The Dr. Lam Show

How to Keep Your Microbiome Happy

June 19, 2022 Dr. Lam
The Dr. Lam Show
How to Keep Your Microbiome Happy
Show Notes Transcript

Practical information on how the 5R Gut program can help restore your microbiome.

00:44 - What is the microbiome?
01:53 - Where is microbiome found?
02:16 - What causes Dysbiosis?
03:21 - 1st R = Remove
05:43 - 2nd R = Replace
07:45 - 3rd R = Reinnoculate
10:21 - 4th R = Repair
13:03 - 5th R = Restore

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Dr. Carrie Lam, MD:

How to keep your microbiome happy. This is the Dr. Lam Show. And we're here to talk about integrative medicine and empower you to take control of your health. Make sure you like and subscribe to our podcast and YouTube channel. As this is the best way that we can make our show more visible. I'm Dr. Carrie Lam family medicine physician, and I've completed fellowships in functional and metabolic medicine. I love nutrition and lifestyle medicine.

Dr. Jeremy Lam, MD:

I am Dr. Jeremy Lam, I'm an internal medicine doctor also board certified in anti aging and regenerative medicine. Today we're going to be talking about the microbiome. The microbiome consists of trillions of microorganisms of 1000s of different species. And these include not only bacteria, but fungi, parasites and viruses as well. In a healthy person, these bugs coexist peacefully, with the largest numbers found in the small and the large intestines, but throughout the body. Each person has a unique network of microbiota that is originally determined by one's DNA. A person is first exposed to these microorganisms as an infant during delivery in the birth canal, and through the mother's breast milk. Exactly what microorganism that infant is exposed to, depends solely on the species found in the mother. Later, environmental exposures and diet can also change one's microbiome to be either beneficial to health, or place one at greater risk for disease.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD:

I also think that it's very important to know that you have microbiome not only in your gut, but really everywhere, like your skin, your lungs, that are beneficial to your body. And like you said, their DNA plays a role as well, so making sure that your microbiome is healthy, is important to your health. The microbiome consists of microbes that are both helpful and potentially harmful. Most are symbiotic where humans live and benefit with the microbiota, benefiting each other. And some in smaller numbers are pathogenic, meaning it causes disease. In a healthy body symbiotic microbiota can exist without problems and balance. But if there's a disturbance in that balance, brought on by infections, illnesses, certain diets, or prolonged use of antibiotics, or other bacteria destroying medications, then dysbiosis can occur. This can stop normal interactions and cause an imbalance and make your body more susceptible to disease. So, how can we help the microbiome? We are going to talk about the five R's. Dr. Jeremy, can you start with the first R of helping the gut.

Dr. Jeremy Lam, MD:

The first R is Remove. You want to remove the bad bacteria, remove the irritants as well as food toxicities that's triggering you. Removing and finding what is irritating is very important. For some people, it can be gluten, it can be dairy, soy, corn or sugar. Sometimes it can be almonds or peanuts as well. So you want to make sure that you find the foods that's triggering you, and remove them from your diet. Other things could also be pesticides in the food. You want to make sure that you try to eat as much organic as you can. Because these toxins can cause more issues in your gut and contribute to leaky gut, which is another topic in itself. So, I don't want any unwanted microbes. You want to make sure that you wash your vegetables and your fruits really well.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD:

You can soak them in baking soda and vinegar ahead of time to wash it. I wash my vegetables in ozonated water. There's also an app called Think dirty by environmental working group that you can check, to make sure that you're not putting into your body any toxins, whether it's the soaps that you're using the laundry detergents, the shampoos, etc. Those types of chemicals can disrupt your gut and produce toxins. So that's why you want to remove anything that can cause your microbiome to be unhappy. So what is the second R, Dr Jeremy?

Dr. Jeremy Lam, MD:

One other thing I wanted to add is that we do quite a few testing, for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or SIBO. So you either do a breath test, you do in depth analysis to find out what your gut bacteria is, and what good and bad bacteria you have. And you go through a protocol in trying to remove the bad bacteria. You need to make sure that you go about doing that before approaching the second R, which is done to Replace what is lacking. And how do we do that Dr Carrie?

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD:

So replacing is making sure that you have enough good digestive enzymes, or acid in your stomach to help digest or bile to help with the fat processing. So, if you don't have enough of these, and fiber, to help move things along, then you want to replace it. So how do you get acid? It can be from butane, hydrochloric acid, you can try apple cider vinegar as a protocol to see whether you would feel less bloated when you are replacing some acid. Because a lot of times people get bloated when they don't digest food enough if they don't have enough stomach acid. So that can be a good challenge to try. Digestive enzymes can also be taken with meals to help digest your food a little better, especially protein that can be harder to digest. So replacing your digestive enzymes can be important. And if you have a hard time digesting fat then digestive bitters, bile like oxbile can help. So that's the second R, to replace what you're lacking in. A lot of these things can also be tested if you don't have enough enzymes and that your pancreas makes. That can be tested in a stool test. Another thing that you can replace is fiber. So psyllium husk is a great way to bulk up your stool. You drink enough water and get enough fiber in your body along with vegetables and Bran or other types of fibrous fruits like prunes, pears, peaches, all the fruits tend to help you go a little easier. So that's the replacing, okay, so what's the next R?

