The Concierge Doc Podcast with Dr. Jason Littleton, M.D.
The Concierge Doc Podcast is hosted by Dr Jason Littleton, M.D., where he features medical content to make smart lifestyle choices for optimal health, wellness, energy, youthfulness, longevity, balance, and happiness.
The Concierge Doc Podcast with Dr. Jason Littleton, M.D.
Optimize Brain Health by Healing Your Gut with Dr. Partha Nandi, M.D., F.A.C.P
Visit Dr Jason Littleton's website: https://www.jasonmd.com/
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Watch Dr Jason Littleton on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@therealdoctorjason3340
Disclaimer:
Access to the Information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk. The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and health care topics (the “Information”). Nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. The Information contained is compiled from a variety of sources. The Information should not be considered complete and not exhaustive and should not be in place of a visit or consultation with your own primary care doctor.
Access to the information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk. The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and healthcare topics. The information nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. The information contained is compiled from a variety of sources. The information should not be considered complete and exhaustive and should not be in place of a visit or consultation with your own primary care doctor. Welcome to the Concierge Doc Podcast. I'm your host, dr Jason Littleton, ceo and founder of Littleton Concierge Medicine. Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1:My next guest is the creator and host of the internationally syndicated medical lifestyle television show Ask Dr Nandy. He's the chief health editor of WXYZ ABC Detroit, a practicing physician and also a renowned international speaker. His appearances include TEDx college commencements, numerous charity functions and premier medical meetings, such as Digestive Disease Week. He's delivered keynote speeches for esteemed organizations like Medtronic, phantom Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly, showcasing his expertise and passion for advancing medical knowledge and patient care. He has partnered with the Ministry of Health in Jamaica and India and collaborated with the World Health Organization. He delivers passionate and inspiring talks to diverse audiences and continues to travel to international conferences and symposia, meetings with global health leaders on his quest to improve healthcare quality and access and advocacy. His mission to be your own health hero is at the heart of his work and he empowers individuals worldwide to take charge of their own health and also recently releasing a book Heal your Gut, save your Brain. Everyone welcome Dr Partha Nandy, the show. Welcome to the show, dr Nandy.
Speaker 2:Dr Littleton and I go way back. Thank you for having me. It's such an honor to be with you. Your, your work is incredible. I follow it and thank you for all you do every day for, for, for, for your patients and and, really, I think, the nation. You know, I, I remember, uh, you know, when we first met you're the America's energy doctor and it continues to amaze me what you do. So thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for being on. I mean it's an honor to have you on. I mean you're, like, the world's leader when it comes to gut health and I'm really excited about your new release, your new book Kill your Gut, save your Brain. I've got a lot of questions because I think that when I think about the gut brain connection, a lot of people don't understand it like they should, because if we did, we'd have better brain health, we'd have better gut health, and I'm just so happy to have you on so that I could ask you questions, so you could further explain and educate people everywhere. Again, you know you're just so esteemed, you're so celebrated and it's like I said, it's an honor to have you on the show.
Speaker 2:And I want you to talk to us today about your new book. Yeah, you know, it's called Heal your Gut, save your Brain. You know, as a gastroenterologist, I've seen the connections for the years. I'll go back, you know, and when we've, you know, jason and I go way back, it's even over a decade. I go back to the time when my dad had a stroke.
Speaker 2:My dad was my first hero and this not just a stroke, a devastating stroke that took away the last decade of his life, dr Littleton and when he had that, it changed my perspective. I thought I was a pretty good doc, I thought I was empathetic, but then, when I became the caregiver, when I became the patient, I realized that we didn't know so much that we did as a physician. So I learned the other side of medicine and that really started my quest, as you talked about, to be your own health hero, to advocate for not only preventing diseases but also, when you have the diseases, what to do with it and really making your health your priority. So when my dad had a stroke, my family and I corralled, we rallied around him and we did every single workup to try to find out what was going on. And the answer to everybody was well, he just had a stroke. You know, we didn't. We couldn't find a cardiac etiology and any other etiology that he would have no real cause. And so I was always disappointed that we couldn't find something that we could say hey, you know what, if we had done this, we could have prevented this devastating stroke. And then fast forward a decade. We've had so much research that's developed, dr Littleton, in the gut-brain axis.
