Well with Arielle Lorre - 169: Probiotics & The Gut with Tina Anderson

Episode Date: April 25, 2022

In this episode I'm talking to Tina Anderson, co-founder of Just Thrive, all about gut health. We discuss the role the gut plays in our overall health; how to best support our gut; the gut brain connection and so much more.   Use code BLONDE at justthrivehealth.com for 15% off   This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.   Produced by Dear Media.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Don't Morgue Go to your Reisadvice or Sunnycars.combe The following podcast is a Dear Media production Hey welcome to the Blonde 5

podcast. I'm your host Ariel Lori, and I'm here to talk all things wellness. From how to achieve optimal health and well-being to the best beauty tips and everything in between, no topic is off limits and I'm bringing it to you real and unfiltered. I know there is so much information out there, so I'm here to help you navigate it all. Thanks for listening. Let's get into it. Hi, everybody, welcome to the show. I wanted to bring you another bonus episode this month. This time talking all about probiotics and the gut. So my guest is Tina Anderson. She's been on before. She's the co-founder of my absolute favorite probiotic Just Thrive, which I have taken since she came on the show over a year ago. And it was such a game changer for me. And since then, I know so many of you guys

have tried Just Thrive as well because I've gotten so many messages saying how much you love it too. So I wanted to have her back on the show to dive a little deeper into the subject. And this episode, so it is packed with so much helpful information. And because we love you, we have a code for you guys. If you want to try Just Thrive products, they have so many good ones. So you can get 15% off sitewide. All you have to do is go to just thrivehealth.com and use the promo code, blonde. That's B-L-O-N-D-E, for 15% off. Again, that's Just Thrivehealth.com. And the code is blonde for 15% off sitewide. So with that, enjoy the episode. Hi, Tina.

Welcome back. Hi, Ariel. Thanks for having me back. I'm trying to remember when we last recorded. I think it was last spring. Maybe I would have to go back and check. But we were definitely in a different place than we are now. We were just talking off mic a little bit about how things seem like they are kind of opening up.

Everything is blossoming again. People are out. It feels like we're coming out on the other side of what we've been going through for the past couple years. Yeah. It sure does feel great, doesn't it? It's just, it's so good for your microbiome, which is really exciting. Yes. I know you love to talk about. Yeah. And we will be getting into all of that today. We did record another episode last year. So if you haven't listened to that, maybe I can link it below. People can go back and listen to that as well. And we'll cover, I don't know, who knows. We'll see where it goes. But we'll cover some new stuff today. But maybe to start, you can just kind of summarize for the listeners, who you are. and what you do. Sure. Yeah. My name is Tina Anderson. I am the CEO and co-founder of Just Thrive, which launched with a flagship probiotic, a spore-based probiotic product that has been game-changing

for so many people. And since then, we've evolved into a gut health supplement company. We will never be one of those companies that has 200 skews. We are very focused on research-based products. I'm so passionate about supplements and so is our team. and we really wanted to bring research-based products to the market. And I think I had mentioned in our previous episode, I have a very interesting background. I'm an attorney. I was in litigation for many years.

And then just from a desire to spend more time with my kids and have more of a work-life balance, I went into family pharmaceutical business, which allowed me to have way better work hours. But being in the pharmaceutical industry really kind of opened our eyes to a lot of the abuses in the industry. and that's how we pivoted our, my husband and I pivoted our careers into the natural health space. And it's been so much fun to focus on prevention, to focus on getting to the root cause of issues and

really make an impact on our world today. I don't want to start off on a negative note, but I am just wondering out of my own curiosity, like when you pivot from one kind of space to another and obviously you came into the more natural space and supplement space because you really wanted to help people find a solution and get to the root cause of things. But I would imagine that, especially in wellness and in the supplement industry, there's a unique set of challenges, even though you feel like you are kind of fulfilling your purpose and doing the right thing. But what have been the most challenging things that you've had to deal with in this space that maybe you didn't foresee or that we wouldn't necessarily expect?

