1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,480 Prepare to have your health questions answered here on Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions 2 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:11,760 with Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center in downtown Ventura. 3 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:14,080 Now, here's Dr. Todd. 4 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:15,080 Good afternoon. 5 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:19,900 I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, non-force chiropractor and practitioner of functional medicine. 6 00:00:19,900 --> 00:00:20,900 Thank you for tuning in today. 7 00:00:20,900 --> 00:00:22,880 Today is going to be a really exciting show. 8 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:28,720 We're going to talk about the microbiome, especially the gut microbiome, which means 9 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:34,000 microscopic bacteria that live that are essential for health that live in your gut and other 10 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:35,440 tissues throughout the body. 11 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:39,760 But the gut is the one you hear about the most that has the most research on it. 12 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:40,760 We're going to focus on that today. 13 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:45,840 I've got a really exciting case study of someone who benefited from having testing for the 14 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:52,640 health of his microbiome, a man who had ulcerative colitis that had been to two or three different 15 00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:58,700 gastroenterologists for years, was under medical care, antibiotics, really miserable results 16 00:00:58,700 --> 00:01:02,840 was still in a lot of pain and having a lot of symptoms, bleeding, et cetera, that I was 17 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:08,840 able to help a lot by doing proper testing and helping restore a, kill off the bad bacteria 18 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:14,600 in his gut and restore a healthy population of healthy gut bacteria. 19 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:19,680 Bacteria like lactobacillus and bifidobacterium and many, many others in there are many, many 20 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:20,680 known. 21 00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:28,240 The research is largely based on known strains of bifidobacteria and lactobacteria. 22 00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:29,440 So we'll talk more about that. 23 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:34,440 But before I get into that, I want to just, I, you know, I have to update everyone who 24 00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:39,200 listens to this show knows how important vitamin D is. 25 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:44,040 And unfortunately, there's been another hit piece by the pharmaceutically funded academic 26 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:50,440 institutions that publish ridiculous guidelines for vitamin D, which is, it's just really 27 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:51,440 sad. 28 00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:57,120 So the endocrine society has published new vitamin D recommendations for the prevention 29 00:01:57,120 --> 00:01:58,120 of disease. 30 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:03,840 So their recommendation, ignore vitamin D. Take the standard dose, the measly paltry 31 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:10,760 400, 600, maybe 800 milligrams or international units. 32 00:02:10,760 --> 00:02:14,520 Vitamin D is measured in international units. 33 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:19,200 So 400 to 600 a day for most people, maybe 800 if you have osteoporosis is they're saying 34 00:02:19,200 --> 00:02:20,600 just stick to that. 35 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:22,380 No one needs more than that. 36 00:02:22,380 --> 00:02:29,920 Just ignore the reams of research and the it's, it's, it's kind of shocking really, 37 00:02:29,920 --> 00:02:34,860 because they're just basically saying that the USRDA is recommendations, which are fine 38 00:02:34,860 --> 00:02:37,360 for prevent for preventing rickets. 39 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:41,700 Your bones won't immediately collapse from vitamin D deficiency. 40 00:02:41,700 --> 00:02:45,600 If you take the standard recommendation of 400 units a day or a little more, if you're 41 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:48,520 older or pregnant. 42 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:51,960 But that's just ridiculous to say that there's no other reason to take vitamin D, which is 43 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:54,000 exactly what they've said. 44 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:59,160 Because there are reams of research that show you can reduce your risk of all cancers by 45 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:05,080 60% by having adequate levels of vitamin D. And those studies were based on adequate 46 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:10,840 levels that are much lower than the known healthy functional ranges of vitamin D. 47 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:16,880 So for years, most doctors, if you ask them, if you go in for any blood work and ask your 48 00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:21,320 doctor to add the vitamin D test, they'll do it because there's so much overwhelming 49 00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:26,420 research supporting the fact that it's important and most people don't get enough. 50 00:03:26,420 --> 00:03:27,420 You can't get enough. 