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Acid Indigestion, and Bloating

Microphone and computer; early warning signs of a thyroid problem.

Gut issues are more common than ever, and acid reflux, indigestion, and bloating are a few of the most common complaints. Although you may have suffered with these issues for years, there are several dietary and lifestyle changes you can implement that may help reduce how often you experience them. In this week’s episode we’ll go over some dietary factors that could contribute to digestive issues, as well as discuss the benefits of digestive enzymes and other supplements designed to support gut health.

Products Mentioned in Today’s Show

Chewable Digestive Essentials V – This product can assist in the breakdown of a wide range of proteins, peptides, fats, complex carbohydrates, sugars, and fibers. Serratia peptidase, a unique endopeptidase enzyme, helps protect sensitive GI tissue from irritation that can affect tissue health and intestinal comfort. Enzymes with DPP-IV activity and a full range of disaccharidases are included.

Digest Ease – Mastic Gum/DGL – Cinnamon flavored chewable tablet containing DGL (deglycyrrhizinated licorice root and rhizome extract) and mastic gum to support healthy digestion and gastrointestinal function. This product may help alleviate gastrointestinal discomfort associated with occasional indigestion.

GI Support – Provides extensive support for the entire GI tract by addressing energy requirements of intestinal mucosa, structural composition of intestinal and colonic cells, microorganism balance, and production of protective intestinal mucus secretions.

You can also listen to Acid, Indigestion, and Bloating on our YouTube channel here.

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The Importance of Optimal Digestion

Easy-to-digest soup; the importance of optimal digestion.

With the rise of leaky gut syndrome, food allergies, and gastrointestinal disorder, it is more important than ever to be mindful of your gut health. Having a healthy gut is more difficult than it used to be due to the large number of environmental toxins, food additives, poor diets, and stress we face every day. Much of your overall health is related to or dependent on the health of your gut, and having good digestion is a key part of a healthy gut. Good digestion is crucial for nutrient absorption, bowel regularity, immune system function, and much more. Let’s take a look at the importance of optimal digestion, and what you can do to help improve yours.

Potential Causes of Poor Digestion

There are many different things that can interfere with your digestion. Things like being stressed, smoking cigarettes, and having a poor diet can all have negative effect on your digestive system, as well as other parts of the body. Consuming too little fiber and water are also common problems that can lead to constipation, bloating, and dehydration. One lesser-known habit that can lead to digestive issues is not chewing your food enough. Digestion begin in the mouth when you take a bite of food, and your saliva starts to work on breaking down the food. However, each bite needs to chewed into small enough pieces for the stomach to break it down properly. Eating too quickly and not chewing each bite enough can cause pieces of food to stay in the stomach too long, leading to gas and bloating. It may also make it difficult for it to pass through your intestines and can lead to constipation. Try to chew each bite of food, especially tougher foods like meat, 20-30 times.

What Can You Do?

There are some simple changes you can make that may help your digestive system function better. You should drink plenty of water each day which is about 2 liters for the average person, but hydration needs vary from person to person. Eating plenty of fiber in the form of organic fruits and vegetables is a great way to help promote regular bowel movemenets, along with the added benefits of the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants found in the fruits and vegetables. Engaging in exercise and stress-reducing techniques, and reducing alcohol consumption and quitting smoking may also help improve digestion. Some people do not produce enough digestive enzymes to properly break down their food, so for these people, taking supplemental digestive enzymes like Digestive Essentials with each meal may help. Taking a good probiotic like Probio Ease every day is also a great habit to get into as it helps promote a healthy gut microbiome, which in turn may help promote gut health, digestion, immune system health, and mood. The health of your gut is so important to your overall health, so take good care of it!

You can listen to our Better Health Through Digestion podcast episode here. You can also listen to it on our YouTube channel here.

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Better Health Through Digestion

Microphone and computer; exercising consistent health habits.

As leaky gut, food allergies, and gastrointestinal disorders become more common, it is more important than ever to be mindful of your gut health. Having a healthy gut is more difficult than it used to be due to the large number of environmental toxins, food additives, and stress we face every day. Much of your overall health is dependent on the health of your gut, and having good digestion is a key part of a healthy gut. Good digestion is crucial for nutrient absorption, bowel regularity, immune system function, and much more. In this week’s episode we discuss some common digestive issues, their causes, and what you can do to help improve your digestion.

Possible Signs of Poor Digestion:

  • Gas
  • Bloating
  • Constipation
  • Diarrhea
  • Feeling Tired After Eating
  • Heartburn
  • Indigestion
  • Nutritional Deficiencies

Products Mentioned in Today’s Show

Probio Ease – This shelf-stable, 50 billion CFU formulation contains a blend of 7 select probiotic species with Sunfiber®, a low-FODMAP certified prebiotic. This formulation provides comprehensive microbiome, immune, and healthy inflammation support in one convenient capsule.

