Gut health is the secret to your health

health and its impact on overall health. It is by someone who is well known and who was the life of last night's dinner. She's a person who, other than anything else, she dances from the heart, and when she talks, it's also from the heart. There's some people who talk because they've read something, and some people are talking from the heart, and she's one of them. She's none other than Dr. Dr. Preeti Nanda Sehgal. She has got more than 28 years of rich experience in health, fitness, and wellness domain. Dr. Preeti is among India's highly successful entrepreneurs, motivators, and speaker, and is widely celebrated visionary. Dr. Preeti boasts with a wealth of knowledge She is the alumni of the renowned medical college in Amritsar and has done MBA from IIM Lucknow. I always say, when any professional qualification is added to it, it added an MBA, the person will always rise very high. And if it takes the wrong direction, is very dangerous. And she has really risen high with this. She also holds the fellowship in functional medicine from the George Washington University, USA. Working for her is like, like playing. She's been associated with Cipla, Nova, Springer, VLC, and she brings a lot of experience with her. She's an author of 3 books and she's president of IAFM Directorate Autoimmunity Care, and her taglines are Gutsy India, and as you can see, Happy India. She is passionate about the work she does, and especially on gut health.

Over to you. Thank you, Dr. Sibya, for such a lovely, will say, introduction, and welcome everybody. So before I start, my topic is of course, is gut health the secret to good health.

And you need to use a mic because I need a hand mic.

Thank you. So before I start my talk, I think Dr. Sri Kumar said something very, very nice yesterday and it stuck with me. He said you were not dancing, your gut microbiome was dancing. So I would request all of you to please stand up and let's first make our gut microbiome dance. Right. So when I say right, you just move your hands to the right, and when I say left, you move your hands to the left. Perfect. So right and left. And please make sure you are dancing, your microbiome is dancing. So please do it religiously. Yes, right and left and right and left and left and left and left and left and right and left and left and left and right. Thank you very much. Everybody stood up, everybody's microbiome is happy. And if gut health is the secret to to overall health, then I'm sure we've achieved a little more health today. Are you with me on this? Yes. Perfect. Thank you. Anybody here who thinks that gut health is not basically the secret of health, please raise your hand. And don't be shy today because I will love it if somebody says, no, no, no, this is not right, Dr. Preeti, there are two sides of the coin. Anybody here? Wow, so half of my job is done. Best half I will do in the next 25 minutes. So I've written 3 books. The first book I wrote was Cyclic Keto because I was a diabetic when I started functional medicine about 8 years back. I was 89 kgs. I used to call myself a batata vada, right? And I used to actually make myself like this. This was pretty, you know, right? And That's when I realized that keto is a beautiful, beautiful, lovely diet, but it has the maximum myths around it. And that's the reason, as most of our actions are based on our fears, lot of us don't want to try keto. And I thought, what is it that I can do? And as Dr. Sibya said, I love what I do. My work is not work, it is play for me. So I thought, let me play with keto. And when I was doing that, I realized cyclic keto is fun. You can have carbs when you want. And you can become fit when you want, right? And yeah, so that's my first book. I wrote it for patients, a person who doesn't know anything. It is written in a way that— the way I speak. So anybody who likes my talks, please go on Amazon and read it. The second book I wrote was 4-Hour Rapid Fat Loss Method, with a disclaimer there: weight loss is not equal to weight loss. It could be water loss also. Right, and this talks about the hormonal triad balance— thyroid, insulin, and cortisol— and your sex hormones. And at the center of this triad lies your gut health. Till you have worked on your gut health, you cannot balance this triad. Until you cannot balance this triad, you cannot be at peak wellness. And that's the simple gist of health for me. Yesterday, I think Dr. Bessa was telling me, only give these 5 things and you will see results, right? I don't see Dr. Bessa here right now, but now what I think is Dr. Lenny really pointed out a very good point yesterday. He said we as doctors are not the ones who have to give protocols. Sorry, every patient is individual and every patient deserves a personalized prescription. And if that is the case, then this triad with gut health in the center can help you make a personalized prescription for everybody. And of course, after 6 years of being into functional medicine, when I realized I can actually bang on the heads of doctors who tell me, Preeti, what shitty stuff you're doing, I wrote this book, What Doctors Must Know About Diabetes Reversal. A very simple book with 6 case studies of successful reversal of diabetic patients. Anybody who would want to read it, everything what I do for diabetics is here. So gut health defines total health, and for me, focusing on your gut health means nurturing your success in life. How many here want really to be successful in life? Please raise your hands. Yes, this is nice. So everybody, so then Do you think it's a simple technique that you just nurture your gut and you will nurture your success? How many of you agree with me on that? Right, thank you. So yesterday, um, Dr. Dikamba said we are what we eat. I disagree. Is Dr. Dikamba here? But I strongly disagree because over the years what I've realized is you are what you eat, but you are also how you eat, when you eat, and with whom you eat. And why with whom? Because it's your feelings, it's your thoughts. That candlelight dinner which is priced at 10x or 50x is so much more relaxing than, you know, simple food if you eat from the same hotel at your house. So it's very, very important with whom. If you're eating with TV, it will make all the difference. And if you're eating with your partner, or as somebody was saying, with a girlfriend or your boyfriend, it would make all the difference, right? And with your kids. So food and thoughts both are important. Now I do agree that all of you said gut health is the secret to good health, but you know what, I I'm a very PNL person, numbers, right? And therefore, for me to be convinced, this is what convinced me. So what happened was I started with diabetes and obesity, as I just shared with you, and 5 years back I moved to gut health. And this is what made me move. I was reading some data which said human body has 26,000 genes, human genes.

