Dr. Will Cole ON: Why Gut Health is Impacting Your Brain Health & How to Stop Inflammation in Your Body

Today, I sit down with Dr. Will Cole to talk about self-care. He shares the essential aspect of maintaining good physical, emotional, and mental health, the truth about eating foods that will "love you back", and how taking care of our gut health is one of the leading ways to improve our health and well-being. Dr. Will is a leading functional medicine expert who consults people around the globe and started one of the first functional medicine telehealth centers in the world over a decade ago. Named one of the top 50 functional and integrative doctors in the nation, Dr. Will provides a functional medicine approach for thyroid issues, autoimmune conditions, hormonal imbalances, digestive disorders, and brain problems. He is also the host of the popular The Art of Being Well Podcast and the New York Times bestselling author of Intuitive Fasting, The Inflammation Spectrum, and the brand new book Gut Feelings: Healing the Shame-Fueled Relationship Between What You Eat and How You Feel. You can order my new book 8 RULES OF LOVE at 8rulesoflove.com or at a retail store near you. You can also get the chance to see me live on my first ever world tour. This is a 90 minute interactive show where I will take you on a journey of finding, keeping and even letting go of love. Head to jayshettytour.com and find out if I'll be in a city near you. Thank you so much for all your support - I hope to see you soon. What We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 03:04 Dr. Cole explains why we shouldn’t ignore our gut health. 05:47 Truth is just because it’s common doesn't necessarily mean it’s normal. 08:21 What is shame-flammation and how it affects our lives? 11:51 The 4 food ingredients that are likely to disrupt the microbiome. 15:24 Be an empowered patient and know that you have a choice. 16:55 What happens in your body when you drink alcohol regularly? 24:25 To achieve positive results, you have to start with the right headspace. 31:14 Here’s the trick to using food as a mindfulness tool. 35:40 The science behind the condition we often refer to as hormonal problems. 39:39 Dr. Will explains the different conventional tests incorporated in functional medicine. 43:39 What is the approach to food when it comes to functional medicine? 50:34 Dr. Will on Final Five Episode Resources Dr. Will Cole | Website Dr. Will Cole | Instagram Dr. Will Cole | YouTube Dr. Will Cole | Twitter Dr. Will Cole | Facebook Dr. Will Cole | TikTok Dr. Will Cole | Books The Art of Being Well Podcast Want to be a Jay Shetty Certified Life Coach? Get the Digital Guide and Workbook from Jay Shetty https://jayshettypurpose.com/fb-getting-started-as-a-life-coach-podcast/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jay Shetty?

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• 0:44Jay Shetty?

  AG1 Next Gen meets 94% of nutrient requirements and is clinically shown to enrich the gut microbiome. For a limited time, save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1 Pro at drinkag1.com/onpurpose. That's drinkag1.com/onpurpose. This episode is brought to you by Orange Theory Fitness. One of the best investments you can make is in your own strength. The choices you make today can help shape how you feel for years to come. Orange Theory Fitness provides a one-hour workout to build strength, burn fat, and build muscle with an expert coach guiding you every step of the way. Head to orangetheory.com/onpurpose

• 1:29Jay Shetty?

  to learn more and get your first class free. Orange Theory Fitness, helping people live longer, more vibrant lives. Terms and conditions apply. See webpage in studio for details. This episode is brought to you by Vinted. Value can be found anywhere, even in the clothes sitting untouched in our closets. That's where Vinted comes in. Vinted is a secondhand marketplace app where you can sell clothes you no longer want and get more value out of them. Whether you're running out of space, moving, or simply updating your wardrobe. Listing items is a quick and simple process, and once something sells, Vinted creates a prepaid shipping label for you. And the best part? There are no seller fees, so you keep what you earn.

• 2:13Jay Shetty?

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• 2:28Speaker 01

  Continually eating foods that don't love you back is like staying in a toxic relationship and wondering why you're still miserable. But avoiding foods that don't love you back isn't restrictive, it's self-respect.

• 2:47Jay Shetty?

  Hey everyone, welcome back to On Purpose, the number one health podcast in the world. Thanks to each and every single one of you that come back every week to listen, learn and grow. And I am so excited to be talking to you today. I can't believe it. My new book, Eight Rules of Love, is out and I cannot wait to share it with you. I am so, so excited for you to read this book, for you to listen to this book. I read the audiobook. If you haven't got it already, make sure you go to eightrulesoflove.com. It's dedicated to anyone who's trying to find, keep or let go of love. So if you've got friends that are dating, broken up or struggling with love, make sure you grab this book.

• 3:29Jay Shetty?

  And I'd love to invite you to come and see me for my global tour, Love Rules. Go to jayshettytour.com to learn more information about tickets, VIP experiences and more. I can't wait to see you this year. Now, if you've been listening lately, you've been hearing me repeat this mantra, happy, healthy and healing. This is something I've been repeating to myself a lot recently. I'm happy, I'm healthy, I'm healing. It's been making a big difference in my life and I know that you're here because you want to be happy, you want to be healthy and you want to heal. Now today's guest is someone who talks about that in such a phenomenal way. And everything from the gut to the brain, to what we digest every day,

• 4:09Jay Shetty?

  to our feelings and our traumas and how they affect the chemicals inside of our body and our mind. I'm talking about Dr. Will Cole, a leading functional medicine expert who consults people around the globe, starting one of the first functional medicine telehealth centres in the world over a decade ago. Named one of the top fifty functional and integrative doctors in the nation, Dr. Will Cole provides a functional medicine approach for thyroid issues, autoimmune conditions, hormonal imbalances, digestive disorders, and brain problems. Dr. Will Cole is also the host of the popular The Art of Being Well podcast, make sure you check it out, and the New York Times bestselling author

• 4:54Jay Shetty?

  of Intuitive Fasting, The Inflammation Spectrum, and the brand new book Gut Feelings, Healing the Shame-Fueled Relationship Between What You Eat and How You Feel. If you don't have that book yet, I want you to go and order right now Gut Feelings. We are going to put the link in the show notes. Make sure you grab a copy as you're listening right now or watching. Dr. Will Cole, thank you for being here. I need you to be my hype man every day, man. That's a great way to start your day. Oh, thank you, thank you. Well, I always say to my guests, I'm like, you had to live all of that. So you actually had to do it. Thanks. But I also want to, can I call you Will? Of course, yeah. I just want to say for everyone who's watching, Will took a flight this morning from Pittsburgh to New York City to be on the show.

• 5:38Jay Shetty?

  I appreciate him so much for doing that. I really, really value that. I love connecting with people in person. Yeah, I'm happy to be here. Yeah, and I can't wait to dive in. That's good. I was just saying to you earlier that our community, our audience here on purpose, really loves learning and really loves getting really practical, applicable tools when it comes to their health. I think one of the things that, by the way, I love the name of the new book, like Gut Feelings. I think the gut has often been so ignored in the conversation. Yeah. We often talk about, how do you feel up here? What's your head saying? Yeah. And then we feel about the heart versus the head. And I feel like the gut was forgotten for so long. Why is the gut so important in that conversation? And why should it not be ignored?

