How to Heal Your Gut in 30 Days

The gut microbiome, an "army of microbes," is crucial for overall health, influencing everything from autoimmune diseases to longevity. Issues like bloating, brain fog, skin problems, and fatigue are often rooted in gut health. Factors such as stress, poor diet, and certain medications, including antibiotics, NSAIDs, and birth control pills, can significantly damage this delicate ecosystem. Even environmental factors like microplastics in water and over-sanitation can disrupt the balance of good and bad bacteria.

Rebuilding gut health involves a three-phase approach: removing damaging elements and detoxifying, repairing the gut lining, and finally, rebuilding the microbiome. This includes eliminating inflammatory foods, managing stress, and incorporating specific nutrients and lifestyle changes. The speaker emphasizes that while general principles apply, individual responses vary, stressing the importance of listening to one's own body.

The process of gut healing requires a comprehensive strategy that addresses diet, lifestyle, and potential underlying issues. Phase one focuses on identifying and eliminating gut disruptors like processed foods, sugar, and certain medications. Phase two emphasizes repairing the gut lining with nutrient-dense, easily digestible foods like bone broth and herbal teas. Phase three involves rebuilding the microbiome with probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics, along with continued attention to diet and stress management.

• The gut microbiome, comprised of 30-100 trillion microbes, plays a vital role in digestion, metabolism, immune regulation, and even mood, impacting numerous health conditions from autoimmune diseases to cancer.
• Common signs of poor gut health include bloating, brain fog, food sensitivities, skin issues, fatigue, and autoimmune conditions, all stemming from an imbalanced gut.
• Damaging factors to the gut microbiome include excessive use of antibiotics (16% increase in use over 10 years), NSAIDs (63% of US adults used them in the past year), birth control pills (affecting estrogen and yeast overgrowth), inflammatory foods like sugar, refined grains, and seed oils, as well as toxins like glyphosate and microplastics in water.
• Healing the gut involves a three-phase approach: removing toxins and inflammation, repairing the gut lining, and rebuilding the microbiome, often requiring a 30-day to several months-long commitment.
• Key strategies for gut healing include adopting a diet rich in cooked foods, bone broth, and herbal teas; managing chronic stress; prioritizing 8-9 hours of sleep; and supplementing with high-quality probiotics, prebiotics, and nutrients like zinc and L-glutamine.

The Gut Microbiome: A Key to Health [00:53]

• The gut microbiome is a community of an "army of microbes" essential for reversing autoimmune disease, promoting longevity, and overall health.
• It is linked to nearly every health condition imaginable, including Hashimoto's, cancer, and long COVID.
• The gut houses approximately 70% of the immune system and contains 30 to 100 trillion microbes, which is more bacteria than human cells.
• These microbes aid in digestion, metabolism, immune regulation, and mood.
• A balanced microbiome with sufficient probiotics is crucial for nutrient absorption, metabolic function, and overall well-being.

The reality is almost no matter what you're struggling with, the first area of your body that's affected is your gut.

Signs of Poor Gut Health [07:19]

• Obvious signs include digestive issues like bloating, gas, diarrhea, and constipation.
• Less apparent signs, but equally indicative, include food sensitivities, nutrient deficiencies (e.g., B12, iron, magnesium), chronic inflammation, joint pain, and brain fog.
• Skin issues like eczema, acne, rosacea, and rashes, as well as mood disorders like anxiety and depression, are often linked to gut health.
• Frequent infections, sugar cravings, headaches, and fatigue are also warning signs.

If you're dealing with issues like bloating, brain fog, food sensitivity, skin issues, fatigue, autoimmune conditions, these tend to be related to poor gut health.

Factors Destroying the Gut Microbiome [10:31]

• Chronic stress is a major disruptor, equivalent to poor diet.
• Medications, particularly antibiotics, birth control pills, and NSAIDs, can severely damage the gut lining and microbiome. Antibiotics wipe out both good and bad bacteria, and over 90% of childhood infections are viral, yet antibiotics are often prescribed. NSAIDs weaken the intestinal lining, leading to leaky gut. Birth control pills can alter the microbiome by promoting the overgrowth of yeast.
• Inflammatory foods such as sugar, refined grains, seed oils, gluten, and dairy are major culprits.
• Environmental toxins like microplastics in water and exposure to mold and mycotoxins contribute to gut inflammation and permeability.
• Over-sanitation, especially during recent years, has reduced beneficial microbial exposure.

The biggest factors disrupting the gut micro are stress and poor diet.

I think one of the greatest forms of malpractice today in the entire medical profession is doctors that prescribe antibiotics when somebody has a viral infection.

Understanding Leaky Gut and Autoimmune Disease [22:23]

• Leaky gut, or increased intestinal permeability, allows undigested food proteins, toxins, and other substances to enter the bloodstream.
• This triggers an immune reaction and inflammation, which, over time, can lead the body to attack its own proteins, causing autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto's, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis.
• Factors contributing to leaky gut include antibiotic use, glyphosate exposure, and a poor diet.

Your gut lining is like a fishing net; it's supposed to allow small things through and not bigger things. When bigger things pass through that aren't supposed to, your body sets off an immune reaction.

Phase One: Remove and Detoxify [35:10]

• Eliminate processed foods, refined sugars, refined grains, gluten, seed oils, dairy, alcohol, and excessive caffeine.
• Avoid non-organic and genetically modified foods.
• Cut out raw, very cold, and cooling foods like ice cream.
• Drink clean, filtered water, avoiding tap water with chlorine and fluoride.
• Engage in moderate exercise like walking, weight training, or cycling for less than 45 minutes to an hour.
• Utilize infrared saunas or heating pads to promote detoxification and circulation.
• Consider a 10-hour eating window to allow for a 14-hour fasting period each night.

Remove the foods that cause inflammation, try and remove the medications that are causing inflammation, try and cleanse your body.

Phase Two: Repair the Gut [46:12]

• Focus on easily digestible foods such as bone broth, cooked vegetables, and lean meats.
• Introduce fermented foods like sauerkraut or coconut yogurt slowly.
• Drink plenty of herbal teas, including ginger, peppermint, marshmallow, chamomile, and licorice root.
• Include nutrient-rich supplements like zinc (15-30 mg daily), humic and fulvic acid, and L-glutamine (5 grams once to twice daily).
• Manage stress through activities like meditation, prayer, nature walks, and journaling.
• Ensure 8-9 hours of quality sleep per night for bodily repair.

The basis of your diet here as we repair should be soups.

Phase Three: Rebuild the Microbiome [53:31]

• Continue with the Phase Two diet and incorporate specific probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics.
• Recommended probiotic strains include Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus coagulans, Lactobacillus, and Bifidobacterium. Soil-based organisms are highlighted.
• Prebiotics can be obtained from cooked vegetables, applesauce, and certain fruits.
• Consider peptides like BPC157, TB500, and KPV for tissue regeneration and reducing inflammation.
• Use diagnostic tools like a GI Map stool test or Zonulin/Intestinal Permeability blood tests to assess gut health.
• Continue managing stress, prioritizing sleep, and engaging in self-care activities.

Probiotics might be the most promising supplement for healing IBS.