Right?

And you know what rice— how many genes rice has? Anybody here? Exactly. Can we clap for him? So 46,000. So imagine human body with 26,000 genes and rice with 46,000 genes. So why serve? Right? So where do you stand? But still, we are the most powerful person, you know, living being on this Earth. Yes or no? How? This is what makes us the most powerful, because the bugs in human beings have 100,000 bugs. We have 90% of the cells in our body are microbial, 1,000 different species and 7,000 to 36,000 different strains. So guys, now with this we have two choices. 2 choices. Anybody who can tell me what are those 2 choices? Exactly. So I generally tell in my workshops, you are, you know, it's your son's wedding or your daughter's wedding, and I can relate to it because my son just got married in June. And you have to make sure that all the guests are happy. And if you have to make all the guests happy Somebody needs AC at 20 and somebody at 24, and somebody eats vegetarian food and somebody non-vegetarian food, and somebody early morning tea and somebody late night chamomile, right? So that's what we need to do for our gut, because these are all Varatis or our guests in our home, but they bring that energy, that vitality in that wedding, where if I would have been alone, it won't have been fun at all. Right? So exactly. And if you can visualize this situation in your mind for a minute, or even for a second, I can promise all of you, you will from today onwards start thinking and implement at least 1, 2, 3 things by Monday morning to take care of your gut. But most importantly, you will start loving your gut. And by the time I end this presentation, I will give you actually exact tips of what you can do. And you know I don't work very hard, so those tips are going to be very, very simple.

10 minutes.