• 6:23Speaker 01

  You're right, and even I think we've come a long way in the past twelve years since I've been in functional medicine, people growing awareness, but we're still scratching the surface. I realize I'm probably talking to more of the health nerds and it's

• 6:37Jay Shetty?

  Definitely.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  Not the general population. So we have a far way to go. And our gut is a major part of our health, but you don't necessarily have to have extreme digestive symptoms to have underlying gut components to why you feel the way that you do. So your gut and brain are actually formed from the same fetal tissue. So when babies are growing in their mother's womb, they're formed from that same fetal tissue and they're inextricably linked for the rest of our lives through what's known as the gut-brain axis, or the connection between the gut and the brain. Ninety-five percent of serotonin are happy neurotransmitter. It's made in the gut, stored in the gut. Fifty percent of dopamine is made in the gut, stored in the gut. If you think about it, the intestines kind of even resemble the brain.

• 7:21Speaker 01

  And the vagus nerve is what really innervates and connects both the gut and the brain. Researchers call the gut the second brain. We have to understand to understand so much of what ails modern society, we have to understand gut health. And it's no coincidence that most of probably your listeners would know Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine. He said, "All disease begins in the gut." Well, if disease begins in the gut, then so does healing begin in the gut. And it's also home to seventy-five percent of the immune system. Inflammation is a product of the immune system, and you look at the epidemic rise of autoimmune problems and really inflammation is a commonality between just about every health problem. Autoimmune issues, metabolic issues, hormonal problems.

• 8:06Speaker 01

  To really research, looking at what's known as the cytokine model of cognitive function, how inflammation impacts how our brains work. So things like anxiety and depression, fatigue, all have their roots in not only inflammation, but also the gut-brain connection. So it is the far-reaching implications of this is vast. We have to understand it to deal with it.

• 8:27Jay Shetty?

  And what are some of the biggest mistakes we're making when it comes to our gut? Like, what are the things that I think you would say that we're just so unaware of or unsure about that are causing gut challenges? I think the interesting thing about gut issues is that When you figure out that you have something you're concerned about

• 8:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:45Jay Shetty?

  And you start talking to your friend or someone, you realize everyone has it.

• 8:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:48Jay Shetty?

  But no one talks about it.

• 8:49Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:50Jay Shetty?

  Right? It's not like one of those things that people share very openly.

• 8:54Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:54Jay Shetty?

  But you start recognizing, wow, everyone has digestive issues. Everyone's having some sort of inflammation. Everyone's having this kind of thing. So what are some of the habits, traits that you think have kind of become widespread? That is actually taking us down this road that maybe we're just not aware of enough?

• 9:09Speaker 01

  What I'm always telling my patients is just because something's common doesn't necessarily mean it's normal. Just because it's your everyday doesn't mean you should settle for it. And I really can't tell you how many times when I'm talking to somebody online and we're going through their systems of their body and they have these aha moments of whoa, I thought that was just me. I thought that was just my lot in life because I have it every day. But I think they need to, we as a human race need to take inventory and kind of get in our bodies and know that you teach about this eloquently of just being aware and mindful of how our body works. Because it may be your everyday, but it doesn't mean it should be normalized. So, I mean, we could talk about digestion and you're right, people don't want to talk about it.

• 9:52Speaker 01

  It's very normal for me to talk about poop at my office. It's like, and then I look across the telehealth, across the internet and I realize it's not as normal as I think it is. I see their partner like, we've never talked about this before, you know? We get real, real fast, but it's important because it's a window into probably lots of other things in your body. But it's normal to have one to two, we say, snakes a day as far as bowel movements are concerned on the Bristol chart. Many people go two, three days without a normal bowel movement or it's always loose or always really strained and like pebbles. That's not normal. Your bowel movements are a window into your overall health. So we start there, but then we look at energy levels throughout your day.

• 10:35Speaker 01

  Do you need lots of your sugar and caffeine to get through the day? That's not normal, but that's a lot of people's everyday, certainly. Do you have ravenous cravings of food? Do you have trouble losing weight? Do you have hair loss? Do you have skin problems? These are all, we call in functional medicine, these are like check engine lights. Check engine lights on, but why? The body's telling us something. We have to go upstream or get to the root cause of why you have the problem in the first place.

• 11:02Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, and I think for a lot of people it becomes hard because I found for a long time as well that as I became more aware of these things and as I sought after help, it was really difficult to find good personalized advice because you'll see everyone say, well, you have to drink this one thing. You have to do this one thing, right? It becomes this fad. And some things help and some things don't, and you don't know how they're all interconnected. And I feel like people get quite stuck. And that's why I love books like yours and podcasts like yours, because people can kind of follow along and go, okay, I'm dealing with this challenge. One of the things that I love that you talked about was the process you call shame inflammation. And I wanted to talk about how can one begin to confront that?

• 11:43Speaker 01

  So shame inflammation, I, you know, you know this as writing books and educating people and speaking. You'll wake up in the middle of the night like, oh, that's a good way of conveying what I'm trying to say. Because you see it play out in people's lives all the time. I see it on an hourly basis when I'm consulting patients. People that eat really clean, they are working out. They're doing all the wellness stuff. They go to Arowan. They do all the things you're supposed to do.

• 12:09Jay Shetty?

  That's me, by the way. So I'm one of those people that I'm like, I eat cleaner than 99% of my friends. I work out. I stay healthy. I don't drink alcohol. I don't smoke. Like, I have a very clean life. And I still had high forms of inflammation. I work with Mona Sharma. I didn't feel like Mona. Mona's my health coach.

• 12:27Speaker 01

  I love her.

• 12:27Jay Shetty?

  And so, and my wife is my health coach too. She's been a dietitian and nutritionist and Ayurvedic health practitioner. So my wife and Mona kind of tag team on my life.

• 12:36Speaker 01

  You're in good hands.

• 12:37Jay Shetty?

  I'm very fortunate, but, you know, so yeah, let's talk about that because I'm actually that person. I'm that person who's, I'm like, guys, I pretty much don't have any bad habits. So let's do our shame inflammation.

• 12:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, so that's 99% of my patients as well. You're not alone. You have very erudite people that are trying to do the best things, that are probably, most of them, better off than they would be if they weren't doing these things. But there's these missing pieces. And what I explore with my patients and what I get to talk about in Gut Feelings is these missing physiological and psychological missing links to what is keeping you stuck at that plateau? What is keeping you back from leveling up how you want to feel? So shame inflammation is this convergence of the mental, emotional, and the physical. And really, the conversation that I get to have with patients and I also get to have

• 13:30Speaker 01

  in this book, in Gut Feelings, is the fact that mental health is not separate from physical health. Mental health is physical health. And our brain is a part of our body just as much as anything else is. And as I mentioned earlier, the implications of the vagus nerve, the gut-brain axis, and inflammation and its role in our health. But our thoughts and emotions, on one end of that coin, stress, shame, trauma, even intergenerational trauma, that esoteric, nonmeasurable stuff impacts the measurable, meaning it will spike inflammation levels. It'll impact how your vagus nerve works. It'll impact how your hormones are expressed.

