David Friedman, BS: Hello, This is Dr. David Friedman, host of to Ood Health Radio. What if I told you that your headache, skin problems, joint pain, depression, digestive issues, and. Even though stubborn menopause symptoms all share the same hidden root cause, And what if the solution isn't found in a prescription bottle, but something you can address naturally right now, starting with your gut, we're talking about inflammation and with us as Dr. Will Sitz.

Award-winning gastroenterologist. he's discovered chronic inflammation is indeed the silent killer behind virtually every modern disease. But here's the good news, it can be conquered by healing the gut immune connection and science proves it. His new book, plant Powered Plus, offers a program that's helping people reduce inflammation, supercharge their immune system.

And reclaim the vitality without restrictive diets or deprivation. If you're tired of managing symptoms and ready to address the root cause, stay tuned. I have a gut feeling this will change everything you thought you knew about health, and it all starts now. Our

next guest is an award-winning gastroenterologist, internationally renowned gut health expert and New York Times bestselling author. He received his medical degree from Georgetown University and earned a master's in clinical investigation from Northwest University. He also completed The NIH funded fellowship in epidemiology At UNC, he's authored 25 scientific papers and has delivered keynotes and briefings to Congress.

The USDA, the NFL alumni, his book Fiber Fueled And the Fiber Fueled Cookbook have over 500,000 copies in print and been translated into 20 languages worldwide. He's the co-founder and co CEO of. 38 Tara, a supplement company setting new standards for clinical effectiveness, transparency, and integrity. His new book is called Plant Powered Plus, activate the Power of your Gut to Tame Inflammation and reclaim your Health.

Welcome to the show, Dr. Will Sitz.

Will Bulsiewicz: Thank you, Dr. Friedman. It's a great pleasure to be here.

David Friedman, BS: Oh, so great to you on the show first year, what motivated you to write Plant Powered Plus?

Will Bulsiewicz: the backstory is that I've taken care of thousands of patient's who have dealt with chronic inflammatory health conditions. just an example would be something like ulcerative colitis. These people are suffering, they're frustrated, they want to be, well, they don't want to be defined by their disease. And the problem is that our conventional healthcare system.

Says to them, take your medicine. It doesn't matter what you eat. And they know that's not true. So they're searching for answers and they would come to me and say, Hey Doc, what do you recommend? And I couldn't find a great book to recommend to them. So I reached a point where I said, I need to write the book.

But as I was researching this topic, David, I asked the question, how many health conditions. In modern America are associated with inflammation, and I found over 130 with studies to back it up and I have those studies posted publicly on my website. Anyone can review them right now.

David Friedman, BS: Wow, I know what you're saying. That inflammation's the key. And I think lot of the doctors I interviewed, they agree with that. It's a silent killer. But people say, alright, so that's a silent killer. They have different approaches of the weight. To get to it and to affect it.

Briefly explain what's happening in our bodies and why is inflammation so dangerous.

Will Bulsiewicz: because inflammation is basically activation of the little army that protects your body. And when we have inflammation to, for example, eliminate an infection or to help you to recover from exercise or recover from some bodily injury. That's good inflammation. You need that. It makes you stronger and more healthy.

But what we don't need is unnecessary ongoing chronic inflammation, which is what we're currently struggling with. And the reason why This is happening is because 70% of the immune system is in the lining of our intestines. The home of your immune system is in your gut. And they are so close to the 38 trillion microorganisms that make up our microbiome.

The only thing that separates them, David, is what's called the gut barrier, which is a single layer of cells that's meant to protect our immune system and keep the bad stuff out. But the problem is that if the gut barrier starts to wear thin. Get weak, get porous, things can sneak across.

And when those things sneak across, it creates a chronic low grade activation of the immune system. And this contributes to these 130 health conditions that I'm describing.

David Friedman, BS: Yeah. Over the past decades, as you mentioned, IBS, Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, it's on the rise. What's the primary cause of This? Is it the toxins? Is it the food quality or widespread use of pharmaceuticals? All the above. Is there one, like public enemy number one, you found?

Will Bulsiewicz: it's hard to say, Hey, there's this public enemy number one, when it is so multifactorial. You know, if you think about the way that, I just think about the way that my grandparents lived, that's not that long ago, right? We're talking about less than a hundred years ago, where the current food system.

The vast majority of the food that's in your supermarket, it didn't exist when my grandparents were kids let alone the internet, let alone access to phones and tablets and devices and electronics and all these different things that are pulling us away from meaningful connection, pulling us away from exercise and life outside the home, pulling us away from eating real, natural food.

