In this interview excerpt, Elena Letyagina recounts her transition from a high‑stress banking career to studying nutrition after her pregnancies, describing how lifestyle and dietary changes dramatically improved her own health and that of her family. She highlights the destructive effects of frequent, broad‑spectrum antibiotic use on the gut microbiome, explaining that the microbiome functions as a vital organ influencing hormones, vitamins, immunity, metabolism, and mental health. Elena connects gut dysbiosis to a wide range of conditions—including obesity, cancers, anxiety, depression, asthma, eczema, migraines, psoriasis, and autoimmune diseases—by describing how a compromised gut barrier allows toxins and undigested food to trigger systemic immune overactivation. She critiques calorie counting as a superficial metric that ignores nutrient quality, stresses the importance of diverse, fiber‑rich foods, and outlines when fasting or supplementation can be beneficial versus harmful (e.g., thyroid issues, autoimmunity, eating disorders, pregnancy). Finally, she urges proactive health management—testing for imbalances, reading scientific sources, and making lifestyle changes—especially in the context of COVID, where lifestyle‑related diseases increase risk.
Chapters
I was working in the financial sector and really busy, stressed out lives. Then I got pregnant, and while I was on maternity leave, I thought, I'll just learn a little bit more about nutrition. I thought, actually, this is something I really love. After the first pregnancy, I got back to the bank I used to work. I was tired, exhausted, small baby, feeling guilty all the time. And then I got pregnant with my second baby, and this is the point when I thought, I don't think I'm coming back because I'm not happy there. And I started to study this course. And when I finished it and I realized that I completely changed my health and my family's health. You can literally change your health by changing your lifestyle or diet. When I was working in the bank, it was all-nighters. I was finishing at midnight every single day. I was suffering with chronic sinus conditions. I developed asthma. I've developed respiratory infections, and the doctor, he did say the only way to manage it would be having antibiotics for 3, 4 months, 3 times a year. My gut microbiome was completely destroyed, really, with all the multiple antibiotics. We are taking antibiotics for any small reasons, as a prevention towards something, or if you're not sure whether you have a viral or bacterial infection. Are they really necessary? And if they are, Are they sure that this particular antibiotics will be targeting this particular pathogen? Because a lot of people don't take the test, they don't check, they just give you the wide spectrum antibiotics which wipe out the wide spectrum of good bugs. The gut microbiome, it's a new organ producing hormones and vitamins and energy for us. Having a diverse microbiome is very important, as many different species as possible. Any issues with your microbiome would be linked to obesity, certain cancers, anxiety, depression. Single pill of antibiotics It's a nuclear bomb. It wipes out everything. We are passing down this impoverished microbiome to our children who would have all these issues with allergies, asthma, atopic dermatitis, just because their microbes are not as diverse as they should be. If you feel bloated, if you have reflux, if you have constipation, diarrhea, stomach pain, you would sort of think, oh, actually maybe there is something wrong in my gut. And you definitely would have some sort of imbalance in your gut microbiome. However, there are some diseases, things like eczema, allergies, migraines, headaches, skin issues, psoriasis, autoimmune conditions. It feels like why would have anything to do with the gut? But actually, yes, it does. And it's direct link to these diseases as well. If you think about the immune system, more than 70% of it is resided in the gut. When we eat, we obviously get some pathogens coming through the gut and they need to be dealt with by our own bacteria and by our barrier, which is the lining of our gut. And the immune cells just underneath this barrier is there to protect us as well. So the moment this barrier gets disrupted by toxins or diets high in carbohydrates, in chemicals, in alcohol, in stress, antibiotics, medication, the barrier gets affected. The microbes, the toxins, the undigested food particles leak into the bloodstream and they overactivate the immune system. And when the immune system overactivated, it starts attacking some other tissues. Supplements definitely have a role. However, if you're correcting an imbalance or deficiency, why do you have this deficiency? There are certain cellular mechanisms which are happening as we age, but also we are quite sick people. Like in general, we have different imbalances and different diseases. Having some sort of fasting from time to time is quite beneficial. However, for people with any imbalances in thyroid issues, if you have autoimmunity, you shouldn't be doing it. People with eating disorders or history of eating disorders, people with the adrenal issues, females with the cycle irregularities, if you're pregnant or if you're struggling with fertility or if you're lactating, you cannot do it. Every time I hear calorie counting, I'm having a nervous tic. It obviously comes from all the dieting and different diets and the weight loss marketing companies. Just one characteristic of things. It doesn't tell you, does it have phytonutrients? Does it have enough fiber to support your gut microbiome? Does it have enough healthy proteins? Does it have enough minerals? It doesn't tell you all of that. This is just some random number, which is not even representative of the real value of this food. If you have a weight gain and you cannot shift weight, it means you have imbalances and let's sort them out. And it's again, going back to this foundation of your house. Let's sort out your foundation, and then your weight loss would be just a positive side effect. We are in charge of our own health, especially now with COVID The people in the risk groups are those with lifestyle diseases, really, right? Those things are preventable, and this is why I'm so passionate about— we can prevent these things. Just get tested, see where imbalances are, correct the imbalances, read the books from the scientists, read the health blogs, and yeah, just take control of your health.