• 14:11Speaker 01

  So we have to look at what I call for my patients, shame inflammation. And what is our relationship with food? What is our relationship with our body? What is our relationship with ourselves? And start shifting paradigms around how we live life. Because you could be doing amazing things for your health, eating good foods, working out, but if you're going into it with such a sense of dread and obsession, and you know, something that I say in the book is you can't heal a body you hate. You cannot shame your way into health. And many people try to, and they're doing good things that even make sense on paper. But they're going into it with such a negative sense of Intention. Yeah, intention. It's sabotaging. It's producing a completely opposite result.

• 14:54Speaker 01

  So I want to bring good things, but let's do it with a good intention. And that's what shame inflammation, that concept is all about.

• 15:00Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, understood. What are some of the quick things that if anyone's thinking I'm feeling inflammation, what are some of the things in our physical, like, things that we're consuming that are likely to cause inflammation?

• 15:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, so there's the physiological and the psychological again. So the physiological, let's go on that side. So we start with the foods that we eat. I mean, every food we eat either feeds inflammation or fights it. There's no neutral food. There's no Switzerland meal. It's serving your physiology. It's doing something. Maybe in incremental ways, maybe in negligible ways, but it's some in very major ways. So we have to take inventory of every food we eat. Every meal is another opportunity to bring inflammation up or bring inflammation levels down. So what I call the inflammatory core four are the four foods or food ingredients that are most likely to disrupt that gut microbiome, all the trillions of bacteria in our gut

• 15:57Speaker 01

  that regulate our inflammation levels, regulate hormones, regulate our brain and neurotransmitters. So that's gonna be gluten-containing grains would be number one. And I have a nuanced conversation about this. There are better versions of gluten. You can get ancient grains, you can get sourdough, bread that ferments some of this. A lot of the foods that I'm gonna be talking about here are what we've done to the food, not necessarily the food in and of itself. But for the sake of simplicity, gluten-containing grains, looking at that in your life. Number two would be industrial seed oils, things like soybean oil, vegetable oil, canola oil.

• 16:31Jay Shetty?

  Palm oil.

• 16:32Speaker 01

  Palm oil, exactly, yeah.

• 16:33Jay Shetty?

  I've just been taken off a lot of those because that was somewhere where we hadn't got to yet. So I'm off palm oil, canola oil. I can only eat things in olive oil or avocado oil at the moment.

• 16:43Speaker 01

  Love it. Thanks, Mona.

• 16:44Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks, Mona, yeah.

• 16:46Speaker 01

  Conventional dairy, I would say that, and added sugar, which is no surprise, I'm sure to people. But even the nice sounding euphemisms for sugar, you know, that are hidden very cleverly on labels, that may be better for you options, and I'm not demonizing the entire sugar industry, but I'm saying, look at the amount of added grams of sugar you're consuming in a day. You may be surprised. So decreasing that, and if I could make the core four a plus one, I would add alcohol to that list. Is people, oftentimes they eat cleaner. They clean up their diet. They know about the inflammatory core four, but they keep in alcohol in their life as like, oh, that's my one vice, but they are kept back. Their guts are still

• 17:30Speaker 01

  struggling. Their mental health is still struggling. Their energy levels, their weight loss resistance is still struggling. So I would at least look at alcohol as a role into these as well because it's becoming quite normalized within the wellness world specifically. And at the end of the day, there's no healthy amount of alcohol. There are better for you options, certainly, and I have to be pragmatic, but it's something that I would take into consideration.

• 17:54Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, no, that's great. I mean, that's so practical. And I think everyone who's listening to that, I think we've all heard about a friend, I'm gluten free too, but I've heard about friends being gluten free and this and that. And we often laugh about these things.

• 18:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:04Jay Shetty?

  But it's, it's interesting to hear just how simple it can be, right? These are not huge changes. None of these changes are like hard to find necessarily. These things are becoming more and more common, at least at a grocery store.

• 18:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:18Jay Shetty?

  And we can start making healthier choices in a simple way. Let's talk a bit about gut microbiome because so I recently had a surgery and I had to take Tramadol and a bunch of other stuff to like painkillers to try and deal with the pain. And, and Mona was like, all right, we're gonna have to start with your microbiome all over again after this is all over. What is that relationship between painkillers and all of that with our gut microbiome as well? Like, where's the connection there?

• 18:44Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, your gut is just a major regulator of so many different pathways in the body. So it is such a central role, but when you're taking either NSAIDs or antibiotics or other pain medications, they can really do a number on your gut. They can really impact the gut lining as well as the microbiome metropolis, this gut garden within, within our gastrointestinal system. So that doesn't mean we shouldn't be on those medications when they're properly prescribed. There are surgeries where you need to be on things like that. But just as Mona said, what are we going to do afterwards? What's sort of the long game here to start supporting gut health again? Because pragmatically, those

• 19:29Speaker 01

  medications, just like certain foods and other, everything we do in life influences this gut garden. So there are some things that hurt it more than others. And especially people that are on medications, some medications, long-term, specifically antibiotics and some pain pills as well, they really can do. Quite good damage on the gut that we have to work on rehabilitating over time.

• 19:52Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, and so that's just something to be conscious of as well.

• 19:54Speaker 01

  Yes, it's something to be conscious of, talk with your doctor about, because oftentimes there isn't a conversation about gut health, when it's just, no, take this, see you later. But I would just want to be empowered as a patient and be informed as to your options and have choice.

• 20:08Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, and you've talked a bit about how the connection between alcohol and intuition, and I was intrigued by that, like, what have you seen as the connection there?

• 20:18Speaker 01

  Well, I think, again, as I mentioned earlier, I think alcohol, people don't want to go there, right? That's how they socialize, that's how they hang out with their friends, that's how they wind down, that's how they deal with the background anxiousness. And they don't really want to see how this drink can impact how they feel and how they truly can know what their body loves, what their body doesn't love. So alcohol can impact both you, your body on both a physiological and a psychological level. It's going to impact your gut microbiome certainly.

• 20:47Jay Shetty?

  What's it doing? What's happening?

