324: Unlocking the Power of Gut Health with Holistic Expert Dr. Stephanie Peacock

00:00:00 Dr. Stephanie: If somebody is reacting to higher histamine foods, that's also a sign that like, those foods are going to be spinach, any fermented foods, anything that's been aged. If you drink alcohol, a lot of alcohol, wine, things like that are going to be higher. Soybeans, all things like that. So that's also another telltale sign that they might have some sort of issue going on in the gut because they don't have that enzyme anymore to break down those foods. So, yes, fermented foods are so wonderful for you, but if someone's trying to incorporate them and they feel terrible when they're eating it, that's a sign that they might not have enough DAO to break down the histamine that's in those foods.

00:00:38 Maya: This is the Healthy Lifestyle Solutions Podcast, and I'm your host, Maya Acosta. If you're willing to go with me, together we can discover how simple lifestyle choices can help improve our quality of life. Let's get started. All right. Welcome back, my friends, to another episode of the Healthy Lifestyle Solutions Podcast.

00:00:58 Maya: Today, we sit down with Dr. Stephanie Peacock, a renowned holistic doctor and gut health specialist. Dr. Stephanie shares her insights on the vital role that gut health plays in our overall well being and how addressing issues such as SIBO and environmental toxins can help us unlock the body's innate healing mechanism. So join us as we delve into the world of gut health and learn how simple lifestyle changes can help us achieve optimal health and vitality. As always, the full bio and the links for each of my guests can be found on the website, healthylifestolutions.org and welcome, Dr. Steph. 

00:01:38 Dr. Stephanie: Hi, Maya. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to talk, all things, toxins and environmental toxins and gut health and all that fun stuff, so I just can't wait to dive right in. 

00:01:48 Maya: Your specialty is one that I don't touch on very often on the podcast, mainly because I don't meet enough gut specialists who are trained in lifestyle medicine or plant based nutrition who can talk about, also, environmental toxins. So I'm so excited that you're here to talk about that, what we eat, what we put in our mouths that affect our gut, but also what we put on our skin, I'm assuming also what we breathe in as well. 

00:02:15 Dr. Stephanie: Definitely, yes. Environmental toxins can really just be in the water we drink. They can be in our environment, in the air that we're breathing, and then they can be in a lot of the different products that are within our household, and they can affect a variety of different things, like our hormones, our liver, our gut health, our brain health. I mean, they just can affect a variety of different things. So it's bringing awareness to this topic because it's super important. 

00:02:37 Maya: Yes. And so I'm going to add some of the links that you provided. We'll have them in the show notes, but you touch on everything from makeup, which is huge because we wear makeup almost on a regular basis, most of us. Air purifier, water filter, infrared, sauna, hair care products, toothpaste, you name it. I have a list as well of how important all those things are. So as we go through the conversation, I'm assuming we'll touch on those as well. 

00:03:06 Dr. Stephanie: Definitely sounds great.

00:03:07 Maya: Yeah. Well, let's start by first talking about the importance of gut health and then some of those conditions that are very common in our society that people battle with on a regular basis. 

00:03:19 Dr. Stephanie: Definitely. All right. So, yeah, gut health is really the center of overall health. And I'm sure your listeners have probably heard this at one time or another. And the reason is because so much occurs within our gut. So 70% to 80% of our immune system is in our gut. So if our gut health is not functioning optimally, or if we have leaky gut, or if we have some sort of overgrowth of bacteria or fungus that might be occurring in there, it can really damage the lining, our small intestinal lining, leading to leaky gut. And when that occurs, then we start to develop an overactive immune system, which then in turn can decrease the immune system's response, can make us more susceptible to infections, it can make us more fatigued.

00:04:00 Dr. Stephanie: We start to absorb more things from our food and from our environment. So just toxins, environmental toxins that we talk about. Now, we'll dive into that in a little bit, but, really can just lead us down a road of inflammation. And so really, gut health is just super, super important. And the gut microbiome, I mean, we're still understanding it, but it's just there's trillions of bacteria and fungi and all these things that reside in our colon that honestly, they have a brain of their own.

00:04:27 Dr. Stephanie: They are honestly controlling us because they promote inflammation, or they can promote decreasing inflammation in the body by depending on what foods that we're feeding it and what toxins we're coming into contact with that can actually alter the types of bacteria that are found within our large intestines. So the gut is super important to take care of. And we can do this through a variety of things, through decreasing stress, sleeping. I know we're going to talk about all this in a second, but environmental toxins, exposure, all these things can play a huge role in it. 

00:04:58 Maya: So you just mentioned fatigue. And I have to share this just because I noticed a difference in my energy level. So I just came back from a trip. When I flew to California this weekend, I was exhausted from the travel and all of that. Two days before we flew back, I went over to a vegan restaurant. I had a variety of dishes for everything, from fried foods to very clean raw foods.

00:05:23 Maya: And I ordered a bowl that once you look at it, I don't remember the name of the bowl, but it had a lot of fermented foods. It had seaweed, it had sort of like a fermented tofu that I've never seen before. It had the fermented pickles and mushrooms and it was just a wonderful, wonderful dish. And the next day, I was just like, oh my God, my system is cleaning out. And I'm being a little graphic, but I was like, what is going on?

00:05:49 Maya: And I remembered I ate that bowl. And then the day of travel, which you probably know, and from your own experience, Dr. Steph, that a day of travel can be exhausting on the body. And we started at eight in the morning and arrived back in Dallas about 9:30 PM. And I said to my husband, oh my God, I'm not as tired as I usually feel and we've been traveling all day. Could it have been that dish that I ate? So anyway, I just want to kind of emphasize that what we eat could really affect everything from our energy level, whether we're fatigued or not, and our mood as well.

00:06:26 Dr. Stephanie: Absolutely. And I love that you mentioned that too. So you probably had such a wonderful plant based dish that had a variety of different nutrients that are chock full of antioxidants, which help to reduce oxidation in the body that occurs from flying. Right. Like, we're exposed to certain amounts of radiation, there's stress when we're flying, all these different things that affect our body. And so by eating a variety of nutrients, especially those fermented foods that we know help to… so they're fermented foods really are just living organisms. There's a bunch of bacteria that's in them, like the sauerkraut and kimchi and things like that. And that really helps to promote diversity within our gut and to help really decrease inflammation.

