Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Tina Anderson: Change Your Gut, Change Your Life. How to Level Up Your Health in 2023 | Entrepreneurship | E207

Episode Date: January 30, 2023

After witnessing the corruption of the pharmaceutical industry first-hand, Tina Anderson decided to quit her cushy job as a lawyer and turn her attention to the field of natural medicine. Nearly a decade later, Tina and her husband are revolutionizing how we manage our gut health with their probiotic company Just Thrive. In this episode, Tina breaks down the ecosystems in our gut, how to fix a leaky gut, and why you should be investing in spore-based probiotics. Tina Anderson is the CEO and co-founder of Just Thrive, a supplement company specializing in spore-based probiotics. Just Thrive offers a full line of scientifically-backed products designed to help people live healthy, strong lives. Prior to starting Just Thrive, Tina served as an in-house trial lawyer for a family pharmaceutical company. In this episode, Hala and Tina will discuss: - Tina’s journey into gut health - The microbiome, what you need to know - How our gut health is under attack every day - The science behind spore-based probiotics - Debunking probiotic myths - Leaky gut, and how to fix it for good - Probiotics vs prebiotics - Common foods that cause gut issues - Entering entrepreneurship later in life - And other topics… Tina Anderson is the CEO of Just Thrive®, a supplement company. Tina’s journey into the world of health had a unique start and some unusual turns. She began her career as a trial lawyer and in-house counsel for a family pharmaceutical company. She channeled her energy into learning all she could about disease prevention and good health maintenance. That led her to discover the importance of gut health and then other vitamins that were missing in everyday life. In addition to Just Thrive’s flagship Probiotic, Tina’s company now has a full line of scientifically-backed products designed to help people just like you feel healthy and strong.  Resources Mentioned: Just Thrive’s Website: https://justthrivehealth.com/discount/YAP  - USE CODE YAP FOR A 15-20% DISCOUNT. Tina’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-anderson-7bb956162/  Tina’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/JustThriveHlth Tina’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justthrivehealth/ Tina’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justthrivehealth/ LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast’ for 40% off at yapmedia.io/course. More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com   Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review - ratethispodcast.com/yap Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala Learn more about YAP Media Agency Services - yapmedia.io/

This world we're living in is so disruptive to our gut health. We talk about antibiotics. You know, antibiotics literally wreak havoc on our gut. We're eating meats that are loaded with antibiotics. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, which is sprayed all over our food supply. I mean, we're living in this world that is so offensive to our gut health. Our gut is being attacked on a daily basis. The microbiome is the totality of all the microorganisms living on an end.

in us. And they are really dictating every aspect of our overall health. 80% of our immune system is actually located in our gut. Our mood, our ability to handle stress, all of those things are dictated by our gut. It's where you start with health. What is up Young and Profiters? You're listening to Yap Young and Profiting podcast where we interview the brightest minds in the world and turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your daily life. I'm your host, Halitaha, aka the podcast princess. Thanks for listening and get ready to listen, learn, and profit. Tina, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcasts. Thanks, Hala. I'm so excited to be here today with you. Likewise, I'm excited for this conversation. So Young and Profiters, today

were joined by Tina Anderson. She's the CEO of Just Thrive, which is a supplement company responsible for creating the first retail available spore probiotic and antioxidant that arrives 100% alive to your intestines. Tina began her career as a trial lawyer, an in-house counsel for a family pharmaceutical company. But when Tina saw the corruption in the pharmaceutical industry, she decided to shift her career and turn toward the field of natural health. In addition to Just Thrive's flagship probiotic, Tina's company now has a full line of scientifically backed products designed to help people just like you feel healthy and strong. And in this episode, Tina and I will discuss why gut health is so important. We'll learn about microbiome, prebiotics, probiotics, and we'll gain an understanding of how

improving our gut health can actually help both our physical and mental health and happiness in 2023. So Tina, I mentioned a little bit about how you transitioned into the natural health field. you started out as an attorney working in civil litigation. You worked crazy hours. Then you went into a family pharmaceutical business. And at first you were happy because you were giving life-saving medications to people. But after you were in the industry for a while, you began to see some problems in the industry. So I'd love to understand what were some of the problems that you saw in the pharmaceutical industry? Yeah. So like you said, I mean, pharmaceuticals are life-saving. I mean, it's great when you need them. It's wonderful in emergency-type situations, acute type of situations.

But what we saw is that it really wasn't a place for chronic conditions. You know, when someone has something wrong with them, we need to focus on the root cause. Like, why does someone have something wrong with them? And in the pharmaceutical industry, what we started to see is that one of the examples that I talk about quite often is that our company had won this huge bid for one of the largest hospital systems in the country. And what we found is that the pharmaceutical rep came in and said, oh my gosh, guess what? my job is to go to every cardiologist in this hospital system and lower the number that they prescribed this particular medication. So basically, they were lessening the standards just so they could sell more of the product. And so, and we saw this. And it wasn't, it was kind of shocking,

but then it kind of wasn't shocking because we saw it with some of our own relatives. You know, we'd see a relative who was on one pharmaceutical, and the next thing you know, that caused stomach issues. And then the next thing, you know, that caused a skin rash. And so they, in a few months, they're on a dozen different medications and really not getting any better. And so, and it wasn't really the way we lived our own lives with our own three children. We, my husband and I both were really more naturally minded anyway. And so we were like, we're not doing our life's work. We just didn't feel like we were doing our life's work. And so we wanted to get into something that was more in line with who we were. Again, I always like to make a point, there is a time and a place for pharmaceuticals.