Speaker 2:What I mean is that now we know, as you talked about, that the gut and the brain are intricate, meaning that they connect themselves in multiple ways. So the gut and the brain, we know, as you talked about, that the gut and the brain are intricate, meaning that they connect themselves in multiple ways. So the gut and the brain, we know, has a direct connection. I call it kind of the superhighway of information the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve, the longest nerve in your body, connects the brain to the gut and so they're constantly talking to each other. I mean they're basically sending messages right now as we're speaking, saying the gut's sending messages to the brain saying, hey, you know, things are okay, and vice versa. So the gut actually sends messages and gives the brain the ability to understand, hey, that the environment there is suitable. So if you think you know we have so many sayings, right, I've got butterflies in my stomach. I have a gut feeling. These are sayings that we've talked about. You know, when you get nervous or you're feeling uneasy, sometimes you feel it in your gut and vice versa.
Speaker 2:If your gut is not healthy, you can't sustain great mental acuity or activity. So the first, the first way we're connected with the brain and the gut is this information highway. The other one is a little less, a little less, you know, obvious or intuitive, which is you know we've got hormones, that that basically travel throughout our body and originates from the gut. So a lot of people don't know that. Serotonin, which is your feel-good hormone, over 90% of it I'm sure you've talked about this over 90% of it is created in the gut, and without the gut creating this hormone, you're not going to get the kind of activity. So not only is serotonin your feel-good hormone, it gives you that vitality, that kind of get up and go when you're doing your podcast. You need to have that energy. Your serotonin levels are low, it's going to be difficult for you to do that but also other hormones like GABA, things that bring you down, things that regulate your mood and your activity, that also is affected.
Speaker 2:There's something else that's critical to understand with your gut that the gut wall right, the gut wall that we have, all of us have is critically important to your brain health. And why is that so? Between the gut and where poop is, let's say here and blood is just one cell layer thick. One cell layer thick and then a couple of mucus layers. That's what prevents stuff that's in your intestine mucous layers, that's what prevents stuff that's in your intestine stool and then those types of things to go into your blood. So if you don't have an intact gut barrier, we can call that leaky gut.
Speaker 2:That's the beginning of inflammation. So let's say I'm not talking about big gaping holes, but small little cracks right when stuff goes in into your bloodstream and begins inflammation. That inflammation, when that happens, your body reacts to it and when it reacts to it it starts the whole inflammatory cascade. So what that means is that all your white blood cells, all of the things that protect your body, become activated. But they're becoming activated to something that's not an infection. That inflammation begins in your gut. They can travel. They can travel all throughout your body. So people not only have poor brain health when they have gut inflammation right, but they can have joint health. That's bad. We can talk about autoimmune diseases, but in the brain there's a blood-brain barrier. That inflammation can then break the blood-brain barrier, so stuff that's not supposed to be in your brain, inflammatory factors, can go in. So take my dad's example.
Speaker 2:When you have a stroke, we now know that if you change your gut health, specifically if you can change what's called the microbiome the microbiome and I write about in my book, heal your Gut, save your Brain the microbiome is a trillion-member army of bacteria, viruses, protozoa that are there, and if you don't have the right mix, dr Littleton, you can have bad actors that increase inflammation. You want a better microbiome, a better environment to be able to change it. So in strokes, if you can actually change the microbiome and this is again in studies that are not in humans but in rat models if you change the microbiome you can change the outcome. So, for example, you take a young mouse and give it the microbiome of an old mouse. They have a stroke. They often die or debilitated. Conversely, you take a young mouse right I mean you take an older mouse rather, and you give it the microbiome of a young mouse. They thrive and they have the same effects of a younger mouse.
Speaker 2:So the microbiome and the gut health can actually change your performance, even after a stroke. So that's just kind of just a glimpse of why I really thought about writing this book. I said you know what we have to? We have to make a change in in not only stroke but Alzheimer's, parkinson's, in MS it's. It's just an epidemic of folks having difficulties with their mental health. You know, and if you can change your gut health, you can change the environment and really make profound changes in your brain.