00:07:04 Dr. Stephanie: So by incorporating all those wonderful foods the day before you traveled and then you traveled, that makes sense why you felt so good. And even before I travel, just a quick tip. I make sure to always include… making sure I'm eating blueberries, making sure that I'm including fermented food, leafy greens. I also incorporate specific chaga mushroom because actually that has been found to decrease your ability to absorb any radiation. And also just making sure… it's amazing. And the fermented foods, I'm always broccoli, all these different things. I'm making sure to incorporate a variety of different things just to help produce anti-inflammatory effects the day before so that when you travel, you're feeling good. Because that's always, feel good when you travel. 

00:07:49 Maya: That's awesome. All right, so I was wondering if you can give us, like, I don't know, a list of some of those gut conditions that people have. I often hear about these things, but I don't know. I know that SIBO is one of the things you'll talk about. And then you'll probably maybe talk about how people still kind of don't understand whether they're gluten, like whether they have problems with gluten or not, if our gut is not healthy, it can contribute to a lot of conditions. I understand that. But what are those things in the gut that people live with that can contribute to so many problems? Like, for example, IBS. 

00:08:25 Dr. Stephanie: Yeah. Within my practice, my specialty is working with small intestinal bacteria, overgrowth patients, IBS patients, which is irritable bowel syndrome, and then small intestinal fungal overgrowth. So I work with Candida, any sort of yeast overgrowth that's occurring and absolutely diverticulitis, any sort of IBD, irritable bowel disease such as Crohn's or ulcerative colitis can be a result of impaired gut health.

00:08:49 Dr. Stephanie: Now, usually the result of why these occur in the body are two things. One is there's some sort of gut dysbiosis occurring, which really just means there is an imbalance in gut bacteria. So within our colon. So, like earlier, how I was talking about, there's trillions of different bacteria and yeast and fungi, all these things that are within our large intestine. Well, there's good and there's bad.

00:09:11 Dr. Stephanie: I like to think of it as like a forest. So it's like a little ecosystem in there, right? And so the good bacteria keep the bad in check. Now, if we start to get a rise in the bad bacteria, that's when we start to have more inflammatory responses that are occurring within the body because they're actually pathogenic strains that can create inflammation. But if we have better amounts of the good bacteria, that's going to produce more short chain fatty acids, which we know produce things like butyrate that feed our large intestine and then produce all kinds of short chain fatty acids that actually despite inflammation within the body.

00:09:43 Dr. Stephanie: And so if that's out of balance, that's called gut dysbiosis. And that really just means that you have more pathogenic strains that are just promoting more inflammation. So it's decreasing your body's ability to heal honestly from what might be going on within the gut. The other thing is if you have dysmotility, so that means that you have slow moving gut. So that means that you’re not in the transit time from the moment you're eating, from the moment you evacuate is going to be slower. And so things can sit and ferment for much longer. So those two things, oftentimes I see them combine two, those can actually be, will cause some sort of bacteria overgrowth Candida, overgrowth irritable bowel syndrome symptoms. 

00:10:23 Dr. Stephanie: Now, I'll go into talking about each of the three of those real quick. So irritable bowel syndrome. So that is really, there's three different types… criteria that have to be checked off for that to make the diagnosis that someone's dealing with IBS. So the first one is if they're dealing with any sort of abdominal pain. The second one is if they have bloating. And then the third one is if they have either constipation diarrhea or a mix of both. Now, that's pretty vague, right? So a lot of people do have those symptoms, and they get diagnosed with IBS.

00:10:54 Dr. Stephanie: But we actually know now, through research, that's recent research within the last 10 years, specifically under Dr. Pimentel out of Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, he has discovered that 70% to 80% of IBS patients actually have small intestinal bacteria overgrowth. That's actually what's causing their problems. And alongside bacteria overgrowth, we usually see yeast overgrowth too. A lot of times they can go hand in hand. So a lot of the symptoms are very similar. That's why people will just get diagnosed with IBS when actually they have small intestinal bacteria overgrowth. 

00:11:30 Dr. Stephanie: And what SIBO is and that stands for SIBO. So what SIBO is, is really just an accumulation of bacteria that has occurred in our small intestine. And it's made its way from the large intestine to the small intestine. So the large intestine, like we were talking about earlier, that's what houses the trillions of the bacteria and all these wonderful organisms that we need to function properly. But somehow they've made their way into the small intestine that can occur from a variety of different ways, two of which being that… so there's over 75 risk factors to develop SIBO, but all the risk factors actually result in either dysbiosis or dysmotility, which is what then leads to that accumulation within the small intestine. 

00:12:11 Dr. Stephanie: But the point I want to make about SIBO is that it's not bad bacteria that has accumulated. It's actually just commensal good bacteria. It's only in an area where it shouldn't be. So in the small intestine, what occurs there in, normal digestive process is after we eat, it goes down the throat, into the stomach, and it makes its way there. It mixes with the gastric juices, some nutrients get absorbed, like protein, but then it makes its way into the small intestine. And that's really, the small intestine is 25 feet long. There's so many little finger-like projections called little microvilli that actually absorb the nutrients that we get from our food. So that's the purpose of the small intestine, is to further break down the food, but to really absorb our nutrients.

00:12:51 Dr. Stephanie: And there's not supposed to be any bacteria in there, that's supposed to be in the large intestine. And so when it's in the small intestine, it doesn't know what to do there. It's just like, so confused. And it's just like, okay, so when it comes into contact with the food, it's fermenting the food, producing gas, producing all these symptoms that we get that are similar to IBS. And so ideally, I know we'll probably talk more about SIBO in a second, but ideally, to identify if someone is dealing with any sort of bacteria overgrowth, you have to do a breath test. That's the gold standard to be able to diagnose.

00:13:24 Dr. Stephanie: And what you do is you basically breathe into these, like, nine different bags over the periods of two and a half hours, and that can measure the three different types of gases that get produced from these bacteria. So that's hydrogen gas, methane gas, or hydrogen sulfide gas, that will further allow us to understand, okay, so we know what's in this small intestine because we know that specifically, those gases are correlated with specific types of bacteria. So then we know, okay. So those are the gases that are getting produced. Now we know how to identify, what to do to treat. So there's certain herbs that you can use, even antibiotics that you can use to treat the small intestinal bacteria overgrowth.

