1

Hi everyone, Dr. Axe here. We’re going to get started in just a minute. We’re going to be talking about restoring your digestive health and the digestive health of your clients and patients that you’ll work with here in just a minute. The classes have been going great so far. I’ve gotten so much great feedback from so many of you from, as I’ve been talking about, all over the world. It’s very exciting to see so many people that are digging in, trying to take their health to the next level.

Again, I know we have people from so many different practices and places professionally. I know some of you are just really trying to break into the health and wellness industry for the first time. I’m so glad to have you here. I know we’ve got several people on the line as well that are physicians, chiropractors.

A lot of nutritionists and a lot of health coaches already are in the program who teach us on a daily basis and are really trying to expand their understanding of how do you market online? How do you build a patient base or a client base online or switch over from a brick and mortar to that part of an industry? It’s exciting to be able to share with you how I was able to do that.

The reason why I put on this class is really because I have a mission. I want to help people transform their lives. I know for everyone listening right now, you have the same whether you struggled with a health problem in the past yourself and that led you into the health industry. I’ve got to just give you a heart for that.

I’m excited to have all of you here on this class today, week two, restoring your digestive health. I’m going to go ahead and get started here with this week. This is probably, from a nutritional standpoint, one of my favorite weeks because it is absolutely foundational if you’re going to be coaching people and leading people to living a healthier life.

It really all starts in the digestive tract. According to Hippocrates who is known as the father of modern medicine, Hippocrates says, “All disease begins in the gut.” It is so true from what I’ve experienced in clinical practice, from what the medical research shows is that disease really does begin in the gut. If you can keep the gut healthy and your digestive system healthy, then you’re going to keep your entire body healthy.

Most of these growing diseases today, especially in the autoimmune category, they’re related to digestive health. We’re going to go through in this lesson exactly what the different digestive issues out there today and the exact protocols in terms of diet and

2

supplementation and lifestyle practices that can actually help heal your digestive system.

Here’s what we’ve covered so far and what we have coming up in the future weeks, week one through eight. Week one, we covered last week, so we covered diet trends and common nutritional deficiencies. We found out that women are deficient in certain things and men are deficient in certain things. Certain diets should be used for the short term, certain diets for the long term. That was week one.

This week we’ll cover digestive health. Next week we’ll start touching on hormone balance. We’ll really specifically take a look at thyroid health as well as hormones. Week four, essential oil therapy, another one of my favorite weeks. We’ll talk about how plant based medicine using essential oils have been used for over 5000 years. It’s actually the oldest form of medicine that’s been used, and so we’ll talk about that.

Week five we’ll talk about fitness and weight loss, the obesity crises, and how we can help our clients effectively and quickly lose weight. I know I taught a program for years called How to Lose 20 pounds in 30 Days. People can lose weight very quickly, but a lot of people are turning to things like HCG and other even chemical diet fads out there and medications. We’ll talk about the real way to lose weight fast and different forms of fitness from Pilates and yoga and bar to burst training to weight training and many of those different categories.

Week six we’re going to cover creating a customized program for clients. That’s going to be a great week. Week seven, lifestyle strategies for healing. We even talk about things like grounding and walking barefoot and sunshine and infrared saunas and a number of things there.

Week eight, detoxification and alternative therapies. There we’ll actually dig into cancer a little bit and specific, more advanced heavy metal detoxification, vitamin C chelation, all of those types of things there on week eight. We have a lot of exciting stuff to come here as part of our course.

Here’s some of the things we’re going to cover today, not everything, but some of the things. We’re going to really start off here by just talking about digestive health and the health crises in the world today. Then we’re going to jump right into something called leaky gut, also known as intestinal permeability and how that can affect not just your gut

3

and digestion but every area of your body.

We’ll also talk about the various types of inflammatory bowel disease in relation to leaky gut like irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis. We’ll then talk about the stomach and stomach acid and how your stomach plays a role in digestion.

We’ll then get into gall bladder issues which really is a growing problem today. The number of people that have actually had their gall bladder removed completely is at a shockingly high number. For some reason, a lot of physicians seem to think that it’s not necessary to have that organ. I’ll talk about really the truth about how to support gall bladder function and improve the gall gladder.

In number six here, we’ll talk about the benefits of probiotics, and not just the benefits -- what to look for in probiotics, where to get probiotics. It’s not just in a capsule form. It’s in your food. Also, it’s not just probiotics. There are other things that go along with that like prebiotics which I’ll touch on as well.

Starting off here, let’s talk about what a problem digestive disease is. These numbers, the most recent numbers I’ve seen, were back in 2004. They quoted and said around 60 to 70 million people a year are affected by digestive disease. Years and years later, or ten years or more later now, we’re talking about a much higher number - I’d estimate closer to 100 million people are affected by digestive diseases. To be honest, it could be well beyond that.

About 236,000 deaths, so causes of mortality, with digestive disease. That is really, really high obviously. It’s one of the top ten leading killers in America today. I would say in a way it could be the number one killer because digestive disease is linked to pretty much every disease out there today and definitely linked to the fastest growing diseases that are out there today.

We’ll talk about this as we get into leaky gut, but just because you don’t have a condition that’s been diagnosed like acid reflux or something like irritable bowel syndrome, that doesn’t mean that you don’t actually struggle with or have some form of a digestive disease today.

We’re going to start right off now talking about leaky gut syndrome. Here’s what leaky gut syndrome is. First off, let me say this. The medical community for a long time

4

said, “Well, there’s no such thing as leaky gut syndrome.” It’s something that a lot of naturopaths, nutritionists, and chiropractors would refer to for a long time. Now they’re coming out and we’re seeing a flood of research talking about there is something called leaky gut syndrome.

What the medical community now tends to call it is intestinal hyperpermeability. Hyperpermeable intestines or intestinal hyperpermeability is typically the term you’ll see referred to in the medical literature today. Basically it’s a fancy medical term that means the intestinal lining has become more porous, so more things can start leaking through the gut, which is why it’s called leaky gut, with more holes that are developing that are larger in size.

