Well with Arielle Lorre - 239: How to Manage Inflammation, How Your Gut is Affecting Your Brain, Breast Implant Illness & More with Dr. Will Cole

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

Dr. Will Cole is a leading functional medicine practitioner and best selling author of Ketotarian, The Inflammation Spectrum, Intuitive Fasting, and his new book, Gut Feelings. He joins the show to discuss the gut-brain connection, chronic inflammation and hormone imbalances, and what lifestyle factors contribute to and help heal these common issues. We also discuss the often overlooked emotional component that contributes to gut issues, how to avoid orthorexic patterns when healing, whether botox and fillers are inflammatory, breast implant illness and so much more.   Visit viveorganic.com and use code BLONDE at checkout for 15% off your first purchase.    Go to FastGrowingTrees.com/BLONDE NOW to get 15% off your entire order.   Visit athleticgreens.com/blondefiles for a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D and 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.     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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So visit House of macadamias.com slash blonde to begin indulging in health. Welcome to the blondefiles 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. I know there's so much information out there, so I'm bringing on expert guests and sharing my own experiences to help you sift through all the wellness stuff without the BS. Enjoy the show. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. I am recording this so early in the morning. I'm so sleepy. I feel like I have sleepy voice. I can't really do anything about it. So please bear with me,

but I have an amazing episode for you today. I'm talking to Dr. Will Cole. I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with him. He is a leading functional medicine practitioner. He has an amazing podcast called The Art of Being Well. He's also a best-selling author. He has the books Ketotarian, The Inflammation Spectrum, Intuitive Fasting, and he has a new book out called Gut Feelings. And he is on the show today to discuss the gut brain connection. We talk a lot about inflammation, chronic inflammation. We talk about inflammation triggers what lifestyle and environmental factors can trigger inflammation. We talk about how then that inflammation can affect hormones.

We talk gut issues, the gut brain connection, which is the focus of his new book. and then me being who I am, I wanted to ask him about aesthetics and inflammation because I know that he works with a patient population who tend to be pretty sensitive, a lot of them have autoimmune, and I wanted to know how things like Botox and fillers affect inflammation if they do at all. And then I wanted to ask him about breast implant illness. This is a very hot topic, and I know that you guys probably have heard me address it a few times on my solo episodes. So I wanted to hear from him, somebody who deals with, like I said, a patient population who tends to have a lot of autoimmune issues and sensitivities. And like he describes it in the episode as a full cup. And

sometimes you add something to that and then the cup spills over. So we've heard from my breast surgeon and he obviously has one perspective. So it was really interesting to talk to Dr. Cole and hear his perspective as well. So it's a really amazing episode. We really get into the nitty-gritty of a lot of different topics. So please enjoy Dr. Will Cole. Welcome, Dr. Cole. Thank you for having me back. We just recorded on your podcast, so I feel like we've been talking forever. But I'm really excited to have you on. It's been about four years because I feel like you were one of my first guests back in those early days. Wow, well, I feel honored. we've come a long way. So hopefully it's a way better quality interview on my part than the last

years ago. I don't remember being not quality. Stumbling through. But I really want to talk a lot today about inflammation. I think this is kind of a buzzword that is really prevalent right now. I think you can tell us, but inflammation itself is really prevalent because of our lifestyle and what we're exposed to and all of that. But it's kind of a cascade, right? And so many other symptoms crop up from that. So I'd love to start there and just have you kind of define what is inflammation. Is there a spectrum and how can it show up for people? Sure. So inflammation is a product of the human immune system. So it's the immune system produces different proteins, different amino acids that are pro-inflammatory chemical messengers basically to fight off viruses to kill off bacteria,

to heal wounds. So healthy measured inflammation, the human species wouldn't be here without it. It's when inflammation turns chronic where problems ensue. So it's chronic inflammation that is the commonality between just about every health problem under the sun.

I mean, you're talking about autoimmune issues, through digestive problems, through hormonal problems, oftentimes have inflammatory components, metabolic issues, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, disease cancer to, as I'm talking about in gut feelings, my latest book, it's the brain component of it.

And this field of research known as the cytokine model of cognitive function. Cytokines are pro-inflammatory cells. How do cytokines impact how our brain works is what researchers are really exploring. How does inflammation impact mental health? And so that's what inflammation is and what, you know, it's not inherently bad. It's about just supporting healthy inflammatory pathways and dealing with what's causing the chronic inflammation. So notice I said the inflammation was the chronic inflammation was the commonality, but ultimately something's causing the dysregulated immune system response in the first place. And that's really my job in functional medicine is to figure out what's upstream, what's the root driver of that chronic inflammation.

