Dr. Will Bulsiewicz – Founder of 38TERA on Healing the Gut to Unlock Energy, Focus, and Longevity

Welcome back to the Casey Adams Show. Today I am joined by a very special guest, Dr. Will Bolshowitz, the founder of 38 Tara and a world renowned gut health expert, Dr. B. Thank you so much for coming to the show today.

Casey Adams. I'm very excited to be here. Thank you.

Of course, man. I've been super excited for this conversation. I'm so intrigued by your just skill set and knowledge on all things gut health. And I don't want to butcher this world this word, but, you know, you're known as a gastroenterologist. Is that. Is that how you say it? I want to make sure I'm punctual there. Yeah.

No, you actually nailed it. You nailed my last name. You're kind of on fire right now. So it's a beautiful thing. But like to, if people want to simplify it, a lot of times people just call us GI Doctors.

Yeah, got it. No, of course. No. And I appreciate that. You know, we like to start these shows on fire and for people that may not know. And I wanted to dive into not only being the founder of 38 Terra and what the company and the product is that you've created, but just starting at this super high level of why is gut health important and why should people even care to learn about it? Because when I first started diving in myself, I think it just your knowledge opened up my entire viewpoint of why it's so impactful. And I already sent an episode that you did with ritual to my parents and my brothers. And it's so fascinating when you really start to understand, like, why it's so important in your everyday life. So would love to, you know, first ask you, like, what got you into this and why is gut health so important?

All right, well, I guess let me start with the promise to your audience, which is that we're talking about a topic that I think is applicable to every single person out there. And the reason why is that gut health, whether you are doing incredibly well, very healthy, or whether you are someone who's struggling with some sort of health related issue right now, the gut is so central to your health. It matters for all of us. Healthy aging, reducing our risk of disease, and when you actually are fighting with health related issues, the gut oftentimes offers an opportunity to improve those problems. And we'll dig into that a little bit more. So I'll come back to that, but let me start by saying that this was not the plan for me. This was not the plan. I didn't have some sort of a priori Going into medical school, I'm going to be on a podcast 20 years from now talking about 38 Terra. None of this was on the cards of what I was expecting to happen. But basically it really started when I had my own health issues. I was in my early 30s. I had endured intense medical training at Georgetown University School of Medicine, Northwestern Hospital, University of North Carolina Hospitals. And during this time, my body started to fall apart and I was 50 pounds overweight. I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, tons of anxiety, I was depressed and I had extremely low self esteem. And you wouldn't have known any of these things about me if you just looked at my LinkedIn because you would have thought, this guy is thriving and smashing it professionally. And yet there I was in a dark room, curled up under a blanket and depressed. And in that moment, I was already a board certified internal medicine doctor. I didn't want the treatments that I knew how to provide. I wanted something else. I wanted to get to the root of the issue. And it took me a while to figure out what that means because actually that was not part of my training in a conventional medical system. And ultimately what I discovered is that it was changing my diet that transformed everything. And so as a person who my lifelong dream was to be a medical doctor and impact people's lives in a beneficial way. As someone who comes from that perspective, that mission, when I found this and it worked for me, there's nothing that's more convincing. You don't need a randomized controlled trial to convince me anymore. Yeah. Because I've seen in my own life. And so I started to bring these concepts into my clinic to treat my patients who had digestive health problems. And I was witnessing amazing bordering, like to me, bordering on a miraculous type of things happening in my clinic with these people. And that sort of just started this momentum, this forward momentum that led me to eventually feeling compelled to share the story, which led me to creating my social media, which led me to writing a book.

Book.

That book led me to Rich Roll. That Rich Roll podcast blew up. And with all these things that were happening, people were asking me, hey, what supplements do you recommend? And I really wasn't comfortable answering that question because I didn't like what was out on the market. Wow. And that's what led me to 38 Terra. But let me circle back because I know we'll talk about 38 Terra, but I want to talk about gut health. Yeah. The reason why gut health is so important is that. So when we talk about this, really what we're referring to is the microbiome. And the microbiome is a community of invisible microorganisms that are a part of our body. They're mostly bacteria, but there's other stuff in there, too, like there's yeasts and these things called archaea. Could be parasites, potentially. And believe it or not, not all parasites are bad. Actually, some of them can be really good for us.

