Bloating, Belly Fat & GLP-1: What Your Gut Is Trying to Tell You with Dr. Rajsree Nambudripad

Bloating is one of the most common complaints I hear from women, especially during perimenopause and menopause. And what's frustrating is that so many women are eating healthy, doing everything they think they should be doing, and still struggling with digestive issues. In this episode of Live Like a Girl, I'm joined by integrative medicine physician and gut health expert Dr. Rajsree Nambudripad to talk about what's going on in your gut and some of the everyday habits that might be contributing to bloating. We talk about why giving your gut a break between meals is so important, how your gut bacteria influence hunger hormones like GLP-1, and why stress and even the way you eat your meals affect digestion. We also get into the changes that happen during menopause, the difference between bloating and belly fat, and why some of the foods we consider healthy aren't always easy on our digestive systems. _ IN THIS EPISODE: Why constant snacking might be contributing to bloatingHow spacing out your meals supports gut healthThe connection between your gut bacteria, GLP-1, and hungerHow to tell the difference between bloating and belly fatWhy digestion changes during perimenopause and menopauseHow stress and your nervous system affect digestionWhat to know about fasting, fiber, and supplements for gut health_ MORE ON DR. RAJSREE NAMBUDRIPAD Website: oc-integrativemedicine-com https://oc-integrative-medicine.com/Supplements by Dr. Rajsree https://dr-rajsrees-public-supplement-store.myshopify.com/YouTube: @drrajsree https://www.youtube.com/@drrajsreeIG: @dr_rajsree_nambudripad https://www.instagram.com/dr_rajsree_nambudripad/FB: @OCintegrativemedicine https://www.facebook.com/ocintegrativemedicine/For more resources related to today’s episode, visit the podcast episode page:https://www.drmindypelz.com/ep383/ Connect with Dr. Mindy: Join Reset Academy https://resetacademy.drmindypelz.com/reset-academy?utm_source=libsyn&utm_medium=podcast&utm_term=&utm_content=loc-description&utm_campaign=reset-academyWatch the episodes on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@DrMindyPelz?sub_confirmation=1Follow Dr. Mindy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dr.mindypelz/Subscribe to Dr. Mindy’s newsletter https://www.drmindypelz.com/Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your diet, fasting routine, or lifestyle.

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

• 0:00Mindy Pelz?

  Okay, I have something I've got to say that I really think a lot of women need to hear. If you've ever followed a health program and it didn't work, check this out. This is not your fault. I promise you. Let me explain. Most fitness programs, most fasting protocols, most dietary advice, it was researched on men. It was designed for men and then handed to women with a shrug. And here you go. Hope this works for you. But here's the thing, you operate on a 28 day hormonal cycle. The foods you eat, the length of your fast, even the intensity of your workouts,

• 0:42Mindy Pelz?

  all of it needs to be timed to where you are in that cycle to actually get a result. This is the science I teach inside my Reset Academy. This is the science that I have researched for over a decade. And inside my Academy, every month I walk you through it in a very practicable and actionable and way. And it's actually built for your body, for a feminine body. So it's going to work. I promise you, I see it over and over again. So no more guessing, no more following advice that was never designed for you. This is a moment to get back into relationship with this beautiful body

• 1:26Mindy Pelz?

  that you are so blessed to live in. So if you're ready to finally understand this incredible body of yours and work with it instead of constantly fighting against it, come find me over in the Reset Academy. It's resetacademy.drmindypelz.com. That's resetacademy.drmindypelz.com. I'll see you there.

• 1:54Mindy Pelz?

  Hey, Dr. Mindy here and welcome to the Live Like a Girl podcast, where I bring you icons, disruptors, educators, scientists, and doctors that show you what can be possible when you love and celebrate the female body you are blessed to live in. Let's dive in.

• 2:19Mindy Pelz?

  When I had my clinic, sitting behind my front desk was a whole wall of supplements. 50% of those supplements were gut supplements. I loved gut cases, candida, SIBO, parasites, food allergies, bloating, constipation, any digestive challenge was my jam. I was obsessed with understanding the trillions of microbes that lived in our gut and how they made neurotransmitters, broke down hormones, regulated our immune system, and controlled our cravings. If you had a microbe challenge, I had a supplement that would fix that challenge.

• 3:04Mindy Pelz?

  Then I found fasting and I am not exaggerating when I tell you that over the course of about six months, as I watched fasting work so well for my patients, I took those supplements off the wall, one by one. I never recommended another gut supplement again.

• 3:30Mindy Pelz?

  The first door in to solving any gut challenge, I realized, wasn't another pill. It was giving the gut a break. I've thought about that wall a lot because when I looked at what my YouTube community writes to me about the most, gut pain points right at the top. And bloating, it stands at number one. And it's not a small problem. Nearly one in seven American adults report experiencing bloating on a weekly basis. And women, yep, you guessed it, we experience bloating at rates significantly higher than men.

• 4:15Mindy Pelz?

  And more than half of the people who experience bloating have actually never sought care for it. Which means so many women are walking around feeling swollen, uncomfortable, and quietly assuming it's just something they have to live with. And when women enter perimenopause, oh gosh, the story gets even worse. Your pants fit differently, your waistline changes, and you start asking, is this bloating or is this belly fat? Or is it my gut? Or is it my hormones?

• 4:56Mindy Pelz?

  Well, I've got great news for you because today's guest can tell you the difference. Dr. Rajsree Nambudripad is a physician in Southern California who spent years performing colonoscopies before shifting to integrative medicine. She knows the female gut from the inside out and in more ways than one. She also struggled personally with her own SIBO experience. And for years, she snacked on healthy food every two hours and was bloated literally the whole time. In this conversation, we talk about why when you eat

• 5:40Mindy Pelz?

  can matter as much as what you eat when it comes to bloating. We actually address something that I don't think has ever been explained this way, which is we are living with a built-in cleanup system in our guts that actually can do its job when we stop feeding it food. We also dive into how do you tell if bloating is coming from belly fat? Or from actual gas? And she shows us a simple pinch test that you can do at home to make that determination. We also take a really deep dive into why bloating in perimenopause

• 6:25Mindy Pelz?

  can be hormonal rather than a digestive problem and what your gut has to do with GLP-1 hormone production. And be sure you stay all the way to the end because Dr. Rajsree says something that I absolutely love. She talks about how she's the only girl in her house with her husband and teenage son. And for years, she was pressured to eat the way they ate until one day she decided, I can eat like a girl. This is going to be an incredibly helpful episode for so many of you.

• 7:06Mindy Pelz?

  I'm excited to bring it to you. Dr. Rajsree, here we go. Let's dive in. Dr. Rajsree, I am so excited to have you on my podcast. So let me start off by just saying welcome.

• 7:20Speaker 01

  Thank you, Dr. Mindy. Thank you for having me.

• 7:23Mindy Pelz?

  So it's interesting, in preparation for this podcast, I had to look at some of the real gut pain points that my YouTube following has. And bloating, no doubt, is at the top. And I, you know, part of my intrigue about your message is that I've heard you say that it's not, bloating is not so much what you eat that causes it, but when you eat. And so much of what we do here on this podcast and on my YouTube is about when you eat. Can you talk a little more about that?

• 8:02Speaker 01

  Absolutely. So I think that's huge. I think so many people don't realize that. And that's something I emphasize so much in my practice. I call it meal spacing. So essentially, cutting out the snacking because, you know, our small intestine, we have a natural cleaning mechanism. And it's called the migrating motor complex. And it's basically like the pacemaker of the gut. And what happens is when you're not eating, these natural waves of peristalsis just sweep the food and bacteria from your small intestine. So this, it's activated in your stomach and your small intestine. And so you actually have this natural built-in cleanup system that will protect you from bloating.

• 8:48Speaker 01

  But unfortunately, so many people, you know, are snacking all the time. You know, I think this whole fasting movement is incredible because I think maybe five, 10 years ago, everyone was told like eat small, frequent meals.

• 9:01Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, it'll speed up your metabolism. Like, where did we get that?

• 9:06Speaker 01

  I know, and even I was subject to that. And I think when I had SIBO, I had personally suffered from it, small intestine bacterial overgrowth, but that was seven, eight years ago. I was like a huge snacker. I was like, I mean, it was healthy food, but it was like apples and nuts, like every two hours. I couldn't stabilize my blood sugar. And I was just like always eating. And I was always bloated. And it's funny is like even with when I see patients, even before we do testing for SIBO or in-depth microbiome testing, this very basic thing of practicing meal spacing, which I say is like four to five hours between meals. I encourage a minimum of 12 hours overnight fast.

• 9:49Speaker 01

  And that's not that difficult to do. I mean, you're sleeping for eight of those hours.

• 9:53Mindy Pelz?

  Yep.

• 9:53Speaker 01

  So that isn't that difficult. And then just by doing that, people tell me their bloating is substantially reduced. And if they can do longer, it's even better. Like the intermittent fasting, if they can go to 14, 16, 18 hours, you get additional benefits. You know, and activating all that autophagy in the gut, you know, cleaning up the gut.

• 10:16Mindy Pelz?