Betaine & Pepsin – Betaine & Pepsin provides hydrochloric acid to help maintain gastric pH and supports overall nutrient absorption. Symptoms of indigestion are often mistaken for excessive gastric acid. This leads many to take acid blockers in attempt to lower stomach acid, when the true culprit is likely to be insufficient levels of HCl.

You can also listen to our Better Health Through Digestion episode on our YouTube channel here.

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SIBO Explained

Digestive disorders have become more and more common in the last few years. Diagnoses of conditions like IBS, Crohn’s disease, colitis, leaky gut syndrome, Celiac disease, and many others are increasing every year, but experts aren’t sure why. It could be due to a number of things such as increased environmental toxins, poor diet, low fiber, imbalance of good and bad bacteria, and possibly SIBO. Many doctors are beginning to look at SIBO as a possible root cause of many of these conditions, but what is it and why does it happen?

What and Why

SIBO stands for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, and it occurs when bacteria begins to multiply in the small intestine. Our gut is home to trillions of bacteria of many different strains, with some being bad and some being good. An imbalance of good and bad bacteria is believed to contribute to many different health conditions, but SIBO isn’t always due to this. Most of the bacteria in the gut resides in the large intestine, but bacteria can make its way into the small intestine and cause problems. Even bacteria that is usually considered good can cause problems when it’s in the wrong place, as is the case with SIBO. Bacteria that should not be in the small intestine can find a way in and multiply.

So, bacteria can get into the small intestine and cause problems, but how did it manage to get there in the first place? There are a couple of potential reasons for this including low stomach acid, and a sluggish intestinal tract. Many people take medications like antacids that decrease stomach acid, and while some people may actually have too much stomach acid, many more people don’t have enough. Low stomach acid can cause a number of different problems like heartburn, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, gas, bloating, diarrhea, and overall poor digestion. When food is not digested properly it may move into the small intestine without being fully broken down, providing a great meal for any bacteria that shouldn’t be there. When the bacteria have an abundant food source, they can continue to multiply and worsen your symptoms.

A sluggish, poorly functioning intestinal tract may also contribute to the development of SIBO and other conditions. A sluggish intestinal tract has many potential causes including dehydration, not eating enough fiber, poor diet, certain illnesses like food poisoning, damage from past surgeries, and certain health conditions like hypothyroidism. When partially digested food moves through the intestines it typically contains bacteria from your stomach, and it may also attract bacteria that is in your intestinal tract. When this partially digested food and bacteria move too slowly through the intestines, as is the case with constipation (having less than 1-2 bowel movements per day), the bacteria can migrate to other parts of the intestines where it shouldn’t be, and begin to multiply.

Possible Symptoms of SIBO

SIBO can cause a number of different symptoms, including:

  • Diarrhea
  • Abdominal Pain
  • Constipation
  • Bloating
  • Gas
  • Nausea
  • Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Belching
  • Fatigue
  • Headaches
  • Food Allerges/Intolerances

Many other digestive disorders share these same symptoms, and a person may have been experiencing these symptoms for many years without realizing SIBO could be the cause. Doctors often diagnose this as IBS or other conditions, when it may have been SIBO the whole time.

IBS and Leaky Gut Connection

IBS and leaky gut syndrome are two of the most common gastrointestinal disorders, but they may be caused by SIBO in many cases. It is estimated that over 75% of IBS cases are caused by SIBO. IBS generally refers to a collection of symptoms (like gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, abdominal pain, food allergies/intolerances, etc.) rather than an actual disorder. IBS is often what doctors will “diagnose” you with if they haven’t found a specific reason for your symptoms. Over-the-counter medications for gas, diarrhea, or constipation may be suggested, but this doesn’t deal with the root cause. Almost all of the symptoms of IBS mentioned above are also symptoms of SIBO as listed earlier in this article.

Leaky gut syndrome, also sometimes referred to as intestinal permeability, is a condition is which the lining of the intestines becomes damaged. Tiny holes can form in the intestinal lining allowing food particles, toxins, and other substances to leak out into the bloodstream. The body recognizes these food particles and other substances as foreign invaders, and mounts an immune response against them. This is also how leaky gut syndrome can lead to food allergies/sensitivities because the body begins to recognize certain foods as foreign invaders, and the immune response can present itself as an allergic reaction. Inflammation is part of the immune response, and as we’ve discussed in other articles, chronic inflammation is believed to be a large contributing factor in the development of certain autoimmune diseases, cancers, and other serious health conditions. When someone has SIBO, the bacteria that have moved into the small intestine can damage the lining of the intestine, leading to intestinal permeability (leaky gut), which can lead to a host of other issues. Leaky gut symptoms can include headaches, constipation, food allergies/intolerances, gas, bloating, fatigue, brain fog, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and many others. Unsurprisingly, SIBO and leaky gut syndrome share many of the same symptoms.