Basically, your gut isn’t functioning properly. It’s not keeping those larger molecules out. Basically, the result is that larger, undigested food molecules and other bad stuff like toxins, yeast, other forms of waste that your body normally doesn’t allow through actually freely flows through into your blood stream. What that means is it’s going to cause serious issues like inflammation for a long time.

If you could imagine this. Imagine your gut lining as a net, okay? Certain things can get in. It allows larger particles to stay out. It allows smaller particles to stay in. When you finally get a hole in the net of your stomach lining, you rip a hole in there, then in certain areas these larger molecules start flooding in there like gluten and different forms of yeast and heavy metals. Those things get into your bloodstream and then they get circulated throughout your entire body, which then can affect different organs in your system. That’s essentially what leaky gut is.

You can see this picture here. This demonstrates very specifically what we’re looking at to where you’ll see, once you get a hole there in your net you’ll start to see these particles coming through that should have been too large to come through. Leaky gut is really a vicious cycle. In fact, one of the books that is a diet that I recommend that would help heal leaky gut called the SCD, the Simple Carbohydrate Diet, that book was written.

Actually, the title of the book for SCD was “Breaking the Vicious Cycle” because Dr. Elaine in that book starts going through and saying it’s not just a problem with the gut. This gut issue, which she never referred to as this, but this is essentially what it is, this issue that we call leaky gut will then over time cause food intolerances and food allergies, food sensitivity like gluten sensitivity/intolerance, is growing rapidly today.

5

More and more people are having these food intolerance issues.

People are allergic to gluten and casein and eggs and peanuts. People, if it gets bad enough, grasses and trees. All of these different intolerances today start to develop in the body as one of the first warning signs that somebody has leaky gut. It’s something you may or may not notice. Some people are very aware and in tune with their bodies and they notice that, “Hey when I eat this food, my sinuses run, or I get phlegm, or I get really tired, or I hold water weight.” Those are all common warning signs that you have a food intolerance.

You’ll see this specifically oftentimes. Food intolerances are very, very prevalent in children with learning issues or within the autism community. We see food intolerance as very common with people that have hypersensitivity in their body.

Anyways, here’s where it leads to. You have a leaky gut. These proteins or toxins leak through the gut, start to cause food intolerances because then it causes more inflammation in your gut. What happens when you have enough food intolerances what it does is it signals immune reactions at first. First, when you have, let’s say, gluten leak through then your body starts to say, it actually starts to create a response to it very similar to if a virus or invading bacteria comes into your body.

You have different antibodies like IGG, IGE, IGA and your body says, “Okay, gluten. This isn’t good. This gluten now is leaking through the gut. It’s not supposed to be here. We’re going to start an immune reaction to this. We’re going to get the army here of IGG antibodies or IGA and we’re going to go after this gluten and eliminate it.” Your army within your body that is your protector, because it is finding something that’s abnormal in gluten, it then starts to go after gluten. This causes systemic inflammation in the body, constant inflammation, with these immune abnormalities.

The other issue that happens is other proteins like gluten your body starts to see and recognize and it starts to say, “Okay, we don’t want not only gluten. We don’t want casein. We don’t want albumin in eggs. We don’t want some of these bacteria in yeast that are now found in peanuts in the body because these other yeasts and bacteria have leaked through the gut.” Your body continues to activate the army, create the onslaught on inflammation throughout the body.

If these abnormal immune reactions continue to happen over time, or gluten continues

6

to get through and all of these other issues through your gut, then that can lead to autoimmune where your body automatically with not just gluten, with a number of other things that might be normal in the body. Your body starts this immune response and that leads to autoimmune conditions today.

You can see why Dr. Elaine in her book on the Simple Carbohydrate Diet earlier on, which is the precursor to the GAPS diet, why she referred to this as the vicious cycle and how there are specific ways you can break this vicious cycle. That’s what it is. It’s leaky gut leads to all of these other health conditions within the body.

Here’s the inside story, just covering some of what we already talked about here. This is a picture out of Scientific America. They go through how really stage one indigestible fragments of things like gluten induce enterocytes of actually a protein called zonulin in your body. It causes these junctions to loosen. You can start to see here where these little white things of gluten fragments start leaking through and getting through over time.

Then over time, the gluten continues to accumulate and cause more inflammation within the body. Then it basically induces that immune reaction I talked about with something called interleukin, or interleukin 15, which is part of your immune system in cells. You can see here, your body will then take gluten, it will modify it so it can eliminate it, but it does this with an immune response. You can see there, part of that vicious cycle, what happens is these tight junctions get loosened. The good news is that these things are correctable.

Here’s more of this vicious cycle of leaky guy syndrome I was talking about. Again, the first thing that can happen is food intolerance. That can be caused from alcohol or disruption of the gut lining can be caused by food intolerance, alcohol. Emotional stress is a biggie. Anti-inflammatory drugs are very hard on the gut. Antibiotic drugs are very hard on the gut. If your body has developed candida in yeast, and then fatty acid deficiencies, and actually other deficiencies in vitamins and minerals like zinc. If you’re deficient in zinc, that can also disrupt your gut lining.

Then what happens, once your gut lining is disrupted, you have improper absorption. Not only do you have things like gluten leaking through the gut, but now your body is also unable to absorb specific vitamins and minerals like zinc which supports gut health. Again, it leads to improper absorption of things like vitamin B12 and iron, a lot of minerals. Vitamin B12 and iron, two very common deficiencies associated with leaky gut

7

syndrome.

Then it causes inflammation in the body, so you get inflammation which is obviously going to causes issues. Let me say this as well. When you have leaky gut syndrome and these proteins leak through your gut like gluten, not only does it affect your gut, but actually those proteins will recirculate. Actually, then your body will start to attack your thyroid. That’s why leaky gut has been associated with hyperthyroidism like Hashimoto’s.

