There might have been a straw that breaks the camel's back, right? But could you talk to us a little bit about that, please, BG?

So I remember 30 years ago, actually probably a little bit longer, Michio Kushi, who was one of my first teachers, he was the founder of macrobiotics and he taught about food as medicine.

I learned a tremendous amount from him.

Remember, I was doing a project for the Smithsonian called the History of Alternative and Complementary Medicine in America.

So it was a long time ago.

And I, my back for the first time in my life hurt so badly.

It was like three days to the black tie opening.

What actually is going to happen physiologically with this? BG, talk to us about that when we hit that wall.

[chuckles]

And if you do, you know, then it's like, you know, we wanna look at-- It doesn't matter about diagnosis, right? If you ask any adult, "Hey, how do you feel when you eat, uh, chicken nuggets and orange puffed corn chips all day long?" And they're gonna say they feel terrible, right? So sometimes when I'm interviewing with, with, uh, potential patients, I'll say, "Okay, Dad, how do you feel when you do this?" They're like, "Oh, I wouldn't sleep and my stomach would hurt." Okay, great.

You were a child, apples from apple tree, not apple from orange tree.

And so with the microbiome, number one, yes, sure, there are some genetic components that do come in, predispositions, okay? But we're gonna move from genetic to epigenetic, and epigenetic simply means the inputs and the, uh, external and internal interactions that either turn on a reaction or turn off a reaction, genetically speaking.

So just because we get tested and we have a gene, let's say, that, that became very popular, gene SNPs, and they do have a place, but just because you have a gene, it doesn't mean that it's expressing or that it's being, um, [lips smack] symptomatically contributing to what's happening.

So that's an important, uh, distinction.

So our microbiome, and I'll-- I have nothing to do with this documentary, but I will plug it because it's very helpful, Hack Your Health on Netflix for the microbiome.

[laughs]