THIS IS WHY People Are Getting SICK & NOT STAYING HEALTHY|Dr. Steven Gundry & Lewis Howes

Boosting and Protecting Our Immune System in Times of Crisis

Dr. Steven Gundry discusses how to boost and protect our immune system during a pandemic crisis.

Fixing the Root Cause of Heart Disease

• Dr. Gundry explains that heart disease is not inevitable and can be reversed through nutrition.

• He shares the story of Big Ed, who reversed his coronary artery disease by changing his diet and taking supplements.

• Calluses inside arteries are a response to irritation, which causes plaque buildup. Removing the irritation allows the body to heal itself.

Staying Away from Simple Carbohydrates

• The first step in boosting and protecting our immune system is to avoid simple carbohydrates.

• Simple carbohydrates cause inflammation, which weakens the immune system.

Optimizing Our Bodies, Minds, and Hearts in Times of Crisis

• To optimize our bodies, minds, and hearts during times of crisis, we need to focus on nutrition.

• Eating a plant-based diet with healthy fats can help reduce inflammation and boost the immune system.

• Exercise is also important for overall health and well-being.

• Meditation can help reduce stress levels and improve mental health.

How to Avoid Surgery by Following a Plan

Dr. Steven Gundry shares a story about how he helped a diabetic patient avoid surgery by following his plan.

The Story of the Diabetic Patient

• A man in his sixties with bad diabetes came in with a heart attack and was scheduled for surgery.

• Dr. Gundry made a deal with him that if he followed everything he told him to do, he guaranteed that he would not have to operate on him.

• Ten years later, the patient is no longer diabetic and has no coronary artery disease. He became one of Dr. Gundry's best patients.

Eating for Your Microbiome

Dr. Steven Gundry explains why it's important to eat for your microbiome and how it can help you live longer.

Jack Lalanne's Advice

• Jack Lalanne used to say, "If it tastes good, spit it out." He meant that you should not be eating for the 2 inch by 3 inch piece of muscle your tongue but you should be eating for the microbiome.

• If you feed bacteria what they want to eat, they will take care of you and you will not age.

The Importance of Your Microbiome

• You have over 100 trillion bacteria in your body and over 10,000 different species of bacteria.

• 99% of the genetic material that exists in you and me is non-human genetic material where only our genes are actually so unimportant.

• If your parents had diabetes or high blood pressure or coronary artery disease and you eat like your parents did, the odds are that you will do that too.

The Role of Genes and Environment in Health

Dr. Gundry discusses the role of genes and environment in health, emphasizing that while genes play a small part, 97-98% of what happens to us is based on our environment and food choices.

Genes vs. Environment

• Only about 7-8% of what will happen to us is based on our genes.

• 97-98% of what's going to happen to us is based on our environment and our food choices decisions.

Aging as a Choice

• Aging is essentially a choice based on the foods we eat and the lifestyle we lead.

• While Dr. Gundry may look older than when he was younger, he believes that certain foods can reverse aging or slow down the aging process.

The Importance of Fiber in Our Diet

Dr. Gundry emphasizes the importance of fiber in our diet for overall health, including its role in promoting healthy gut bacteria.

Benefits of Fiber

• Eating fiber promotes healthy gut bacteria which are essential for good health.

• Bacteria inside us teach our immune system from day one, even before birth.

Getting Enough Fiber

• It can be difficult to get enough fiber through diet alone - Dr. Terry Walls famously ate 9 cups of vegetables per day to achieve this goal.

• Most people's stool consists mostly of bacteria rather than roughage or undigested food particles - this highlights the importance of consuming enough fiber for healthy digestion and elimination processes.

The Importance of Bacteria in Our Body

Dr. Gundry discusses the importance of bacteria in our body, including how they teach our immune system and help us stay healthy.

Role of Bacteria

• Bacteria are incredibly important for our health and well-being.

• We need bacteria to live - without them, we would die.

Germ-Free Mice

• Germ-free mice have no bacteria in them and have horrible immune systems as a result.

• Eli Lilly company from Indianapolis got its start as a bacteria phage company - these viruses infect bacteria and kill viruses.

Definition of Virus

Dr. Gundry explains that a virus is the smallest reproducible form of life that cannot replicate itself. It has to borrow another cell and take over the cell's machinery to manufacture more copies of viruses.

• A virus is probably the smallest reproducible form of life.

• Most living things are capable of reproducing themselves one way or another, but a virus cannot replicate itself.