Interesting.

So, yeah, it's a weird thing.

I like that. So.

Well, you know, there's so much that we were sort of conditioned to believe growing up.

Yeah.

And as science evolves, we start to discover new and different things, and many times the answers are more nuanced than what we were taught.

Yep.

And so. But these microorganisms, they outnumber us. So we have approximately 38 trillion microorganisms living inside of our intestines. And that's more than the 30 trillion human cells that you have. So you are less than 50% human. And they actually provide 99.5% of our genetic code. So if you were to line up all of your genes and there were 200 of them, only one of them would be human. And 199 of them would be coming from these microbes. So you are less than 1% human when it comes to your genetics. And so now, the best way for me to describe this is like, this is the command center for human health. This microbiome living inside of us, as alive as you and I are. We can't see them with the naked eye, but if you pulled out a microscope, you would see that you're teeming with life. And they are connected to so much more than just our digestion. They're connected to our immune system, which means inflammation. Our metabolism, which is ozempic. That's now the summary for metabolism is ozempic.

Oh, man.

They're connected to our mood, our brain health, the balance of our hormones, and even the way in which we express our genetic code. Because, believe it or not, our genes are not basically, like, predetermining what happens during our lifetime. The genes can be turned on or off like a light switch. So, Kasey, when you step back and you look at this big picture, what you see is that our health is really powerfully determined in many ways by what's happening with these microorganisms that are a part of us, but they're not even human.

Yeah, that's. That's so fascinating and something you, you mentioned there that I want to take a step back on is which I appreciate this perspective, you know, when you were first looking to become, as you mentioned, a board certified doctor when it comes to, like, then writing the book Fiber Fueled. Tell me, when you set out to start writing this book and really capturing all of this information and putting pen to paper, what inspired you to go about doing so? Given I'm sure you're extremely busy. You're so working with patients. And when was that moment for you where I think again, even us doing this podcast and you talked about the story of getting ritual and that blowing up. Where did this sort of. When did this become important to really go out and start sharing it in books, podcasts, And I'm curious about that lens in terms of your expertise.

So there are these moments that I'm sure that you've had in your life, and there are these moments that I had in my life where there were. Where something happened and you realized, oh my gosh, like, there's something here. And the first time was in. In 2017. I had just moved to Charleston, joined a medical practice. I'm in Charleston, South Carolina, for everyone at home had joined a medical practice. And I was invited by the local hospital to give a talk on what you and I are discussing right now, which is gut health. And they told me they're like, you know, we'll probably have like 15 people come. Well, when they advertised, literally sold out. They added more chairs. The room was completely packed. And then they had even more people. It was overflowing. So they had over 100 people. And it was standing room only. There literally wasn't any space in the room. People were everywhere. Wow. And I gave this talk. And afterwards, people hung around for, I'm not exaggerating when I say this, two and a half hours to talk to me. So there were people waiting in line for two and a half hours.

Wow.

So that's not normal. So in that moment, I was like, something is going on here. And I knew that I needed to share the story further. And it led me to eventually buying a microphone and being a guest on people's podcasts, such as we're doing right now and in the summer of 2018. So a year and a half later, I had a podcast with someone who's now my business partner in 38 Terra, and his name is Simon Hill. But at the time, I didn't know him at all.

Okay.

And the beauty of the Internet is that it connected me, a medical doctor in practice in Charleston, South Carolina, to this person in Sydney, Australia. We had just launched a podcast.

Wow.

We had a Conversation. And it went viral and in the way that you described where you said, I shared the Rich Roll podcast with my family. This is what was happening with this episode. It was called Plant Proof at the time. Now it's called the Proof. Friends were telling friends, and the thing just spread. It was, like, three weeks after we launched it. It was way bigger than when it started.

Wow.

And so Simon and I had this shared experience which led us to becoming really close friends. Ultimately became the foundation of now us deciding that we wanted to do something together. But at the same time, again, yeah, it's really cool. There's even more to the story, believe it or not, because there was this moment where my wife and she will. If I call her into the room right now, she will validate this. That she literally said to me, you never know what could happen in this podcast. You never know where. Maybe one day, like, this is your friend or this is your business partner.

She said this before. You did this podcast before.