There are life-saving medications, but there is such an abuse of them. and overprescribing of them, we've seen that time and time again. And I think that it's really, I am so passionate about empowering people taking control of their health and not maybe going with the standard pharmaceutical line out there and the medical system and kind of empowering yourself. I think that's such a good point because so much of our health can actually be controlled through natural means, right? And I know that about, I think, 70% of all of our diseases and stuff,

it comes from the gut. So I'd love to understand what is gut health? What is microbiome? Like, can you, I'm sure a lot of people listening to this podcast, they've heard those words and they probably don't really understand what it means. Yeah. So the microbiome is the totality of all the microorganisms living on and in us. And they are really dictating every aspect of our overall health. And so we think, like there are a lot of bacteria, fungi, yeast, but mostly we talk about bacteria. and the bacteria that is living in and on us is literally dictating like the overwhelming majority of our health. And it's hard to find any disease, any non-communicable disease that's not related to an imbalance of our gut health. So we're talking about our immune system.

Over 70%, 80% of our immune system is actually located in our gut. So it's our gut and our bacteria that's dictating if we're one of those people that get sick all the time or one of those people that remain healthy. I mean, everyone's going to get sick once in a while, but even the severity of an illness will be dictated by the health of our microbiome or our gut health. For many years, we would think, you know, oh, I have some stomach upset. You know, I have gas and bloating or diarrhea and constipation, and you associate that with an imbalance in your gut. And absolutely, those are things that tell us that we've got some imbalance in our gut. But we never really realize that skin health, You know, we have rashes, we have acne, we have other issues going on with our skin.

That's actually caused by an imbalance in our gut. Another big one is mood, you know, our mood, our ability to handle stress. All of those things are dictated by our gut. We've never looked at mood health, anxiety, depression, those kinds of mental health issues as being stemming from our gut. But yet they are, they all stem from our gut. Then, you know, allergies, autoimmune issues, those are all stemming from an imbalance in our gut. even heart disease, cancer, diabetes, those all have a root cause in our gut health and the

bacteria that's living in and on us. And the unfortunate thing is that we live in this world that is so anti-bacterial. You know, we live in this world where they're telling us, you know, oh, the hand sanitizer is a perfect example. You know, we're killing the bacteria on us. And it's, so much bacteria living on us is actually beneficial. Only less than 1% of bacteria is actually harmful. But we focus so much as a society on the bad bacteria. So it's really important that we're focusing on nurturing and taking care of their bacteria. And of course, we want to avoid harmful bacteria. But so much of the bacteria living in and on us is actually really beneficial and is dictating virtually every aspect of our overall health. It's where you start with health.

So when I was researching for this, I found out that there's about 200 species that live in your gut. And it's like a little world in there and it's an ecosystem and use the analogy of a garden in terms of how it all works. And so I'd love to hear that and really understand like the variety of bacteria, good and bad, like what the role of good and bad bacteria is, how you keep good bacteria healthy and bad bacteria at bay. Like I'd love to just understand that whole ecosystem. Yes. And that's a great word to describe it because it is an ecosystem. And I love to use the garden analogy, because if you kind of compare your gut to a garden. And so inside your gut and your intestines, you have beneficial bacteria, so you've got the nice plants in the garden, and then you have

harmful bacteria, which are the weeds in the garden. And so on a daily basis, you need to be nurturing that garden. You need to be getting rid of the weeds in the garden, and then you have to help those plants that have been stepped on and trampled on, help them come back to life. And the way you do that is by you have a gardener that's taking care of the gut. And so, So we always like to compare our probiotic strains that are in Just Thrive is the gardener of the gut. So they're going in there, the gardener on a regular basis and helping support those good plants that are there. And then also helping get rid of those weeds or the pathogenic bacteria in our gut. On a daily basis, we have offenders to our gut health.

And I could go over those in a moment. But I love using that analogy. And one of the problems that we've seen with probiotics on the market is, so about 10 or 12 years ago, the human microbiome project was launched by the National Institutes of Health. And that project told us more about our gut than we ever knew before. And many of the probiotics that we find on the market are based on our old understanding of the microbiome. And that's what's so unique about these spore-based probiotics that are found and just thrive, is that in that garden analogy, the spores actually have the ability to go in there and get to the

garden alive, and they have the ability to go in and get rid of the weeds and have the ability to go bring the plants back to life. Whereas the majority of probiotics on the market, unfortunately, don't have that survivability. They don't even make it to the intestines alive. They don't even make it to the garden alive. And so they don't have the ability to get rid of the weeds in the garden. If they do get to that garden, they just kind of come there and plant a plant in that garden, and then they leave. So it's a very different approach and a much more effective approach to your gut health. So basically what you're saying is that traditional probiotics, you take them and actually by the time it reaches your stomach, it's not even effective anymore.

It's not alive to actually help do anything. Exactly. And again, I don't feel like companies were out there being ill-willed or came into the products. It came into the market with some mean-spirited, like, I'm going to get them. I mean, I do think that companies brought those products to the market with very good intentions. It's just that now new science has come out and showed us that a probiotic, it's not important that a probiotic is a live organism. You know, a lot of times people will say, oh, my probiotic needs to be alive. Yes, you're absolutely right.

Your probiotic needs to be alive. But it needs to be alive in your stomach, in your intestines. It doesn't need to be alive and the store shelf. You know, a lot of times people are like, oh, probiotic needs to be, it's a good probiotic if it's in the refrigerator. Well, that's actually one of the biggest myths that we debunk all the time. Because think about it, if a probiotic needs to be refrigerated, it's because it cannot withstand the room temperature of the store shelf.