It can cause inflammation of the joints. It can cause inflammation of different areas like your colon, ulcerative colitis. It causes systemic inflammation throughout the body. Sometimes it will target specific areas of your body, hence how a gut issue can actually cause a thyroid condition. This is very, very common.

A leaky gut, inflamed gut, causes nutrients and waste to leak from the gut, worsens absorption. Again, that causes all of these things to get worse and then you get multiple food intolerances as a result of this chronic gut inflammation and damage happening throughout your system.

There are actually several studies now linking leaky gut to autoimmune disease. According to research published in the International Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology published in 2006, they found a direct link between intestinal permeability and autoimmune disease in this study. They specifically quoted type one diabetes, Crohn’s disease, and different forms of dermatitis like eczema and psoriasis. Those were direct links found in several medical studies there as well as that journal in 2006.

Other medical journals have found that leaky gut has also been shown to cause Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, which by the way 90%, pretty much all hypothyroidism today is Hashimoto’s, rheumatoid arthritis. It’s also been linked to autism, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, MS, lupus, depression, and anxiety.

Here’s how this works. When these proteins or waste or yeast like candida, when these can leak through the gut, it can then cause brain inflammation. That’s why it’s been linked to things like autism, depression, anxiety. In fact, there was a study I read that said children with autism, we know they all have gut issues. What can happen is from a young age, one of the things that I did early on in practice before I started teaching the leaky gut diet is I would put my patients on, all of my children with autism or on that spectrum, on a gluten free/casein free diet. We got them off gluten, got them off A1 casein, and did some other things there as well.

8

We saw immediate improvements. I had children who maybe couldn’t even, I had one child who couldn’t even speak. His mom said he knew one word. After two weeks of going gluten and casein free on this leaky gut diet, she said he was speaking in full sentences. It happened that rapidly.

What happens is those proteins or toxins leak through the gut, they recirculate and cause brain inflammation. When you have an area that is inflamed, it keeps it from developing and healing like it should. I believe this is one of the main issues with autism is it is primarily a gut issue that causes a brain issue.

There are other factors. I’m not saying that’s the only factor, but I do believe that is a major factor is this over immune response causing brain inflammation within the body. That can actually slow development neurologically of the child in certain areas of the brain. When you go gluten free/casein free and follow more of a leaky gut diet, that allows the brain to rest. It reduces inflammation, allows it to heal, and furthers development.

In children it’s the same thing. The reason I brought that up is it would say that those behavioral reactions in children with autism and other kids with, let’s say, food intolerances, those behavioral reactions are actually because those proteins can affect the brain like an opium would, like actually a medication or a psychotropic drug in different cases. That’s how it can affect the brain.

Similar thing: leaky gut has been linked to depression and anxiety because these proteins can actually cause inflammation of the brain. This is also why it’s been linked to MS. Most skin issues today are linked to the gut health as well. An issue like psoriasis which is autoimmune is absolutely linked to the gut. In fact, my father in law had psoriasis. In fact, he had it for 20 years, was on three medications for it, had to sit in front of a light all of the time.

A few months after meeting me, I told him. I said, “I really think you can get this turned around.” He said, “My doctor said that I’d have this the rest of my life.” I said, “What we’re going to do is put you on a probiotic rich diet.” We had him doing a form of kefir called amasi every single day, so high probiotic foods as well as doing bone broth and some other things that I’ll talk about in a little bit. I had him start doing vitamin D.

I had him go gluten free, no grains whatsoever. I put him on this diet and his psoriasis,

9

after three days, we actually had him do a fast with bone broth and probiotics. After three days it was about 30 to 40% gone. After about four months it was almost completely gone, 99% gone. Anyways, we know that these are things that can be rectified if you treat the body in the right way. Obviously, leaky gut can also cause serious pain syndromes like fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis as well.

Let’s talk about the main things that actually cause leaky gut. Number one, a diet low in probiotics and fiber. Today we have a very low probiotic intake, both food-based probiotic, soil-based probiotics. That’s a major issue. Low fiber, the average American consumes 18 grams when it should be closer to probably 30 or 40 grams. We get about 50% of our daily fiber intake.

Fiber is so important for supporting the growth of probiotics. It’s important for cleansing the colon and balancing out blood sugar, really keeping candida away. Fiber is important for many different things in terms of your digestion. Actually, when we consume fiber, oftentimes we consume too much insoluble fiber and not enough soluble fiber. Soluble fiber, also known as prebiotics, is really what supports the growth of bacteria in the gut which is found mostly in fruits and vegetables and sprouted seeds.

Also, a diet high in sugar and processed foods, that’s something that’s obvious. Hydrogenated oils cause inflammation of the gut. Sugar causes inflammation of the gut. The other thing would be a diet high in grains and conventional dairy products. That’s conventional cow’s milk, dairy, and then because grains contain gluten. Those are the two primary proteins that will cause digestive issues today. Again, gluten and grains, A1 casein found in cow’s milk.

Goat’s milk and sheep’s milk, most people tend to do better with. I would say it’s about 50/50 now. Most people I’ve found can get back on grains at some point in their life, or a sprouted grain. Most people can get back on dairy, but it might take six to nine months of following a different type of diet or more of this leaky gut or GAPS diet if you want to actually heal your digestive tract before you can overcome some of these food sensitivities.

Another common cause, actually, probably the biggest thing that causes an initial leaky gut is taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs. Antibiotic drugs, one of the biggest causes, aspirin, and different hormones. In fact, birth control, contraceptive drugs actually will cause, once somebody gets off of them, severe candida and yeast growth throughout the entire body. Birth control is a major, major issue for a lot of

10

females. Once they get off it, it can cause really systemic candida throughout the body.

I want to mention this about antibiotics. If you want to look at what happens especially with our children today, children have a major problem with this whole antibiotic onslaught. Once they’re born, first off, they can start with their mother not having enough probiotics. That’s one of the first issues. That causes probiotic deficiency. The second thing that can cause a probiotic deficiency is if a child is born C-section.