  So it's so interesting because I've told this story on stages and on podcasts before that I loved taking on gut cases in my clinic. I had a lot of like candida especially was a big thing that we looked at. Um, we, you know, any constipation, diarrhea, all, every single thing you could think of. Because the gut, I, I was fascinated by it because I felt like the gut is so under uh looked at when it comes to our overall health, yet we've got trillions of these microbes in there. They're making neurotransmitters and breaking down hormones and are like, there's so much there that we don't know enough about.

• 11:01Mindy Pelz?

  So I had all these supplements that I would help people with to fix their gut. And then I found fasting. And once I found fasting, I, I am not joking. If you walked into my clinic, the back wall was supplements. And after about six months of seeing the power of fasting, one by one, I took those gut supplements down and I never recommended another gut supplement again. So, and then the other thing that I looked a lot at was snacking. That the first door in to being able to help somebody fast is to get them out of this constant eating. So talk a little bit about what if somebody's listening to this and they're like,

• 11:46Mindy Pelz?

  oh, wow, well, I go fif- 15 hours not eating. So now I've got nine hours to eat and you're telling me I gotta let four to five hours space in between that? How do we, how do we help the, the person who's a very good faster, understand how to fit that into a compressed eating window?

• 12:10Speaker 01

  Yeah. So if they're doing intermittent fasting and there's a longer fasting window, like you said, 16 to 18, 18 hours, and they only have like eight or nine hours to eat. Usually the best thing is just to have two meals.

• 12:22Mindy Pelz?

  Right.

• 12:23Speaker 01

  So just to have those two meals and the extended fasting window. And the incredible part is by doing this, they really have to learn the whole skill of managing blood sugar. So it's like a two for one. It's like we're, we're doing, we're helping the gut out for cleaning. But we're also figuring out how to stabilize the blood sugar so that you can even sustain yourself for these extended hours of not eating. And so it's incredible because that helps with so much more. I mean, with brain fog and anxiety, just by cutting out all these ups and downs, the roller coaster of blood sugar and stabilizing that, we see tremendous benefit on even sleep quality. I mean,

• 13:06Speaker 01

  you know, not eating and snacking right before bedtime. Sleep quality improves dramatically. And um, so it's an, I think it all comes back to that body has this natural healing mechanism.

• 13:17Mindy Pelz?

  Right.

• 13:17Speaker 01

  And sometimes all you need to do is just let it do its thing, you know? And I hundred percent agree with you. Um, supplements are great tools, but sometimes we have this natural thing that's free that anyone can do. And it's so powerful for bloating.

• 13:34Mindy Pelz?

  So somebody could do lunch at noon. They would eat maybe within a half an hour window. And then we're just talking about four 30 or five until you eat again. So I, I just wanna, like, that's not that hard. If you want, if you have stable blood sugar. Do you have recommendations you give your patients on how to stabilize their blood sugar so they can uh go four to five hours like that in an eating window?

• 14:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I always recommend like protein, fat and fiber every meal. And then um, what I find to be a great secret is if you can eat some leafy greens with some olive oil. Yeah, it could be like a little arugula salad or sauteed greens, but I feel like the greens with a little healthy fat avocado or olive oil really, really helps the blood sugar a lot. So um, and then in between meals, you know, they're, they're encouraged to hydrate. You can use electrolyte powder or you know, natural electrolytes, but lemon and salt, but that can also help with energy levels in between meals.

• 14:40Mindy Pelz?

  Mm hmm. And what about bloating that comes with perimenopause and menopause? Because that's a real issue that I see a lot of people here on my YouTube channel um have to struggle through.

• 14:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. So a lot of women, you know, are going through these constant hormonal fluctuations. Um, in perimenopause, they're not ovulating on a regular basis. And we call those anovulatory cycles. And if you don't ovulate, you don't make progesterone. Progesterone is that beautiful calming hormone that helps you sleep and everything. So then you get sleep disruption, you get more anxiety and you get unopposed estrogen. Meaning when I check their blood levels, we see, oh, they still have estrogen. They're in perimenopause. Maybe their estrogen's a little lower than before, but it's still there. It's maybe, maybe 70 or 50.

• 15:35Speaker 01

  Um, I'm talking about blood estradiol levels and the progesterone is like undetectable, under 0.5.

• 15:43Mindy Pelz?

  So that's what you mean by unopposed. It doesn't have progesterone to balance it out.

• 15:48Speaker 01

  Exactly. And unopposed estrogen can cause some fluid shifts in the body. It can make you retain some water. And so sometimes not even gut bloating, it's more hormonal bloating because of unopposed estrogen. You just feel that like, you know, everything's heavier, your breasts are more tender, everything's swollen, you know, it's because of unopposed estrogen. Those are the times where, you know, if they have other symptoms, like they're not sleeping, their periods are irregular. I'll just give them a little bio-identical progesterone and they'll use it in that second half of the month. Kind of mimicking the natural cycle when they're supposed to make progesterone. And they just take it at bedtime and that creates so much more balance, like overall.

• 16:29Speaker 01

  They're sleeping better, they're less anxious. And like when they get that period, they feel so much relief of bloating, like their whole body. It's something like, almost like inflammation goes down. It gives them that relief. And so I think it's, I mean, it's all tied together. In menopause, like they're basically, the, all the hormones kind of come, you know, are very low. Estradiol's under 30, progesterone's low, everything's low. And it's interesting. I think that like, it really depends. Like some women have such an incredibly healthy lifestyle. They've got their blood sugar dialed in, they're exercising, they're meditating and their stress levels are under control and they sail smoothly through menopause. They

• 17:11Mindy Pelz?

  It's so true. It is so true. It's the thing. It's like the elephant in the menopause room that is not stated enough. If there's a balanced lifestyle, stress is under control, you don't have the symptoms that so many people are complaining about. So true.

• 17:29Speaker 01

  And, and you know, when everything else is in balance, a lot of times the gut is in balance and and they don't have a lot of issues unless something comes up, like maybe they have, or they're exposed to antibiotics or they go on a cruise and they get food poisoning. Then there may be a gut issue that pops up, but sometimes, you know, um, once hormones level off in menopause, they no longer have the cyclical ups and downs month to month. And then, you know, some women may choose to go on hormone replacement and that just enhances all aspects of their life, like their sleep quality, their mood. And um, and then I also always like to balance the hormones. I think in, you know, in Western medicine. If a woman doesn't have a uterus, the guidelines are you don't have to give any progesterone.

• 18:13Mindy Pelz?

  Oh, that's fascinating.

• 18:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, so some standard gynecologists, when they prescribe hormone replacement therapy, they just give estradiol only by a patch. And they say, you don't need progesterone, you don't have a uterus, you can't get uterine cancer. Well, that's what the guidelines say, but what about breast tissue? What about fluid balance in the body? What about sleep? What about anxiety? So I always, if when I give hormone replacement, I always make sure to give that progesterone with the estradiol, balance that out, regardless of whether they have a uterus or not, because that affects so much and they just feel better being on both of the hormones. Yeah.

• 18:51Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. Oh, I'll never forget the first time I had some progesterone. I was like, what? Wait, this is like a drug. I feel so good. This was naturally happening in me. So I do think that there's a misunderstanding though out in the world that if I take HRT in any capacity, all these symptoms will go away. And especially when we're looking at the gut symptoms. What have you seen that you that lifestyle paired with HRT of whatever kind is more impactful than HRT alone?

• 19:29Speaker 01

  A hundred percent. Absolutely. I mean, so I feel like the good news is the women who are motivated to take HRT. They're also the women who are motivated to do other things in their lives.

• 19:41Mindy Pelz?

  That is a great point.

• 19:44Speaker 01

  Exactly. So they're the ones going to Pilates and yoga class and exercising, strength training. They're they're conscientious about what they're eating. You know, they're getting their labs done twice a year. We're getting the vitamin D optimized. We're doing all the little things. And HRT is like icing on the cake and they're just like feeling their best. But I'll tell you an interesting story. I had a patient who I've had for like 15 years, but she was diagnosed with um, an estrogen positive breast cancer in the middle of being on HRT. And she wasn't, uh, it wasn't really attributed to the HRT. She had, she had maybe other risk factors. It really wasn't understood.

• 20:26Speaker 01

  She had been a flight attendant for over 10 years, which that sometimes also carries an increased risk. Long story short, she had to go cold turkey off her HRT. And they had to do the opposite. They had to give her estrogen blocking drugs because it was an estrogen positive breast cancer.

• 20:41Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, I've heard about that. Yeah.

• 20:43Speaker 01

  You know, and the amazing part is I have followed her every year and we're like, and we're a couple of years out now. But when I see her, her skin is glowing. She looks like she's on HRT, but she's on an estrogen blocker. And I asked her, what is your secret? I mean, how are you maintaining this vitality, this youth? I mean, she's like 70 years old. How are you glowing? Like, what are you doing? And it's all comes down to lifestyle.

• 21:12Mindy Pelz?

  Right. Yeah.

• 21:13Speaker 01

  She's she exercises, she cold plunges in her swimming pool every morning.

• 21:19Mindy Pelz?

  Smart.

• 21:19Speaker 01

  You know, and she drinks ju- freshly squeezed juices every day. Um, and like she sweats out the toxins with all the exercise and it just shows. So I feel like HRT is definitely icing on the cake, but I've seen incredible things just with lifestyle. Yeah.