because if inflammation isn't inherently bad, but it's dysregulated, then what's disregulating it? And in gut feelings, I'm really exploring that bidirectional relationship, both the gut and the feelings, the physiological and the psychological and the physical and the mental, emotional, spiritual, both sides. There's a number of things we can talk about that are both contributing inflammation in a lot of people. So how can people notice it does exist on a spectrum, like you said. By the time somebody's diagnosed with, let's just say an autoimmune issue or type 2 diabetes or even a mental health issue, it's about four to 10 years prior to that diagnosis when things were brewing on that inflammation spectrum. So for most people, it doesn't happen overnight. There are some, obviously, like extreme trauma experiences and extreme, you know, viral issues that people can get things triggered overnight or seemingly over. night. But for most people, it exists on a continuum. I've heard you talk in other podcasts about this

upstream concept. And I think what so many people do is maybe they'll start having an irregular period, or they'll start having bloating or digestive issues, or they'll start having headaches or whatever the symptoms are, and they'll go to treat that thing. But you have said, like, even the hormones, that's not the most upstream you can get. You want to go to the top. So what is at the top? Is it really just finding what is the root of the inflammation and the inflammation is then what's going downstream to cause this cascade of symptoms? Yeah, that's a good way of putting it and how I see it for a lot of things is that inflammation is causing some sort of dysregulation in the body. It's creating some symptoms, certainly. It is causing some symptoms, but ultimately something is causing it. So upstream

to the, it depends on the person, right? And that's when you're talking on a clinical setting, a comprehensive health history and then really getting granular on what is their life look like? What are the, what we call clinical pearls? Like what are the things that pointers

that we want to get diagnostics and labs on and figure out what's going on, objective data-wise? But then this feeling side of it is just needs just as much, if not more for some people of what's triggering that inflammation. So really unpacking the concept

the topics of chronic stress and what that even means and trauma and even intergenerational trauma, some big stuff that will just as much raise inflammation as any physiological stuff. Biophysiological stuff, I mean underlying gut problems, chronic infections. We see a lot of mold toxicity

and mycotoxins, chronic Lyme disease, nutrient deficiencies, even hormonal imbalances. But to your point, hormones are in many ways a downstream issue. They're going to cause symptoms, certainly. But normally there's something causing the hormonal dysregulation. It's like maybe the hormones can ring the alarm so that it gets your attention. But yeah, I feel like even I've fallen into that trap before, where I've been dealing with an irregular period or other symptoms that I attribute

to my hormones. And I even went on like bioidentical for a while. And it's great for a minute. And then you're still back at square one. We call it the honeymoon period. I had such a great honeymoon period because I started taking progesterone and we were talking on your show about my nervous system and how I love things that calm my nervous system. Progesterone was like nature's Xanax for me for a minute there. I was like, this is amazing. I've found the solution for life.

Not so much. It didn't really last long. But if somebody comes in to see you and they're having a whole range of symptoms, obviously it's different for everybody, but what are the things that you screen for immediately or instantly? Like you mentioned things like trauma and what were the other emotional one? Chronic stress. Oh, yeah. Do you think we're all chronically stressed?

Yeah. I mean, at least the people I'm talking to, yeah. Yeah. It's hot. I mean, but it's subjective, right? You get some people and they'll mark, most of the time my patients are pretty, I guess, intuitive to know, even though they're used to this level of stress, they still would mark it high. Occasionally you'll get the person that marks it pretty low.

But then when you really get into asking them questions and how they're handling things, it's just actually there too is actually a 10. They're just normalizing something's actually quite abnormal. So that's the science and art, I think, of just understanding us, you know, humans and how, what are the variables that are at play? But yeah, it's what our action step is clinically. It's just we ask a lot of questions. I want an older gentleman tell me years ago, and I still think of it.

after we asked all these, you know, random questions that he saw random, but are very much important for us in functional medicine? He said, are you in the KGB? Like, are you some sort of Russian spy, please? No, we just want to look at things that have them, like, if we're asking like the outer third of your eyebrows, are they thinning, it's because that can be a sign that the thyroid is off. Wow. So for that guy or, you know, whoever's out there, that's a common question. Why are you asking about that? Or if you're asking, if you crave salty foods, like that could be a sign that. your hypothalic pituitary adrenal axis is off. Like that sympathetic fight or flight,

hormonal neuroendocrine, if you will, stress response is off. Or if you, like we talk a lot about bowel movements and people like maybe they don't go to the bathroom every day and they think that's normal, but we have to talk about their poop because if they're not doing, as we say, one to two snakes a day on the Bristol chart,

just because it's your everyday, doesn't mean it's normal. And I think a lot of people normalize these sort of, things that they can get by with, right? And they may be annoying, they may be uncomfortable at times, but they sort of normalize it. It starts with a lot of questions. So I try to put a lot of that stuff in the book

so people can kind of if they don't have a functional medicine doctor, what are things you can do to start having agency over your health? What are some things that people can do? I mean, are there lifestyle contributors that you think a lot of people are probably doing consciously or subconsciously that could be contributing to, inflammation and whatever symptoms they're experiencing. On the physiological side, on the gut side, it starts with the gut. I mean, I'm sure you've talked about it on the podcast, but it's 75% of the immune system.

Inflammation is a product of the immune system. So to understand inflammation, you really have to look at where most of the immune system resides, which is in the gastrointestinal system. And part of that is the microbiome, which lives inside the gastrointestinal system. So upwards of 100 trillion in bacteria, we're about 10 times more. bacteria than human. We have way less human cells. And we're kind of, we would be goners without the microbiome. It's regulating how we think. It's regulating how we digest foods. It's regulating hormonal. Like 20% of the thyroid hormone is converted in the presence of healthy bacterial diversity

of the microbiome. So it's extremely important. And there's a lot of, again, to repeat myself, gut-centric components to these inflammatory issues. So autoimmune issues, mental health, issues, hormonal problems, metabolic issues oftentimes have their roots in the gut. So what are things people can do? Something that I talk about in the book, I basically put 42 of my, like, what I've found to be the most effective tools, 21 for the gut section, 21 for the feeling section of like people can pick what they want. But what are the most science-backed, effective ways to support this gut feeling connection, which is really about the gut brain access and in turn hormonal health, immune health, and energy levels, and digestive health.