Well, think about your body. Your body temperature is 98.6, much hotter than the, you know, store shelf. And if it can't even survive the room temperature of the store shelf, how in the world would it ever survive your body temperature of 98.6, much less the stomach acid. And so the majority, overwhelming majority of probiotics on the market are dying before they ever hit the intestines. And we've studied this. You know, we are a very research-based company. That was one of the first studies we ever did was a gastric survivability study, took the leading selling probiotic with 50 billion CFUs and showed that 99.99% of the strains died by the time

they got to the intestines. In contrast to that, we took the spore-based probiotics, strains that are found and just thrive and actually saw that those strains survived 100%. And not only did they survive 100% and get through that gastric barrier, they got into the intestines and then they stayed there for about 21 to 28 days where they start to make more changes throughout the entire intestinal tract. And this is why we see such profound changes, because we have strains that are actually making a difference in that garden, in that ecosystem. We're actually making that garden prettier and making it better and more diverse. Yeah. And while we're sticking on this garden analogy, gardens need fertilizer, right? And things need food to grow. So talk to us about the difference

between prebiotics and probiotics. Great question. So we basically were just talking about the probiotic. So the probiotic is like gardener going in there, getting rid of the weeds, helping bring those plants back to life. Well, so the prebiotic is basically the fertilizer in the garden. So it's the food that's going to feed the beneficial bacteria or the beneficial plants in the garden, the beautiful plants in the garden. So think of the probiotic as the gardener and think of the prebiotic as the fertilizer. Now, one of the problems with a lot of prebiotics on the market is that prebiotics don't always know to distinguish. You're feeding that garden. They could also feed the weeds in the garden. So You know, here we are this gut health supplement company, very research-based, and we did not even

launch a prebiotic for many years because we could not find prebiotic fibers that only targeted the beneficial bacteria. You don't want the fertilizer to go in there and feed the weeds and have the weeds now start overtaking the good, you know, plants. So we have a prebiotic that's been studied to show that it only feeds the beneficial bacteria in the gut. So it's not making the problem worse of some, you know, a lot of times people will start taking a prebiotic and they're like, oh, I actually feel worse. Well, that could be very well because those prebiotic fibers are actually feeding the harmful bacteria.

And we don't want that to happen. So our prebiotic powders are very, very, we've researched this. We spent many years making sure that we brought a prebiotic to market that only feeds the beneficial bacteria. So think of the probiotic as a gardener and the prebiatic is the fertilizer. So interesting how it all kind of works together. So I do want to dig deeper in terms of why some bacteria is considered good and why some bacteria is considered bad. Like what are the differences there? What do they do to your body?

Yeah, well, some of them are going to be supportive of your immune system. Some of them are going to be supportive of your hormones. You know, I think that's the other thing that people are really starting to understand is that it's okay to have bad bacteria. We're not trying to get rid of all of our bad bacteria. It's this ecosystem that lives. we just don't want the bad bacteria to be overtaking the beneficial bacteria. And it's really about a balance. It's not about an obliteration of all of our bad bacteria. So a great example of that is Candida, for example. You know, people have some issues with candida, yeast overgrowth. Candida is a normal part of our gut flora. It's meant to be there. It's when there's an overgrowth of it, that it becomes problematic. So we want to think about not having any of that pathogenic bacteria overgrow in

our gut. Like I said, it's so important. You know, one of the things I always like to mention is that serotonin, which is our happy hormone, 90% of our serotonin is produced in our gut. Most people would think our serotonin is produced in our brain. It's actually not 90% is produced in our gut. And that's why I talked earlier about how even our mood is dictated by the health of our gut. There's a big connection there. So our bacteria, even weight management, a lot of people, we've seen people so often start our product because maybe they had gas or bloating and then they would say, oh my gosh, you know, I started to notice I've lost a few pounds or I'm, you know, managing my weight a little bit better. Well, yes, it's our gut bacteria that dictates whether you're one of those people that could eat a whole plate of food and not really gain any weight or one of those people that has a few bites and gains 10 pounds.

So it's really our gut bacteria that's dictating this. So it's really important to understand that our gut bacteria is really dictating so much of our day-to-day life. And unfortunately, we're living in this world that's super offensive to our gut health. And I don't want to paint a dismal picture, but it's really important for people to understand that this world we're living in is so disruptive to our gut health. We talk about antibiotics, you know, antibiotics that are in our food supply, antibiotics that we just take. We know we've seen now doctors are not prescribing antibiotics as often as they were before, because now we're starting to understand antibiotics literally wreak havoc on our gut. They are destroying that good bacteria as well as the bad bacteria.

Then there's antibiotics that are just in our food supply. We know we're eating meats that are loaded with antibiotics. Glyphosate, which is the other, it's the active ingredient in Roundup, which is sprayed all over our food supply. A lot of our produce is just loaded with glyphosate. Glyphosate actually targets only the beneficial bacteria. Stress is a huge offender. I mean, we're living in this world that is so offensive to our gut health.

This is why we're seeing this rise in autoimmune issues, this rise in allergies. I mean, I see this with kids. When I was a child, which was a long, long time ago, I knew one classmate that had a peanut allergy from kindergarten all the way through high school. Now we know there's peanut-free tables. people are, you know, you go to a restaurant, do you have any food allergies? I mean, it is an epidemic in our society. And this is literally because our gut is being attacked on a daily basis, unfortunately. And I'd love to understand how COVID really, like, since we're talking about our environment and how that's

impacted us, how did COVID impact society's gut health in general? Well, in my opinion, I feel that it was very detrimental to our gut health because, A, stress is such a huge, huge offender to it. And people don't really believe me when I say this, but I can, and I'm sure we're talking to a lot of entrepreneurs out there who are stressed out. And it is really, really bad for our gut health. And we know COVID caused so much stress for so many people. So it's really important that we know that we have to manage our stress. So I think that was really detrimental to our gut health. I also feel that the hand sanitizers, you know, I know this is probably controversial, but I just stick with soap and water.

