Episode 13 of the Living Life Well Show: Natural GLP-1 and Gut Health
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Living Life Well Show, the intersection of God's Word, today's science, and healthy living with common sense application, all based on the truth of the Word of God. I'm your host, Dr. Jon Skelton. Now let's get straight to the truth. All right. Welcome back to the living life. Well show I'm excited to talk to you today about gut health and how you can activate your own GLP one activity. To help with weight loss and curb cravings. And all those things. So we're going to start by talking about a general gut health. We're going to talk about food supplements. What to look for in a probiotic what foods are beneficial. And then we're going to talk [00:01:00] about infections.
What can de-rail , your gut? So why are we even talking about gut health? Well, we know that about 80% of your immune system is in your gut. Starting from your mouth. All the way down. To where everything exits. Really maintaining that health, making sure that you're free of infection that you have the right bacteria. In there so that your enzymes can work properly so that those bacteria can contribute properly to the breakdown in the food and substances that you're taking. Is really important and it's important for much more than just your gut, because your gut not only affects your immune system, it affects your hormone regulation and on and on and on.
So gut health obviously is, is very important. So. Today, we want to talk about , issues that that affect our gut, those infection , underactive, or overactive immune or organ function that can. [00:02:00] Derail our digestive process. We'll talk about food intolerances and, and leaky gut and auto-immunity and how you can affect that.
So the first thing. That we want to start with is food. So what foods are going to be best to keep in what foods are going to be best to avoid? So the number one thing that we want to avoid as much as possible. Is any added or artificial sugars? That is going to be the biggest issue that I see. With relation to gut health and overall health. The more added sugars and, or processed foods. That, that we consume or artificial sugars that we consume. That is going to cause I a disproportionate increase of those bad bacteria and limit the good bacteria that we do need in our gut biome.
So number one thing would be to eliminate sugar, at least in any added [00:03:00] form. So, if you want some examples of what added sugar is, again, you can do a simple. Google search for that. And it'll tell you what the different names are for added sugars on the back of those ingredient labels.
But one of the things that we think about are, you know, the supplements where you're talking about, you know, Biotics Be it a prebiotic probiotic or a post biotic. So what are all three of these things?
So prebiotics are really fiber based food. So really what we're talking about is vegetables and fruits.
And so vegetables are primarily fiber based. We don't fully break them down and as we eat them, it goes through a fermenting process. That process allows proliferation of good bacteria. And so that is how we end up. Really increasing our gut biome so the number one thing that most people need to do in their diet [00:04:00] is really add in vegetables not eliminate a bunch of other things, but to add in vegetables.
So. Number one thing that you can do to help your gut besides eliminating added sugars is going to be to add in vegetables. And so I recommend at least four servings of Cooked vegetables a day. Um, you know, six would be great. But four we'll be really good and kind of get you started now. If you want to take it a little bit further and get those vegetables in a form or foods in a form that are already starting, that fermenting process.
Looking at things like yogurt or kefir or kombucha, even some fermented foods like sauerkraut. Some pickles can be fermented, but typically that's going to be more somebody that's doing it at home without vinegar. . So usually going to the store and trying to buy a store, [00:05:00] bought pickles. You're not going to find that. Of course, ginger beer would be a drink. That, that you could have in addition, you know, wine there's lots of different foods. That are fermented. The big key is when you're buying these off the shelf. You know, again, you want to look for those additives, those preservatives that may be put in there too. Alter the taste a bit so that it is more palatable.
If you do have added sugars or artificial sugars. That again is going to change the effectiveness to a certain degree. So that would be an example of a natural pre and probiotic. Probiotics are basically the bacteria. That we need those, those good bacteria that are going to come in and help regulate our immune system regulate our gut. So that everything is running. Running properly.
So that is kind of pre and probiotics.
We'll get down to what a good [00:06:00] supplemental probiotic looks like in just a minute. But postbiotics is maybe a little bit of a, of a different, or a less often discussed concept. And so these would be resulting from having a good gut biome. You see, as we break down, our foods break down, the bacteria, different substances are produced.
Amino acids, different vitamins, vitamin K, vitamin B. Also can lead to absorption of nutrients. And utilization of nutrients better as we continue to have a good profile of gut microbiome. So what makes a good profile of a, a gut microbiome that is healthy? Well, it's got to have a varied array of bacteria. And so we want to have a varied array of bacteria, but we also want to have the right amounts of those [00:07:00] bacteria as well.
And so when you are looking for a probiotic to take which would be containing bacteria, that you would be ingesting. You want to look for something that has at least 15 billion CFU user colony forming units. If a dose of that has less than 15 billion. It's really not that helpful. We need that much to really help. Proliferate and colonize the gut so that it can be utilized to break down. All the food that we're eating properly so that you can get those good postbiotics as a result of having a good microbiome. So what constitutes a good microbiome?