Speaker 1:Now, that's the best explanation I've ever heard, I mean you really nailed it down. You really explained that gut-brain access with that and you explained the microbiome that anyone can understand that and that makes perfect sense. Now I have a lot of questions from that what you said. How does someone know that their microbiome is healthy? How do we know? Is it just what we feel? Is it more of a clinical diagnosis, or are there tests? How do we know that we have the right components in our gut microbiome?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question, right? So people say, well, you know, I feel good, doc, right, my dad felt pretty good, I mean, he didn't complain of anything but yet clearly, his microbiome. When you go, and when you go ask questions deeply what happens is that you know, in American medicine and this is why you know your concierge practice is so critical, because you're taking the time to really explore someone's health fully but general American medicine right now, western medicine in general, you come in five minutes, you're out. Gastroenterologists are not asking their patients. Hey, are you having a little difficulty with brain fog? Are you having some trouble thinking? Do you feel like boy? I just, you know I can't get the best mental. You know activity and the mental performance.
Speaker 2:Gi doctors are not asking that. They're asking you about your symptoms and you're out. Conversely, neurologists aren't asking you questions about this, right? So the first answer to your question is that we have to be a little bit more careful and ask questions about subtle symptoms. So what are subtle symptoms? You know having some of that bloating that you may have. That may not be disabling, but it's happening to you more and more often. You know symptoms, even symptoms like changing the way your bowels are moving changes, even symptoms of heartburn, symptoms of feeling unwell in your gut. Those are the obvious things when you know your gut health is not optimal. But a lot of us don't feel those symptoms because it's. I'll give you the example. It's like it's like walking blindfolded, right you know, across a road that's that's leading to a cliff, and you're like I'm fine, you're walking, walking, walking until you get on that cliff and then you're falling and you go what just happened? So it's a little bit like that. Your body really adjusts and maintains that stability until you actually have a problem, and that's when you have GI symptoms.
Speaker 2:Short of that, there are tests that are not always, you know, people don't know about. The one I like the best is Viome. Maybe your audience has heard of it. It's a Viome test to check your microbiome. Test to check your microbiome. And what it does is it can tell you hey, you know what you are missing this type of bacteria or this type of organism. And maybe for you, dr Littleton, brussels sprouts may not be the answer. It may actually be that you eat less Brussels sprouts and more cabbage, et cetera. So we're getting to the technology now where we can actually measure our stool. So you take a stool sample and you can measure your microbiome. There are other GI mapping tests that you can do, but for folks who are not independently wealthy, you have to be able to take this approach.
Speaker 2:Assume that if you're having the SAD diet, which is the standard American diet, that your microbiome is not great. Almost 100% chance it's not great, because what happens is we're inundated with foods that are processed. The people that are listening to your podcast are maybe different, but most people in this country 95% are eating what? Ultra-processed foods, right? Ultra-processed foods. So simple carbohydrates, bad fats we don't talk about that enough. Right To me, having a pepperoni pizza is like an atomic bomb, right? You have bad fats. You have ultra-processed foods, you have preservatives, and so what does that do? Right? Why is that harmful and who cares? The reason why is because we're giving our gut stuff that has never seen before until the last maybe 40 or 50 years, and some even maybe the last 20 years, so it has not had time to adjust to what we're giving it. So for thousands and thousands of years we ate simple foods, right? Simple carbohydrates that are not present in these processed foods but present in nature, and you get also multiple complex carbohydrates and fruits and vegetables, simple meats and not this processed fats. Right, we've changed the way our body is taking in food, and so how does that affect your gut and how does it affect your microbiome? When you feed your gut certain things, it then gets a certain type of bacteria and virus and protozoa.
Speaker 2:So let me give you an example. If you're in an environment where you're fostering people that essentially have bad behaviors and you continue to give them the bad behaviors, you're going to attract that kind of crowd. So if you have bad behaviors, let's say, in your city or your community, and you continue to advertise, that's what you have, you get bad actors. The same thing happens to your gut when you give foods that are processed, that are not great for your microbiome. You then attract bad actors and that bad microbiome guess what it does increases that leakiness in your gut. Guess what it does helps you not make the serotonin. Guess what it does gives you disordered, disordered signals into your brain, so you can't function. I have executive CEOs that come and see me. They say I want to crawl into a ball and sit in my bed because I don't want to do any of these meetings. My head feels like I'm in a vice and they came to see me for bloating, right? So when you eat these kinds of foods, that then fosters the wrong kind of microbiome and the wrong kind of gut health.