• 21:36Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. Thank and I, and I think we don't give lifestyle enough. Like, you know, that's I've, I've seen it on your YouTube channel on mine, like really trying to give a better understanding of lifestyle because there's, it's like somehow we, we look at lifestyle like it's secondary. It's like, oh, I'll get to that. I'll get to the food. I'll get to the sleep. But just put a patch on me and all of this will go away. And I think you bring some valid, her story is, is spot on. How important it is. You know, a, a lot of my, a lot of my YouTube following um, has really been concerned about belly fat. And I think there's a difference between bloating and belly fat.

• 22:20Mindy Pelz?

  And I also think there is a lifestyle that causes belly fat. Can, can you talk a little bit about how a person would determine the difference between I'm bloated or this is actual visceral fat?

• 22:36Speaker 01

  Very good question. Yes, absolutely. So I think, yeah, in perimenopause and menopause, women are very conscientious about their waistlines, how their clothing is fitting, maybe their pants are getting tighter. And you know, it's very important to distinguish, are we dealing with fat or is it bloating? So bloating, interestingly, it will fluctuate. So for example, you might wake up in the morning, have your bowel movement and your tummy is nice and flat. But then after a meal, you eat that kale salad or a big smoothie or a side bowl. And now you just see your abdomen distended. You feel your pants starting to get tighter. Interestingly, when I examine patients with bloating, like their abdomen is like firm. It's like a firm balloon.

• 23:21Speaker 01

  And I'm pressing on it. It's a firm balloon. And you can even press on your own tummy and um, versus fat is very soft, like some um, belly fat, like if it's subcutaneous fat under the skin, you could just pinch that and you can feel the roll. I mean, that, that's there.

• 23:35Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, you can. Yep.

• 23:37Speaker 01

  That's the soft subcutaneous fat. Um, the belly fat, you know, interestingly, is strongly tied to your diet. Absolutely. I think all the things you talk about, the foods that higher carbohydrate foods that are spiking the insulin will tell your body to, to store all that nicely. You know, and we as women with the extra estrogen that we have, our body loves to put that fat in the abdomen, our thighs, breast tissue, and even just under our skin, we as women carry so much more fat everywhere. And that's normal, right?

• 24:13Mindy Pelz?

  It's normal. Thank you. I'm like, it is normal and we are trying to look abnormal. It, it drives me crazy that we're all killing ourselves to look like something that's not a normal feminine physique.

• 24:27Speaker 01

  Absolutely. We're naturally, that's part of how we are. We have the fat. We have the softer skin. That's part of the, you know, how women are and that's fine. Um, but if you're not happy with the amount of abdominal fat, that's where I, I kind of guide people on stabilizing blood sugar, dialing down the carbohydrates. Doesn't mean you can't eat carbs. I mean carbs, you need them for energy. Um, and you know, if you're exercising and strength training, yes, you're gonna need some carbs, you know, for that. But the type of carbohydrate and the impact on blood sugar, that is so in, in important. So cutting out some of the, the higher carbohydrate things like bread and pasta and white rice and things like that.

• 25:08Speaker 01

  And eating more vegetables, having half of your plate is vegetables, more healthy fats, nuts, things like that, that really satiate you and have, having your portion, uh, protein at every meal. Typically that reduces hunger, reduces the need to snack. They can do a longer fasting window and typically we see improvement in the belly fat. And then visceral fat, that's like the fat surrounding the internal organs, you know, that's the scary fat. That's the one that increases the risk of insulin resistance, increases the risk of all disease and inflammation. That's an interesting one. That's a tricky one. You can't always tell by looking at someone. I mean, one clue is if they have what like we call an apple shaped body habitus.

• 25:53Speaker 01

  They're carrying a lot of the weight in their abdomen. Most likely there is visceral fat.

• 25:59Speaker 01

  But um, nowadays there's all these body scans. If you really want to know what your visceral fat is, um, you can get that done. But the nice thing is if you don't have access to a body scan, just get your blood fasting insulin level.

• 26:15Mindy Pelz?

  Yes.

• 26:16Speaker 01

  Ideal blood fasting insulin is six. If it's 10 or higher, that's a clue. There's some insulin resistance. And that might be because of visceral fat. So the two are kind of tied together.

• 26:29Mindy Pelz?

  Okay. And what about hemoglobin A1C? Do you, is that a marker you like to look at?

• 26:33Speaker 01

  Always. Yeah. Hemoglobin A1C, it's that marker of blood sugar over the last three months. And the way I like to think about it, it's A1C, it's like glycated hemoglobin. So what it is, it's like sugar bound to the protein hemoglobin in your blood. Hemoglobin is what carries oxygen through your tissues, you know, in your red blood cells. But what, how, every time your blood sugar reaches a certain point, it glycates the tissues. In other words, the sugar starts sticking to your tissues. And the scary thing is it's not just the hemoglobin. It's like your whole body. That's why like high blood sugar is damaging to your internal organs, your brain, your skin. I mean,

• 27:13Speaker 01

  they say even high sugar causes wrinkles and, and internal damage and coronary disease and you name it. So um, the hemoglobin A1C, yeah, we like to see it. I mean, ideally we want it under 5.5 or lower. In perimenopause and, and menopause, we do start seeing all of these metabolic numbers creep up. Hemoglobin A1C, glucose, insulin, and uh, that's when, you know, part of it is the drop in the estrogen levels. Um, we see cholesterol levels go up, A1C go up, insulin. So every decade, you kind of have to become a little bit more conscientious about what you're eating, how you're exercising, you know?

• 27:50Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, very true. Yeah. I always say you keep, the diet you ate at 35 may not work for you at 45 and most likely if it was a toxic diet, won't work for you at 55.

• 28:00Speaker 01

  Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

• 28:01Mindy Pelz?

  Like, and that's the harsh reality of, of menopause.

• 28:06Mindy Pelz?

  One of the foods that I think is often overlooked, and we should be having it with every meal, especially women, is extra virgin olive oil. And let me explain why I think this particular food source is so important to pay attention to. Olive oil contains polyphenols. And you've heard me talk a lot about these plant compounds, especially when we talk about repairing your microbiome. Olive oil has one of the highest concentrations of polyphenols.

• 28:46Mindy Pelz?

  And polyphenols will go into your gut and they will make your microbes so happy that they start making you serotonin and dopamine and melatonin. And they'll boost your immune system and regulate your energy and help you boost your metabolism. This is literally how powerful this plant compound is for your gut. So when you're putting a meal together, I want you thinking about the olive oil you're reaching for. For starters, how fresh is it? If it has kind of a rancid feel to it or smell to it, get rid of it. You, your body really deserves fresh olive oil. Also, my next question is, do you enjoy the taste of olive oil?

• 29:31Mindy Pelz?

  It's funny because there are actually olive oil sommeliers out there because the taste profile of olive oil is vastly different depending on the orchard in which it was pressed from. This is why I'm a huge fan of the Fresh Pressed Olive Oil Club. They give you a chance to try farm-fresh extra virgin olive oil from small farms that have a fresh, grassy flavor. You can pour a little into a dish and taste it. And then you can try it over vegetables. You can obviously put it in your salads. You could try it on an avocado.

• 30:10Mindy Pelz?

  Any meal that I eat, I am drizzling fresh pressed olive oil over my meal. And so I want you to get familiar with the taste profile of olive oil. So I've asked Fresh Pressed Olive Oil Club to give you a discount for doing that. And they have an incredible offer. You just have to go to getfreshpelz.com and you can get two bottles and they'll give you the third one for free. Now I promise you, when you get those three bottles, I want you to pull the cap off and I want you to taste them and see how vastly different olive oil can be.

• 30:51Mindy Pelz?

  And if you don't love them, they offer you 100% money-back guarantee. And you don't even have to send the bottle back. So all you've got to do is visit getfreshpelz.com for three bottles, but you're only paying for two. That's getfreshpelz.com. I can't wait to hear what you think of this incredible olive oil. It is a meal changer. One, one thing that I think is so interesting about the gut is that it controls so much. It controls our immune system. It controls our neurotransmitters. It breaks down estrogen.

• 31:32Mindy Pelz?

  And now the whole world is leaning towards these GLP-1 medications. And if you actually look at the gut, it's like, wait, your gut makes GLP-1 hormone.

• 31:44Speaker 01

  It sure does, yeah.

• 31:45Mindy Pelz?

  So talk a little bit, let's go into GLP-1s. Talk a little bit about what somebody would do if they wanted to get off the GLP-1s or they didn't want to go on the GLP-1s. How can they approach their gut and start to take better care of their gut so they can make the hormone on their own?

• 32:06Speaker 01

  I love that question, yes. GLP-1s, you know, they've become so popular. So GLP-1s that, you know, those are the injectable drugs like Ozempic, Monjaro, Wegovy. And, you know, interestingly, they work by slowing stomach emptying, slowing gut motility. And that's why you don't feel as hungry, you don't eat as much. And in my practice, you know, being a gut specialist, we're so always concerned with helping people's motility. So, so this is a drug that's doing the very opposite, right? It's slowing gut motility.

• 32:48Speaker 01

  Having said that, I've seen positive and negative things with patients taking GLP-1s.

• 32:56Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, it's an interesting dilemma that I think a lot of people are trying to square in their mind.

