Exploring the Gut-Brain Connection with Dr.Eddie Romo

Hi everybody.

I'm Dr. Sanda Moldovan, periodontist and nutritionist. Welcome to the Holistic Dentistry Podcast, the show that gives you the tips and tools to detoxify your mouth for a healthier body as we explore together the root cause of disease. Remember, you're not healthy until your mouth is healthy. So take care of it in the most Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Holistic Dentistry Show. I'm your host, Dr. Sanda, and today we're going to be talking about microbiology and genetics with Dr. Eddy Romo. I'm going to tell you a little bit about Dr. Eddy. I, we met actually at an event where we were both speakers on the same panel of oral health. Interestingly enough, at least that's what I was talking about. And Eddy, you were talking more about what's possible in microbiology. You are the founder and CEO of Scientific Officer of Precision Healthcare Biosciences, PHBio, where Dr. Eddy leads efforts in precision diagnostics and personalized health testing. He also serves as CEO of Amico Laboratory. Dr. Rama holds a PhD from University of California and is a published researcher whose work has appeared in Frontiers in Neurology, exploring the connection between intestinal permeability, such as leaky gut, otherwise called, and Alzheimer's disease. And we all say, you know, leaky gut, leaky gums.

Right.

His research reflects a broader commitment to uncovering the links between gut health In neurological and metabolic conditions, work that continues to shape PHBio's diagnostic offerings, including its upcoming women's hormone testing platform. You are from Chico, California. Dr. Romo's path to scientific leadership was far from linear. He struggled academically as a student before going on building a career at the forefront of precision health. So, Dr. Rummel, welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah.

I'm curious to see how you got into this field. I mean, you go from Chico, right? California. What happens next?

Well, you know, I attended UC Davis, which is not too far away from there. And so it's always, it always had been a desire of mine to attend UC Davis. And so when I did, you know, I started really exploring the, you know, the relationship between nutritional biology and, you know, and disease prevention. And so I really believed in the, you know, the translatability of research because I saw a lot of research that wasn't necessarily translated often or, you know, ever. And so I was really becoming passionate about doing research that can immediately be translated into practice, that could be translated into the types of work that we're currently doing.

Yeah, I agree with you on that. You know, I actually did my master's at UCLA, and there's a lot of research that we did, and if we don't translate it into clinical practice, then it's like, what's the point? Because that's really what it's there for, to really help our patients.

Exactly.

So, Yeah. You got your PhD. What was your PhD study in?

Well, I was looking at intestinal permeability, so I focused on mucosal immunology, you know, the immune system and, and, and, and the microbiome, right? And so when, when you look at the microbiome and the immune system at that level, you really understand that they're just not only interconnected, but, you know, you cannot separate the two, right? The immune system, the microbes that are in your gut, that are in your mouth, that are in your body. are interrelated. I mean, they are tightly, you know, just in a very, just, you know, inseparable, right? Inseparable relationship, right? So the microbes in your gut, the microbes in your mouth, they're influencing your immune system. Your immune system's influencing the microbes. And so, and so that's what I started really looking into. And interestingly, I was face to face with the reality that Leaky gut was directly connected to it and to oral health. And so I had to put that in my publications. I always had to disclose the fact that dental, that there was this relationship between, you know, oral hygiene, you know, oral disease, and, and the connections that I was finding to Alzheimer's disease.

Mm-hmm.

So I found this connection to Alzheimer's disease that had to do with with leaky gut, right? But I also was faced with the reality that there, that these molecules were being introduced orally as well. And so there was definitely a, a strong relationship that I would say was linking also oral health to, to, to Alzheimer's disease.

Hmm. Interesting. So there's such a strong connection. I know from reading, you know, other, like Dr. Bredesen's book, The End of Alzheimer's, he put in there like P. gingivalis is one of those microbes. that is linked to periodontal disease. It's also found in the brain. What kind of things have you found in your research? Any specific oral microbes that are linked to Alzheimer's?