When a child is born via the vaginal canal, what happens is actually they have probiotics then released into their system. It’s really their first major exposure to probiotics. If that doesn’t happen, also oftentimes if a child isn’t breastfed or breastfed long enough or the mother doesn’t have quite enough probiotics, that can cause a major probiotic deficiency. Then from there, consuming all of these foods that are antibacterial, drinking fluorinated tap water today, consuming these foods that contain antibiotics, using antibiotic hand soap.

Then the biggest problem is prescribing antibiotic drugs for a common cold or flu. It can completely wipe out that good flora within the gut. That truly is a vicious cycle of vicious cycles when we’re looking at the overuse of antibiotics and the underuse of exposure to good probiotics throughout someone’s life which is a major cause of leaky gut.

Bacterial imbalances as we just covered and then high emotional stress, one of the biggest things that can cause hormone imbalances which can allow cortisol to get high, which allows yeast to grow, which then causes bacterial imbalance is emotional stress. We know that’s a major causative factor of all disease today, but especially digestive disease.

Here are the main foods that should be consumed on a leaky gut diet. The first thing you really want to do is rest your system. In fact, if I have somebody with severe leaky gut, one of the things I start them off on is actually typically a fast where they’re only consuming bone broth and maybe that’s it for a few days -- consuming bone broth and maybe even a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, but maybe just bone broth for three days, letting their system completely rest and just doing bone broth.

Then after that what I might do is I will get them on a leaky gut diet which consists of simple carbs, simple fats, simple proteins. Remember this, this is so important. You want to consume foods that let your body rest. Your body can easily break down non-starchy vegetables, fruits, and raw honey.

11

Easiest forms of carbohydrates for your body to break down. The reason is, these are full of monosaccharaides. Simple sugars. Your body doesn’t really have to break down sugar. In fact, sugar is small enough and it’s easy enough to digest where it just goes right into your blood stream so your gut doesn’t have to do any work. You’re resting.

Remember this principle: you cannot consume a food that will actually heal your body. Your body heals itself. Your body will use protein. Your body will use amino acids and fatty acids and things to heal the body. Those are the building blocks, but your body is the builder ultimately. If the builder is injured, it doesn’t matter if you give it the right building blocks. It cannot repair the body.

This is why fasting has been used for so long, or at least in a way fasting or resting your gut from certain foods. Again, vegetables, fruits, and honey, your body doesn’t have to do much work to break those down, whereas consuming disaccharides that are found in starchy vegetables like potatoes, or disaccharides that are found in grains today or wheat bread or spelt or rice even. Any grain whatsoever, your body has to work to break that down into a monosaccharide. That’s why part of the leaky gut diet is replacing grains with vegetables, fruits, and raw honey.

The next thing is easily digested fats. Olive oil is fine in small amounts and so are some other fats. Really, primarily, you want to get all of your fat from things like ghee, which is clarified butter (again, clarified butter is basically only the fat from butter so there is no longer any form of protein in there like casein or lactose). Easily digested fats like ghee which are short chain fats, coconut oil which are medium chain fats, and then possibly some egg yolks which are mostly saturated fats and cholesterol. These are the most easily digested form of fats for your body to digest, therefore it’s on the leaky gut diet.

The third thing is easily digested protein, which is going to be really any form of protein like wild caught fish, chicken, grass fed beef. These are easily digested and broken down into amino acids. Also bone broth, the great thing about bone broth is it’s already broken down into amino acids. Your body, your stomach doesn’t even have to digest that.

When we talk about leaky gut, that primarily starts in the small intestine. That’s where leaky gut is. Again, most protein for the most part is broken down in the stomach. That’s typically not as big of an issue. And then probiotic rich foods. These are the five food categories you should really focus on when you are putting a client on a leaky gut diet.

12

Also, there are specific supplements that can support the healing of leaky gut. Number one are digestive enzymes. Digestive enzymes like amylase, lipase, proteases, even things like lactase. Digestive enzymes help break down these proteins or fats that you’re consuming. Taking digestive enzymes or having your clients do two capsules with meals is probably the number one supplement that people can start doing that can immediately improve leaky gut syndrome and issues like irritable bowel and ulcerative colitis and those issues.

The next big thing is probiotics. I say that digestive enzymes are number one and that’s for acute conditions. Long-term healing the gut, probiotics are probably the most important thing you can consume. Two caps three times daily. In just a little bit I’m going to talk about the actual type of probiotic that you want to look for in giving patients.

Number three, L-glutamine. L-glutamine is an amino acid that actually can line the gut and protect the gut from further damage. This actually acts kind of like a Band-Aid to the gut to where it doesn’t necessarily heal it, but it protects it from different exposures. L-glutamine can be very important for protecting the gut lining.

The fourth thing is consuming healthy fatty acids. I personally, typically, take a fish oil with astaxanthin. If somebody is having leaky gut issues, one of the best is a form of cod liver oil that is fermented. Fermented cod liver oil, easy to digest, 1000 milligrams daily. Again, you could also do a fish oil or even a krill oil in this case. Again, I’ve got a fish oil that I think is fantastic that I think would also work. Probably the easiest might even be a fermented cod liver oil.

These are the top four supplements to consider recommending your client if they have leaky gut. There are other things that can help them. In fact, peppermint essential oil can soothe the gut. That’s one thing I’ve seen people have success with. To stop the symptoms of diarrhea, severe diarrhea and slow absorption of things, which can be good for many people, bentonite clay. Actually doing a clay extract if somebody is struggling with diarrhea or irritable bowel, actually taking clay can be good.

If somebody is struggling with constant or chronic constipation, actually doing a tablespoon of flaxseed oil with carrot juice in the morning or cod liver oil with carrot juice can help relieve chronic constipation, can help steady bowel movements. We covered the small intestine here with leaky gut, the intestine and the colon.

