Skip to content

By playing, you agree to uListen's Terms and Privacy Policy and YouTube's Terms of Service.

Lewis HowesLewis Howes

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

- Sign up for my FREE newsletter & get a dose of inspiration from our world-class guests, learn how to improve your life!

Lewis HoweshostDr. Steven Gundryguest
Apr 1, 20201h 22mWatch on YouTube

Summaries, chapters, transcripts, and FAQs on this page are made by uListen, not YouTube.

Great conversations run long. Their best ideas don't have to.

uListen is free on iPhone, iPad, Android, Chrome, and Claude.

See how

Transcript

  1. 0:00 – 5:38

    From Heart Surgery to Reversing Disease: Big Ed and the Callus Analogy

    1. LH

      How can we boost and protect our immune system in time of pandemic crisis?

    2. SG

      The first thing you do is you absolutely, positively stay away from simple carbohydrates. [upbeat music]

    3. LH

      Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got the inspirational Dr. Steven Gundry in the house. Thank you so much for being here, very exciting.

    4. SG

      Hey, thanks for having me, and thank you for your distance [laughs] .

    5. LH

      Yes, we've got some social distancing right now. I'm very excited about this because, uh, we've seen a big, um, response to the last couple interviews that we did on YouTube specifically during this time of crisis, and I wanted to bring you back on to really focus on how we can optimize our bodies, our minds, our hearts in times of crisis. And you have been a, a heart surgeon for, uh, 40 years. Is that right?

    6. SG

      Yeah [laughs] .

    7. LH

      I mean, 40 years. You were a philosopher at Yale.

    8. SG

      Yeah.

    9. LH

      Then you went into heart surgery, and you changed the game in heart surgeries, and now you are helping people essentially reverse, um, autoimmune disease-

    10. SG

      Yeah

    11. LH

      ... and-

    12. SG

      Yeah

    13. LH

      ... become healthier, happier, whole human beings through nutrition. And you realized a long time ago that fixing the heart medically can only take you so far.

    14. SG

      Yeah, that's right.

    15. LH

      We have to fix something else, and what is that?

    16. SG

      Well, you gotta fix, you know, why, for instance, you got heart disease in the first place. And, um, I was taught, as all my colleagues were taught, that heart disease is kind of inevitable, that, you know, that's the leading cause of death for both men and women.

    17. LH

      It's inevitable for all of us to have-

    18. SG

      For ... Yeah, pretty much that's what we were taught

    19. LH

      ... at some point.

    20. SG

      Yeah. And then even if you get it, let's say you get coronary artery disease, that the best we can do is slow it down-

    21. LH

      Mm

    22. SG

      ... to slow the progression. And what I realized, thanks to Big Ed, who I talk about in all my books, who reversed his coronary artery disease-

    23. LH

      This is a man who had 100 ... He was 100 pounds overweight. He was-

    24. SG

      Yeah. He was, yeah, he was, he was really overweight. He was e- late, late 40s. He had inoperable coronary artery disease. Everything was clogged up.

    25. LH

      Wow.

    26. SG

      And, and this guy went-

    27. LH

      And so you went, you opened him up. You went-

    28. SG

      No, I ... Well, I ... He had gone to six different centers in the United States-

    29. LH

      Wow

    30. SG

      ... saying, "Do," you know, "do something." And everybody who saw him said, uh, "Well, no, there's no place to do bypasses. There's no place to do stents 'cause everything's clogged up. Have a nice day." And so this guy spent about six months doing this, and, um, he went on a diet during this time, and he went to a health food store, and he bought a bunch of supplements, kinda willy-nilly quite frankly.

  2. 5:38 – 13:29

    The Terrified Patient and Eating for Your Microbiome

    1. LH

      Was there a, was there a moment when you were doing ... deep in your practice where you were like, "I'm not gonna work on another heart until they actually follow this plan and start losing weight and start eating the right things. And then if there's no hope, then maybe I'll dive in." But it ... Was there a point where you were like, "Never again will I do-"

    2. SG

      Well, yeah. So I mean, my ... I wrote about this in The Plant Paradox, that I had this gentleman in his 60s, bad diabetic. ... ho- came in with a heart attack, scheduled him for surgery, and the next morning we're in the pre-op room and the guy is trembling like a leaf. And he says, "I, I can't go through this."