Well, to say that I found a specific microbe, I wouldn't necessarily frame it that way. I would, I would more say that certain types of microbes, you know, are producing molecules that are essential for, you know, appropriate metabolism and also, you know, the permeability of the intestinal tract. And so, that's where I kind of focused my efforts on, were understanding specific microbe types that were contributing to the integrity of the intestinal tract, right? And so, but I— there was definitely, you know, the gram-negative bacteria, right? There's many species that are gram-negative bacteria in your mouth, in your gut that Fragment, the lipopolysaccharide, is a molecule that comes off of the, the back of these microbes that is what's activating your immune system. And that, that, that is being trans— you know, it's coming from the gut, it's coming from your mouth. And those things are the molecules that I was really focusing on, was that lipopolysaccharide. Okay. 'Cause that lipopolysaccharide was, is, is a very immunogenic molecule, right? So it activates your immune system. And so if you're chronically exposed to this particle, you then end up having the characteristic, you know, low-grade chronic inflammation that we found to be a major contributor to the degradation of blood-brain barrier, you know? And so, you know, systemic inflammation that was, you know, indirectly activating, you know, immune responses in the brain, right? Causing problems in the brain and systemically and metabolically. And so, yeah, that's kind of what I focused on instead of a, a specific microbe. I was looking more at the type of microbe, the gram-negative bacteria and the lipopolysaccharide.

Yeah. Yeah. So LPS, otherwise known as LPS for short, it also gets released by some oral bacteria, the gram-negative bacteria that causes a lot of inflammation. Do, did you find that all gram-negative bacteria release this LPS that's so toxic to our immune system, or just some?

Well, I found that gram-negative bacteria, just in general, any gram-negative bacteria had the potential of shedding off this particular molecule. And it was the, it was just based on, you know, your barrier, right? The, the, the, the, in the, in the mouth and also in the gut. You know, if you have cavities, if you have an infection in your mouth or in, in your, you know more this than I do, of course, you know, how, you know, you would have then the molecules that are in your mouth or the molecules that are in your gut making their way into the bloodstream. And that was the problem, right? It's not necessarily that it was certain types of bacteria, but it was more that that molecule's present most of the time.

Mm-hmm.

And if it's getting into your blood, how it's getting into your blood, that could be through, you know, intestinal permeability or, you know, Also oral permeability.

Mm-hmm. So how do you test for LPS in your lab?

Yeah, so I, instead of testing lipopolysaccharide, so LPS is a, is a molecule that is, like we said, as a, as a part of the gram-negative bacteria, it gets into your blood, but because it's such an immunogenic molecule, it gets cleared really quickly from the body. And so it's not easy to test, right? It's picked up by other molecules. It's, you know, if your body doesn't do a really good job at controlling the concentration of that molecule in your blood, you can get sepsis, septic shock. So it could be deadly. And so LPS is a hard molecule to test in the blood, but you can test another protein called LBP. And so that's what I did. Lipopolysaccharide binding protein is a protein, then a biomarker that binds this particle. And so then that molecule's actually in your blood for a longer period of time and it correlates Well with the LPS. Mm-hmm.

So this LBP, the binding protein, can you actually test it through a blood spot test or do you actually have to have a, like a stool test?

No, it's blood. Yeah, I, I, I could test it through blood. And so usually that's how it's tested. That's how I did it in my research, which was through your blood. You could test for LBP and there's a range, you know, what we would consider to be normal clinically. And the only problem is that You know, and the literature has been very inconsistent in, in, in LBP concentration. And so what I, what I ended up doing was developing a method that enhanced our ability to test LBP. And so in a better and more consistent way. And so that's why I was able to actually publish on, you know, multiple studies testing LBP well. And so, and that's because, you know, in the blood, LBP is definitely Measurable, but you have to be, you know, you have to be careful on how you do it. But I definitely have developed a test to do it, and I'm testing that in my, uh, in my lab. Hmm.

Yeah, I, I, I do think it's important to test. Uh, I didn't know that's how you test. LPS can cause joint pain, inflammation, brain fog. So I do think as a marker, it's super important to test. Obviously, if people already have symptoms, we can already suspect that they're having this infection. But, you know, I've had patients that I've had like Like, let's say toe pain. Their toes were hurting and they thought it was gout when in fact it was high levels of LPS.

Wow.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

So that's, it relates clinically.