So it's not so much that we need to go back to living in a cave. We do need to sort out how to live in the modern world with all of these amenities and things that are, very convenient, but at the same time, we need to figure out how can we live in this current world and thrive.

And that's really what the book is about, is about small choices that can lead to big results.

David Friedman, BS: I love that. I love that. I'm almost done with your book. It's fantastic. You put a lot into that and, kudos to you. I know in the book you say 95% of Americans don't consume enough fiber share with us why is this such a catastrophic health crisis And what are people doing wrong?

I.

Will Bulsiewicz: Well, I think that the issue is that fiber is found in plant-based food, and unfortunately, the modern diet has not prioritized plant-based food as much as it should. so if you think about it, here's the layout in America. As we sit here And we have this conversation, 60% of our calories come from Ultraprocessed foods.

When I say ultraprocessed. Basically what that means is food that had to be made industrially because you can't make it in your kitchen. You don't have the ingredients. It's not possible. And that's 60% of our calories and 30% of our calories come from animal products. And it's not to vilify animal products and make it sound like you can't be healthy and consume these foods.

But it is to say that there's zero fiber content. You don't get any fiber from that. So what's left is 10%. And unfortunately the number one thing in the 10% is the potato because we're eating lots of chips and french fries. So we need to increase the plant foods in our diet.

And the reason why fiber is so important, David, is not just because it contributes to bowel movements. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a gastroenterologist. I think bowel movements are very important. I think we should talk about them, but. What's really happening there is the new science of fiber, which has shown us that fiber can enter into your large intestine and become food for your microbiome.

They get to eat, they become stronger, And then they actually transform the fiber and stops being fiber and turns into something new called short chain fatty acids. And these are the. Most anti-inflammatory thing that I have come across in all of my years of studying medicine more than 20 years.

And they have a beneficial impact on your microbiome, on your gut barrier, and on your immune system. So all of the things that we're focused on and trying to improve in this book, we can achieve that. If we were to address this deficiency of fiber in America.

David Friedman, BS: What about people with severely inflamed guts like Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis? These conditions often cause excessive bowel movements and diarrhea to them. The idea of adding more fiber, especially raw vegetables, sounds like torture. Are there certain conditions where people should avoid fiber altogether or there specific types of fiber that maybe can benefit their healing?

Will Bulsiewicz: I want people to understand that the gut And the gut microbiome, it's like a muscle. It can be trained, it can be made stronger, you can improve the function of it, and when necessary, it can be rehabilitated. And for people that have these complex health conditions like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, and I've cared for thousands of them, don't go and do raw salads on day one.

That's what you're gonna do later. We can build towards that. That would be like walking into the gym and lifting the heaviest weight that the gym has. That's how you hurt yourself. You gotta start gentle. So if you look at the protocol that's in this book, there's a three phase protocol, I created this protocol with those people in mind because I know that in the beginning.

We have to enter into this conversation gently. So what we do is we start with simple stuff like soups that are blended and at the same time, David, there are many ways to heal the gut that don't involve food. We should take advantage of that, And we should do that first because we can make our guts stronger by doing those things before we start to add more food.

David Friedman, BS: Yeah, that's so true. Speaking of fiber, what about this carnivore diet? All they eat is, beef and bacon and, they say, oh, stay away from grains, fruits, nuts, legumes. They're the root cause of disease is, all meat is the answer. As a GI expert who's research plant-based nutrition, what's your response to that?

Popular fad diet. Hope it's a fad. I hope it's not around for longer.

Will Bulsiewicz: It is a fad. And I think that like the messaging to your listeners here today is don't fall into the trap of following whatever the popular diet is, because it's funny, David, in 2020, a plant-based diet was the most popular diet. And by 2023, the carnivore diet, which is diametrically opposed, the complete and polar opposite, was the most popular diet.

So clearly the trends have no clue what they're doing, but the science is very consistent And the science is not something that suddenly changes overnight. My position today is very similar to the position it was 10 years ago, except I've refined it and I've gotten better and where we are today.

Is that there are many different ways in order to achieve a healthy diet. You don't have to be vegan, you don't have to be vegetarian, and honestly, the label that you put on it is not what really matters. What matters is the quality of your diet, And also I'm of the complete and total belief that you need to include lots of plants.

It doesn't need to be the only thing, but they need to be present and they need to be powerful.