    3. LH

      Wow.

    4. SG

      And I've learned enough that if somebody is that terrified, don't go put them to sleep and do it-

    5. LH

      Oh

    6. SG

      ... 'cause something probably is not gonna work out very well. Uh, fear.

    7. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    8. SG

      Um, so I said, "Okay, I'll make you a deal." I said, "You gotta follow everything I do tell you to do, and if you do it, I can guarantee you I will not have to operate on you. But if you don't do it, you know, you're coming back here and we're gonna do this." Well, that was now 10 years ago. He's not a diabetic. He has no coronary artery disease.

    9. LH

      Wow.

    10. SG

      He, and you know, he comes in twice a year now and just, you know, and we do stress tests on him and, and you know, and he, that ... He became one of my best patients.

    11. LH

      Wow.

    12. SG

      And, you know ...

    13. LH

      You were gonna do a heart surgery.

    14. SG

      Yeah, oh, we were wheeling him into surgery, and the guy's shaking like a leaf going, "I, I don't think I can do this." And I said, "Okay, here's the deal."

    15. LH

      Wow. That's crazy.

    16. SG

      Oh, yeah, and we always reminisce. He, he says, you know, "It's been 10 years now, and you know, I followed what you told me." And I said, "Yeah, here you are. You don't have a scar on your chest." I said, "You're really bad for business." [laughs]

    17. LH

      [laughs] So what were the, uh, what were the few things you told him that he went out and did? Was there, like, some specific exact things he did?

    18. SG

      Yeah. Um, well, I, I, I do this in, in all my books. So we're w- a- actually, Jack, and my, my staff always tell me, "Don't, don't say this story," 'cause if people get the wrong idea.

    19. LH

      [laughs]

    20. SG

      Jack LaLanne, I got to know Jack LaLanne-

    21. LH

      Yeah

    22. SG

      ... like late in his life.

    23. LH

      Yeah.

    24. SG

      He was actually an advisor to our Arthritis Institute in Palm Springs. And so, you know, Jack w- godfather of fitness. I mean-

    25. LH

      Mm

    26. SG

      ... come on, let's give him his due.

    27. LH

      Yeah. The juicer.

    28. SG

      Yeah. [laughs] The juicer. That was his big mistake. But anyhow.

    29. LH

      [laughs]

    30. SG

      So Jack LaLanne used to have this expression is that if it tastes good, spit it out.

  3. 13:29 – 20:30

    Fiber, Bacteria, and Why We Need Our Microbes

    1. SG

      That's true. I a- I'm definitely chronologically ol- older. But, uh, recently on my, uh, podcast, uh, I had Dr. Terry Wahls, who, uh, I think is very famous, rightfully so, for reversing her MS, her multiple-

    2. LH

      Wow

    3. SG

      ... sclerosis. Uh, and she did it via diet. Uh, she did it initially-

    4. LH

      Wow

    5. SG

      ... by eating nine cups of vegetables a day.

    6. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    7. SG

      And, uh, I, I dare people to try to eat nine cups of vegetables a day.

    8. LH

      A lot of fiber, right? [laughs]

    9. SG

      A lot, a lot of fi- Now, and we'll, we'll get back to fiber because I think that's probably the key, and this is actually what Jacqueline was trying to say, if it tastes good, spit it out. And Terry became famous for telling people that, uh, she, when you look in the toilet every morning, you should see a very large coiled snake looking back up at you.

    10. LH

      [laughs]

    11. SG

      And in fact, in, in The Plant Paradox, uh, in the, the original manuscript, I had said, "When you look in the toilet, you should see a giant anaconda looking back up at you."

    12. LH

      [laughs]

    13. SG

      And my editor, uh, Julie Wills, you know, called me up, she said, "Uh, do you know there's a movie where-

    14. LH

      Yeah

    15. SG

      ... an anaconda is coming-

    16. LH

      Snakes On A Toilet [laughs]

    17. SG

      ... yeah, coming out, coming out of the toilet. And I said, "Oh, yeah." She said, "I don't think we want that visual-

    18. LH

      Yeah, yeah

    19. SG

      ... in your book." And she said, "We, let's, let's take that out."