So I talk about one of the gut action items, I talk about the GAPS protocol, if you have heard of it, but it's an acronym. Sounds familiar. I'm sorry you've done it before. I'm sure you've done it before. It stands for a gut and psychology syndrome or gut and physiology syndrome. So it's just a tool that we've used clinically for the past 13 plus years at the telehealth center of just nourishing soups and stews.

Like you and I talked before about the instapot. Like instapot like perfect for this gap protocol because it's easy. It's convenient. It's like you can be quite lower cost too because you're just sort of batch making things. And it's grounding. It's kind of calming to that second brain your gut. It's also calming to where two thirds of inflammation is originating from. So it's one thing.

As I say in the book, like if they do nothing else in the protocol that I put in there, this is sort of a foundational thing. Not that they have to do every meal of soups, but the more they lean into it, the patients that do that, I find get better the fastest. Really? So is that like bone broths or why is it so effective? It's multifactorial. One of it is it's almost like, I think of it as predigested. Like you have a gut that's like stressed out and there's lots of healthy foods out there. There's nothing wrong with them. But a gut that's trying to be rehab, the gut that's trying to be gaining some resilience. and ability to digest and absorb,

digesting food requires a lot of energy. So it's almost giving your gut as a proverbial siesta, where you're kind of taking some of the work off of it. You're cooking it down. I even have some extra sensitive patients like puree, vegetables to make it as gentle on the gut as possible. So that's, in my opinion, probably the most beneficial because it's just so soft that it's less work for the gut to do

and the gut can work on repairing instead of digesting. the foods. The second thing is the ingredients obviously that you're putting in. You're not just like blending up and soaking skittles. We are actually like having nutrient dense foods, which clean proteins, but they're gentle. They're like soft and like falling apart. So it's like really easy to break down. The healthy fats are within there, but it's soft. The vegetables that are in there are soft and sometimes even purrayed. So it's, you're getting all the things that you need, protein fats and carbs, but in more digestible, bioavailable, usable ways. And then later on you can graduate out of that and you may do it periodically,

but it's a great sort of gut rehab, inflammation rehab for somebody that's looking to kind of reset their gut health. But the broth base does play a role in it too. I think that sort of a collagenic base bone broth is for most people a very well accepted, well tolerated form of protein. I mean, I see a lot of food reactions in people. And a lot of things that maybe I tolerate, someone else tolerates, people that have more reactive systems don't tolerate. So it make me some way protein or egg protein or a lot of plant proteins don't always work for them. And there's a time and place for all of those things. But it's about like what's the most least reactive?

And for most of our patients and most people I would say I talk to that aren't my patients, bone broth is going to be well accepted. Now, there are plant-based broths that work really well, too, like a glangle broth, a ginger broth, a seaweed broth. They are really great plant-based options, too. So it's not all bone broth. There's definitely a lot of vegan options for people and many omnivor options.

We were talking on your podcast about orthorexia and just kind of overall restriction. And I think that something that happens to a lot of people who are experiencing gut issues is they restrict themselves into a corner. And it can be really hard because when you are reacting to everything, food becomes scary. So do you have tips for those people? It sounds like this is a good place to start maybe to try incorporating more soups and broths, things that are easier to digest. But, you know, we were talking

about quote unquote, good food and bad food and how everything has a time and place. But are there things that seem to kind of universally be triggering for people who are dealing with gut issues? And conversely things that are universally healing. Sure. Yeah, there's a lot of bioindividuality there, right? Because it's like everything I could say and I will say there are caveats and exceptions to. So that's why I kind of tend to, when I'm talking about these things, I'm not really a hardliner with anything because I am thinking of a patient. Oh, it works great for them.

You really can't make a blanket statement there. What do people do, I think, with the orthorexia and if they are having food reactions, and have like a fear around that flare up that was centered around food for many people. At least food played a role in it, right? And they don't know. In many ways, it's like the other avenue to orthorexia because it's not the traditional

what you would think of as an eating disorder, right? They're not going in to necessarily like look a certain way or they don't necessarily have sort of a body image issue per se. This is like, no, they have a, they're having legitimate, physiological food sensitivities and food reactions and flare-ups. But then you said, they perfectly said, they kind of whittle them, push themselves into a corner. And then is it the stress around the eating or the food itself at a certain point? And I think that's really what

I'm exploring and gut feelings. It's the sort of diet culture versus anti-diet culture. And I'm sort shedding light in what I call food piece. If like both sides are kind of extreme, but what's the middle ground of realizing, yeah, it could be a both and conversation. Some foods are going to mess up your blood sugar. Some foods are going to cause digestive problem. Some foods are going to cause inflammation in you. Avoiding those isn't restrictive. It's self-respect. But at the same time, you don't want to shame and obsess and have sort of this obsessive negativity around foods either. So what I refer to as food piece, I think, is the way it's not perfect because healing is nonlinear. And what's true for you today may not always be the case and it's okay to evolve, it's okay to pivot.