Because doing this podcast with him actually came on the back on the heels of a huge disappointment. Because what happened was that I was supposed to go and give a talk in Savannah, Georgia, which is about two hours south of here. And I was going to be paid really well for this talk. And we were a young family. I had a tremendous amount of debt. We were paycheck to paycheck. We could have used the money. And so it was very disappointing to me that they canceled on me at the last minute. They canceled. Simon booked. I was feeling down, and my wife says to me, what if this turns out to be the thing that changes your life?

Wow.

Are you kidding me? Yeah. And that's completely true, I promise you. I'm not embellishing that at all.

At the time. I'm just curious. And we could go. I, of course, want to talk about all things God else, but I'm just so fascinated by this story now. Was that the first podcast you ever went on or. In terms of. Okay. No.

I had been on other podcasts.

Yeah. Okay.

I'm not someone who achieved instant social media success. I'm amazed by the people who do. It wasn't me. I was out there sort of grinding on social media, and I think I had in the summer of 2018, when we're talking about. I had been at it with social media for about two years, and I had, like, probably 5,000 followers.

Okay.

But to put into perspective, two months later, I was 5x because of this podcast.

That's incredible.

I mean, the story is incredible. And then when this happened. I turned to my wife. I'm like, babe, I don't know what's going on here, but it feels like I got to bottle it up. There's lightning, and I got to figure out, how do I bottle up that lightning? And she says to me, yeah, it's very obvious. You have to write a book. And by the way, here is the list of literary agents that I prepared for you already.

Wow.

And here's how you go about doing it. My wife has agreed the process.

So this podcast, just for people that are listening, ended up being. Excuse me, co founder of Now 38 Terra. And on. On that note, I know we touched on a little bit, but, you know, you mentioned how people were asking you, like, certain products and you couldn't find anything. And I think with, you know, I've had so many entrepreneurs and founders on the show and so many ideas stem from just obviously things not being available that you want or dealing with your own problems and trying to solve it. What was the origin of 38 Terra in terms of those initial conversations, to create a product that is now know, available to the market? Like, what were. What were the things that you were looking for that weren't out there? And why 38 terra in terms of, you know, the product today?

Yeah. So the story there is that I think that when you are a medical doctor on the front lines, you understand and know better than anyone what are the tools that people like, what are the tools that work and what do they need in order to be successful? And so I had been treating people with fiber supplements in the gut health space. Supplements make a ton of sense because we're talking about prebiotics and probiotics. And now there's these things called postbiotics that are starting to come onto the market. But these are things that they don't all work, but many of them do work, and they can really radically change the game for people, really improve their symptoms, improve their health when they are successful. So I had been treating people. If you came to my clinic, there was about a 95% chance that on the first visit, I was going to recommend that you start taking a prebiotic fiber supplement. And I had been doing that for many years. And that was based upon my view of the microbiome, where basically what I saw was, yes, we need to change and overhaul people's diets, but there's also this opportunity that exists with supplements that is much more accessible and compliance is much better. I can definitely get people to do this. I can't get everyone to change their diet. But I can definitely get people to do this, and I see the results. I see how well this is working. So I'd been doing this in the clinic since 2014. And then what happened is the fiberfuels came out in May of 2020, and it was an unexpected success. I didn't know anything was going to Happen. It's now 350,000 sold, 500,000 in print.

So incredible.

It's crazy.

That is so great, Kasey.

In my mind, I'm sincere when I say this, that in my mind, I write this book, it goes out into the world, I continue being a gastroenterologist. My life doesn't change, and I didn't anticipate that this was going to be such an ordeal. And so many people were coming out of the woodwork at me on different levels. And a big part of it is that I had a chapter in my book, chapter seven, called Prebiotics, Probiotics, and Postbiotics. And in there, I was describing my approach to these health issues and how I would use these things, these tools. And so people said, well, which one do you recommend? And the problem is that I don't want to come on your show and bash what's available on the market. But I felt like it was inadequate. So I sat there and I thought to myself, am I really going to recommend that these people go to the store and buy a product that probably was sprayed with glyphosate? We'll never know. It's never been tested. We have no data, no transparency. Am I really going to recommend that? And eventually, after six months of basically ignoring or trying to push these people away, I eventually got to a point where I said, people are going to use supplements to address their issues. And I have recommended supplements to address their issues. And I see that what's available on the market is not where I want it to be. I see an opportunity to make it better. So why don't we modernize this? Why don't we bring this concept of gut health supplements into the 21st century using state of the art science and using my clinical experience and expertise to do something really transformative. And so it was in February of 21, February of 2021, where at this point, I'd been on the Proof podcast probably five times. Okay, okay. And Simon and Rich Roll and I are like. We're like friends. We're all friends. So all these things have happened in the last three years. And in February of 2021, I went to Simon and I said, hey, I'm thinking about starting this company and I don't want to create a BS white label stuff that's already out there. I want to make something that's special. I want to make basically something that is going to define this category. And what I was hoping is Simon would at least give me some basic advice on how to do that. And he came back to me. So Simon has a. He should come on your show and talk to you. He's in la.