You know, let's not do all these antibacterial soaps and antibacterial hand sanitizers. Of course, if you're in a situation where there's no other option, but oh, it's like driving me crazy watching everybody putting the antibacterial because you're killing the microbes that are on your hands and your skin. And those microbes are very beneficial and helping support our immune system. So I do feel like COVID was really detrimental to our gut health. I mean, there were a lot of studies that really believe COVID started in the gut. We know that this is really important.

Our immune system will cease to function. It will not function unless you have a healthy gut, unless your intestines are, your gut is healthy. Because it is your microbes that live in your gut that send signals to your immune system to activate. So you could have this super healthy immune system or this immune system waiting, but it's not going to activate until the immune, the gut microbiome will send signals to the immune system. So really important to be focusing on your gut health. But yeah, unfortunately, COVID was really detrimental in a lot of ways to a lot of people's lives. Let's hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors.

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I'd love to understand what are the symptoms of having a gut that is not in like tip top shape? Like what are the symptoms that people would feel and how can they tell if they need to take probiotics and things like that? Yes. I would argue that every person that wakes up with intestines should be on a spore-based probiotic. And I feel so passionately about that because of the fact that we know that our gut is, like I said, over and over dictating every aspect of our overall health. And we know that it's being attacked on a pretty regular basis.

And we know that there's not really one non-communicable disease out there that's not associated with a balance or imbalance of our gut health. So we need to focus on our gut health. But of course, people will be drawn to a probiotic when you have maybe some, you have gas or bloating, diarrhea, constipation. Your balls are not regular. You have, those are the times where people will ordinarily go to a probiotic and say, oh, I need to take it.

And yes, those are absolutely signs that you have some gut dysbiosis or imbalance going on. But like I mentioned, skin rashes, acne, things like that, nobody's ever thinking. oh, yeah, you could do something topical for sure. But we do know that having a, having some type of acne or skin rash is associated with having some imbalance going on your gut. That's the root cause of it. And again, mood issues. That's huge. We know that there's a huge connection between the gut and the brain. There's something called the vagus nerve that is from, goes from the brain stem down to your intestines. And the gut is sending signals back to the brain and the brain is sending signals back to the gut. So if you have some, if you're like stressed out all the time, can't manage stress,

you're sending those signals down to your gut. And the reverse is true. The gut is, if it's got some imbalance going on is sending signals to the brain. And so that may cause you to have some anxiety depression. Allergies. If you have allergies, you have an autoimmune disease, you definitely have imbalance going on your gut and you need to fix it. So those are some of the big things out there that will tell you whether or not you have some type of gut imbalance going on. And they even say 80%, they estimate that 80% of the adult population has a leaky gut, which we could go into later, but a leaky gut and doesn't even know it. You know, I mean, that's what they're estimating because we actually did a study on leaky gut.

We took healthy college students. 55% of them had a leaky gut and didn't know it. These are healthy, young, have no symptoms, nothing like that, and had a leaky gut and didn't even know it. And so they're, like I said, estimate that 80% of the adult population has a leaky gut. And the leakiness of that gut is so detrimental. Yeah, you know me. I do my research, and my next question literally was,

can you tell us what a leaky gut is and what we need to know about it? So we have this intestinal cell wall that is protecting the inside of our intestines from the rest of our body. And so when that wall starts to seep and get holes in it, LPS toxins, so toxins from our gut that are really not problematic start to seep into our bloodstream. They seep through that intestinal wall because it's leaky. When those toxins seep into the bloodstream, our immune system starts this inflammatory response.

And so slowly you start having this inflammation, this inflammatory response on a regular basis. And this is what leads to chronic low-grade inflammation that is so detrimental to our overall health. And we know, like I said, these LPS toxins are not really problematic when they're in their gut. It's really when they seep into the bloodstream that they start to cause and wreak havoc on our body. Even food particles, you start to have a leaky gut and you're eating kale and you're eating broccoli and you're eating all these really healthy foods. But if your gut is leaky, food particles could leak into there. And now we start having this very inflammatory response. Cale and broccoli and all those things are not healthy in our circulatory system. So it's really

important that we seal up that leakyness of the gut. And that's one of the studies that we had done on our product. We actually did a double-blind human clinical trials on the strains used in our product that showed that after 30 days, it caused a 42% reduction in those LPS toxins from seeping into the bloodstream. And so it's been really exciting. And we've seen, like I said, some really exciting results from customers. So what are some of the lifestyle diet things that we do that actually caused something like a leaky gut? Well, eating processed foods for sure. Sugar, alcohol, I'm sorry to tell you, you know, but those are both huge offenders to that lining of our, you know, our gut wall. And eating a lot, there is, I'm a fan of intermittent fasting only because

not just, I know a lot of people go to it for weight loss. I think it's more because when you starve your bacteria, it also will cause diversity, increased diversity. city in our bacteria. We want a diverse microbiome. We want more types of bacteria. And so having a time-restricted window of eating actually will allow the bacteria to proliferate during your non-eating periods. So really a great time to, you know, that really helps a lot. But really eating processed foods, sugar, alcohol, and just, you know, not eating clean. Those trying to eat clean is really important. I mentioned those glyphosates that are found in all of our produce. So if you're eating clean, really trying to eat a little bit more organic than you did yesterday.