It's okay to say, yeah, it used to work for me this way, but now I'm okay with being different. That's huge to give yourself grace and lightness to change with health and every other aspect of your life. So, I mean, that's why the feeling action items in the book within the protocol are so important. Like breathwork and meditation. Like I know that you practice these things and somatic practices. and for people that have a lot of trauma, like limbic, like nervous system retraining and EMDR to really like shift the nervous system more into a parasympathetic

because it's not just the food. It's the food and then the energy in which you're eating it, the space in which you're eating it. And if you're having this sort of apprehensive energy towards the eating, it's going to create a completely different output than if you ate it completely in a more regulated state. And to that point, I mean, you were saying, you were talking about me having a meditation practice. I do. But then I'll get on my phone and be doing a million emails while I'm scarfing down my oats in the morning, which is not conducive to good digestion. So I think, yeah, you have to be mindful around these things. And to your point about giving yourself grace, I love that. I think a lot of things nowadays are labeled diet culture that aren't. You know, I get it all the time if I post a what I eat in a day or just posting pictures of my food.

food, you know, the fact that, like, I don't always eat dairy because it doesn't agree with me, I get called out for subscribing to diet culture. And I'm like, no, I know my body. Like, you know, it's not, it's not because of anybody else. It's because, you know, I've gone through the trial and error and had to learn these things for myself. Yeah. It's so true. And I think it's just it's these toxic tribalism between diet culture and anti-diculture. I just think we cannot absolve ourselves of just basic things. Just like gravity exists, there's clinical nutrition and biochemistry and everybody's different. And that's why the thing, it's not a, this isn't about a way that somebody looks or weight or dieting in that way. Because even if we all ate the same,

we'd still would all look different. And that's beautiful. That's not what we're talking about. That's not you and I are what we're even referring to when we're talking about food. It's like, why would I want to eat a food that doesn't love me back? The analogy that I put in, the book, it's like staying in a toxic relationship and wondering why you're still miserable. And I think even the conversations online in our world, I think it's great about healthy boundaries. But I think part of healthy boundaries is also applying healthy boundaries with ourselves and healthy boundaries with food. And that's okay. It doesn't mean it's restrictive. It's just healthy boundaries. Something that a lot of guests have spoken about recently is how over the last couple of years,

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unverwashed to cost, always for sure. So, would auto-hours under-zorg go to

your reiseadviseur or sonikars. combe. I was listening to a podcast with David Sinclair,

you know, lifespan and he's a researcher at Harvard, anti-aging, longevity, and he eats like one meal

a day at the end of the day. He fasts. And I think if somebody else were to do that, that would be labeled as an eating disorder. And it's just not. Like it's, again, so individual to the person. You find what works for you. But we're talking a lot about food. Are there other lifestyle contributors, maybe some less common ones that we wouldn't think of that contribute to inflammation? I'm sure, you know, we can think of like environmental toxins and things like that. Obviously, we talked about stress. What else might we be facing in our lives every day that could be causing these symptoms? On the physical stuff, it's the physical side of things. It's things that I measure on labs.

I would say biotoxins like mold toxins are very common. But I'm dealing with the population of people and, you know, this is more common than we think it is. But people that have different methylation gene variants, I mean, about 40% of the population has some like MTHFR gene variance, but it's not just about the MTHFR variants, just a variety of different methylation gene variants, which are genes that impact how we detox, how neurotransmitters and our brain functions, how our mood is expressed, how inflammation is regulated. So the more methylation gene variants someone may have, and we get a copy from our mom and a copy from our dad, they can influence how we clear things out and the immune system regulates itself and

the brain regulates itself. And then a set of gene variants that are called the HLA genes, or the human leukocyte antigens, which is how the body, again, deals with threats like biotoxins. So someone can be genetically more susceptible, meaning maybe their spouse or their roommate aren't as sensitive, right? And I think in many ways my patients are kind of like canaries in the coal mine for their families because they're having the reactions, but maybe they aren't.

And like, they're, they can't get away with all the food stuff necessarily. The foods, they're more reactive versus someone that's not. Again, bio-individuality with this, both on an epigenetic and a genetic level. And it's just realizing we're all different. And so mold toxins, environmental toxins, or biotoxins and synthetic man-made toxins are two really important, underlooked at things. And we can quantify this on labs via blood and urine tests. Where are people encountering mold toxicity?

The most that I, is the home. And we quantify this. We're measuring mycotoxins coming out in the urine, and then we can get a blood test to see if the immune system is creating antibodies against the mold. Most of the time when we get a inspector in there, and the inspector is different than the remediator. So we just first want to get sort of an objective data on just like we're looking at the body. That's maybe not doing so well.