I'm not going to go over every bacteria, but I'm going to go over the few common bacteria that you can find out on store shelves or supplement websites. So you want to look for probiotics that have [00:08:00] lactobacillus Saccharomyces boulardii bifidobacterium, e coli
Bacillus and Akkermansia. And so let let's talk about why we want those, so the lactobacillus is found in breast milk. It's found throughout our bodies, um, And really what it helps to do is it helps to regulate the pH in the gut. Which helps to ward off infection. It is involved in the immune response and it's also involved in renewing the gut lining. And then Saccharomyces is a yeast.
It was originally found in an extract from a lychee fruit and it really helps kill off. Candida we see candida infection. Come on quite frequently with patients that may be. Diabetics or we see it also very commonly after having antibiotics. So if you're ever on antibiotics, I recommend that you [00:09:00] are on a good probiotic that has a Saccharomyces boulardii in it because it may help to ward off you getting a yeast infection. So for any of you that do frequently get any sort of yeast infection? This would be something that would be very important for you to make sure that you're taking in, in a probiotic form. Now bifidobacteria is the largest number of bacteria in the gut.
It constitutes anywhere from 90 to 98% of the bacteria in a baby's gut. And it really helps with our immune response helps with gut repair. But it really is involved in adding those post biotic nutrients. If you will. Helps to make different amino acids and proteins. Vitamin K multiple forms of the B vitamin and really goes on to help with the absorption. Calcium and iron and vitamin D.
And so bifidobacterium is very important as you can see from the post biotic aspect that we get from it. [00:10:00] Now there's e-coli and there's actually good. e coli. E-coli has turned into a dirty word. We have it associated with multiple illness states with different outbreaks from our food and, and those things.
But there are some really good e coli. That are out there and they involved really in lactose digestion. And so if you have an issue with lactose intolerance, it may be because you have an imbalance of this good e coli. And so it also is involved in and vitamin K and B synthesis as well. But the big issue with the Cola is, is it really helps to keep down.
It's a sinister cousins. So the ones that do cause a infection, the O 1 57 and other varieties. That really go on and causes acute illnesses and or chronic illnesses. And so. Those. Good e coli. We want to make sure that we have those good strains as well. Now, bacillus [00:11:00] subtilis is a bacteria that's found in the soil. With us drinking, you know, bottled water nowadays and really filtered water.
We really don't get this too much anymore. You know, so if you were you know, not a child of the seventies and early eighties or before you probably didn't drink out of a water hose. So we got, you know, a lot of the bacillus subtillis. Throughout history because we were drinking from Wells and had some of this in the ground. Water. Associated with it just cause there was soil. To a certain degree. And the water that we drank.
The bacillus subtilis is a one that you really want to have, because it is just kind of a passenger. You, you you know, ingest it. And it kind of rides through your gut. It really doesn't live there. It's just passing through so to speak. It was discovered in world war two and it was found to really help with dysentery and typhoid.
And so after this, it [00:12:00] really came into research and that's where we found that if you have good levels of the bacillus subtilis you had less allergies, less auto-immunity. And people were healthier. So for clients that may have an auto-immune disease or have lots of allergies if they don't have any bacillus, which they probably. Don't on a regular basis.
This would be something that you would want to look for in a good probiotic. And then finally Akkermansia Akkermansia is really promoting your natural GLP one activity. So for patients that are having stubborn weight issues and, or insulin resistance and or diabetics. Akkermansia can be huge. So frequently when I test clients, there's a complete absence of Akkermansia.
And so [00:13:00] now Akkermansia is becoming more in Vogue. It was really discovered in 2004.
Just recently, they're starting to make main line probiotics for the Akkermansia. And as we kind of continue along, I think that you will see them not just by themselves, but as we get better. At getting this in a form that is digestible and usable. You will see it. Combined with these other bacteria that I've, um, recommended.
And so, so really Akkermansia is going to be critical for anybody. That is having any of those issues. With either not being able to lose weight. And or insulin resistance, um, because really it helps to kind of decrease your, your appetite, like we've talked about in the episode. A little while back where we talked about GLP-1s. And kind of their effects.
And so, you can go back and listen to that. If you want to understand a little bit more about, about GLP ones, but you want to increase this in a natural state in that kind of [00:14:00] post biotic benefits state. That we , we're talking about earlier. But Akkermansia really is only a small percentage of the gut.
The Akkermansia really only counts for about three to five. Percent.