Definitely. You know, and so LPS is, is, you know, uh, most definitely I would, some would say the most immunogenic particle in nature. You know what I mean? I mean, it was the, the greatest evolutionary pressure on humans, uh, which was the, you know, the activation of of your innate immune system, right? Your immune system's agitated, aggravated when that molecule's present and it starts, you know, your immune cells start producing molecules that are not only toxic to the potential invaders, but also, you know, the host, the human's body and our tissues, our toes, you know, our organs and stuff like that. And so our brain, you know, and so that molecule being around is, you know, it activates your immune system and your immune system is— can do us harm as well.

You've also studied some nutritional interventions like prebiotic fibers. I really want to dive into this with you. How much can changing what we eat actually can change systemic inflammation?

Well, you know, the, the, in the context of Alzheimer's disease, right? So this is a condition, neurodegeneration. It's not just Alzheimer's, it's dementia in general. It's neurodegeneration. It's the degradation You know, of your brain, you know, memory, your health in general, your metabolism, everything is, it gets disrupted when you, when you have things like LPS in circulation. Right.

Yeah.

And, and so, and, and so these diseases, they, they progress over years, right? So if someone gets a diagnosis for Alzheimer's disease or dementia, it's usually not that they contracted it more recently. It is a, it's a progressive condition. That's very kind of, you know, you know, yeah, like I said, progresses over. It's insidious, right? You just don't have symptoms. And then all of a sudden when you do have symptoms, when you do get a diagnosis, essentially you have some irreversible essentially damage, right? So some, some would say it's quote unquote, you know, too late. And so I understood that the, the way that I was going to make a difference in Alzheimer's disease was to intervene early in life, right? Early in life. Because the disease progresses over, over years, even decades. And so—

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. And so when I understood then that, you know, that there was a relationship between, you know, lipopolysaccharide and nerve and, and, and, and the progression of Alzheimer's disease, I started thinking about how am I going to, to intervene in individuals? How am I, you know, early in life to prevent this kind of slow progression that's happening in the background, right? And so then what I did do is, when it comes to the gut, there was a strain of bacteria, Bifidobacteria, right? This genus of bacteria, very popular genus of bacteria. These bacteria, if you have the right amount of them, right, you have, you know, a healthy gut, right? If you have low amount of them, then you start having leaky gut.

Okay.

And the reason why is 'cause this bacteria is creating a molecule that's contributing to the synthesis, the production of the cell adhesion molecules. So, the cells that line your intestinal tract, right, they're tied together watertight so that these particles don't leak into your blood. So, things from your gut don't go into your blood. These, your intestinal cells are really kind of sewed together in a watertight way.

Mm-hmm.

And, I found out that these bacteria, bifidobacteria, are actually making a molecule that's going into those cells going into the nucleus and, you know, upregulating your genetic, you're telling your genes, telling the DNA of your cells to make this protein to tie your cells together. And so I measured this molecule then, and I found this molecule was, was directly, you know, that wasn't my publication. This was, you know, well established, uh, in, in the literature was that these bacteria are making this molecule. This molecule's contributing to synthesizing these These proteins that tie your cells together. So, low of this protein, low of this microbe, you're going to have leaky gut. And so, what I did then was I tested students at UC Davis and found that, you know, it wasn't hard to find students on a habitually low dietary fiber intake, right? So, I found a lot of students who had terrible diets, and I actually found this protein elevated. So, these guys had LPS in circulation, LBP. They had this in circulation. It was elevated significantly in about half of the students. And so half of the students were walking around with leaky gut. Half of the students had their immune system activated at a low level, you know? And so half of the students essentially were putting themselves at risk, right?

Wow.

And it takes time.

It's alarming when you think about it.

Plus, you know, you add stress on top of that, you know, exams and everything.

Yeah.

Oh, and there's so many things that are contributing to it, you know, like, you know, and that's, The reality with most diseases is they're multifactorial, right? They're, they're systemic and it's not just, you know, one, one gene, one disease. It's, it's actually, that's very rare. But so what I did was then I, we formulated a, a, a prebiotic that targeted specifically that bacteria, that strain of bacteria.