Let’s now talk about the gall bladder and how the gall bladder can affect digestion. By

13

the way, all of these organs are related. If you have gall bladder issues, it can cause small intestine issues. If you have stomach issues it can cause small intestine issues. The condition leaky gut we just talked about, if any of these other organs like your pancreas, your gall bladder, or your stomach aren’t working properly, it actually is going to make it much harder on your small intestine. This is especially true when it comes to the digestion of fats in your gall bladder.

Your gall bladder actually stores bile, which is first created by the liver. Bile helps your body break down and absorb fat. You can see this picture here of the liver and how the gall bladder basically has all of these things throughout the liver that lead into it. This is where your bile is stored. Again, bile is what helps your body break down fat.

Here is what you want to do on a gall bladder diet. First, let me jump back and say this. So many people today have gall bladders that aren’t functioning well. It could be because they’re worn out. Very similar to if you over consume sugar, it can cause issues with the pancreas which leads to diabetes. If you consume too much of the wrong type of fat over time, it can cause gall bladder issues, which is kind of like diabetes of the gall bladder. I get it - it’s a totally different condition.

Again, you get what I’m saying. You can wear out your gall bladder over time and have it stop functioning properly just like your cells that are part of your pancreas stop functioning properly because you’ve overdone sugar. You can overdo bad fats throughout time and other things which can stress the gall bladder.

If your gall bladder gets stressed, then your small intestine has to do more work in breaking down fatty acids. It is vitally important in healing leaky gut or irritable bowel syndrome or any health condition that is related to the digestive tract that you heal the gall bladder and have proper fat absorption and have proper bile and all of these different things here.

This is also especially a problem if somebody has had their gall bladder removed. A lot of people, we’re not going to fix the function of the gall bladder. In that case, it is absolutely necessary that they’re taking supplements for that the rest of their life, which I’ll talk about.

Here are some of the foods specifically for a gall bladder diet. By the way, this is going to be very similar if not the same as the leaky gut diet, but I just want to touch on it in a different light. On a gall bladder diet, I guess the difference between a leaky gut diet

14

would be you do need to reduce the consumption of fat for a time because you need to let your gall bladder rest. You need to consume medium chain fats and short chain fats instead of long chain fats.

Long chain fatty acids have to go through a longer process of digestion, which I’ll talk about in just a minute on the next slide. The other thing is they want to do a diet very high in vegetables and fruits. They really want to focus on getting more vegetables and fruits because the gall bladder is not responsible at all for that so you can let it rest. In fact, if there was ever a time to do maybe a two week period of going vegan or vegetarian, it may be during a gall bladder diet, but at the same time eliminating even things like olive oil and avocados for a few weeks.

Lean organic meats, wild turkey, grass fed bison, these meats that are much leaner. Consuming probiotic rich foods. If you’re going to do nuts, sprouted nuts because those are easier fats to digest. Those are all part of a gall bladder diet.

Here’s how this works. This is pretty incredible. In order for your body to actually break down long chain fats, and long chain fats are typically also known as polyunsaturated fats, which would be omega-3 fats and omega-6 fats, or omega-9 fats also known as monounsaturated fats, which are found in avocados and nuts like almonds and even olive oil.

Those long chain fats, they can be good for your health. Don’t get me wrong, they can be good for you, but your body has to go through about 26 steps to break down that type of fat. It actually goes into your bloodstream and cardiovascular system and then your liver works on breaking down the fat. And then also it goes through your circulatory system to where your body is using different forms of low density lipoproteins to actually help break it down.

Then your body uses bile. We talked earlier about bile to break down those forms of fatty acids. The good news about medium chain fats and some short chain fatty acids that are found in things like coconut and ghee is those are shorter chains so your body actually, primarily, it is your liver that actually is going to break that down. Actually, just like your body would use the liver to break down carbohydrates and store glycogen, it’s the same thing. Your body can actually easily burn this for energy.

This is why coconut oil, you may wonder why is coconut oil touted for athletes and for improving energy and improving fat loss and fat burning? It’s because coconut

15

oil contains mostly medium chain fatty acids. Your body has to go through less steps digestively to break it down. It’s mostly done by the liver so it’s easier for your body to burn for energy. That’s why coconut oil and ghee are the best two oils to use if you have gall bladder issues.

You can still do those overboard, so you need to keep those in moderation still, but those are much better in this scenario than, let’s say, grape seed oil or olive oil or even consuming an avocado. Again, these medium chain fatty acids are, and short chain fats found in raw dairy products or cheeses, are more easily broken down for energy. You can see there is a difference in the digestive process there with those.

In gall bladder treatment, the type of enzyme you want to consume if you know specifically somebody has had their gall bladder removed, they don’t necessarily need to take a full spectrum digestive enzyme. They could take a lipase enzyme. There are a couple good brands for that. One is by a brand called Enzymedica. It’s called Lypo Gold - L-Y-P-O Gold. Lipase enzymes are responsible for breaking down fat.

The other thing they absolutely need to be on are bile salts, which are typically found in the form of ox bile. Because their body isn’t producing enough bile or there are issues with bile, taking bile itself is actually supportive in digesting fats and it will help the breakdown there. Something else that should definitely be considered.

Again, this lipase and bile salt, if somebody has had their gall bladder removed, without a doubt they need to be taking bile salts the rest of their life and probably lipase with meals. Both of those things. If somebody has a sluggish gall bladder, both of these things for a period of time. Other things that can support the body, but not near as effective at treating the gall bladder as these top two, but probiotics we know actually takes some of the stress off the small intestine to improve fat absorption, so something else that’s probably necessary.

Actually, herbs like milk thistle and turmeric, they support, especially milk thistle, those support liver function. The liver produces the bile which the gall bladder stores and uses as well. Actually, even milk thistle and turmeric can also support healthy gall bladder function, so some other things that you may consider adding in as part of a gall bladder diet.

The next thing here, let’s talk about the stomach. The stomach is really the first part of your . . . Obviously there’s your esophagus and your mouth. Your mouth does help break

16

down foods into smaller pieces, but true digestion really starts in the stomach. Your stomach produces gastric juices which mainly consist of mucus along with hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes like amylase, lipase, proteases that help break down food before they reach the small intestine. Again, your stomach is important for that.