• 33:01Speaker 01

  For sure, like I've seen patients take it and get SIBO. I mean, it is a big risk factor for SIBO because of it slowing small intestinal motility. There was even a study that was published. It was like over 200,000 diabetic patients. And the ones who were on GLP-1 had a twice the incidence of SIBO compared to those on a different diabetes medication.

• 33:25Mindy Pelz?

  Wow.

• 33:25Speaker 01

  I've seen patients get bowel obstruction, pancreatitis. So I've seen the negative. I've also seen the positive. I've seen patients who have lost 150 pounds. They're like, you know, and their inflammation markers have gone down and it transformed their life. And they didn't have that many gut side effects, you know, they, they were fine. I mean, they had minimal nausea, constipation, so very life-altering for them. And also because it kind of quieted their food noise, they didn't need to snack as much. So in some ways, their bloating went down because their, their intervals between meals expanded. But yeah, interestingly, I think there is actually so much we can do naturally to help our natural GLP-1.

• 34:10Speaker 01

  And for example, there's this one key bacteria, Akkermansia.

• 34:16Mindy Pelz?

  Oh yeah, I've been, yeah, talk about that because, and I want people to understand, Akkermansia has had its moment and then it goes away and it has its moment. It's like a magic bacteria. And so I want my audience to understand this because it's fascinating.

• 34:32Speaker 01

  I love Akkermansia, yes. And I've been noticing on microbiome tests of my patients that this bacteria is often missing entirely, like it's gone. But it's a critically important bacteria because it's, the full name is Akkermansia muciniphila. It loves mucus. It lives in the mucus layer of the gut. And so it creates that protective shield. So it helps protect against leaky gut. And so when it's missing, it often goes hand in hand with inflammation and leaky gut.

• 35:02Mindy Pelz?

  Okay.

• 35:03Speaker 01

  But we also know Akkermansia helps influence the production of GLP-1 in the gut. And so not having it could, you know, put you at higher risk of metabolic issues and weight issues. So the great news is that's something correctable. You know, we can supplement with Akkermansia if you're missing that. And we need to support the Akkermansia. And we do that with increasing prebiotic fiber in the diet.

• 35:29Mindy Pelz?

  Okay, talk about what that is. Because what, what I want my audience to understand is that it is lifestyle that destroys Akkermansia. So talk about what, what, what would do that? But it's food that brings it back.

• 35:43Speaker 01

  Absolutely. So I feel like antibiotics are a potential big risk factor for losing your Akkermansia. I mean, not only Akkermansia, I see absence of other very beneficial bacteria like lactobacillus, bifidobacteria just disappear after antibiotics.

• 36:01Mindy Pelz?

  Yep.

• 36:02Speaker 01

  So antibiotics, you know, we have to be very judicious in using them. If you're taking them, I always say, take probiotics alongside them and continue them afterward. Or at least have some yogurt, you know, or kefir or something to shield your microbiome. But so Akkermansia loves prebiotic-rich foods. So that's going to be, prebiotic-rich foods are like asparagus, artichoke, garlic, onions, bananas, apples. And just having like a diverse area of vegetables. So if you're on a really restricted diet for a long time, we can see reduction in Akkermansia. Not only that, we see reduction in some of the beneficial metabolites made by good bacteria, which are like the short-chain fatty acids.

• 36:47Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, I was gonna ask you.

• 36:49Speaker 01

  The postbiotics, the postbiotics. And one of the most important ones is called butyrate. And butyrate is like fuel for your colon cells. It prevents colon cancer. It reduces inflammation in the colon. So it's very important. And all of these things, they basically will go down if you limit these prebiotic-rich foods in your diet. Unfortunately, we do see this sometimes after patients are on extended SIBO diets, like that low FODMAP diet, if they do it too long.

• 37:21Mindy Pelz?

  Yep.

• 37:22Speaker 01

  That's why we always, it's part of a SIBO protocol. We do it six weeks to three months. But you don't want to be on low FODMAP for years.

• 37:30Mindy Pelz?

  Interesting, interesting, yeah.

• 37:32Speaker 01

  Same thing with carnivore. I've tested microbiomes of people on carnivore for extended period of time. And almost universally, we see reduction, we see dramatic reduction in short-chain fatty acids and butyrate.

• 37:46Mindy Pelz?

  Fascinating.

• 37:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:47Mindy Pelz?

  Because it's, I just, I wouldn't, I, I had, I had some really difficult SIBO patients. And for people who don't know what SIBO is, it's small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. And I found the, like splashing in the carnivore diet seemed to really help those people. But what I hear you saying is that it was the long-term carnivore. So, so do you see a case for where carnivore diet, even for like four or five days, could actually be reparative to the gut?

• 38:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, so interestingly, carnivore has pros and cons. And I actually made a video on carnivore and the microbiome.

• 38:29Mindy Pelz?

  Right, can't wait to go watch it.

• 38:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, I shared the microbiome results of different patients that had been on an extended carnivore diet. So I mean, the carnivore diet is like the ultimate elimination diet. And um, the way I think of it is like, sometimes people feel so much better on carnivore because, well, essentially their gut garden, I like to think of the gut as a garden. It's basically a mess. They've got weeds growing, their soil's cracked. It's so, it's so uh inflamed. And there's so many issues going on that when you remove all the fiber, they actually feel so much better. All their bloating is gone. It starves the bad bacteria.

• 39:14Speaker 01

  So I had a patient who had ulcerative colitis, you know, autoimmune disease. Uh, it's an inflammatory bowel disease. And she went carnivore and when I met her, she said that carnivore put her into remission with her disease, like she wasn't bleeding anymore, her bowels were better. And when I did her microbiome test, indeed, her inflammation marker, her calprotectin was normalized. So that was like a huge triumph. We were like, yay, you're feeling better. The downside, though, is that she was then missing beneficial bacteria. And then, like I said, the short chain fatty acids and butyrate had kind of like depleted. So I think the carnivore was a useful tool in her case, like it calmed the inflammation, right? But then we started taking baby steps to kind of

• 39:59Speaker 01

  restore and repair her gut garden so she could gradually reintroduce those uh vegetables, like one at a time, very, very gradually. And ultimately, when, when we restore a healthy gut garden, I like to think of it, our ability to tolerate fibrous foods often is restored, you know? A lot of times, if you're reacting to a ton of foods and you can't eat vegetables anymore, the problem really isn't the vegetables. It's like, it's something going on in your gut that we need to address.

• 40:28Mindy Pelz?

  Which is kind of, if you go back and you look at Plant Paradox. Oh, yeah. You know, it's like, I remember hearing, wait, vegetables have toxins in it? Now I gotta be careful about toxins? And I, I, it was like the nutritional moment where I'm like, I'm not sure I can buy this anymore. If you're gonna tell me I can't eat vegetables. But what I learned for myself and I learned in clinical practice was that actually, if you have a really destroyed gut, that getting off those plant toxins can be really helpful. But I love the way you explained that, where putting them back in at some point once

• 41:05Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 41:06Mindy Pelz?

  is really uh imperative because we need that long term.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 41:12Mindy Pelz?

  I also think a very similar about this, I'm gonna go back to the weight loss drugs because I too have this dilemma in the sense that I see people get results. But I also wonder if the reason that we are needing these or so excited about the weight loss drugs is because of what the modern world has done to our microbiome and that we're not getting these short chain fatty acids that are not stimulating the L cells. And so you have, I love the gut garden idea. You have a gut garden with so many weeds in it that you can't even make your own GLP-1 hormone.

• 41:55Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 41:56Mindy Pelz?

  Talk a little bit about how modern day life destroys or can it destroy those really vital parts of your gut that make this miraculous fullness hormone?

• 42:10Speaker 01

  Absolutely. So yeah, the, you know, the acromansia and then the short chain fatty acids and the butyrate, all of these signal our hunger hormones and our satiety cues, you know, by producing natural GLP-1. But I think it comes down to like, you know, the standard American diet.

• 42:28Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. Yeah. It's the ultra-processed foods. We're like, it's like, all roads lead back to the ultra-processed foods.

• 42:37Speaker 01

  And even when people are trying to eat healthy, I feel like they're turning to like health bars and it's all shortcut stuff, like liquid beverages that are pre-made or uh bars and, but I'm like, where's the real food? Like, where, where's the actual food? Like, because they want to cut down on their calories, they're restricting, so they're just picking up a bar here and this there. But that isn't real food. Like, we need real food. Like, our microbiome is gonna be flourished if we fertilize it with the healthy foods, like an actual, eat an actual apple or eat a sweet potato or eat some leafy greens. Eat asparagus and artichoke. And there's all these colorful things that are just like absolutely incredible fertilizer for the good flowers in your gut garden.

• 43:23Speaker 01

  So that's really what we want to do. And I've noticed again that sometimes when people just eat whole foods, like that, all of a sudden, that resets their appetite.

• 43:33Mindy Pelz?

  Isn't that interesting? Like, get off just, just getting off the, the chemical laden foods.

• 43:39Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 43:39Mindy Pelz?

  And go to whole foods. And, and your appetite changes, is what you're saying.

• 43:44Speaker 01

  Exactly. And I think part of it now is like, everyone is very conscientious about carbohydrate, net carbohydrate. I mean, all that, you know, has some value, but a carbohydrate that's processed versus a carbohydrate from, you know, a starchy vegetable or a piece of fruit, it's just gonna have a different impact on the microbiome.