• 20:49Speaker 01

  It could do a few things. It's going to disrupt the microbiomes. The microbiome is, depending on the study that you look at, it's upwards of 100 trillion bacteria, and we have about 10 trillion human cells. So we are all about 10 times more bacteria than human. And when we drink alcohol, it is really, especially people that are consistently drinking, it is quite disruptive to this microbiome balance, and it can breed things like bacterial overgrowth. People, a lot of the times, people that I talk to, they have something called SIBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. And alcohol is a component, certainly not the only driver of that, but it is a disruptor

• 21:31Speaker 01

  and breeder of bacterial overgrowth by messing up the balance of this microbiome component. And it also can increase intestinal permeability, or what they call leaky gut syndrome. It's when the things are passing through the gut that shouldn't be able to pass through the gut, like undigested food proteins, bacterial toxins called lipopolysaccharides. And then that's the seminal event that a lot of things, when the immune system sees undigested food and bacterial toxins in the bloodstream. Then there's something called molecular mimicry. It's sort of the case of mistaken identity when the immune system starts this cascade of inflammation. And that's what can trigger autoimmunity. When the immune system loses recognition of self, which I think that's happening on

• 22:16Speaker 01

  a physical level. But then you think about what's happening on a mental, emotional, spiritual level with so many people losing recognition of self. And we have this epidemic rise of autoimmune conditions. Fifty million Americans at very least have an autoimmune disease. Millions more are somewhere on that autoimmune inflammation spectrum. So alcohol's implication in that is it really is something that allows, it can be a trigger for a lot of people, not only on a mental, emotional level, we know. But I think people's relationship with alcohol exists on a spectrum. And you may not be a full-blown alcoholic. People need to look at themselves and say, how am I using this tool in my life? And is it in alignment with how I want to live my life? Is it in alignment with how I want to feel?

• 23:01Jay Shetty?

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• 23:32Speaker 02

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• 24:01Jay Shetty?

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• 24:43Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, that's a great message to get people to reflect on.

• 24:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:47Jay Shetty?

  What, that was the physiological, what are some of the psychological things to be aware of?

• 24:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, I think the research around stress is very fascinating. I mean, we know when your body is in a state of stress, and look, the stress is normal. It is good in measured amounts. What I'm talking about here is chronic stress. It's that I'm being chased by this tiger, but there's no tiger. Many people are stuck in various degrees of sympathetic, fight or flight stressed state, and their body's in overdrive all the time. And we need a balance. We need the sympathetic nervous system just as much as we need the parasympathetic, the resting, the digesting mechanism. But many people are just an over accentuation of a sympathetic nervous system response.

• 25:35Speaker 01

  And cortisol levels coming up because their body is in that fight or flight mode. Cortisol is not inherently bad, just like inflammation is not inherently bad. We need inflammation to fight off viruses and bacteria and heal wounds. But it's the chronic inflammation that's a problem. Same with chronic stress. Cortisol being high for too long is not good. That is cortisol by itself is an endogenous immunosuppressant, which means it's a natural anti-inflammatory. So inflammation comes up, cortisol comes up to try to abate and attenuate the higher inflammation levels and to. Help you to actually get you out of that stressed state. But it's just unsustainable because there's no real threat for many people. But they're not sleeping well. They are eating out of alignment with what's working for their body.

• 26:19Speaker 01

  And they are, I would say, unhealthy relationships with technology. And all of this will be what researchers call an evolutionary mismatch. There's a genetic epigenetic mismatch. Our genetics haven't changed in 10,000 years. But our world has changed very dramatically in a very finite period of time. And you're putting that into context with the totality of human history. So if our genetics haven't changed in 10,000 years, just think of how much our world has changed in a few generations. Whether it's the foods we eat or the foods we're not eating, our stress levels, our exposure to toxins, collective and individual trauma. All of these things are the confluence of factors, the perfect storm of variables

• 27:02Speaker 01

  that are giving rise to these inflammatory autoimmune, brain health, mental health problems. So the psychological side of how I see these stressors play out in people's lives is chronic stress. But it's a lot more nebulous, right? It's a lot more insidious because it's easy to say, don't eat those four foods because they're going to spike inflammation. It's another thing to say, well, don't stress. And then they're stressing about not stressing.

• 27:28Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 27:28Speaker 01

  You have to really like bring context and practical tools. And what I call them in the book is metaphysical meals. Because you need to treat these acts of stillness just like you would mealtime.

• 27:39Jay Shetty?

  Yes.

• 27:40Speaker 01

  Which I know we're on the same page here. You have to, just like you show up for breakfast, lunch and dinner, or you show up to the gym, you need to start feeding your head and your heart just as much as you feed your body. And it's very much a part of healing. And you have to deal with both sides of the coin, both the physiological and the psychological. So stress and whether that be bringing healthy boundaries in or having a better relationship with technology or prioritizing your sleep or bringing in self-care practices in your life that are nourishing to you, that are feeding you on a mental, emotional level.

• 28:14Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 28:14Speaker 01

  That's just one, but there are, you know, many levels to that. But we have to look at both sides.

• 28:20Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, no, definitely. Thank you so much for walking us through those. And when, if anyone's like me, while I'm listening to that, whenever I sit down with someone who's in X-Men this space, I'm like, there's a part of you that just gets more stressed because you go, oh, God, I'm doing. All the wrong things, right? Like, and I'm sure people are listening or watching.

• 28:34Speaker 01

  Right.

• 28:35Jay Shetty?

  At home or at work, or if you're traveling and you're going, gosh, I need to change so much. And I think that's kind of where our problems perpetuate because we go, okay, I need to change everything. And then we end up changing nothing. And I think that's always the issue, right? When you feel you want to change everything, you end up changing nothing. And as people are listening to this, like, where's a good place for someone to start? Like, and I'm sure you you work with so many people on this journey. And I always say to people, like, I don't think we have. The real crisis we have in the world today is a crisis of habits and conditioning. Because most people I know know what they want to change or know who they want to be or how they want to change. They just can't make it through that path, right?

• 29:19Jay Shetty?

  They can't stick with it. So where's a good place for someone to start? They're listening right now and they're saying, Dr. Will Cole, I can hear that I have a ton of those physiological and psychological challenges. I need to figure this out. Where does someone start?

• 29:33Speaker 01

  I would first start with your headspace because it is. You do not have to be perfect, quote unquote. You don't have to have it all together to start making positive action in your life. And if you're waiting for the right time, it's now because there's always going to be some reason why we should put it off. There's a vacation, a holiday around the corner, there's a birthday party, there's a whatever holiday around the corner. And that is many people have that paralysis of analysis. Oh, I'll start at the new year. Oh, I'll start at this date. But the reality is, I find that there's exceptions to that rule of maybe there's a certain date within the next few weeks. That's that's practical for you.

• 30:15Speaker 01

  But if you're looking at really putting it out in the calendar, I very rarely see people need to do that. Because I need you to realize that how are we going to navigate through those times? Because there's always going to be something goes.

• 30:30Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 30:30Speaker 01

  And I would really, what I say is just lean into it.

• 30:34Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 30:35Speaker 01

  You don't have to have it all figure it out. Because what I find is when you get the ball rolling and people get their head a little bit above water. They wanna keep doing the things that make them feel good.