51 00:03:27,420 --> 00:03:29,000 No one gets enough vitamin D from the sun. 52 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,800 It would be nice if we could physiologically were designed to do that. 53 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:37,000 But when you test people, no one gets it because we don't spend that much time in the sun without 54 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:39,280 clothes and sunscreen on. 55 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:47,560 So this the healthy range of vitamin D is 50 to 90 nanograms per milliliter is the units 56 00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:49,840 of measure on most tests in America. 57 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:52,160 It varies in other parts of the world. 58 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:55,320 But you want your vitamin D level to be between 50 and 90. 59 00:03:55,320 --> 00:04:00,320 So if you get the test from your doctor and he or she says it's okay, say what is the 60 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:01,320 number? 61 00:04:01,320 --> 00:04:05,540 You don't want to know if someone else thinks it's okay when they don't know what okay is. 62 00:04:05,540 --> 00:04:06,900 You want to know the number. 63 00:04:06,900 --> 00:04:11,820 The number for your blood level of vitamin D should be between 50 and 90. 64 00:04:11,820 --> 00:04:15,200 And if you have an autoimmune condition or if you're chronically getting sick, if you're 65 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:20,520 repeatedly getting colds and flus for no reason, if you have fatigue, if you have a familial 66 00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:26,880 risk of certain cancers, any kind of stress on your immune system, then you want your 67 00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:29,780 vitamin D level to be more like 70 or 80. 68 00:04:29,780 --> 00:04:32,000 And there's all kinds of research to back this up. 69 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:33,440 It's widely available. 70 00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:34,440 Anyone can look it up. 71 00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:35,440 Any doctor can look it up. 72 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:42,240 Any of you can look it up on PubMed, the National Institutes of Health website run by the federal 73 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:47,440 government that publishes all the basic research that's done throughout the world. 74 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:51,240 It's mostly US research, but there's European studies there as well. 75 00:04:51,240 --> 00:04:57,680 And there's reams of research that show that deaths from cancers, unnecessary deaths from 76 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:03,120 especially the elderly that end up in hospital with a cold or a flu, that 30 to 60, before 77 00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:10,800 COVID came out, 30,000 to 60,000 people a year were dying from colds and flus. 78 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:16,200 That's a lot, and probably half of those could be prevented if those people were taking adequate 79 00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:23,000 vitamin D to keep their immune systems working at their optimum. 80 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:28,840 Your immune system cannot work at its optimum without adequate vitamin D. And the standard 81 00:05:28,840 --> 00:05:31,120 RDA is not adequate. 82 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:36,880 The only way you know if your vitamin D level is adequate enough to keep your immune system 83 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:42,240 functioning optimally is to get the blood test and make sure the number on the blood 84 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:44,600 test is somewhere between 50 and 90. 85 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:48,880 And if you have an ongoing stress or suspected stress on your immune system, like you're 86 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:53,000 sick all the time, then you should target something more like 70 or 80. 87 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:54,920 It could save your life. 88 00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:59,040 So cardiovascular disease and diabetes, also tremendous reams of research, thousands of 89 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:05,820 studies showing that various aspects of that disease, your risk of getting those diseases 90 00:06:05,820 --> 00:06:12,960 or the severe effects of them can be reduced with adequate levels of vitamin D. 91 00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:16,240 So back to the gut microbiome, the focus of today's show. 92 00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:20,680 Another common question I get is, what do you think about artificial intelligence? 93 00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:23,600 Well, how do you answer that? 94 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:28,240 Such a huge thing that we're just barely starting to find out about. 95 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:33,720 But so there's lots of things about it that are horrifying and some others that are fascinating. 96 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:42,640 There is some new trickle of artificial intelligence based technology coming out for health conditions, 97 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:44,440 medical conditions that is promising. 98 00:06:44,440 --> 00:06:50,520 So an example of this is the headline for this paper that came out that was published 99 00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:59,040 in Cell Reports, Physical Science is a Fitbit for the Gut May Aid in Detection of GI Disorders. 