This is where everything is related. If your stomach is not functioning properly, then you’re getting a lot of these large, undigested proteins in the gut, the small intestine, which is harder for the small intestine to digest. Again, this is why we need all of your organs firing on all cylinders there.

The main issue when it comes to stomach is actually low stomach acid. This may surprise some people, but almost 90% of people today probably have low stomach acid. A lot of people think acid reflux is caused by too much acid in the stomach. No, it’s actually too little acid in the stomach. Low stomach acid causes first the inability to break proteins down into amino acids. This is very, very important.

This is why another thing is, when I’ve put somebody on a bone broth fast for three days, a bone broth, it’s already amino acids so they don’t need to be broken down. That’s why it’s a key part of the GAPS diet. If somebody has not only intestinal issues related to leaky gut but low stomach acid or stomach issues, the amino acids are really easy on the body. It’s a great thing.

SIBO, a really quickly growing condition today that’s typically associated with leaky gut, that’s known as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. That’s bad bacteria, overgrowth within the small intestine. Part of that overgrowth happens because the wrong pH is happening in the upper part of your small intestine and your stomach. Really, your stomach should be pretty much sterile because the pH is so low it should kill off any form of bacteria.

But, if there’s not enough stomach acid that would usually be killing off the bad bacteria in your small intestine, that’s going to cause the overgrowth of bad bacteria in the small intestine, which is another common factor causing leaky gut. Also, without the proper stomach acid it will cause malabsorption of vitamin B12 and iron.

Vitamin B12 is something 50% plus Americans are deficient in today, which is a major cause of low energy levels and poor cellar function. Also, this leads to acid reflux and heartburn over time, or it can. You can have low stomach acid and actually never have those sorts of issues, or only have it if you eat too large of a meal or eat and lay down or

17

an issue like that.

Again, stomach acid is very important. In order to improve your stomach acid, doing a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar before meals, or even a teaspoon, can actually support the stomach. Five minutes before meals, doing a tablespoon or teaspoon. Taking hydrochloric acid with pepsin, basically you only want to consume that when you have protein. You’ll actually feel a little bit of a burning in your stomach if you take too much of this, or if you don’t take protein with that meal.

You basically start with one cap and work your way up until you feel a light warmth in your stomach. Then you’ll take it down one capsule. I’ve had people I’ve worked with, patients I’ve worked with that had to consume 14 capsules of hydrochloric acid before they felt burning in their stomach. Then they were able to work their way down. Again, this is if somebody has severe stomach issues. Doing some hydrochloric acid, the average person I found typically will need about three capsules. It really depends.

Another supplement that can be great, a supplement or a food, is drinking cabbage juice, which is very high in sulfur or vitamin U, which has been shown to help heal the stomach. Or, you can actually take vitamin U in capsule form. There is actually a supplement by a company called Biotics called Gastrazyme, which is effective for that. These are some of the most effective remedies that can support the stomach and your overall digestive health.

You see what I’m saying. When you look at the gall bladder, if it doesn’t digest fat properly, then your small intestine has to deal with it. If your stomach isn’t digesting proteins properly, then your small intestine has to deal with it. This is why it’s important to have your body functioning as well as you can at all of these levels. These supplements can help, but more specifically, it’s resting your body. It’s fasting in a way for a period of time or fasting from certain foods for a period of time that’s going to heal your system.

Even as we’re talking about all of these different supplements, they’re beneficial, but if somebody went through a period of following a GAPS diet or a simple carbohydrate or my leaky gut diet I’ve been talking about, these are the most effective ways to heal these issues.

The last thing I want to go through and cover here are the importance of probiotics and really what they’re responsible for. I think a lot of times people think of probiotics

18

and they think, “Probiotics, those are for digestive health. Maybe that’s why I would take it.” Every person in America today, I seriously believe this, probably should be supplementing with probiotics.

Unless you’re eating a large amount of probiotic rich foods today, then you don’t need to. But if you aren’t consuming kefir and sauerkraut and kavas and coconut kefir, if you’re not consuming a lot of probiotic rich foods every day (and by the way, and eating foods from the farmers markets that are local), if you’re not doing that every day, you really should probably be taking a probiotic supplement and your clients should as well.

Probiotics are responsible actually for producing vitamins in your body. In fact, when your probiotic system is healthy, it actually allows your gut to produce some vitamin B12. You should be getting that in diet as well, but it actually will produce some. It also helps your body produce a fatty acid called butyrate, which your actual intestinal cells will use for energy in creating other things.

Also, probiotics support making vitamin K2 which is important for the health of your heart. It’s important for the health of your bones. Probiotics can build stronger bones. They can build a healthier heart. They improve cellular function. They’re important for everything. Probiotics also crowd out the bad bacteria, yeast, and fungi.

A lot of times we’ll go in. Patients will get put on, or clients will get put on, prescription antibiotic drugs which will kill off the bad bacteria and the good bacteria and then they never take probiotics with that or afterwards. Then only the bad bacteria grows back so you’ve created this deficit within the body. Again, probiotics crowd out the bad bacteria. Actually, many probiotics actually kill bad bacteria.

Also, probiotics create enzymes which destroy bad bacteria and help the breakdown of food. Also, it stimulates secretion of IgA and regulatory T cells, which can naturally help digest or help with your body’s immune system. Many of us already know this and have heard that 80% of your immune system is located in your gut. It’s absolutely true. These immune markers really are typically activated in your gut first.

Here are some of the other effects probiotics have within the system. They affect immunomodulation, as we talked about earlier. Probiotics are responsible for it. I talked about gluten leaking through the gut which is an issue with leaky gut syndrome, which then we talked about creates an immune reaction. Probiotics can help with that immune reaction, but also can make it easier on your body.

19

Again, probiotics support immunomodulation within the body. This is important especially for immune issues which are related to inflammatory bowel disease like Crohn’s disease. It’s very important there.