Perfect, thank you. So this is it, and they make us healthy, so we have no choice. And therefore, gut health is the secret of good health, right? So all disease begins in the gut. I think it's a quote which Hippocrates said 2,500 years ago. And what I say is, whenever some patient comes to me with symptoms and I don't know about it, I— one thing I know for sure, I can help this patient if I work on the patient's gut, right? So from there, now we are— whenever you are in doubt, start from the gut, and I can promise you, you will not fail your patient. He will feel happy and good with you. Of course, I get patients who say, I do not want to live, I want to kill myself, I've quit my job, I am jobless now, my family feels I am a psyche, I have an autoimmune condition. All of this majorly comes from the gut, majorly comes from the gut. And, um, it is very, very, very heartening to see how all this— 6 weeks you work on the gut and patients are nowhere to be seen because they're all right, they're feeling good about it. So let's look at a story. So this is our story. A curious young boy who loved exploring. Whenever he felt stressed, his tummy rumbled. How many of us, whenever we go for interviews or important discussions or some investments or some jobs, our stomach rumbles. Yes or no? Right, because there is a gut-brain connection. His grandmother shared an old saying: a happy mind nurtures a happy gut. And gut is much more than a place for digestion and excretion. It's our second brain. So we know all this. I'm going to skip it. So this was a study done in mice where they gave artificial sweeteners And the thought was, one side they thought that artificial sweeteners led to obese and diabetic mice, and the other side was that artificial sweeteners changed the microbiome. And of course, I know all of us sitting here are very, very intelligent and well-read. It changed the microbiome, and that is the reason the mice became, uh, this thing. I'm going to just— I would have loved to do that, but I don't have time. So there's another story I want to share, and this is very, very important. And if this is one message you take back home, you've had a successful, you know, talk here. Once upon a time, in a tranquil Indian village, there lived a wise Rishi. He noticed that a healthy garden bloomed in harmony with the seasons, while an unhealthy garden withered away, right? The Rishi realized the garden's health mirrored the health of its soil, much like our gut tells about our well-being. Right, and just as this Rishi nurtured the garden soil, we should nurture our digestive system. And what does that mean? We should make sure that the Agni in our digestive system is there, is present, and it is working. And because only then we can have good digestion, absorption, elimination. And to make this Agni, we have yoga exercises. You can chew your food 32 times or 30 times, have it in peace, meditate for it 1 hour before, and then like Sanjay does, all of that. But if you don't have time for all of that, you're busy, you have lots of things to do, please keep betaine and digestive enzymes handy. Betaine is acid. It actually increases the agony in your stomach. In autoimmunity, in digestive health, in a diabetic, in obese patient, You are doing injustice to your patient or to yourself if you are not working on your Agni. And this is simple, guys. If you are stressed out, you have lot of work, how about just taking 2-3 Betaine pills in one digestive enzyme? I don't think it's too much. You can think of 2 things in your salad plate, right? But how many of us are doing it here? Anybody who's doing it here right now? Perfect. And how many of you think that you might consider if you get to know that you have less Agni? I want all the hands up here. It doesn't make sense to me. Some people are saying we will come next year again, listen to you again, and then think whether you have inspired us enough to take this action for our health or not. Please, no guys, this is not the way, right? And this is very simple. Undigested food— if you don't create Agni properly, what will happen? Undigested food in your poop, undigested food in your whole system, which will create havoc not only in your system, not only in your digestive system, but also will cross the blood-brain barrier and lead to psychiatric problems. Do we want that? We don't. It's a very, very simple trade-off, friends. Please make sure that you work on the ugly part of your digestion. Extremely important. Thank you. I need 30 more minutes actually, obviously. Yeah, next time in the evening you will go. Please, gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, cramping, eczema, dry skin, psoriasis, acne, depression, anxiety, hormones, PCOS, tired, fatigued, run down, weight gain, not being able to dance when you are enjoying looking at other people dancing. Very, very important. Trouble losing weight, trouble sleeping, stiffness or joint pains, obesity, autoimmune diseases, B12 deficiency, thyroid diseases, anything you name it under the sun. And if you have any of these experiences— headaches, just wanting to fight, just not feeling like doing your best, just wondering, look carefully. Come on, please go and look inside and look at your gut. Whatever you see outside in the universe, you are blessed with everything of that inside you. You have plants, you have microbes, you have water, you have all 5 elements. That's what we are made of. Please, my time, introspect. How many of you were present last time when we did the good doctor and bad doctor exercise? Please raise your hands. Great, so not many. But today I want you to quickly, in 30 seconds— Dr. C.P. is not going to give me extra time. But 30 seconds, how many of you think you are happy doctors? How many of you think you are stressed doctors? Occasionally. Even occasionally means you are stressed. Your gut still needs some work. Because if your gut is healthy, there is no way you can be stressed occasionally. Stress is not about the situation, friends. So in management, you know, we are always taught it's not about the situation, it's about you. And you are the only thing you can change in your life. So please look at yourself. And now you have a very easy trick. Work on your Agni, work on your gut health, and you are going to, you know, be certain and always be happy. Anybody who has this, please, you need help. Of course, you know, I can help you on gut health, but there are many others in this room sitting who can help you on gut health. But don't ignore it. These are the things we find in testing gut health, so it's very, very rational. Um, very, very scientific, very, very evidence-based. So don't think scientifically this oil is made. And of course, this is my last slide, Dr. Sipriya, and then I'll take 2 more minutes. Thank you. So if you can work on your gut health and you can nurture your gut, I can promise you, you will have a waiting of 3 to 6 months seeing patients Because simple rule of management is, just like successful business relies on effective decision-making, your well-nurtured gut helps you make those important decisions in the right way. So, and as all of you had told me, all of you want to be successful, so I am sure that you will work on your gut. And you all believe that gut health is the secret to good health and secret to being able to dance, Dr. Musa. Thank you. Great. So I had someone— so just the last slide and then I'll take one more minute. Please respect them. They are your guests. They are very special guests. They've taken time out of their, you know, busy schedules and they are helping you live healthy. So don't think they are messing up, messing you up. No, they are not. It's a partnership. Please take care. Love them. Please love them and care for them. Feed them healthfully, make them sleep well, and exercise them. So are you ready to do one exercise with me on this? Perfect. So let's stimulate your vagus nerve. I'm going to keep my mic here. Please be attentive. Dr. Lenny's told me I'm not as loud as I wanted to be, so put one hand here, put the other hand here. One hand on the rib, other hand here, and just tilt your thing like this, and with your eyes here. Same thing on the other side, please. Your eyes looking at the top. Perfect. Now we make a simple modulation. Hug yourself here. One hand, one arm here, and then this. Now what I'm doing, I am showing love to my gut and I'm stimulating my veins. Try doing this and you will see that your poop becomes well formed. You feel lighter, you feel nicer, and it really helps you calm yourself. So I really thought, you know, this was simple. You can do it in your office and you can very improve. And take care of your gut and gut will take care of you. You. You don't have to go out anywhere, guys. And therefore, last slide now. I— Indian Association of Functional Medicine— this is the body where we are trying to bring functional medicine to every household. Please, you can call Renuka at 98180-90200 and ask her how you can become members. We bring out a newsletter every quarter, and I see that it's always difficult to get articles, and I am giving my case studies to complete the pages. I request, if you don't share means you don't care, and if you don't care, then we will be very, very, very slow in our progress. We all agree that's a gut microbiome, and I say we also have to work together. Today evening, our last session ends at 7:45 PM. I will request all ISM members to please be here for 30 minutes. I want to please seek your inputs and support on what we can do in the coming years to make functional medicine really medicine in every household. Thank you very much, guys. And if you like this talk, please clap nicely for me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.