So I want to talk about infections. But I kind of want to start with a little bit of analogy. So if we take a Brooke or an underground spring and we contaminate it at that source. What happens downstream? Well, we see the whole ecosystem is changed, right? So the fish aren't going to be as populous or as big or as healthy. The plants that are growing in that river or stream are going to be affected by that in number as well as how Hardy they are. And then of course, that's going to translate down to the underlying microscopic ecosystem, the bacteria. And protozoa [00:15:00] even that are, that are in that river.
And so when we have a contamination that starts at the head stream, It is going to affect everything downstream from it. So when we're looking at the gut, really, we even start with a mouth. And so gut infections, dental, or gum disease can be an issue that can cause problems all the way downstream. We are ingesting bacteria. Every single day. Whether you realize it or not, no matter how much you wash your hands, no matter how much you cleaned your food. You are ingesting some bacteria, we're relying on a good healthy system to really be able to fend off the effects of those bacteria.
So we see staph and strep infections commonly in our upper airway and even in our mouth and throat and the tonsils. And so if we can take steps to minimize that. You know, that is going to be helpful right there. But what I [00:16:00] see, what I really want to talk about is a little further down. It's actually in the stomach. And really where I see the biggest issue for people is with H pylori infection. When we have an H pylori infection, that's very near the headwaters are kind of started digestion. It is going to disrupt everything below that. As we said before. You know, the post botics are really responsible and these bacteria are really responsible for a lot of synthesis of our vitamins and nutrients, amino acids. In addition to our hormones that are used even dopamine. It's synthesized.
And so when we have an infection or disruptor right at the beginning stages of digestion, That's going to throw everything else off downstream. So when we see H pylori, we virtually never see it be an actor by itself. When I test people and [00:17:00] I C H pylori infection guaranteed. There are other infections that are going along with it.
It is such a disruptor to the digestive process because it alters the pH in the stomach, which is at a set level to really help us digest our foods properly so that we can then reabsorb as we transitioned through the small intestine, down to the large intestine. And out so that we're getting the appropriate nutrients at the proper size. As it travels through our body.
And so. When we have H pylori infection. It can lead to what's called dysbiosis. Dysbiosis is bacteria that have made it into the small intestine. And we see this a lot, very commonly with e coli, but other opportunistic bacteria as well. Maybe even staph, strep. Potentially even pseudomonas can be an issue. And so when you have H [00:18:00] pylori infection, you almost always have dysbiosis. And so we want to look at those. Possibilities.
And the best way to do that is through a GI map. This isn't something that you're typically gonna get at your regular. Um, mainstream physician's office. Yes. They may test your stool. Yes. They may look for protozoa. They may look at the flora, but I can tell you what comes back when you send a stool sample in and they send it into a standard lab.
It will come back saying three plus normal, flora of four plus normal flora. It doesn't tell you the number of bacteria in each category. And doesn't even tell you the categories that are present. So if Akkermansia is absent. It's not going to tell you that. If you have really low levels of say lactobacillus or bifidobacterium. It's not going to tell you that. Now what it will tell you, [00:19:00] it might tell you if you have pseudomonas, depends on where the pseudomonas is living. Also where the e coli. Um, depending you might have a physician that does a stool test for H pylori and could see it there, or maybe a breath test or a biopsy by a GI doctor.
Who's done an endoscopy. And so. Doing a GI map is a great way to really see about infection. As well as also seeing that, that gut microbiome. So if you have issues with your gut, if you've been told that you have IBS, if you've. Been told that you have reflux, if you've been told. That you have chronic constipation.
I really recommend getting this GI map because it may give you a much better idea as to where your gut microbiome is lacking. And, or what infections may be [00:20:00] present that are causing your symptoms? So that's it for today. Nice. Short and sweet. I'm not going to get into the different ways to treat these infections and those things that is going to be something that you would really need to speak with your physician about.
But I encourage you. If you, if you have a, you know, a history of IBS, if you have, um, a history of. Of H Pylori where your ulcers or chronic reflux. You don't necessarily have to take medications and live this way. There could be a infection that's causing this. And or in imbalance, most likely, both that are going on in your gut that are leading to your symptoms.
So I hope this has been a helpful, I hope this has been informative. Thanks. And God bless.
That's it for this episode of the Living Life Well Show. If you like what you've heard and want to learn more, or want to know how to put this into practice for [00:21:00] yourself, go to livelifewellclinic.com. Until next time, this is Dr. Jon Skelton saying, go out and live the truth so you can live life well. The preceding is for entertainment and educational purposes only. It is not meant to be used to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. The information contained in this show does not substitute the need for a qualified medical professional, nor is it meant to provide medical advice or services.
If you feel information presented in this show may apply to you, we recommend you seek out the help of a qualified medical professional who can evaluate and treat your specific concerns.