00:13:59 Dr. Stephanie: I use herbs in my practice to help treat it, to understand, okay, which herbs do we use, how long do we treat for, depending on how much gas there was. And then you can help to treat. And then the important part here is identifying what occurred along this patient's journey that caused bacteria overgrowth, the dysmotility or the dysbiosis, because we want to be able to identify that to help prevent relapse in the future. Because two thirds of patients that have SIBO are chronic relapsing. So identifying what is occurring, that way, we can fix it and hopefully not have any more relapsing occur.

00:14:32 Dr. Stephanie: But real quick, I'll just mention the SIFO, which is the small intestinal fungal overgrowth. It's really the same thing. It's just yeast that has just made its way into an area that it shouldn't be and producing a lot of those similar symptoms. I will say SIBO seems to be a little bit more common in my practice, but I will see sometimes SIBO, actually a lot of times SIBO and SIFO kind of be together. So sometimes you have to treat them both at the same time or you can maybe do treatment for the bacteria.

00:15:00 Dr. Stephanie: Then when that's cleared out, then you can go in to treat the yeast overgrowth and to diagnose fungal overgrowth is a small bowel aspirate where they do this through an endoscopy. That's the gold standard, which is not really available for many people because it's an expensive procedure to have done. So usually for that, what I do in my practice is we can measure to see if they're SIBO and then if they're still having symptoms after the treatment is done and their SIBO is completely clear. And a lot of their symptoms are similar to bloating, joint pain, like gassiness, flatulence, all these different things that are similar to having yeast overgrowth, then I know there's some sort of yeast occurring in the body, so then we can go ahead and treat that.

00:15:42 Maya: Wow, fascinating. I'm loving this topic. This is wonderful. So you sort of already went over the symptoms first, but for IBS, abdominal pain, some bloating, constipation or diarrhea. Since we're touching on SIBO and SIFO, are the symptoms similar?

00:16:00 Dr. Stephanie: Yes. Yes, exactly. And so that's why a lot of patients will get diagnosed with IBS without further trying to identify what the root cause really is, right? So, yeah, they're very similar and I'll even add to it too. Patients. Depending on how bad the SIBO is, they can have multiple food sensitivities, they can have… so it can feel like you're just reacting to so many different foods that you're eating. They'll also have joint pain, you can have brain fog, headaches, all these different symptoms. Because when our gut is not feeling good, our brain isn't feeling good either, because we have something called the vagus nerve that connects our brain and our gut. And it's a two way path. So whatever's going on up here in the brain, we'll feel it in our gut.

00:16:44 Dr. Stephanie: And then whatever is occurring in our gut, we feel it in our brain. So oftentimes things like anxiety can pop up as well when somebody's dealing with SIBO and SIFO. But yeah, definitely just a variety of symptoms. And I'll touch on the food in it right now because I know we were chatting about this before we got on about, so oftentimes patients will come to me that have been plant based or they decided to go plant based and they're, oh good, I'm eating healthier, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. I've heard all these different things, I watched the documentary, this is supposed to be good for me, but I feel worse.

00:17:19 Dr. Stephanie: And so they often think it's the food. So yes, the food might be causing some of the symptoms, but it's not the reason why you have whatever it is that might be occurring in the body. And so I'll talk about SIBO. So, how I mentioned how SIBO is in an area that it shouldn't be. It's in the small intestine, specifically those bacteria like to feed on fermentable carbohydrates. So plant based diet is abundant and beautiful carbohydrates that our body needs to thrive, but it will cause a worsening of symptoms. So that is one of the biggest clues to me is if someone says, I'm eating healthier but I feel worse, that is the biggest clue that there is some sort of overgrowth that might be occurring within the gut. 

00:18:03 Maya: Remember when I first came to this lifestyle, I was trying that Raw Till 4 diet. I don't remember if you… okay. 

00:18:12 Dr. Stephanie: I'm aware of it, yeah.

00:18:13 Maya: I just wanted more raw foods in my diet, but I didn't ease into it, I just went Raw Till 4. That meant for anybody who's listening, who is not familiar. It's been very popular for quite a while, but not everybody can tolerate it again because the body is adjusting to the changes. So I was having papaya and banana and mango and any raw fruit that I could enjoy all the way till 4:00 PM. And what I found was a lot of uncomfortable feelings and bloating and it was drastic.

00:18:46 Dr. Stephanie: Definitely. I love that you mentioned that too, because about maybe transitioning to a high fiber diet if you weren't already eating that way and then having some symptoms. And that's another thing too, when I'm working with patients. Let's talk about what your diet was before plant based, after plant based, how did you slowly ramp it up? And some people just jump right in. Like, I know for myself, when I transitioned to plant based seven years ago, I jumped right in too. And I definitely had some symptoms alongside, just eating more beans and all these things that I wasn't used to eating. Right. And so many people are just fiber deficient. Like, we know that the majority of Americans, like 97% of America, is fiber deficient.

00:19:25 Dr. Stephanie: And so if you are fiber deficient, then if you just go from eating like 15 grams of fiber to trying to eat like 50 grams of fiber, that is a lot for the body to handle. And fiber is wonderful for the body, but if you aren't slowly ramping it up, then yes, you are going to completely have a lot of gas, a lot of bloating, all these things. Because what fiber does is it goes into the large intestine. We're not able to break it down. Our body's human enzymes are not able to break it down. The only thing that can break it down is actually in the large intestine, where it feeds the good gut bacteria to help produce those short chain fatty acids we talked about earlier to create less inflammation in the body. 

00:20:06 Dr. Stephanie: And so if we just ramp that up, it's going to go straight to the large intestine. There's so much fiber there that it's not used to breaking down. It's going to break it all down, and we're going to have all these different symptoms. Even if you don't have an underlying gut issue, just jumping right into it will definitely cause some symptoms. So I'm glad that you mentioned that because it definitely isn't the case for everybody if they're noticing switching to a healthier way of eating, like plant based, for example, from the standard American diet, noticing symptoms doesn't mean you have SIBO. It just means, take a look at how you started to incorporate the foods in as well. That's important.