Yeah, well, I think the biggest shock to us was when we launched the product. You know, we were like, this is so research. There's so much science behind it. And we thought, oh, my gosh, you know, everyone's going to be jumping on us. And it works. You know, people really feel a difference. And we thought, oh, everyone's just going to jump on it. Like, I didn't have any background in marketing, neither did my husband, really. And so we were, you know, really shocked that we had to really get the word out there and find people to help us, you know, spread our message. And that was really challenging for us because I guess it doesn't always work. You know, there could be a product that's super popular, but it's just because they have great marketing budget behind them and all of that. So we

didn't have that. We were, you know, complete bootstrapped, did it all on our own. And it was, it put everything back into the business. So that was really a big challenge for us in the beginning, just getting the word out there. And, you know, being able to talk to people like you that are so passionate about gut health and have had your own, you know, issues with gut health. And people try it and they're like, okay, now I know what you're talking about. This really does work. And that's been really the biggest challenge for sure. Yes. And like you said, I have had my own issues and I have tried so many probiotics and I've been taking yours since last year and it is amazing because it works really fast. That's something that I found that I didn't experience with others. And it

also didn't exacerbate my symptoms, which was another issue that I ran into. I think as a consumer, especially in the wellness world and the supplement world, I think people kind of have like, I don't know, I was talking to somebody else a couple weeks ago about like paralysis of choice. Like when there are so many choices, you just don't know what to do. And it's, you know, you almost get like fatigued on it. So you just, you know, you go to whoever is the loudest or like you said, who has the best marketing. But I think what's interesting about you guys is you really do try to educate people because you say that like once you understand and you can appreciate and know the research behind it, then you can make that informed decision. Yeah, absolutely. Our best customer is

the most educated consumer. Anybody who has some degree of understanding of the gut microbiome or just even natural health approaches is always the easier person to talk to because they understand what we're talking about. It's the other, you know, part of the population that maybe isn't as versed on it. But it's really fun to be able to start educating people like that. I was at my son's basketball games over the weekend and starting to talk to some of the parents about it. And it was just, it's really fun to just talk to kind of open their eyes to like, well, you know, maybe we should get to the cause of an issue. Maybe we shouldn't be just focusing on treating symptoms and putting a band-aid on things. And all of a sudden, you know, their eyes start opening. They start researching

different things. And I see them again at another game. And they're like, oh, I started researching this. And I started researching that. And I think, I mean, it's so much fun to. to open this whole new world to people. That's one of our core values is empowerment. We really want to empower our customers to go out there and research. And we have a lot of research on our own website. We provide a lot of content. But go other places, go look around and start educating yourself on taking control of your health

and not leave it into one person's hands who is probably very qualified as a doctor or an MD. But you are so much more in control when you have an understanding. and you could start asking your doctors the right questions. That was definitely my experience. You know, I've been really open about it here. And luckily, you know, I haven't really dealt with issues in the last couple of years, but it was really hard to navigate, especially when you get a lot of cooks in the kitchen.

Like, that was my issue. I had a doctor for this and a doctor for that. And I always say, like, I'm not, I'm very pro doctors, right? I guess we'll say that. But it can be challenging, especially if you have something like a gut issue. you and we'll talk about this because it can be so interconnected with other things. So if you go to one specialist, they're going to look at it through the lens of that specialty. And then if you go to

another specialist, like I had hormone and gut things. So if I go to the OBGYN or say like endocrinologist, whatever, they're going to look at it through that lens. I go to my gastroenterologist, he's going to look at it through that lens. And it's very just kind of one-sided. So it's hard to navigate that as the person who is struggling. So why don't we talk about how it's all interconnected and like why gut help is so important and how it can affect other functions of the body? Yeah. So the gut is really responsible for virtually every aspect of our overall health. We can't, it's hard to find any disease that's out there that's not associated with an imbalance of the gut. And now we know that we are 10 times more bacterial cells than we are human

cells. So, you know, for people that are just kind of new to this, which they probably aren't listening to your show, but, you know, 10 times more bacteria cells than we are human cells. So our bacteria is dictating all aspects of our overall health. We tend to think about our gut as, you know, we say, oh, well, we have some gas or bloating, diarrhea, constipation. And yeah, those are definitely signs of some gut imbalance. But we don't think of a skin rash as having anything to do with a gut imbalance. But it absolutely does. We don't think of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, you know, mental health, mood disorders, those types of issues having to do with any gut imbalance. But they absolutely do. Our gut is so responsible for