100 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:00,040 So it's not out yet. 101 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:02,520 It's not available for the public, for doctors. 102 00:07:02,520 --> 00:07:04,720 It's not available for use yet. 103 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:10,600 But there are studies being done at the University of Southern California's Vitebere School of 104 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:18,240 Engineering in LA that represents, quote, a significant step forward in ingestible technology, 105 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:23,000 according to principal investor Yasir Khan, PhD, and his colleagues. 106 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:29,760 Basically, they've come up with an AI-enabled system of wearable coils and an ingestible 107 00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:35,920 smart pill that can identify and track gases in the gut. 108 00:07:35,920 --> 00:07:40,320 So traditional methods for that these get these are gases that are associated with digestive 109 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:41,560 disorders. 110 00:07:41,560 --> 00:07:46,800 So traditional methods for locating and measuring and monitoring these gases associated with 111 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:51,360 such things as irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, food intolerances. 112 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:54,580 A lot of people think they're allergic to certain foods. 113 00:07:54,580 --> 00:07:59,920 They may just be intolerant to them, which is different than a full-blown allergy, and 114 00:07:59,920 --> 00:08:01,280 even gastric cancers. 115 00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:06,680 So the traditional methods for locating and measuring these, monitoring their progression, 116 00:08:06,680 --> 00:08:11,480 are often invasive and typically require you to go to the hospital. 117 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:18,520 So this system is a way that you could just swallow a pill and wear something on the surface 118 00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:24,600 of your body that could measure these gases and have real-time tracking to know if you're 119 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:26,360 getting better or worse. 120 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:28,400 So it's really exciting. 121 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:32,780 The technology behind it is explained in the article, but it's probably too complicated. 122 00:08:32,780 --> 00:08:34,480 You can look up the article if you'd like. 123 00:08:34,480 --> 00:08:38,040 Just Google Fitbit for the gut, and you can see that original study if it's something 124 00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:39,040 you're interested in. 125 00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:40,440 But I just thought I'd throw that out there. 126 00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:44,920 There is one, at least, thing that's come out recently that I'm excited about that could 127 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:50,320 be very useful involving artificial intelligence for detecting disease earlier so that you 128 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:54,920 could prevent it with better food, exercise, and supplements. 129 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:56,360 I'm Dr. Todd Binkley. 130 00:08:56,360 --> 00:09:01,440 You're listening to Safe, Effective Natural Solutions to Almost Any Health Challenge. 131 00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:05,360 So a lot of people have heard about the gut microbiome, maybe know a lot about it, maybe 132 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:06,640 know a little. 133 00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:12,920 If you want a great source for good information about what the microbiome is and what it does, 134 00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:17,960 it's available online to anyone, I recommend going to the Cleveland Clinic's website. 135 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:25,200 It's just clevelandclinic.com, and there's a section on there called What is Your Microbiome? 136 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:27,360 What does your microbiome do? 137 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:32,040 So the gut microbiome interacts with many of your body systems and assists with many 138 00:09:32,040 --> 00:09:33,360 body functions. 139 00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:39,920 It plays an active role in your body that some healthcare providers have described as 140 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:42,400 almost being like an organ itself. 141 00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:45,600 Well, wow, that's a pretty strong statement. 142 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:51,120 It's not actually tissue in your body, but something like one-tenth of the cells in your 143 00:09:51,120 --> 00:09:55,840 body are bacteria that are just living inside your body. 144 00:09:55,840 --> 00:09:59,560 And that works for them because in your gut, your gut provides them a consistent source 145 00:09:59,560 --> 00:10:00,560 of nutrients. 