• 44:06Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 44:07Speaker 01

  You know, and so that specific day, you might have, oh, 10 net carbs the same day, but this one was a whole foods diet and this was a processed diet. Five days later, your hunger signals are different. And you may end up feeling like, oh, the person eating the whole foods diet is satisfied. They don't feel restricted. They're, they're not even hungry. They're, and their bowels are better. They're having better elimination and they just feel good, like their entire body feels better. The one that's eating like the very restricted, more processed food diet, even though it's a lower carb diet, they're not getting those benefits on the microbiome. They're not feeding the bacteria to make the postbiotics and the short chain fatty acids. And so they feel restricted. They feel, and then one day they just fall off the wagon and then they just eat a bunch of potato chips because they just can't handle it.

• 44:51Mindy Pelz?

  They can't do it anymore. So yeah, talk a little bit about how digestion actually starts in our mouth. And how chewing, the, the, how important the chewing is and slowing down when we eat. Because I also wonder, when I look at the, how many people are leaning towards these drugs, I'm wondering, you know, what are their stress levels? How quickly are they eating? What are they eating? We've somehow normalized food noise, but we haven't given people a tool to understand that there may have been some key biological habits that they have forgotten to do, like chewing a little bit longer.

• 45:33Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Yeah, I think this mindful eating is just so critical. It can, you know, when we just slow down, take a couple of deep breaths before you eat, disconnect from all your electronic devices.

• 45:45Mindy Pelz?

  Right.

• 45:46Speaker 01

  You know, because like, we're constantly bombarded with so many stressful emails and the social media and like, we're in a state of fight or flight, like we're always activating our sympathetic nervous system, which actually suppresses digestion. Versus if you calm yourself down, you know, you relax, you sit at a table, you know, you take those two deep breaths, um, you're activating your parasympathetic nervous system and that helps you kind of rest and digest. And that vagus nerve, it activates, you know, all the stomach acid production, pancreatic enzymes, it activates motility in the gut. So what's interesting is like, you could eat the same amount of food and be a hundred percent satisfied or still hungry and then have to go to the pantry and grab a couple more things, just because of how you ate that food.

• 46:32Mindy Pelz?

  Fascinating.

• 46:33Speaker 01

  You didn't actually sit down and enjoy that food and, and chew that food. Um, you know, and because there's, hunger is like so many things. It's not just like how full is your stomach. I mean, it's also a mental thing. And when you're stressed and your cortisol is higher, you know, you're almost like comforting yourself with food. There's that whole concept of emotional eating. Um, I just learned recently the concept of hedonic hunger. It's not true hunger. It's just like hunger because you just need that pleasure and you know, you just need that extra piece of chocolate, you know? So all of that's important. And I think that's why a lot of patients sometimes do better when they prepare their own food because that requires time.

• 47:17Speaker 01

  You know, you have to actually cut the vegetables, saute them, you smell it, it activates digestive enzymes. And then you are mindfully eating that food versus um, if you're just, uh, you know, picking up some food, eating it on the go, you don't have all those steps because digestion starts just far, it, it starts in anticipation.

• 47:38Mindy Pelz?

  I was gonna say, I wonder if it starts even when you are thinking about it.

• 47:41Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Like, you know, in the older days, the people would like grab the vegetables from their garden. They'd wash them, chop them, they would simmer them for hours and the house would fill with fragrances and then digestion was so much better. But even like for some people, even smoothies may not be the ideal solution because of that reason. You know, it bypasses chewing. And sometimes when you're putting very high amounts of fiber, like a couple, you know, uh, cups of fruit and then vegetables, all of that blending it up and then you drink it within a matter of minutes, it's just too much for the gut to handle. Versus if you think, if you were to eat that amount of

• 48:22Speaker 01

  food, you'd probably be eating it bite by bite slowly and giving your chan, uh, gut a chance to digest it better. So you really kind of have to listen to your gut and see what works for you. Like maybe liquid, liquid calories may not be ideal because it bypasses chewing.

• 48:39Mindy Pelz?

  You know, I've thought for a long time that there are three pieces. Something has gone very wrong with our food. And I think, deep down, you already know it. The chemicals that are legally allowed in our food are quietly disrupting your hormones. They're driving your cravings and they're making it nearly impossible to feel good in your body. And when you can't feel good, what do you do? You blame yourself. But this is not a you problem. It's a food system problem. My mom knew this before anyone was talking about it. She was a health food pioneer in the 1970s, filling our home with fresh, real food, while every other kid at school had Twinkies in their lunchbox.

• 49:22Mindy Pelz?

  But she was trying to teach me something I've spent my whole career building on. The quality of what you put in your body matters, especially as a woman. This is the heart of my book, Eat Like a Girl. I'm gonna show you exactly which foods nourish your hormonal system, which ones are destroying it, and how to tell the difference. Plus, there are over 100 recipes, plant-based and omnivore, created by incredible professional chefs. When you learn to eat like a girl, everything shifts. Your energy, your cravings, your mood, your cycle, your relationship with food itself. So you can get Eat Like a Girl anywhere that you get your books normally,

• 50:03Mindy Pelz?

  or you can find Eat Like a Girl at drmindypelz.com/books. And let's together start changing the way that we think about every meal. I'm cheering on the eating. There's what you eat, there's when you eat, and there's who you eat with.

• 50:23Speaker 01

  Oh, yes, I love the last one.

• 50:25Mindy Pelz?

  Right? Like, and I'm not saying, and it might be who you eat with is your phone. Like, it's like-

• 50:32Speaker 01

  Oh my god, that's so sad, but it's true.

• 50:33Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, right? So it's like the activity and the environment of eating.

• 50:37Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 50:38Mindy Pelz?

  I'm curious if you have a sense of which of those three is the most important for overall digestion?

• 50:46Speaker 01

  That's incredible. It's funny, it's like, I feel like that last one is probably one of the most important.

• 50:52Mindy Pelz?

  Me too! And we don't talk about it, that's why I bring it up. Like, you're the perfect person. I'm like, why are we obsessed on macros? When we should be obsessed on food environment?

• 51:04Speaker 01

  Absolutely. That's why, you know, sometimes you'll go to, you'll have that incredible meal with, you know, some dear friends of yours that you're seeing after a long time. And maybe the food isn't ideal. You're at a restaurant and it's not perfectly healthy, you know? And you are having dessert. But it's, you're eating that in the joy and conversation with your friends, and you're eating it slowly. And at the end of the night, you just feel happy and your digestion's good because you're releasing all these beautiful neurotransmitters and oxytocin as you're talking to your friends and you're feeling happy. That can have such a profound effect, for sure.

• 51:39Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. So would it be fair to say, don't ever eat in a stressed state?

• 51:45Speaker 01

  I think that's a very powerful, important tool. And then sometimes there's even, you know, certain individuals that stress you out. And you know, when you're talking to them, it's causing your abdomen to clench up. You might want to be aware of that.

• 51:59Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. Don't go out to eat with somebody you don't like, for sure. And don't think about a stressful situation while you're eating. Like, this is, this is, and we spend so much money on supplements. And it's like, wait, have you even looked at this? It's free.

• 52:14Speaker 01

  Absolutely. You may not want to have stressful conversations while you're eating. Like, you know, things about the news or like, financial conversations. You might want to save those for a later time because that can cause all kinds of things to happen. Shut off your vagus nerve, yep.

• 52:30Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. What about people who are used, the vagus nerve also fascinates me. And one of the things I've come to realize with fasting recently is that if somebody is stuck in fight or flight over and over and over again, putting them into a three-day water fast is not going to be their tool. That actually, learning how to do shorter fasts with the food choices that we've been talking about, getting them back into a balanced nervous system, and then they could fast a little longer. So I've started looking at my teachings through the lens of the nervous system. And I'm curious, like, when we look at all the digestive problems we have right now,

• 53:14Mindy Pelz?

  when people are stuck in fight or flight, does that mean their parasympathetic nervous system has shut down, is not accessible? And this vagus nerve that we throw around, do you believe there's ways to stimulate it? And that should actually be part of a weekly health habit routine?

• 53:36Speaker 01

  Absolutely, yes. I think, I think that's a big part of what's going on. I think so many people, either they have like a super stressful job, or they're caretaking, or they're in some sort of stressful situation. And it's not like few hours of their life. It's actually days or weeks or months of their lives.

• 53:53Mindy Pelz?

  Right.

• 53:54Speaker 01

  And so, they're constantly, they're not sleeping well, you know? They're, they're not getting the time for self-care, they're not exercising. And all of that can absolutely affect your gut. And I wouldn't say the vagus nerve is completely shut off, but it's suppressed. It's not working optimally. And so, they might even have other symptoms in their body. Maybe they're having palpitations or anxiety. That's also, again, the imbalance between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. Maybe they're getting, you know, anxiety attacks, panic attacks. All of that's, again, stemming from that chronic stress.

• 54:33Speaker 01

  So I agree with you, like, just understanding how your body is responding to all these environmental cues is huge. And a lot of people who have some kind of mindfulness practice, like meditation or yoga, or even like, just nature walking, that's what I like to do. I just like to walk in nature.