00:20:39 Maya: Right. You also said that one of the things that is very important to you is to make sure that when you're working with a patient, that you prevent relapsing. Relapse, because that tends to happen. So the way that I understand, like, when I'm paying attention to my own body is when I'm craving the bad foods, Dr. Steph, it's because I haven't been eating the good foods. So it's kind of like, especially again, when I travel where I'm very busy and I don't have time to cook the healthier meals. If I eat a processed diet, I'm going to be more likely to crave some of the other bad stuff, like the crackers and not so much cookies. But I have my weaknesses, so I'm assuming that that's what you're saying. Like, as you're working with people to help them incorporate healthier foods, there's still that chance that they might default to the things that they're craving, right? Because the gut craves, the bacteria craves certain foods.

00:21:36 Dr. Stephanie: Exactly. Yeah, definitely. So two things with that. Yeah, absolutely. So when we start to eat more processed foods or we eat things that the bad bacteria love to feed on, right, that's just going to make us crave it more. And that's kind of what I said earlier. Those bacteria, I swear they have like a mind of their own because they control us, right? It's like if we eat good, then we crave good. And then we eat not as good and then we start to crave some more sugars maybe, or some really salty things. But the other thing too, with preventing the relapse, I'll just touch on that real quick is that so, yes. There's two thirds of SIBO or Candida patients, they will relapse, meaning that they can develop the SIBO, the bacteria overgrowth, or the fungal overgrowth again and to prevent it, we want to identify why did you get SIBO in the first place, or SIFO. 

00:22:23 Dr. Stephanie: Let's see what occurred along your journey that could have caused this. Identifying that, fixing that, obviously working on getting them on a good diet, but then making sure we're really promoting gut motility, making sure that we're eating a nice variety of different foods to help promote a good microbiome, things like that, to help keep things moving. Because that way, it's preventing anything from getting stagnant there in the small or the large intestine to ferment and then allow for some overgrowth to occur. 

00:22:51 Maya: All right. And also since you address lifestyle, I often think of, when I'm nervous, the first place I feel it is in my gut, right? Like in our solar plexus, I feel it there. There could be people that have other, aside from SIBO, but maybe diverticulitis or Crohn's disease who are eating a very clean diet, but if there's still a lot of anxiety and stress in their lives, that condition still kind of gets triggered. Can those two conditions really be healed or reversed? And it sounds like SIBO and SIFO can be well managed. 

00:23:30 Dr. Stephanie: Oh, definitely, yeah. So those two, absolutely. And it really depends too on somebody's root cause. So for example, hypothyroidism, if you have a decrease in thyroid function, then that actually is a big driver behind SIBO because that reduces gut motility and then that will cause overgrowth. So making sure that we're addressing thyroid health at the same time is really, really important. Right. But if somebody didn't address that and we didn't see that, that was their root cause and we just went in and treated the bacteria and we're like, okay, it's gone. A year later they might have the overgrowth again because we didn't work on supporting the thyroid health. Right. So that's a big one. 

00:24:11 Dr. Stephanie: Another big root cause with SIBO is going to be food poisoning. That's actually the most common cause of SIBO and it's up to 70% of SIBO cases because what occurs is it basically creates this autoimmune response in the body where it will actually trigger decreasing gut motility. There's like a whole pathogenesis associated with it, but essentially it just triggers decreasing gut motility. And so oftentimes patients, that's my first question I ask is, have you ever had food poisoning? And they'll be like, oh yeah, I had it six months ago. And then it's like, okay, so then that's probably your root cause. 

00:24:46 Dr. Stephanie: Another thing that can trigger it as well is persistent antibiotic use. And we know antibiotics, one, greater than three weeks, can usually cause some sort of candida overgrowth. We also know that it decreases gut motility as well and it alters our gut microbiome, so it creates dysbiosis. So that's another one too. And like I mentioned earlier, there's like 75 risk factors for it. So I'm always thinking about these in my head when I'm assessing, working with people, but those are some of the common ones that I typically see. So anything that can really result and there being some sort of dysbiosis or dysmotility in the gut, definitely. So addressing that to help in the treatment process will really help in just preventing any sort of recurrence of the SIBO or SIFO. 

00:25:30 Maya: Yes. Wonderful. Also, as a holistic doctor, you incorporate herbs and really lifestyle changes. What kind of herbs do you use and what works for what condition? Or is it just, I guess it depends on the individual. 

00:25:44 Dr. Stephanie: Definitely. That's a great question. Yes, when it comes to treating SIBO, there's different herbs that you can use and again, this is really going to just matter in which type of gas that you were highest in when you took the breath test, right? And then how much of it, you had to determine how much of the herbs and how long of the treatment regimen that you need. But certain herbs like oregano, neem. This isn't an herb, but it's an extract from garlic. It's called Allicin. It's A-L-L-I-C-I-N, is wonderful for treating the methanogen overgrowth, cinnamon, Uva Ursi, Berberine, those are all wonderful herbs that can be used to treat the [SIBO]. And then usually to help prevent relapse, adding in some sort of ginger formula because ginger actually promotes gut motility. That's really wonderful. So there's really great ginger capsule-like products that you can get over the counter, actually to just help to prevent any sort of that recurrence. That's something that I love to use in my practice. 

00:26:40 Dr. Stephanie: And then in terms of helping with leaky gut or things like that, I love things that will really help to create, like a barrier there, like a mucosal layer to help prevent any sort of, more destruction occurring to the lining. So things like Slippery Elm Marshmallow Roots, aloe vera, things like that are really wonderful in helping to treat like, leaky gut and to help, but I will say those ones are really highly fermentable. So sometimes if someone maybe just, like if a patient just self… puts themselves on something like that, like a formula mixing with those and they feel worse. Since those are so fermentable, that's actually another sign someone could be dealing with SIBO. 

00:27:20 Dr. Stephanie: So if somebody decided to place, because we see all these different things, like you mentioned influencers earlier, things like, oh, this person said that this leaky gut supplement is really going to help me and I'm having all these leaky gut symptoms, so I should put myself on this. And yes, a lot of times those supplements aren't good for you, but if you have SIBO and you are taking those supplements, oftentimes you'll feel worse. So that's something I'll add in later after the treatment is done, after we've got, eradicated the SIBO, add in some beautiful supplements like that that can really help to support the gut lining.