146 00:10:00,560 --> 00:10:01,560 It works for them. 147 00:10:01,560 --> 00:10:04,520 They're symbiotic organisms, but it's good for us too. 148 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:07,220 It's in fact essential for life. 149 00:10:07,220 --> 00:10:12,360 So these bacteria in the gut break down complex carbohydrates and dietary fibers that we can't 150 00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:14,800 break down on our own. 151 00:10:14,800 --> 00:10:21,160 And they produce something called short-chain fatty acids, which is a hugely important category 152 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:25,440 of nutrients that we can't make on our own. 153 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:29,440 They also provide the enzymes necessary to synthesize certain vitamins, including vitamin 154 00:10:29,440 --> 00:10:38,920 B1, folic acid, B12, and vitamin K. So micronutrient deficiencies have a huge aspect on your health, 155 00:10:38,920 --> 00:10:43,000 and they're often because people don't get enough of them in their diet. 156 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:48,200 But oftentimes you can get, well, it's much less frequently than just not getting enough 157 00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:54,720 in the first place, but it's a very important, it comes up a lot, especially in certain diseases, 158 00:10:54,720 --> 00:11:01,240 disease conditions, people who have gut issues, gas bloating, diarrhea, constipation, diagnosed 159 00:11:01,240 --> 00:11:07,760 inflammatory gut conditions like IBS, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, et cetera. 160 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:14,240 A lot of these people are not, have micronutrient deficiencies, deficiencies of folate and B12 161 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:22,480 and vitamin K and others because of lack of adequate beneficial bacteria in the gut. 162 00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:28,920 And these short-chain fatty acids that bacteria make also feed cells in the lining of the 163 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:31,860 gut that help keep your gut healthy. 164 00:11:31,860 --> 00:11:34,040 So that sounds a little complicated. 165 00:11:34,040 --> 00:11:41,160 It is, but the bottom line is all of us have a population of beneficial bacteria living 166 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:45,320 in our guts that are essential for us to live. 167 00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:48,960 We would die not immediately, but very shortly without them. 168 00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:49,960 How do we know we wouldn't die immediately? 169 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:54,320 Because if you have a severe bout of diarrhea from some huge gut infection, you're flushing 170 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:55,600 almost all of them out. 171 00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:59,560 When you take antibiotics, it kills off most of them, so you want to do something to build 172 00:11:59,560 --> 00:12:00,560 them back up. 173 00:12:00,560 --> 00:12:06,520 They will slowly build back up on your own after you take antibiotics, but very slowly. 174 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:12,640 Anytime anyone, any of you take antibiotics, you should take a probiotic specifically designed 175 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:17,560 to help build up that beneficial bacteria as quickly as possible and eat fermented foods 176 00:12:17,560 --> 00:12:26,780 like yogurt and kefir and drink kombucha, eat fermented pickles or sauerkraut, kimchi. 177 00:12:26,780 --> 00:12:30,200 Any kind of fermented food is full of beneficial bacteria. 178 00:12:30,200 --> 00:12:35,160 But it's also, anytime just while we're on that topic, if you need to take antibiotics 179 00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:40,680 for an infection, it's really important after that to take a course of beneficial bacteria 180 00:12:40,680 --> 00:12:44,720 to help restore your normal healthy microbiome. 181 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:49,280 One of the most important ways of doing that is to take, for a month usually is enough, 182 00:12:49,280 --> 00:12:52,720 a course of Saccharomyces bouillardii. 183 00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:58,600 Saccharomyces bouillardii is the best one for rebuilding your gut after an infection. 184 00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:00,520 It's not the best one to take long term. 185 00:13:00,520 --> 00:13:04,800 Forever had a patient recently that had been taking Saccharomyces bouillardii for two or 186 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:05,800 three years. 187 00:13:05,800 --> 00:13:12,320 It's not going to hurt anything, but for maintenance of your healthy gut microbiome in addition 188 00:13:12,320 --> 00:13:18,880 to eating good foods or if you're not eating good foods or if you test with a stool test 189 00:13:18,880 --> 00:13:24,800 or other tests to identify inflammation that may suggest that you don't have sufficient 190 00:13:24,800 --> 00:13:31,480 good bacteria in your gut, a multi strain, several different bacteria, 10, 12, 15 or 191 00:13:31,480 --> 00:13:40,640 more in a broad spectrum probiotic is better to take for those types of situations. 192 00:13:40,640 --> 00:13:46,920 Gut bacteria, the healthy bacteria in your gut also help metabolize bile in your intestines. 193 00:13:46,920 --> 00:13:53,680 So bile is essential for breaking down fats, fatty nutrients and fats that you consume. 194 00:13:53,680 --> 00:13:56,560 Bile is made in your liver and stored up in your gallbladder. 195 00:13:56,560 --> 00:14:02,180 So if you've had your gallbladder out, then it's really important to, it's usually important 196 00:14:02,180 --> 00:14:10,640 to supplement bile, to take bile acids usually from ox bile to offset that defect. 197 00:14:10,640 --> 00:14:14,240 So for years the medical profession has thought, oh, it's no big deal if your gallbladder, 198 00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:18,040 if you have gallstones, if your gallbladder is inflamed, could cause a problem, could 199 00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:20,720 cause this life threatening problem in some circumstances. 200 00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:21,720 Just take the gallbladder out. 201 00:14:21,720 --> 00:14:22,720 You don't need it. 202 00:14:22,720 --> 00:14:23,720 You don't need the plastic bile. 203 00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:24,720 Why do you need the gallbladder? 