Absolutely.

Because he's got an amazing background in E comm. And he started doing this stuff when he was 18 years old. He started. Yeah. He grew up in Australia, and there was a period of time where the World Series of Poker led to poker overnight becoming popular in Australia. Wow. But the only chips that were being sold in Australia were cheap, plastic, flimsy poker chips. At 18 years old. He hopped on a plane, flew to China, figured out how to make premium chips in China, imported them into Australia, and this is how he got started doing E Commerce.

That's incredible. Sharp guy. That's for sure.

Yeah. So he gets this stuff. I mean, he hosts a podcast now, but this is how he started. And I knew that he had this background, so I approached him about the idea. And it's actually really cool because the way in which the marriage exists. He has a master's degree in nutrition. I'm obviously a medical doctor. I'm a gastroenterologist, so I bring my clinical experience. But he brings the ability to push back on some level on certain things to challenge me to do it better. And simultaneously, that business experience. And so it kind of fits together really well.

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I look at it genuinely when it comes to the yin and yang of business and the focusing on your strengths and, you know, and I even, like on the website, reading about the product and understanding it, like, the level of authority and trust that it. How it shows up in the market is immense. And I commend you and the team for that and the way you've gone about it, because it looks incredible and it's something definitely that you guys should all be proud of. And it's cool to hear that story there.

Yeah. So we spent several years in development, so that first conversation was February of 2021. It wasn't until January of 2024 that we actually launched.

Got it. Okay.

Yeah. And that was a story of its own. It was wild.

What part of that, in terms. Because something you said that sticks out to me is. Right. Is you wanted to make a product that is truly transformative for the industry. And that comes with, I'm sure, like many unique challenges that are like one of one unique to you and the company and like the product that you want to create. What did you learn from that process, from this idea? And then obviously having a partner that can help be super helpful and compliment complimentary to then launching, like what were the biggest lessons through that process prior.

To launching, I think what I've learned is, and this is no different than I think any other industry or any other sort of aspect of life, the best things take time. And so we could have easily slapped something together and started in February of 21 and been up and running by August, could have easily done that. And instead what we did is we took our time, we really thought things through, we explored, we had tons of ingredients that we looked at and declined. There's definitely things that are on the market now that have ingredients that we intentionally were like, yeah, no, we're not going to do that. And so I think that that time leads to a better opportunity to create a really solid product because you really have sort of challenged yourself to make it better. And so. And the results that come from that. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, if this was a total BS product, what's the point? There would be no point at all, right? It would be a cash grab and then it wouldn't work and it would be over. And that makes zero sense to me because that would destroy my reputation and it would also not be aligned with my mission and my purpose. So instead, like, let's focus on making the best product we can possibly make and then put it into the world. But not stop there. Let's continue to challenge ourselves to level up. And so examples of that to me are the certifications that we've pursued where we are low. FODMAP certified. We are certified glyphosate free. We are on the verge. By the time this podcast is released, we may be NSF certified. That's coming really soon.

Got it.

And also we're actively conducting clinical research with the product.

That's awesome. That's amazing. One thing that I want to sort of like speaking about the use case of not only the product, but there's a quote that Rich Roll has from his podcast that I want to bring up. You said permanent results come from consistency. Small choices that you make every day add up to a healthy microbiome for life. And I want to talk about that quote, but also in the context of quality supplementation and the consistency of it, because I'm sure If someone takes 38 Tara for a week or a month or for a year plus, my assumption would be there's differ how that impacts. And I'm curious to know your viewpoint on that. Right. Someone might listen to this podcast or maybe hear you on another podcast or see content and want to make a change. And I'm curious to get your perspective on just creating lasting change that matters when it comes to learning about why this is all important.