• 54:52Mindy Pelz?

  Yep, that's my favorite.

• 54:54Speaker 01

  Just calms my nervous system, you know, centers me. And then I feel like much better and able to come back to, you know, be my best self.

• 55:02Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 55:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:03Mindy Pelz?

  Let's go, let's go back to fasting. Because I love your fasting videos, by the way, on your YouTube channel. And I'm going to encourage my audience to go take a look at them. When I first started teaching people to fast, one of the more surprising byproducts of it was you would see some people get constipated. And you would see some people get diarrhea. And I looked at fasting as if it was like a mirror showing you what was going on in your gut. Have you seen intermittent fasting, long-term fasting, where you end up with this split between constipation and diarrhea as the microbiome repairs itself?

• 55:47Mindy Pelz?

  And what does that indicate to you?

• 55:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, so it's interesting. It's like, even when you're not eating, people often still have bowel movements. And they're puzzled by that. And they're like, is this like food that I ate a week ago that's still coming out? But really, what's probably happening, it's that, you know, our stool is not just byproducts of what we eat. It's actually just products of what the bacteria are making in our gut. So even when there's no food coming in, depending on your microbiome, you're gonna still be making waste products.

• 56:21Mindy Pelz?

  Right.

• 56:22Speaker 01

  You know? So, some people will notice they might not have a bowel movement, especially if it's an extended fast, because nothing's coming in. But some people, in fact, I watched this video by a gentleman who did, I think it was a 30-day fast. He sent it to me. And he was talking about he had bowel movements the entire way, 30 days in. And I was like, wow.

• 56:44Mindy Pelz?

  Wow.

• 56:45Speaker 01

  So it's possible.

• 56:48Speaker 01

  I haven't seen as much diarrhea when fasting. So, interestingly, I feel like fasting is an incredible cure for diarrhea. If someone's having diarrhea and they don't know why, if you fast, sometimes that will bring that to a halt.

• 57:02Speaker 01

  And so, yeah, I think that, in general, during that fasting window, you're absolutely activating all that autophagy in the gut, all that self-eating. You know, there might be biofilms in there, there's probably all this waste that's been there. And you are just letting your natural body take care of all that. You know, you're still gonna make enzymes and you're still gonna make stomach acid. And there's no food, so it's gonna work on the bacteria that's there. So, again, like, if you have a little bit of mild SIBO, the small intestine bacterial overgrowth, those symptoms make quiet quite a bit. Because you're just letting that migrating motor complex sweep it, sweep all that bacteria out.

• 57:45Speaker 01

  And so it's, again, the body's incredible ability to heal itself.

• 57:49Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. Is there a length fast that you think's best for the gut?

• 57:54Speaker 01

  Um, so I think it really depends. So some of my patients, you know, because of their gut issues, they are a little bit underweight and they're fearful of losing weight.

• 58:05Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 58:06Speaker 01

  You know? So for those people, I tell them, just do the minimum, which is the 12-hour clean out at night. And you will still get a lot of benefit from that. And practice the meal spacing. And then other people, the intermittent fasting is beautiful. If they can do that with the two meals a day, that's an additional window. Usually, if people do that, they also lose weight. If they want to lose weight, just doing the two meals a day with intermittent fasting, they'll lose weight, so they feel so much better.

• 58:35Speaker 01

  Now, I have seen, actually, interesting, I'll share this. One of my patients, she followed one of your fasting coaching things. I don't know what it's called, Resetter or something?

• 58:46Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, we do a fat burner reset, where we take people through different fasts, yeah.

• 58:50Speaker 01

  She did it for 72 hours.

• 58:52Mindy Pelz?

  Amazing.

• 58:53Speaker 01

  And I was like, I was so excited to hear about it. And I asked her everything, I'm like, tell me what happened? And she monitored her blood sugar like you advised. And she told me that at like, the two-day mark, it was dropping a little bit. So she had like, half an avocado.

• 59:08Mindy Pelz?

  Excellent, well done.

• 59:09Speaker 01

  You know, I thought that was beautiful. And then she said, after 72 hours, she felt like a different person.

• 59:17Mindy Pelz?

  Yep.

• 59:17Speaker 01

  The autophagy was incredible on everything. So not just her gut, but like, she had blood pressure issues and that got better. Migraine issues got better, so many things got better. And I think it's just, it's the beauty of that autophagy. But I, you know, nowadays with like, the, you know, the CGMs, like, you know, monitor your blood sugar, I think that's gonna give people a lot more courage to do extended fasting, right?

• 59:41Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, because you know where your edge is. You know if you're like, falling off a cliff.

• 59:45Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 59:45Mindy Pelz?

  And if you should stop. So I think that's a really, a really good point.

• 59:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:51Mindy Pelz?

  What do you think about the first meal? How important do you think the break fast meal is?

• 59:57Mindy Pelz?

  From the microbiome standpoint.

• 59:58Speaker 01

  Really important, absolutely, especially if you haven't eaten in a while, like for example, that example of like three days or something. That's an opportunity where you can gradually give your gut something really gentle. You know, something maybe like a bone broth or something to just nourish it, you know, some broth, gentle broth, like you definitely don't want to go in and eat a kale salad like as your first meal, that's just gonna be too shocking.

• 1:00:24Mindy Pelz?

  I tried that early on, I tried it. I already, I already suffered through that for everybody, so they know that that's not a good idea.

• 1:00:31Speaker 01

  Now, you want to go gentle, so like maybe some broth, uh, maybe a little avocado or something, um, and then maybe do a little, uh, steamed vegetables or a little chicken, um, a little basmati rice. Basmati rice is one of my favorite in the gut healing space because it's zero lectins, zero fiber, it's like an easy absorbed carbohydrate and it's a lower glycemic index compared to like other, uh, white rice. So obviously you don't eat a ton of it, but it's just easy on the gut.

• 1:01:04Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. I don't know if you remember when fasting first became popular, there were a lot of crit, a lot of critics, a lot of top podcasters like Huberman and Atiya and people like that at the time, they were all saying that fasting is hard, is bad for the gut. And at that moment in time, I was looking at all the science, I could not figure out what they were talking about. Have you ever had an experience where fasting wasn't helpful for the gut?

• 1:01:38Speaker 01

  Well, I think like if someone has an active gastritis or like an ulcer or like they have that inflammation, because I do have patients where if they don't eat after a certain amount of time, they tell me that it's like burning, they need to eat something. So we definitely have to work on healing the gut. Sometimes if, if we're trying to avoid food, I tell them like, maybe drink some organic aloe vera juice to kind of soothe their intestines and help that gastritis, you know? Um, but I think that's part of it, you have to go into fasting with, um, you know, you can't have like something that's actively inflamed and irritated where you're depending on food as like a soothing coating. Now we have so many other ways to soothe and coat the gut, like other than food, glutamine

• 1:02:21Speaker 01

  powder, broth, aloe juice. So those are other tools that we can use.

• 1:02:27Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, so talk a little bit about supplements. Where do supplements fit in? Do you recommend that people change diet and then do supplements? Or you typically do them together and what supplements would you say are important for the gut?

• 1:02:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, so usually when patients see me, um, they do want quick and immediate relief, right?

• 1:02:47Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, of course. Right, yep, yep, don't we all, don't we all?

• 1:02:52Speaker 01

  So supplements do kind of help sometimes with that. Um, so we always want to work on the diet and so I always review what they're eating because sometimes there's some obvious culprits.

• 1:03:01Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:01Speaker 01

  That unless we fix that.

• 1:03:03Mindy Pelz?

  Give us an example.

• 1:03:04Speaker 01

  Okay, so some person drinking like six cups of coffee a day and they're having heartburn.

• 1:03:10Mindy Pelz?

  Right.

• 1:03:11Speaker 01

  That could be an easy trigger. Or maybe they're having a lot of alcohol at night and then that's affecting their gut, causing reflux at night, or maybe it's tomato sauce irritates them or really spicy foods. So, um, or again, like maybe it's the, the healthy processed foods that they're not suspecting. I'm like, can you pull that protein bar out of your bag? Let me look at that.

• 1:03:32Mindy Pelz?

  Oh, God. I used to have, I used to have patients bring me their supplements.

• 1:03:36Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:03:37Mindy Pelz?

  And I'd be like, okay, pull, and we'd pull them all out and I'd be like, what are you taking this for? And they're like, I don't know, my friend told me, oh, I saw that one on Instagram. So I was like, okay, wait, first we need you to know what you're taking these supplements for.

• 1:03:51Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:03:51Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:52Speaker 01

  And sometimes I have to look at exactly like you said, what supplements are taking because sometimes it's one of their supplements causing the problem. Like maybe they're on too much iron and it's constipated them or too much calcium in the wrong form, it's calcium carbonate, they're, they think they're taking it for their bones, but it's also constipated them. So I have to do a quick review of what's going in and clean that up first and then I try to give them some helpful supplements. So, um, typically like, I think probably the three most popular, like as far as helping people feel better right away with bloating, is I give them, uh, magnesium at night.

• 1:04:29Mindy Pelz?

  Beautiful.

• 1:04:30Speaker 01

  You know, get their bowels moving. That's so easy because it improves their sleep quality, their anxiety, so that's an easy one. Um, I'll give them digestive enzymes.