Speaker 2:Furthermore, right and I talk about this in my book the kind of the five principles of really attaining good gut health. Number one is living a purpose-driven life, which is what you're doing with these podcasts, talking to people and living a purpose-driven life. The second I talked about is food and food intake. But less obvious is movement with purpose, community and spirituality. When you have these five principles of purpose-driven living right, the right nutritional intake guess what? You develop the right gut health. Why? Because when you have community, when you have spirituality, when you have movement, you decrease the unrest. Right, you decrease that cortisol that's unopposed that cortisol inflammation. We know from multiple studies have shown that you develop the wrong set of microbiome, the wrong set of features that could make your gut health poor. And so when you don't have those principles, you change your microbiome, you change your gut health and you change your brain health.
Speaker 2:When you look at studies with Alzheimer's, for example, you know you're seeing something very, very interesting. You're seeing unopposed inflammation in your brain and you see neurofibrillary tangles that are there. And now, in models we see, decades before, symptoms of Alzheimer's, you see that inflammation in your gut With Parkinson's disease, you see something called Lewy bodies, and those Lewy bodies are just basically, you know, clumps of inflammation that's in your certain parts of your brain. Guess what? You can see them in the wall of the gut. The same Lewy bodies are in the wall of the gut, in the nerves of the gut, and so the theory is that you're starting this inflammation in the gut and it's traversing through the vagus nerve into your brain. It's the gut. First hypothesis of Parkinson's. So think about the revolution.
Speaker 2:If we can not, when we're 70 and get diagnosed with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's right, that's still okay to do it then I'm not saying you shouldn't change your gut health then. But, man, when you're healthy, when you feel nothing is wrong in your 40s and 50s, that's when you say, pow, pow, I'm gonna get going, I'm gonna use these five principles and change my gut health. We can change the future of brain health. And that's the exciting part about it, because when you and I were training medical school, man, they would never tell us about this. It's like okay, it's reactive medicine, you know you do this, you do this. Now. What's exciting is that you can prevent these devastating diseases that can change your life.
Speaker 2:Took my dad's last 10 years of his life. He couldn't play with his grandkids, couldn't do anything. Just a brilliant man that could pass on so much to my kids Couldn't do it because of the stroke. And I offer to you and I write about this in the book Heal your God, save your Brain is that you can change the paradigm and you can change the starting today.
Speaker 1:You brought up several awesome points there and, as you were talking, I wanted to know what your thought was regarding. How does things like fasting, specifically intermittent fasting, alcohol you know again, when people go through their regular life and they grab and grow, do fast food how do these things affect your gut by home and how does it affect your brain health?
Speaker 2:That's great questions, right? So you know, know, I live in the real world, I get it. You know my. I was telling that little my son had, and let me throw this in there first when I say fasting.
Speaker 1:Sometimes people fast because they're on purposely. They're on purpose fasting, uh, for weight loss, gut health, things like that. But then sometimes people don't have a regimen of eating breakfast in the morning. They just skip meals because they're off to work or they're just not in a routine of eating breakfast or lunch and they're eating one meal a day. I mean, how do these things affect what you're talking about?
Speaker 2:Right, and so I'll start with. So I was told, dr Littleton and I my son had a birthday party last yesterday, right? So I live in the real world. Did I have a slice of pizza? Heck, yes, I did. So it's. I think it's okay.
Speaker 2:If you, if you, if you can a hundred percent avoid processed foods and avoid bad fats, you know, more power to you. But in the real world, some of us have to, you know. You know, I'm in the airport, I've got to do a grab and go. So I think, if I use the 80-20 rule, which is 80 to 90% of the time, if I can do what I'm talking about, which is eat whole foods, very simple things, whole foods, that you know what the ingredients are, try to make your meals yourself, or at least know that. Use as simple ingredients as possible and not use processed materials. That's a simple rule. Don't add simple sugars to your meals and then bad fats. So if I can do that 80 to 90% of the time, I think I'm good. But if you do it once in a while, I think it's okay. I think you still have to be able to not punish yourself, because the other thing is that when you're constantly punishing yourself, you increase your cortisol and you increase inflammation. That is bad for your gut.
Speaker 2:And then we asked a very good question, because lots of my patients say you know what about intermittent fasting? Right, so I'm a supporter of intermittent fasting. I'm not a supporter of of this prolonged 24, 36 hours as people do. I think that people you know they point out to in ancient times, dr Andy, you know, we released these hormones. Well, in ancient times we didn't do this as some kind of a fad. We did this because there wasn't any food around. It's not like some miracle, because when you don't have food for prolonged periods of time, what also happens is that your stress hormones increase because you then are in a state of basically deprivation.