every aspect of our overall health. And that's why it's so important that whatever you're dealing with any type of issue, that the most foundational thing that you need to do is to focus on your gut health and focus on increasing diversity of the gut microbiome, helping heal your leaky gut, helping, you know, have the beneficial bacteria outweigh the pathogenic bacteria. Those are all things we should be working on on a daily basis. And unfortunately, in this world we live in, it's so antimicrobial. I mean, we are so offensive to our gut bacteria in everything we do. From, of course, the hand sanitizers that we've all been using for the last couple of years,

but from household products to antibiotics that we take for treatment, but antibiotics that are found in our food. There's just so many offenders to our gut health. Everyday glyphosate, that's the active ingredient in Roundup that's sprayed all over our food supply. All of these, this world we live in is so offensive to our gut health. And unfortunately, that's why we're seeing so much chronic disease in the world. I was going to ask you, do you think that, I don't know, it seems like gut issues are rampant right now. Do you think that that's a product of our environment or is it just that we know more about it? Like there are more studies. And so we're more aware of it. And so we're more aware of it. Yeah, I think it's a product of our environment. Absolutely. We've seen, you know,

there was a study on kids on the autism spectrum and there's a direct correlation to glyphosate being used in our food supply. Again, it's the active ingredient in Roundup and being sprayed all of our produce and our food supply and antibiotics that are used in meat, certain meats. And so I definitely feel like it's a product of the environment that we're living in. And we're, as a society, band-aids on, you know, conditions that were symptoms that we're feeling. We're putting band-aids. Nobody's getting to the root cause. Very rare will you go to a cardiologist and he'll say, well, what's your gut looking like? Or go to a psychiatrist. And then you say, well, how's your gut? What's your gut bacteria like? You know, they're never having that conversation. And yet,

or your immune system, even more importantly, I mean, 80% of our immune system is found in our gut, even over the last year or two, you know, nobody was talking about, oh, you're very few people were talking about your gut health related to your immune system. yet our immune system, I mean, our gut bacteria is the very, the organ that is signaling to the immune system, to our immune cells to actually start responding. So it's really, I think our environment is really affecting these conditions. And I think that as a society, we're putting band-aids on conditions with certain pharmaceuticals and things like that and not getting to the root cause of the issue. Well, maybe we can break down some of those interactions. So I would like,

love to hear more about like the gut immune interaction. And then I know just my listeners have probably I don't know. I feel like so many of the women who listen to my podcast also deal with hormone issues. So maybe that would be another one that we can explore and mental health. So maybe we do like the three starting with the immune system. So can you explain that one a little bit? Yeah. So they um, about 80% of our immune tissue is found in our gut lining. And so we know that our immune system will cease to function without the gut bacteria telling them to what to do. So there was a study done on mice and they took certain mice where they removed their gut bacteria and mice that, you know, remove most of their gut bacteria and then other mice that had their gut bacteria. And they were

faced with a pathogen and a viral type of a pathogen. And they found that those mice, they had a perfectly functioning immune system. So they had all their immune cells, the dendritic cells, the killer cells, all of these things are all of these immune cells were there. are present, but the microbiome was not. And that immune system did not function because the microbiome did not signal to the immune cells to start to activate, where the mice that had the microbiome, had the healthy microbiome did in fact signal the immune cells to activate. So you think of your gut is, it's the eyes and ears of the immune system. So the gut is, the role it plays is to signal the immune cells to start to activate. And we know if we have a leaky gut that these lipopallisacrides,

which is a long word for LPS, and it basically they're organisms that will seep into the bloodstream. And that causes this inflammatory response by our immune system. And so we know that, you know, we're being offended by that LPS toxins leaking into the bloodstream. And then we know that our immune system isn't even being activated unless we have a healthy microbiome. So it's so critically important. And we had been talking about this well before the pandemic started. We always were talking about how your immune system, the most foundational aspect of your immune system is taking care of your gut health. I remember it was about six or seven years ago now when I was having like terrible gut issues and I was working with someone and we were doing all kinds of testing. And I can't remember what it was,