Just take baby steps. You know, it's so hard to make this huge change. But if you just start to take baby steps, maybe a little bit more organic and getting away from those glyphosates, that's really helpful to help seal up that gut lining. What is your opinion in terms of meat and eating meat and your gut microbiome? I'm a huge fan of eating meat. I'm a huge fan of eating lots of diversity in your diet. I'm actually, I get sometimes frustrated with all of the different, you know, they're vegan,

the paleo, all the different labels out there. I just feel like we should be eating a diverse group of foods because the more, even I suggest going to Athenic grocery stores and eating all different types of foods because we want to get all this different bacteria from all different parts of the world that we possibly can and all these different types of roots and tubers so that we're creating more diversity in our gut. We eat so few, such a little variety of foods compared to our ancestors. But yeah, I'm a fan of meat. I think we should have mostly vegetables on our plate. And I don't, I'm not a, you know, I don't think we should eat tons and tons of meat, but I am a fan of meat. So something that I thought that was interesting in terms of

benefits of improving your gut health is sleep, right? We talk about sleep on this podcast a lot. and I'd love to understand how improving your gut health can actually improve your sleep. You know, we do know that, I was saying that serotonin is produced in our gut, 90% of our serotonin is produced in our gut. Gabba is produced in our gut. Gabba is the calming hormone, which of course, the more gabba we have, the more calm we are, the better we're going to sleep. Dopamine is produced in our gut. I think that's what's so exciting about what we found out with this human microbiome project is that our gut is helping us improve. I mean, and that's what I was saying. I have one friend who was like, oh, I lost a few pounds. My other friend's like, oh, I'm sleeping better. Would this help me with this? And I'm like, absolutely, because think about you're getting rid of toxins.

And I always say, you know, with pharmaceuticals, it's like side effects. People might take a pharmaceutical side effects are suicidal thoughts and, you know, rashes and all these different things. Where ours are, like you may come to our product because you have gas and bloating, but side effects include better mood. They can better sleep, better weight management. And it's very exciting to know that when you start taking care of your gut because of one problem or issue, all these other benefits start coming from it. And that's what's really exciting. So the mechanism is that the brain is getting these signals from the gut. I said serotonas produced in our gut.

Gab is producing our gut. And when our gut is healthy, they're sending those signals to the brain, which is allowing us to be calmer and have better sleep. What would you say are some of the biggest misconceptions of gut health? Yes, I love talking about this because there are so many. But one, we kind of already touched on. So we need to take a probiotic that's refrigerated because that's better. That's just a myth. We know that we already debunk that.

So that's one myth out there. The other one is that, you know, you'll see probiotics that are like 50 billion CFUs. In the front label, they'll say 50 billion CFUs or now you see them like 250 billion or 500 billion CFUs. And really, there is no science behind that, none whatsoever. It's the typical, like, bigger is better. It's marketing. Our probiotic has only 3 billion CFUs, only 3 billion.

And with our 3 billion CFUs, we did a study called a gut model study. It actually showed a 30% shift in that garden in our intestines. We showed a 30% favorable shift in that garden with just after two and a half weeks. And this was just with 3 billion CFUs. I don't know of any probiotic on the market that has a study of that magnitude that could show a 30% favorable shift, even the ones with 250 billion or 500 billion. These companies are putting this back in because they're dying. Those probiotic strains are dying by the time they get to the intestines.

And we see this all the time. We've studied it over and over. Independent third-party labs have tested the most popular probiotics on the market, and they die by the time they get to the intestines. And some people might say, well, I actually have taken a probiotic and I felt a little better. And yes, you could feel some symptomatic relief from the dead bugs that get into you. But imagine what happens when you're making a true change in that garden with probiotics that actually get there.

So that's another myth out there. I'm so excited to try my Just Thrive probiotics. I have to say because like what you're saying, I've tried probiotics and they have been like decently helpful. So imagine if you have something that's just way more effective. basically. So let's talk about the importance or non-importance. I don't know the answer to customizing your probiotic plan. So I had Nevin Jane on the show a long time ago. He's the CEO of Viome. And he does like the you send in like a stool sample and then you get like results back. And then it tells you like what to take. And then you do it again. And it tells you what to take. But from my from what you're saying, you're just like the more variety, the better. So I'd love to understand like your thoughts around like whether or not. that's useful or like when that's useful or not or what your thoughts are around that. Love that. So here's the greatest thing about the spore-based probiotics that are in Just Thrive.

What they do when they get to the intestines is they actually read the microbial environment. These bacteria are very, very intelligent bacteria. All of our bacteria is very intelligent, as we know, because they're dictating so much of our health. But these strains actually go in and read the bacteria. So they will do something different in your gut than they will do in my gut. And they will do something different in, you know, whoever's got someone who's got a lot of dysbiosis going on, they're going to be working extra hard. And they're going to be giving you the beneficial bacteria that you need and helping, because remember, they're going in and they're helping get rid of the pathogenic bacteria and they're helping bring your own bacteria back to life.