• 30:44Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 30:45Speaker 01

  And they start to realize, what I call in the book and for my patients, I call it food peace and body peace. Because I want people to not come into this wellness thing, whether improve their energy, or improve their digestion, or improve their brain health. I want them to see this as a form of self-respect, using self-care as a form of self-respect. Because it's the sort of toxic dieting culture that tells us, well, you can't have that. There's a lot of shame around that, right? That's like very much breeding ground for shame inflammation. That's the antithesis of sustainable wellness. The genesis of sustainable wellness is really realizing that you get to do things that make you feel good.

• 31:28Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 31:29Speaker 01

  And I said recently on social media that I think, I think is the paradigm shift that I wanna say here is that the continually eating foods that don't love you back is like staying in a toxic relationship and wondering why you're still miserable. But avoiding foods that don't love you back isn't restrictive, it's self-respect. And that's the, if you wanna talk about the first thing, it's having that pivotal paradigm shift. To say, look, oh, I thought it was about all these things I can't have. No, have whatever you want. But I want people to love feeling great more than they thought they were gonna miss something that dimmed their light. So from that place of self-respect,

• 32:12Speaker 01

  I find people make better choices for their life. Because if they, you know, the analogy that I use in the book is like, if you realized you were a Lamborghini and not an old beat-up jalopy, how would that impact how you fueled yourself? Owners of luxury vehicles know how to take care of their car. They don't need to be taught that. They're parking it way in the back. They are cleaning it, they're fueling it appropriately. Many people see themselves as the old lemon and not the luxury car. And that's the paradigm shift that I want people to have, because then all the rest falls into place. They don't have to be perfect, because they just wanna continue to pick themselves up and they have their why is bigger than their excuses.

• 32:51Jay Shetty?

  That is such a good point. I'm so glad that you went there, because there were a few points that I just wanna unpack for everyone. The first was, you said to start with the headspace. And I think that's really powerful. And everyone who's listened on purpose right now is already naturally doing that by being here. Is because if you're stressed, you eat badly. And when you eat badly, you get more stressed and you get inflamed and then everything else they're using. And then you get more stressed and it's just this never ending cycle. And so when you figure out what's going on up here and then you can start changing what's happening here. It's it's a great way. So I think that was a fantastic point. The second thing that I really took away from that is this idea of self respect and how we see ourselves. And it took me a long time to recognize what that really meant personally.

• 33:35Jay Shetty?

  So I grew up addicted to chocolate. I I ate and sugar, obviously. So I ate a chocolate bar, a chocolate biscuit, a chocolate yogurt and a chocolate ice cream, pretty much every day while I was a kid. Up until when I went to university where I would eat a chocolate bar and a like a liter of Sprite every single day. Like that got me through university and I was healthy and I was lean and you know, whatever that meant. And you thought, I'm fine. And then you start to see things, not catch up with you, but you start to see the impact of certain things. And I think people still have this in that, well, I just want to have fun. I just want to enjoy life and I don't want to have to think about this.

• 34:14Jay Shetty?

  And I think what's so interesting is what you're saying is that that actually isn't enjoyment because it's damaging. And when you start realizing that the fun you're having is actually not fun genuinely for what's happening inside. You just can't see that part.

• 34:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:31Jay Shetty?

  And I think that took me a long time to connect that it's not like starving yourself from what you want. It's actually like your body doesn't actually want that.

• 34:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:39Jay Shetty?

  Which takes so long to kind of fix our mind because we're so conditioned to believe that. Oh, I love pizza and I love this and I love that. It's like, well, you don't, you've just been conditioned through your tastes like. I always talk about one of my friends. Their kids look forward to blueberries and grapes as their reward. Cause that's how they've been brought up. Like for them, like blueberries are like Sour Patch Kids.

• 35:03Speaker 01

  Right.

• 35:04Jay Shetty?

  Right? Like that's their Sour Patch Kids. Whereas for me, it was Sour Patch Kids, which I still love. Which are terrible for me and I still love them. And when I go to the theaters, my wife really has to like. And so my wife was the one who helped me change my habits. When she met me, she goes, you can't eat chocolate every day. Like you can't have that. She was like, once a week, you can't have it every day. And, and it took me ages. And then, and then we, we got there and then she replaced it with monk fruit. And I used to eat these cacao nibs sweetened with monk fruit. And now I've got to a point where if I'm, if I'm at home, I'm barely, I don't. Removed refined sugars from my diet. And it took a long process. And now I found actually, when I go back and have an indulgent dessert, it doesn't taste as good to me. And that was a huge journey for me. I was like, oh wow, it's not.

• 35:47Jay Shetty?

  And sometimes I'll still crave like a burger. A really like juicy fried burger. And I'm, I'm plant based, so I'm talking about plant based burgers. And when I have it, I'll actually not enjoy the feeling afterwards. I'm like, I actually didn't miss that at all.

• 36:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:01Jay Shetty?

  And so I don't know if that aligns with what you've been saying, but I was just trying to give a very genuine reflection of dealing with a lot of these vices myself.

• 36:08Speaker 01

  Absolutely, and I think a lot of people can resonate with that. And like, that's that repairing that gut feelings connection that I'm talking about. You know, the gut and the feelings, there's things that were changing on a physiological level. When you start cleaning up your diet, eating nutrient dense foods, regulating your blood sugar, lowering inflammation levels, supporting your gut health. And then also when you make that connection, you go back to those foods and you may not like them at all. I hear that many times for patients and they're shocked. Like these things that they loved, things that they thought they couldn't live without. They couldn't, they say, I could take it or leave it.

• 36:43Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 36:44Speaker 01

  That's food peace. It's like that, you're not bound by that food. If you wanna have it, have it. But I would just say, use all food as a mindfulness tool.

• 36:54Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 36:54Speaker 01

  Eat it consciously. Did it love you back? Maybe it didn't love you back, but. You love socializing with your friends, or it brought you some enjoyment in the moment. And it was worth the payoff of maybe the bloating or the inflammation. Then eat it and move on. Shame is worse than any food.

• 37:15Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 37:15Speaker 01

  But maybe you take it and eat it mindfully and realize afterwards, no, it actually wasn't worth it. So maybe next time I'll have less of it. Or I won't have it at all because like you said, like cacao nibs and monk fruit. There's so many better options that taste really freaking amazing.

• 37:31Jay Shetty?

  Absolutely, yeah.

• 37:32Speaker 01

  You don't have to eat like a boring rabbit to be healthy.

• 37:36Jay Shetty?

  Absolutely, yeah. I I've been loving like the Who Kitchen bars as well. They're so good, like.

• 37:40Speaker 01

  That's one of my, the sad parts of New York City is Hugh Kitchen closed down. I mean, they had, they had a restaurant.

• 37:46Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, I remember that place. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 37:47Speaker 01

  The pandemic took it out.

• 37:49Jay Shetty?

  Oh, wow. But their bars are amazing.

• 37:50Speaker 01

  They're still alive and strong with the chocolate bars.