maybe IG that we were testing that was kind of a biomarker for, like, how your immune system is functioning, right? And mine was so low. And I was sick all the time, like all the time. Yeah. And that's a great sign to know that your immune system is not functioned. If you're one of those people that just get sick easily, you know, and that's why people will always say when they start, you know, the product or whatever, they'll say, oh my gosh, I've all of a sudden, I'm not getting sick as often as I used to. And that's maybe not why they started. taking it. They may have started taking it because they had gas or bloating or something like that, but there are so many great side effects when you start to heal your gut. I mean, you start

to have better weight management, sleeping better. There's just so many other side effects. You know, I would say in the pharmaceutical world, side effects include like suicidal thoughts and all these awful things. But with, you know, when you start to heal your gut, side effects start to include more energy, better sleep, better energy and weight management and all these great side effects. To that point. Are there any, like I know that sometimes when people start taking probiotics, it can cause a little bit of a shift in the bacteria and there can be some unpleasant side effects maybe. Is that a sign that it's not the right probiotic for them or is it just their body kind of going through this transition? Yeah, that's something that we call die off.

And so it's basically the dead bacteria is just shedding and it's going through your body and it's causing some discomfort. It's causing some, you know, extra gas and bloating. It could manifest itself in different ways. And all that is is a sign, A, it's telling you it's working because it's actually getting rid of the pathogenic bacteria. But it's also a sign that you probably want to slow down, you know, maybe start taking less of our product or whatever product you're taking just to take less of it. And then go slower.

Maybe go one capsule every other day, a half a capsule every day, something just to go slower until you start to be able to titrate up to a full capsule. But it always makes me, it bums me out when somebody stops taking it when that happens because you're exactly the person that needs this product because it's telling you even more that your gut is dysbiotic and needs some repair because there's some serious cleaning going on in the gut. Okay. So another thing that I experienced was this kind of interaction between like imbalanced

hormones and the gut dysbiosis that I had. and I remember the person that I was working with years ago said, you know, we could try to address the hormones. We could try to address, you know, all these different ways that you're getting sick. We could try to address the mood stuff. But if we don't address the gut first, you know, it's like, that's kind of the domino effect. So he explained it as my gut was under constant stress and, or I was under constant stress as a result of the dysbiosis in my gut. And as a result, that was affecting all these other things. And like my reproductive hormones essentially like went offline because cortisol was the dominant thing coursing through my body.

So can you talk about the interaction between hormones and the gut? Yeah. And first of all, what a smart practitioner you have to have, you know, notice that because it's so rare to find people that actually explain that. It's so beautifully to a patient. So that's awesome that you, that he explained that to you. But yeah, your hormones are also produced in your gut, just like your immune system. is in your gut, your hormones are produced in your gut. Astrogen, progesterone, all of your these key hormones are being produced in your gut. And all your neurotransmitters are being

produced in your gut from serotonin, gabba, dopamine, all of these very important hormones are being produced in your gut. And when you have a dysbiotic gut, you're not producing the hormones the way you should be. You're not balancing the hormones the way you should be. And so just like everything else that we talk about it, and so many OBGYNs wouldn't even think to talk about any gut issues when you have hormone imbalance. And yet that's again the first place that you should be starting with. And it's interesting. I follow quite a few people about hormone health. I'm of that age in my early 50s. And it's just it's so fun. Whenever there are so many wonderfully smart women out there talking about it who are now talking, that's what they talk about

when they're talking about hormones is they go, you've got to maintain your gut health first. Because this is where your hormones are being produced. So I'm so glad you brought that up. And for young women as well, my daughters are in their 20s and I'm always like making sure they're checking their hormones and making sure their hormones are on task and up to date or, you don't balance properly because it's really important that we manage that on a regular basis. Okay. So the third kind of category that I wanted to talk about is the interaction between like mood and emotions and the gut. So, again, I will refer to my situation only because that's the only experience that I have, but you know, I had a lot of things going on when I was going through that really difficult time

with my gut. But now, ever since then, I can tell when I'm super stressed because that's when I have a little bit of like a relapse, we'll say. But I know that it works both ways. So you can have dysbiosis. And like when I was going through that six or seven years ago, I had crazy anxiety, crazy fatigue, crazy mood swings. So how do those things interact? Yeah, I'm so glad you brought this up because not only is such an important topic, it's so relevant right now. People have experienced, you know, unprecedented, there's an unprecedented amount of people with anxiety disorders right now and mood disorders going on. And obviously it's because of all that we've gone through over the last two years. But even before that, people were, you know, stressed out, run down, all of that. And so

