Dr. Ed Levitan Talks About Gut Health

Introduction to Gut Health and the Summit 0:00

- Hello and welcome to day five of the environmental Toxicants. That makes it look like 10 environmental Toxicants Autoimmunity and Chronic Diseases Summit. I'm Dr. Wendy Trubow. This is Dr. Ed Levitan. He's obviously had a good day and he's happy today, his gut. So today we're gonna talk all about your gut health. So I think it's important to talk about. Why, right? Wait, why do we, why are we talking about gut health and, and Toxins Summit? - That's a good point. So let's break down actually what happens in the gut because why promising we're going to talk about the ambulance.

We have to talk about that. - All right. As long as I know that then I can keep going okay. - So first thing you have to do is digest, right? You have to,

Digestion, Chewing, and Stress Response 0:53

to your food goes into your esophagus, into your stomach, stomach acid, for example, protein. And you can just - Wait a second. You said something really magical. Do you know that people on average to their mouthfuls three times to four times before they swallow? Which means what you're presenting to your stomach or these big hunks of food? And guess what the bigger the hunk, the less surface area there is because you need lots of tiny little masticated pieces. All that stomach acid to work on. So, - And why do we care? - Why do we care?

- Because we want to absorb all the nutrients that's available? - Right. And if you have it's harder work if you don't chew your food. So grandma was right. Chew your food. Slow down and you should be chewing until it's like paste - And let's maybe even go a little deeper just to take that extra slice, which is if you're chewing your food and you're slowing down, you're activating your parasympathetic system to digest food to as opposed to your sympathetic, which is your fight or flight. Run away.

If you're running away from a tiger, you don't care about, you don't care about that. You're worried about the tiger digested you. - So actually when you're stressed and you eat your stomach acid is lower, which means you digest your food poorer, you absorb less and then you don't get what you need. So slow down. Take a deep breath, chew lots and rest. Alright. What else? - Okay. So that's digestion. - That's only the stomach, - Stomach, small intestine. But we want to make sure that that's a foundation because it we'll talk about in the summit how to take care of your, if you're not digesting, we got to figure that out.

The Microbiome and Its Role in Health 2:39

But then then we get to the fun part called your microbiome? What happens in? Why do we even care? What is the microbiome? I guess. Let's talk there because that's an important piece of the puzzle. - Remember, presentation I did a million years ago where I looked at like how many bugs are in your belly. And basically, there's 10 times more bugs in your belly than there are cells in your body. So there's 10 times more bugs in your belly in your microbiome. then there are cells in your body. So you are outnumbered by the things living inside you or good.

- And not only that, we rely on those bugs to create the essential vitamins and minerals for our body. If we have the wrong balance, they don't do that and we feel we're off. - Yes. So what is referring to if I could put words in your mouth? You're my husband. When is it any different? Anyway you think about your immune system? A lot of it is functioning in your gut. And you think about your serotonin, which is your happy hormone and Somewhere between 70 and 90% of it is produced in your gut. So, if you're someone who suffers from anxiety, depression and behavioral dysfunction, any type of intrusive thoughts, you're gonna want to look to the gut because the gut is out of balance.

In those cases. - I want to slow down because I think you went a little fast. Yeah. So about 70% of your immune system is in your gut, which means those people that have autoimmune disease have a sick, but that's a major trigger. So we're talking to you peeps and then those

Immune Function, Mood, and Microbiome Imbalance 4:27

people that have anxiety, depression, O C D A D H D, neurotransmitters, brain chemistry. The majority of them are produced in the gut. I want to slow down and think about that because that changes everything. Right? Okay. So why is our modern guts so messed up our microbiome? - Let me count the way. I don't know. Is this a Shakespeare thing? Let me count the ways - We only have a few minutes. - Let's go really big picture. Antibiotics that kills the good bacteria and nature. Nature loves variety.

So if you kill the good bacteria, nature will encourage your body to make something and you're going to get colonized with something. It might not be in your favor. So, antibiotics, stress. - Stress. - Stress is bad for you just for the record. Yeah, Tylenol, the food we're eating. Let's come back to the food we're eating because I want to talk about leaky gut and the type of food we're eating, not just the food but the way it, - The way we're eating it and even I'm going back up to the antibiotic route. Or just I'm on a society with a C section.

Let's just start at birth. If you're getting a C section, you're supposed to be colonized by going through the birth canal and you're supposed to get your first inoculation from your mother. If you go through the belly as opposed to the birth, now you don't. And that's a challenge. You start a challenge. And then how often do women get antibiotics at delivery, et cetera. So we start off life and then we get the sore throats and ear infections and everything else and nobody talks about let's recolonized with the good stuff.

So we start off at a disadvantage and then we have foods with glyphosate.