• 1:04:40Mindy Pelz?

  I love enzymes.

• 1:04:41Speaker 01

  Oh, yes.

• 1:04:42Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:43Mindy Pelz?

  All the time, all day long, like you take those, like you should, they should be in your purse.

• 1:04:48Speaker 01

  For sure. Yeah, they're in my purse, for sure.

• 1:04:50Mindy Pelz?

  Right, exactly. And by my bedside and like everywhere, it's like they're, they, they can be a miracle in a moment of distress.

• 1:04:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, that helps so much, you know, just breaks down the food better, they're able to expand their diet, like maybe they can't eat certain vegetables like Brussels sprouts, but with enzymes they can, as long as the, the vegetable's cooked well and they're taking their enzymes, so that's really helpful. And then if they're still having bloating, my third favorite, it's, um, a prokinetic, like it's a ginger artichoke pill. Um, yeah, and so the one we use is called motility activator, but they just take that at night with the magnesium and so that's more like it activates that cleaning waves in the small intestine while they're sleeping, so it helps with bloating quite a bit.

• 1:05:34Mindy Pelz?

  And do you find that if you combine that with many of the lifestyle changes we've talked about, like eating whole foods, eating the right fiber, fasting?

• 1:05:44Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 1:05:44Mindy Pelz?

  Working on the stress, that the, that the supplement becomes, uh, literally a supplement to a healthy lifestyle and then people can get off of them?

• 1:05:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, so sometimes, sometimes they can get off of them. Um, now magnesium, a lot of my patients do take long-term, just because of the benefits.

• 1:06:04Mindy Pelz?

  Me too.

• 1:06:04Speaker 01

  Magnesium is just so good, right?

• 1:06:06Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:06Speaker 01

  Even I take that all the time. Um, motility activator, we use that during SIBO treatment and then sometimes people do wean off. Because SIBO has such a high relapse rate, some of my patients with tough bloating do continue it a little bit longer.

• 1:06:21Mindy Pelz?

  Okay.

• 1:06:21Speaker 01

  And it's safe because it's just ginger artichoke. Um, and that's in conjunction with like the meal spacing and all of those other helpful things to naturally promote motility.

• 1:06:30Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:31Speaker 01

  And digestive enzymes is interesting, a lot of times people need it, um, of course during SIBO treatment or while their gut is not healthy, eventually they may notice that they require less of it or they need it selectively, like when they're eating heavier foods. Um, and also like I tell them not to drink a ton of water when they're eating, that sometimes can help reduce their reliance on digestive enzymes. Um, I've noticed that in myself, actually. So, um, I used to drink like a ton of water, like I'd have a glass like this and I'd drink the whole thing with my meal and then I'd need the enzymes. And now I just take a few sips when I eat my meal and sometimes I even forget my enzymes and I'm totally fine.

• 1:07:13Speaker 01

  So I think it's just like when you eat, when you're truly hungry, you're making that acid, you're making the enzymes and then just wait like 30 to 45 minutes later and then drink all your water.

• 1:07:24Mindy Pelz?

  So do, and what about like no drinking at all? Because it's, it's gonna be everything you would drink with your meal, all of that will have an adverse reaction on enzymes.

• 1:07:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, so it's like, you know, i- if you need a couple sips to be comfortable, go ahead and do that, you don't need to restrict that strictly, but it's like at the end of the meal, a lot of times people are full and then forcing themselves to drink a glass of water, it over distends the, the stomach and it kind of dilutes everything and then, then their digestion doesn't, doesn't feel as comfortable. So I'm just helping patients like better understand what feels good for their gut. And so some people notice that not stretching the stomach out with so much water and waiting till they're like thirsty like a little bit later, then they can really jug down all the water.

• 1:08:10Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. Is there a normal amount of bowel movements we should have in a day?

• 1:08:17Speaker 01

  Great question. Um, I think it really varies, but you absolutely want to go every day.

• 1:08:23Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:23Speaker 01

  So a minimum of once, for sure. Some people go more. The key is that you want to feel like you are evacuating completely, that it's not incomplete.

• 1:08:34Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:34Speaker 01

  You have to get that sense of relief that it was a good evacuation. And you want to make sure your stool looks good, like it's not too watery, it's not too runny, it's not, you don't see undigested food particles or oil droplets, like those are all clues on like how are you breaking down your food? Um, if you see a lot of undigested food particles, maybe you need some digestive enzymes support to help break down the food.

• 1:08:59Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. So have you ever seen, um, I had an experience where, um, I bought one of those squatty potties and brought, and brought it to a white elephant gift giving during the holidays and everybody looked at me like I was crazy. I was like, you go home and try this squatty potty and then you, you tell me how crazy I am. And the person who received it called me a week later and was like, how did I go my whole life without a squatty potty?

• 1:09:28Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 1:09:29Mindy Pelz?

  Why does it work? Talk about that because some people listening may not know that that is a really cool tool for evacuation.

• 1:09:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think that, you know, the modern toilet wasn't really designed for the way the human body is built, you know, we're just sitting there. The way the pelvic floor muscles are, like if you raise your legs up, it helps you relax the pelvic floor so much more.

• 1:09:53Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:53Speaker 01

  And it just, the angles of how everything works and relaxing those muscles, it, it makes a tremendous difference. So a lot of people, their constipation is, is stemming not from a motility issue or a microbiome issue, it's a pelvic floor issue where they just can't push out the stool, you know, and that's why pelvic floor physical therapy has become so popular. And it's not just in women, I mean, even men can have issues and sometimes it's from childbirth and sometimes we don't really know what causes it. It's like a lot of people holding their stress in their pelvic muscles.

• 1:10:26Mindy Pelz?

  Yep. What about like C-sections or pregnancies? We see so much scar tissue on the, on the pelvic floor.

• 1:10:34Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 1:10:34Mindy Pelz?

  I'm curious if you've seen some women struggle with constipation post-pregnancy?

• 1:10:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean with C-sections, if you've had multiple C-sections, it can create like adhesions and scar tissue in the abdomen. And back in the day, like 15 years ago, when I used to do colonoscopies, we would see a lot of women who would have, we call it tortuous colons. Meaning like it was really hard to advance the scope through their entire colon because it was just twisted in there. So like in a man, usually they have more narrow pelvis and the colon is almost, okay, the way you would see it in a textbook, like it goes up, across and down. But in a women, it's all folded in there. And so it would be more challenging to navigate the scope.

• 1:11:24Speaker 01

  And so we would call that tortuous colon. And women who had surgeries like C-section, or if they had their uterus removed, hysterectomy, they were way more likely to have a more challenging colonoscopy. And it's kind of because the uterus kind of holds things in place around it. When you remove the uterus, now there's like an opening in the pelvis, so the colon might have more turns.

• 1:11:49Mindy Pelz?

  Okay.

• 1:11:49Speaker 01

  Sometimes that can also contribute to a little bit of constipation because when you're trying to eliminate the stool, there's just so much more turns and everything. So I think all of that, you know, we have to be mindful of that, making sure you have enough fiber, enough water, that you're relaxed in that maybe the squatty potty gets you into that perfect position to help you evacuate.

• 1:12:11Mindy Pelz?

  Do we, do we still believe in colonoscopies? Are we still recommending that as a gold standard for people to do regularly?

• 1:12:19Speaker 01

  Um, so colonoscopies, you know, back in the day when I was a GI fellow 15 years ago, the recommendation was to do it at 50 and now they've moved it up to 45. So, um, yeah, there, there is an alternative, which is the Cologuard, you know, the stool screening test.

• 1:12:37Mindy Pelz?

  Okay.

• 1:12:38Speaker 01

  For colon cancer. There's pros and cons to both. I mean, the Cologuard, it's non-invasive and it's super easy to do. It just comes and it's, it's honestly very, very easy from what I hear. I haven't done one yet. But, um, it's very easy. You send it off and it'll come back positive or negative. If it's positive, then you do need to do a colonoscopy because it could be positive for a number of reasons.

• 1:13:01Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:02Speaker 01

  It could be microscopic blood, it could be DNA, so many things. Um, the colonoscopy, if you choose to do that, the benefits are they can remove the precancerous polyps. So it's almost like a dental cleaning, you know, uh, with a colonoscopy, some of the polyps are benign. Some of them have a potential to turn into cancer five to 10 years later, the adenomatous polyps. So having that opportunity to remove them. So sometimes that initial colonoscopy is worth doing. And if that comes back clean and 10 years later you opt for a Cologuard instead, that's fine. You can do that every three years. And then we look at other things too, like your family history.

• 1:13:44Speaker 01

  What are the risks of sedation for that person? You know, everyone has different concerns about that. So we kind of, I talk to patients, you know, personally about all of that.

• 1:13:52Mindy Pelz?

  There, there is a big trend here on YouTube around psyllium husks. And, um, I have always been thinking of psyllium husks as being just a little too harsh on the inner villi inside the, you know, intestinal tract. But a lot of people claim it has stabilized blood sugar. What are your feelings on psyllium husk? Like if I know I need some colon repair, I know I need blood sugar stabilization and I do a glass of psyllium husk before a meal. Is that a good or a bad thing for our gut?

• 1:14:30Speaker 01

  Psyllium husk, yeah, it's a excellent fiber. I mean, it was previously known as the main fiber in Metamucil.