We want to see if there's a sick home, too. So that's most of the time. But it's the people, where are you spending the most time at? We have a lot of school teachers as patients, and not to generalize schools. I'm sure there's many new buildings that are wonderful, but a lot of the older buildings that aren't really looked at from a health standpoint. I see a lot of courthouses, like court reporters, that are these buildings that are built in the 70s and not really looked at. They're looking at from a aesthetic standpoint, but not actually like a health standpoint. point. And people that are more immunoreactive or more biotoxin sensitive to these buildings

can be, it really could be a source of inflammation that will impact things like chronic fatigue, trigger autoimmune issues, great brain fog issues, anxiety I've seen. And then I was in that same breath with biotoxins, other environmental, like glyphosate is something that we can measure via urine, which is used in Roundup, right? And other pollutants. like things that are used in jet fuel and other herbicides and pesticides, it's ubiquitous to say the least. Again, some people, it's not healthy for any human, but some people are better clearers of these things that aren't really going to create immediate responses. It's more of a cumulative long-term problem. But for many people, they're having reactions in the here and now, even with low levels of these things.

So can somebody have these gene variations or say somebody has a higher threshold, like you were just saying. Some people don't react as much. But can things like stress, trauma, you know, accumulating these emotional things along the way, can that lower your threshold to be able to process these toxins and the things that we encounter that can cause inflammation? Totally. And that's an important point. And really what gut feelings is all about is like we cannot live in a bubble. Let's do our best to clean up our life, make measured, moderate decisions about food and using non-toxic products. for example, but not becoming orthorexic about these things.

Like, I don't even think about them because I'm just doing the moderate stuff on the gut side and in the feeling side. I'm taking care of myself there. So that's what I want for the average human being out there is to not become obsessive in either realm. But it's the bucket analogy, right? Some people have big bucket. Some people have small buckets.

That's your bio-individuality. A lot of my patients tend to have smaller buckets. They can't change their bucket size, but they can change what they put in it. I have a shot glass. Before I would use this analogy completely innocently, I would talk about we all have different cup sizes and some people with big cups. And then someone said on my team, they're like, you need to quit talking about cup sizes. Oh.

But bioindividuality is a good pun for my show. That's what I was going to say. So I'm talking about different vessels, right? And the stress and unresolved trauma and shame and all of that stuff, that feeling, mental, emotional, spiritual stuff contributes to that bucket tipping point overflow. And when that happens, symptoms ensue. So the physiological and the psychological both contribute to that bucket tipping point. So what can people do to take care of themselves on the psychological aspect of things? So it's, in my opinion, for many people, it's almost more important because in many ways it sets the tone for even their food decisions.

Because the more they're in a paris sympathetic state, the more they want to go for things that love them back without being triggered. True. Very true. Yeah. So things like, I mean, I talk about breathwork in the book. And there's different entry points to breathwork. My son and I who's in the room right now. We did a holotropic. breath class the other day and I talk about it in the book. It's a great it's if you know the research around holotropic but it actually was brought it was something that was studied to elicit similar responses as psychedelics. Is this like what Wim Hof does? Yeah. Okay, I love that one. Yeah. I've done all the drugs. I can say it does mimic some of the feeling not like the psychedelic but for me it's so calming. You know you know me by now

after talking for the last two hours. I'm on the endless quest. for nature Zanax, and that doesn't for me. And it's nice because breathing through your nose in this example of holotropic, it's the break. So you can create your own dose, if you will, of that experience. And if someone's nervous about, maybe they have an extra dysregulated nervous system,

it's okay to slow it down. And look, there's a more beginner breathwork ways, too, that I teach in the book that you don't have to jump into holotropic. But a lot of the research around psychedelics, which I also talk about, it is you don't have to do psychedelics. I think breathworks a great, free, accessible, non-psychoactive compound way

that we just have endogenously in our brain that you're just tapping into. Meditation is another great way to do this. All of these things that I'm going to be talking about are all supportive tools of our parasympathetic aspect of our nervous system. The resting, the digesting. That's the aspect of the autonomic nervous system.

That's weak. There's not. There's a poor, research is called a poor vagal tone. The vagus nerve is the largest cranial nerve in the body. It translates as the wanderer, but it's this nerve that innervates the gut and the brain, the second brain, which is the gut and the first brain. So it is a way to strengthen that vagal tone. It's almost like a nervous system workout to regulate that autonomic nervous system.

Different somatic practices like tapping or dancing, drumming, yoga, Tai Chi have a lot of compelling science in it. So every day within the protocol, I give people a different gut action item and a feeling action item for them to explore with. And it's not, all of them are going to resonate with everybody. So it's okay to like drop the ones that don't resonate with you. And if they stress you out, just drop them. But they're going to be a handful and you only really need a handful that are really effective to stay consistent with to start to regulate your nervous system and support that gut brain access so well, which in turn not only import proves hormones, but lowers important. inflammation levels improves gut health and brain health. I talk about Shinmenyoku in the book,

like the forest bathing. There's so much really cool science that are supportive of this vagal nerve tone. Yeah, I love how you have flexitarian. I like to, I'm trying to coin triitarian. Like try everything and see what sticks for you. Because different things are going to work for different people. But, you know, I've had that experience too. And we talked about this on your podcast, again, not to reference that. But, you know, when I went from having a really rigid approach to wellness and how I kind of unwired that in my brain, it was really the mental emotional aspect of it that enabled me to recognize my body's cues and learn how to eat intuitively and figure out what worked for me and what didn't. But I think it's so much easier to focus on the things that you can tangibly control. You can focus on the food that you're putting in your body. You can focus on the products that you're using.