Yeah, take the supplements and put them to the side for a moment. And let's just speak generally, which is to say that consistency leads to massive results. Small choices, when done consistently are way more powerful than big swings that may do something for you temporarily, but aren't consistently done. And what I would use to prove this is that there was a study done, Casey, where they took a look at people's gut microbiome and they asked the question. So for everyone at home, I think we've kind of alluded to this, but let me be totally clear. Probably the most powerful lever that exists for changing and shaping your microbiome, which you absolutely have the ability to do, probably the most powerful lever is going to be what you put into your body. There are other things. Sleep, exercise, working on stress and reducing stress. There's many other aspects that don't involve food, don't involve supplements, but what you put into your body is going to be the most powerful thing. And so there was this analysis that was done, Casey, where they asked the question, of all the foods and drinks that exist, what is the number one thing that's impacting the microbiome? I'd be curious. So I want the listeners at home to shout out what they think it is. And I don't mean to put you on the spot because I'd be really surprised if you get this right, unless you've heard me talk about this. But what would you guess out of all the things that are out there, what's the number one thing for microbiome?

Well, I don't know if this is even accurate, but I've heard you talk about how the variety of different types of plants.

Okay, so let me come back to that concept because that is very important and that is an important takeaway that I want the listeners to get from our episode today. But in this study, it was the one food or the one drink. So ignore variety for a moment, which is important.

The one thing. You're saying the one thing.

The one thing.

Wow.

What's the number one food or drink that you could possibly do for your gut? Health. Oh, man.

I mean, water sounds like too simple of an answer. I would say some type of salad. Leafy green.

You're probably thinking like, kale, right?

Can we call it kale? Kale.

Okay. There we go.

So my fiance would hate this. She's a nutritionist, and she'd be like, yeah, I think you know this.

Yeah, well, and she probably would also yell at me for making it sound like there's this one thing because. Because really. Because the story is not about the one thing. But I think this study exemplifies the way the microbiome works. Believe it or not, the number one thing was coffee. Coffee?

Really?

Yes. Now, that doesn't mean that coffee is healthier than eating a salad. The thing about coffee is that, like, out of curiosity, are you a coffee drinker?

Twice a day. I am the biggest coffee fanatic. I have four coffee machines downstairs.

There we go. All right, so you and I will talk offline about that, because I love your coffee drinker, too. I love it. All right, but the thing is, like, if you're a coffee drinker, if you answer yes, that yes is not, hey, I have a cup of coffee once in a while. If the answer is yes, what you're telling me is you have coffee every single day. Every single day. It's your ritual. Yeah. Yeah, Right. And if we went to the uk, if we went to London and asked, are you a tea drinker? And they say yes, the same would be true. And so in this data set, when they found that coffee was the most powerful thing. Here's the breakdown of this. Number one. Yes. Coffee is a gut health beverage. It contains fiber. Fiber is good for the gut microbes that may surprise people. Coffee contains fiber. It's what we call a soluble fiber, which means that the fiber is dissolved. But the second thing is that coffee also contains polyphenols. Polyphenols are these antioxidant compounds that you find in different colored foods. So, like, red has certain polyphenols, orange, purple, and in this case, coffee. Coffee has chlorogenic acid, which is a powerful polyphenol. And polyphenols also have an effect on the microbiome. So you have these things, these chemicals in coffee that are good for our gut bugs. Yeah. But what really separates coffee is not that. What really separates coffee is that when people drink it, they drink it consistently. And because they drink it consistently, that. Day one, let's pretend you've never had a cup of coffee in your entire life. Yeah. Day one, there's a change that Change is small. Day two. That change is bigger and bigger and bigger and you're basically reinforcing, you're reinforcing the change. So this is the way that coffee becomes the number one food for gut health. And this is the concept that I would lean into when it comes to supplements, which is to say that if you believe that gut health is important, then you should be making choices that support it. And one of the ways that you can accomplish that is through the consistent use of the right supplements. Because then you're creating like, okay, coffee's cool, it's got polyphenols, it's got some fiber. Yeah, but what if we had more fiber? What if we had more polyphenols? And what if it wasn't just the one plant? What if it was seven different plants, which is the approach that we use with daily microbiome nutrition, Our first product, which we also call dmn. And so we have seven plant based prebiotic ingredients. And the reason why variety is key. So you mentioned variety. I just want to circle back to that real quick. Yeah. Is that like if you drink coffee, there's certain gut bugs. In fact we found that there's 150 of them. 150 gut bugs that will be changed because you drink coffee.