The Bifidobacterium.

Yeah. Bifidobacteria. We gave this supplementation. It was a low-cost, low-dose. Dietary, you know, a little sachet of powder.

The students—

What did you put in it?

Outta curiosity, was it like psyllium or?

No, it was a, it was just some fibers that were, you know, like inulin. Inulin. And, you know, some also some, and some also some, some, oh my gosh. Ridiculous. It's skipping my mind.

Yeah, it happens. It happens. So basically fibers were feeding this bacteria.

Is that what you were doing? So we're feeding this particular bacteria with fibers that we, that the, the food scientists that developed it for me, you know, understood better than I do, right? So that there was dietary fiber though, that this strain preferred. And we did see those who were consuming this prebiotic, we did see that the Bifidobacteria increased significantly. So we did, you know, accomplish our goal, which was increase that bacteria. And then we also found that those who were had, they had leaky gut, it resolved it. And so it, it did actually bring down LP, LPS, LBP significantly in these patients. And so that was another publication that I published that was in, you know, Elvie Azar, you know, Nutrition Research, which is also a great journal. And that was showing that students who consumed that low, you know, that dietary fiber were, had LPS reduced significantly. And so, you know, those are the things that we can do. early in life is understanding, right, well, our own individual situation, our own individual microbiome, our own individual diet. And because everyone's so different. And so that's what really kind of intrigued me and, and, and, you know, mandated me in a way, right, to start thinking about how do I create a microbiome test that is, you know, that is not just fluff. Excessive amounts of data, confusing, you know, not clinically relevant so that we can actually really pinpoint these types of realities in each person's microbiome and intervene so that we can actually reduce risks of disease.

That's pretty amazing. You know, a couple of amazing things. I think one, the fact that our bacteria in our gut talks to our cells. I think a lot of people are not aware about that. And I'm pretty sure the same is true for the mouth.

Yeah.

The bacteria of the mouth talks to ourselves because we know when you have good bacteria in the mouth, also the gums are nice and tight, they're not bleeding. So, probably a similar mechanism happens there. But, it's so important for people to actually nourish their gut bacteria, like you said, with certain amount of fibers. I'm curious to see how long did it take you? When did you remeasure this population?

Yeah, it was a crossover study. So it was 4 weeks. Uh, it was a tw— no, it was 12 weeks. And then it was a, a crossover, 4-week clear out, and then another 12 weeks. So it was, so it was a crossover. So it was a, a randomized controlled trial and it was a crossover study. So I was able to test that fiber on every single person in, in the study.

Okay.

And so, and then I was able to see actually 12 weeks on it, 12 weeks off of it. And there was definitely a significant, you know, improvement and, and, and not only increasing the concentration of the bacteria, but also reducing LBP and LPS.

So 12 weeks on and then 12 weeks off. Did you find that people would have to, like, the conclusion is people will have to stay on fiber like daily for the rest of our lives, or did it maintain the change after weeks off?

Well, that's the thing. No, it did not maintain the change.

Mm-hmm.

And so you definitely had to be consuming, uh, you know, for some it's the diet they're eating. So they're eating the, the appropriate diet, therefore they have that microbe in the right concentration and it's maintained, right?

Oh.

It's maintained because you're constantly eating. You know, most people are, you know, consume a very, very similar types of diets, right? They don't very, you know, don't deviate very much from their preferences, right? So if you are into salad, you probably will eat salad quite a bit. So whatever changes you're seeing in your microbiome, they're usually pretty consistent. So if you're consistently eating a bad diet, if you're feeding a bad diet, it's usually people who are consistently eating a bad diet. So you're probably gonna see those changes endure. And so when it comes to prebiotic supplementation, usually you have to consume that consistently, right?

Uh-huh.

So if you're eating yogurt or drinking kombucha or anything like that to improve your Your, the gut, the, the microbes in your gut, usually you have to consume those just ongoing.

Mm-hmm. Right.

And you have to keep consuming them. And so to have the benefit.

Makes sense. So, uh, how can you, let's say, I'm, I'm sure we have some people listening who's wondering, oh my God, I wanna test this microbe now. Can they come straight to your lab or do they have to go through a practitioner?