Speaker 2:However, if you're doing, you know and I often do this if you're doing, you know, let's say, a 14, 16 hour fast, and what I mean by that is you eat dinner at six o'clock, you don't eat the rest of the evening, and then perhaps you skip breakfast and you eat a meal at 12 o'clock the next day for lunch. So then you've got 12 plus 6, you've almost got 18 hours. I think that does not, as long as you maintain hydration. I think that's beneficial. We now know that. You've seen studies've seen studies now they're not in human guts, but you see them in animal studies that you can have reduced inflammation. You can actually have, you know, increased diversity, right, diversity of your microbiome. So I think doing intermittent fasting up to 16, 18 hours, I think it's okay. But once you start going 24 and 36 and just a lot of people are doing this because of weight loss right, I think it's okay. But once you start going 24 and 36 and just a lot of people are doing this because of weight loss- right, I mean, and I think that, weight loss as a
Speaker 2:consequence of good health is great, but weight loss in and of itself to make sure you fit in that bikini because you want to look good on Instagram is not helpful to your digestive tract because there are several unhealthy ways of losing weight. That'll kill your microbiome, right? So if you deprive your body of good nutrients because you can eat bad foods, small amounts and still have weight loss, but you're pretty on the outside but you ain't pretty on the inside, and that's the problem, right? And your last question, I think you said, was alcohol. So I think you know I'm not a drinker at all and I think that there's now evidence to show even one drink can be harmful, not directly to your gut health, but it can be toxic to the organs that detoxify this, right? So the liver, and the liver is very much related to your gut and your gut health. So I think if you can avoid it, please do.
Speaker 2:But you know in the Western world it's difficult for people to do that. If you're able to completely stop, do, but otherwise, you know, I would not do more than you know. For a man I would not do more than two drinks the recommendations a day. I would say two drinks every two to three days and for women, one drink every two to three days. If you can avoid it completely, stop it. I just don't think it's very helpful for you. I just think it's a cultural thing. We've developed every celebration in our communities associated with alcohol. I don't think it needs to be. You got billions of people outside the us and the western world that do fine without it. So I personally think, if you can, let's let's avoid it completely. If not, you know in, in, in absolute moderation, if at all possible.
Speaker 1:So yeah, no, I thank you for answering those questions because you you brought up a great point. You know, um, I encounter that question a lot about. I'm going to go back to the fasting one, the intermittent fasting, and what I have found that the people who have made it a lifestyle, who have fasted, you know, half a day, day and a half, up to three days, they're people that they've been doing this for a while and I'm not. I'm not advocating that, I'm just saying that there are people who will see that type of testimony and say you know what? I'm going on a three day fast and I'm just like don't do that, you've never practiced that and you know you're going to become hypoglycemic, end up in a hypoglycemic coma, you're going to be in the ER and you don't do it. But a lot of times people do do it for weight loss or they think that they're going to beeline to curing themselves, like within 24 hours of whatever ailment that they're going through, and In my practice I preach that it's a process when you're managing disease, overcoming issues. It's not this, it's over in a week.
Speaker 1:And so I caution people a lot of times when they hear testimonies like that, because I don't want them to hurt themselves, and that's why I wanted to ask you how does that affect the gut biome? Because you know everything that you're saying makes sense about, you know. Look, we have to treat our gut right. It takes, you know I love the phrase I saw on your website so it takes guts to heal our brain or to save our brain. Well, that makes sense, I get it, you know. Another question that I was wondering that, if you would, you know answer is so when it comes to, you know, hydration, when it comes to making sure that we're properly hydrated so that our gut stays healthy, do you have recommendations on that? Is it? Should we just only be drinking water? What about other juices, fruit juices, things like that?