    20. LH

      [laughs]

    21. SG

      So, uh, but what we didn't know, what you and, you didn't know, I didn't know, is that that giant coiled snake is not the fiber and the roughage-

    22. LH

      Mm

    23. SG

      ... that we ate. It's actually bacteria that have eaten the fiber.

    24. LH

      No way.

    25. SG

      And we-

    26. LH

      The bacteria inside of us?

    27. SG

      Oh, yeah.

    28. LH

      That's coming out?

    29. SG

      That's coming out. So most of your poop-

    30. LH

      Oh my gosh

  4. 20:30 – 26:09

    Time-Restricted Feeding and the Leaky Gut Wall

    1. SG

      She... So, um, we, uh, we've become friends through the years and our diets, uh, recommendations are very similar and becoming more and more similar as time goes on. And recently, as she, uh, and her wife, uh, began doing time-restricted feeding. Um, for the last 18 years during the winter, I only eat calories two hours a day.

    2. LH

      Mm.

    3. SG

      So in 22 out of 24 hours-

    4. LH

      Wow

    5. SG

      ... I'm not eating any calories, and I've done that for 18 years now. So that's, that's pretty interesting, time-restricted feeding. Time-restricted feeding means you limit the number of hours you eat in the day.

    6. LH

      Wow.

    7. SG

      Um, so she, and we had talked about this, so she and her wife actually really started doing this. And I, I see her about once a year and I, uh, noticed on, on the podcast, you know, she looks the best I have ever seen her. And so we're talking about this and she said, "Well, you know, uh, I started, you know, after kinda reading and listening and, you know, Longevity Paradox that this, you, you know, this is something real. And, uh, this... Not just me, other people have done this. Um, and we started doing it. And I started doing it and then my wife said, 'You know, uh, there's something here. I'm gonna join you.'" And they have kids. And now they... He- she's saying, "Our kids have noticed that we are getting younger."

    8. LH

      Mm.

    9. SG

      And, and I said, "Well, you know, this... You're right." I said, "Uh, 'cause, you know, I've known you through the years and you clearly are, you know, younger now than when I knew you a few years ago." And she said, "Yeah, our kids notice and they're calling us, you know, Benjamin Button," uh-

    10. LH

      Right

    11. SG

      ... "'cause we're de-aging." So I think this whole anti-aging thing is wrong. I think it is really quite possible to de-age. And as I talk about in The Longevity Paradox, what's fascinating is that, and you can prove this in animal models, that you age as your microbiome changes, number one, but more importantly, the, the wall of your gut is, should be impermeable even though it's only one cell thick. And the surface area of your gut and my gut is the same as a tennis court. So inside of you and me-

    12. LH

      Mm

    13. SG

      ... is a tennis court.

    14. LH

      Crazy.

    15. SG

      Surface area. And the problem is that that wall of our gut is only one cell thick, and these cells are held together with, uh, tight junctions. Uh, best example for anyone who's no longer young is Red Rover, Red Rover, which-

    16. LH

      Sure

    17. SG

      ... we all played as a kid.

    18. LH

      Yeah.

    19. SG

      Where we locked arms and-

    20. LH

      Uh

    21. SG

      ... people ran across. And a big guy like you-

    22. LH

      I always ran through.

    23. SG

      Oh, yeah.

    24. LH

      Oh, let's go.

    25. SG

      Oh, yeah.

    26. LH

      [laughs]

    27. SG

      And you're the guy, you know, and the two, two-

    28. LH

      Break the ra-

    29. SG

      Yeah. The two girls, "Ah, here comes Lewis."

    30. LH

      [laughs]

  5. 26:09 – 32:30

    Lectins and the Foods to Avoid for Gut Healing

    1. SG

      Well, and that's why I got so focused on these cute little plant particles called lectins.

    2. LH

      Yes.

    3. SG

      And so there's lots of h- gut healing protocols out there.

    4. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    5. SG

      And what intrigued me was, uh, you know, lectins are a, a plant defense system.

    6. LH

      Yeah.

    7. SG

      And plants have multiple defense systems, but I kinda got interested in lectins. And they're little proteins that sh- seek out sugar molecules, and they-

    8. LH

      Love that sugar.

    9. SG

      Yeah.

    10. LH

      Gotta get rid of it.