204 00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:31,600 Well, you need a gallbladder because your liver produces bile in a trickle. 205 00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:37,980 There's just a slow drop by drop amount coming out into your intestines all the time if you 206 00:14:37,980 --> 00:14:39,640 don't have a gallbladder. 207 00:14:39,640 --> 00:14:45,800 But when you eat a meal, you've got, you know, your intestines don't get a slow trickle of 208 00:14:45,800 --> 00:14:50,580 food all day, most of us, that needs bile to help absorb those nutrients. 209 00:14:50,580 --> 00:14:51,580 You eat meals. 210 00:14:51,580 --> 00:14:57,240 You eat meals and you have a sudden stomach full of food that's slowly trickling down 211 00:14:57,240 --> 00:14:58,600 into your small intestine. 212 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:07,320 But not slowly trickling, it's a burst of food that needs bile acids to metabolize, 213 00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:11,360 to help break down and absorb the fats and the fat soluble nutrients that are in that 214 00:15:11,360 --> 00:15:12,360 food. 215 00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:13,400 That's why you have a gallbladder. 216 00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:18,640 You need a little storage depot with a whole bunch of bile that's ready on demand right 217 00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:20,140 after you eat. 218 00:15:20,140 --> 00:15:27,760 So if you don't have that, then it's a good idea to supplement them with bile acids. 219 00:15:27,760 --> 00:15:34,600 But healthy bacteria in your gut also help metabolize this bile in your intestines so 220 00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:38,660 that when it's done, the bacteria and their enzymes can break it down so that the bile 221 00:15:38,660 --> 00:15:42,320 acids can be reabsorbed and recycled in your liver. 222 00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:43,720 So there's a technical name for this. 223 00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:49,360 But the main thing to take the takeaway for that is that if you lack a gallbladder, you're 224 00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:52,760 going to lack sufficient bile when you need it. 225 00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:57,680 And having a healthy gut microbiome will help your body recycle as much of it and store 226 00:15:57,680 --> 00:16:03,140 it back up in the liver so that liver production is maintained at its peak. 227 00:16:03,140 --> 00:16:10,320 One of the essential fats that bile is required to reabsorb is cholesterol. 228 00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:13,180 Yes, cholesterol is an essential fat. 229 00:16:13,180 --> 00:16:17,720 It's an essential nutrient that your body needs to produce estrogen and testosterone 230 00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:21,200 and cell membranes throughout your body. 231 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:26,320 The medical profession, unfortunately, is brainwashed in a large measure by the pharmaceutical 232 00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:29,760 industry to think that everyone should take statin drugs and lower their cholesterol as 233 00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:35,000 much as possible because cholesterol is associated with heart disease. 234 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:37,200 Cholesterol does not cause heart disease. 235 00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:38,640 Inflammation causes heart disease. 236 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:44,400 Cholesterol is part of the reaction to excessive inflammation. 237 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:50,840 So if you lack sufficient healthy bacteria in your gut and the effect of that on bile 238 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:53,440 reabsorption could increase your cholesterol. 239 00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:58,200 Conversely, if you have healthy microbiome in your gut, an adequate reabsorption of 240 00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:03,200 biophats that can maintain a healthy level of cholesterol. 241 00:17:03,200 --> 00:17:09,600 These beneficial bacteria in your gut actually help train your immune system to tell the 242 00:17:09,600 --> 00:17:13,760 difference between helpful and unhelpful bacteria. 243 00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:17,480 Your gut is the largest part of your immune system. 244 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:24,280 80% of your body's immune system, 80% of your body's interaction from your internal environment, 245 00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:28,680 your bloodstream and your cells and the outside world is in your gut. 246 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:33,080 If you were to lay out the surface area of your gut, it's about the size of a tennis 247 00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:34,080 court. 248 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:36,720 Some say even twice that. 249 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:37,940 The research is ongoing. 250 00:17:37,940 --> 00:17:42,880 It's kind of difficult to measure that because the lining of your intestines has these little 251 00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:49,460 sort of shag carpet-like fingers sticking in that dramatically increase the surface 252 00:17:49,460 --> 00:17:52,560 area of what otherwise would just be an open tube. 253 00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:53,560 It's not an open tube. 254 00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:58,760 It's a tube filled with these fingers protruding in to the opening, the passageway through 255 00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:04,800 the tube that dramatically increase its surface area to help absorb nutrients and to kill 256 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:08,000 off bad bacteria. 