That is the best way you could create diversity by bringing your own bacteria to life because you have the most amount of bacterial organisms in there. So the stool testing, I think, can be beneficial for people if it's done properly. One of the issues I sometimes have with stool test is that the analogy I like to make is, like, if you're looking at the city of Chicago, and you go in and test one section of the city of Chicago, and you find the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, which is very affluent and very nice and fancy, and you say, oh, my gosh, this is such a fabulous neighborhood. But then there are different areas and pockets of Chicago that you didn't really test. And that's one of the limitations with stool testing. I think there's a lot of

potential down the road with stool testing, but I don't think it always gives you the complete picture. And there's nothing wrong with taking the spore base as your foundational probiotic and then adding, you could always add in other types of probiotic strains that you feel are beneficial. But one of the keystone strains with bacteria is acrimancia. And we have a study showing that acrimands, that these strains, together with the prebiotic, actually increase. the presence of acrimancia. We don't have to take acromancea. We're taking these spores to actually help increase the acromancea that's found in our own body. So that's what's so exciting about these strains is that they are literally reading everybody's own environment intestines and doing

what they need to do to make it diverse. That's so interesting. So I'm like a huge skin care fanatic. My podcast is called Young and Profiting. I have to look young for a really long time. So I'd love to understand. And I know you sort of alluded to it, but the skin benefits. And my mom has psoriasis, and I was so surprised to hear that, like, that's really, I want her to try just thrive. So maybe that will help her psoriasis, you know. So I'd love to hear about that. Yeah, absolutely. There's a whole microbiome living on our skin. We call it the skin microbiome. And so our gut microbiome will help send signals to the skin microbiome. And so there's a huge connection with that. So absolutely, people with skin issues, you know, will definitely, they have a gut imbalance. I mean, it's plain and simple.

Sorriasis is an autoimmune issue. That's a gut imbalance. And there is that huge connection. I mean, my daughters would break out in high school and they, you know, we had just started the company. And I'm like, come on, you need to try this. And you know how teenagers are. They never wanted to do it. But then I'm like, just try it. They started taking it. And they started seeing a complexion clear up. And they're like, oh my gosh. And now, you know, there are our biggest fans of the product. So it's, it's so funny. you start to see physical notices or, you know, improvements on your body and your skin, because there's that, there is this whole skin microbiome that's dictating the health of our skin that's being dictated by the gut microbiome.

I love it. Is there any other benefits that we haven't covered in terms of gut health and like what we can expect if we take something like a Just Thrive probiotic? Yeah. So I think the biggest thing is just that I want to bring up is the mood issue, the mood health. I really cannot overstate that enough that. We also as entrepreneurs have to manage our stress. Our stress is so detrimental to our gut health and so detrimental to our overall health.

And listen, I'm an entrepreneur. I did it to myself. I mean, I burnt myself out. I mean, I have three kids. They are all playing college sport, high school, and then college sports. And I'm running this business. And I'm telling you, nothing changed. You could take as many probiotics.

You could take as many, whatever. you have got to focus on your lifestyle and not be stressed out and do meditation, anything, walking in nature, different things that just calm you down. I cannot emphasize that enough because it's really important that we need to focus on living a calmer life to help our gut microbiome. I know you're really big into meditation. So what is your meditation practice? Can you share that with us? Yeah. I used to do the, oh my gosh, no, I'm forgetting the name of it, the transcendental the TM meditation. But now I just kind of sit, I wake up in the morning and I just kind of sit quietly and just literally say the same word over and over again and just kind of, I do that. I also

sometimes switch off with just deep breathing. I use this heart math machine or heart math device that I just do some deep breathing. That has always been really helpful to me. I know a lot of people have success with like the Wimhoff breathing. But you know, I really, it is such a personal thing, whatever works for you to calm you down. Yeah. And we've had Wimhoff on the show. We've had Dave Asprey on the show. All these guys that are so successful,

they all swear by improving your gut health. Everyone's sort of singing this tune now. It is the future. So, Tina, you're very impressive. Your company is really blowing up. I feel like I hear about it everywhere. Even before you were on the show, I knew about it. Thank you.

I have a philosophy that when you start a company with good intentions, that it usually always works out, right? And you literally left what sounded like a pretty cushy job. I mean, you were a lawyer to start and take on this risk. And when I was thinking about it, I was like, wow, Tina, you know, has this whole gut health business and she really followed her gut to do it. And it worked out. Like, I mean, you guys are doing really well, like, from what I can tell,

everything was looking like really well and, like, you guys are getting a lot of support. So I'd love to hear about just like the entrepreneurial side of you for a little bit before we close. Yeah. Understanding like how you took that risk, maybe some of like the highlights of that journey. And I've just loved to hear from you about that. Yeah. It was crazy. So my husband and I started it together and we both pretty much left our roles in this very comfortable, like you said, position and a very thriving, you know, company to start this.

we put our life savings into it. And at the time, we have, well, we still have three kids, but, you know, they were in middle school and high school at the time. Really, you know, college was approaching. And we just did it. We just jumped in. It was, we read a lot of Wayne Dyer and Norman Vincent Peel, Napoleon Hill. I mean, I've always been like that. I grew up with a father that was super like, your mindset is everything. And I was so blessed to have that in my life. And I started reading a lot of those books. And I'm like, we are not doing our life's work. I mean, we are not doing something that's feeding our soul. And it wasn't the way we lived our lives. You know, I was not, I was always like, let the kids have a fever. Don't give a motron right away. The fevers, our body's mechanism to

help fight off infection. I mean, I would never let it get dangerously hot, but I would, we were always the society of just like fixing, you know, putting a band-aing on it and instead of getting to the root cause. And so we decided like we wanted to do this. My husband's natural path doctor, they had talked for years about doing, getting into the natural health space with a product, but nothing seemed to have been worth it for us until we found these strains. We started diving into the microbiome and the importance of it. I'm a huge believer in manifesting and just putting that right energy out there. And one day, I have goosebumps as I tell this story right now. He called us into his office and said, you will not believe this, but we have

the opportunity to purchase the exclusive rights of these incredible probiotic strains out of London University. This is the real deal. He's like, I have researched the microbiome more than probably five. There's probably five people in this whole country that know more about the microbiome than I do, and this is the real deal. So we started doing the research on it, and we did it. We actually were going to, we had a pre-plan trip to Italy, and we were on the island of Capri with our three kids and ran into Dr. Oz. And I'm like, if that's not a sign, I don't know what it is. So we went up to him, And then we started talking to him, and he was so gracious. And he's like, that's awesome, good for you. And we had decided when we came back to from this trip, we were going to make a decision whether or not we went into the business.