00:27:52 Maya: Yes, we're so lucky that we have you because I'm assuming a lot of gut specialists don't have all the additional information that you're sharing with us today. So you did your residency at TrueNorth, a place that I want to go to one day to do kind of a supervised fasting, water fast. So what was that like for you? And did you see any patients there that were specifically doing the fasting to heal gut issues? 

00:28:20 Dr. Stephanie: Yes, so there's actually quite a lot of patients that were there to fast, to help with their gut health, but yes, all other kinds of things as well. So I'll go ahead into describing a little bit more about TrueNorth Health Center for the listeners if they're not aware of it. So it is a world renowned water fasting facility that was started in the 80s by Dr. Alan Goldhamer and it's located in Santa Rosa, California. And the fasting center houses up to over 70 patients at a time. And what we do is, it's a fasting center. So we're actually water fasting patients from anywhere from three to 40 days and depending on the condition that they're coming in with, will determine how long of a fast they should do. 

00:29:00 Dr. Stephanie: So typically around one to five days is more like a detox. Anywhere from like 10 to 20-ish days will be to help reverse any sort of chronic disease. And greater than that is when we're really trying to hone in on some sort of chronic disease that we're really trying to just get rid of. And so when it comes to gut health, that was one of the ones that I saw was a little bit harder because ideally if there is some sort of, you can't really, like full on starve out any sort of bacteria or yeast overgrowth, so it can definitely help a lot with symptoms. Absolutely. And it will help with just so many other things too, because when you get into day three of fasting, you actually start to regenerate intestinal stem cells. So you're still getting such beautiful benefits when you're fasting to help with the gut. Absolutely. And it will actually help to create less of a dysbiosis in the gut, but it won't directly target any sort of SIBO or SIFO that's going on.

00:29:56 Dr. Stephanie: But other things that were being treated there like chronic lifestyle diseases, like type two diabetes and hypertension and it's just a wonderful fasting facility. So I learned a lot and I do incorporate fasting into my treatment plans. So I do remote fasting. So I'm not going to fast, anyone for 40 days, but I will do up to about five days of fasting and that's usually after the treatment is done. And we're really working on supporting any sort of detoxification pathways.

00:30:21 Dr. Stephanie: So fasting can really support liver phase 2.5, which is really helping our gallbladder function. So that can help in… just helping create more of a detoxification and opening up that specific area to help detox any chemicals or any toxins out of the body. So I really love to focus in on that. But that's usually after we've cemented everything in and it's like, okay, we'll do the fast now. I think this will be really good for you. And I don't do it with every patient and not everyone wants to do it because it doesn't sound fun to not eat for five days. 

00:30:54 Maya: Right. Well, I'm glad you clarified that, because that was a question of mine as to whether, so up to five days or so, if you're doing a water fast, is really just to help detox and kind of help the other organs, I guess, to kind of optimize and heal themselves, take a break from all the work that they have when we do eat.

00:31:14 Dr. Stephanie: Exactly. If the bacteria has made its way into the small intestine, it's pretty hard to get rid of it, through a fast. But in terms of the bacteria that's in the large intestine, it actually helps to just, you don't necessarily get rid of the bad bacteria that's there, but you just decrease how much of it there is so then you are increasing better strain. So it does promote better gut homeostasis when you're fasting and it does regenerate a bunch of intestinal stem cells and it can help with leaky gut as well. And the other thing I will mention too, is that when it comes to fasting, a lot of biggest benefits when it comes to it is autophagy, which is just getting rid of any old bad cells. And then you're regenerating new cells, you're allowing for more, like regenerating new stem cells that will basically promote anti inflammatory effects in the body. So yes, that one to five days is kind of just regenerating in all the different organs, promoting detoxification. And it's a really good reset. It's actually a great reset for someone. 

00:32:13 Maya: I love it. Yeah, I'm so glad we touched on that. It just really helps for people who might be listening that may already have all these complications, fasting may not be for you yet. It's better to get a better diagnosis of what's going on. What are probiotics? Should we take them or not? And then what are prebiotics? 

00:32:35 Dr. Stephanie: Such a good question. Yes. All right. So probiotics are really just living organisms that are going to help in diversifying our gut microbiome, right? The thing with probiotic pills is that usually they're just small. There's not much diversity in there, but they're high amounts of specific strains. So usually you're seeing between like five to 12 different strains that are in there, but high amounts of them. Right. So the reason I have an issue sometimes with when somebody's trying to just self… put themselves on like a probiotic or something is one, do you really need those specific species? Right? Are you diversifying your gut with that specific amount? Because it's just a small amount and high amounts of those strains. So that's kind of the two things that I usually see with that because maybe they need other types of strains. That can definitely be very helpful in a treatment plan.

00:33:29 Dr. Stephanie: Now, what I will say is that fermented foods, probiotic foods are going to be so much better because that is a diverse amount of different strains and not necessarily very high amounts of them, but it's just a diverse amount. So the American Gut, I should have started with this, but the American Gut Project did this study back in, it was like 2018 that found that those individuals who ate 30 or more plants per week had much better outcomes for their health reducing inflammation and a diverse gut microbiome than those who ate 10 or fewer plants. That tells us that the more diverse things that we are eating will help to feed those good gut microbes. Right. Those plants are fiber, and fiber feed the bacteria and the colon. And so the more diverse that we're eating that, the more we're diversifying and the more of a decrease we have in inflammation within the body. 

00:34:22 Dr. Stephanie: Now, the probiotic supplements, right, those are just small amounts of strains, but just very high amounts of them. So that's not really diversifying. But where probiotics do come into handy are and actually that situation where you said that, you said you swear by it, where you felt really good, that may have been something that your body needed, that could have been something that you needed in the moment to help really produce that anti inflammatory effect within the body. Absolutely. So that's really cool to hear. But for a lot of people, what I do is I really just identify what is it that you're eating in your diet? And I can usually kind of pinpoint, okay, maybe we need this specific probiotic strain just to use for a specific amount of time. We should never be on a probiotic long term just because we want to continue to diversify in other areas. 