257 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:13,640 So there's a war going on in your gut between the good bacteria and the bad bacteria. 258 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:19,440 Some of the bad bacteria you may have heard of like Clostridium difficile, which there 259 00:18:19,440 --> 00:18:23,800 are different strains of, but one of the most important ones is one of the worst infections 260 00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:25,560 that you can get. 261 00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:29,200 Usually the only place you can get it is in a hospital. 262 00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:30,200 And H. pylori. 263 00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:35,100 So more and more frequently I'm having patients come in and say, oh, I have ulcers and my 264 00:18:35,100 --> 00:18:37,800 doctor found out it's because of H. pylori. 265 00:18:37,800 --> 00:18:46,400 Well H. pylori is apathinogenic, can be apathinogenic bacteria if it's in excess, but most people 266 00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:48,800 have some H. pylori in their gut too. 267 00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:55,680 It's not necessarily, there's no data to suggest that it's beneficial, but lots and lots of 268 00:18:55,680 --> 00:19:01,120 testing has shown that it's present in healthy people all the time in small amounts. 269 00:19:01,120 --> 00:19:06,460 It's only a problem if it becomes dramatically increased. 270 00:19:06,460 --> 00:19:10,240 I'm Dr. Todd Bakley, you're listening to Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions to Almost Any 271 00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:11,240 Health Challenge. 272 00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:15,560 Today we're talking about the healthy gut microbiome. 273 00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:19,640 And for those of you who want to know more about this, I'm getting most of this information 274 00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:23,400 from the Cleveland Clinic's website, clevelandclinic.org. 275 00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:25,440 What is your gut microbiome? 276 00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:29,740 You can go there and get more information about this. 277 00:19:29,740 --> 00:19:32,320 So we've talked about several aspects of it so far. 278 00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:39,680 One of them is these short chain fatty acids that are the byproducts of healthy gut bacteria 279 00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:43,080 that are just hugely important for your immune system. 280 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:49,200 They help maintain a barrier that your gut needs to keep the bad bacteria out and their 281 00:19:49,200 --> 00:19:53,840 toxins and keep them from escaping into your bloodstream. 282 00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:55,920 So out in, that's kind of confusing. 283 00:19:55,920 --> 00:20:03,640 So think of your gut, your gut from your mouth to the other end is a long tube, about 30 284 00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:10,840 feet long, 28 to 30 feet long, that is technically, physiologically still outside your body. 285 00:20:10,840 --> 00:20:12,520 You've heard the phrase, you are what you eat. 286 00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:18,360 Well, you're not really what you eat until that food crosses a barrier, a membrane in 287 00:20:18,360 --> 00:20:21,020 your intestines and enters your bloodstream. 288 00:20:21,020 --> 00:20:25,080 So what enters your bloodstream, you are what enters your bloodstream, not what you eat 289 00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:26,080 necessarily. 290 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:32,800 The tube between your mouth and the anus is physiologically external to your body because 291 00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:35,280 it's external to your bloodstream. 292 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:40,960 So this is really important to understand because food we eat contains toxins. 293 00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:47,640 It contains contaminants, things that are really important to not have in our body. 294 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:54,120 And independent of that, the short chain fatty acids that I've been talking about help maintain 295 00:20:54,120 --> 00:20:59,800 your gut barrier that keep bacteria that are good or bad, that just are fine to live in 296 00:20:59,800 --> 00:21:02,480 your gut, but you don't want them in your bloodstream. 297 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:07,280 You don't want any bacteria unnecessarily entering your bloodstream and even undigested 298 00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:12,400 protein and other things that aren't necessarily bad that are when they're passing through 299 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:15,720 your gut become very bad if they leak through your gut. 300 00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:20,920 If you have leaky gut, they pass through the walls of the intestines into your bloodstream 301 00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:26,720 and then trigger autoimmune conditions like multiple sclerosis and Hashimoto's thyroiditis 302 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:31,000 and ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, et cetera. 