Also, probiotics basically are responsible for normalizing your intestinal flora, which is important for irritable bowel syndrome. It’s important for things like relieving diarrhea and constipation. The other big thing is though probiotics are responsible for metabolic function. Probiotics actually help supply short chain fats and vitamins, even folate, to your colon. It’s responsible for making almost every B vitamin out there today.

If you’re taking probiotics you have a reduced risk of leaky guy, reduced risk of colon cancer. Another important thing is probiotics help you break down food and absorb nutrients. Probiotics actually help you absorb vitamin B12. They help you absorb zinc. It helps you absorb all of the particles in your food. It also helps you break down things like lactose.

If somebody is lactose intolerant, I’ve found that they may be able to consume kefir or amasi or a very strong yogurt because probiotics actually help break down lactose within the body and actually can help people overcome gluten intolerance and Celiac disease and issues like that. It also even helps with bile salt conjugation, creation of bile salt. So you see here, probiotics have so many different benefits and uses.

The main problem today that we’re talking about is the probiotic killers. We are so deficient in probiotics. I talked about it earlier. I was looking at a child growing up in that vicious cycle of them losing probiotics, but it really does start in adulthood or youth with prescription antibiotic overuse. The number one cause of the issue today.

The next thing is the overconsumption of sugar that feeds bad bacteria. Tap water, drinking that that contains fluoride. Consuming genetically modified foods like corn and soy that are actually high in things that actually harm the liver, but GMO foods have been shown to destroy good bacteria in the gut. Grains oftentimes that have too much gluten and break down into sugar cause probiotic issues.

Emotional stress we know can cause raised cortisol which then affects the gut. Then chemicals and medications also are major probiotic killers. A lot of medications that patients are on today absolutely kill and destroy probiotics, especially steroid drugs are a major issue with that today. As I mentioned earlier, birth control, another major probiotic

20

killer.

There’s a great book out there today called “Missing Microbes.” It talks about how the overuse of antibiotics is fueling our modern plagues. These modern plagues today that we’ve talked about of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis and lupus and fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are all related to missing microbes, to missing good quality probiotics within your gut.

As I quoted last week, there is a study out of Stanford that found, this is huge. Look at this. Consuming probiotics increase the vitamin B12 levels in your body by 67%. By the way, I believe this same study or another study I saw also found that it increased folate and vitamin B6 and B1 and B2. Basically, probiotics can improve every B vitamin level in your body, every mineral level in your body including iron and zinc. It is so important for absorption and digestion that you’re getting good, quality probiotics in your diet.

We’ve all heard the principle you are what you eat. That’s not true. You really are what you digest. You can have one person that’s going and consuming pumpkin seeds. One person is digesting all of the zinc in there and all of the other nutrients like magnesium. Another person who doesn’t have enough probiotics and gut isn’t healthy, they’re consuming five percent where that other person is consuming 95%. There’s a big difference there. Getting good quality probiotics is an important step.

There are many different types of strains and species of probiotics today. I wanted to cover some that have been clinically studied. I went through and actually looked at, and you can see some of my sources here with the smaller numbers, but I went and looked through a lot of different sources and medical studies on probiotics. I wanted to talk about some specific strains or species and what they’re good for.

The most common strain that we actually have in our bodies today, especially from birth, is a form of bifidobacterium, also known as bifidobacterium bifidum. This form of probiotics in medical studies have been shown to support production of vitamins in the gut, so the production of vitamin B12 and the production of vitamin K2. It’s also been shown to inhibit harmful bacteria, support immunity, prevent diarrhea. It’s the dominant gut flora in infants today.

Another form of bifido bacteria is bifido longum. This supports liver function and the production of bile within the body. This really supports everything liver related. It also reduces inflammation and helps remove heavy metals, which is because it helps support

21

liver function.

Bifidobacterium breve helps colonize the gut community and crowd out bad bacteria, which is so important. Bifidobacterium infantis, probably the second most common probiotic found in infants today alleviates symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, diarrhea, and constipation, so very effective in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. That’s the bifidum.

Another one of the next most common species is lactobacillus species. Lactobacillus casei which supports immunity, it inhibits H. pylori, which is this candida within the system. Helps us fight infections. We have lactobacillus acidophilus. Lactobacillus acidophilus is probably the most popular individual probiotic taken in supplements today, which is good, but it’s definitely not the only probiotic out there.

There are a lot of medical studies on lactobacillus acidophilus. It’s been shown to relieve gas, bloating, and lactose intolerance. It’s been shown to have a 61% reduction in E. coli within your gut. It’s been shown to lower cholesterol levels, create vitamin K, also support what’s known as GALT, your immune system, gut associated lymphoid tissue. It helps support those tissues that are immune related.

Lactobacillus brevis, one of the reasons why lactobacillus brevis and lactobacillus rhamnosus is good is because they actually can survive the GI tract better than a lot of other probiotics. Supports cellular immunity, especially T killer cells. The lactobacillus here, rhamnosus, is very good because it supports skin. Also it’s been shown to relieve urinary tract infections, reduce anxiety. Specifically it’s good for hormones.

Think about that. It’s even important for hormones. Your gut is related to your hormones. The majority of the neurotransmitters, in fact, 90% of the serotonin produced in your body today is not produced by your brain on your pituitary gland. It’s produced in your gut, of hormones. You can see here why your digestive tract is so important. Also, it has a high survivability, but this probiotic, if you have hormonal issues or depression or anxiety is a probiotic that you definitely want to consider taking, or finding a formula that has that form in it.

These last three probiotics I’m going to touch on are really unique. In fact, not all of them are necessarily bacteria. Let me go ahead and touch on this here as well. Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus coagulans. Bacillus coagulans is more of an, these are known as endospore probiotics. They’re actually heat resistant. Bacillus subtilis is basically really supportive of

22

the immune system.