00:35:02 Dr. Stephanie: But oftentimes with certain SIBO patients or SIFO patients, they have a decrease in specific types of bacteria. So then we want to make sure we're helping and promoting increasing those. So eating fermented foods are definitely going to be better because you're just getting more diversity. So that's going to be like sauerkraut, kimchi, tempeh is a good one. Miso, coconut kefir, I'm not sure. I feel like I'm missing one other, big one. But those are going to be some really wonderful plant ones that you can definitely incorporate. And if you're not able to incorporate soy, there's chickpea miso, which is absolutely wonderful too, that you can incorporate as well. 

00:35:41 Dr. Stephanie: And you mentioned prebiotics, so prebiotics, I would almost argue, are even more important because that's what directly feeds those good gut bacteria. So just making sure you're getting in a diverse amount of fiber is going to help you in getting those prebiotic foods that will really help to feed those good gut bacteria and then help also strengthen them and then increase more of the good strains to help decrease more of the bad strains. So, yeah, again, it really does come back to food. But what I will mention real quick is that oftentimes if someone's dealing with SIBO or any sort of underlying gut infection, so it could be, if it's H. pylori or if it's that overgrowth, we talked about SIBO or SIFO or something like that. What that's doing is it does impair our gut lining and can create leaky gut and it decreases the surface area that's in the intestinal lining where we absorb the nutrients. It actually can kind of hinder that. 

00:36:37 Dr. Stephanie: And what's specifically found in that surface, in that lining of the small intestine is an enzyme called DAO. That enzyme breaks down histamine in the body, and a lot of plant foods or other foods are actually high in histamine. So if somebody is reacting to higher histamine foods, that's also a sign that like, those foods are going to be like spinach, any fermented foods, anything that's been aged. If you drink alcohol, a lot of alcohol, wine, things like that are going to be higher. Soybeans, all things like that. So that's also another telltale sign that they might have some sort of issue going on in the gut because they don't have that enzyme anymore to break down those foods. Yes, fermented foods are so wonderful for you, but if someone's trying to incorporate them and they feel terrible when they're eating it, that's a sign that they might not have enough DAO to break down the histamine that's in those foods. So I just wanted to make sure I mentioned that before. Someone tries to incorporate a lot of sauerkraut and then they're like, I feel terrible, why is this? 

00:37:39 Maya: Yeah, it's almost like we have to experiment with ourselves a little bit, just start to incorporate slowly. I found these delicious fermented foods at Whole Foods recently, and they come in jars like the red onion, and it's a different flavor than pickled because they have fermented jalapeno slices as well. Very different than a pickled jalapeno. Right, that's processed a little bit differently. Anyway, I now add them on top of pizza or in a salad. So many ways of adding the fermented foods. But yes, I also kind of try things. I eat slowly and take my time and see how something affects me because I react to things. So now, environmental toxins, how do they affect our gut? 

00:38:31 Dr. Stephanie: Such a good question. Yes. So there's five different environmental toxins that are the most widely studied that have been linked to disrupting our gut health. And now the reason why these ones have been more studied than others is because research is expensive. And a lot of times these different toxins that we come into contact with, they're small amounts of them. We're not coming. Some people are getting exposed to high amounts of mercury or heavy metals or things like that. But the majority of us, these toxins found in our everyday product, is just in low dose exposures.

00:39:03 Dr. Stephanie: So the funding for these studies would take years and years and years to accomplish, to see the results of how they affect our bodies. So that's why we don't have tons of studies on all the varieties of them. But I will start with saying that there's over 84,000 different environmental toxins or chemicals that are allowed to be used in our everyday products that are registered with the Environmental Protection Agency. And less than 1% have been tested for human safety. But we do know that BPA, which is bisphenol that's found in plastics, found in hot coffee lids, found in thermal paper, which is like cash register receipts, things like that. Phthalates, which is [plastic] chemicals, there's four very common ones that they're found depending on the molecular weight. They're found either in plastics because they make plastic more flexible, or they're also found in scented products like perfumes, detergents, all these things that have a scent in there. The word fragrance is a way that companies can hide that they're using. So you will never see the word phthalates actually listed on an ingredient list. But if you see the word fragrance or [parfum], that's an identifier that they're using phthalates. And if it's scented. So phthalates are another one. 

00:40:13 Dr. Stephanie: Pesticides. So, non organic produce, and we can dive into each of these too. But I just wanted to mention some of the big ones. Heavy metals, so lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury, those are found in very high concentrated products like protein powders, cocoa powder, coffee, tea, things like that. So making sure products that you're buying are third party tested, is very important there to reduce your exposure to heavy metals. And then the fifth one, I think that was, yeah, five, is PFAS, so that's known as the forever chemical. And that's found on a lot of non-stick items. So like pans, like skillets, air fryers, things like that, is where you'll find a lot of those, and they've each been linked to something a little bit different within the gut. But overall, what they've been linked to is decreasing. For example, like pesticides have been linked to decreasing two major classes of bacteria in our gut, like bifidobacterium and lactobacillus. 

00:41:07 Dr. Stephanie: The majority of them have been found to contribute to leaky gut and oxidative stress. And quite a lot of them, they're all endocrine disrupting chemicals. They disrupt our hormones, but they also can affect our ability to lose weight. So that resistant weight loss is a big one. They can actually impair our ultra gut bacteria. They cause leaky gut, which can cause more of an absorption of calories from our food, and then they specifically interfere and activate with a pathway in our body called PPAR-gamma, which is the primary regulator of fat cell development. And so they can interfere with that in causing you to gain weight from that as well. So they've been linked to a bunch of different things. But, yeah, those are some of the big ones.

00:41:50 Maya: This is huge and could sound a little alarming for individuals who have not started to sort of remove these products out of their households. But I do want to add, this is so important, Dr. Steph, so I'm so glad that you're bringing it up. And I started to move things out of my life little by little, so much to the point that I now am very highly affected by perfumes, that other people wear chemicals in the air. I can smell a cigarette across a parking lot, it seems like. And I don't know if I'm allergic now or I just become ultra sensitive to fragrances, just the smell of chemicals. But the good news is that many things can be easily replaced or even, like some of your household cleaning products, you can make on your own with alternatives. You probably talk about all this to your patients. Yeah, you also gave us a list that, like I said, it'll be in the show notes of alternatives to help clean our air. You mentioned air purifiers and water filters and you mentioned infrared sauna. So please tell us a little bit more about that. What are the benefits of the infrared sauna? 