Role of Diet

Diet may also play an important role in the development, treatment, and prevention of SIBO. A diet high in sugar and simple carbohydrates like bread and pasta may provide a food source for bad pathogens in the gut like candida. While experts aren’t sure if SIBO or candida overgrowth occurs first, or if they are directly related, increasing the bad bacteria in your gut is not a good thing. Drinking enough water and eating enough fiber to help keep your bowels moving may help reduce your risk of developing SIBO and other conditions. Certain diets like the SCD (specific carbohydrate diet) have helped provide relief for some people suffering from SIBO.

Possible Treatment

SIBO is a complicated condition to treat, but it is not impossible. It often takes a lot of trial and error to find the treatment that works best for you. For many people with SIBO, it often takes a combination of supplements, diets like SCD or GAPS, intermittent fasting, and other measures to get the best results. Some supplements that may help with some of the conditions mentioned in this article include Candicid Forte, Intestin-ol, and Lauricidin. Candicid Forte and Intestin-ol may help reduce candida overgrowth, and Lauricidin has anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-parasitic qualities, and may also help reduce candida overgrowth.

Regardless of whether or not you have any of the symptoms of the conditions discussed throughout this article, we recommend that you drink around 64 ounces of clean, filtered water each day, eat a diet low in grains, sugar, and processed foods, eat plenty of organic produce and healthy fats like coconut oil and olive oil, and eat high-quality meats. Digestive issues can have a serious impact on your everyday life, as well as potentially increasing your risk of developing more serious conditions later in life, so do what you can to help protect your gut!

Listen to our Is It SIBO or IBS? podcast here.

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Is it SIBO or IBS?

Symptoms of SIBO and IBS include:

  • Nausea
  • Bloating
  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhea
  • Malnutrition
  • Weight Loss
  • Joint Pain
  • Fatigue
  • Rashes
  • Acne
  • Eczema
  • Asthma
  • Depression
  • Rosacea

Lab Mentioned in Today’s Show:

Comprehensive Panel – The GWH – 3. Comprehensive Panel w Consult panel contains 13 tests with 102 biomarkers.

Product Mentioned in Today’s Show:

Lauricidin – Monolaurin is a natural, plant-based medium chain saturated fatty acid extracted from coconut oil that offers unique health-promoting properties.* When taken on an ongoing basis, Lauricidin® may help support a strong immune defense*, support a natural balance of healthy bacteria*, and promote a healthy balance of yeast*.

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Leaky Gut

Autoimmune diseases, allergies, depression, anxiety, cancer, and so many other health issues are much more common today than they were just fifty years ago, but why? There are several causes for the rise in chronic illness, but poor diet and exposure to environmental toxins are arguably the main reasons. Poor nutrition, continuous exposure to toxins in our food, air and water, and overuse of prescription and over-the-counter medications all contribute to a condition known as leaky gut syndrome. This is the name given to a condition in which the lining of the gut becomes permeable, allowing food particles and toxins to pass into the bloodstream which causes the body to mount an immune response. So many people struggle with this condition, but most have no idea.

Leaky Gut

An immune response might not sound like a bad thing, but leaky gut can cause a continuous immune response. Food particles, toxins, and other substances that you consume are meant to stay in your gut. Your body has a digestive lining that is supposed to only allow certain things to pass through, but this lining can become “stretched out”, allowing things to pass through into your bloodstream that were meant to stay in your gut. Your body recognizes these substances as invaders that it must get rid of, causing it to attack. When your immune system is constantly attacking something it can get end up getting “tired”, or it could lose its ability to differentiate between bad and good cells. This can lead to autoimmune problems as your body can no longer tell what is healthy tissue, so it may begin attacking healthy tissue like the thyroid gland, joints, etc.

Food particles that manage to get through the gut lining are also recognized as invaders, and the immune response can come in the form of allergies to certain foods. This is how leaky gut is linked to allergies, and it may help explain the sharp increase in food allergies/sensitivities in recent years. Leaky gut can also lead to poor nutrient absorption, making it difficult for your body to break down and absorb vitamins, minerals, and other vital nutrients.

Symptoms

Leaky gut can cause many different symptoms, and they may mimic the symptoms of other illnesses. Often times, people are diagnosed and treated for an issue that leaky gut actually caused. Leaky gut is often mistaken for IBS or other digestive problems due to the overlapping symptoms, and IBS often does not get better until leaky gut is addressed. This is why it is necessary to identify the root cause of your issues so you can truly heal them, instead of just managing the symptoms.

Leaky gut can cause many symptoms like fatigue, headaches, eczema, acne, weight gain, digestive problems, bloating, food allergies, and many others. If leaky gut is left untreated it can worsen and contribute to more severe problems like autoimmune diseases, IBS and many others.