You can focus on the exercises that you're doing. And when you're doing that, you don't have to look at the emotional stuff. I think that we're so scared to do that work and to go within. And I know meditation is like so daunting for people because we're so distracted. Nobody wants to sit there and not have any distraction. So instead we just focus on the other things. But I love how, you know, you're kind of saying like, you can't have the physical part without the mental emotional part.

I was actually going to ask you, it's kind of like the chicken and the egg, which one comes first? And it sounds like for you, it's really that emotional component. And for many people, it's a bit of both, right? It is like what is it the chicken and the egg? It doesn't really matter because I think if both are relevant, both need to be integrated into your life. because both two sides of the same coin. But I think the entry point for people are different. For some people, like you said, was so accurate.

Like, let's just say one of the questions we ask patients, I mention it in the book, is an ACE score, an adverse childhood experience score. And research shows that the higher the ACE score is, meaning if you've gone through sexual abuse, physical abuse, drug and alcohol abuse in the home, parents fighting, et cetera, you're more likely the higher A score that you have to have an autoimmune issue later on life,

metabolic issues, mental health issues. I talk to some people that are even mentioning, even filling it out is triggering for them. And then even discussing it when I'm talking via Zoom, they don't want to go there. So for them, the idea of souping and stews and the nutrition stuff is their entry point. Like they can keep it simple, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it's prescriptive, it's cut and dried. It's like, he told me what raises inflammation. He told me what isn't, and I'll do it. But when those people start, they're less inflammation levels in the body, their guts healthier.

They, every single time, those people that I'm talking about, they start feeling better. They feel less wired and tired, less on edge and burnt out, less like fried. They will come back to me. I just think of this patient the other week. She was adamant. No, I'm not going to talk about that. She told me, it was like, okay, I'm not going to go there. Two or three weeks later, she just started the protocol.

I thought this is a conversation I'd have down the road whenever she's ready. I'll be there for the long haul for her. But she told us three weeks later, I'm feeling a lot better. He was talking about that therapy thing. He was talking about this EMDR thing and somatic practices. I thought, oh, yeah, that's a lot sooner than I thought. but she was ready to cross that bridge at that point. So I think the gut and the feelings, like what is your action point, your entry point

does depend on the person, but they're both relevant for sure. I love that. I personally think that the best way to breathe some life into your space, whether it's indoors or outdoors, is by adding some plants or some trees. And the best way to do that is with fastgrowingtrees.com. Spring is the perfect time to make some additions to your home, from shade to fresh fruit to privacy and natural beauty, let fastgrowingtrees.com help you plan your dream garden with their expert advice and fast reliable shipping. I absolutely love citrus trees. We have some that are

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entire order. Again, that's 15% off at fastgrowingtrees.com slash blonde. I have been in Florida for the last week and then I'm going to New York and as much as I love traveling and being on the go, I really do thrive off of routines. So I have some habits that are non-negotiables that I take with me when I travel and one of those habits, of course, is drinking my AG1 from Athletic Greens. I have been drinking this maybe going on two years now. I don't even remember because it's such a natural part of my morning. And I love it so much, especially when I'm traveling. It really comes in handy because I never know what I'm going to be eating.

I don't like to pack a ton of supplements. And AG1 really has everything packed into it. And they have these really convenient little travel packs. So AG1 is way more than just greens. It's basically all your key health products like multivitamins, minerals, pre-end probiotics, and more working together as one. And the main reason why I started taking it was because it really helps to support your gut so that your whole body can thrive, which obviously we were talking all about in this

episode. So if you want to take ownership of your health today is a good time to start. Athletic Greens is giving you a free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to athletic greens.com slash blonde files. Again, that's athletic greens.com slash blonde files. And you will get a free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. What are some other kind of wellnessy things that can help with inflammation?

You mentioned obviously breathwork and meditation and all of those can have positive effects, maybe the souping. Are there supplements? Do you like saunas? Do you like cold plunge? Yeah. What can we do? A lot of those are what I put within the protocol. I think they're all fantastic within the book.

Something that I talked about in the book that I think is really good when you're talking about inflammation and the body's stress response and hormones are adaptogens. So they're a plant group of plant medicines, if you will, or herbs, botanicals, some are not herbs, but different compounds that have been shown to modulate the body's stress response, the hypophobic pituitary adrenal axis is the main one.

But things that I've seen really be effective tools within the toolbox for my patients. So things like Aschaganda, Holy Basil, or Tulsi, Rodeola, to even medicinal mushrooms that are not non-psychedelic, but things like Lyons Main and Chaga, Rishi, all helps your body's adaptation to stress, improving your body's resilience, and many of them have an anti-inflammatory effect. So that's one.

And I mentioned it in passing, but another feeling item that I talk about is Shinmenyoku or using nature. That's the Japanese term that translates into English as forest bathing. But it's the research in the journals talking about how to use nature as a meditation, how to use nature as a medicine. And it's when you translate it into English, people that are not within wellness, I get like negative snarky comments on social media and like, you're so freaking weird, like having to say forest bathing. What are you saying? It's just getting out and hiking in nature, you weird out, you quack. But the reality is, no, this is the Japanese translation. Just talking about not hiking, Mr. America. This is just using as a meditative practice.