    11. SG

      Yeah. They, they are after specific sugar molecules. And interestingly enough, these sugar molecules line our nose, mouth, intestines. They line the lining of our blood vessels.

    12. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    13. SG

      They line our joints. They exist in the space between two nerves, where nerves talk to each other. And these proteins are designed, if they can, to stick to these sugar molecules and act, if you will, like a splinter-

    14. LH

      Mm

    15. SG

      ... an irritant. Uh, they are also really good at breaking the tight junctions that hold the wall of our gut together. And if you think about it from a plant standpoint, if you had a system where you could make leaky gut in someone who eats you, and your immune system got all inflamed-

    16. LH

      Mm-hmm

    17. SG

      ... and you felt bad or it hurt to move or you got depressed ... By the way, leaky gut is the major cause of depression and-

    18. LH

      Really?

    19. SG

      ... anxiety. Really.

    20. LH

      Stress.

    21. SG

      Dr. Amen and I went through this on his podcast.

    22. LH

      Wow. Yeah.

    23. SG

      Yeah. And so if you had a predator who was eating you and that predator wasn't doing very well, a smart predator would say, "You know, every time I eat this plant, uh, or this plant baby-"

    24. LH

      I die.

    25. SG

      Yeah, I don't feel good.

    26. LH

      Right. Yeah. [laughs]

    27. SG

      Or, you know, or I don't reproduce well, or I'm not growing well. I, I'm gonna go eat something else.

    28. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    29. SG

      And we also evolved bacteria that enjoy eating lectins. Believe it or not, there's a bacteria that likes to eat gluten.

    30. LH

      Mm.

  6. 32:30 – 36:17

    Turning Autoimmunity On and Off: Gundry's Own Story and Study

    1. SG

      And, um, it's, I mean, it's really kinda humorous. Sometimes we see that when people reintroduce things, they, uh, their leaky gut starts again. I, I'll give you a great example, personal example. So years ago, uh, when we first started doing autoimmune testing, um, we obviously do it on ourselves.

    2. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    3. SG

      And so I did it on myself, and my staff comes running in, says, "Oh, my gosh, you know, Dr. Gundry, you have lupus." I said, "I don't have lupus."

    4. LH

      [laughs]

    5. SG

      "Come on, you know, where's the lupus?" And they said, "No, no, no, you know, you're positive for anti-nuclear antibody," which is one of the good markers for lupus, uh, an autoimmune condition. And I'm going, "Well, you know, that's interesting." Uh, my f- family, my father's side of the family has massive psoriasis. My dad was on methotrexate-

    6. LH

      Mm-hmm

    7. SG

      ... for fif- fif- 51 years.

    8. LH

      Is it like a steroid or like a cream or?

    9. SG

      Yeah, it's an, it's a, one of the immunosuppressants.

    10. LH

      Wow.

    11. SG

      Um, yeah, he was on an immuno- an immunosuppressant.

    12. LH

      So he would have psoriasis all over.

    13. SG

      Yes. Well, yeah. Well, he would have psoriasis everywhere. Everywhere.

    14. LH

      Wow.

    15. SG

      And, uh, so I said, and my aunt had it, and my cousins had it, so I'm going, "You know, that makes sense. I obviously have a predisposition to an autoimmune disease." And I, I said, "Eh, I think I'll turn it off," 'cause I'm always experimenting with food. That's my job. And so I ate perfectly. I followed m- m- the rules for two weeks, remeasured my anti-nuclear antibody. Done. Gone.

    16. LH

      Hmm.

    17. SG

      Turned off.

    18. LH

      After how many weeks?

    19. SG

      Two weeks.

    20. LH

      Wow.

    21. SG

      I said, "Eh, that's pretty interesting." So we actually did a study that we presented at the American Heart two years ago of 102 patients with biomarker proven autoimmune disease, like anti-nuclear antibody, like rheumatoid arthritis, like Hashimoto's, Kelly Clarkson, just to give you an example.

    22. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    23. SG

      And retested them at six months, and most of these people were on immunosuppressants, like what you see on TV every day and we can-

    24. LH

      Drugs

    25. SG

      ... drugs.

    26. LH

      Yeah.

    27. SG

      And in six months' time, 95 out of the 102 people were negative for their marker of autoimmune disease, and they were off their drugs.

