Long time ago, yeah.

Long time ago, but it changed my life.

Gluten-free and dairy-free.

And actually, I'm still mostly gluten-free, like 99.9%.

And dairy, I only have seasonally over the summer months.

And then the rest of the year, I won't have dairy because it weakens my immune system and then I'm just more susceptible to viruses and colds.

So a lot of what I do is to keep my health optimized and I think just being intuitive about it.

Well, tell me, is there a microbiome of aging?

And I know you are author of two books, and what would you say, if you can give us a synopsis, just a s- little sneak peek to those two books, what do you teach in those about either the research or the top things that, like, really were surprising to you? You're like, "Wow, now I'm going deep in these topics, and here I want to share the truth about these topics, about fiber or the microbiome or..." In those two books, what would you say are the big...

Well, my first book, Happy Gut, came out over 10 years ago.

Actually, it just hit its 10-year anniversary at the end of December.

Yay.

And it's sold over 100,000 copies, and that book really, I think, was one of the early books that put, put the word microbiome, gut microbiome into our vocabulary and into the collective consciousness because before that, people didn't know what microbiome was.

And I think now, like, it just, like you said, like, the gut has become so important.

And I think every year we just have more and more studies showing the effects of how important the gut microbiome is.

But w- let's talk about coffee and what your coffee specifically, what brought you to that journey?

That's a lot.

Now, now caveat because they were smart enough to go back and look at the fermented foods group because there were some almost, like, contradictory effects on the immune response in the fermented foods group.

Some people had an upregulation of the immune system, and some people had a downregulation of the immune response.

So they divided them into smaller groups and then looked at their gut microbiome diversity before they started the intervention, and they found that if someone walked into the test and already had an increased gut microbiome diversity, when they added more fiber on that diversity, it actually regulated the immune system, and it c- and it, it modulated the immune response and actually calmed the immune response down, which we understand because there's a direct mechanism by which probiotic bacteria, the friendly bacteria in the gut, speak to our immune system through dendritic cells, and they trigger the formation of T regulatory cells, which are the ones that create tolerance, that those are the cells that help keep your immune system from becoming overreactive, generating autoimmune disease, causing inflammation.

So that's a good thing, right? So the...

When I saw that, I thought, "Well, you know what? We don't know the full picture here.

We really needed-Another group which was high fiber and high fermented foods, well, let's go across the ocean to Ireland, and they actually did a study like that.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

And probably a lot of people are manganese deficient because they're not getting cross nutrients like pecans, or we don't really eat organ meats, so we're missing a lot of these kind of essential minerals.

But that's the difference, I think, in the work that we do, is that we're thinking beyond like, "Okay, on paper it's this," but there's gotta be a way to assist.

If we look at the system as a whole, the system needs co-factors, and if the co-factors are missing, you have a mutation, it's gonna accentuate the mutation.And that's just an example of the difference between how Western doctors think and someone who is systems biology based, where you're looking at the whole person.

Takes a lot more work, but it's way more satisfying because when you restore harmony to the system, and as part of that system, the gut microbiome is a, another really important key piece that we're learning, that it's regulating, like, blood sugar, insulin sensitivity, all those things.

Like, I mean, in med school we were told that diabetes is a pancreatic problem.

Mm-hmm

...

So what do you feel is the key component components that people need to focus on for actually having optimal gut function?

I mean, I just want to start by saying that for the regular consumer and, you know, the normal person out there, it is confusing as heck, right? You're being bombarded with ads for this, ad for that, take this, take that, take this supplement, take this probiotic, like do this, do that.

And if you don't have a foundation of knowledge, you're just going to like sit there and just be like, either you're going to do the next shiny thing that just marketed to you, or you're just going to be stunned and you're going to be like, well, I don't know where to begin.

Because it is so confusing.

You know, I think that, I think I sit from a place of privilege because I've spent two decades of my life learning this stuff.

And what that does is it allows me to shut out the noise and know what's important.

And also because I work and I still work directly with patients.

But sometimes I think we don't know if we're having a problem, but is there like If somebody has a problem with dairy, is that still going to cause inflammation or is this a better option that they should consider because of the benefits?

Yeah.

My dad was not a doctor.

He was an engineer.

He questioned everything, even including politics.

He questioned the, the stories that we were told.

Um, he even had a book I remember called Contrarian Investing, like how to invest in the stock market in a way that most people don't.

So I think that trickled into me, in my, my upbringing, and made me a contrarian doctor looking for the things that most people aren't looking.

Mm