Treatment

Leaky gut is treatable, but you have to be dedicated and consistent. The first step is to eliminate foods and drinks from your diet that contribute to leaky gut and inflammation. This includes grains (especially the gluten-containing grains wheat, barley, triticale, some oats, and rye), conventional dairy products as in dairy products you find in a typical grocery store, sugar, GMO products, non-organic produce, and processed food. You should drink mostly water and unsweet tea (no soda), but you should consider the quality of your water. Tap water typically contains heavy metals, chlorine, fluoride, and even antibiotics and other medications that were unable to be filtered out. These and other harmful substances found in tap water should be eliminated, so investing in a high-quality water filter or finding a source of clean water is important.

After eliminating these foods and drinks, you should replace them with nutrient-rich and easy-to-digest foods and liquids like organic fruit, cooked organic vegetables (raw vegetables are usually harder to digest), bone broth, fermented vegetables, good fats like olive oil and coconut oil, grass-fed meats, and wild-caught fish. These foods are an important of a healthy diet, but they are essential when trying to heal leaky gut.

Recovering from leaky gut is possible, so try eliminating these foods and adding in the good ones. Give these supplements a try, and see how much better you feel!

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Running on Empty?

Janet Lewis: Hello, and welcome to this week’s show. I’m Janet Lewis.

 

Dr. Lewis: And I’m Dr. Lewis.

 

Janet Lewis: And we are Green Wisdom Health, home of the low-cost lab work, where we help you get your health goals back in line with having a life worth living. We’re very excited about this week’s show because we are going to be talking to you about running on empty, as many people are. They’re tired, sick, overweight, don’t know what’s wrong with them, depending on that next cup of coffee to make sure that they can get through the whole day.

 

Dr. Lewis: She looked at me when she said “coffee”.

 

Janet Lewis: No, not really. I’m actually talking about a girl named Teresa, and I’m sure you all know a girl named Teresa, but she was running on empty. She was 40 years old, 68 pounds heavier than her wedding day, and still adding almost a pound per month despite eating smaller and smaller portions. “But a lot of people gain weight as they age,” she had reasoned. She often felt very nauseous instead of hungry. After she eat, she said the nausea would return, sometimes much worse, and she had developed a hard knot in the core of her stomach. She just thought, “It’s probably just a little bit of stress.”

 

  She was so tired, bone tired, all the time. Even basic household chores left her exhausted. She’d start a load of laundry, then take a rest on the couch just to gather enough energy to move it to the dryer. I know some of us can relate to that. She didn’t sleep well and often had headaches, so of course she was tired, she assumed. But that wasn’t all. She felt bloated, crampy, constipated most days, even when she wasn’t about to start her period. But when her period did arrive, Teresa often had to take 12 ibuprofen capsules to survive the first day.

 

  She had visited doctors. Everything checked out fine. Normal, average, as many of you can probably relate. She told herself it was normal and just a part of getting older, but when she looked in the mirror she didn’t feel normal. She just felt old. Her skin was flat, her eyes were dull, her hair was brittle and graying and falling out. She had lost her spark. Quick to irritation, short on patience, and often unable to concentrate, Teresa was frustrated but a little resigned with her situation. “After all,” she thought, “nothing’s really wrong. I’m perfectly normal, especially given this crazy life.”

 

  She was manager of a software company, she traveled frequently, she had family life, church commitments. Everything kept her on the go, so she had very little time for exercise, less for rest, and meals were always a hassle. She did her best with nutrition. She tried to grab an apple in the afternoon, tried to remember to take a multivitamin now and then, but it didn’t make any difference. Teresa admits it now, she was overcommitted and overweight, but undernourished, perfectly normal for today’s average busy person. Right? Is that right, Dr. Lewis?

 

Dr. Lewis: Just because it’s common don’t mean it’s normal.

 

Janet Lewis: That’s right. It’s wrong. If you feel at all like Teresa, we must tell you it’s unacceptable.

 

Dr. Lewis: Don’t be Teresa.

 

Janet Lewis: It isn’t right. So what we’re going to help you understand today is that there is joy and a productive life coming, more than just getting through the day, and that we’re here to help you figure out why and what to do about it and that you don’t have to live in a desperate despair of waiting to die. So Dr. Lewis, with that I will let you take it, and you tell people what Teresa should be doing or what happened along the way, and how to get it back.

 

Dr. Lewis: Well, I’m going to take you through a few little rabbit trails and rabbit holes to honor Dr. Amanda, because she loves it when I do that. I’m going to talk about a lot of things, which is not uncommon at all. Fatigue, we hear that all the time, and sometimes we’re too tired to do these things because we work, work, work, work. But we do take a lot of time to play, and sometimes we’re guilty of playing too hard. So folks, don’t forget, some of the best things you can do is get quiet and be still. That’s a very important thing.

 

  Far as fatigue, there’s a long list of symptoms that goes with fatigue, and I’m sure Janet will get further into it than me, but you have to be careful about looking at a list and saying, “Well, that means I have adrenal problems,” or, “That means I have a thyroid problem,” because those same lists can go to a lot of other potential problems. But the things that cause us to have a long-term loss of energy or fatigue is anger, fear, anxiety, guilt, people are depressed, and all kinds of negative emotions.