You may go a few feet. You may just sit in nature. But censorily taking in nature with your eyesight and your smell, your scent and the sounds of it all, Research shows that the essential oils from the plants have a modulating effect on the inflammation level, like calming inflammation levels. There was a study that I talk about in the book above these kids that were being studied with forest bathing, that because of their contact with nature, both with touch and with breathing it in, it actually changes their microbiome, improved these beneficial microbes that are associated with better behavior and a boosted moon and a calmer nervous system. So, I mean, if this, we talked about wanting to move to in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. So this might be your way.

Well, I feel a little bit validated. I was going to make a TikTok about this the other day. Maybe I will now before I put the episode out. But I was walking and I've been really into silent walks lately. Now, if you're in New York City, like maybe this isn't going to be as beneficial. But I feel like when I walk in silence, my senses are on high alert. I smell everything. I hear everything.

I am seeing everything and it's so grounding for me. So I was going to say like, I know the hot girl walk had its moment. You can still do a hot girl walk, but I'm trying to make the silent girl walk or guy or whatever, a thing. Silent human walk. Silent human walk. Because I feel like, again, back to the distraction piece. I mean, obviously we both have podcasts. We want you to like put your air buds in or whatever and listen to our podcast.

But like even if you just take five minutes to just pop up. them out and just like hear the bird you know smell the flower like wherever you are yeah i i know for myself who we've established runs you know really jacked up most of the time it's so calming like i spent my sunday outside like just sitting by our pool not listening to anything just kind of like you know because we're always on the go like even when we think we're relaxing we're like plugging into technology which yeah it's you know depending on what you're listening to they're definitely more calming things and things that are more edifying, let's say, to maybe gaining knowledge or calming your nervous system. But ultimately, human species needs some silence and stillness.

And like you said, even if it's like, the researchers actually around in forest bathing, it's been like 15 minutes. It's really nothing long. So these are, and it's completely free. And even people that are in urban spaces, like, I don't know, there are certain pockets of Central Park, if you're in Manhattan, that I think it'd be pretty green. Yeah, like go take your shoes off, put your feet in the grass. Yeah. Some are clean. Yeah, exactly.

Some are clean. And, you know, researchers even have shown that pictures of nature have a similar benefit. So if you're really like, no, I don't live in any green space. Like, even the picture of it can be beneficial. And that's where I think art and that sort of side of things of just bringing things that are even bringing nature in. doors. Like I'm indoors all day consulting patients online. I bring in lots of plants, essential oil diffusers to try to mimic. We diffuse pine oils at the telehealth clinic to mimic the research around Shinman Yoku. So you can, it's not the same thing as nature, but it's the next best thing.

I know there was also a study about patients recovering from surgery and people who were by a window recovered faster than those patients who weren't by windows. Windows, yeah. Some sunlight, some nature viewing, for sure. Speaking of surgery, we talked about beauty things on your podcast. So I know everybody listening is interested. What's your hot take on things like Botox, Filers, and inflammation? So I get asked this question a lot.

And my day job, again, is for the most part, dealing with more reactive systems. Not all of my patients are this way, but I would say, oh, I see a lot of complex cases. They've tried everything and they're still spinning their wheels. So I would assume, and historically this has been the case, if something's going to happen to them, it's going to happen to them. If it's going to happen to anybody, it's going to happen to them. And I have patients that get Botox and Zemin, I think, is the other, right? This poor, that really, I don't see any negative.

reactions in 13 plus years. Could it happen? Yes, but I would think it would be a rare thing. And I don't want to look for a needle in a haystack and over-dramatize something that I don't have any experience of it being negative. What about breast implants? So that's a little bit, still, not the majority of patients that have, because I have a lot of patients that have implants in there, completely fine. So I don't want to over-dramatize that either. I really don't like the sensation even within the breast implant illness community. Like you and I had mentioned, talked in the past about for them, it's their journey. And they want to shout it from the rooftops because they went through health.

Yes. And I understand that component of it for sure. Right. And they, but that's like anything within wellness, right? It's like, well, vegans become, no, this helped me. So everybody's a vegan. And especially when you get morality involved with that, they just think we're, you know, murderers if you're not a vegan but I mean there's tons of carnivores are like that too it's like

everybody I get that comments on my just become a carnivore you know that's the solution of everybody because it worked for them right short term I would say there's a honeymoon period with that too but ultimately speaking we get these sort of tribalisms and it's born out of their own experience yes so I don't think it's people need to be taking X plants out left and right I think there are a lot of variables to consider. I do feel like some people that have autoimmune problems that have these different methylation gene variants, HLA gene variants that I talked about being more biotoxin sensitive

and environmental toxin sensitive tend to be more prone to be ins susceptible to being sensitive to foreign objects in their body. So for those people, I've gone through many explants for my patients and come from the functional medicine side, work in conjunction with the surgeon doing the explant, and we're supporting their health way before and way after the explant.

And for some people, it's a game changer in their health. I've seen people that get 50%, 60% better doing what we're doing, and they're really doing great, but they know there's this extra 30, 40%, that they're stuck at this plateau, and they're spinning their wheels and an ex-plan can move them past that pothel. I see some patients where it's negligible and I see some patients where it didn't do anything for them.

They get the ex-plant and they're like, I don't feel any different. With that said, with my patient base, I've never seen somebody who's already gone through the mental, emotional, psychological decision-making of getting that done which is quite emotional to even make that decision after they obviously wanted it in the first place.