    28. LH

      Wow.

    29. SG

      94% success rate. That's not bad.

    30. LH

      That's pretty good.

  7. 36:17 – 45:47

    Tomatoes, Peanuts, and Why Allergies and Chronic Disease Raise Virus Risk

    1. LH

      So you, so, so three things you've said so far of leaky gut, I'm hearing you say no rice or corn, which is zero grains. No nightshades, which are tomatoes. Does that mean, like, tomato sauce or if things are prepared a certain way?

    2. SG

      S- yeah, so here's the deal. Peel and deseed your tomatoes. Uh, peel and deseed your peppers. Um, the Southwa- the Southwest American Indians, uh, always peel and deseed their peppers before they eat them or grind them into chili. Um-

    3. LH

      Mm-hmm

    4. SG

      ... they've known that from time immemorial.

    5. LH

      Mm.

    6. SG

      The Italians always peel and deseed their tomatoes before they make sauce. Um, and I, I, I get to interview chefs a- all over Italy and-

    7. LH

      Yeah

    8. SG

      ... they all say, you know, "You gotta-"

    9. LH

      We do this or that. Yeah, yeah.

    10. SG

      Yeah, you gotta, yeah, you gotta do this. And I say, "Well, how do you know you gotta do this?" "Well, my mother-"

    11. LH

      You just know. Yeah, yeah.

    12. SG

      Yeah, "My mother taught me." I'm, "Well, how'd she know?" "Well, my grandmother taught her."

    13. LH

      Yeah.

    14. SG

      They, they know.

    15. LH

      Now, here's something that's interesting. Peanuts and cashews, I'm a big fan of peanuts, and I think the last time you came on, maybe the first time you came on, you were like, "You can't eat peanuts anymore." And I didn't eat them 'cause I was having, like, little rashes every now and then.

    16. SG

      Yeah.

    17. LH

      And I was thinking it was probably, like, the almond butter, nut butter. Just I was consuming so much almond butter-

    18. SG

      Yeah

    19. LH

      ... and peanut butter. And so I really cut back and I was like, "Okay, no peanut butter for a while," and cut back on almond butter and felt fine. About a couple months ago, I started eating a lot more peanut butter and noticed it started coming back, and so I shut it off again and it went away. Now, why is peanut butter an issue? Why is it such a big thing?

    20. SG

      So 94% of human beings are born with an antibody to the peanut lectin. And so now you go, so most of us inherit an antibody against the peanut lectin, and you go, "Well, wait a minute. When, when I was growing up, and probably when you were growing up, very few people had peanut allergies."

    21. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    22. SG

      Now-

    23. LH

      Now it's like everyone does

    24. SG

      ... everybody's got peanut-

    25. LH

      Why is that?

    26. SG

      Well, because our immune system used to be taught by our gut microbiome that, hey, you know, there's some nasty stuff out there, but we got your back and we're gonna handle it-

    27. LH

      Mm-hmm

    28. SG

      ... long before you ever have to deal with it. And you just, you, let's just, you know, use a Southern California example. There's a bunch of kids on the beach and they got a bonfire, not in the time of social distancing, but-

    29. LH

      Right

    30. SG

      ... uh, and they're having a great time, and the cops, uh, are, you know, looking at the beach. They're like, "Oh, yeah, we know those kids are good kids, you know, they're not, they're not troublemakers. We'll go have a donut and a smoke and just chill." So compare that, that you're in a disadvantaged part of a community and there's gang members and there's shooting, and the cops, everybody is a suspect until proven otherwise-

  8. 45:47 – 49:44

    Nut Butters, Goat Milk, and the Spinach Surprise

    1. LH

      I'm trying to figure out the solution to my peanut butter problem. What's the nut butter that I can eat that's actually okay?

    2. SG

      So, uh-

    3. LH

      Is there one?

    4. SG

      Yeah, so w- interestingly enough, we have a number of people with rheumatoid arthritis who react to the peel of an almond.

    5. LH

      Mm.

    6. SG

      There is a lectin in the peel of almonds.

    7. LH

      So you take the peel off.

    8. SG

      So you take the peel off.

    9. LH

      So the s-

    10. SG

      And so-

    11. LH

      ... deskinned almonds are okay.