 

  Now, a lot of that can come physiologically because you don’t have the right kind of nutrients in there for your body to work correctly. Much of that can come because you don’t have the proper probiotics, and you’ve heard me talk about how different types of probiotics can lower your stress levels and lower your cortisol levels. But there’s so many people that create their own negative emotions. They’re constantly worried or they look for what can possibly go wrong, and then they blow it up and make it worse than what it is, which gives you a bad response from your adrenal glands, which eventually will tear up your thyroid too.

 

  You know me. I try to think more about the people that we have that are wonderful and beautiful and make our lives better, but I can’t help but to feel sorry for or to mourn over people that had the answer and died too early. Okay, I’m trying to be nice here. Got one laying in the mortuary now that it’s like, “Well, it ain’t like you didn’t have the answers,” but she didn’t love herself enough to do it. She’s much younger than me. Very, very lovely lady.

 

  How do we get to the point where we love yourselves enough to be able to do some of these things? Be aware of negative emotions. You’ve heard me talk before about different books. I read several dozen, many dozens, per year. Janet just ordered me, I don’t know, six or eight. One of the best books you can read is called Negaholics, and it’s how you get into a negative feedback loop.

 

  People, other ways they get fatigue is over work, which can be physical or mental. I promise you, Janet and I are guilty of that too. We love our job, and sometimes it gets to be quite taxing. So we have to focus on the people that are good and the people that bring us joy, bring us laughter, bring us up. We’re surprised today because we had some from quite a long way away drop by, so thank you, Carl and Leslie. It was seriously a pleasure to meet you. We’ve dealt with this family over the phone for a long time. One of the things that make them winners is they’re consistent. So thank you for dropping by, because I like it. It made me feel better. Thank you.

 

  So focus on what brings you up. I see people that do excessive exercise and destroy their body. Sleep deprivation, we’re going to talk a little bit about sleep. We’ve done that before, and that’s an issue with me. We do have all kinds of new, exciting things about that. Any kind of trauma, surgery, injuries, even minor car wrecks six to eight miles per hour can give you a lot of trauma. Chronic inflammation, and that’s usually gastrointestinal, although it can be other ways. We test the CRP, which is more cardiovascular specific, but that can be kind of a cascade of things that come from …

 

Janet Lewis: Chronic inflammation.

 

Dr. Lewis: Yeah. Sometimes I’ll stutter and I know I go down rabbit trails, but sometimes it is just because I’m really, really tired. There have been many, many, many real research articles that connect different types of inflammation to different kinds of diseases like cancer, that’s chronic disease, is a major contributing factor, heart attacks and cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s.

 

Janet Lewis: So you’re saying inflammation is the leading culprit there in all of those.

 

Dr. Lewis: Absolutely. You know, the inflammatory cytokines can almost always be a major contributing factor or cause to some of the autoimmune diseases, psoriasis, lupus, asthma, pancreatitis can do that, psoriasis. Oh, Lord. Those people, they think you’re a hero when you fix them, and that takes time and certainly takes a certain measure of faith to pull that off. We’ve got some new allergy supplements.

 

  Of course, we can’t say any of this is meant to treat a symptom or disease because, according to the FDA, the only thing that can heal is a drug. I think the only thing that can heal is God, but it pays, I think, to put some different nutrition and building blocks for your body to do the job. So inflammation, and it means you don’t have enough antioxidants. I can tell all kinds of stories. It’s just where do you want me to go with it. But you have to constantly do this. Well, I’ll just tell a quick story.

 

  Over the weekend, Janet and I went to a seminar on brain function. It was really, really, extremely brilliant people teaching this thing. I was quite impressed. They said to keep the brain healthy, you have to keep the GI tract healthy. The night before we went to this seminar, Janet literally begged me to allow her to take me to the hospital because I’d had a round of diverticulitis. I said, “No, I’m not going to the hospital.” I was very, very ill, but I toughed it out and went, and they said, “Oh, if you want your brain healthy you got to keep your guts healthy.” Of course, that’s a very oversimplification.

 

  We learned a lot, and part of that is the microbiome, or the good probiotics and how to get them in there, and the prebiotics, which I think is a pretty misunderstood term. They showed us research where … You know how they’re talking about these athletes that go into the CTE disease, the brain problems, after post concussion syndrome? They said the ones that just spontaneously went away were the ones that had a good gut microbiome and a healthy GI tract, and the brain healed because of that. So maybe we should pay attention. I’m not saying it’s because you have your head up your rectum, it’s because they really, really are connected. Janet bought me a book on that one too. There are some really, really interesting books that people should pay attention to.