David Friedman, BS: So you have patient's who've gone carnivore initially feel amazing. Lose the weight. They have more energy, they feel better. They come in bragging, but the majority of them, those results are temporary. I'm wondering could those early benefits be less about eliminating plants and more as a result? Maybe they're cutting out sugar and all that ultraprocessed foods and they're saying it's meat.

Will Bulsiewicz: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. It's the most restrictive, diet that exists. But the one advantage of This is that if you are following the standard American diet, which includes 60% ultraprocessed, which includes tons and tons and tons of sugar, and all of these additives, there's about 10,000 food additives that are in our food system, and most of them we know very, very little about what they do to human health, let alone the microbiome.

You know, this gives you a framework to move away from that. So I completely understand where people report that they feel better, and that's the reason why they feel better. It is not the fact that they've eliminated such a small amount of plant-based food in their diet. The plant-based food was barely there to begin with.

How can that be the problem?

David Friedman, BS: I agree. How can somebody know? We're talking about inflammation. People are wondering, Hey, I wonder if I have inflammation in my body. Do you recommend any specific tests like C-reactive protein? Is that still the gold standard?

Will Bulsiewicz: I think the C-reactive protein can be an excellent test that's readily available in the care with your doctor. But I think that there's a few ways that I would, approach this, David, from a, a gastroenterologist perspective. The first is that if you go and you look at the health conditions that are associated with inflammation, the.

I mentioned earlier, there's over 130 of them, and you can find them at my website. They're there for you to review. If you have several of these you already know. You already know because inflammation contributed to the development of those health conditions, we may see them as separate and different.

And I'm not saying that inflammation is the only thing, but inflammation is contributing to the manifestation of these different health conditions. And the other thing that I would say. Is, how do you feel? I think it's really important that we get back to just like this simple doctor patient relationship And this question, how do you feel?

That to me is really where medicine starts between a doctor and a patient. you know, you think about when you get the flu, what happens? You get extreme fatigue, you get muscle ACHE's, you get joint pains. You might get a sore throat or a stuffy nose or a cough, chronic low grade inflammation.

Can manifest with all of those symptoms, except they're not gonna be as intense and sudden and severe as when you get the flu, but they may be present every single day in your life and you may just accept them as normal. Look at the energy drink industry in this country.

David. It's exploding. Clearly. We have an energy problem and energy is very closely tied to inflammation. So are these other symptoms And so is bloating and other gut symptoms.

David Friedman, BS: So true. Another eye-opener from your book that I'm a hundred percent on board with. I'm so glad you said it. You explained that our metabolism is strongest in the morning and weakest in the evening, meaning the same meal eaten at different times, produces completely different results. So for all those intermittent fasting listeners out there, should they be front loading their calories earlier in the day or these, breakfast skippers doing it backwards?

Should they be skipping dinner instead?

Will Bulsiewicz: So culture teaches us that like dinner is the biggest meal of the day. Culture teaches us that you're so busy that you need to get to work. And so just skip breakfast. don't get me wrong, I'm guilty of this myself. Many times, but the evidence are very clear that if we were to shift our caloric intake, shift our meal times to earlier in the day, it would be to our benefit because we have a circadian rhythm.

It's a 24 hour rhythm, and there's specific time points. When we are most well positioned to digest our food and have a healthy metabolism, And the morning is the absolute best time, And the worst time is the deeper and deeper that you get into the evening. As it turns dark, we should not be turning towards food.

We should be preparing for sleep instead. So for these people who are following a time restricted eating pattern, I think that's a wonderful thing. And as much as you can. Like really, truly, David, to me, the most important part is like taking that last meal of the day and trying to get it as early as you can.

That to me is where the money is at.

David Friedman, BS: Yeah, and a common sense is, you know, you wake up in the morning, you need fuel for your day, you're active, you come home after work, it's dark. You eat for. What, so you have energy watching TV on the couch And then you go to bed three hours later with food in your stomach digesting while you're sleeping.

right. It's just common sense. It's like, we need food for fuel. We don't need wa guess you're on a honeymoon. Have a big dinner. But,

Will Bulsiewicz: It's a special occasion

David Friedman, BS: but you know, for the most of us, no.

Will Bulsiewicz: Yeah, exactly. That's a special occasion. That shouldn't be just a routine Tuesday night, you know?

David Friedman, BS: Exactly. Exactly. Hey, let's talk fermented foods. I know there's been an explosion of interest in kimchi and sauerkraut and kombucha. What makes fermented food so powerful and how much do we actually need?