    12. SG

      Yeah, so like Marcona almonds. And there are actually a couple of companies that now make peeled almond butter, and you can find them.

    13. LH

      Really?

    14. SG

      Yeah, and-

    15. LH

      It shouldn't be an issue then.

    16. SG

      It shouldn't be an issue, yeah. So, um, if you're gonna choose-

    17. LH

      That's interesting.

    18. SG

      Yeah, so walnuts are a great choice. Pistachios are a great choice.

    19. LH

      Every time I eat a walnut I sneeze.

    20. SG

      Ah, so there are some tannins in walnuts that certain people react to.

    21. LH

      [laughs]

    22. SG

      So stay with, stay with pistachios. Uh, macadamia nuts.

    23. LH

      I love macadamia nuts.

    24. SG

      Yeah, they're really good. Um-

    25. LH

      Okay. Mac nuts are okay.

    26. SG

      Yeah, so but yeah, so get yourself some peeled almonds.

    27. LH

      I'm gonna do that now.

    28. SG

      Try it.

    29. LH

      Okay. Uh, you said American milk is something that we should not have in order to fix leaky gut.

    30. SG

      Yeah.

  9. 49:44 – 57:42

    Nine Cups of Vegetables, Label Lies, and Mitochondria

    1. LH

      Now, what should those... Now, why is it important to have nine cups of vegetables, and what does that do for your microbiome-

    2. SG

      So-

    3. LH

      ... in your gut every day?

    4. SG

      This is... So getting back to Dr. David Kessler-

    5. LH

      Yes

    6. SG

      ... head of the FDA, we thought that carbohydrates were carbohydrates, and, you know, and complex carbohydrates, so starches were fine because they're complex carbohydrates.

    7. LH

      Uh-huh.

    8. SG

      Everybody was wrong. You know, food manufacturers have figured out how to make a complex carbohydrate a simple carbohydrate, and make you think it's a complex carbohydrate.

    9. LH

      Okay.

    10. SG

      So when you read a label, number one, if you have to read a label, you're probably... You should put the package back because there shouldn't be a label on a head of lettuce.

    11. LH

      [laughs] Right.

    12. SG

      Give you an example. But you have to take... And if anybody... If the take-home point from this is w- we're sa- will save so many people's lives.

    13. LH

      Mm.

    14. SG

      Read total carbohydrates on the label, then take away the dietary fiber. That'll be the next thing under it. So that will tell you the amount of grams of sugar per serving in that package. Do not look at where it says sugar.

    15. LH

      Sugar. That's exactly-

    16. SG

      Do not look at added sugar.

    17. LH

      Mm.

    18. SG

      It is a lie.

    19. LH

      So if it says zero sugar, zero added sugar-

    20. SG

      Yeah. So let me give you an example, uh, that he used on my podcast, which was a great example. He said, "Let me... What would you find in a store? The label says it's 300 calories, it has zero fat, it has zero grams of sugar, and it has four grams of protein, and it has 35 grams of carbohydrates."

    21. LH

      Is that broccoli? I don't know. What is that? [laughs]

    22. SG

      It's a bagel.

    23. LH

      A bagel?

    24. SG

      A bagel. And-

    25. LH

      Wow.

    26. SG

      It is-

    27. LH

      300 calories?

    28. SG

      300 calories.

    29. LH

      Wow.

    30. SG

      Zero sugar.

  10. 57:42 – 1:09:57

    Boosting Immunity in a Pandemic: Avoid Sugar, Add Supplements

    1. LH

      Now, s- you're speaking about immune system. How can we boost and protect our immune system in time of pandemic, crisis, stress, and overwhelm? What are the things we can do right now?

    2. SG

      Yeah. So the first thing you do is you absolutely, positively stay away from simple carbohydrates.

    3. LH

      Wow.

    4. SG

      And I can tell you that if it's in a package, it is probably a simple carbohydrate, even what would appear to be healthy. So, uh, plantain chips, um-

    5. LH

      No.

    6. SG

      Yeah.

    7. LH

      I can't eat those? Come on.

    8. SG

      Read the label and it will scare you to death. Will I eat plantain chips? Sure, I will, but I will use them as a dipping chip to get guacamole in my mouth.

    9. LH

      Or olive oil.