• 37:53Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, yeah, their chocolate bars are great. But yeah, I I feel like you're so right that there are so many other alternatives, so many other places that you can discover new things. And even spending time with friends, like recently I've been trying to, and of course, there's there's access here and things that are in your city. But I found like, like my wife, she'll go to a workout class with a lot of her friends. And that's like their way of socializing together.

• 38:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:15Jay Shetty?

  Or me and my wife will go do a cold plunge together or go find an infrared sauna together or something like that, where even doing health and wellness with friends has actually become a fun way of socializing. Whereas easy to be like, oh, let's just all go out for dinner, which by the way, I still love to do it. And it's not that we don't do it, but it's the idea of there are so many alternative ways to spend time together where your friendship actually improves too.

• 38:38Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 38:39Jay Shetty?

  Because now you're not just doing dinner and a movie every time. So I I think there's, I just think the idea of experimenting is healthy.

• 38:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:46Jay Shetty?

  Whether you went to a cold plunge and enjoyed it or not, that's up to you. But the idea that you went and tried something new with your friends.

• 38:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:52Jay Shetty?

  I promise you, whatever you do, trying something new with the people you love is gonna be a win either way.

• 38:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. And I think that that's a key point too. When people wanna start making healthy choices, they're afraid of it changing their, what they do for fun.

• 39:08Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 39:09Speaker 01

  Or changing their relationships. Like you mentioned alcohol. Well, if everything I do with my friends is centered around unhealthy food and alcohol, what's that gonna look like? You know, if they're your true friends, they're gonna be there for you. And I've seen so many people start bringing the healthy food to the party and. Really being a light.

• 39:29Jay Shetty?

  It's my wife. You're basically describing my wife.

• 39:32Speaker 01

  And people are like, wait, what? This is healthy? What the heck? Because it's, it really shifts hearts and minds around this. Or maybe you go to the cold plunge and they never, they thought it was weird at first. But now they all wanna do it. People wanna feel good. It's just, just because it's been done over and over again, doesn't mean you have to keep doing it. Like, start leveling up and be the leader for your friend group.

• 39:55Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 39:56Speaker 01

  Because it really.

• 39:57Jay Shetty?

  Everyone, thank you in the long term.

• 39:58Speaker 01

  For sure, for sure. And I've seen whole family and friend groups change because of one person deciding, I wanna live a different way. I wanna start doing things that love me back.

• 40:08Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, trust me, in the beginning, my male ego with my wife telling me like, my wife would see me like grab a chocolate, I put it in my mouth and she'd be like, she'd just give me the look. And everyone would be like, Jay, are you literally gonna let her do that? And I'm like, she's actually doing it for my own good. Like, I feel so much happier.

• 40:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:23Jay Shetty?

  Since I've let go, you know, of refined sugar. Like, it's made such a big difference in my life. And I've still got a long way to go. I'm working on lots of different things, but yeah, no, I, I love that. I wanted to ask you, because I feel like you're one of the few people that actually talks about this connection. How are hormones the internal communication system for the body? Because I feel like hormones are not talked about enough.

• 40:41Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 40:42Jay Shetty?

  And there's not enough of a conversation about them, but that's been something you've been leading.

• 40:45Speaker 01

  Sure. And that's part of the, the psychological, sorry, the physiological side of things that the psychological can impact.

• 40:52Jay Shetty?

  Mm hmm.

• 40:53Speaker 01

  So hormones are kind of akin to biochemical emails. And if you look at your body as this sort of corporation, the different systems of the body are not always communicating appropriately. They're either communicating too much because the body's in that sympathetic nervous system overdrive, where its cortisol levels is being really secreted quite a bit. We have what's called the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. So this is something that we can quantify on with patients via labs and see cortisol levels and cortisol, uh, circadian rhythm issues. Cortisol's too high, when it should be low, it should be a nice S-shaped curve, or it's always low, or it's always high. And it's that imbalance that.

• 41:38Speaker 01

  Breaking up the Goldilocks principle, it's homeostasis. It's you don't want hormones too high, you don't want hormones too low, but you want them high when they should be high and low when they should be low. Just like our gut microbiome bacteria, just like inflammation levels. It's all subject to this law of the of Goldilocks principle. So it's really, um, hormones are a major influencer in how we wanna feel. But both the physiological and the psychological impact how hormones are expressed. So if somebody has an unhealthy gut, if they have things like chronic infections, I deal a lot with people that have chronic Lyme disease and people that have mold toxicity quite often because they have different genetic variants that make them more sensitive to things like autoimmune problems.

• 42:21Speaker 01

  So we can find and measure this on labs, higher levels of mold toxins, Lyme bacteria, uh, different environmental toxins like glyphosate in their body. That's shifting their nervous system in a stress state as well. That's gonna really impact hormones tremendously. So then I can measure hormones on a hormonal test, which I would. And you'll see cortisol levels all off. You'll see typically estrogen, progesterone, testosterone very low. Sometimes estrogen will be high with estrogen dominance. But for the most part, when you're in a sympathetic fight or flight stress state, most hormones will be sluggish. They'll be in the low end of normal or really low. But then if you just saw the hormones happening in a vacuum, you'd think, well, it's a hormonal problem.

• 43:03Speaker 01

  Well, no, there's a bigger context as to why the hormones were off in the first place. So that's why context matters when it comes to all these different aspects of health. But supporting hormones are certainly imperative when you're talking about somebody's mood. When you talk about somebody's gut feelings, hormones are those biochemical emails. So I have to measure them, I have to optimize them. Thyroid is another major player too, because many people, they're just getting basic thyroid labs. They're not really getting complex thyroid labs. So we have to really look at the complexity of thyroid hormone metabolism.

• 43:36Jay Shetty?

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• 44:19Jay Shetty?

  That's indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. This episode is brought to you by Mazda. The best habits are the ones we hardly notice, the ones that quietly shape the way we move through life, giving us the confidence to focus on what really matters. That's Mazda's approach to safety. Every Mazda is designed with proactive safety features that help keep you more aware, more connected, and more engaged with your drive, so you can stay present behind the wheel. That commitment has earned Mazda recognition as Consumer Reports' safest new car brand. And as of July 2026, Mazda has won more 2026 IIHS Top Safety Pick Plus awards than any other car brand.

• 45:04Jay Shetty?

  Visit www.iihs.org to learn more. A lot can happen when an accident doesn't. Mazda, more of what matters to you. Visit MazdaUSA.com to learn more. Consumer Reports does not endorse products or services. But is this something that like, at least, and I'm asking as somebody who was born and raised in London, obviously, like, how much of this is accessible in the United States or across the world? Like, How do people ask for these labs? Where do they get them? Because I was one of those people for years that got checkups done and got my blood test done and things like that. And they'd always be like, Jay, you're fine. And I was like, but I don't feel fine. Like, I know something's going on. And they were like, no, you maybe you're a bit stressed. And I'm like, yeah, I'm sure I am, but it's more than like, I can feel something.

• 45:48Jay Shetty?