there is something called the vagus nerve and the vagus nerve is we call it the communication super highway between the gut and the brain and so the gut is constantly sending messages to signals and messages to the brain and the brain is constantly sending messages and signals to the gut they are very there's it's a bi-directional communication so we call that the gut brain access and this is so critically important that we have to be taking care of our gut in order to take care of our brain and we have to be taking care of our brain to take care of our gut. And so a lot of times when I'm being interviewed, people will say, what other things can I do besides taking a spore-based probiotic? And I always am telling people, you need to meditate, you need to change your lifestyle, you need to do deep breathing,

whatever it is that relaxes you, because that is not woo-woo. I mean, that is a true, it's a proven fact that when we start calming our mind and calming ourselves, we start seeing better health in our gut. And then the reverse is true too. When we start to repair issues in our gut, we start to have less anxiousness, better mood, and all of those types of things. So it's really important that we take care of it. There is a huge connection between the gut and the brain. Yes. And I just had a neurosurgeon and neurobiologist, same person, neurosurgeon slash neurobiologist on the show. And he was talking about the vagus nerve. And he was like, yeah, it's a thing. We weren't talking about gut health. but I remember hearing him talk about how there's literally a nerve that goes from like your brain down.

And I remember thinking, uh-huh, that's like, that's where that. Well, yeah. You know, the people will say I got butterflies in my stomach. I mean, that's because you were nervous or you're excited. And I mean, that's real. That's very, very real. Yeah. And unfortunately for me, because I'm a very, like, sensitive person, if I have any kind of like deviation from calmness,

mentally or emotionally, the first place that it shows up is, my gut. And so I love that you talk about mindfulness because that has been such an integral tool for me in kind of maintaining my gut health. And I think it's something that so many people overlook because it is easier to take a probiotic, which of course is important or like restrict what you're eating. I think that that's a huge problem that people run into thinking that they have to restrict all kinds of foods and then depriving their microbiomes of the diversity that they need. I couldn't have agree with you more. Yeah.

Well, let's talk about that. Let's talk about the diversity aspect of that. Yeah, well, we know, I mean, it's undisputed with all health experts out there is that we need a diverse microbiome to have a healthy microbiome. So if you have a lot of diversity in your microbiome, lots of different types of bacteria, we know that you have a healthy microbiome. And yet we are living in this society where it's like we're supposed to be restrictive of so many of the foods that we eat.

And I understand that, you know, people have to do that because they just can't tolerate certain foods, but the goal should be to be introducing new kinds of foods as much as possible. Going to ethnic grocery stores, that's what I try to do, go to ethnic grocery stores and buying different types of roots and tubers and just trying to introduce new foods on a regular basis just so that we could create more diversity. And we're also guilty of being stuck in that rut of making the same thing. It's just easier, but really trying to be conscious and prescriptive about that when you go to the grocery store to grab different types of roots and tubers and veggies and all of that kind of stuff just and fruits and things like that just so you're

introducing different type of bacteria into your gut. Okay, so let's talk about probiotics. And since we're talking about food, maybe we can first talk about probiotics in food. I mean, what can you realistically get out of eating something like, you know, a crowd or kimchi or of yogurt or cheese or kefir, any of these things. Yeah, well, those are all great sources of probiotics of the lactobacillus bifidobacterium type of strains. And the problem, and we mentioned this on the last podcast, is that most probiotics on the market and most probiotics that are in those types of

foods will die before they ever get to the intestines. Does it mean that they're not doing anything? No, I mean, of course, sauerkraud and all these different types of fermented foods are actually giving, they're very nutrient dense. They're really doing great things. They have other gut supporting mechanisms to help support your gut. They just are not a replacement for a probiotic because they die before they ever get to the intestines. That's one of the biggest differentiation, differentiating factors with spores is the spore-based bacteria actually have the ability to get to the intestines alive. They're dormant. It's not until they hit the intestines

that they take their spore shell off. And that's when they go into their live vegetation. of cell states. So I'm a huge fan of fermented foods and all the foods that you mentioned, I'm a huge fan of them. I just, I wouldn't look at them as a replacement for a spore-based probiotic because they're not getting to the intestines alive. So you just explained the spore a little bit, but let's get like really scientific. I know my audience appreciates that. So can you explain what exactly is a spore-based probiotic and how exactly it works? Yeah. Well, even if we go back up a little bit when we, our ancestors used to eat off the land. And so they would eat, you know, they would get foods off the land and they would eat a lot of the soil and the dirt that was on the