    10. SG

      Or olive oil. Yeah. So-

    11. LH

      [sighs]

    12. SG

      Yeah, I know. So y- stay away from simple carbohydrates.

    13. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    14. SG

      And what's really scary in times of pandemics-

    15. LH

      Mm-hmm

    16. SG

      ... is the grocery sh- store shelves are empty-

    17. LH

      [laughs]

    18. SG

      ... of bread, and bagels, and pasta-

    19. LH

      Ah

    20. SG

      ... and tomato sauce-

    21. LH

      That's good for you

    22. SG

      ... and milk, and ice cream, and orange juice. There's five to six teaspoons-

    23. LH

      Of sugar

    24. SG

      ... of sugar in a cup of orange juice.

    25. LH

      So it's actually good when the shelves are cleared of all the bad things.

    26. SG

      That's right. Believe it or not, right now most of everything in the grocery store is actually good for you because it's all been cleared out of all the bad stuff.

    27. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    28. SG

      But what worries me is all that bad stuff is being consumed.

    29. LH

      Yeah.

    30. SG

      And the best way to suppress your immune system is sugar.

  11. 1:09:57 – 1:13:04

    Antibiotics, Probiotics, and Prebiotics

    1. SG

      And the amount of antibiotics we take. We, we didn't know that the broad-spectrum antibiotics that all of us took for every little sniffle-

    2. LH

      Mm-hmm

    3. SG

      ... for every little cough-

    4. LH

      That hurts us

    5. SG

      ... were killing off our microbiome. It was like putting napalm on this tropical rainforest.

    6. LH

      How important is probiotics right now?

    7. SG

      That's a great question. So we are unfortunately, just because of our lifestyle, very deficient in probiotics.

    8. LH

      So should we be taking them?

    9. SG

      We should be taking them, but most probiotics are pretty worthless-

    10. LH

      Mm-hmm

    11. SG

      ... because they're not protected from acid in the stomach or bile in the s- in the first part of the duodenum, which will kill them.

    12. LH

      Mm.

    13. SG

      Most am- most probiotics never make it to the gut.

    14. LH

      Mm.

    15. SG

      So you gotta look for a probiotic that is actually encapsulated-

    16. LH

      At the time of release

    17. SG

      ... that's either a spore-forming probiotic or that's encapsulated so it resists gastric and bile digestion.

    18. LH

      Mm.

    19. SG

      For instance, uh, Gundry MD makes a 24-strain probiotic-

    20. LH

      Yeah. I take yours, yeah

    21. SG

      ... that, that is in a capsule that prevents digestion.

    22. LH

      Yeah.

    23. SG

      All of our probiotics in, like, Vital Reds, in, like, Bio Complete 3, are spore-forming probiotics that cannot be killed by gastric acid.

    24. LH

      Mm.

    25. SG

      So it doesn't matter if you see, oh, this has got 100 billion probiotics. Uh, if it doesn't have-

    26. LH

      Mm

    27. SG

      ... a system for getting it into your gut, it won't get into your gut.

    28. LH

      Yeah.

    29. SG

      But what's more important than probiotics, and we need 'em, what's more important is prebiotics. So that's the food that the probiotics have to eat, and that gets back to the crazy nine cups of vegetables every day. Um, so it-

    30. LH

      So you need the prebiotics, the vegetables in your gut for the probiotics to feed off of.

  12. 1:13:04 – 1:18:17

    Social Distancing, Connection, and the Heart

    1. LH

      We've talked a little bit about the brain-gut connection, but we haven't talked too much about the heart in terms of how does the heart affect the immune system with social distancing? As a heart doctor who specialized this, in this for years about the heart, how important is human connection and taking care of forgiveness in the heart, taking care of, of, uh, letting go of anger, resentment? And not being able to connect and touch people, how much does that hurt our immune system in your mind?

    2. SG

      It's, uh, we're, you know, we're a, as anybody realizes now, we're an incredibly social creature. And social interaction among great apes is really one of the keys of any great ape society. People are constantly, you know, apes are constantly grooming each other. Uh, you know, even the big daddy silverback gorilla will groom somebody else.

    3. LH

      Uh-huh.