 

  But fatigue is a pretty serious issue. I always think, look for lack of nutrients. Look for too many toxins in the environment. Look to the GI tract. I’ve had people come in literally with tears in their eyes and say, “Do you believe in chronic fatigue syndrome? Do you believe in fibromyalgia?” When I say, “Yes, ma’am,” they cry even more and I think it’s because they think my mustache is ugly. I don’t know, but it’s like they finally had somebody that actually believed that their symptoms are real. I’d say, “Yes ma’am, but we have to normalize your GI tract and we have to do this and this and this, and you cannot do it alone. You have to have a dear friend or spouse or somebody to help you through this, because it took you years to get into that condition and it’s going to take you months to get out of it.”

 

Janet Lewis: Well, does that have anything to do with adrenal fatigue as well? Because I know as you get more inflamed and your body gets more stressed, aren’t your adrenals involved in it?

 

Dr. Lewis: Yeah. Usually they go really, really high. I talked to a young lady this morning, and her cortisol was at 22.5, which is like … She says, “What does that mean?” I said, “Do you know how dangerous Interstate 20 is when it’s raining? There’s always somebody has wrecks. There’s deaths very, very commonly between here and Dallas.” Something wrong with I-20, I’m sure. I said, “You’re going 135 miles per hour on a slick I-20 with your cortisol right at a 22.5. You’re going to crash and burn. It’s just a matter of when, so you need to learn to get still, you need to learn to nourish your adrenal glands.” One of the things that Janet doesn’t know that I’m going to talk about is something we use called Adrenall.

 

Janet Lewis: I do know about Adrenall because I forgot to put it in my menagerie of pills that I take, and I do mean menagerie. I take all kind of things to try to stay up and make sure you guys have everything you need, because it’s a pretty big job keeping up with all of this and doing it in a timely manner, which we try to do.

 

Dr. Lewis: She didn’t know I was going to talk about it, though.

 

Janet Lewis: I did not know that, but for a couple of days I accidentally left it out of my supplements and I thought, “What is going on with me?” It’s like I just wanted to go to sleep on my desk. I realized that I had left Adrenall out, which it says only do two a day. Well, I decided to start taking two of them in the morning and two of them at lunch. It’s like instantly peppy again, because it has a lot of adaptogenic herbs in it that make your adrenals feel good.

 

Dr. Lewis: It’s real popular. I mean, people get a really good response. We’re always trying to find bigger, better products, ones that are more absorbable and that cost less. Adrenall seems to be the big kahuna, and I don’t know that we’ll ever get any better than that but we’re always working. But yeah, you have to support your adrenals because if they go to heck in a bucket sooner or later your thyroid is too. Another product that, and this may not even be the time to talk about products. I don’t know, but Janet let me talk so here we go.

 

Janet Lewis: I let him ramble.

 

Dr. Lewis: Yeah. Rabbit hole, Amanda. She knows who she is. There’s something called Mitocore, which is a product that we just now decided to get in. We’re getting like oh my God results from it, like people that work super, super hard in a toxic environment, like people that work on the pipeline, welding the pipes so they’re inhaling the welding gases, which is full of heavy metals. I’m saying heavy metals because that’s one of the questions that we have that’s going to come up. We’re getting reports back like, “Oh my God, Dr. Lewis. I can’t believe how good I feel. I feel like I was 25 again,” and I’d say, “Well, Jimmy, you’re late 50s and you don’t look 25.” “Well, I’m still big enough to whip you.” I said, “Yep, you really are.”

 

  But it’s got some really, really good stuff, and not just to nourish the body but to extract some of the things that can interfere with the energy production in the cell. The mitochondria’s where the energy’s actually produced. That’s been very, very popular. We can tell if it’s going to be a good product if we get it in and one, two, three weeks later people are saying, “Oh my God, I can tell a huge difference.” Yes, Janet takes a lot of stuff, but literally she looks better than she did 10 years ago and she looked really, really good back then, of course.

 

Janet Lewis: That’s good.

 

Dr. Lewis: Yeah. But she has to work at it, because if you’re going to work at the pace that we work, you have to supplement your body and you have to be kind to the temple. You have to be willing to spend the time, the energy, the effort, and the money. People don’t mind spending money on things that destroy the temple, but they sure kick and scream about doing something that’s going to make it probably last longer but certainly have a better quality of life. If you don’t have that self love, look to your spouse because they should build you up with that.

 

Janet Lewis: One of the reasons we decided to do this show, because there’s a lot of Teresas out there, like the story we told. We met one yesterday that told me that, she said, “Isn’t it normal to take your kids down to the bus stop and take a nap before you go back home?” I said, “Come again?” She goes, “Oh, yeah. Many times I have to take a nap before I can walk back up to my house from where I just dropped them off at the bus stop.”

 

  Those are signs of adrenal fatigue, and in case you don’t know what some of the signs are, I’m going to give you a few of them so you’ll know. Fatigue and weakness, especially in the morning or afternoon, like you just can’t make it through the day. A suppressed immune system, so for those of you that we run lab on and we’ve told you your immune system’s low, I had that issue. Immune system, your white blood cell count, should optimally be about a seven to an eight. There are many of you out there that are operating at a three to a five on that, so your body’s extremely tired. Increased allergies, and I know many people who go, “Oh, it’s pollen. It’s that time of the year.” Yeah, that does aggravate it but if you’ve already got that going on to start with that’s just like icing on the cake that puts you over the top.