• A virus has to borrow another cell and take over the cell's machinery to manufacture more copies of viruses.

Time Restricted Feeding

Dr. Gundry discusses time-restricted feeding with Terry Walls, who eats calories for only two hours a day during winter. They both agree that their diets' recommendations are becoming more similar as time goes on.

• Terry Walls and her wife began doing time-restricted feeding for the last 18 years during winter.

• Time-restricted feeding means limiting the number of hours you eat in a day.

• Terry Walls looks younger than she did a few years ago after starting time-restricted feeding.

• Dr. Gundry also started doing it, and his kids have noticed that he is getting younger.

Aging and Microbiome Changes

Dr. Gundry explains how aging occurs as your microbiome changes, and your gut wall becomes leaky.

• You age as your microbiome changes number one, but more importantly, the wall of your gut should be impermeable even though it's only one cell thick.

• The surface area of your gut is equivalent to a tennis court inside you.

• As long as that wall is intact, you do not age; however, as it becomes leaky (the whole story he got), you begin to age.

• Epocrates said 2500 years ago that all disease begins in the gut.

Leaky Gut and Lectins

Dr. Gundry discusses the prevalence of leaky gut in autoimmune patients and how it is linked to various diseases. He explains how lectins, plant defense proteins that target sugar molecules, can cause leaky gut and shares his approach to healing it.

Leaky Gut Causes All Diseases

• Leaky gut is the cause of all disease.

• Healing leaky gut is key to curing disease.

Lectins and Sugar Molecules

• Lectins are plant defense proteins that target sugar molecules.

• They act like splinters, irritating the body and breaking down tight junctions in the gut lining.

• Lectins are found in many foods we eat, including gluten-containing grains.

• Killing off our natural defenses against lectins has made us more susceptible to their harmful effects.

Healing Leaky Gut with Diet

• Avoiding grains, including rice and corn, is essential for healing leaky gut.

• Even gluten-free diets may not be enough if other lectin-containing foods are still being consumed.

• Pressure-cooking beans can destroy most lectins except gluten.

• Removing certain milk products and nightshade vegetables can also help heal leaky gut.

Re-educating the Immune System to Defend Against Gluten

Dr. Steven Gundry discusses how re-educating the immune system can help defend against gluten and other autoimmune diseases.

Re-Educating the Immune System

• Zero grains, no rice, no corn until you heal the gut.

• Work every three to six months to retest leaky gut and autoimmune status.

• Personal example of turning off anti-nuclear antibody marker for lupus by following dietary rules for two weeks.

• Study presented at American Heart Association of 102 patients with biomarker-proven autoimmune disease showed 94% success rate in turning off markers after six months.

Leaky Gut and Food Intolerance

• No nightshades (tomatoes, peppers), but if eaten, peel and de-seed them before consumption.

• Italians always peel and de-seed their tomatoes before making sauce.

Peanut Butter and Leaky Gut

Dr. Gundry discusses the relationship between peanut butter and leaky gut, and how our immune system is affected by a leaky gut.

Peanut Allergies

• 94% of human beings are born with an antibody to the peanut lectin.

• When we were growing up, very few people had peanut allergies. Now, everyone seems to have them.

• Our immune system used to be taught by our gut microbiome that there's some nasty stuff out there but we got your back and we're gonna handle it long before you ever have to deal with it.

Leaky Gut

• Most of us have leaky gut which means that our lines of defense against bad things like a peanut lectin or lawn or gut is leaky so that our cops are always on hyper alert.

• Most of our immune system that should be up in our nose in our mouth protecting us against a virus is down in our gut do attacking whatever is coming through the wall of our gut and it's completely distracted.

• Having high blood pressure may make you susceptible more susceptible to dying from a virus because it's actually a sign that you have a leaky gut and most of your immune system is actually down in your gut rather than patrolling periphery like it should.

Smelling Neurons

• There are smelling neurons olfactory neurons that live in our nose, kidneys, and heart.

• These smelling organs smell bacterial farts - the fermentation products of bacteria - and they can smell good farts and they can smell bad farting.

• If they smell bad bacteria farts they actually activate the blood pressure system to make your blood vessels more rigid and give you high blood pressure.

The Importance of Gut Bacteria

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of gut bacteria and how it affects our overall health.

The Symbiotic Organism That is Us

• Gut bacteria plays a crucial role in our overall health.

• The intestines were previously thought to be just a hollow tube for absorbing protein, fat, and carbohydrates.

• There are over 100 trillion bugs in our gut that are essential for the functioning of everything.