  And it took till I started working with Darshan at Next Health. I don't know if you know Next Health?

• 45:52Speaker 01

  I've heard of them.

• 45:53Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, Next Health's an incredible facility in L.A. But again, it's it's something that requires like access and it's expensive and it's not, you know, it's not easy. It's in L.A., it's in Miami. It's it's not something that everyone can access. And so I go, well, how how does someone get those tests? And same as me, I was just told for ages, I was told, oh, maybe you're stressed. You know, just just relax a little bit. And I'm like, no, I don't feel right. So how, yeah, how does someone get those tests? How does someone get that detail? I know Viome's a great source, the gut test that they send to your house and you do the stool test. But yeah, how how do people get access to that?

• 46:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think we're living in a time where there's still a massive gap to democratize this where it should be. But in the past 12 plus years, I've seen a lot improving. And the reality is, most of the thyroid labs and the hormonal tests actually are conventional tests, meaning they're mainstream tests that if you ask your doctor, your conventional PCP,

• 46:51Jay Shetty?

  They will do it. They have to do it.

• 46:52Speaker 01

  They can do it. They can decline doing it. But if you have a decent relationship with your doctor and if it's clinically appropriate, they should be able to run this panel, even if it's slightly outside of what their routine labs. Because, look, the conventional model of care is largely trained to diagnose a disease and match it with the medication. So it's the extra labs, the other labs that we run in functional medicine is slightly superfluous to a conventional medicine doctor because if it's not going to change the treatment, why would they run it? The, for example, to use a thyroid as an example, they just need a TSH, a thyroid stimulating hormone, and maybe a T4 to give the person that levithyroxine, that synthroid, that pharmaceutical thyroid replacement hormone. Okay, so that's all that they need.

• 47:36Speaker 01

  So if we want to look at all the other conventional thyroid labs, they are available. But if the end result is still going to be that medication, then why would they run it? Got it. So I understand it from a model side of things. But these are conventional tests. Most of the ones that I'm talking about are very widely accessible and offset through insurance or completely covered by insurance. They just have to be ran and coded appropriately and be clinically appropriate for you. So full thyroid panel, something called thyroid stimulating hormone, like I mentioned, T4. But then what we would add in functional medicine is total T3, something called free T3, free T4. And then what are called thyroid antibodies. The leading drivers of low thyroid function in the West are autoimmune in nature.

• 48:20Speaker 01

  Hashimoto's disease or autoimmune thyroiditis is the most common autoimmune disease as a whole, let alone the most common driver of low thyroid function. So we have to run thyroid peroxidase and thyroglobulin to see, because it's, in that case, it's not truly a primary thyroid problem. The thyroid problem is because the immune system has lost recognition of self again and is attacking it. So, and Graves' disease is the other type of autoimmune thyroid problem. And then I have to run what's called reverse T3, which in states of inflammation, your body can make these basically thyroid break molecules that slow down thyroid function. So the point being, it's a lot more complex than just a TSH.

• 48:59Speaker 01

  And to make it more accessible and, you know, I mean, that's what we've done for the past 12 years is try to make this as democratized as it can be, to decentralize this, so people can have agency over their health and be empowered with this information. It's their body. They have a right to know. So we have different telehealth models to make it accessible for people. And there's a lot of direct to consumer labs, to be honest with you. Even if you don't have access to a functional medicine doctor, or if you don't want a functional medicine doctor, there are great labs, there's one called InsideTracker. I have no connection to these brands. Inside tracker and base are two that I've had them on my podcast before. They are brilliant and you don't need a doctor for it. So you could just order it yourself.

• 49:43Jay Shetty?

  I think it's just good to know, right? This is so useful because I think it's good to A, know what to ask for, what to look for. I think as someone, I consider myself someone who's fairly uneducated. Uh, as a recipient, as a patient of these things.

• 49:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:58Jay Shetty?

  Because until you study yourself, I would say until I started studying myself and reading myself and interviewing people that I wanted to learn from. I had a very limited understanding because that's how I grew up. And so I think for me, at least I find it very interesting to be like, okay, well, these are the tests I need to ask for. These are the tests I can do. Because even the other thing I want to ask you is what are the most missed healthy food intolerances? Because that's a whole nother thing that I think we're not aware of.

• 50:25Speaker 01

  So the inflammatory core four that I mentioned, that's an obvious one, but I wouldn't even call those healthy foods, right? I mean, most of them are really processed, refined, boxed foods. But I would say the healthy food sensitivities or food intolerances, the food reactions. And this is really pertinent to most of the people that I talk to because they are eating better than most people, but they're still struggling. So the number one, and let me bring a caveat to all of these foods. It's not necessarily these foods fault. The heart of what I do in functional medicine is bio-individuality. And even healthy foods, what works for one person may not be right for you. And I would say also what serves you today and what your body loves now.

• 51:09Speaker 01

  If we're actually fixing the problem of why you had the problem in the first case, then over time you'll be able to do more things. So I'm going to say these foods with that preface of don't be fearful of these foods. Don't become orthorexic, which is a massive problem within wellness. That's orthorexia, sort of disordered eating around healthy foods. That is not what I'm trying to convey here. So that's important to know, but also. For the people that are struggling with these issues, it could be a massive game changer for them. Cause they maybe think, oh, I've been doing what I thought was healthy, but I was unintentionally sabotaging my health. So number one, people that have SIBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth that I mentioned. It's linked to things like anxiety and depression. It's linked with other autoimmune problems.

• 51:54Speaker 01

  It's also the leading cause of things like IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome. It's linked to bloating, like uncomfortable bloating. People will tell me they feel like they're nine months pregnant, even though they're not pregnant, as far as uncomfortable bloating. And things like acid reflux and GERD. So there are, there's a class of foods that are known as higher FODMAP foods. FODMAPs is an acronym that stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols, which is just a verbose way of saying fermentable sugars. So things like onions and garlic, really healthy foods, right? Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, really healthy foods. But they're all higher in these fermentable sugars.

• 52:38Speaker 01

  So people that are thinking they're doing the good things with SIBO.

• 52:41Jay Shetty?

  I've done that for so long. Yeah.

• 52:42Speaker 01

  Right, they're loading up on onions and garlic and they're getting so bloated, they're getting so much gastrointestinal upset. So look, is the problem the?

• 52:50Jay Shetty?

  No, I get it. Yeah.

• 52:52Speaker 01

  You have to heal the SIBO so you can bring those high FODMAPs in.

• 52:54Jay Shetty?

  Yes, yes.

• 52:54Speaker 01

  So FODMAPs would be a lot for our people that are probably a lot of our listeners right now. It's just people that are very well read, but they're still struggling with these problems. They're eating healthier, but they're still struggling. So look at higher FODMAPs and potentially look at SIBO as the driver of that FODMAP intolerance. And then I mentioning a lot of people that have mold toxicity, mycotoxins is what they're called. Higher mold foods can perpetuate flare ups too. So a lot of grains, even, you know, healthy grains, like gluten, even gluten free grains can be higher in mold. Coffee can be higher in mold, wine, other alcohols can be higher in mold. And people that have a sensitized immune system should look, if they have a mold problem, look at foods that could potentially contain mold.