Why the Modern Gut Becomes Dysregulated 6:21

Yet again, that word that antibiotics and we don't nourish her. Our microbiome wants diverse food. And in this society, this society, we tend to have a very narrow scope of food. Let's talk about what's considered the standard American diet. - So - Sad. Very sad. - My favorite part. You know this, right. - Okay. - We're talking about, okay. - Let's go. Brace yourself. Everybody. Hold on. - I have celiac and that is the end result, auto immune reaction to gluten, which is a protein found in wheat, rye malt spelt.

So interestingly, they've shown that if you have an autoimmune disease, we know that the triad of auto immunity includes a leaky gut. That's one thing. You cannot develop an autoimmune disease if you don't have leaky gut. In other words, leaky gut leads to autoimmune disease. - And do we talk about your boyfriend? My wife has a boyfriend. - One boyfriend sends me everything I want from the store and one boyfriend, I'm convinced he's going to get the Nobel Prize. I love him to pieces. He's married by the way and I just adore him.

So my here I was gonna say my hero is Alessio Fasano. And he's done some really seminal work on. He's not on the summit. He's done some seminal work on auto immunity and looking at the things that cause you got to be leaky. And what's crazy is that when you, if you are a human and you eat gluten, which is found in all of our processed food, your lining of your gut opens for 15 minutes approximately. And let's talk about the lining of the gut. Your gut is lined one cell thick.

Leaky Gut, Gluten, and Autoimmunity 8:15

So essentially sell on, sell on sell, but it's only one cell thick. And when that opens your internal world, your bloodstream, your organs are exposed to the external world which has passed asides, bacteria, micro toxins, other toxic. - So I'm gonna reiterate and restate because I think it's a really important subject. Can you believe that the difference between the inside, what we call the inside world and the outside world is one cell thick. I think that's like worthy of pausing because - There's not much that protects us. - And then - Okay. So if you eat gluten, even if you don't have celiac and even if you don't have the genes, you open up your gut lining to the outside world for about 15 minutes. So if you eat a standard American diet, which means what did you have for breakfast? Cereal or a bagel?

What did you have for lunch? A sandwich? What did you have for dinner? Pasta with some chicken and broccoli? You've eaten gluten three times in a day now. Layer on the human like me, who has one or two of the genes for celiac. You don't have to have celiac to have the genes. You can have the genes and not have the autoimmune disease. But if you have the genes and you eat gluten, now you up regulate these receptors and I can geek out if you want me to show Geico probably not. Okay. 30 seconds. If you have the genes, you have more receptors. Somebody named it C X C R three.

Terrible naming people. And when you eat gluten it up regulates this substance called Zahn Wellens. Zahn Wellens cause your tight junctions to open. Remember when your tight junctions open now, the outside world and the inside world are exposed to each other. When you have the genetics and you eat gluten, you expose your outside world to the inside world for four hours. Now, imagine as opposed to 15 minutes and about 40% of the population has this gene. So think about if you're one of those people who has the gene and you eat gluten and you eat gluten three times a day, you're now essentially the whole day exposing your outside world to your inside world. And that is a key determinant for autoimmune disease. - Yeah. So I want to actually pause yet again because this is from a functional medicine perspective. This is one of the main, main criteria of what it means to be to have autoimmune disease.

How we develop bottom immune disease, which is the outside world. Normally, you have small digestive particles of food that go from your gut into your bloodstream and your body can figure and your body takes it in this nutrition. But if you have leaky gut or increased intestinal permeability, larger particles of food can go in and then your body, your immune system says, what's this? It looks like part of me, but it shouldn't be here. So I'm gonna attack it and therefore you actually your immune system attacks you - Just for the record.

That's not good. - Yeah. And there's now been a lot of studies showing even the most diseases have an autoimmune component, even things like heart disease, which is, which is pretty profound. So this leaky gut is really,

Summit Topics and Closing Remarks 11:45

really, really, really, really, I think it's really, it's really, really, really, really fundamental to everything that we do. - So today, we're going to dive into the microbiome, mental health, toxins and hormones, environmental toxins on brain health. We're really going to get into the gut and the ways in which it is impacted by the food. We're eating, the ways that we're fasting or not fasting and the toxins were exposed to, yeah, these speakers today. I know we're Day 5. You all have been stuck with us. You really like, you're just amazing. And so we're psyched to present these people to you from will Call to Heather Sandison, to Dr. Smith, Dr. Sharon Stills.

Like, it's just, the lineup is amazing. So you're not gonna wanna miss the people today because this is the crux of the matter and why we are sick and how do we get better? That's really it. How do we get better? - So I was gonna say enjoy, I'm not sure that's the right word, but at least get information and really start to or continue to empower yourself to really um I know why you're getting sick and what are some additional tools add to your toolbox of how you can get better? - Yeah, you have control of this narrative.

So let's get started. Have an amazing day. We'll be here for you later. - Thank you.