And so we did. And so it's been the best thing we've ever done, the most gratifying career journey I've ever been on. It's been, I feel you asked about COVID. I felt like so grateful that my parents were on our products. My in-laws were on our products. of course my kids and my sisters and my, my husband's family that we're all on the product and really supporting doing everything we could to support our immune system during that time as well. So there's just so many great benefits that come out of it. And I would encourage anybody to follow your passion and think about serving others. I know that's a recurrent theme anyway, all entrepreneurs, but it's so true. We are focusing on impacting lives, not about revenue numbers. we are focusing on impacting lives.

And that is our mission, is to get out there and help people take control of their health. And I love the fact that you guys are a husband and wife do. I didn't quite realize that. I know you're more of like the face of the company, right? Yep. I had Grant Cardone and Elena Cardone on recently. I've had Alex and Leila Hermosion and so many big, powerful couples coming on the scene. And I'd love to understand, like, what it's like working with your husband in business,

because that's pretty unusual. Yeah, I love it. We've been married to almost, this year will be 30 years, and we make it work. Like you said, I'm more the face of the company. He was way more involved in the pharmaceutical company back in its inception.

So by the time we started this, I had more maybe of the energy to be the face of the company, but we are such a great balance. He's more, I'm a little bit more high-strung and he's a little bit calmer about things. And so we have a great balance. And sometimes, you know,

early on we had to like create some boundaries where he'd come home for lunch and I'd be like, oh, I got to tell you about this meeting I had. And he'd be like, hold on. I just want to have some lunch, you know, and then, you know, and then at night when he would be all riled up, I'm like, no, I'm done. I need to check out. So, you know, there were things like that that happened. But for the most part, we've been so blessed with a great working relationship. And I know it's not easy for a lot of couples, but we've had, it's been really great. He's a wonderful human being. So that helps too. Yeah, we do a fun thing at the end of the year where I analyze all my episodes and like the theme of the year was relationships. And one of the big things that people were talking about is like not

separating business and personal that like it's one thing. And so I think this totally aligns to it. So very interesting. So speaking of helping people, you also dabble in philanthropy. Can you tell us about Just Thrives partnership with vitamin angels? Yes. So vitamin angels is a fantastic organization that actually helps people, mothers and children in undernourished countries and gives them life-saving vitamins, just help them, you know, so these pregnant moms are not delivering their children without these life-saving type of vitamins. So we started that from the beginning, when we started years ago, that was always part of our mission was to give back. People always say that, you know, if you give when you can't, you're going to really give more when you can. And so it's just

about a habit. And so it's really been a part, a big part of who we are with vitamin angels as well as other smaller type of, I try to give to everybody. I can't, especially our team. I love to help out our team, you know. So vitamin angels is a great organization. Happy to be a part of them. We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors. Hey, young improfitors. As an entrepreneur, I know firsthand that getting a huge expense off your books is the best possible feeling. It gives you peace of mind and it lets you focus on the big picture and invest in other things that move your business forward. Now imagine if you got free business internet for life, you never had to pay for business

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So Tina, we close out the interview with a couple of questions that we ask all of our guests. And then like I said, at the end of the year, so this will be for 2023. We do fun things with it. So my first question is, what is? one actionable thing that our young improfitors can do today to become more profitable tomorrow. I really feel strongly about this that we need to just focus on your health or don't let your don't compromise your health as you're building your dreams because success is measured in so many different ways and financial. As entrepreneurs, we're like money, you know, revenue, revenue,

revenue, profit, profit, profit. But we have to focus on our health because our health will help dictate all of that. If you lose your health, you lose your ability to make money. You lose your ability to go in every day. So I really would encourage people to just stay calm and take care of your health as you're building your dream because it will be so much more fun. Yeah. I mean, nothing's a bigger wake-up call than like being sick or doing and then not being able to do the normal things that you do in life. So I totally agree. Health is so important to prioritize. And what is your secret to profiting in life? And profiting doesn't necessarily mean making money. It could be living mental health.

It could be anything, just profiting in life in general. I think one of the things is ego, like taking, managing your ego, especially as you're building a business. I think that when I look back and I think about what people ask all the time, you know, how did you get to where you are? And I don't know. Sometimes I'm like, I think it's just luck. I think it's being, you know, or having an opportunity come to me and being ready and being

prepared for it. But a lot of it as we started growing, we were older entrepreneurs. You know, we weren't in our 20s or 30s. We were in our late 40s when we started. And so I was old enough and wise enough to not let my ego get in the way. And we put a lot of the money that we made back into the business, the majority of the money back into the business. And, you know, there were times where people were like, oh, you're not in Whole Foods.