Uh, we're, we're setting it up where you can order online. Or you can, you know, your, your practitioner can order it. That's our primary method is gonna be the doctor prescribing it, ordering it, walking the patient through the results and helping them really intervene, you know, to, to improve their health. And so, yeah, that's, that's our goal. But we def— we definitely will be providing the kits online as well where you can order them online. Yeah. Amazing.

So how, what, how does this test look like now to test for microbiome? How, how are you? How did you set it up? They basically, it's a stool test or blood test or both?

You know, I have, you know, so just a little bit of background, you know, why my microbiome tests became what they are today. And just because I really, you know, when as a microbiome researcher, you know, when I started thinking about that going into the market, going into commercializing microbiome tests, of course I, I did a study and I started looking at all the microbiome testing kits that were available. The competition, the different brands, the different strategies. And I started really kind of seeing how some, for some of them inappropriate they were. And just because if they're tests that are commercialized, they're tests that have not really been significantly clinically relevant. And so I started thinking about how do I create microbiome tests That are answering questions that patients care about, that the doctor cares about, right? So most patients say, hey, I heard, so for Alzheimer's, we'll have a patient come in and say, hey, I heard that, that the microbiome is related to Alzheimer's disease. And so they order, they want to get a microbiome test. So the clinician gets the microbiome test, they test their gut, and then they get the results back. And then the results are just like huge amounts of data. Right. And there's really no specificity to the kit where you go, hey, it's really giving me the answer that I was— the question I had.

Mm-hmm.

Right. And so does my microbiome increase my risk for Alzheimer's disease, or does my microbiome increase my risk for cardiovascular disease? And so, you know, I found that a lot of these tests didn't answer those questions. So it just gave more questions than anything, right? You're just getting a lot of information. And so what I did was I started creating kits that were more specific, right? So my kits are ha— my kits have specificity to them. So when, if you're concerned with neurological health, if you're concerned with mental health, if you're concerned with cardiovascular health, your, your exercise performance, hormonal health, I have testing kits for all of that. And it's not just, you know, microbiome. So what I realized that, you know, the, the modern You know, medical revolution, as they say, you know, is no longer really just focusing on, on, on signs and symptoms, but on systems, right? Going from symptoms to systems. And I realized that, you know, you're not going to get all the answer, all the information you need from just a stool test. Are you gonna have to just test the stool? You have to test the blood. You're gonna have to test oral. You know, you want a bigger picture of what's really going on. And right before, previous to, you know, before AI, before all of the technology that we have at our disposal now, all of that information would just overcomplicate things, right? So there's only so much that you can interpret from results, but now we have the power of AI and we're able to actually paint a bigger picture of what's going on systemically. So instead of focusing on symptoms, we're focusing on systems now. And so And I call them like systems biology diagnostics. Systems biology diagnostics is when I'm looking at your microbiome, I'm looking at your blood, I'm looking at your urine, I'm looking at your saliva, and we're seeing all of this data and that we're actually making sense of it using AI. And, and so we're doing intervention studies where we're able to see a bigger picture of the impact that these interventions are making on the system in general, not just on You know, sample type.

Mm-hmm.

You know, and so that's why I'm so excited about what you're doing in, in, in your dentistry and your, and your field, cuz it's so important. It's something that I should be focusing on more. And, and I'm glad that I am partnering with you is really exciting because, you know, I've, when I was doing research and I started discovering that the, the mouth was, if not just as associated with Alzheimer's as the gut was.

Mm-hmm.

I didn't want that to be the reality. I wanted to avoid oral because I wasn't into oral research. I was into gut research. And so I thought, you know, there's something that I have to ethically disclose, but it's not something that I wanted to explore just because that wasn't my area.

Yeah.

But I'm so excited that it's come full circle and now I have the opportunity to really explore the oral as well as the gut and see the bigger picture. of what's happening in an individual and, and, and understanding ways that we can intervene holistically, right? And, and to prevent disease. And so I'm thrilled in what you're doing in your practice, and I'm excited about how, you know, PHBio could support your patients, your practice, and how we could partner together and create things that are meaningful, testing that's meaningful, that's gonna really kind of help. Patients, you know, not only get answers they want, but, you know, treatments that matter.