Speaker 2:I think that hydration is critical for your body because of the fact is that if you don't have hydration, you're not giving the environment right to be able to keep the digestion moving. One of the things I didn't talk about is that part of the gut microbiome that is important is that your gut motility has to be stable and you and I both know you know you have multiple patients in your practice that if you don't have enough hydration you get constipated or you get irregular bowel movements. When you have that change, it changes your you know the motor complexes within the gut walls and then, going down even further, it changes the motor complexes within the gut walls and then, going down even further, it changes the cellular environment. When you have the cellular environment, that's not optimal, it changes the energy homeostasis and then changes the microbiome. So I think your point is incredibly important that the gut lining relies on water to maintain its mucosal integrity and if you don't have that, you have leaky gut and everything I talked about right is going to start happening. You're going to have little openings and then that leaky gut that can increase inflammation, not just for brain health, man, you're going to have problems with your joints, the ravage of autoimmune disease, all those. So absolutely, and I just recommend, I think, if people can at least drink water. I do 64 ounces.
Speaker 2:I think fruit juices are okay, but the problem is that lots of people don't just drink fruit juice, they drink things that have lots of simple sugars. If you truly have juice that's from a fruit, I think it's okay, but I also like to keep the fiber in it if possible, because that then, as you know, the glycemic index then changes right. So when you increase the fiber in sugars, your glycemic index can go down, which means that your sugar is not spiking. When your sugar doesn't spike, then you don't have the insulin that's secreted. And then all that, when the insulin is secreted, that increases the inflammation in your body. It goes back to exactly what we talked about. So I think I stick with, if I can at all, with water.
Speaker 2:If you have to have some juice, use fruit juice. That's real. Make sure you know the source. Try to put as much fiber in that, meaning that keep some of the. I don't love throwing away the pulp.
Speaker 2:I like to see if we can blend it all together and I know you're an advocate for that. When you've come, dr Little has been on my show and he's talked about one of his favorite foods has been you know foods have been blueberries. He blends it in his smoothie. So if you can do that and get your hydration that way as well but it's super important at least 64 ounces. I'm not in favor of the getting the 128 and 160 and just go crazy with it, because if you have too much, right, too much water for some folks can lead to problems. There's sodium. So I think, in moderation, if you can do 64 ounces, I think if we do 64 ounces, you're better than 95% of the American population, because people do not drink water, don't get hydration.
Speaker 2:But it's critical for your gut health, it's critical for your microbiome and then subsequently the rest of your body. We're talking about brain and gut health today. But really optimizing gut health and we knew this thousands of years ago, we just forgot about it. From the Ganshik Greeks to the Chinese medicine, the Indian medicine, they all talked about this you have to start with the gut and now we're rediscovering that If you can do one thing, do one thing to change your gut health, it'll lead to profound changes. It won't be tomorrow because we're a society that says, hey, I want that right now and it won't be today, but within three to four weeks. I've seen my patients dramatically change if you can instill changes in your gut health.
Speaker 1:Oh man, that's awesome. That's awesome. Now I wanna end on my meds protocol and I want people to learn from your life when it comes to the gut brain access, as it pertains to how and I said this on your show a long time ago I talked about move, eat, drink, sleep, and that's something that I always talk to my patients about, because I believe that if they can master moving, eating, drinking, sleeping they can master. You know their health and I want to know how do you move, eat, drink, sleeping. They can master. You know their health, and I want to know how do you move, eat, drink, sleep, and can you talk to us and give us some tips on that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that. I want to use that more often and I have not been for my patients and some of the interviews they've done. But I'll start with moving. To me, movement with purpose is always more important than just isolating movements. What do I mean by that? You know, like last night I just literally ran, you know, with my kids down the street. We played basketball. So what I like to do is incorporate purpose and spirituality with my movement rather than isolating the movement. I think that that works for me.
Speaker 2:And then you said move, eat. To me, eating is critical. I enjoy food, but I think, if I could impart one thing, I try to eat fermented foods with every one of my meals, right? So we didn't talk about that today. But fermented foods have those good bugs that we're talking about, the microbiome, right? So you know, I, I like dairy, so I eat yogurt. But if you don't, you can have kimchi, you can, you can have tapashe there's multiple things kombucha, whatever you want. But I would try to incorporate. You know I incorporate fermented foods with each of my meals. And then so, move, eat, drink. So to me, you know, my kids, if you ever ask them, you know I, always I was instilling them.
Speaker 2:So what's what's dad's favorite drink? It's always water. I just love water. I drink it all day long. So I start off in the morning, the 32 ounces. I get one of those big Yeti things you know before I go it's 530. I fill it up with. I think it's a 32 ounce. I drink that before I go, since 530, I fill it up with, I think it's about 32 ounces. I drink that before I go. And then I spend the rest of my day because listen, it's busy forgetting things, right? So I spend the rest of the day having 32 additional um, you know um ounces of water. So that's, that's my, my um move, drink and then sleep.