Right. I've never seen them, once they've made that decision for themselves, ever regret getting the explant. Because for them, it's just like the peace of mind of like the variable kind of removed. Yeah. We were talking about the post that I just did and how I got so many comments from people about breast implant illness. And I just recorded a podcast where I addressed this. And, you know, I kind of said, like, if you're concerned about it at all, if you have an iota of concern, don't do it.

Because once you have that in your head and then you get them anyway, I think that's going to follow you. And who's to say? Like, you get a weird headache. You know, you have a rash or something. You're going to attribute everything, I think, to it. Maybe it is from it. Maybe it's not.

But I think if anybody is concerned, just don't do it. there are other options to fat grafting, whatever. Is there anything that people can test for if they're like, no, I think I'm okay, but I don't want to like do implants or a surgery or whatever and have some kind of adverse reaction. Can they test for those gene? You can. You can. And the thing is, it's not just about those genes because I would assume there's probably

millions of people that have those gene variants that have implants that are completely fine. Right. So it's not just about the genetics. It's about the genetic, epigenetic, perfect storm. of variables. So for example, it's that gene variants and a lot of them paired with an unhealthy gut, past unresolved trauma, maybe mold toxin, chronic Lyme disease, and the implants. So then we start cleaning up all the other things and the implants are just one part of that puzzle. So it's really no way that I would say that you would be able to diagnostically say, yes, this person's going

to have a reaction. Because that would be fearmongering too. Like you may have the gene variant, you're completely fine. Yeah, you're right. That's kind of gun. Yeah, right. Because you're not just your genes. I mean, the analogy is like the gene, genes load the gun, but the epigenics lifestyle pulls the trigger. So there's a lot of variables to consider. It's not just cut and dried with like, yeah, you're going to get this. Amazing. Well, I like to ask my guests, one thing we should start doing or could, some people don't like the word should. One thing we could start doing today. And one thing we could stop doing today can be about inflammation, overall wellness. whatever you like. Tip number one, to what you should, where this is the trigger-free zone, everybody, is to look at the amount of added sugar that you're having in a day, just getting curious about it, and being mindful of it, not being obsessive about it,

and maybe being curious and saying, what would having less sugar look like? So maybe you'd be surprised. I would almost use it as an inquisive. inquisitive mindfulness experiment. I'm just saying, how does that make me feel? Again, how's my digestion? How's my energy?

How's my brain fog? How's my sex drive? How's my skin health? How are these things at and could decreasing something like this improve my health? Not to say that's the totality of why they have this problems because it's not. But it's one thing.

And it's one thing that's pretty ubiquitous. And we know that too much sugar for the human body, There's an evolutionary mismatch, if we will. Our genetics haven't changed in 10,000 years. But yeah, our consumption of sugar and many other environmental epigenetic things have changed very dramatically in a very short period of time.

So you're just decreasing that chasm between your DNA and the world around you, epigenetics, pretty, like, measurably moderate, you know, a moderate step. So I think, I don't want people to get super hung up on the grams of sugar. I just want them to look at the amount of, And instead of saying what, you can't have the sugar, like what are some things you can have in its place?

Like maybe fruit with fiber will buffer any glucose spike. So just you can have the sugar, but just go for like things that are going to love you back more. And even things like honey, like a manuka honey, has some merit. Like it's not just sugar. It has some immune supporting benefits, some gut health supporting benefits. So maybe opt for sugars that would love you back a little bit. So I guess the answer is the question of what to do or not do. But I would say something that is a big topic within the clinic and a big topic within the book

is this mantra of you can't heal a body you hate. So all the concepts that we talk about can be triggering for people like all they're talking about all this stuff. But ultimately it should be predicated on using self-care as a form of self-respect. And I think just tune out the noise of doctors. Diet culture, tune out the noise of toxic anti-diet culture of people that's saying there's no such thing as like foods that will impact physiology because the fact that there is. But it's just about what's our own bio-individual path of foods that love us back? And again, what serves you today isn't always going to, it's okay to let that evolve over time.

So that's, I don't know if that's your question. Yeah, definitely did. Amazing. Well, tell everybody where they can find you. find your podcast, work with you. Thank you. Thank you. So, yeah, my podcast is called The Art of Being Well. It's with Dear Media, too.

A new episode every week. The telehealth clinic, the books, all the stuff at Dr.willcoll.com, D-R-W-I-L-C-O-E.com. Got feelings. I'm sure it'll be out now whenever I listen to this. We're giving away tons of free stuff when people order it in the beginning days of it. We have a three-week mastermind with myself, Dr. Caroline Leif. she's a neuroscientist, Dr. Daniel Aiman, and Dr. Nicola Perra, the holistic psychologist,

who wrote the forward of the book. So it's online completely for free when people order gut feelings. Yeah, they can get gut feelings. Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Target, all the independent bookstore. Wherever you get books, just, yeah, get gut feelings. Amazing. And we'll link it in show notes as well. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed that episode. And if you liked it, and if you liked 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. Also, if you want to see more about each episode, you can head over to The Blonde Files podcast on Instagram. You can go to Arialore.com. And I'm always posting about each episode over on my personal page at Arial Lori. Please note that 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.