Yes, absolutely. I love that too. And, you know, I love that you're focusing on systems because it makes sense. And if somebody has leaky gut, I do believe that the oral testing, some kind of salivary testing, has to be included in that system because it is the opening of the GI tract. And oftentimes, you know, with the physicians that I work with that refer patients to me, they will find Some oral bacteria, let's say like Fusobacterium and high levels in their stool, and they're like, oh well, then they send them to me to test the mouth. But if we can have a test where we actually do, okay, we test the gut and the mouth so that we know that we have high inflammation in your mouth, then we can treat the whole system together. Makes sense.

Exactly right. You know, and just the reality as a gut scientist, you know, I I've coming— I'm coming to terms and I'm excited about the fact that the mouth is a part of it all, right? So it's not, you know, the mouth is not separate from the, the, the picture of the intestinal tract, right? So it's the opening of the intestinal tract and it's the, it's the, you know, it's the frontline to the things that are going into your system, right? Your, your, your mouth is essential.

Wow.

Understanding You know, your, your oral health is not, is no longer just about teeth, right? It's no longer just about a pretty smile. It's about a major part of a bigger picture, right? And you've already known that. You've known that, but people like me are, you know, a little behind on that reality and I'm excited to be a part of it.

Yeah, me too. I'm super excited of, you know, the kind of things that we can do together. So stay tuned everyone to be continued. This is part 1. You know, I love what you're doing. I think it's pretty incredible. Especially with the Alzheimer's research. You are also looking at some genetics, I believe, in some of your research. Tell us more about that.

Well, you know, that's the thing is that when I started looking into, you know, I created this, this method to test LBP. And once I found out that this was a really good way of testing LBP, I got my hands on, you know, the lab that I was in was a part of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at UC Davis. And so I had access to a lot of really precious samples. And so I was able to access samples that were Alzheimer's patients. But another interesting part of it was that I had a lot of data. I had a lot of, you know, the brain scans, MRIs, you know, the cognitive testing, genetics. I had all of this information on these patients. And so, you know, when it comes to Alzheimer's disease, neurodegeneration, there's people will get tested, they'll, they'll get their genetics tested. They'll, you know, especially if you have family history of neurodegeneration, maybe you get some, you know, at-home genetic testing to see if you have the genotype, right? So Alzheimer's has this gene, APOE gene, that's associated with higher risk for Alzheimer's. And so around 15% of the population have this E4 genotype. The C4 genotype increases your risk for Alzheimer's. And so sometimes people will test and they'll go like, hey, I don't have this gene. I'm not worried about it. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm off the hook. I don't have this gene. And so it's, you know, you're not as concerned. If you have that gene, you're going to probably be more concerned. All right. I have this genotype, this, you know, this risk factor for Alzheimer's.

Mm-hmm.

So my study though, the very interesting thing about it was that the people that I found the significant statistical significant risk for Alzheimer's were those people that had the regular genotype, the neutral gene. 70% of the population had this neutral gene, the regular gene, the, the low-risk gene, right?

Yeah.

So the interesting part was that I found was that it wasn't the high-risk gene group that was at risk because of leaky gut. It was everybody. And so, that was the interesting and an alarming part was that those who had the normal gene were still getting Alzheimer's, right? And those are the people that I found the link with Alzheimer's and leaky gut. And so, leaky gut can most definitely contribute to Alzheimer's whether you have the genetic risk factor or not.

Uh-huh.

And so, you're not off the hook. You know, your oral health matters, your gut health matters. Regardless if you are at high risk or not, right? So we're all at high risk if we're not taking care of our gut, if we're not taking care of our gums and our mouth, right?

And you bring, you bring a good point. I do think we should incorporate that. Let's say if somebody has bleeding gums, it'd be great to incorporate even for us in dentistry, some gut health panel and the ApoE because it's, it's a cheek swab literally to actually test for genetics. So that could be an easy thing for us to identify. And even if they have the normal gene, but high LPS. Okay. Now you have to treat this to treat the LPS.