00:43:05 Dr. Stephanie: Definitely, I'll talk about that in a second. Actually, you mentioned something I would love to touch on about how, yes, it can be overwhelming to hear all these different things. And I did kind of list off, like, a few different things and what they can do and all these things which can definitely sound alarming. But there are so many wonderful things you can do that are actually free, that you can do just to or just, like, little swaps you can make that won't cost much to significantly reduce your exposure. And I just want to talk about a couple of those real quickly. And I can talk about how infrared sauna can help us to detox. 

00:43:40 Dr. Stephanie: First thing that you can do is not wear shoes inside the house. That's a big one because we contract mold, pesticides, even heavy metals, all these things into the house. So leaving your shoes at the door is a big one. Another big one is actually just vacuuming or wet dusting regularly because we actually know a lot of chemicals make their way. A big way that we actually get exposed to BPA and phthalates are because they get trapped in the dust. And so by not dusting or doing things like that, we're actually ingesting and inhaling a lot of the particles. So just by doing that and opening the windows to allow more fresh air, so whatever might be in the home can just kind of leave the house and you only need to do that for like 10 minutes a day. So those are a few things you can do that are free, really, and they're easy to do.

00:44:26 Dr. Stephanie: And then a couple of easy swaps that you can start to make are what is it that's coming into contact with your food and water on a regular basis because you're ingesting that. So maybe switching your plastic water bottle for a glass or a stainless steel one, that's a big one. And then whatever you're storing your food in, instead of plastic, store it in glass containers, just start to make those swaps. And then another one is maybe for cooking, since that's coming into contact with food. Instead of using a non-stick pan, just buy a cast iron skillet. You can get those for like $25 to $40 on Amazon, so that's a really great one. Or stainless steel is another wonderful option as well. So little things like that really add up. And the last one I want to mention too is if you're using any candles, wall plugins, things like that, any sort of air freshener type thing, just throw it out. Don't even use it. So that's free because all you have to do is throw away and use maybe more essential oils. If you do love to have some sort of scent in the house, that's always a wonderful option as well. 

00:45:28 Dr. Stephanie: So I just wanted to mention that, that there are things you can do that really are huge. And those are some of the big ones that I work with my patients on. And they're really easy to accomplish and you don't need to do these changes overnight, but they can absolutely add up. Small changes add up to huge benefits. But the Infrared Sauna is one of my most favorite things to use to aid in helping to detox things out, because the sauna has been shown to help us to excrete BPA, heavy metals, pesticides and even PCBs, which is a persistent organic pollutant that used to get used in manufacturing and farming and things like that, that still persists in the environment. So we get exposed to it still, unfortunately, through runoff and our food and food supply and everything, but it really helps to aid in detoxification. It helps to support our immune system. 

00:46:18 Dr. Stephanie: So I do have, I can't remember if I gave you one or two of my favorite brands, but they're made toxin free because sometimes saunas can have toxic glues or maybe some wood material finishings that aren't very good for us. So when it heats up, we can get exposed to the off gasping of it. So I have a couple in there that I absolutely love. It's sunlight and therasage. They're both wonderful. And they both have options for portable saunas, too, so they're way more affordable. And that's actually what I have. So this is much easier to move around instead of this giant wooden sauna that you take with you. 

00:46:53 Dr. Stephanie: One more thing I'll mention about the sauna is really what it's doing is it's just helping us to promote sweat in a passive way so we're not increasing our heart rate. But if you're still getting in, sweating somehow, like even with a hot bath, or maybe you live in a really hot environment and then you just step outside for a few minutes and you start sweating, anything that gets you to sweat is beneficial. So we don't need to be investing in infrared saunas. But if you are just regularly sweating at least four to five times a week, that's really important. 

00:47:21 Maya: So I shared this with my listeners in the past, but back in the day, I actually had a lot of complications with mercury poisoning as a result of eating fish, mainly seafood. I was more of a pescatarian. And also I had the old amalgam kind of mercury feelings from way back when. So I was living in California at the time and I was like, get it all out. I was developing hypothyroidism and gain weight and all of that. But where I lived in San Diego, they had these places where you'd go in and sort of sit in like, they look like sleeping bags. But there were sweat bags kind of, I don't know if you ever heard of them or seen them. And I'd go maybe twice, three times a week to sweat the stuff out because I didn't want to do chelation therapy. I don't know, I just had heard some people have difficult experiences as they're detoxing from heavy metals and oregano and cilantro and other things are recommended to help my body.

And I did improve with all of that. So I'm a heavy believer of all these holistic approaches because you're just helping the body to do what it would normally do. Okay, but I didn't know that the sauna can help with the VPA and the PCB, I think you said, from the–

00:48:43 Dr. Stephanie: PCBs, yeah. 

00:48:44 Maya: So that's good to know. So talk to us about makeup. This is the one that stresses me the most.

00:48:54 Dr. Stephanie: We're all using it in some form or another. Makeup. Sadly, there's quite a few things that can be found in makeup. So aside from the phthalates, which are, which give the scent to things that's found in them, there's things that get used, that help to preserve makeup, like parabens, and that's actually classified as a human carcinogen. So anything that is in your makeup that ends in the words [V-E-N, A-B-E-N] will contain parabens. And that's really important to make sure that you're not including... And those are also endocrine disrupting chemicals as well. Another thing that's found in makeup is actually heavy metals. So a lot of lead is actually found in makeup as well. So that's really important to just be aware of that.

00:49:39 Dr. Stephanie: And then there's other things that get used in makeup that act as preservatives. I mean, it's a kind of a laundry list of things. But those are two of the really big, actually three, I mentioned the phthalates, so three of the really big ones that are found in there. But there are so many wonderful clean makeup companies now, and that even offer all kinds of other things, too. So a few of my favorite ones, I'll just say them here for the listeners, are I love Beautycounter. That's such a wonderful makeup company. I love Naked Poppy. They're great. ILIA Beauty, they're another really great one. And there's all other kinds of really fantastic ones, but those are like the three that I usually recommend, and most people can find what they're looking for with those.