• 1:14:37Mindy Pelz?

  Right, exactly. That's why I'm like, wow, we're back here. I, I feel like we had Metamucil in the seventies and we're like right back here.

• 1:14:45Speaker 01

  Yeah. Now, I feel like, you know, fiber is so person-specific, like, uh, especially with my gut patients, so many of them are fiber-sensitive. So fiber is like a double-edged sword, like when they take, you know, it can cause bloating in some people.

• 1:15:01Speaker 01

  Psyllium husk is not like my first choice. I've never personally recommended it for that reason. I personally tried it, you know, like I mixed it up. I got organic psyllium husk. It wasn't even Metamucil with the chemicals. It was like pure psyllium husk. I did not like the smell, the texture, the taste and getting it down was very difficult. So if someone loves psyllium husk and it's working for them and they're having great bowel movements and no bloating, hey, that's great, you know, continue that. Any kind of fiber is going to help stabilize blood sugar. But I don't find psyllium husk to be one of the top choices as far as like palatability, tolerability, and I think a lot of the SIBO, IBS population, it could be a bloating culprit for sure.

• 1:15:41Mindy Pelz?

  Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It could be, it could be a nightmare. Yeah. It's, it's, I just find, I'm sure you see this on YouTube, there's the different things that trend, trend all the time. Apple cider vinegar was a big trend. So I haven't done a video on psyllium husk because I'm not sure what I think of it for the intestinal tract. And I think we have some good things like apple cider vinegar. And I think a well-balanced meal is, is a great stabilizer of blood sugar. So that's, you know, one of the reasons that I wanted to bring it to a gut expert is, um, we are using it to stabilize blood sugar. But is it at the cost of the gut?

• 1:16:23Speaker 01

  Okay, yeah. So psyllium husk, um, basically again, I think it's very patient-specific.

• 1:16:29Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:30Speaker 01

  You know, because like I said, um, I personally am not, like for me, I wouldn't take psyllium husk because I've tried it. You know, I put it in the water, I bought organic psyllium husk and I didn't find the taste very pleasant. It was, it doesn't dissolve. And so drinking it, I was like, no, I really can't do this.

• 1:16:48Speaker 01

  But I have a handful of patients who psyllium husk is like on their list of supplements that they've been taking for years and it keeps them regular. And they don't have any problems. So I can't necessarily say psyllium is like

• 1:17:01Speaker 01

  hurtful to the gut in any way. I guess it comes down to how is your microbiome going to help that, help handle that? You know, and fiber again is so specific to the individual.

• 1:17:11Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:12Speaker 01

  You know, and like I said, a lot of my gut patients are very fiber-sensitive. And fiber is almost like a double-edged sword for them. So they have to really stick to the fibers they know that they can tolerate. And sometimes, sometimes like when it comes to supplements,

• 1:17:29Speaker 01

  it, it can sometimes trigger bloating, you know, it can be a trigger for that. And there's different types of fibers. Um, there's like a green banana flower fiber that's sometimes better tolerated because it dissolves and the, it smells good and it enhances the texture of a lot of things. If you put it in oatmeal or smoothie or something like that. So it's, sometimes it's about finding a fiber supplement that agrees with you. So we typically use like the green banana flower prebiotic fiber. Or sometimes we use an acacia senegal fiber because it's like a low FODMAP. It comes from the sap of the acacia tree. Um, again, soluble fiber, no smell, no taste. And then there's some, some of my patients who like fiber supplements

• 1:18:11Speaker 01

  um, are, you know, radically transformative for them. Glucomanin is another one.

• 1:18:16Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:17Speaker 01

  You know?

• 1:18:17Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:18Speaker 01

  Glucomanin.

• 1:18:19Mindy Pelz?

  That lately. And, um, konjac noodles recently. I did a bunch of research on that, did a video on it. I was like, wow, wait, this glassy miracle noodle

• 1:18:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:31Mindy Pelz?

  has the glucomanin in it is the way I understood it. It's really interesting.

• 1:18:36Speaker 01

  Really great for stabilizing blood sugar. But again, it just depends like how does that sit with your gut? Like, do you feel good with that? Or do you feel bloated or heavy? Uh, are you able to digest that? But for those who tolerate it, they're amazing for blood sugar stability.

• 1:18:50Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, amazing.

• 1:18:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:52Mindy Pelz?

  Well, Dr. Rajari, I, I feel like I could talk to you forever because like who, who thought the gut was that interesting? It's so, it's, it, but like it is fascinating to me.

• 1:19:03Speaker 01

  It sure is, yeah.

• 1:19:03Mindy Pelz?

  And it, it seems like next to the brain, it's like one of the most important systems in our body. And so I just, I love this discussion. Um, so thank you for being here.

• 1:19:15Speaker 01

  Thank you, Mindy, yeah.

• 1:19:17Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, my, my podcast, we recently changed it to Live Like a Girl because I believe that women have a unique lifestyle that we should follow. The term live like a girl is different for everybody. It means something different. What does the term live like a girl mean to you? And what does living like a girl mean to you?

• 1:19:36Speaker 01

  Well, I love that question and that, you know, I love that all your books are titled like Age Like a Girl, Fast Like a Girl, like, you know, being a girl is like a superpower in a sense.

• 1:19:46Mindy Pelz?

  Thank you. I feel so seen. Yes, agreed.

• 1:19:50Speaker 01

  So it's funny, you know, in, um, in my household, I'm the only girl because it's like my husband and my son. And so, um, I've come to realize that, you know, I'm different, you know, and that's okay. And I'm like, for a while, like I felt like I had to eat like them. And, you know, my son is 15 and he has incredible metabolism. And my husband, you know, they like to eat like a lot of meats and like heavy foods for dinner. And that's wonderful because they need it for their muscle mass. My son's growing. I would feel like I had to like join them and then eat all this too. And like I was pressuring myself. Then one day I thought, no, I don't, I don't have to eat like that.

• 1:20:26Mindy Pelz?

  I can eat like a girl.

• 1:20:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, I can eat like a girl and that's okay. And they can laugh at it and like me say, oh, you're just having your soup and salad. But that's what makes me feel good. So, and that's what I'm gonna have, you know? So, but yeah, I think, you know, being, being a woman and being a girl, it's, it's, we have such a, um, a really beautiful lifespan. And I think, you know, we start, you know, in our teenage years with, um, the periods and it comes as a shock for so many of us. We don't understand what's going on. But now that we're spreading so much awareness about it, I think things can be so much better for girls going through those teenage years. And then, you know, in our twenties or thirties or early forties, whenever that is, we were able to

• 1:21:09Speaker 01

  have a child. It's such like a miraculous thing that our bodies are capable of. It's just amazing, right?

• 1:21:15Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:15Speaker 01

  And then after that, you know, there are some changes, there's some changes in the hormones, but I think with all the awareness we're bringing that we can make all of that treatable. And I think it's just about recognizing that you know, we are these hormonal beings and that's okay. The way we feel today may not be the same way we feel next week, but we just have to be mindful of that and support our bodies the best way we can. And I think that's, I mean, we have those ups and downs and we get those creative urges and we're very caring, nurturing, you know, individuals and we want to like care for our family, care for our patients and and then, uh, you know, we just have to also make time to care for ourselves, you know, uh, so we can come back

• 1:22:00Speaker 01

  and be the best versions of ourselves. So.

• 1:22:02Mindy Pelz?

  That's beautiful. Yeah, I'm really on a mission to take this like a girl and make it our superpower, you know? Use it as a derogatory statement in our culture. And it really is, you just described exactly why it's a superpower. So I loved this conversation. How do people find you?

• 1:22:19Speaker 01

  Oh, thank you. Yeah, you're welcome to check out my YouTube channel. It's, um, just type in Dr. Rajari on YouTube. I've got tons of videos on gut health, uh, hormones, all of that. And then I'm also on Instagram. You can just search Dr. Rajari. And, um, I am still practicing here in Southern California.

• 1:22:36Mindy Pelz?

  Amazing.

• 1:22:37Speaker 01

  If you need help with your gut.

• 1:22:38Mindy Pelz?

  Great.

• 1:22:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:39Mindy Pelz?

  That's good to know. We're always trying to find good doctors to send our, our following to.

• 1:22:44Speaker 01

  For sure. And it's my website, it's OC-integrative-medicine.com. So it's called OC Integrative Medicine. And, um, yeah. Thank you so much for Dr. Mindy. It's such a, such an honor and a privilege to meet you after reading your books all these years and everything.

• 1:22:59Mindy Pelz?

  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, the feeling is mutual. I just, again, I saw you on Mel Robbins. I went to your YouTube and I was like, wow, okay, there's a lot here that I can bring forward to my audience. So

• 1:23:13Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:23:13Mindy Pelz?

  I'm just really grateful that you've took the hour with me. So, um, everybody go follow her and let us know how, you know, we can support the great work you're doing in the world. But I really appreciated this conversation.

• 1:23:26Speaker 01

  Thank you, Dr. Mindy. Really enjoyed it.

• 1:23:28Mindy Pelz?

  Thank you. Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. I love bringing thoughtful discussions about all things health to you. If you enjoyed it, we'd love to know about it. So please leave us a review, share it with your friends and let me know what your biggest takeaway is.