And I'm curious just to interject quickly. And I think this is also, as someone that spends a lot of time on coffee related, even conversations, coffee, I would assume is not all created equally. Are there specific, like specialty coffee or not? Or is it just, I mean, obviously black coffee versus people who put cream and sugar in it, like coffee itself. Curious to know that standpoint. Even like decaf, is the caffeine important in that front?

Well, what we do know, so you need a certain amount of statistical power, meaning enough people doing the same thing in order to sort of parse these things apart. So what we do know is that caffeinated and decaf both provide the same benefit. So it's not the caffeine, it's the other, it's the other chemicals that are in the coffee. Now, like other things, like dark roast has less caffeine but should have higher polyphenol content.

Got it.

So it's something worth considering. Yeah.

What is your. And now that we're just around the topic briefly, what is your like typical coffee consumption type of coffee specific machine? I'm just curious on that front.

Okay, this is an entire conversation of its own, but let me hit it real quick. So please. I love coffee. I'm a huge coffee drinker. I transitioned about 10 years ago, maybe a little more than 10 years ago, to black. And part of it is now you can really start to enjoy the intricacies. It's kind of like wine. There's complexities. But the other thing is, to me, the main downside of coffee is what we put into it. The coffee itself is actually really good for us. I am probably in the range of four to six cups of coffee a day. Yeah. And then I like. Thank you. Thank you. I wasn't expecting to get a state of the ovation for heavy coffee drinker today. I'll take it.

Perfect.

Afternoon. I like a green tea.

Okay.

My best, my favorite is a matcha green tea. Green tea brings something that's conceptually similar to coffee, but it's a little bit different because it's not the same chemicals, the same compounds. So getting both, getting coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon, you get the best of both worlds. And then just to get into some of the nitty gritty details, I have a Nespresso vertuo machine that makes a great, great cup of coffee. It also makes espresso. So my typical. I have four kids. I wake up in the morning. Yeah, I wake up in the morning and I do a single coffee with a double espresso dropped in there as well.

Wow. Inside of the Americano or whatever it may be.

Yeah, the single coffee is good, but I like the way I feel when I'm going hard right from the get go.

I like that. That is how you do it.

How about you? What kind of coffee? What's your strategy? What do you do?

I mean, even I found one of my friends, and I'll say this before I answer the coffee question, is one of my buddies, Brandon. He will talk about products I have in my home and he'll come over and he'll say, oh, why do you have that one? I'm like, oh, yeah. I interviewed the founder of this and he's like, you know what? Your podcast is a way that you interact with the world. And I preface of saying that because more recently I've interviewed a handful of coffee founders. One of them was the. The founder of Cometeer, which I'm not sure if you're familiar. Are you familiar with Cometeer?

No.

It's like these, this. And again, I don't want to get too much on the tangent, but like flash frozen coffee pods, they're based in Boston, so they have lots of great patents on this technology. It's phenomenal. But I interviewed that founder. I interviewed the founder of this new machine called the Cumulus. It's like a cold coffee machine for cold brew, nitro, cold brew and cold espresso. He was an executive at Starbucks for 15 years. Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, is a big investor in the company. And then there's one I interviewed more recently, which is called 1x or x bloom is the name, the coffee machine and the coffee company. And I'm so fascinated by, of course, the coffee itself, but this idea of specialty coffee and how it's relatable to wine. But you don't call wine specialty wine that one of the founders talked about. It's just like great wine or more unique wine or whatever it may be. And I think this idea of, you know, what Blue Bottle has done and what these modern coffee brands want to do is like really bring that, as you said, like specialty coffee to the masses. Because it's kind of been this like, tucked away industry in their opinion, which again, now I have like three machines downstairs and I'm a little bit. Try a little bit of everything, which is fun, but prefer the Cumulus for sure, is my favorite right now.