303 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:37,520 So because these healthy bacteria and the short chain fatty acids they produce help 304 00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:45,040 maintain this gut barrier, they have anti-inflammatory properties for the gut because they prevent 305 00:21:45,040 --> 00:21:50,900 these things entering your bloodstream that trigger the inflammatory response. 306 00:21:50,900 --> 00:21:53,120 Inflammation is a normal function of your immune system. 307 00:21:53,120 --> 00:21:58,920 It's essential to break down if you have smashed your thumb with a hammer or you have a cut 308 00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:05,720 or an infection that damages tissue, then your immune system has an inflammatory process 309 00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:12,440 that's essential to identify, locate, and break down that bad tissue because bad disease 310 00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:15,040 tissue, damaged tissue is ripe for infection. 311 00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:20,840 So your immune system wants to find any damaged tissue as soon as possible, destroy it so 312 00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:24,040 it can be replaced with healthy tissue. 313 00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:28,800 But the problem is, especially in our society of stress and so many things that can interfere 314 00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:34,720 with the natural function, especially in the gut, is you end up with chronic inflammation, 315 00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:36,480 especially in autoimmune disease. 316 00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:41,160 But people end up with chronic inflammation just from stress, from the stress of emotional 317 00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:45,840 and mental stress, from the stress of driving, from being in relationships that aren't working 318 00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:53,000 for you, from your job, from basically anything that you identify that is physically, mentally, 319 00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:56,760 or emotionally, or chemically stressing you. 320 00:22:56,760 --> 00:22:59,240 And they trigger autoimmune conditions. 321 00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:03,680 They can increase your risk of cancer and diabetes. 322 00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:10,480 And the short chain fatty acids produced by these healthy bacteria help prevent those. 323 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:15,440 As an example, here is a case of a man that came to see me about four years ago, a 48 324 00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:18,320 year old man who was already diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. 325 00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:23,480 He'd been going to two or three different gastroenterologists for treatment, taking 326 00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:29,120 antibiotics, taking steroids to reduce the inflammation prednisone. 327 00:23:29,120 --> 00:23:34,280 They put him on antibiotics on and off for years and a horrible iron supplement because 328 00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:37,840 he was having anemia from that he was bleeding so much that he had anemia from the bleeding, 329 00:23:37,840 --> 00:23:40,200 which is uncommon in men. 330 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:42,600 The only way you get anemia is from bleeding. 331 00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:45,560 Men have it all the time from menstruation. 332 00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:50,440 Men rarely get it unless they're bleeding from an ulcer or a condition like this. 333 00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:56,520 It was horrible because the iron supplement, ferrous sulfate, is increasing his gut symptoms. 334 00:23:56,520 --> 00:23:59,840 Ferrous sulfate is a stupid form of iron. 335 00:23:59,840 --> 00:24:04,520 99.99% of iron supplements are this and no one should take that. 336 00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:07,160 Probably going to run out of time here before I get through his case, so I may have to talk 337 00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:09,240 more about it again next week. 338 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:10,240 But he was miserable. 339 00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:13,320 He was miserable, he had severe fatigue, just debilitating fatigue. 340 00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:18,120 It was hard for him to get to work and it was obviously scary to have this bleeding 341 00:24:18,120 --> 00:24:19,720 all the time. 342 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:21,040 And we are going to run out of time. 343 00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:22,040 I'm Dr. Todd Binkley. 344 00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:23,040 Thank you for tuning in. 345 00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:27,320 I'll continue this case next week right here at 4 o'clock next Friday. 346 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:28,320 See you then. 347 00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:33,680 You've been listening to Safe, Effective Natural Solutions with Dr. Todd Binkley. 348 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:38,180 If you have a health question you want discussed on the show, email your health questions to 349 00:24:38,180 --> 00:24:42,760 Dr. Binkley at www.BinkleyHealingCenter.com. 350 00:24:42,760 --> 00:24:47,440 Take advantage of this opportunity to ask questions for yourself and for your loved 351 00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:50,400 ones because our health matters. 352 00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:56,680 Join him next Friday at 4 p.m. for Safe, Effective Natural Solutions right here on 353 00:24:56,680 --> 00:25:13,040 98.3 The Word, KDAR.