    4. SG

      And even a big daddy silverback will, you know, hug, uh, you know, a l- a little baby. And so we really depend on that interpersonal connection, and we're actually very ill-equipped f- for social distancing. It is-

    5. LH

      Mm

    6. SG

      ... if you will, it is not in our DNA to social distance. And I think the, you know, all these Italians sitting on their balconies singing to each other.

    7. LH

      Wow.

    8. SG

      And all of, you know, we, we have to have that interaction. So number one, during this time period, th- this is the time to get a dog or a cat.

    9. LH

      [laughs]

    10. SG

      Or some other animal.

    11. LH

      Yeah.

    12. SG

      Gerbils are actually quite cuddly. Um, don't put them where you shouldn't put them.

    13. LH

      [laughs] Yeah, get a pet.

    14. SG

      But, yeah, get a pet. And-

    15. LH

      A lot of love in a pet

    16. SG

      ... a lot of love in a pet. And you don't have to social distance from your pet.

    17. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    18. SG

      The other thing that's great is it turns out that animal adoption is way up. Way up.

    19. LH

      Wow.

    20. SG

      And if you'd really think, "Well, eventually I'm gonna go back to work," offer to foster an animal from a shelter for a while. The dog or the cat will love it. You will love it. You're not under a, you know, time commitment and you don't have to adopt them.

    21. LH

      And you might fall in love and adopt them.

    22. SG

      Exactly. You probably, probably will.

    23. LH

      It's hard to let go of a cat when you fall in love.

    24. SG

      Yes, it's true.

    25. LH

      Do you have animals?

    26. SG

      Oh, we have four dogs.

    27. LH

      Wow.

    28. SG

      Four dogs, yeah.

    29. LH

      Oh-

    30. SG

      I used to have a cat in medical school, because obviously a dog in medical school-

  13. 1:18:17 – 1:22:42

    Bacterial Clouds, Mouthwash, and Olive Oil Pulling

    1. SG

      Now, the other thing, speaking of social distancing-

    2. LH

      Yep

    3. SG

      ... since we're on the subject of bacteria, it turns out you and I have a bacterial cloud around us-

    4. LH

      Huh

    5. SG

      ... of bacteria. And there's really pretty interesting data that everybody's got a spot where you start to feel uncomfortable as someone ... gets near you

    6. LH

      Right

    7. SG

      and it's actually that bacter-

    8. LH

      No

    9. SG

      ... yeah

    10. LH

      Really?

    11. SG

      That bacteria cloud interacting with your bacteria cloud. And it turns out that there's some pretty good data that the reason all humans kiss and exchange precious bodily oral fluids is because your bacteria are trying to make sure that they are compatible with that person you're kissing.

    12. LH

      Wow.

    13. SG

      And there's actually some interesting data that your bacteria choose the one that you should be with.

    14. LH

      Wow.

    15. SG

      Who knew?

    16. LH

      So it's your bacteria that chooses the love of your life.

    17. SG

      Exactly.

    18. LH

      Not what they do or who they are or how they look, it's the bacteria that connects you.

    19. SG

      Yeah.

    20. LH

      Interesting. Can that bacteria change over time to make you wanna fall in love more or reject the person?

    21. SG

      You know, that's a great question, but we know that mouthwash actually destroys your oral bacteria, number one.

    22. LH

      Don't take mouthwash?

    23. SG

      Oh, no. It's one of the worst things you can do. In fact, good studies, good human studies show that mouthwash raises blood pressure because, yeah, because mouthwash kills oral bacteria, which are essential, fun fact, to make nitric oxide that dilates your blood vessels, which is another gasotransmitter. And without the oral bacteria, you won't convert enough, uh, nitrates into nitric oxide.

    24. LH

      So can you brush your teeth? Can you, can you use toothpaste?

    25. SG

      Yeah, you can use toothpaste.

    26. LH

      Okay.

    27. SG

      But I prefer people use toothpaste that are based on coconut oil or-

    28. LH

      Mm-hmm, a healthier tooth-

    29. SG

      Yeah

    30. LH

      ... yeah.

Episode duration: 1:22:57

In the uListen app, the transcript lights up word by word as you listen. Get uListen

Transcript of episode qW8YCvrCjrU

Get more out of YouTube videos.

Read along on your phone, search it beside the video, or ask your favorite AI app what was said.

iOSAndroidClaudeChatGPTChrome