• Mental illness can come from the gut due to the gut-brain connection.

Nut Butters and Milk Alternatives

In this section, the speaker discusses nut butter options and milk alternatives for those with leaky gut syndrome.

Nut Butter Options

• Some people with rheumatoid arthritis react to the peel of an almond due to a lectin present in it.

• Companies now make peeled almond butter that can be consumed without issue.

• Walnuts contain tannins that some people react to, so pistachios or macadamia nuts are better options.

Milk Alternatives

• Sheep milk and goat milk are good alternatives for those who cannot consume American cow's milk.

• Goat milk is more similar to human milk than cow's milk.

Foods That Can Cause Leaky Gut Syndrome

In this section, the speaker discusses foods that can cause leaky gut syndrome and how they discovered spinach as one of them.

Aquaporins Lectins

• Aquaporins lectins are present in tobacco, spinach, corn, soybeans, and green peppers.

• They can cause leaky gut syndrome and leaky brain.

Spinach as a Cause of Leaky Gut Syndrome

• Vibrant America discovered aquaporins lectins in spinach, which can cause leaky gut syndrome.

• Some people with IBS and autoimmune diseases who followed the speaker's program still had issues until they stopped consuming spinach.

The Importance of Vegetables for Your Microbiome

In this section, Dr. Terry Wahls discusses the importance of complex carbohydrates and how food manufacturers have made it difficult to distinguish between simple and complex carbohydrates. She also explains why it is important to have nine types of vegetables in your diet.

Complex Carbohydrates vs Simple Carbohydrates

• Food manufacturers have figured out how to make a complex carbohydrate a simple carbohydrate and make you think it's a complex carbohydrate.

• When reading labels, look at the total carbohydrates and subtract the dietary fiber to determine the amount of sugar per serving.

• A bagel can contain as much sugar as a 12 oz coke.

Importance of Vegetables for Your Microbiome

• Most bacteria live in your colon and lower small intestine, waiting for complex carbohydrates that are not normally digested.

• Without these complex carbohydrates, gut bacteria starve and cannot produce compounds that keep the gut wall intact or send text messages to mitochondria in cells.

• Eating nine cups of vegetables provides gut bacteria with what they need to thrive.

The Relationship Between Gut Bacteria and Mitochondria

In this section, the speaker discusses the relationship between gut bacteria and mitochondria.

Gut Bacteria and Mitochondria

• The bacteria in our gut are sisters of the mitochondria in our cells.

• All mitochondria are female, inherited from our mother. Our initial dose of bacteria comes from our mother during birth.

• Cesarean section babies who don't get that initial dose take up to six months to get a normal immune system compared to a vaginal delivery.

Boosting and Protecting Your Immune System

In this section, the speaker discusses how to boost and protect your immune system during times of pandemic crisis, stress, and overwhelm.

Boosting Your Immune System

• Stay away from simple carbohydrates. If it's in a package, it is probably a simple carbohydrate.

• Avoid sugar as it suppresses white blood cell function.

• Olive oil polyphenols can boost your immune system. Components of mushrooms also have an indirect effect on boosting your immune system by giving your gut bacteria what they need.

• Low vitamin D levels can lead to leaky gut or autoimmune disease.

Grocery Store Shelves During Pandemics

• During pandemics, grocery store shelves are cleared out of all the bad stuff like bread, bagels, pasta, tomato sauce with added sugar, milk with added sugar, ice cream, and orange juice with 5-6 teaspoons of sugar in a cup.

• The best way to suppress your immune system is by consuming sugar.

Toilet Paper

• We are the only creature that needs or uses toilet paper.

• If you follow the speaker's program, you won't need toilet paper.

Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Zinc and Astaxanthin

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of taking vitamin D, vitamin C, zinc and astaxanthin to boost the immune system against viruses like COVID-19.

Importance of Vitamin D

• The speaker shares a story about patients in their late 70s who had high levels of vitamin D due to taking it as an anti-aging supplement.

• Most people with cancer have low levels of vitamin D.

• The University of California San Diego recommends taking 9600 international units (IU) per day for a safe level of vitamin D.

• The speaker takes up to 150,000 IU over three days if they feel they are coming down with something.

• Taking high doses of vitamin D has not caused toxicity in the speaker's patients.

Importance of Vitamin C

• Vitamin C is antiviral but cannot be absorbed enough by the body when taken orally. Time-release tablets or capsules can help maintain its presence in the bloodstream.