00:50:20 Dr. Stephanie: And especially, too, because with makeup, right, it's going on our skin. Not all of it gets absorbed within the body, right? But it can cause maybe some skin issues or if it does get absorbed within the body, things that get absorbed from the skin, from our dermal layer, what occurs is it doesn't have the opportunity to go through something called first pass metabolism. So when we're ingesting things like food and water and things like that, it has the opportunity to at least go through our gut and our liver to get detoxified, out. But when we're absorbing something from our skin or inhaling something, it doesn't go through that. So then what happens is it just goes into our free systemic circulation to get absorbed in the body and doesn't have the opportunity to get broken down. So I always tell people it's important to definitely check your makeup, too. It's not just what we ingest or what we're drinking. It's also really important to what we're putting on our body, too. 

00:51:11 Maya: Yeah, everything from lotion to deodorant and all of that good stuff. Oh, my gosh, there's just so much to learn. So if we have listeners that may be interested in, kind of consulting with you and learning more of how they can work with you, what's the best way that they can reach you? 

00:51:31 Dr. Stephanie: Definitely. Thank you for asking. So they can go to my website. It's www.stephaniepeacock.com. And then I have links in there for if you wanted to book. I do free discovery calls, so they're 15 minute calls, just a quick phone call. They can just ask me more about what I do, maybe tell me a little bit about what's going on and see if I can help them or if I can refer them to someone else that I think might be better suited. I have those as an option and I do those weekly so they can go in there and see that in the consult page on my website. And then also if they're just looking to learn more information on my website too, I have a weekly newsletter that comes out so they can subscribe there. And I also am really active on two different platforms on Instagram and TikTok, where I'm always posting about this kind of information, gut health or toxins or all that stuff or recipes, things like that. So my handle for both of them is Dr steph peacock, D-RStephPeacock. So they can find me there too. 

00:52:26 Maya: Awesome. And the good news about what we've spoken, what you shared with us today is that there are things that we can do to improve. Because at the end of the day, for me, it's like if I can improve my quality of life, then I'm going to be happy with making these changes and adopting these suggestions. Is there anything else that we could have covered, should have covered that you want to share with the listeners? 

00:52:51 Dr. Stephanie: Sure, yeah, because I know all this information is probably like, oh, this is great information, but it's overwhelming. A few things that we can do. So food, food, food. So important to nourish our body because we get all the beautiful nutrients we need from our food. Diversity of plant based foods is really key and obviously if you're not already eating plant based, work your way up to it. But just think about when you go to the grocery store, getting a variety of different colorful vegetables and fruits, things like that, just to incorporate into your everyday diet. Another thing too is exercising regularly so it doesn't have to be an intensive exercise, but maybe getting out for a 30 minute walk a day is so beneficial because we know exercise promotes gut motility and so that's very important. 

00:53:35 Dr. Stephanie: Another one too, that I would recommend is if there's any stress in your life. We all deal with stress, but decreasing stress when and where we can is really important because stress can impair our liver's ability to detox and also decreases gut motility. So adding in some breath work or daily meditation, even just 10 minutes a day, can have such profound effects on the body. So I'd say exercising to get that gut motility going, reducing stress, incorporating good plant foods, and then maybe just incorporating a couple of those environmental toxins, which, as we talked about, just like the plastic, that's a big one. So switching to better things that you're drinking your water out of or storing your food in. I would say those are some of the big ones that I would definitely, just as a starter pack, start with those. Those are really great to incorporate into your everyday routine. 

00:54:21 Maya: Yes. And as a matter of fact, I was also just thinking about women in general. Is there a greater prevalence with women dealing with gut issues as opposed to men? So that's kind of one question I have. And I'm also thinking that women tend to be more exposed to sort of like these other household chemicals when we're cleaning, the makeup we put on ourselves, when we're cooking, the dishes, we talked about the cookware. So do we have a greater exposure in general and do we tend to battle more with gut health issues or is it about the same with men?

00:54:59 Dr. Stephanie: I would say it's pretty similar with men. I think the reason why sometimes it might seem like women might have more issues, like maybe health wise in general, is just because we tend to be more on top of it and going to see somebody for it. Men are usually like, no, I don't need you, I'll figure it out or something. But usually, I see it's pretty even. But, yes. But when it comes to women with exposure, yes, we are actually more exposed just because we use more of those personal care products and things like that. Even just, like, women's hygiene, like tampons and things for menstruation that we absolutely use too, that can be scented or not be made with great materials, things like that, our makeup and all that kind of stuff. So we definitely do have a little bit more of an exposure. Absolutely. 

00:55:47 Dr. Stephanie: So yeah, starting with some of those swaps that I mentioned. But then, yeah, definitely just once you start to run out of maybe your mascara, then maybe off to get a better mascara.These things, they definitely add up over time. So we don't need to throw out everything at once and then try to spend hundreds of dollars on something overnight. When something runs out, add something better in. That's kind of the approach I like to take because it can definitely be overwhelming. So just kind of just looking at it that way I think is helpful.

00:56:15 Maya: Yeah, well, this has been wonderful. I'm going to make sure to try to kind of put together a list in the show notes of the recommendations you made, including some of the products that you mentioned, swaps that make me feel a little bit better, knowing that we can do easy swaps, we can consider healthier makeup, that's the hardest for me. Like I said, I haven't switched over everything and when possible, I try not to use makeup, period. But it's tricky. So anyway, it's been such a pleasure having you explain all of these things. That can be very mysterious for us because we can hear and read about certain things, but at the end of the day, we don't know if those are the best things to do, so I like that you're available to answer some of those questions. And so thank you again, Dr. Peacock, for joining us today. 

00:57:07 Dr. Stephanie: Thank you so much. Maya, thank you for having me, and it was a pleasure.

00:57:11 Maya: Yeah, thank you. You’ve been listening to the Healthy Lifestyle Solutions podcast with your host, Maya Acosta. If you've enjoyed this podcast, do us a favor and share with one friend who can benefit from this episode. Feel free to leave an honest review as well at ratethispodcast.com/HLS. This helps us to spread our message. And as always, thank you for being a listener.