Will Bulsiewicz: Okay. Well, so I think the thing about fermented foods is that these are transformed foods. They're not the same as the ingredients that went in. They come out different. And part of what can happen is you can add these living microbes, both bacteria and yeasts. You would find them in all the foods that you just mentioned, And also kefi and yogurt and some other ones.

These living microbes, and they're a part of this ecosystem that's in that fermented food. But also what started as specific, you know, carbohydrates and proteins and fats. They get transformed too. We get brand new forms of fiber. we get peptides, bioactive peptides, which are basically transformations of the protein.

And we can get things like conjugated linoleic acid, which is a very healthy fat. So basically fermentation is transformation, but it's actually elevating the food for us. And there's research outta Stanford, University. Some of my friends actually professors Christopher Gardner and Justin and Erica Sonenberg, where. It was very interesting, David.

This was a human clinical trial and they had people consuming fermented food, increasing their fermented food intake, and just in a matter of eight weeks, they increased the diversity of their microbiome, and when that happened, they actually reduced inflammation. So there's two points that are takeaways from this study.

Number one, if you increase your fermented food, that's good for your gut. It's good for your immune system, but also number two, the entire core thesis of my book was just proven in a human clinical trial at Stanford University. When we make the gut healthier, we are creating an anti-inflammatory effect.

David Friedman, BS: Wow. I know one fascinating fact you shared is that most of the serotonin in our bodies produce in the gut, not the brain. So for people struggling with depression, anxiety, or mood issues, does this mean something different for their treatment approach? Don't focus on the brain, go right to the gut.

I.

Will Bulsiewicz: It can, and, and you know, here's the beautiful thing. The body doesn't separate those things. The gut And the brain. They're interconnected. they're talking to each other right now, as you and I are having this conversation, the body doesn't compartmentalize the way that you and I as doctors would think about things and neurologists.

That's the brain and I'm the gut guy, right? But actually the body is just one. know, you think about this time of year where the weather is cold, you're not spending as much time outdoors. You don't get as much exposure to natural sunlight. And many people get a little bit, blue.

You get a little bit moody And the treatment for That is light. the interesting thing about That is if you were to get light in the morning, ideally outside, but if you're up in Illinois. this could be a light box that provides 10,000 mugs. That light exposure, it increases the serotonin in your brain.

It increases serotonin throughout your entire body, And that helps your entire circadian rhythm. I sincerely believe, 'cause I've seen this in my own life, David, you will feel the difference. You will notice how much it helps you, And then you will never want to go back.

David Friedman, BS: I'm glad there's so much research now that Alzheimer's dimension. is really gut focused. I'll tell you, I relate. I had severe colitis, ended up being diagnosed with Crohn's in my fifties, And we found that it was from a, uh, PFAS chemical in my water. And of course, DuPont's being sued for that.

But I could not remember my office manager doc. 17 years she'd been with me. I said, talk to the brunette at the front. I didn't know her name. It was amazing the things that, the gut affected my brain. and depression, I got depressed. it was the gut. People think it's the, oh, your depression, treat the brain, get some.

Pills for the brain. Alzheimer's, just the brain. Hey, I'm telling you, I think that This something untouched so far with our knowledge of the gut and how it really produces our emotion, our personality, our memory. Have you seen that as well?

Will Bulsiewicz: A hundred percent. In fact, I've lived it. So you're sharing your personal experience with Crohn's disease, and if you went back to 2012, I was laying in a dark room on the couch and I just wanted to be left alone because I was clinically depressed. I was anxious. I was 50 pounds overweight.

I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and I didn't want the treatments. That I had been trained to provide at some of America's most elite institutions, Georgetown, Northwestern, the University of North Carolina. I didn't want those things. And That is what started me on my journey that allows me to be here today.

And what I've discovered during that process over 15 years roughly, of not only helping myself, but also helping my patient's, and now here writing books, what I've learned in that process is what's in this book. And you know, David Depression. We have actually shifted in our knowledge of this condition.

It's not just neurotransmitters and it's not just oh mood, This is inflammation. They actually have shown that major depression is neuroinflammation, and if you look at the gut microbiome in people who are depressed, you will see an inflamed microbiome at the exact same time. As I've said before, you can't separate these things.

David Friedman, BS: Yeah, so true. And I know course food's important, but of course we turn to supplements and there's so many overhype stuff out there. When it comes to gut health, and I know you've got a company was 38 Terra, what are the top three that get the seal of approval from Dr. BI?

Will Bulsiewicz: so one of the things that I teach in the book, there's an entire chapter about supplements. And I think the thing about supplements is we can't let the failures of the supplement industry to stand in the way of us receiving the health benefits that could come from the use of.