That's a good point. Yeah. No, we definitely have genetics, a lot of stuff. You know, our lab is, you know, a really high complexity lab. We have a lot of really interesting instrumentation and, you know, we're starting out with gut microbiome. We're working on a kit with you, Dr. Sanda, for the mouth and, you know, and, and, and I'm thinking more about how we can make even a A better, more, you know, complete way of, of looking at each individual. 'Cause that's what it's all about. That's why actually my brand is N1, right? N1. So an N of 1 in research, you know, you know, it's an N of 1 or 2 or 3, whatever amount of people are in your study.

Yeah.

Right? So the N of 1 just represents that our, our test is testing you, right? It's a hyper-personalized, hyper-individualized test. So we're not comparing you to everyone. We're comparing you to you. And that's what's important. I believe that once we really start looking at all of the systems, we can measure systems against systems and really focus on the individual because we are so different. We're— our microbiome's different, you know, our, you know, your oral microbiome is different. And so than everyone else, and we should be treating people that way.

Yeah, I agree with you. And now, you know, we're entering an age where We see more and more wellness in dentistry because more people actually go to the dentist than they go to the physician for a physical. So I do think there's such a great opportunity for dentists to get on board with a wellness type of system. And, you know, it doesn't require to do extensive things, but when we have a, like a certain, like, let's say, core test that dentists can do and identify different things that now they can refer to practitioners in their areas and we can work together. As a, you know, health community. I think that would be amazing. We'll have a much healthier world.

I think so too. I'm really excited to see the oral area of practice really take its rightful place because, you know, everyone's focused on their things, on their area of specialization. And you're so right that I just started seeing when you started saying that the reality of dentistry and how it's not just about Your teeth, right? Of course that matters, right? So why are we trying to prevent cavities? Why are we trying to prevent inflammation in the mouth? Well, because it's a very important part of your whole health, right? Of your future. And so most definitely I could see dentistry being transformed that way and where you think of your dentist as a major contributor to your health in general, not just your— And, you know, and so that's exciting and that's just kind of like outside of what I'm used to, but that's just the reality. And, and, and, and I'm thrilled to be, uh, you know, thinking that way now and to be a part of what you're doing and having someone like you that I can, you know, learn from and, and, and grow with. I'm so happy.

Yeah. So Eddie, where can people find you?

Well, you could find me on Instagram, but you know, I, that's what I was telling my assistant, you know, like researchers, we kind of like are in the shadows. We're not necessarily usually on podcasts even, you know, it's not very common.

I love that you're here though. That's awesome.

Me too. I'm really excited to be here. You know, you can find me on Instagram, Dr. Eddie Romo, PhD. Dr. Eddie Romo, PhD is on Instagram. That is my, you know, my, not my personal Instagram. I don't really do that. Personal stuff anyway. Like social media is not really a big thing for me, but you could find me on Instagram and that's where I'll be posting content on, on our products, on our progress and our, you know, our progress with you and with others. And, and we also have the, the website phbio.ai. And so that's our website. And so that will be also regularly updated. And so those are the 2 places you could find me. And if you want to contact me, you can contact me through Instagram. There's, you can message me and, or you can contact me through Dr. Sanda for sure.

Yes. Okay. I'll put all that information down in the show notes, everyone. And definitely we will have a part 2 conversation on this once we launch this core testing for dentistry. Thank you so much, Dr. Eddie Romo, for being on our show. And I'm glad you are sharing your wisdom because you're right. We don't have a lot of scientists. It's mostly clinicians, but it's, it's so good for the clinicians to hear what you have to say.

Thank you. It's been a pleasure and an honor, and I look forward to seeing you all again.

And with that, everyone, please, if you found this episode interesting, share it with one of your colleagues and leave us a comment regarding this show on our YouTube channel. Ask Dr. Sanda. And until next time, keep smiling.

Cool.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please make sure you check out the show notes for any links mentioned in the show. If you liked today's show, please invite your friends to listen as well. That would mean a lot to me. Do you have a question you'd like me to answer? Message me on Instagram at Dr. Sanda. This is Dr. Sanda, and remember, your mouth is the gateway to your health, so take care of it in the most natural and best way possible.