food. They would consume these probiotics or the dirt on a regular braces. And in that soil are these bacillus strains. And these bacillus strains are considered spore-based probiotics. And they call them spore-based probiotics because they have this endospore shell around itself. And that shell allows it to remain hearty through the journey from your mouth, through your gastric system, into the intestines. When it gets to the intestines, that's when it takes the shell off, and that's when it goes into its live vegetative cell state. So we know that people need to have a lot, you know, we always hear about, oh, you need a live probiotic to be a good probiotic. And people will say, I need one that's refrigerated. And I always laugh because it's like, it doesn't need to be refrigerated. It doesn't need to be live in the

refrigerator, it needs to be live in your intestines. And the majority of those probiotics, we've tested pretty much all of them, and none of them make it to the intestines alive. They are just sensitive organisms and don't have the ability to get to the intestines, where the spores have this spore shell around itself where they're dormant, they're dormant in the bottle, they're dormant when you swallow them. And again, when they hit the intestines, they have the ability to take the shell off. They recognize the intestines as their home, and they take that shell off and that's when they go to work. And when they go to work, they're also very different than the lactobifido type of strings is they have the ability to stay there for about 21 to 28

days where they're working through every part of the intestinal tract from the small intestine all the way down to the distal colon, whereas, you know, lactobacillus will just pass through in the same day where the spores actually stay there for about 21 to 28 days. And that's why people see such profound changes when they start taking it, because it's actually making a shift. So there was one of the studies that we did was a gut model study. And that gut model study showed a 30% favorable shift in the gut bacteria over just two and a half weeks. I mean, after two and a half weeks, we're seeing 30% favorable shift in the gut microbiome. I mean, that's unheard of, I don't know of any other probatic that has a study of that magnitude. So they're just a really unique type of strain that was really abundant in our environment. We always say go back to nature, go back to the way our ancestors lived. And they got, you know, these strains. from the soil when they ate off the land. And even to the day, if you went to a tribe in Tanzania, you know, there are these tribes, these indigenous tribes that are living off the land. And they basically wouldn't, they have like no incidence of IBS, ulcerative colitis, gas, bloating,

nothing like that because they're living off the land and they're getting these bacillus strains. And they're just reconditioning their gut on a regular basis. That's so interesting. Yeah. When I heard you talk about like the arrive alive thing. Yes. It was so interesting because, yeah, I mean, I guess when you think about it, it doesn't really make sense. Like, why take something that has to be refrigerated if then it's going to be going into your body in a completely different environment and expect that to be alive? Like, it just, I never thought about it like that. Yeah. Yeah. It's like when you start to think about it, it doesn't make much sense. Are there any other like probiotic myths that we can bust? Oh, yeah. So yeah, the refrigeration one is. is my favorite. But the other one that's also my favorite is that more is better. You know, you see a lot of the probiotics on the market, 50 billion CFUs, 200 billion CFUs. And really, there's no studies behind that. That is really mostly marketing. And it's also because a lot of these companies know, all of them are dying, but by the time they get to the intestines. So that's really one of the

biggest mess. Really, what we need to know is like our product, the gut model study, I just talked to you about it was, you know, three billion CFUs and showed a 30% favorable shift in two and a half weeks. I mean, that's incredible just with three billion. So it's really about the quality, not the quantity of the strains in the product. Is there any other research that you can share with us that you guys have done that was either really surprising or really unexc- I guess the same thing. Really surprising. We'll stick with that one. Well, our leaky gut study, I've got two two things I want to talk about science, but one, our leaky gut study that was done on our probiotic, the spore-based probiotic, it literally is incredible because it's the only study that we know of its

kind. It was a double-blind human clinical trial done at University of North Texas that showed that these strains actually sealed, helped seal up the gut lining and was stopping LPS toxins from seeping into the bloodstream. It was incredible. It's just like I said, it's the only study of its kind. So leaky gut, another word for it, is metabolic endotoxemia is so prevalent. They estimate that 80% of the adult population has it. And we know that leaky gut is the major driver of Alzheimer's, of heart disease, cancer diabetes. We know that when these LPS toxins start to seep into the bloodstream, our immune system starts this inflammatory response and causes inflammation throughout the body. And so if we could stop that LPS from seeping into the bloodstream,