Speaker 2:So this is a difficult. This is a difficult one for me, right? So you know it's like the rest of us man, if I can get one more productive minute out, I'll be good.
Speaker 2:So, for me, what I have to do is consciously an hour before I go to bed and it should be 90 minutes, but I do an hour. I turn off my devices and I do a little meditation, and so sometimes I do it with my wife, sometimes I do it alone, I do at at least 15 minutes and then it puts me in the in the mood for sleeping. I, you know, I don't put tv on, I don't do any electronics, and what allows me to do, which is nice, is kind of reflect on the day and I, as I've done this as a habit, it reflects kind of. Like you, I'm somebody who always wants to know. You know that, hey, these are my, this is what I got to work on to be better, and that's what I spend the time doing. That and you know.
Speaker 2:And then gratitude it's a little different topic, but I also I'm a huge believer in gratitude and really being being, you know, understanding, you know the blessings that have been given to me and my family and the planet, and then reflect upon that. That helps me a lot. So that's how I kind of go through my day, you know, typically.
Speaker 1:Man, people can learn a lot from that. Listen, I mean, you're phenomenal. I think everything that you said you know. Not only did I learn a lot, but I know people hearing you today they're going to want to go and grab your book. I mean, gosh, you know. Everything that you said was like people don't regularly hear this, doctors don't normally talk about this and it's so essential. I mean you, you made that vividly clear. You, you guys got to get his book, heal your gut, save your brain. Now, where can people find this? I mean, look, I already know you can go to Barnes and Noble and find I see it on the shelves. Um, you can, I'm sure you can get on Amazon, but where else can people find you and hear you and learn more about you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, if you go, thank you for that. Thank you for the kind words, and I feel the same. You're an incredible gift to the planet and so I appreciate you doing everything you're doing. But you can go to askdrnandicom, so A-S-K-D-R-N-A-N-D-Icom, you can get more information, everything that we do. But you're right, you can get it from Amazon, barnes, noble, any bookstore that you know. We're around the country and most of the world that this book has been published. But you know, and so I think it'll help you, I think it'll help your family. So, yeah, you can pick it up anywhere books are sold. But ask drnandycom. You can get all the information and you can pick it up there as well.
Speaker 1:And you also have recipe materials. I saw that on your website. You know people can learn about what they should be eating, how they should be cooking right, yeah, I love, I love food.
Speaker 2:My wife and I love to cook, and I think the reason I like to cook so much is because, not just the food, it brings people together. You know, and so I. We tried to share some of those recipes in the book and in our website. You know, our kids make these meals, you know, and then they, they. You know I haven't told you, jason, but they have their own YouTube site and they actually cook and they do those things as well. So to me, cooking is a communal thing and I think you and more people do it. I think you can. You can share not only good nutrition but but community and spirituality, which also helps your health.
Speaker 1:And we got to follow you on. We got to follow you on social media as well. You know your Facebook, your Instagram, all of that you know. You got to follow this guy if you want to learn more about your gut health and eating right. Again, I just want to thank you for coming on the podcast. I think people are going to have a very valuable experience listening to you. I mean I've learned. I mean I've learned so much just in this conversation that I'm going to make some changes, you know. But I just want to thank you for coming on. I got to have you on again. Go get his book. All right, heal your gut, save your brain. Thank you so much, partha, for being on.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me, jason. I appreciate it and I'll be happy to come on any other time. I gotta have you back, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I mean it's just so much to ask on that. I mean I feel like I could have spoke to you for, like you know, two hours here. You know I mean so many things, but you know I want people to digest this. You said so much. It was clear. Again, this was awesome. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. Thank you, sir, all right, all right, you guys listen. You know, like I said, get his book and this podcast. You know you want to share it with your friends because so many people need to know how to overcome brain fog, how to eat, you know, anti-inflammatory, how to eat correctly so that they can have a better cognitive life, better cognitive health, and not just that they can help, just they could just feel better. Everything that he said you got to get his book. Follow him online Again. You know, I can't wait to see you next time on the Concierge Dog Podcast. Thank you so much. Thanks for watching.