• 53:39Speaker 01

  And then another one that I see are higher histamines. Foods that are higher histamines or histamine liberators or histamine releasing foods can definitely be problematic for people that have SIBO, these gastrointestinal, gut problems. And people that have, I mean, there's other symptoms of histamine intolerance like anxiety. Cause your gut and brain, this gut feelings connection again here. People that have lots of kombucha. People that have lots of bone broth, people that have lots of fermented pickled foods, even avocados can be higher in histamines. So these are the gray areas that we need to look at.

• 54:14Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 54:14Speaker 01

  Because

• 54:15Jay Shetty?

  But that's why you need to diagnose yourself effectively.

• 54:17Speaker 01

  Right.

• 54:17Jay Shetty?

  Because, yeah.

• 54:18Speaker 01

  And or if you're doing all the things and still struggling, these are the areas you need to look at.

• 54:23Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 54:23Speaker 01

  To say, what are these check engine lights in my life? Why is my body reacting to kombucha? It's not kombucha's fault, but is it the body telling me that this is releasing histamines right now? And then I have to ask the question, why do I have histamine intolerance in the first place? Which unresolved trauma can be part of that? SIBO, mold toxins can be a part of that. Chronic Lyme, the psychological and the physiological. So this is what I see sadly play out in people's lives, but it's only sad until you find out and give it. When you give them answers, then it's anything but sad. Because then it's this aha moment of like, wow, I can do something about it.

• 54:58Jay Shetty?

  I mean, that's exactly how I feel. Like everything you've been talking about, I'm like, this is the journey I've been on. Because it's it's that feeling of I feel healthy to that feeling of recognizing, wow, there's so much about health that I did not understand. Then getting accurate tests that actually tell you what's going on. Because I think there's a lot of like, oh, you just need a bit of this or you need a bit of that. And that doesn't work. Like the accurate testing is such an important part of this because then the recommendations can be healthier.

• 55:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:25Jay Shetty?

  I think a lot of recommendations are just based on basic symptoms and that doesn't necessarily always go the right way. And then, of course, consistency in the recommendation. That feels like the the full journey.

• 55:37Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And I think, look, if what you're doing is working for you and you feel great, don't look for problems where there isn't any.

• 55:43Jay Shetty?

  Of course.

• 55:43Speaker 01

  But I think we have an epidemic rise of people that are doing all the things, that are really compliant people, that are doing things that doctors are telling them to do. But they're still spinning their wheels. That's what I'm talking about here. We have to do better here. So I think that these these are what I find clinically to be missing links for people. Then they fix a few things and it really kind of allows their body to take their health to the next level and and start feeling the way they want to feel. And when you start repairing these things, whether it's repairing their gut health or regulating their nervous system or whatever we're talking about here, all of those foods I just mentioned, almost all of them can be reintroduced.

• 56:21Jay Shetty?

  Yes.

• 56:22Speaker 01

  So temporarily, maybe avoid them. But longer term, let's fix the problem that drove it in the first place.

• 56:27Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, everyone make sure that you grab the book Gut Feelings and subscribe to the Art of Being Well podcast by Will. Dr. Will Cole, I just wanted to ask you, is there anything that you haven't shared on today, or something that's on your heart, your mind, or in your gut, that you feel like you need to, you need to share that we haven't touched upon?

• 56:46Speaker 01

  No, man, I really appreciate the opportunity. It's been great. We have to have you on the Art of Being Well.

• 56:52Jay Shetty?

  I'd love to, I'd love to. But no, this has been so useful because I think you've given us a very 360 degree approach of so many different aspects of our health. Of course, everyone can read the book Gut Feelings to go in depth on all of this and listen to the podcast to understand more about everything we've discussed today. And I hope this is the first of many times we'll sit down and get to do this. But thank you so much. We end every episode with a final five, which are the fast five rounds. So you have to answer these in one word or one sentence maximum. So you can do one sentence.

• 57:22Speaker 01

  All right, one word and one sentence. Kind of nervous. Let's go, let's go for it.

• 57:24Jay Shetty?

  Okay. Question number one, what's the best health advice you've ever received or heard?

• 57:29Speaker 01

  It's what I actually said earlier. It's one that I always tell myself and I'm telling my patients is you can't heal a body you hate. It's a pointer to work that we need to do. It's reframing our relationship with our body and with food and with wellness itself.

• 57:45Jay Shetty?

  Love that. Question number two, what's the worst piece of health advice you've ever heard or received?

• 57:51Speaker 01

  Well, the antithesis of that, that somehow you're going to shame your way into wellness. It's not going to work.

• 57:57Jay Shetty?

  Yeah. Okay. Question number three, something you used to value for your health, but you don't anymore?

• 58:03Speaker 01

  Probably taking tons of supplements. I have a simplified version. I know what I feel the best on. So to me, food is first. Supplements are a great bonus, targeted 100%, but food is primary. So I think streamlining and figuring out what are the biggest needle movers for myself is definitely that for me.

• 58:23Jay Shetty?

  That's a great answer. Question number four, what's your current purpose in life?

• 58:28Speaker 01

  Hmm. It's hopefully being a light for God. And it is, and what that means for me is just hopefully staying in my lane in the best of ways. And just enabling me to bring hope to people that are really struggling with silent health problems. And I get to see it play out all the time. This is more than a sentence, but I love what I get to do.

• 58:54Jay Shetty?

  That's beautiful. Uh, fifth and final question. If you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be?

• 59:01Speaker 01

  Be kind and think before you speak.

• 59:05Jay Shetty?

  A health law? I have any health laws?

• 59:08Speaker 01

  That will help people's, as social diseases, right? As social relationship disorders bring about physical disorders too. But if you want something a little bit more on a micro level, I would say a law. You said a law to, to, to people should live by. Uh, I would say use food, eat foods that love you back and find out what they are. Be curious about what they are, because when you focus on that, the rest of the stuff kind of is put into perspective.

• 59:37Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, I love that. Dr. Will Cole, everyone. The book is called Gut Feelings. The podcast is called The Art of Being Well. Uh, Dr. Will Cole on Instagram as well. Make sure you follow him. Everyone who's been watching or listening. Make sure that you tag me and Dr. Will Cole on Instagram, on TikTok, on Twitter. Let us know what resonated with you, what you're gonna try, what you're gonna try and shift. Remember, you don't have to change everything all at once. You just gotta try to put one thing into practice and watch how your life changes. Uh, thank you so much for being here. So grateful for you and I love this conversation.

• 1:00:08Speaker 01

  Likewise.

• 1:00:09Jay Shetty?

  If you loved this episode, you'll enjoy my interview with Dr. Daniel Amen on how to change your life by changing your brain.