. I think there's some good strands with some good data behind it. And I definitely think if you're getting a good amount of colony forming units, like the maybe 50 to 150 trillion colony forming units of bacteria that can be beneficial. But honestly, I think that prebiotics are more compelling to me from a gut diversity. Oh my gosh. I have to tell you, my girlfriend sells inulin. Oh, sweet. And I have prebiotics every day. Can you, can you really dissect that? Because I agree with you. Yeah. I think that getting something like inulin fiber, getting things like resistant starches, like potato starch or plantain starch can be a great way. What is it? It's the stuff that our bacteria eat. So our gut eats, our gut microbes all the bacteria in our gut eat what we eat.

And they like to eat these prebiotics, these starches, these fibers from plant foods. So, vegetables, a wide variety of vegetables, cooking them, again, if you have digestive problems and using these different supplement forms of prebiotics is another good idea because it's associated with a diverse microbiome, which is associated with long, healthy lives, basically, and lower disease and lower inflammation. Is there a topic or idea when it comes to the health space that leaders and thought leaders in the health space believe, like cumulatively, that you fundamentally disagree with or just think is bad blanket advice or something that's just controversial?

Yeah. What I don't like, and it's exactly what you said at the top of the conversation, I don't like making too many oversweeping, like broad sweeping statements and saying, okay, this is a rule for everybody. Because I talk to people for a living consulting them. If I hung my hat on one way of doing something, I'd be proven wrong all day long. So people that say the vegan diet is the right way to do it, or the carnivore diet is the right way to do it for everybody. Well, look, I mean, you're probably not talking to patients if you're

saying that. So I think that's an oversimplistic view of human health. So to me, that's where I try to shy away from is saying too many, because even Keto Terry and I taught so many ways to do it in there so you can find your own groove when it comes to that way of eating and same with inflammation spectrum it's about finding out what your body loves and hates so I think that's the biggest thing that I would say that I am NOT a part of is I don't like not pushing one way for everybody what are three tips that you would leave our millennial audience with that would bring them value when it comes to health and wellness? Okay. This has been on my heart for a while. I think that your audience and the people that I talked to were going through a time where there's a lot of

diet fatigue and like food disillusionment on like what the heck they should eat. And they're interested in this stuff, but they're overwhelmed because Google is telling of diet fatigue and like food disillusionment on like what the heck they should eat. And they're interested in this stuff, but they're overwhelmed because Google is telling them all this conflicting information. So I think we need to have a healthy relationship with technology to say, okay, I'm listening all this, to this good content, I'm reading this good content,

but sometimes I need to like shut it off and just like digest, so to speak, absorb this information, not getting stress and anxiety and shame around food. Stressing about eating healthy isn't good for your health either. So I think that a big message that I want to give the millennial generation and really the whole world when it comes to this stuff is it's not about obsessing about food. And orthorexia is a major problem in our culture. And that's like a disordered eating around eating healthy. So stress, anxiety, shame around healthy foods.

It's a big problem in the wellness space. It's a big problem in certain parts of the world when it comes to people that are more interested in fitness and health and wellness and looking a certain way. So I think that there's not one solution for that, but it's just re-negotiating your relationship with your body and renegotiating your relationship with food. And instead of it being punitive or punishing or doing these yo-yo fad things, just shift your perspective to how can I love my body enough to feed it good things? How can I use self-care as a form of self-respect? I think that is going to be

the new wave of wellness is getting back to the basics of intuitive eating and just learning what works for your body and what doesn't. But when people are in a state of inflammation, when people have hormone imbalances, when people have the hangriness like blood sugar roller coaster, it's hard to know what intuition is. Is it intuition or hangriness? Is it intuition or hormone imbalance? Is it because an emotion, emotional eating is not intuitive eating, you know, stress eating is not intuitive eating. So my goal with the inflammation spectrum, the book is to get people to a center to say like, what works for my body and then just enjoy food and have fun and don't overcomplicate it and just start to feel better. It's so interesting because we had Mark Manson on this podcast and he wrote a book called

it's called Everything's Fucked, right? Yeah. And he he really he wrote the subtle art of not giving a fuck first. And then, you know, the bright orange. He wrote this new one. Everything is fucked. And he just writes how there's so much content being thrown at us in politics and food and wellness and just everything on the internet that we get overwhelmed. And from that, what I took is like, I really try to just consume

four people's content a day, the same content. So I have like a wellness person. I look to a fitness person. I look to, I have someone that entertains me that I look to. And I try not to go out of those people because I feel like with what you said, when there's so much information, it ends up being information overload and it raises your cortisol, which makes you fat. Yeah. So, I mean, I totally, totally agree with you. Yeah.

That's a great advice, actually. I'll have to tell people about that. What she's saying is turn everyone off except us and Dr. Will. Don't listen to anyone but us and Dr. Will. You're set. Mute, tails, you die. No, but it's, I mean, it's funny. I'm really glad that you dove into this. It was one of the last things I wanted to ask you was just basically the relationship to getting so infatuated with eating healthy that you get, you fixate on and you actually become unhealthy because of it. And we've had friends in the space that that's, that's fully happened to.

And I think it's a real danger that young people should think about. Cause you talk about intuition. It's really, really difficult to trust your intuition when you, when you're just constantly bombarded with noise, you got to take some time to sit back and figure out like what the hell is actually working for you. What is a book, a podcast, a resource that you consume when it comes to health and wellness that you would recommend our audience looks into? Just give us one not to overwhelm us. Yeah, it's funny. Other than mine,

which I think we do provide good quality content at Goopfellas, but other than mine, I love Melissa Hartwig-Urban who wrote Whole30 is a good friend of mine. She is a wide variety of content and she's a voice of reason in this space for sure. Not just around food, but around everything.

Melissa, do you want to come on the podcast? She just did one, didn't she? She just launched one. She just launched. She has her own podcast. Yeah. It's called, um, do the thing. Yeah.

I mean, she'll be on the show. I'll say yes for her. I think we also are involved in some projects with her. I've seen her name pop up. She's, I heard she's great. I would love to have her on the show. Cause you just recommended her. Yeah.

One day we could do a round table. Maybe that'd be awesome. Yeah. Um, pimp yourself out. Where can everyone find you? Your book, everything. Where should they start? Yeah. So it's everything's at drwillcole.com. That's D-R-W-I-L-L-C-O-L-E.com. And they, we offer a free webcam health evaluation. My day job is not writing books. It's consulting patients. And you can also order the book if you want to,

The Inflammation Spectrum, Ketotarian, and Goopfellas comes out every Wednesday, the podcast. I think that's all the things. Instagram. Instagram. Thank you. At Dr. Will Cole, D-R Will Cole. We're going to link everything. Thank you for coming on. I'm coming to see you after I give birth. I want all those weird blood test names that you said. My honor. Thank you. Maybe Taylor can come. Thank you, Dr. Will. Appreciate it. Wait, before you go, we are going to send one of you a few TSC health favorites. Okay. So think things for possibly digestion, CBD, lots of fun wellness stuff, because that's what this episode was about. All you have to do is let us know your favorite part of this podcast on our latest Instagram, and then tag a friend to follow along to check out the

podcast, someone who needs to along to check out the podcast. Someone who needs to be a part of the community. And with that, I'll see you on Tuesday with my very specific, detailed pregnancy podcast.