• Taking chewable tablets or capsules four times a day with 500 to 1000 mg each time is recommended.

Importance of Zinc

• Taking about 30 mg of zinc is recommended.

• Curcumin is a compound present in citrus fruits, apples and onions that has antiviral properties.

Astaxanthin and Immune System Defense

• Astaxanthin may prevent inflammatory response to COVID-19 virus.

• The immune system is designed to defend against viruses, and a strong immune system can reject viruses before they attach to the body.

The Importance of a Strong Immune System

In this section, Dr. Gundry discusses the importance of having a strong immune system and how it can be compromised by chronic diseases and leaky gut.

The Link Between Chronic Diseases and Weak Immune Systems

• A weak immune system is often linked to chronic diseases.

• Chronic diseases are not the cause of susceptibility to viruses, but rather a sign that the immune system is impaired.

• Fixing leaky gut can help improve the immune system.

Personal Experience with Strong Immune System

• A patient who follows a healthy diet was exposed to coronavirus but did not contract it due to her strong immune system.

• People with weak immune systems are more susceptible to getting sick.

Probiotics and Prebiotics for Gut Health

In this section, Dr. Gundry discusses the importance of probiotics and prebiotics for gut health.

Importance of Probiotics

• Most people are deficient in probiotics due to their lifestyle.

• Taking probiotics is important, but most probiotics are ineffective because they are not protected from acid in the stomach or bile in the duodenum.

• Look for encapsulated or spore-forming probiotics that resist gastric and bile digestion.

Importance of Prebiotics

• Prebiotics are food for probiotics and are essential for their growth.

• Eating nine cups of vegetables every day provides soluble fiber that feeds the bugs in your gut.

• If you're not eating enough veggies, taking prebiotic supplements like PrebioThrive can help feed your gut bacteria.

The Heart's Connection to Immune System

In this section, Dr. Gundry discusses the importance of the heart's connection to the immune system and how social distancing can affect it.

Importance of Human Connection

• The heart's connection to the immune system is important.

• Taking care of forgiveness in the heart, letting go of anger and resentments, and connecting with others can improve the immune system.

• Humans are incredibly social creatures, and social distancing can negatively impact our health.

The Importance of Interpersonal Connection

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of interpersonal connection and how social distancing can be difficult for humans.

Getting a Pet

• During social distancing, getting a pet can provide companionship and love without the need for social distancing.

• Animal adoption rates have increased during this time period.

• Fostering an animal from a shelter is also an option for those who may not want to commit to adoption.

Connecting with Others

• Pick up the phone or use video chat to connect with others face-to-face.

• Social media lacks eye contact and human expression, which are important in communication.

• Making intentional eye contact during conversations can help people feel more connected.

Bacterial Cloud and Compatibility

• Humans have a bacterial cloud around them that interacts with others' bacterial clouds.

• Kissing allows bacteria to determine compatibility between individuals.

Oral Health and Anti-Aging

In this section, Dr. Gundry discusses the importance of oral bacteria for nitric oxide production and how mouthwash can kill these essential bacteria. He also recommends using toothpaste based on coconut oil or baking soda and suggests olive oil pulling as an alternative to mouthwash.

Importance of Oral Bacteria

• Mouthwash kills oral bacteria that are essential for producing nitric oxide.

• Without oral bacteria, the body cannot convert enough nitrates into nitric oxide.

• Using toothpaste based on coconut oil or baking soda is recommended.

Olive Oil Pulling

• Olive oil pulling involves swishing a tablespoon of olive oil in your mouth.

• Swallowing the olive oil is safe and can help clear bad breath.

• Dr. Gundry recommends consuming a liter of olive oil per week, which can be achieved by doing 10-12 tablespoons of olive oil swishing per day.

The Longevity Paradox

In this section, Dr. Gundry talks about his book "The Longevity Paradox" and how it teaches readers to reverse aging through de HD aging.

De HD Aging

• "The Longevity Paradox" teaches readers how to reverse aging through de HD aging.

• Anti-aging is not possible, but de HD aging is achievable.

Supporting Dr. Gundry

In this section, Dr. Gundry shares where listeners can find his podcast, supplements, foods, and olive oil. He also mentions his Instagram and YouTube channels.

Where to Find Dr. Gundry

• Dr. Gundry's podcast can be found wherever you get your podcasts or on drgundry.com.

• Supplements, foods, and olive oil can be purchased at gundrymd.com.

• Dr. Gundry can be found on Instagram and has two YouTube channels where he shares recipes.