Bacillus subtilis is the probiotic that’s found in natto today, which is also what’s found in fermented soy beans. Fermented soy, or natto, is good for you whereas as most of the synthetic GMO soy today is terrible for your health. This is the main probiotic that’s consumed in Okinawa, Japan today. A lot of centurions, people living to be over 100, consume it on a regular basis. It really supports immunity and suppresses the growth of bad bacteria.

Here’s the unique thing about it again. It is heat resistant. A lot of probiotics can die under heat. A lot of probiotics are diminished or destroyed when they go through the stomach. The good news here about bacillus subtilis is that it actually survives the gut. Actually, one of the most popular probiotic formulas over the years actually ten years before people really knew the form it. A good friend of mine, Jordan Rubin, developed a probiotic supplement called Primal Defense, which was one of if not the very first that had bacillus subtilis in it. Also, we know this improves vitamin K2.

Bacillus coagulans is another endospore probiotic, which means again it’s not going to die under heat and it really improves nutrient absorption. It’s also been shown to reduce inflammation in the symptoms of arthritis. It reduces inflammation of the gut and improves nutrient absorption of the gut. Another great probiotic.

And then, what’s not a probiotic, well, it is a probiotic, but it’s actually a yeast rather than a bacteria, is saccharomyces boulardii which actually has a unique story behind it. It actually comes from a fermented tropical fruit. It’s a yeast probiotic strain that restores natural flora in the large and small intestine and improves intestinal cell growth, so healing of the gut. It has been proven to effectively treat ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease specifically. It has also been shown to have anti-toxin effects, be antimicrobial and reduce inflammation. This is a very unique yeast that also can be found.

Typically, by the way, bacillus subtilis, bacillus coagulans, and saccharomyces boulardii, those sort of strains are typically only found in high and top of the line probiotic supplements. I know and can tell you the majority of probiotic supplements out there today do not contain these. In fact, most of them by the time they reach your house, the probiotics are dead.

Here are some of the things you may want to look for when you are recommending a probiotic supplement. Number one is brand quality. Garden of Life has some great

23

probiotics. A company that’s called Prescript Assist has a soil based probiotic. My brand, Axe Naturals. Let me touch on this as well. Soil based versus food-based probiotics.

You’re going to have some probiotics that are found in food. We know lactobacillus acidophilus is found in kefir today. Actually, the bifidobacterium is found in breast milk today. But there are also soil based probiotics or environmental probiotics we should be exposed to.

I’ll give you an example of this. If you’ve ever gone to the farmer’s market and bought carrots and you notice that there is still a little dirt on there. Do you guys know what I’m saying? You look at the carrot, you’ll notice even just after you rinse them off there are a little bit of brown spots on those. Those are soil based probiotics. In fact, some of them might be bacillus coagulans and different types of acetobacter bacteria. Those are found on carrots.

There is a study showing, which I meant to put a slide on there with that exact medical study. It’s a great study. They’ve shown that consuming those carrots that have not been sprayed with chlorine to kill off the probiotics that you find in most grocery stores today, but those carrots that you but at the farmer’s market from a garden, those probiotics actually help your body in breaking down starch.

If you ever have potatoes that have those on it or different things, actually those probiotics will stay on there because most of them are heat resistant unless you chlorinate them like our grocery stores do today. They support you in the digestion of food. Anyways, there’s a difference. Most of us have, if we have a probiotic supplement, we’ve taken a probiotic supplement that has food based probiotics but no soil based. The truth is, you want to try and get both. Or, shop more at your local farmer’s market, which helps.

Number two, and by the way the Axe Naturals that I have has all of the different strains in there. Garden of Life has some different strains than Prescript Assist. That’s only soil based, but again that’s a great probiotic. High CFU count. We know we want to be looking for a higher number, 15 to 100 billion plus CFU count of probiotics when you’re recommending a supplement.

Strain diversity. Ten strains is great. 30 strains is great. Looking for more strains. Survivability. Again, the great thing about bacillus coagulans, saccharomyces boulardii, bacillus subtilis, lactobacillus rhamnosus, and some of the others is they have been

24

shown to survive the gut.

Then also, when you’re recommending, look at some of the strains I talked about, do your research, and recommend the brands that maybe contains all of the strains or many of the strains for a specific health condition.

That really goes through most of what I wanted to cover here with healing the digestive track today. To be honest, I could have gone through even more. There is so much information in regards to healing your digestive tract. I want to talk about the next several weeks and give you some homework or action steps to take from this week.

Again, we obviously covered digestive health today. Next week we’ll be covering hormone balance. Week after that we’ll cover essential oil therapy and plant-based medicine. We’ll also talk about in week five fitness and weight loss, creating a custom program, lifestyle strategies for healing, and then detoxification and alternative therapies.

Homework or action steps for this week: read up on leaky gut syndrome. There are some other great references. I’ve got an article on my website, draxe.com, that you should read that gets more in depth as well as you may consider reading some other websites, just doing a Google search online. There are some good articles out there on leaky gut.

Number two: work on your own digestive health. Remember, if we’re going to be the leaders in this, we need to practice what we preach. If you know you have an issue here or something, again, get yourself a good quality probiotic or start consuming these fermented foods or follow the GAPS diet or this leaky gut diet I recommended for yourself for a couple weeks. See how your body feels so you know how it feels in recommending it to patients and some of the obstacles you may need to overcome.

In fact, if you get on my leaky gut diet or something like the GAPS diet, you probably need to make your own bone broth. If you’re going to recommend that to clients and patients and people you’re working with, it’s probably good to know how to do it yourself. And then read up on the GAPS diet.

Do these things this week and improve your digestive health and improve the digestive health of your clients. I hope you guys have all enjoyed this week touching on restoring the digestive health of your clients and patients. Again, I want to say thanks for listening guys. Next week on our business training, I’m going to be going over how to build a

25

million dollar brand and finding your perfect niche and other marketing strategies along with that.

Again, thanks for listening. I pray you guys have an absolutely blessed week and weekend. I’ll see you soon.