High quality, proper supplements. So what we need to do is we need to find the evidence-based ones that really can have an impact. I'm a big believer in prebiotic supplements. That's what we offer at 38 Terra. I formulated it myself. It is completely clean, which means that it is NSF certified for sport.

That's the highest level testing that exists. And we have a, research study which shows the effects of our product on the gut microbiome during the course of 15 days of use, and I'm very proud of what we found in that study. So I'm of the belief that whether you have Crohn's disease or you have no disease at all, that the gut is so important.

We should be supporting it, And we should be supporting it on a daily basis. Food comes first. Don't get me wrong, food comes first, but there is a place where supplements can really add to what we're doing with our diet. If I'm going beyond that. I really think vitamin D is an essential supplement.

Now we can test for vitamin D, but if you're deficient, and most Americans are particularly this time of year, vitamin D is an important part of supporting our gut microbiome, our gut barrier, and our immune system all at once. And I guess if I were to add a third one in the evening.

I love mineral supplements, so I really love magnesium and zinc taken before bedtime. the magnesium can contribute to better sleep, but also both magnesium and zinc. These are minerals that are necessary for repair process, and when we're sleeping at night, that's when our body is repairing and restoring itself.

So we need those minerals at that time.

David Friedman, BS: Yeah. I'm so glad you're bringing up, you know, quality. It's so important. 'cause you know, as a naturopath, I hear all this, oh, this didn't work, this didn't work. I look in the back, I said, there's no certification. You don't know what's in there. There was a company in Florida selling echinacea, which is for immunity.

People have allergies, people have sinus. And they had hay and grass in the capsules. There was no ation. Now imagine if you're allergic to hay or grass and you're taking a supplement to help your hay and grass allergy. so there was no certification and it's so tough in this wild, wild west of new supplements.

So I commend you for, honoring the quality and You know what's in the product. Is in the product. So kudos to that.

Will Bulsiewicz: It's tested and proven. David the NSF certified for sport. For those who aren't familiar with this. We subject ourselves, we pay for it, And we subject ourselves and they test our ingredients before we manufacture. They come to our manufacturing, operation and they basically audit us and they make sure that everything that we're doing is the way that it's supposed to be, including clean, And then they test our product after manufacture.

For over 300 different things, including proving that what's on the label is what's actually in the product. So whether it's our product or someone else's, people should know. NSF certified for sport. That's what that means, and it's really important.

David Friedman, BS: Fantastic. when it comes to curtailing inflammation, what's your views on coffee? Is it gut healthy or does it aggravate our microbiomes? I get asked this. A lot. What's your view on that?

Will Bulsiewicz: there's a very clear answer to this, but before I step into it, let me just say number one, I am definitely biased. So, I love coffee.

David Friedman, BS: Are you drinking coffee right now?

Will Bulsiewicz: I, I have it. I have it to the side. I mean, it's hard for me to talk and, and have a great conversation with you, but, and drink it at the same time, but it's right here. but also, in being fair, there are some people that it's just not a good fit.

There's some people that it makes them anxious. There's some that it makes it hard for them to sleep at night. My wife is like this. And there's some people that, it will actually upset their digestive system and give them some diarrhea. So if you're one of those people don't feel bad, there's other options that you can choose.

But David, here's the story on coffee. There's research that was done at a company called Zoe, where I'm the actually their US medical director. Where what we found is that the number one thing out of everything in your diet, the number one thing That is impacting your microbiome is actually coffee.

it affects over a hundred different microbes. And what's interesting though is it's really a story about the impact of consistency. Because if you're a coffee drinker, you probably have that cup of coffee every single day. And the impact of one cup of coffee is very small. If you were to compare it to, for example, a salad.

But the difference is you don't have that salad every day, but you do have that coffee every day, So, It goes like this day, one little nudge day two, another little nudge day three, a third nudge, and you repeat that on 30 days. And next thing you know, each of those nudges has basically cumulatively added up to a big impact.

So coffee to me is actually a gut health drink.

David Friedman, BS: That's great. I'm curious, I can't let you go without asking the question. I wondered when you find colon cancer, is it more common in meat eaters are plant-based dieters less likely to get the disease?