we are making such huge and massive strides and strides in our gut health, I mean, in our overall health, not just our gut health, but in our overall health. So yeah, that's really excited. We've done a lot of double-blind human clinical trials. Like I said, we've really tried to elevate the standard in the supplement space by bringing double-blind human clinical trials. And it's been really exciting. Can you talk a little bit about how exactly it addresses the inflammation?

Well, yeah. Well, basically, when we don't have that LPS toxins seeping into the bloodstream, you're not having this inflammatory response by your immune system. So it's really, really awesome. What are some maybe less obvious signs that somebody might be dealing with a gut issue? I think that we think about the really obvious things like bloating, gas, upset stomach, whatever. but are there some other symptoms that people might be experiencing that they are not realizing it's connected to their gut? Yeah, skin issues is a big one.

Oh, yeah. People have acne or just any skin rash. I always tell me, if you have some type of skin rash, you know, fine, take some over-the-counter topical thing to help alleviate some of the, you know, the color or whatever. But we know that that is stemming from a gut issue, some type of gut issue. And I also think the mood health and mood disorders are also. So we talked about that a little bit. And I'd love to talk about that a little bit more because we have such an exciting new product

that we're about to launch that is absolutely game-changing in the mood health space. So but I think mood people don't think of having anxiety, depression and any of those things with having an imbalance in their gut. And yet they're completely related. So skin health, mood health, of course, allergies, any type of allergies is absolutely, any autoimmune issue is associated with leaky gut is associated with, gut imbalance going on. But yeah, those are probably some of the ones

that people wouldn't necessarily think of as, you know, being caused from the gut. Well, obviously, you guys have a really thoughtful, well-researched probiotic. You know, it's clear that you're really intentional with the products that you're coming out with and you said that you don't want to have 200.

So what are some of the other ones that you guys are working on or that you have that can address some of these other issues? Yeah, well, another product that I just want to mention real quickly before we get onto our new product is the IgG. So IgG, it's called the ultimate IGG. That's also incredibly supportive of our gut lining. So it's all about our gut lining, about our mucosal lining. These are all really important for us. Our IgGG is an immunoglobulin G. An immunoglobulins, their job in the body is to find antigens. So find viruses, bacteria, mold toxins,

those types of antigens. And the IgG in our body that we naturally make binds to those antigens. And then our body safely removes them from the body. And so our ultimate IGG is more IGG but in our gut. So we actually have the ability to have these IGG, this IGG product that produce 25% more IGG in the gut. So it's helping rid the body of, you know, viruses and pathogens and other type of invaders and antigens in our gut, which is really exciting. And also incredibly supportive of our gut lining. So that's a, you know, we've had that on the market for quite a while. And it's been super successful, very, very popular product. Really great for immune health as well.

And should everybody take that with their probiotic or how is that? Yeah, I mean, I always respect people's budgets and, you know, everyone has to do what they have to do. But, I mean, I take it every day. I have my parents taking it every day. I have my in-laws taking it every day. So it just especially everything that's been going on with, you know, wanting to support our immune system. We know we have to seal up that gut lining.

And that's why the IGG is. is so important. And also, when you're getting rid of, you know, a viral load or bacterial load in the body, it's allowing your body to better fight new viruses and pathogens that come your way. We have, there's absolutely no evidence that IGG helps with COVID or anything like that. It's just that when we have less of a viral load in us that our body's fighting, it's going to make our immune system stronger to be able to fight whatever comes our way. Right. Okay, so what are the new products that you have coming? Oh my God, this new product. I am so excited about. about I can't hardly wait. In fact, I think it will be launched by the time this episode airs.