 

Dr. Lewis: Think food allergies, and we do have some new testing coming up that’s going to be really, really good.

 

Janet Lewis: Yes. We don’t want to get you too excited about that yet, but yes we do. We’re going to lunch with a new lab company next week and we’re going to learn about all of the different testing we can do to find out what you are allergic to.

 

Dr. Lewis: For intestinal permeability, for heavy metal testing, for allergies and immunoglobulins. It’s going to be really, really super.

 

Janet Lewis: Then, more signs of adrenal fatigue are muscle and bone loss and muscular weakness.

 

Dr. Lewis: Oops. Must be me.

 

Janet Lewis: Depression is actually a sign of adrenal fatigue. Cravings for foods high in salt, sugar, or fat.

 

Dr. Lewis: I got the stink eye on that one.

 

Janet Lewis: I think you took that and ran. Hormonal imbalances. Skin problems.

 

Dr. Lewis: Keep your mouth shut, guys, if you think your wife has a hormonal imbalance because women that have hormonal imbalances live a lot longer than men that talk about it.

 

Janet Lewis: That’s right. Don’t you forget it. Autoimmune disorders. Increased PMS or menopausal symptoms in women.

 

Dr. Lewis: Keep your mouth shut, men.

 

Janet Lewis: Low sex drive, and that can go for either side. Lightheadedness when getting up from sitting or lying down.

 

Dr. Lewis: If you’re not a ditsy blonde and that is happening, then there may be an issue.

 

Janet Lewis: Decreased ability to handle stress. If that person is getting on your last nerve and they shouldn’t be there yet, there could be an adrenal issue.

 

Dr. Lewis: It’s probably not them. It could be you.

 

Janet Lewis: That’s right. Trouble waking up in the morning despite a full night’s sleep.

 

Dr. Lewis: Yeah, if you get up in the morning thinking about when you can get back on the couch, you might be a redneck.

 

Janet Lewis: And poor memory.

 

Dr. Lewis: What’d you say? Nevermind.

 

Janet Lewis: The one thing we’d tell you always, always, don’t guess about what’s going on with your health, because so many people are going to go, “Oh, this is me. I have all this.” Yes, it can be. But there could be so many other things going on also, like the lady I told you about yesterday that had to take a nap on her way back from the bus stop. She actually had an autoimmune problem in her thyroid that she did now know she had. So had she not run lab, we would have never known that and neither would she.

 

  So if you’re going, “Oh, lab’s expensive,” well, not through us. When we’re talking about this, you literally could run what we call our comprehensive panel. It’s $298. It includes 12 panels of lab, a functional medicine report, and your complimentary consultation with Dr. Lewis, as well as what we would recommend for supplements so that you would not guess at what you need to take.

 

Dr. Lewis: I put on my cheerleading outfit and cheer you into better health.

 

Janet Lewis: Yes. So if you don’t know what’s wrong, please don’t guess and just go, “Hey, let me just try this.” Or if you try it and it doesn’t work for you, there’s probably some underlying problem there that you’re missing out on. We can order this lab in all but two states in the United States.

 

Dr. Lewis: Yeah, two or three. It vacillates between the two.

 

Janet Lewis: Yeah, so there’s generally one close to you, so there’s no need for you to guess any longer. Go on our website, greenwisdomhealth.com, and fill out our health survey, and quit living like this because it’s not worth it. That’s what Teresa wound up doing. She wound up getting herself healthy, because I know you’re all wondering what happened to her. Then, we got a couple of questions Dr. Lewis is going to answer for you too.

 

  But Teresa wound up seeing a nutritionist, and she got a reputable nutritional company, which that’s important, and she began eating less meat and cutting out her sugar, and detoxifying her system and pushing out the years of pollution from prescription drugs, processed food, and stress. She started working to cleanse first and then build her damaged digestive tract.

 

  After about four months of gentle, consistent cleansing, she started feeling better, her skin began to glow, her hair regained its luster and body, and I know all you women are always asking me about that, and her hair was thicker, and some of the gray hairs even started to turn brown. So you can start looking youthful again instead of like something in a petrified forest. Teresa got her life back, and that what we want for you too. Dr. Lewis, we have a couple of questions that we need to answer about cleansing. We have Alice that asked about what testing do we have if you have heavy metals in your system. Does that go to our new lab panels that we’re doing?

 

Dr. Lewis: Well, you can get on Ulta Lab. They’re on our website, and go to the lab. They’re a different heavy metal test that we can do. Then, as Janet said, we’re going to lunch next week with a guy to Dallas to open up our options about other testing. Heavy metals, yes. There’s so many different possibilities, and if there’s anybody that’s connected to a hair analysis company put me to the challenge because I’ve done hair analysis two different times. I’ve done two different names, two different sets of symptoms but the same hair. One time, they matched 40%. The other time, they matched 50% but it’s the same hair. They should’ve matched 100%. I’m not sure about hair analysis for that reason, so if you’ve had that company, challenge me. I’ll go through it again.