Oh, dude, that's amazing. I'm gonna have to check that out. So a few things that are kind of interesting. There's fermented coffee. There's also fermented tea. And fermented coffee is kind of. Yeah, it's kind of interesting. So I got some fermented coffee beans when I was at an event. And it adds like a complexity and a funk. And I don't know that it's for everyone, but it's very. I don't know, as someone who appreciates coffee and the. And the intricacies of it, the complexities of it, to find something that kind of spins it in a new direction. I was like, oh, man, that's interesting. So, and then the other thing I should mention real quick is this is a PSA to our listeners who I'm sure there will be many coffee drinkers. So I guess first of all, let me say if you're someone who gets diarrhea from coffee, don't feel bad. If you're someone who gets insomnia from coffee, don't feel bad. You can absolutely be healthy with either decaf coffee or no coffee at all. Okay? So don't, like, don't. This is not to make it sound like this is the only way to be healthy. Be careful of plastic. I want people to be careful about plastic because it really exists in sort of the coffee chain especially. Well, actually not Just especially at home. Also when you go to your coffee shops. So have you ever noticed you get a coffee cup, you go to the big coffee chain and you have that coffee, it's sitting on your table, you forgot to throw it out, and it's there for a week and the cup is still holding up. Yeah. Okay. That cup is clearly lined with plastic. If it was just paper, it would have fallen apart.

Yeah.

And this is how we get microplastics into our body. So I have stopped getting the cup. I bring my own stuff or I get a mug at the coffee shop now. And in the same sense, I would caution people about using plastic pods.

Okay. I've always been wary of that myself. And even I try to with my mom. They. She still has one of the Keurig machines. And I've heard so many different things, like, oh, it's fine. Or oh, like, no, the microplastics are, like, really bad. What's your viewpoint on that in terms of, like, the plastic pods? Is that like a no go in your opinion?

So to me, it's a no go. And the reason why is because anytime heat or acid comes into contact with plastic, there's going to be microscopic, invisible. You're not able to see amounts of plastic that's shedding into the. Into the beverage, and then you consume it. We don't know. I am not here to fear monger on this topic. That is not my intent. But as a medical doctor, I am here to caution when there's something that we're finding that is not yet. Like, people in public are not yet aware of this, and they should be. And there was a study in the New England Journal of Medicine recently where they took the plaque from an artery in the neck. So it was people who were at risk for a stroke and they were having surgery to remove the plaque. And when they looked microscopically at the plaque, they found that some people had a very high. Not everyone, but some people had a very high concentration of plastic.

Wow.

All right. And these are invisible to the naked eye, only seen under a microscope. And the people who did have that high concentration of plastic, subsequently, after the surgery, we're at much higher risk of having a heart attack, having a stroke, or passing away. Wow. And I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. So I guess my point is microplastics are things that we need to be aware of. And the big area where we need to be cautious is anytime there's heat touching plastic, anytime there's acid touching plastic.

Got it. I appreciate Your viewpoint on that. And I feel like this from you asking me the question about coffee, we could go on a tangent and speak about that all day.

And here we are.

Exactly. Exactly. One thing I want to touch on, that I've heard you speak about, that I want to dive more into is you've talked about how to train the gut to overcome food intolerances. And I think nowadays more than ever, you're like, for context, like my fiance, she's primarily plant based. Every now and then she'll have some, you know, fish here and there. But, you know, it just bring brought up the question over the years of like, why she's cut out dairy and like, you know, whether that's an intolerance in her body. It's not that she just doesn't want it, but it's like she doesn't feel as great. I'm curious to know what you mean by that and how people should think about that in terms of their diet.

I like to think about. So I like to use a specific analogy that really, like, informs my own understanding of these issues and I think it applies to everyone, which is that the gut is a muscle and it can be trained. It's like exercise. So if we think of like different food intolerances, some people are sensitive to dairy, some people are sensitive to legumes or to. Or to bread or to fruit. To me, each of those is unique and different. And the gut is separate from an allergy. The gut is capable of being taught and growing stronger and adding functional ability to process and digest food. And so using lactose. So lactose intolerance is the most common food intolerance that exists. And this is associated with dairy products. And like, roughly 70% of the world is thought to be lactose intolerant. Wow. All right. So if you use that example, part of the digestion of lactose is actually performed by our gut microbes. So it's not just our bodily digestion, part of it is our bodily digestion, but part of it is the gut microbiome that steps up to help us. And they have these studies that are quite fascinating where they took a group of people who are lactose intolerant and they actually said, okay, we're going to take a break from dairy products and we're going to give you a fiber supplement. And by doing the fiber supplement which made the gut microbiome stronger, they were able to, four weeks later, reintroduce dairy products without lactose intolerance. So similarly, yeah, it's really interesting if you Take.