Will Bulsiewicz: it's very clearly associated with processed meats. There's concern that red meat could be potentially contributing. what we have seen in recent years, so I'm a gastroenterologist. I've diagnosed many people with colorectal cancer. It breaks my heart and I take it very personal because these are many times people in their forties who have a family and they're just like me.

everything that I can do within my power to help to contribute to the prevention of this disease. I want to do now, we have seen the disease shift towards younger people in recent years. This has been like publicly reported everywhere, we've also seen it in the way that we provide preventative procedures like colonoscopy, where now we start at 45.

It used to be 50, but we're still not catching everyone at 45. Why is this happening, I'm not surprised. We have a fiber deficient diet. And we're consuming 30% of our calories from meat. It's not that meat is inherently like by itself going to cause cancer, But when you have no fiber and tons of meat, you have no balance.

You have no balance. So if we could get back to balance by increasing our fiber intake, it would really, really help to protect you from this health condition. But the other thing for people to know is that even if you were a hundred percent plant-based, you can still get colorectal cancer.

Food isn't the only thing that contributes to this health condition. It's in our environment, in the modern world, which is very different than it used to be. So please get screened, please, when there's an opportunity, go and get tested. And if you see blood in your stool or something is going on that you're not really sure what's going on, talk to your doctor about it.

Because from my perspective, the earlier that you get checked, the safer that you're likely to be.

David Friedman, BS: Yeah, well said. It goes back to the five. You're focused. I had a patient says, this doc is uh, two bowel movements. Okay. And I said, yeah, two's good. Two or three per day is perfect. She goes, no, no, I'm asking a week. I go two per week. And I'm like, whoa.

and like you said, and I dug into her diet, no fiber So, It makes sense. If you've got this petrified gunk and junk staying not flowing out, wouldn't that be more likely to get cancer? It's not a natural flow. It just Right. 1 2 bowel movements a week. Probably not healthy.

Will Bulsiewicz: So, no, it's not, it's, certainly not And actually, This is one of the things, You know, we have sort of made poop this thing that we're not allowed to talk about. yet, there's a lot of high quality information that you can learn about your own body and particularly your gut health by simply understanding your bowel movements.

and when we move towards constipation, it's very clear that there is a change in the microbiome That is not beneficial. So you're a hundred percent right David, that there are some concerns there and changes in the microbiome are what contribute to the development of colorectal cancer.

David Friedman, BS: Yeah, so Trent, we talked about coffee. I can't leave you without talking about the other popular beverage. Hopefully you don't have one there by your side. Wine. It used to be considered healthy and all the news now says all alcohol, even in moderation is inflammatory and disease causing. What's your views on vino?

Do people have to give it up?

Will Bulsiewicz: I have changed my personal position on this in the last few years, and part of This is that there was a study that I came across, but before I explain that study, I must also say that just one glass of wine in the evening. And let's be honest, the vast majority of alcohol consumption is typically late in the evening.

Just one, a glass of wine in the evening is enough to disrupt your sleep. I really shouldn't have to say more than that, that should be sufficient. That being said, there was a, study where what they did is they took a group of people they gave them a certain amount of alcohol.

It was enough to make them intoxicated, And then they, checked their blood every 30 minutes for two things. They checked the blood alcohol level And the second thing was something called lipopolysaccharide lipopolysaccharide. It is something that coats particular types of bacteria, like e coli, it's not supposed to be in your blood.

It's supposed to be in your gut. When you find it in your blood, it means that you have a leaky gut because this stuff is sneaking across and getting into your bloodstream, and This is what contributes to chronic low grade inflammation. Lipopolysaccharide. So in this study, they were checking these two things, blood, alcohol, and lipopolysaccharide.

And what you saw was you could literally superimposed the graft on top of one another when the blood alcohol went up. So did the lipopolysaccharide when it went down, so did the lipopolysaccharide. And the lipopolysaccharide did not turn to zero until the blood alcohol level was zero. So that was enough evidence for me to say that I don't believe that there's any amount of alcohol that I can sit there and say you should consume.

I think we're better off playing it safe and limiting it to as little as possible.

David Friedman, BS: Wow. Thanks for clearing that up. That's. Good info. The book is called Plant Powered Plus, activate the Power of Your Gut to Tame Inflammation and Reclaim Your Health. Excellent book. I'm almost finished with it. Highly recommend getting it you know, if you're suffering from disease or maybe you just wanna be proactive and stay healthy, This is a great book for you and you can learn more at the gut health md.com.

And while they'll be sure, check out the many resources available, including. Informative articles, videos, and his daily microbiome nutrition. And you can follow Dr. B on all the social media platforms at Gut Health md. And you can follow me on Facebook and X at Dr. David Friedman on Instagram.

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