 

  But we’re about to be hooked up with an even more extensive heavy metal test. Some of the things if you think you may be exposed would be toxic element exposure, which is all of us, but hairdressers, nail techs, people that spray pesticides, welders, etc. Balding hair, bone density problems, cardiovascular disease can definitely be connected to their depression. Dermatitis or skin diseases-

 

Janet Lewis: That’s interesting you say that, because the lady I was telling you about that we found had the autoimmune problem in her thyroid was a cleaning lady. She did cleaning with chemicals.

 

Dr. Lewis: Bad chemicals.

 

Janet Lewis: And they say many times that creates an autoimmune problem.

 

Dr. Lewis: She had the most bizarre … I looked at the lab and said … I won’t tell you what I said, but it’s like it scared me.

 

Janet Lewis: We said, “We can help you.”

 

Dr. Lewis: It was so, so scary what she had, I begged her to share treatment with an endocrinologist. I don’t think what we do is treating everything. I just say throw it in and let God sort it out. But other potential signs of heavy metal toxicity is fatigue. But again, you know that fatigue can be so many other things. But it can be the heavy metals, GI symptoms, high blood pressure, immune function issues, impaired glucose tolerance, which is all of us, with high insulin and/or high blood sugar. Kidney function. That’s almost always a heavy metal. I shouldn’t say almost always. Many times it is. And nutritional deficiencies, because your body’s taking what few nutrients you have, trying to detox the stuff, just not enough of it to do it.

 

Janet Lewis: Cool. Okay. Hopefully that answered Alice’s question. Then we have one from Trisha that said, “Can regular blood work indicate if there is underlying cancer or disease processes that have yet to become symptomatic?”

 

Dr. Lewis: I got a similar question from Maggie also. There are some tests that you can do that would check for antigens, for, say, prostate cancer or breast cancer or ovarian and uterine cancer. I’m certainly not an expert on cancer. I always suggest that you go to a specialist, an oncologist or hematologist. I definitely prefer the ones that will help you do the natural stuff too. But yeah, you can see underlying things before they get symptomatic. Some people say, “But I don’t feel it.” I say, “Well, there’s so many people that didn’t feel their heart disease til five minutes before their heart attack killed them.” Feelings is a very small amount of what’s really going on.

 

  Let me tell you real quick, can these things help? We said earlier about the guy that had 35 on his PSA and he’s got full blown prostatic cancer that’s metastasized into the bone. Well, his PSA, his daughter was crying when she talked to Janet and said, “Well, it went down to, I think it was about a 9, within three weeks. I just got his lab back today and it’s down to 4.27.”

 

Janet Lewis: Oh, that’s awesome. I didn’t even know that.

 

Dr. Lewis: Yeah, they left the lab at lunch. So folks, I’m not curing cancer. I’m not treating cancer, but you throw things in that your body needs to work with and God can bless it and make you better, hopefully have a longer life, but for sure you can have a higher quality life. So yes, Trisha, you’re doing a good job getting your lab work and a couple of glasses of wine and you won’t have to worry about anything. I love teasing Trisha.

 

Janet Lewis: So I guess the answer to that question is there are markers that you can tell. If you don’t get something under control, you have a better chance of having cancer down the road. Would that be an accurate statement on blood work?

 

Dr. Lewis: Yeah, and maybe we need to go back and finish the podcast we didn’t finish on cancer and some of the statistics. I’d like to do that, because that was the one I didn’t get in enough Stevenisms. I got a lot of smart aleck Stevenisms I’d like to put in on that one.

 

Janet Lewis: We just know if the body stays in an inflamed state for a long period of time and a lot of the lab values are not getting help, the body can only go so long on a wing and a prayer, literally. At some point, it can’t take any more, so that’s when you get cancer and those kind of things.

 

Dr. Lewis: Yeah, disease is just adaptive physiology, and it’s adapted to bad situation. But yes, Trisha, I think you can see some of this coming. I mean, I know you can see a lot of it coming. It’s not necessarily what you feel.

 

Janet Lewis: And the issue with nutrition is you don’t know what you missed out on if you start taking something because people say, “Well, I don’t know if I had that or not.” Well, none of us do. We just know that when people walk into this office you can always tell the ones that’s been taking nutrition for many years, because they look completely different than people that are just learning about it.

 

Dr. Lewis: Amen.

 

Janet Lewis: So on that note, we hope you’ve enjoyed the show. We hope you’re not tired, and if you are tired, you know how to now get help, so there’s no need to live like that in quiet desperation. We hope you guys have a very blessed week, and we’ll talk to you here next time on the Green Wisdom Health Show. Have a blessed week.