Yeah. Why aren't you in Whole Foods? But we could have been in Whole Foods, but the margins weren't in our favor. And so I was not about to put ourselves out of business in order to tell my friends that I'm in whole foods, you know. And I think there's just an ego that we have. to manage, ego could be good too, but I think we have to manage our ego and take care of your team and take care of your employees as you grow, you'd seem that is super important. And I think

your ego has to be managed when you're growing a team because the people on our team have built our dream. I mean, they have built our dream. And it's, we have two, but they have as well. And so I don't think of myself as being more important than them or better or getting a better spot or anything like that. I just think we have to manage our ego. And that allows us to really profit in life as well as in business. Yeah. I want to end on an inspirational note. And you just inspired me to ask this question. I wasn't planning on it. But you just mentioned that you started your entrepreneurial journey in your late 40s. And one of my missions in life is to help people understand that it's never too late to start something new or start over. Like I totally

transitioned my career. And when I started my podcast, people told me I was too old. And I'm not old. And they don't yet. Too old. And they're too old. And they don't yet. too old to start a podcast. And then look at me now. One of the biggest female podcasters in the world. And thank God I didn't listen to them. So I'd love to understand from you and like just to give your advice for people who, because I have actually listeners of all ages. And I think there's plenty of people in their 40s and 50s and 60s listening right now who listen to young and profiting because they do want to make changes in their life. Talk to them about the importance of not thinking you're too old to change your career, start something new, learn a new skill and so on. Oh, no. I mean, there's so many chapters in our lives. And now that you're going to be taking care of your health, and we've got lots of longevity ahead of us. And we are living longer and we're going to be taking care of ourselves. I mean, my parents are probably my inspiration because they started their business at 50 over, they were 50 something years old. And my dad is 80. He's about to turn 81 next week. And he's like, okay, Tina, I'm looking at this business. What do you think about if I buy this? I mean, it's like he's 80 and he wants to buy another business. You know, it's never, never too late to start. I mean, my gosh, think about how you could serve the world by whatever it is that you want to do and how you could change your own life. And there's so many years ahead of you. And I would definitely never look at, you know, your age. It's just a number. It's like what you feel upstairs and what you feel

on a regular basis and what you want to do to change the world. And I would definitely, I'm so happy we started this. Obviously, I'm so happy. It's just the changes that we've made in our own health journey and my kids and my parents. And I think whatever that journey that you're on, it doesn't have to be health to change the world, obviously. You're changing the world every day by sharing all of these great secrets and tips with people. So just focus on changing the world and doing something and serving the world around you. And it's never too late to do that. And I can feel like the energy and the happiness and the enthusiasm. When you're working on something that you're really passionate about and it's new and it's fragmented. And it's

fresh and it's exciting and there's innovation and changes you got to keep it's like so much fun it makes life more fun it really does and i think i was just talking about this with friends of ours it also created this whole new community in my life i kind of you know like here i am mother of three we're super involved in my family my husband's family in our church community we're involved in our neighborhood we've got all these friends and i'm like i don't need any more friends at this point in my life you know but then i meet all these entrepreneurs who are just the coolest greatest people and always about sharing and everybody wants to help each other out. It's really the most unique career environment you've ever seen. So I have now met some of my closest friends being an entrepreneur

and learned so much. I mean, you never want to stop learning. And there's no better way to learn than become an entrepreneur. I learned so much on a regular basis. And it's been really, it's been really awesome. I love it. Tina, your story is so inspiring. Thank you so much for teaching us about microbiome, probiotics, prebiotics, gut health. we covered it all and you also inspired us in the process. So thank you so much. Where can our listeners learn more about you and everything that you do? Thank you so much for having me. It's been so much fun chatting with you. The best place to find us is at just thrivehealth.com. I think we have a coupon code for your listeners of 15% off if they use Yap, YAP, YAP. There are also, we have a health coach

on our team, or not a health coach, a product coach on our team, that if people have any questions about anything. We are all about helping people out. So if you want to, anyone ever wants to call our 1-800 number. But the best place is just thrive health.com. Perfect. And we'll stick all that information in the show notes. And I'll repeat it again in the outro so you guys can get that promo code. Thank you so much, Tina. It was such a pleasure to have you on. Thank you, Hala. So great chatting with you. Well, that's a wrap. Yeah, fam. And I loved Tina stories. One of my top messages in life that I always preach is that you are never too old to take on your dreams. And I think my favorite part about this conversation, aside from the gut health learning,

is that Tina started this amazingly successful company Just Thrive in her late 40s. And I love the fact that she started it with her husband. How cool is that? Tina could have just stayed working as a lawyer, but she felt a more meaningful calling. She wanted a change. She totally switched gear. She learned the ins and outs of a brand new industry. She started from zero and went for it.

Talk about trusting your gut. And speaking of gut, Just Thrive is a company that I really stand by, and I've been taking these supplements for a few weeks, and I totally notice a difference. If you guys want to check out their products, go to Just Thrivehealth.com and use code Yap for a 15% off discount. Again, that's Just Thrivehealth.com, and Tina was kind enough to give us a promo code.

you can use code YAP for 15% off. I personally love their spore-based probiotics. And thanks so much for tuning in today's Young and Profiting episode with Just Thrive founder Tina Anderson. If you enjoyed this episode, drop us a five-star review and share it with your friends and family. Spread the word about young and profiting podcasts. Tag me in your stories.

I'm on Instagram at YAP with Hala. You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn. Just search for my name. It's Hala Taha. If you guys enjoy watching your podcast, Every single interview is also uploaded to YouTube. So check us out, Young and Profiting on YouTube. Big thanks to my amazing production team as always.

My people at Yap Media, you guys are so talented. I appreciate you so much. This is your host, Halitaha, signing off.