I'm hoping, but we have a product called, we actually launched it under a new sub-brand of Just Thrive. It's called J-O-O-O-T. So the J-O-O-T, so the J-O-O-T, so it's from Just-J-O-O in there. But it's jute by Just Thrive, and the product name is called Just Calm. And so this product is game-changing. It is called a psychobiotic. And I don't know, it's a pretty new term. It was a very new term. coined maybe about five years ago. And a psychobiotic is a probiotic that strain that actually helps with cognitive function and mood and supportive of your brain health, basically. I need that. Yeah. Is there anybody that's listening that doesn't? Yes, exactly. I know. I am so, I mean, our customers are going crazy waiting for it. We're so excited. So, but this,

the strain that we have in this product is a very research strain called Bithro Longum, 1714. And this strain is actually helping with cortisol, reducing cortisol levels, which is huge. So we know that brain health, mood disorders, and cognitive dysfunction are from brain inflammation. So it's really important. If we just back up a step, we've got brain inflammation that is caused by two factors. One is LPS toxins that we already talked about. So the probiotic alone will help with that aspect. It will help with that inflammation that's maybe going to your brain. And we also have this other issue with brain inflammation is external stressors, which we all are experiencing on a day-to-day basis.

You know, someone cuts you off. You get into an argument with someone. You don't, you miss a deadline. You know, you're late for an appointment. All these external stresses cause this activation of the HPA access. And so, you know, it starts to trigger the hypothalamus, the pituitary, and then the adrenal glands, and then the adrenal glands starts to produce cortisol. And that cortisol dumps in our gut.

And so now we know that this Bifidol-Longum 17-14 strain is actually lowering, is helping your body deal with those external stressors so much better and is actually helping reduce cortisol levels. Great studies on this as well. We have a study that showed that the 17-14 strain actually started to alter brainwave activity to put us more a theta wave, which is more like a flow state, which is where we all are striving to be. And we know that individuals who have more 17-14 in their system versus people who don't are able to manage stress better and sleep better and all of those types of issues.

So this is groundbreaking. It's so different. You know, we know there's like Ashwaganda, there's magnesium, there's all kinds of great other things to help calm you down. But this is, again, getting to the cause of our issues. And it's like between both the probiotic and the just calm product, you know, we call it like a cognitive support bundle because it's like you have, now you're dealing with both the inflammation that is coming from the LPS, the seeping up from your gut into the brain, and then those external stressors that we're dealing with on a daily basis. So it's really exciting. That's very exciting. And just from what you're telling me, I think I have no 1714 in my body. So I think I need as much of it as I can get.

Yes, but who couldn't use to like manage stress better and, you know, handle that? So I understand. You're not alone. Amazing. Well, what is one thing that people could start doing for their gut health today? Obviously, taking the probiotics, but maybe aside from that, and one thing people should stop doing. Well, I definitely think the diversity is key. And I know we touched on that.

I really think if you could just try to start eating a diverse group of foods, try to eat organic as well, or as much as you possibly can, try to stay away from those glyphosates, but eating a diverse group of foods, I think it will have a really nice effect on your gut as well. And then stop doing, easier said than done, but just stop stressing so much. I mean, that is so detrimental to our gut health. Also, just stop using the household products that are loaded with chemicals and stop cleaning everything off. We need our bacteria. Bacteria is good.

Bacteria is our friend. only like less than 1% of the bacteria out there is bad. Most of the bacteria is so beneficial to us. And it's dictating so much of our health. So love your bacteria. I love that. Love your bacteria. That's a good tagline.

Yes, exactly. Well, thank you so much. Where can everybody find Just Thrive? Our website is probably the best place, just thrive health.com. And I think we have a coupon code. I think it's blonde, blonde. and then I think people could get 15% off. So definitely our website's probably the best place.

We're also on Instagram, Just ThriveHealth. So, but Justthrivehealth.com. And we will link all of that in show notes that people can get to it easily. And we'll also put the code down there for them. And thank you again. That's so exciting to hear everything that you guys have coming on the horizon or by the time this is out, everything that you have been working on. I can't wait to get it to you, Ariel.

Oh, my God. I am so excited. I am going to be... I know. You're going to be in that flow state all the time. You won't even know what to do with yourself. I'm ready for those brainwaves. Yes, me too. Thank you so much, Tina. Thank you, Ariel. I hope you enjoyed that episode. If you liked it, and if you like the show in general, please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes a long way. And it's actually the best way to support the show. show. Also, if you want to see more about each episode, you can head over to The Blond Files podcast on Instagram. I'm always posting about each episode there or over on my personal page at Ariel Laurie.