Dr. Jeremy Lam, MD:

The third R is re inoculate. And so that means that to introduce some of the good bacteria back in after you've replaced and gotten rid of the bad bacteria, as well as replacing all the things that could be wrong there. And so a couple ways that you can re inoculate is to use fermented foods, probiotics and such. I love to use fermented foods because that's really the natural way to do it. And as in the Korean culture, they use kimchi, where every culture has some kind of fermented foods. Sauerkraut can also be wine, yogurt, kombucha, all of those can help introduce good probiotics into your system by Re inoculating your gut.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD:

Yeah, miso soup, one of my favorites and pickles can also help re inoculate and then also introducing a pre biotic. Probiotics are the actual bugs, right that you're giving lactobacillus or saccharomyces, but then you have prebiotics that are foods that actually feed your gut bacteria. Those are like chia seeds, garlic or onion, or those types of foods that the gut microbiome would loves and keep them happy. So re inoculating with the right amount is also important. If you're taking probiotics, I generally recommend do it on an empty stomach in the morning, so that you can feed your microbiome in the right way. And not always doing the same type of probiotic. Rotation of a few would be the best. You have a different variety of bugs in your system and you don't want to overdo it because your body's balance has to be maintained over time. So you can also take too much probiotics sometimes. Many of our patients have taken too much probiotics and then they get either constipated or diarrhea. So making sure you know the right amount, the right type, the right frequency, the right rotation, when you're taking probiotics, is very important.

Dr. Jeremy Lam, MD:

And the fourth R is Repair, where you want to repair the gut lining after it's been bombarded with a lot of toxins. Some things that you can do to repair using bone broth. That's why we really love having people take some bone broth because it has collagen, which helps to heal the gut lining. Colostrum, which is also the first milk that comes out of cows or mothers is full of immunoglobulin A, which helps to heal the gut as well as the immune system in your gut. Glutamine is also important. It is an amino acid, and is actually called the intestinal permeability factor. And so if we combine it with other compounds, such as pentaphene and DHEA, as a fantastic approach in healing and stabilizing the gut.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD:

With glutamine, you got to be careful, it can be a little more stimulating, and you have to do it in the right amount stimulating if your body's weak. Glutamine, you do have to take in much pretty high doses in order for it to truly start to repair and heal the gut lining. This is not like a quick fix, usually you do need to take these for a few months in order to really see the gut heal. And so glutamine is a great one. Collagen also has very beneficial effects in healing the gut. You want to be very careful about giving collagen to someone who has a C diff or chronic C diff infection, because they can feed the C diff. So be very careful of that. What are some other supplements that can help feed the gut?

Dr. Jeremy Lam, MD:

Aloe vera is another good one, we use it every day. You have to take it in a supplement form to be able to get enough of it. Aloe vera juice is still good, but definitely the supplement form is good. Same with licorice as it can really repair the gut lining, while the one is also the same carnosine that can also help to repair the gut lining. So there's a lot of different supplements that can help heal leaky gut. You just have to make sure that you take the right amount and like we said as to be dose dependent, as well as making sure that you're taking it long enough to make sure that your gut lining is healing and to make sure that your intestinal permeability is not leaking through anymore.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD:

Right. So that brings us up to the fifth R which is to Restore. This one is very important to restore your mind and your body to de stress. So those lifestyle factors in order to help you retain a healthy environment is important to keep your body in balance. Whatever you can do, whether it's breathing exercises, cleaning out your calendar, providing boundaries, getting some support, restoring your mind is very important to restoring your body. And so those are our five R's for helping to keep your microbiome happy. So just to recap, the first R was to remove, the second R is to replace where you're lacking, the third R is to re-inoculate with beneficial bacteria. The fourth R is to repair the gut lining and the fifth R is to restore that mind body balance. This is the five R program to help your microbiome.

Dr. Jeremy Lam, MD:

We hope this helps you understand what may be going on in your gut and in your microbiome. Microbiome imbalances often are ignored by conventional medicine. And this really leads to long term debilitation, chronic disease and poor health. So just remember that it's your body and you're the best judge of whether it's healthy or not. If you think something's wrong, don't stop searching until you get the help and the guidance that you need. Thanks for being with us today here on the Dr. Lam Show. We hope that you found this information helpful. If you did, please subscribe to the channel so we can continue to bring more great content to help your health. And if you know anyone else who might find this show helpful. Please share it with them. Remember that we're here to empower you to take control of your health.

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