Very interesting.

If you take people who are lactose intolerant, if they, I like to say, start low and go slow. So if they start low and they go slow, which, by the way, is the exact same thing that you would do in the gym. You would start with an amount that you can actually handle, and then you would slowly increase your training protocol. If you do that, the evidence would also suggest that you can overcome these food intolerances. So it's quite fascinating to consider that for many people that struggle with these foods, the argument that many people will make is just get rid of them. And that does help to address those specific symptoms from that specific food. But the counterpoint or the argument against this is by getting rid of them, you are actually weakening your gut. And by restricting and weakening your gut, actually, you're increasing the likelihood that you're gonna get sensitive to other stuff. So, actually, I think the approach that I would advocate for is actually a charge towards abundance. And that doesn't mean, if I were counseling a person, that I would say, just pour it on, just suffer, just deal with it. It'll get better. That's not it. It's just that instead of being permanently restricted, what we need to do is we need to flip that reintroduce. Start low, go slow. But what you'll find is, over time, by doing this, you actually build up strength.

Absolutely. No, I love to hear that. It's a great perspective as well. And, Dr. B, I feel like we could talk for hours about all this. We'll definitely have to do a part two in person here. And before we start wrapping up, um, you know, with modern social media and all the advancements in technology, I always love asking, especially someone like yourself, like, what excites you the most about, you know, your area of study and all the technologies that are out there, supplements whatever it may be. What excites you the most? When you think about the future of where you spend time and your expertise overall.

I think what's exciting is that you could take a person like me. I was born in 1980, and I had this dream that was mostly in the 90s when I was a teenager, that one day I could be a medical doctor and work really hard to improve people's lives. And I think what's exciting is that you could fast forward 20, 30 years and see me here today, where it's the same mission, it's the same dream. But these new tools have created opportunity for me to do it on a scale that would have never been possible when I originally Conceived the idea back in the 90s. And so it's really fun to know that I can put stuff out there. I spend a ton of time creating content that's totally free, and my books you can get at your local library. And that makes me very happy because to me, it's not about whether you pay me or don't pay me. It's about the fact that you spend time with me. That's the most valuable thing that you can give me. So social media and podcasts and books, they do all that. But I also think that there's this. One of the things that I've discovered that's been really fun for me is in the last almost year and a half since I launched 38 Terra, to see the impact where I dream of this premium, superior product that I could introduce into the market using my experience and my expertise, and to actually put it into the market and see these people, these reviews on our website, if you read them, I just want everyone to know they're completely legit, they're completely sincere. Nothing is being filtered. This is actually what people are experiencing. And so to me, on my side, I'm just like, I wake up every day and I'm like, I can't wait to see what new reviews come in because it's just been so special and cool.

Absolutely. That's so incredible to hear. And I'll be sure to link the website down below. And on that note, Dr. B, before we wrap up, where's the best place for everyone to connect with you and as you said, spend time with you and really get involved with your mission and everything you have going on?

My favorite is so normally people will say social media. Here's what I would say. Honestly, come to my website, sign up for my email list. It's completely free, and it allows me to provide resources that I spend a lot of time on and you can consume them at your leisure if you enjoy them. That's what I want to happen. If you don't enjoy them, that's okay, you can unsubscribe. But basically that to me, is the tool that should be the best starting point. And I also manage the 38 Terra. I do all these things myself. The 38 Terra email list. So we have a community of 200,000 people@theguthealthmd.com and then we have a community of closing in on 50,000 people@38terra.com on these email lists. And it's really cool to get to educate and share in those places.

I love that. Well, I will be sure to link both of those down below. And before we wrap up, one more thing. I just want to say thank you so much, Dr. B. For taking the time to come on the show today. I really appreciate it more than you know and look forward to chatting with you again sometime soon.

This was so great. Thank you for having me. And thank you, everyone, for hanging out with us.